Home...and Away

Apologies for the longer than anticipated absence from the Blogger World, but My Good Wife surprised me with a week way somewhere warm and relaxing in a more civilised part of the World than I had recently been in.
It was just as well in fact, as I had come back to weather about 30 degrees colder than I had been used to and the Old Body was not standing up to it too well to put it mildly. I did manage a couple of walks however before jetting off but as you can see from the Picture below the days were very overcast and dull and generally pretty damn boring, from a photography point of view.

This is a view from Elliot Beach just south of Arbroath, which is looking kinda scruffy these days due to the number of fairly intense storms that have hit this part of the World these last few months, which has washed up all sorts of debris both man made and natural, on to the Beaches.
We jetted back in to the UK on the 24th February to clear skies and sunny but freezing days, and I managed to take one of my better pictures of an almost full Moon at close to midnight in temperatures of -6 degrees centigrade ! helped of course by a hip flask of Scotlands finest...

I have always struggled to take a decent picture of the moon, never quite getting the settings correct, but a wonderful Guest post over on the Nikon Rumors blog opened my eye's and I managed this humble attempt.
Now its back to reality and the Chore list...I have 2 weeks to complete the tasks set and then it's back to work for me. Where I am heading off for is still to be decided but I can put money on to yet another journey to the Continent of Africa...wonderful.

Later...

Noodles

Well its been a week now that I have been onboard, and like most things when you get on a new boat, you feel a bit like a spare part, as you find you are continually walking down the wrong corridors to get wherever you thought your Cabin was, or you don't know where to find the simplest tool, or in my case, work out where the hell they hide files on their joke of a computer network....every boat is very different, and very individual.

Mancora Beach

Jetty and Fishing Boats..oh, and a Horse.

So its always nice to find a piece of continuity somewhere across every Boat you visit, and in my case the humble Noodle is that piece of continuity, which gives me that warm and cosy feeling of belonging, when I am offshore.
Noodles, are the staple diet in Seismic as far as i can gather, especially for those of us who work erratic hours, and miss meals occasionally. They are also the staple diet for the night shift who has to struggle to find any nutrition whatsoever, in the limited, and completely unoriginal choice of breakfast they are given each day half way through their shift. If you don't like Fried Eggs, you really should not be sailing on a Seismic boat and working nights !

Knackered Fishing Boats

However the noodle, to anyone in Seismic, is a serious dining experience. Firstly, they mainly come in little square fluorescent packages of loveliness, delighting in such names as "Mama Tans Noodle Plan", or on this Vessel "Sopa Maruchan !"; the colours of the packaging gently hinting at the levels, and quality of the E components found within. Secondly each Noodle pack contains up to 3, yes 3 small sealed packets of yummy chemicals, some powder, and some liquid, which when opened and combined with boiling water, produce complete gastronomic euphoria in the lucky individual who is consuming the said concoction. Finally, they are just so easy to make.....even Jeff my old Flatmate at college, who we once caught putting Corned Beef in the Oven to roast, could make a bowl of noodles, as all it takes is boiling water.

Pterodactyl

Fish and Chips tonight ?

 Anyway, enough of the rambling and on to the photos. These were all taken at Mancora, which apparently, so I have been told, attracts the Surf Dudes and attached Groupies, although I couldn't see a lot of wave action (or Groupies) for the short time I was there. What was there though, was some of the Fish Flinging Fleet, and plenty of Fisherman catching various bits and pieces from the shore, including one lucky fellow who had caught himself a Ray of some kind, and was happy to pose with it. Circling in the Skies above, were some fairly large birds, not unlike Pterodactyls, who would occasionally swoop down, and take off the Beach the odd Fish when the Fishermans back was turned, as they sharpened their gutting knives on the rocks. Unfortunately the light, although bright, was polluted with a general haze caused by the midday sun, so the Photos don't "pop", but they are a nice reminder nevertheless of the end of an interesting journey before heading out to the Boat.

Home at last

Back from a not so good journey, from the delights of Conakry in Guinea. The flight unfortunately stopped in Noukachott (Mauritanea) on the way to Paris, where Air France happily filled the Plane completely up, and once again, just like winning the lottery, I got a Mother and Baby in the middle seat next to me......Now I don't know why this happens, but I have an unerring skill in making Myself completely attractive to the likes of the local Village Idiot, who wants nothing more than to chat, normally very loudly. The Drunk, who thinks I'm his new best friend, and finally screaming Babies, with Mum's who actually don't give a Flying Toss (not an intentional pun) about their Fellow passengers sat next to them on a 7 hour journey. It was so bad, that I actually couldn't wait to get to Paris's CDG airport.....I mean just how bad does it have to get, to wish for that to happen ? Its the worst Airport in the World, staffed completely by Neantherdals of the lowest order; but for me, after that journey it was like entering Nirvana, an oasis of civilised calm, as soon as I stepped on to the Air Bridge, and off that damn Aircraft.

For those of you who live in my little part of the World, you will know that its been very clear these last few days, especially at night, and when the wind dropped....a rare combination in Angus ! So to clear the head from the travel woes, I headed to the beach at Easthaven, and tried to capture something of interest using the available light at 01:00 am in the morning. All I can say, is that they are different, and they have given me a little push to keep trying and see just what I can photograph in the middle of the night.....next time though, I'll try not to do it in -4 degrees C, it's a bit extreme when I have been somewhere for the last five weeks where it never got below 30 degrees C !

D D D Dentist

When i was away in Dubai last time i detected the beginning of an ache in the old Molar.... Now, if you are anything like me, you just try and do your best to, a) ignore it, or b) masticate your food on the other side of your mouth, and hope the pain will go away, or remain bearable enough to live with....the reason being is that I am completely terrified of Dentists, and especially their rather noisy, hard and pain giving objects that they attempt to put into your mouth....thats when they can prise my jaws open of course.


Don't get me wrong, I have a wonderful Dentist, and whats more she is wonderfully attractive, but as soon as I sit in that chair, and the back starts to descend into a lying position I break out into a cold sweat....pathetic I know, but there you are.
Anyway, this time it was a case of a (thankfully) quick patch up, followed by an X ray...all pretty painless, except the old gag reflex kicked in during the X ray....just why do they try and fit awkward and overly large objects into your mouth ? its not my fault that i projectile vomited out the 2" piece of card she had wedged in my Gob....OK, it was only a 1 cm piece of photographic card I saw her pick up off the floor, but it sure felt like at least 2" square at the time.


Anyway the upshot of all of this, is that I now have another appointment on the 7th of October...a sadistically long enough period of time, for me to have a complete nervous breakdown just thinking of what might be coming my way on that date....so to cheer myself up (Oh yeah !!), we ventured down to the beach at St Cyrus, which is not a million miles away, to soak up the remaining summer sun that is left.


The 4 stooges were in their element, sprinting off in all directions, none of them the same; chasing seagulls and the like, and generally behaving like hooligans, which is 2nd nature to them.
It was so good I almost forgot about the 7th ......... for all of about a nano-second !


later.....

ps. In case i have a complete nervous breakdown, and don't post tomorrow.....pinch and a punch !