Well and Truly Walked

Henry and I went for a bit of a trek today, with Kenneth and Barney. After delivering a Christmas card and stopping to chat to Chris, we headed out towards Croft Hill on the woodland footpath that lines the Huncote Road.

Almost perfectly, a little robin flew down and landed on a fencepost. I froze, and Henry did too. This little robin stayed politely on the fence post, I raised Kenneth to my eye and...everything was black. Bugger, lens cap...no, there wasn't one on, it was in my pocket where I'd left it. I checked the viewfinder again, but it was definitely all black. The robin stayed on the fence, waiting for me to realise.

I'd hit the "SET" button and activated Live View - flipping Kenneth's internal mirror up and blocking any light getting to the viewfinder. In the trade, we call that "fucking stupid".

So, I missed my National Geographic award-winning shot of a cute little robin. But it's alright, I had gorgeous Henry to pose for me, instead.

That was nice of him. We spent a few minutes up the Hill and Henry took Kenneth to try his hand at DSLR photography. His shots were pretty good, and he got a quick crash course in basic composition rules (IE not sticking the subject slap-bang in the centre of the frame) before we headed off towards Huncote with the intention of going to Annabel's in Enderby.

We never made it, instead deciding the weather was too unpromising. The horrible grey skys had long since rendered Kenneth pointless, but we carried on walking and did a full circuit back up the B4114 to Croft.

Of course, it was hell when I got home - the puppy was filthy. I gave him a quick bath, but he's still not clean... To be fair he wasn't spotless when we left. I think Henry's more worried about his feet...a bad choice of footwear. I know that feeling...

A Winter Wonderland

Fourty minutes, entirely wasted. On one Florence song.

Evil iTunes didn't want to sync properly. Barney quite eagerly wanted a walk, but iTunes continued to be "Verifying" my iPod. Why? What is there to verify? Yes, iTunes, it's my iPod. It's the same one I've been plugging in all day. So much so that the battery is entirely charged. You even say that. But no, just because me and, increasingly so, the dog, want to go for a walk, it is now you choose not to work.

I gave up. I'm not a patient person, as a general rule the Irish aren't. I guess that iTunes took offence to Joe McElderry (hiss boo) being loaded onto it and decided to wait for an oppourtunity to get me back. It did so stunningly. I couldn't be bothered to wait any longer, so just unplugged the iPod badass style without ejecting, plugged in the earphones and harnessed up the hound.

I knew as soon as I stepped outside that I'd made a bad decision regarding shoes. I've had these odd blue things on all day. They're not mine, this is Croft, and the previous owner has done a good job in wearing the soles away. I slipped and slided around the corner to Hannah's, where I found my two best friends, and their two other halves. Ryan and Matt were quite happy to come walkies with me and Barney.

I removed my earphones and stowed my iPod in my coat pocket.

A bit more slipping and sliding ensued, and talk turned to Hannah's New Years Eve party. Ryan and I, crystal clear on what was going on, held most of the conversation, but we did try to involve Matt.

LS: "Are you coming to Hannah's New Years thing, Matt?"

MH: "When is it?"

How are we supposed to work with this? He came out with that almost immediately after:

MH: "Lads, how come there's no snow on the ground back there?"

RM: "That's because of the trees, Matt"

LS: *Laughs* + *Slips on ice becuase of crap shoes*

MH: "Oh, I hadn't seen the trees..."

No, he hadn't seen the huge trees on Bala Road that we'd just walked under. I love special people. Anyway, I then spent a few attempts trying to get the dog to pull me along on my flat shoes, husky / ski style. As I'm sure you can imagine, it was a failure.

Eventually I fell over.

The ice is still pretty slippy out there, but it's worse in other parts of the country. Airports have been closed, there's chaos on motorways and the Euro Tunnel have closed their Folkstone terminal. After I had returned Ryan and Matt to their respective girlfriends I got home, to hear the BBC News. Now, over the years British Rail have had a few good excuses, including The Wrong Type Of Rain and who could forget Leaves On The Track. But today was the turn of the Eurostar.

I think they picked up that old BR book, turned to the page for "Snow" and read the first excuse listed.

Apparently, the problem is "Fluffier than usual snow"

How ridiculous! Where's my iPod...huh, iTunes worked first time.

Bastard.