New Car!!!

Today is Sunday and it started off weather wise quite nice with blue skies and sunshine, quite different to yesterday were we had rain all day I was out in the woods by nine doing my 10 km run, didn’t run yesterday because of the rain. November is in my mind a horribel month, will be glad when it’s gone.
A week ago Friday we the opportunity to buy a car, not that we were actually looking for one, our intentions was to buy one next year in March-April. Sometimes things happen and you have to make a quick decision so to say on the spot.
The car I’m talking about stood in front of our house with a for sale sign in the side window. I had been with our dog for his evening walk and was just going into the house when the sign caught my attention.
The car, a Ford Focus Ghia, silver in colour 21,000 km on the clock 2 years old for 9,000 Euros. I rang the doorbell of our flat and told my wife she should put a coat on and come outside and have a look at the car. After having a look we decided to give the guy a ring (there was a telephone number on the for sale sign)
After taking to the guy I made an appointment for the next morning so that I good check the car out properly and have a test drive. The guy who owns the car is a second hand car dealer and the next morning when we met my first question was why was the car so cheap and had only 21,000 km on the clock.
Apparently the first owner was an old man of eighty and the car had stood in his garage for nearly a year without being driven and he had decided to sell.
Well to cut along story short I asked to see the documentation of the owner and of the car, I also had a test drive and found nothing wrong with the car as far I could tell.
My next question was how much for my old car? I asked for 1500 Euros he offered me 1000 and all the cost for registration and TUV (which is the German road ability test) it also went through a technical examination with a written report and no faults were found.
We now have a super car with hardly any kilometres on the taco and for 8000 Euros and both my wife and I are thrilled to bits about it.
The only negative thing is, my winter tyres (which are good ones) don’t fit the new car, which means I have to buy new ones and also new hubs as well.
I have been out and about with my camera over the last two weeks when I find time and have put quite a few of my new shots in Yahoo Flicker. If you want to have a look at my photos go to http://www.flickr.com/photos/trills/ and there you will find my photo stream.
Tomorrow is first outside clearing leaves, and there’s a lot still to clear and then at 20 past 11 dentist appointment, half yearly check up.
In the afternoon it’s the fitness gym with my wife to get her signed up for 50 hours of fitness training for her back, the national health pays for them.
Take care out there were ever you are. Tshüss
The photo is of a very old Akazien tree, which has cancer, those are the large deformation you can see in the photo. I thought B&W does it justice.

The new kitchen

Late Sunday afternoon just come back from a walk with the dog. The weather is cloudy and dry, but extremely damp both my wife and I hate this damp weather it just seems to get at ones bones the older one gets. Yesterday was a big day for us. We have been talking about buying a new kitchen for sometime now and yesterday we went and bought one. The planning for the kitchen, as been it process for the last few weeks and last Friday someone came and measured out the kitchen. Yesterday morning we spent three and a half hours with a designer putting the kitchen together. No easy job I can tell you. The delivery date is the third week in January but before the kitchen can be fitted I have to do a lot of alterations, such as retiling, redecorating and fitting new power points, also the sink drainage as to be altered all in all a hell of a lot of work. My wife is suffering at the moment with arthritis in both her writs and fingers and she is in a lot of pain, of course the weather is not helping her. If the attack doesn’t ease in the next week she will have to go and see the doctor. I did a bit of photography last week nothing outstanding testing one or two features in the camera. Took one or two shots in RAW but to be honest I don’t really know what to do with them. My biggest failing is my lack of knowledge in Photoshop, it is of course the darkroom of digital photography and with out it you are absolutely lost if you want to compete with others. In the East and South of Germany they have had heavy snow falls last week with up to half a meter, two days before people were sat in beer gardens and the temperatures were around 27 degrees. It makes you think doesn’t it? Take care out there were ever you are. Tshüss The photo is of a old hut not far from were we live, actually a old man lives in it. I changed it to black and white gave it a touch of colour to make it look old.

Autumn.

Well another fortnight has gone by with nothing really exciting to write about. Last Friday evening I had a link with my brother, we had a good chinwag catching up on each other’s news and as always it was an enjoyable hour.
My wife is having problems with her teeth at the moment and is running back and forth to the dentist. The thing that is annoying us both is that there is no consultation what so ever about the problem, it’s more like do or die attitude but that is how our medical service works due to one reform after the other over the last few years. If you are privetly insured you get the best of treatment that is going but if you are insured with the Krankenkasse (like the national health) then you get only limited service.
I have been out and about photographing over the last fortnight. I went out doing night photography the other evening but made a mess of things due to the fact that I had the camera settings wrong on nearly all the photos I took. I can tell you I was so frustrated with myself because some of the images were really good. Never mind I shall try again in the near future. The nights are closing in on us fast now and the days are getting colder, yes autumn is upon us and the trees are shedding their leaves it’s a lovely time of the year I think.
Take care out there were ever you are Tshüss.

The photo is of the Gasthaus across the way.

Photography.

I haven’t vanished from the face of the earth, not yet anyway. It’s just that nothing really has happened over the last 10 days worth mentioning. I have done quite a bit of photography over the last week and placed them in the Webb. I have a photo-stream in Yahoo Flickr and have joined 4 groups in which there are discussions about photography and also forums. I must say it’s what I have been looking for; some were to share my photos. I’m not good compared with many but on the other hand I am better then a lot, which gives me inspiration to carry on and improve. My link to Flickr is http://www.flickr.com/photos/trills/
After a slow start with the Canon G 10 I am now getting to know it’s capability’s better, there is a lot more that I have to learn but that makes it all the more interesting. I also must learn more about Photoshop, I must say I find that not so easy as I thought I would.
I was up on Saturday morning at six and quarter of an hour later I was out on my bike with my camera and tripod. I cycled five km to a near by lake hoping to get some early morning photos but alas no such luck. I took about half a dozen but none of them were good enough for my liking so I deleted all of them
On Saturday afternoon I went for a run. I have changed my routine instead of Sunday morning it’s now Saturday afternoon. Yesterday I choose a new route it’s a round course 10% tarmac and the rest tracks or paths that go through woods. The distance is about 8 to 9 km but I shall confirm that when I have done the course on my bike.
Take care out there were ever you are. Tshüss

The photo is one I took a couple of days ago, it’s called Red & White

Flooded out.

This morning I was up at ten past seven and out doing my Sunday run by half past. My wife and I had decided to change our normal Sunday schedule from an early breakfast and a later run. This morning I was back home at twenty to nine and after a shower we had breakfast and I must say we both thought the new schedule was better.
Last Wednesday in the early afternoon someone rang our doorbell and pounded on the door, on opening the door I saw the young lad from the flat above us running up the stairs shouting that there flat was flooded. When I reached their door I saw that the hallway and the guest WC was flooded. The mother was shouting, “I don’t know were the water is coming from! I can’t stop it”, also apparently she had slipped and hurt herself in doing so because she was complaining about her foot. I went into the bathroom were the main valves for the hot and cold water are and turned them off. The mother and her son stood there dumfounded and there was no inclination from them to start mopping up the water so that it would not seep through the ceiling and ruin our flat.
Taking stock of the situation I told them to start mopping up the water with every thing, like towels sheets and any thing else that was available. In the mean time my wife had appeared and had started to help mop up the water. On checking the other rooms the water had run into the bedroom and also into the bathroom. It took us about one and half-hours to mop up all of the water. If they had been out of the house all day like they normally are there would have been a major disaster for them and of course for us. What was the cause of the flooding? The cold-water tap pipe was corroded and had burst, if they had been out of the flat all day like they normally are there would have been a disaster not only for them but for us as well.
I have started putting photos into the Web (a thing that I always intended to do) I started with Picasa but soon f+*/# that up didn’t I? By deleting nearly all my Blog photos and the after messing around for a few hours I managed to delete all the photos that I had put in the Web as well. Thank goodness that I have a brother http://no1broadstreet.squarespace.com/ who helps me out of my predicaments, he advised me to leave Picasa and open an account with Yahoo Flickr, which I have done. I am going through the program with care this time and I hope to God that I don’t make a ball’s up of this. I have downloaded ten photos up to now and the reaction is good. I have had three comments, which for starters is very encouraging.
Now to a different subject. On Tuesday we drove to Holland, mainly to buy coffee because it’s a lot cheaper there then by us. We do a bit of some shopping as well and of course it’s a day out for us. We mostly drive to a town called Venlo, this time we arrived to find that there was a cycle race starting from the market place in the middle of the town just across from the shop from were we do our shopping. The race is from Venlo Holland to Lüttich Belgium it was shown on TV and is one of the top races in the year. The weather the last week wasn’t up to much, in the middle of the week the temperatures sank, yes the autumn is in the air but they say the next week will be an Indian summer week. Let’s hope they are right.

Take care out there were ever you are. Tshüss

The photos are The shop in Venlo and the Motorway near were we live running from Düsseldorf to Wuppertal. The photo was taken Friday midday and that’s mostly normal on a Friday.

Dog on the run.

On Wednesday morning I went to the post office to post a letter and like mostly I went on my bike. Earlier in the morning my wife had used her bike to go to the doctor, on returning she had left it out side for me to put it in the cellar later on. On arriving back from the post office I opened the house door and left it opened while I got the key for my wife’s bike not thinking one minute about our dog Toby.
I didn’t realise that he had shot out of the door behind my back while I was getting the key, when I did it was too late. It took me a few minutes to orientate in which direction he could have gone. I took off after him. I saw him coming out of the woods, on seeing me he took off in the direction of the main road, which is a dual carriage way. I just managed to get to the bend in the lane to see him run straight across the Zebra crossing of the main road, luckily for him the traffic lights were red.
Across the road I dashed just to see him run down the main road that links with the dual carriageway. He had probably gone about 50 meters when with out stopping swerved left straight into the road, how the car missed him I will never know. A lady that was taking her dog for a walk on the other side of the road screamed when she saw Toby run across the road in front of the car. Not for a moment did that bother our Toby up the road he ran then left into the woods that line the side of the road.
Now this is were fate came into it, I was probably 30 meters behind Toby and really didn’t know which path he had taken in the woods, when suddenly this dog from the lady was at my side and with it’s nose to the ground. I put two and two together and followed the dog, my hunch was right. About 20 meters down the path there stood Toby and the other dog. On see them together I thought I could coax Toby to stay were he was, on calling his name he looked up turned on his hind legs and was off like the wind with the other dog after him.
This when it started to get difficult, (for me that is) through dense undergrowth he ran me after him, brambles and thorns were tearing at my legs (I had shorts on at the time) I didn’t have a clue were I was then suddenly we were in swampy ground. This didn’t stop our Toby or the other dog both of them ran full pelt into the swamp, Toby got further then the other dog being the lighter of the two, he got to a point were I could not follow him.
Behind the swamp there was a small pond of fowl water, into it he sprang and started to swim for the other side. Suddenly he stopped and started to swim back and managed to crawl out onto a mud bank about 15 meters from were I stood. He was totally exhausted and led there panting. All my coaxing couldn’t get him to move, the other dog was prancing around and barking but Toby wouldn’t move.
There was only one thing I could do, shoes off, shorts rolled up and into the swamp I went, I had no idea how deep it would be but I was lucky it went just above my knees. I got Toby by the rough of his neck tucked him under my arm and started back to dry land. The mud that I stirred up stank horribly just like a sewer.
Back on dry land I realised that I had lost my bearing I didn’t have a clue were I was it took me at least 20 minutes to find my way out and another 10 to locate the owner of the other dog. Meanwhile my wife had also gone off into the woods searching for Toby. On arriving home I put Toby in his box and as filthy and stinking like a sewer as I was got on my bike and went looking for my wife. After having a shower and bathing Toby I was exhausted.
PS It took at least 2 days till I got the smell out of my nostrils.
That was my week, never a dull moment.
Take care out there were ever you are Tshüss.

Normal week.

Nothing exciting about this week, no running into signs or anything silly like that. What I did, I managed to get out with my new camera for a couple of hours, and this is really the first time since I bought it. I must say I was very pleased with the results but need more time to get really acquainted with it. I seem to have less time on my hands then I did when I was working full time. I have put a few of the photos in this post to show you what I have taken. On Tuesday I was at work all day and on Wednesday morning I took the dog to be trimmed, this takes up most of the morning, so you see nothing exciting just a normal week. Oh! On Thursday afternoon my wife and I went for a bike ride to a beer garden. We took the dog with us, we have a basket for him that fits onto the pack rack on the back of my bike, it was a pleasant afternoon. We have rarely done any bike rides this year because of my wife’s knee. On Tuesday morning she has an appointment with her doctor and she should find out if she has to be operated on or not. Take care out there were ever you are. Tshüss