On the DART

I got the DART back to my place from Carl's, stopping off around Dún Laoghaire harbour for a bit of a photo session with Derek's G7. From the short while spent with the camera on Saturday and Sunday I'd already begun to feel that it is capable of producing better results than my own G9, judging both from reviews on the display screen and after transfer to my iMac. Images seem sharper and clearer, with better colour balance and less blown-out highlights. Oh dear!

This fellow-passenger on the DART was sufficiently wrapped up in her newspaper not to mind my pointing the camera at her, although I must admit to an extended period of possibly exaggerating my review of the shots I'd taken yesterday and around the harbour, picture. She certainly seemed to be getting a lot out of The Irish Times, which is more than I do. I can''t remember the last time I bought a newspaper. These days, I just tend to check news headlines online.

A nasty surprise was in store when I returned to my car, which I'd left parked at Clontarf Road DART station. I immediately knew something was amiss when I was coming out of the station, because the car was askew in the parking space, and I'm very fussy about have it centered in whatever space it's in and neatly centered within the marked lines. That's when I saw the damage done to its left front. There was a note tucked under the windscreen wiper, giving a contact number to call about the damage. I decided to drive home and make the call from there. As I drove out, a minibus approached in the opposite direction and the driver rolled down his window as he came alongside and asked if I'd got his note. He said he'd left the handbrake off and his vehicle had rolled back into mine. He said his boss had come down earlier to check out the damage and that he was expecting my call.

Making contact with the boss man and getting on to my insurance company took up most of the rest of the morning. The insurance company recommended a body-repair shop to go to for an estimate, they phoned me back shortly afterwards, and I'm to bring my car down to them when I get back from Gozo. It was all a bit of a nuisance, eating in as it did into my final preparations for the trip and taking up time which I needed to finish the other small job which needed to be sorted before I go away -- complications which I could have done without.

Carl got the DART over to Killester and we met for a quick drink in the Beachcomber pub. Two of the others going on the trip had organised a taxi for the morning for the trip to the airport, They'll pick us up on the way -- at the unearthly hour of 5.30 am!

Friday[/url], Saturday and Sunday. Photos from Malta and Gozo will follow later after I wade through them.]