Tyred Out!

I started writing, and intended to publish today's post yesterday morning, but it quickly became one of those incredibly frustrating days where, unlike King Midas, almost everything I touched turned to mud (trying to think of what the opposite of "gold" might be.)  I had a much needed day away from work which my mind and body had been pestering me about for some time.  I've been whizzing around Dorset and Devon quite a bit recently doing some rare paid photography work. I work for a charity organisation who provide advice and support for anybody affected by drug or alcohol problems, either individually or their friends and families.

Taking a break from my usual role of delivering workshops, group therapy and 1:1 support, they asked me to put my photography skills to use, and put together a portfolio of images they can use for promotions, advertising, training guides and their website. Of course I jumped at the chance to travel around the countryside, getting paid for my hobby, but I had no idea how tiring it would be. One day I spent a total of 7 hours on public transport for a total of 1 hour's photography. It's amazing how exhausting doing nothing but watching the beautiful countryside glide by can be.

Obviously it wouldn't be fair of me to post recognisable photos of any of the people involved, and frankly, most of the others shots are extremely boring, but it's all good experience. It's surprising how much of trying to be a good photographer has nothing to do with taking the pictures. Preparation and anticipation are incredibly important. How many people will there be? What props will be available? What sort of lighting will there be? What will the weather be doing? So many things that are out of your control, but that you must be prepared for. And then probably most important of all is the skill of people management, particularly if you're just using "ordinary" folk, rather than models or actors who are used to posing and looking relatively natural.  Telling people what to do is not something I'm naturally comfortable with, which is one of the many reasons why I'd never do wedding photography!

Anyway, ironically I hadn't planned on talking about any of that today, but as you may recall, at the beginning I said I had a day off. I had decided to finally get my bicycle fixed, having first thought about it back in December! I got the bike from a guy who recycles cycles further down the lane where I live, and it had a couple of problems, but full of confidence I said "Hey, don't worry about that - I'll fix it myself!"

For some reason, out of the ridiculous 21 gears, only 14 could be used.  Now if that was a car I wouldn't even dream that I knew how to fix it, but with a bike, particularly being able to see everything that's going on in plain sight, I find myself believing that I am suddenly a fully-qualified mechanic.

But I'm not!
I'm SO not!

Evey so often, throughout winter, I would get my bike out, undo lots of things, lay them out on the ground, scratch my head for a bit, then try to put them all back in the same order.  Usually I would try to fix a problem in one area only to find I had created another problem somewhere else, so I would strip it all down again then try to remember how it was when it only had the original problem.  Well, after several months of this madness I finally decided that I was not the genius mechanic I thought I was, and reluctantly went along to my local bike shop to see how much it would cost and how long I would be without a bike.  

"Ooh yes, Sir.  I see the problem.  That will cost about £10.  Can you pop back in ten minutes?"

"Why?"

"Well, to collect it, Sir."

"Can't I just leave it here until it's fixed?"

"That's what I mean, Sir.  It'll be fixed in ten minutes."

"Liar!"

Actually, I didn't say that last bit, but I really wanted to.  After all that time I could have just given it to this man/boy and had it back in less time than it would take to go and get a sandwich.  So, frustrated with myself at being too proud to admit defeat for all this time, I left it with him for rather more than 10 minutes and headed off to meet a friend for coffee.

Some time later I returned to the bike shop where I saw my bike looking happy with a shiny new label attached saying "completed."  However, when I went to pay, the young man/boy asked me if I realised how bad my tires were.  "Yes, I'd been wondering about that," I replied, I mean lied.  Of course I hadn't, but there was no need to bother him with more truths about my lack of mechanical skills.  "Since it's here already [and I have no idea what you're talking about] can you sort that out too?" I asked.

"Of course, Sir.  Can you come back after lunch?"

"That sounds fine. Thank you.  See you later."

So I headed back home to tackle my second goal of the day - to find out how to change my blog template so I could get bigger, sharper photos!

Now hopefully you can see that I have actually achieved that, or at least got the photos to be larger than the default size, but the result is massively insignificant compared to the crazy amount of time it took me to get there.  I lost count of the number of times I had to revert back to my original problem, or go back to photoshop to resize my images.  I tried 3 other blog templates which looked from their demos to have larger photos, but resolutely refused to do the same with my images.  Amazingly, no, "typically" it was not until the sun came up at 05:15 this morning that a flash of inspiration went off in my mind and the problem was solved in 1 minute.  Don't worry, I wasn't up all night working on it.  I finally got to bed, exhausted, at about 10:30 last night and fell asleep after just one page of my book, only for the dog to wake me at 05:00 at which point I had the inspirational moment of Googling "How can I change the image size in my blog?"  Doh!  Why didn't I think of that yesterday?

So, back to my bike...

Taking a break from my blog frustrations, I returned later that same day to collect my bike with its new problems fixed, and a bill that had now become more than the cost of the actual bike in the first place.  With a cheery wave and a ding-a-ling of my bell (yes, I really did!) I tootled off into the traffic to head home.  But wait!  What's this?  Where are all my new gears I had anticipated?

 It seemed that despite the big, shiny, new bill for parts and labour, and the time it had spent at the shop, absolutely nothing had changed to my original problem, so I turned around and headed back once more.  This time I had no friend to share a coffee with, and no hunger for a sandwich so I pottered around the shop pondering things like whether my dog would like to travel in a basket on my bike if I bought one, or should I get a pannier to attach on the back and go camping, or when am I ever going to do any of those things etc, etc.

Anyway, to not cut a long story short, they eventually got the original problem fixed, which they demonstrated to me in the shop, and I was able to return home for the third time that day to immerse myself in the bog of the blog.

BUT the story was still not complete!  2 hours later, and with the shops perilously close to closing for the day, I dragged myself away from my blog nightmare to put my bike away for the night - as much as I wanted to make the most of my new mobility and a day off, I was just simply too tired - and to my horror I saw my bike had a completely flat tire, and replacing the tires was one of those things that I hadn't ever intended to do until I was advised to by the man/boy in the shop!  Aaaaaaghhhh!!!!!  

Well, despite all my feelings of failure at my mechanical know-how, I could immediately see that a small valve wasn't as tight as it should be and that another part was actually missing, so I walked briskly back to the shop for at least the 4th time in one day to retrieve the missing part and tell them that they may be seeing me once more.  Getting back, I attached the missing part, tightened the valve and pumped the tire to its full capacity and Hey Presto! my bike is now fully working again!  YAY!!!  I fixed something myself and it only took 5 minutes.  Well, 6 months 8 hours and 5 minutes to be rather more precise, several of which were in the hands of someone else, but who's checking the details?  As far as anyone who doesn't read this will know, I fixed it all myself, while making a sandwich.

So, that's the end of yesterday's blog, and the end of a day that was probably more tiring (or should I say "tyring"?) than a day spent at work, but at least this morning I can now feel that it wasn't completely wasted.  And I haven't even talked about the builder who is going to be rebuilding my balcony and kitchen ceiling after a huge hole appeared and a torrent of rain came flooding through earlier in the week!  Thank heavens I only rent so won't have to pay for any of it, apart from the inconvenience.  Today, hopefully, will prove to be much more enjoyable.  Amidst the frustrations of blog writing yesterday, I treated myself to ordering a nice, new zoom lens for my camera which will make my candid street photography a little easier, and it has an image stabiliser which sounds very clever and useful.  That is supposed to arrive before 12:00 today, when I have been invited to attend the opening of a new garden commemorating the anniversary of the Hiroshima bombing, after which, weather permitting, I will be able to get some fun shots around the Saturday market.  Then tomorrow I'll be spending the afternoon down at the sea where the RNLI (Royal National Lifeboat Institution) are having a fundraising fun-day with hopefully lots of photo opportunities.

I'll end today with some good news that came out yesterday - I discovered a new talent on YouTube (well, new to me at least) - a young country music singer with an impossibly deep voice.  My musical tastes are pretty varied but I must admit to be a bit of a country fan.  You'll never catch me line dancing or barn dancing or Yee-Haa'ing all over the place, but you will definitely see some vigorous foot-tapping if you look hard enough.  So here's a bit of Josh Turner with a catchy little tune, "Why Don't We Just Dance?"