DjMagra’s stuff ‘n’ stuff

Alan just sent me a link to information on “Focus on Imaging 2005, an exhibition in the NEC at the end of February. It looks really interesting and could be a good excuse for a trip over to Birmingham (not that I really need an excuse!).

Some info on the exhibition:

FOCUS ON IMAGING is Europe’s biggest annual imaging show, covering all your needs from image capture through to output and beyond.

Whether you are a professional image maker or processor, a buyer of image making equipment or materials, a manufacturer or distributor of products or a keen hobbyist, a visit to FOCUS on Imaging is a must.

Over 200 exhibitors and product launches galore - including all the very latest digital cameras and processing equipment - will feature at FOCUS 2005.

Thursday and Friday resulted in yet another round Ireland trip, which was rather unexpected. I was supposed to do a job in Mallow, but somehow ended up going to Macroom. When I got there, I realised I was in the wrong place, so, headed back to Mallow, meeting up with Donncha for lunch en route.

When I got to Mallow, I eventually got hold of the customer in question, who informed me that whilst head office was in Mallow, the installation that I was doing was in fact back in Macroom, where I had left an hour and half previous (I got lost in west Cork for a bit!). So, back to Macroom with me, arriving at 5pm to do a job that I had set out for at 6:45am for.

Got the job done, and was about to head back to Cork, when I rang Tom who had been working in Kerry to see what he was up to, and we decided to head to Tralee to stay over for the evening. Then Friday, it was head back home, contend with the Dublin traffic and eventually collapse into a heap on the sofa, 1000km later.

All that way, through lots of beautiful scenery and I didn’t get to take one photograph, as I really didn’t have the time to stop off anywhere. I’ll have to head down again in my own time and take some proper pictures.

Was good to meet up with Donncha for lunch, hope he’s enjoying his break in Galway and getting some good pictures to share with us!

After the sadness of the past few days, I’m starting to finally get back to normal and clear my head!

Off to Cork in the morning to do a job, haven’t been out on a country trip in a while, so, looking forward to it. Just make sure that the flask is filled, the car is full of good tunes, and the camera has an empty flash card, in case I see anything along the way. Might meet up with Donncha and Minus1 for lunch if everything goes according to plan also.

Well, decision made. The vet decided that it was only a matter of days before the tumour started to ulcerate, and Suzie started to suffer, and whilst he was prepared to leave her for another few days, we had decided that when it came to it, we didn’t want to see her suffer in the slightest. So, unfortunately, my wee baby was put down this-afternoon after what must be 14 long and very enjoyable years. I’ll have to work out the specifics of when we got her, but, I’ve no doubt that will be done over the coming days.

I do remember Dad arriving home one day long ago with a little ball of fluff in a grey plastic carry case, which would turn out to be her home for a few weeks, until she decided to completely eat it!! I remember her being a little terror as a pup, always breaking out of the garden to chase anything that moved, tractors being her favourite, hearing stories of her tearing over the wall after a passing tractor, and quite frequently having a following tractor go right over, somehow managing to not squash her.

I remember however, when our cat, James (don’t ask!!) had kittens, and Suzie became a surrogate mother to the kittens, being as gentle as you could imaginge, despite still being a bouncy pup herself, frequently sleeping with them, washing them, and picking them up and carrying them around.

Everyone who knew her, was always amazed at how placid and docile a dog she was. Never in her lifetime do I remember her having an angry word for anyone, or anything. Yeah, she barked at strangers coming into the place, but, that’s what you’d expect. When the kids next door used to come down and play with her (ie. chase her around the garden with water guns shouting as loud as possible), all she would to was run away barking but never turn on them.

I suppose the funniest thing about Suzie was when we had the horse and donkey, and she used to play with them in the field. Not only that, she was a brilliant shepard and all as we ever had to say was “Go get Lady” and the horse (and Donkey in toe) would be herded up the field to where we wanted them.

I already mentioned Suzie being so placid and docile, which is evident by the number of cats, and dogs she has adopted and befriended over the years. Whilst most dogs would go mad at having another animal enter their territory, Sue never once had a problem, quite the opposite in fact. This was illustrated so brilliantly just yesterday, when a stray kitten followed Barry home from a walk down the road. Where most dogs would at the very least go wild barking, Sue just wandered over, had a sniff and a lick and carried on as normal, quickly playing with the little thing as it wandered about the garden.

We never got to breed from her, which I really regret. Unfortunately, on one of her first heats, the local mutt had his wicked way with her, and we had to have her neutered. We’re now struggling to find her line to get a relation, which is a pity. Whilst I don’t want to rush into getting a new dog to replace her, we need a dog where we live, and having a relation would be amazing. It’s going to be tough finding a dog as placid and docile as Sue, in fact, I don’t think we will ever see the likes of her again.

Either way, we have lots of memories, and lots and lots of photographs, she is one of the most photographed dogs out there, helped along quite a bit by the fact that she was such a poser, and a pretty girl at that, as is evident by even some of the photo’s I’ve posted over the past few days. I miss her loads already, and I sure as hell am not looking forward to arriving home and looking out at her empty kennels and not having her wandering about the garden as she always was.

Bye Bye Baby Girl……

Little Suzie is currently meeting with the Vet to decide what happens next. Her tumour is growing all the time, and has become very large and ugly at this stage, however, she is in great spirits and not feeling at all well…which is making any decisions that may have to be made all the more difficult. The vet’s going to have to call this one for us….

Eddie Jordan today announced that he has sold his Formula One Team to Midland Formula One. Whilst I’m happy for EJ, who’s no doubt pocketing a nice wad of cash for this, I’m sad to see the demise of Jordan Grand Prix, who will, after this coming season, disappear into the past to become Midland F1. Unfortunately, this leaves Ireland with no major interest in Formula One (ok, so we still have some top designers and engineers working in the sport), but, having no drivers or teams representing us is a shame after the success of the past 12 years or so.

U2 have announced the dates for their forthcoming world tour, entitled Vertigo//2005. The dates are listed on U2.com, with the important bits being a gig in Croke Park in Dublin on June 24th. Now, the rumour doing the rounds is that there is a second gig already lined up, with the possibility of a third too!

Either way, tickets for the first show go on sale Friday Feb 4th @ 8am!

For the first time in quite a while, I have finally caught up with all my email. Yeah, I read the important stuff day in day out, but, the likes of my mailing lists, and junk mail folders tend to get ignored as I never quite have the time, well, at least it’s all out of the way now. Ok, so, I didn’t quite read it all (er, didn’t fancy going through close on 12,000 messages), but I did scan through all the subjects and senders to see if there was anything of interest, and I do have a copy of them now in case I ever need to refer back to them.

Well, unfortunately, my much lauded microdrive suffered from incompatibility issues with the 20D (and also a few of my PC’s) and had to be returned to the vendor. Of course, they weren’t able to replicate the issue in their test lab (which doesn’t include a 20D), but, as the manufacturer do not list the 20D as a supported device, the option was a refund, minus 15% restocking fee, or a full refund toward a replacement. So, I went with the latter and ordered a 2GB Compact Flash card, which arrived today.

Now, it’s back to taking snaps in RAW with me at last!