Morning everyone x
Thank you for all the lovely comments on the photo's - with geting to the zoo so often, I guess I'm slowly but surely learning where its best to stand to get the best view and images, so that helps me to 'improve' the shots I get. Out of the bunch I posted, the jags, giant otters, river otters and gibbon were all taken through glass, which is the biggest bug bear - I think I've managed a decent shot, but once I get the image on the large screen back home, I so often find I have the reflection of another visitors face super-imposed somewhere on the animals body
The 'fenced' areas - like the lions, who's enclosure is made of large diamond criss-crossed wire/metal of some sort - are a bit easier - its possible to focus 'beyond' the bars, and lose them completely. And the penguins, giraffes and flamingos (who are known as 'Flaming Minga's' in our house due to youngest insisting that's what they were called when she was little) you can get clear shots off, with no bars or glass, but lots of evidence of the fact that they are in enclosures due to fences, buildings and walls in the background. Hoping to fit in another visit next week, now the schools are open again - holidays, especially now with that fab channel 4 documentary showing, the zoo is so packed that its hard to take pics. Last week, when we went, having waited for several minutes to work my way to the front of an enclosure, I took just one shot when a woman actually grabbed my arm, and pulled me to the side as I was shooting, so she could push her little boy in front of me - I get that kids are impatient and want to see and I do try to be good about not hogging a prime view for too long, but I do find incidents like that really frustrating, I'm afraid.
I'm really liking the idea of a 'hunk' - or basically anyone who has enough muscle to cope with helping me cart 2 heavy camera bodies and a selection of props and len's around at a wedding, lol (I like that idea of a wheeled case, MrsB - will look into that!). The 'big' weddings are often 10 or 12 hours full day's coverage - and you rarely get more than a brief break for a meal halfway through, the rest of the time you are on your feet and moving. I'm OK whilst I'm busy - but boy, for a few days after, I really hurt! And yep - the dressing 'appropriately' doesn't help - given the choice I'd be in baggy cargo's with multiple pockets and in my waterproof 'photo' coat, which also has pockets that will take len's and spare cards and so on. Not nice for a wedding though, so I tend to wear maxi dresses, which are reasonably smart and which allow me to move freely without worrying about a top or skirt riding up and which are OK teemed with flats. Having said that, wearing a new dress to a very wet wedding last year, the material turned out to be very sponge like, and as the hem brushed across puddles, the rain water was sort of 'sucked' up the dress, leaving me soaked from my knee's down for most of the day
{{{{{{{{{{{hugs}}}}}}}} R-Anne - I really hope that your OH was able to settle and be reassured last night - I do think that there is something extra-difficult when its your husband or wife who is hit with this foul illness. It must be so heart-breaking
xxxx
Oh Spamar - your sense of direction sounds like mine - one of the reasons that I am not keen on driving is that I am so dreadful for getting lost - even when going to places that I've been to dozens of times!
{{{{{{{{{hugs}}}}}} for Slugsta too - I wish yu could have given your Mum that hug - its all too easy to imagine both her and your distress xxxx
Up and down day with Mil yesterday. Good to start, usual up and brekkie and then back to bed. Up for the second time and naggy, took some persuading to get her washed and dressed. She was OK then till mid afternoon when she again went from zero to sixty, this time about demanding the phone to call her Mother. We tried saying we didn't have the number - and to my amazement she trotted out Shirl's number, insisting that was the one she needed to ring - then OH tried to gently remind her that her Mum was long gone, when she got quite belligerent about our refusal to hand over the phone, and of course, she wouldn't have it. We would have let her ring Shirl if we hadn't thought that she might actually get unpleasant if her Mum didn't answer - not fair to put Shirl in that position. I don't know what we can do when she is like that - if we tell her the phone isn't working she insists we are liars, same goes for if we dial a random number and tell her no one is answering and no way can we give her the phone because she is too darn quick to dial 999 . We've tried saying that her Mum is out, at work, gone shopping, and a host of other lwls and distractions in the past, but nothing other than actually talking to her Mother is acceptable to Mil when she is in that mood - and we just cannot give her that. She got increasingly wound up and rude, particularly towards me ( Apparently I was the B**** who had OH so 'cowed' that he was just going along with my lies because he is 'scared' of me!) and in the end OH told her to go to her room. And just as OH got her upstairs, the front door bell went and we had unexpected visitors in the shape of son's Godfather and his family - they had decided to call in on their way back home to London, after holidaying on the Welsh coast. I love the whole family dearly, but their two boys are aged 4 and 9 and extremely lively, and the Dad is also very much larger than life and loud and they couldn't have arrived at a worst time! Mil instantly started down the stairs, informing me that she was going to ask them to call the police for her, very rude towards me and language not the sort of thing I'd want youngsters to hear, so we spent the next 2 hours trying to keep Mil contained and the wee kids (tactfully and not too obviously) quiet. I wish that we had been able to talk to them on the phone first - I would have had no hesitation in apologising and telling them that Mil was unwell, because much as I love 'em all, it really wasn't a good time for them to visit - but they had gone quite a distance out of their way to see us, so there was little we could do.
Once they left (not till after 6pm) I then had to sort the roast quickly (I'd turned everything down or off when they arrived) and when Mil came down stairs, she seemed calmer and there was no mention of her Mum. Tea being late, she was hungry (not surprising) but even so, the way she shovelled in the food was pretty unpleasant to watch (and hear!). After tea, we all sat in the lounge and Mil kept up a stream of comments along the lines of what time did the buses stop running, as she would have to be getting 'home', and did I know what time the last ferry was as she was meeting friends in Limerick, and could OH give her a lift to the station on Dublin road as she would have to be heading home now . . . each time, OH and I went to 'Stop please - we are not talking about that now', which kept the lid on her blowing, but boy - it was wearying. Sat on pins, waiting for the explosion and unable to do anything such as watch TV or read or talk to anyone else, as she just didn't stop with the 'home' based queries and remarks. 9 pm and her agreeing to porridge, meds and bed was a relief, and thankfully, there was no grief about getting her changed and then tucked up in bed.
DC rang yesetrday to tell us that the mini bus is off the road, so we have to drive Mil in ourselves this morning - unfortunately, that coincides with son having his post-op appointment, so it means Mil will be going in an hour or two late today
Can't be helped, I guess, but rather annoying! I already have youngest stropping round, she is never in a good mood returning to school after a break - but at least I don't have to get Mil up till later, so I don't have two 'stroppy' individuals to cope with at the same time!
Hope you all manage to have a good day xxxxxx