Another pointless thread

And if twins are due around new year then one could be a year older too

And now for something completely different;

link

Very funny!
Here's another one.


Barrie, my oldest brother shares your birthday. I am told he used to think the flags were out for him on his birthday as a little boy - but of course it is also St. George's Day

Time for a bit of schmultz:

http://animalswithstuffedanimals.com/

Am I the only one that's noticed it's Friday 13th.

Mine started with a visit to the Docs - just to get my prescription revalidated for another year.

Then it rained on me on the way back!

After lunch I set off for a walk around the local fields in beuatiful sunshine. I was accompanied by skylarks and a robin that chattered as he flitted ahead of me. I stopped off on the river bridge and watched brown trout waving in the current in the dappled shallows and wondered how I might get pictures of them [cpl doesn't make much difference - I still can't make them out]
I was hectored by a blackbird as I came back through the churchyard then stopped to take some shots of pink hawthorn blossom at the end of the (as usual) deserted playing field. Then...

What do you think you're doing?
Well as I was using a Sigma 70-300mm in macro mode on a K10D mounted on a monopod, I thought that was probably obvious but resisted the retort and simply answered that I was photographing the blossom.
I've been watching you and in my line of work we're trained to spot the suspicious.
Ok I thought - whats the problem? and asked her what she did for a job.
Turns out she is a social worker and decided I was "lurking in the bushes" (Actually the first branch of the trees is about 4-5ft from the floor) and that she should challenge me - because you can't be too carefull with children around.
I looked around and spotted, about 100yards away, the tops of 2 or 3 small heads in the grotto of rocks and turf mounds they use to hide the sandpit/pet toilet. The kids were probably making dog poo castles or playing doctors and nurses for all I could tell.
Then I sussed what she meant - I was a pervert/paedophile, and promptly asked if that was her idea.
She reluctantly admitted that and repeated that you couldn't be too careful.
I pointed out that my camera and lens combination was hardly covert and thanked her for her concern adding that I was glad that she had approached me rather than gossiping to her neighbours as I didn't want to wake up in casualty after a bunch of local yobs felt like following her lead in a rather less diplomatic way.

We parted on relatively amicable terms but I felt (and still do) a bit disconcerted.

Then it rained on me again.

I'm home now and I can smell fish and chips and I know there's a bottle of Chardonnay in the fridge so :-

Here's to a happy weekend to anyone whose stayed with this rambling entry

Now we know why you keep your features hidden in the Avatar !! lol

Seriously - if one can be - what a world we live in - I wouldn`t trust a social worker as far as I could focus on one with my bellows and no3 tubes.
She was obviously strenuously carrying out her normal post-prandial duties when she fell upon your pervy presence - tough on you eh ? Good for her - she might have called the gestapo and then you really would have been in the poo poo.
As said many times before on this site - very few pervos/paedos carry 70-300 lenses and monopods in broad daylight to draw attention to themselves - unless they are advertising Canon or Nikon perhaps - enjoy the fish & chips - you know you are worth it and the rain is just a way of washing the dirt away from the ground.

Tony

Problem is, their training (and the gutter press) eventually convinces them that there are child-snatchers behind every bush. Never mind the fact that statistically a kid is more likely to be abused by a family member or friend of the family...

I note that the social services department is the only one to have job vacancies all the time at our local council, if this is the case nationwide then they'll be signing up anyone who can parrot the mantras and doesn't look like they're about to eat the clients!

On a more cheerful note I'm trying to work out whether I can afford a Tamron 70-200mm f2.8 next month. I've got a two month contract as an exam invigilator (boring, but good money) so I suspect the first month's pay may well go in that direction. Just want to get rid of a few unused lenses and 35mm bodies first to raise a bit more cash toward it, will probably offer them here then ask the shop about part-exing the stuff which doesn't sell.

Funny how they can spot a 'perv' at 100 paces but not the abused child holding a parents hand infront of them.

These sort of people get my back up.

On a lighter note, it's my weekend off, we're having a curry delivered and back off topis I'm just going to open a bottle of Thwaites Lakeland bitter...

...ah bliss!

Chardonnay turned out to be Nursteiner something or other. Went down well with the F&C.

Thanks for all your comments.

If it had been the police I would have been happier as I've already read the "how to defend taking pictures in public" type of headlines but this threw me.

She had also commented that she had not seen me before despite living ther 20 years (my son was born 34 years ago in the same house as I still live in just around the corner). And I don't think she just has it in for pervs as she commented that two months ago she had chased off an old guy living rough (he was sheltering against the substation transformer at night in March). I thought SWs were suposed to look after vunerable people.

I haven't decided on an avatar yet. I'm tempted to get a cartoon frog [my son called me a frogherder 20 odd years ago when I was picking up baby frogs off the lawn prior to mowing it- poor devils have a hard enough life as it is without dodging a mower] as I'm sure a snap of a grey thinning haired 63 year old whose a trifle over weight would put everyone off. Plus I'm often to be seen wearing large leather walking boots (Before Smeggy jumps in I also wear other clothes )

.
I've been looking for a 42mm (50-55) to use on my old Pentax bellows.
Missed several on Ebay generally find they now go for silly prices.

I was going to comment to on that point but I thought it tactful not to as she was off to work (must do night shift or is a cleaner in the offices)

regards
Bernard

I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but here in Canada... the Children's Aid society has become what the priesthood used to be... the last frontier for child abuser to seek opportunities to exploit and abuse defenceless children. They get unquestioned support of the police, the government and control over children and thier parents. They get to hide their crimes behind walls of secrecy where laws meant to protect the children's privacy actually serve to protect the social workers and the children have no voice or get smeared as "Trouble makers" or "problem" children if they try to seek help. Here in Manitoba where child suicides and deaths of children in foster care are very high, there has never been a social worker charged for abuse or neglect, or dereliction of duties, even in circumstances where a parent would certainly be arrested...
Government sanctioned child abuse... it is criminal.

Sadly I don't have any spare screw mount lenses, the stuff I'm planning to get rid of is all K mount. I'll probably list it all at the end of the month, as I have a week off (school half term) so will be able to get parcels to the post office in reasonable time.

I`ve got a 1:2 55mm which is on my Spotty 1000 doing nothing in particular - minty with front and end caps - offers invited as I don`t know what they go for on ebay - I use the 1.4 50mm or the 100mm Macro- Tak on my bellows.

Tony

just opened the third bottle...

... nice..

What a pain, really annoying when things like that happen. At least it wasn't some misinformed security guard, they are worse.

I have no wine at the moment and could really do with a glass.

I think I could handle that - as eventually the police would be called and legal issues resolved. I assume that the legal ramifications of what AP et al have printed is available in police stations. Any assault/damage by them would be taken to the police etc etc.

Busy bodies are a different matter as gossip is always distorted.

I'm going to see if there's any more C2H5OH in the house (to paraphrase Sherlock Holmes - this is a three bottle problem)

Evening all

Bernard