The skipper and his ship

A quiet, still and dry start to the day, so Mrs M and I decided to walk down to the town to have one last forage in W.H.Smith, which was to close finally at noon today. I bought another book - for a present! - and Mrs M bought some greetings cards, then we got kicked out. Only joking!

Crossing over the road to the seafront I was chatting to a friend when up popped another friend, Norman Martin, who said "If you're quick you'll get a good picture here!" 'MV Hebridean Isles' was coming into the harbour behind him so I took a few shots, one of which is my Blip today. Norman had a 51-year career in ships and is an ex-skipper of 17 ships over 31 years, including most of the well-known CalMac vessels. The reason for this picture, as I discovered when I Googled him on returning home, was that of all the CalMac vessels he commanded, 'Hebridean Isles' was his favourite! Unfortunately I'd had the ISO on the camera turned up for a previous picture and had forgotten to return it to its usual setting, so this image is rather grainy.

My extra today is of W.H.Smith's shopfront.  I wanted to make a point about the shop closing, so I stood there for a long time waiting until there was nobody else in the frame. The usual story - just when a small gap appeared in the passing pedestrians, then the door opened and somebody came out! When they had walked off then a man came along, stood in front of the window to light a fag. I eventually got my picture!

Then back home to lunch and a wet afternoon.