Camera demise

Every year they hold a Balloon Fiesta in Bristol and this, it's 33rd year, it runs between the 11-14th Aug. So in the days leading up to the fiesta we often see balloons in the sky. Yesterday evening we had one flying fairly close to our house. I took the picture from my dining room window.

This might well be the very last photo taken from my little point and shoot camera! It has been ailing for a few weeks and today it won't turn on.

This camera has served me well for the past few years: (I got it when I last went to the US in 2007). Since then it has travelled to quite a few countries, furthest being China, and taken thousands of pictures and quite a few videos. Although I'm keeping my fingers crossed (the local camera shop wanted to charge £50 + to try and mend it and I didn't think it was worth it) I think I should really be saying RIP little camera.
I now need to think about a replacement....already I'm missing it as today there have been things I wanted to photograph! (sigh)

Balloon Landing

One of the things we had planned to do while the family were here was take a ride in a hot air balloon. As it turned out, we had organised so much for the ten days that there wasn't sufficient time to fit a balloon ride into the itinerary, so we've put it on hold for another time.
We did, however, manage to see a balloon landing in a field alongside the motorway on our way to take Sam to the airport.

Archives:
2008: Garfield on diets
2007: The Council knows best

Up up and away~ not today!

In the UK it is compulsory to place your name on the Electoral Register to vote in elections and referendums. However, not every household returns their forms and these have to be followed up through personal visits. Today Embee and I have been out all day chasing up some of these forms. We do get paid for this, albeit not very much for the amount of effort it takes. When the weather is warm and reasonably sunny like today I quite enjoy it. Over the years you get used to visiting the same households, I'm always amused by the reasons excuses people have for not having returned their forms. It was rather funny to find a couple of houses where the wife confidently said "my husband posted it" for them to then admit the forms were still in the car. Someone else said we've been talking about that~ excuse me forget talking about it just fill the form and post it. I felt so sad for one elderly lady whose husband had died four days ago and today would have been their wedding anniversary, I think she said it would have been 43 years. I was pleased that she had all her family with her today.
An added bonus is that Embee meets me for lunch at one of the pubs in the area and this helps the day along. Towards the end of the day, with only five more houses to visit before I headed home, I saw a hot air balloon gradually loosing height and eventually landing in one of the fields. That's when I wished I had my camera, I nearly put it in the car but decided I wouldn't need it~ wrong again! As I was writing this I remembered that back in August I took a photo of a very similar balloon that floated over the gardens one evening so that's what I'm posting.
I'm sure everyone else will be watching the rugby rather than blogging. Embee did tell me the score so far and England are currently trailing which is not good news. However there's still time for them to reverse this~ I must send positive vibes!!

Archives:
October 20th 2006: No archive