Waiting for the Bus.

Pentax K1000, Ilford HP5+, ISO 400

Loooong day. Up early today to get ready for my first day of a two-week secondment as holiday cover for one of the environmental advisors at an Operator I work with quite closely. It’s great to see things from the other side of the fence and today was really enjoyable – just the kind of work I like doing, with everything being quite immediate and reactive. All the ladies I’ll be working with (because no matter where you go, Environmentalists are usually female) are really warm and friendly and I feel like I’m settling in a wee bit already.

I headed back to my regular office for lunch more out of habit than anything else, and to pick up emails and pass on my work to the girls. The report from last week is coming back to haunt me, with the client cryptically leaving a message to say that the methodology for the project had changed and who was available to work on the report in my absence...? Scary, I hope there’s not too much for the girls to pick up.

After work I ran home (almost literally) to have a quick dinner before my photography class, then off to catch the bus to RGU. I managed to get there in time and I got to develop my first photo! It is absolutely magic to watch the image appear from the paper in the half-light of the darkroom, wait impatiently for it to fix and dash outside to examine your effort under normal light. My first print had to be little F, didn’t it? I take so many photos of that wee kid. I loved his smile! It’s a back-blip of course, as it was actually taken two weekends ago. The tutor was positive and told me it was a good portrait, which made me feel good. I managed to develop another, too (one of my hot-tub series) which she liked. It was a bit more unusual and quite moody (for which read: under exposed) but the contrast in light was nice in it.

M came to pick me up when I’d finished; he’d had a horrible night. The lifeboat was called out while they were on their routine exercise to a group of 8 students aged between 18-20 who had decided to go swimming, naked, in the dark, at the Don mouth (a treacherous place where a large river meets the sea: as you can imagine the currents are unpredictable and strong). The waves were also huge tonight, whipped up by a strong wind. Luckily the crew just happened to have a huge box of flares with them (which they were planning to use on their exercise), so they could light up the area, AND they had a coastguard who’d come out on the boat for a visit who could also lend a hand. The rest of the coastguard and a chopper were also drafted in, but it was a miracle that they weren’t fishing bodies out of the water. Some of the ‘victims’ had been in the freezing water for an hour. It was a dangerous situation for M and the crew to be in, with shallow water, huge breaking waves, high winds and darkness long fallen, and it absolutely makes my blood boil that my fiancé put his own precious life at risk to save the lives of a group of folk that should have known better. I think he’s so brave, and although I worry when he goes out on a shout for an accident or unplanned event (boats losing power, someone falling off a cliff), I never mind. But this? I suppose it’s why I couldn’t be crew. I just can’t forgive people who make danger for themselves and drag other people in. I’m not saying they didn’t deserve to be saved, and I know they didn’t mean to get into trouble, but it was a stupid act, and if M hadn’t come back from it, I’d have never forgiven them. It’s not often he’s scared, but he was scared tonight. Poor thing. We had a big cuddle on the sofa after he’d taken off his wet socks and warmed up, and I just thank my lucky stars that he was OK this time.