all things must pass

Coincidences are only coincidences when you notice them. A few minutes earlier as I was hiding my shoes in my locker to prevent them being thrown away in the weekly changing-room rubbish-purge I was calculating how much today's overtime was worth, how much this week's overtime was worth, how much it all comes to when added to the previous two weeks and whether I should get a nice wide prime, a fastish macro of any length, a tele-macro or a cheap telezoom with the resultant funds? I packed my stuff, left the building, popped into St. Cuthbert's graveyard, swung my tripod off my shoulder then realised that the first thing I need to get will be a replacement.

I'm not annoyed at all as I've owned it for the same sixteen years as my film SLR and it only cost £30 at the time (even though that was a good 2½ weeks' paper round money in those days). For a few years it was abandoned in a cupoard when I was between cameras but has since served well on a few occasions and frequently in the past couple of weeks. I was thinking that a couple of the leg-catches were getting a little bit dodgy and found my eye wandering towards the nice little compact tripods in Black & Lizars the other day but the weak point eventually proved to be the bit where the rotating thing campls onto the bit which goes up and down. Above everything else I thank it for falling apart in my hands as I prepared to extend the legs rather than at any point when the camera was attached to it and not also held by the strap.

Unfortunately I believe I am expected to make the bathroom less half-finished tomorrow so might have to wait until Sunday to buy a replacement. Then again I might spend my day off on Monday pottering in a civilised fashion around the various places of tripod-sale in town. Does anyone have any recommendations? I've no idea how much they cost these days but I'm after lightweightiness rather than ability to withstand gales, I don't expect it to be anywhere near my eye level so don't mind kneeling to use it and managed fine with the old-fashioned three-knob manual-control adjustment head thing on the old one rather than any of this modern nonsense with pistol-grips and wish-sensitive clasps. Swiftly-adjustable legses are about the only fancy feature I would pay attention to.

So much for this intended 15:30 finish. I left home promptly at 07:28 and paused only to catch the pigeon, ignoring all the nice puddles reflecting morning-sunlit buildings to get to work for 07:46. That should have left me time to take a 44-minute walk at lunchtime and still leave as planned. Instead I had a ten-minute walk round the block ten minutes after the Permitted Hours or Lunch finished and clocked out at about half past six. Worth it for the Monday off though. I did at least get an extra little walk through the nice spring dampness on the way back from the first meeting. I would like to add that I beat my boss and another manager back to our building on foot whilst they chose to get the bus which arrived only two minutes after I left. I spent a good two minutes staring at cobbles, too.

Weekends to you all.