See what my new Super-Dooper State of the Art Digital Camera can doo?  Capture a shot of ET!  Well, goll-lee, Sarr-geant.

Ain’t I cute?

Aunt Marion’s (she didn’t like being called Aunty) wedding on 13 September 1952 in Sydney, of course.

L-R:  Darcy Croft, William (Bill) Croft, Ernest (Grandpa) Croft, Doris (Grandma) Croft, Jack (Jonathan) Croft – my father, holding me, Peter Croft, aged 5.  Cute, ay? Thanks Alison!

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No seriously, this Olympus OM-D E-M1 camera is a game changer.  I’ve also bought an Olympus Zuiko 75-300mm (150-600mm equiv.) lens. I already had a Sigma 120-400mm (180-600mm equiv.) for Pentax, but it weighs 1.7Kg (yeah, just the lens, body extra), as much as a laptop, so it doesn’t get used very often, and only on a tripod. This new lens only weighs 450g for the same focal length range. Guess which is going to get the most use.

I hate to abandon Pentax. It’s a lovely system, easy to use and fantastic quality, but it’s heavy. Not as good at carrying as I used to be. I’m not abandoning them, but … time will tell.

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Feeling the effects of diabetes type II and high blood pressure recently. Guess what’s brought it on. Anger, red hot, burning coal anger about what was done to me in September, and prior to that in 2012 and early 2013. Have I got a lightning rod over my head??!!  Dog save me from family members wanting to “help” me. GO AWAY! You have done more harm than good.  The simple reason is that they don’t talk to me before acting.  This is the story of my life. All my troubles from high school onwards stem from lack of communication, acting first, talking with me later. I’m sick to death of it, almost literally.

The prospects are losing feet, then legs, or both, going on to insulin, with all its dangers and rigmarole, heart attack, stroke, blindness and so on.  I’d rather go quickly and painlessly.

I’ve got the gastric band, of course, but I can’t maintain the discipline of following a baby-food diet. I tried, but I got regurgitation and terrible gastric reflux, in fact burning of the oesophagous.

I’ve known about gastric bypass all along, but it’s scary and not reversible. I was thoroughly put off it by stories from the GP I used to see in the city. However, I’ve spoken to someone who’s had it done and she said, “No problems. Lost 30Kg, a handful of food is enough, eat anything, it’s easy.”

I’m scared of it, but which is scarier, losing legs or eyes? Or an irreversible procedure which:

• Stops diabetes type II within days;
• Stops cholesterol (hyperlipidemia) problems  (not that I have any problem with this);
• Stops hypertension (yes, I have a problem);
• Stops sleep apnea (not that I mind — I’d probably continue using my CPAP machine anyway — I like it);
• Stops gastric reflux (an intermittent problem for me);
• Reduces or fixes leg oedema (big problem for me).

I would have no option but to use the baby food diet, i.e. yoghurts, soups, mashed veges, etc etc.  The point is, with the band, there is an option – give up and revert, which is what I’ve done. With the bypass, that option is taken away.

I’m scared of it, but I’m more scared of losing my legs or going blind.

Sorry to be so melancholy.

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PS:  due to my leg problems recently, I brought my Circulation Booster (look it up) out of its box in the garage and fired it up again. Clear cut result – warm feet, less burning skin,  better feel overall.  It’s masochistic to use (Ooooh, I love the pain), but it feels good.

That was quick. I ordered that new Olympus camera on Monday at about 10am and it arrived at my door Tuesday at midday.

Phwooaaar. It’s like a jewel. Even opening the box is a sensual experience. It’s all black, black packaging, black cloth bag for the camera, tiny add-on flash in a black velvet pouch. All so beautifully made.  Manufacturing has reached such a pinnacle that you wonder how it can get any better. Flawless!  PS: it’s been named Camera of the Year by three of the most respected web sites.  Didn’t influence me, of course …

So I went out and took some pictures in the afternoon. I have the Olympus 14-150mm (28-300mm in familiar terms), so I only need to carry that one lens. But at last I can adapt my Zeiss Contax G lenses with their legendary image quality to this superior camera.  The Contax G film cameras were so damned frustrating to use that I never got any decent results. Here we are 13 years later and the lenses are out of their pouches again, ready to be used properly. I nearly sold them off – glad I didn’t.

Samples from yesterday:

Always carry a camera if you want to get shots. These are at a local supermarket.

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More from past years:

Isle of Skye

Isle of Skye, Cuillin Mts

Isle of Skye, near Portree

Stromeferry, near Dornie

Eilaen Donan Castle, Dornie

Eilean Donan Castle

Loch

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The books arrived dead on 9am this morning.  Heavy and luxurious. Very pleased.

Heathrow 2006

Heathrow 2012. Building new terminal.

I got a bit excited yesterday when I saw an ad for a cruise ship leaving from Fremantle for the UK on 1 April over 40 nights. That would be exactly 40 years to the day since I first took the ship-jet to Britain with Geoff, how about that?

I’ve done four cruises years ago and apart from one, really enjoyed them. The only one not so good was the return Singapore to Freo in November 1974. Nothing wrong with the ship, I just wanted to get home and it seemed as if the ship was stopped in the water at times. Anyway …

I’ve always wanted to do a cruise through the Suez canal and the Mediterranean, stopping at various Euro ports.  So I looked up the details, only to find that it goes via Reunion, Mauritius, Capetown and the west side of Africa.  Nah.  Not for me. That’s the long way and too much likelihood of bad weather.

I wonder if they go that way for fear of pirates near the Horn of Africa and troubles in the Middle East?

Anyway, although the fare was advertised at “from $4,729”, that’s for a quad inside cabin, only available to a block booking of four passengers.  Hah! Other twin cabins are $5,500 upwards. No thanks!

So that set me thinking – one reason I don’t want to fly direct is the boredom and discomfort (for someone my size) of a long flight. What if I did the thing I did in 2008 – Perth to KL, stay a couple of days, KL to Colombo and stay several days there (I would like to see Sri Lanka), Colombo to Vienna and train the rest of the way to London. Slow trip, lots of rest and sightseeing stops.  That would come in at way, way under $5,000 I should think, even staying four star. I’ll have to do the sums.

But to do it, I’ll have to get my legs back in order again. Ulceration started again a couple of weeks ago and although it seems to be healing well, it’s still a worry.

UPDATE:  I’ve just removed the dressings and bingo, it’s almost completely healed. The doctor will be pleased. Inodine gauze dressing is the answer, plus antibiotic.

I’ve done the beach stairs three times in the last four days and I’m starting to enjoy it again. Each time gets a little easier. No sore muscles this time either.

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Gare du Nord Sept 2008

Come to think of it, May/June/July/August is peak season in Europe. I don’t think I want to be there at that time. Sept/October was brilliant last time.  Hmmm, another destination in April?

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In preparation, I ordered a new camera this morning, an Olympus OM-D E-M1 body, as I have several Olympus lenses already.  Winner of two Camera of the Year awards so far. An outstanding design. Should arrive Thursday or Friday, from a Sydney store.

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More book pages:

And right on cue, an email just arrived saying my books (this one, two copies) have been despatched, should arrive Thurs or Fri. Should be exciting days.

It rained a few minutes ago! For Perth, at this time of the year, it’s a bloody miracle. It was light and only lasted a few minutes, but the road is wet outside my front door. Noice.

A few more pages from the book:

It’s quite a buzz.

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I got an email this morning from someone I know headed: Please view this document

Oh yeah?  The body text asked me to click on a link and called it urgent.

Bulldust!  The link led to an address in country code .be, which is Belgium, and it included the word “pictures”.  Naturally, I declined their offer.

I haven’t corresponded with the friend in the address for 3 years or so. That means someone somewhere has one of our emails.  Scary.

Finished another book today, the Java one. I’ve been working on this since mid 2012 through endless checks and revisions.  Every time I thought it was finished, I’d find another small error like reversed page numbers on 4-5 and 6-7 yesterday.  Or I’d slightly reword some text, or shift a photo a little bit.  Anyway, it’s done and sent off to be printed, so it’s too late now.  You can always order more copies if you want any changes.

But the cost! — $308 for 110 pages with a faux leather cover.  I ordered two copies, so $616.  Gulp.  It’s worth it, though.  On the other hand, today I’ve ordered two 15″ x 11″ (same as the one I’ve just done) blanks of 40 pages for $48 each on special. Their specials are not bad. It’s added pages that increase the cost.

Next is Japan, followed by an Asia Special, followed by Veni Vidi …  a retrospective.

Then there’s a Blu Ray — London, Cambridge, York: a Musical Tour.  And then another Blu Ray.  I’m never bored.

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Did the beach steps today.  Hard going – it’ll be interesting to see how my legs are tomorrow.  I thought I might try the bus/train to Joondalup.  It seems to take less time than I first thought.

It's the Santa Clause: your Xmas Day is warranted free
of defects for 24 hours. You will have a good time
or your money back.

Santa Babi

Your ship comes in, eventually.

This is interesting. I’m reading a book at the moment called Command and Control, about the USA’s nuclear weapons and their safety from earliest days to now. It’s written by a NY Times journalist and is reviewed as authoritative.

There have been a few niggles in my mind while reading it, things that seem like sweeping statements and hyperbole, along with a few grammatical errors.

Last night I was reading the part about where in 1958 a nuclear bomb was accidentally dropped over North Carolina (it didn’t go off). The author says Britain’s Daily Mail ran the headline, Is Carolina on Your Mind?

This immediately struck me as odd: In My Mind I’m Goin’ to Carolina, a song sung by James Taylor.  But 1958?  No!  He wrote the song in 1968.  Why would the Daily Mail have used those words in 1958?  It makes me doubt other things in the book too.

Just sayin’.

A couple more shots of Berry St.

The front room. Jack and Bill on mantelpiece. I remember that clock very well. We had it for many years.

The wireless. I remember those paintings too. We brought them to WA.

I’m not certain about this one due to the poor quality,

but I think it’s my Dad (Jack) at his desk at work at the NSW Lands Dept.

I’m guessing, but Doris, Jack, Marion in bath, maybe Bill against door. Tall one?

Judging by my Dad’s age, about 1926, at Prince St of course.

Bill, Marion, Darcy, Jack. This one’s got a date: 29 April 1949

Tom, Jonathan, Donald and Ernie, with Rowdy.

I took this shot, around December 1971 at Corindi, NSW.

I’ve been trying to match early shots with today’s views:

Where is there such a high point near Mona Vale (early photo)? The nearest I could find was a spot among the houses in Newport, of about 150m and another at Bilgola Plateau.

Spit Bridge, then and now.

More to come.

In keeping with Jono’s blog, here are some of the photos I’ve collected for my memoirs. My Dad was a keen photographer all his life too, so I’ve got a lot of photos you ‘foreigners’ probably haven’t seen.

17 Berry St, North Sydney, date??  Ernest Croft on right. On left ??

17 Berry St today, white apartments on right.

Looking toward Pacific Highway, Optus building in view.

Looking in the other direction (W). This is more as I remember it.

I think the kindergarten was around the corner to the right at the bottom of the street.

I have many hundreds, if not thousands of photos stored away. Dad was always taking photos, especially over in WA and I have a great record of our early life until around the 1970s when we all left home for work and our own lives. Still some after that, but not as frequent.

I’m lucky as I’ve got a folder of 74 shots of myself at almost every age (well, I’m only 66 after all). I’m a narcissist  😉

Squirrel, Hyde Park, London  © P.J. Croft 2008, 2013

There’s a mouse in my house

He scuttles around

Not making a sound

Looking for his spouse?

Too late, I’m afraid

She’s in a cupboard

Like Mother Hubbard

But permanently delayed (i.e. daid)

So welcome little mouse

I think it’s grouse

That you chose my house

In place of a louse.

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It’s Christmas and maybe time for another camera! I discovered yesterday that a Chinese company is making adapters to fit my Zeiss Contax G lenses to a variety of camera bodies, with a clever focus ring to allow manual focus.

These are legendary lenses that I bought in a film camera set up in 2001 but almost never use now. They don’t have a focus ring, so they’ve always been a problem to adapt to other cameras.  Now I’ve found that a newish Panasonic Micro 4/3 body has IBIS, In Body Image Stabilisation (the GX7), a first for Panasonic. So by adapting these lenses to the Pana body, I’ve instantly got a very high quality camera with three super quality lenses. Hmmm.

6.30pm:  Naaah. I get these urges, you see, but then I sleep it off. I have ordered the Contax G adapter ($160), but I’ve already got a Micro 4/3 body so I’ll stick with that.

The digital camera scene is absolutely amazing at this moment. Complete paradigm shifts in sensor size, pixel count, quality from the sensor, body and lens sizes, viewfinder types, body shapes … You used to need a 4″x 5″ or 8″x 10″ film camera to get quality good enough for 30″x 40″ prints (and you couldn’t possibly print that size at home). Not any more. A $1,200 digital camera (of a certain type!) will give the same quality as these old film cameras or better.

No sooner do we think, “Oh yeah, this is the one” than something better comes along. And cheaper in real terms. I remember clearly being infatuated with the Canon 5D full frame in 2006 and it was about $4,000 body only. (I didn’t buy it!)  Now you can buy a camera with the world’s best full frame sensor, capable of testing the world’s best lenses, for $2,400. Like TVs, wait a month and the price will come down further and there’ll be a new, better model. Good for us, but you wonder how the makers feel.

Although it may sound like a catastrophic occurrence, there’s no need to run for cover. The sun switches its polarity, flipping its magnetic north and south, once every eleven years through an internal mechanism about which little is understood.

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Hey, watch out! The Sun’s magnetic field is about to reverse.

Although it may sound like a catastrophic occurrence, there’s no need to run for cover. The sun switches its polarity, flipping its magnetic north and south, once every eleven years through an internal mechanism about which little is understood.

The swap could however cause intergalactic weather fronts such as geomagnetic storms, which can interfere with satellites and cause radio blackouts. [The Independent]

I read a book in about November 1974 called The HAB Effect. HAB stood for Herbert Alan Boardman, and he was a scientist who was trying to warn the US government (and hence the world) that the Earth’s magnetic field was going to reverse (quite true, it does). It made a lasting impression on me, as you can tell.

So this is the Sun, not the Earth, but it’ll be interesting all the same.