the black tears of wakefulness

I suppose I'd better post this (seeing as it's a chance event {which would probably go wrong and damage something electronic [such as the plugs this mug narrowly missed] were I to attempt to replicate it at a later date}) rather than the more replicable situations or constantthingbies seen elsewhere today. I would rather post something more in keeping with my bouncy mood but such things will still be there tomorrow even if there might not be the same amount of moisture in the air to give the light a little weight.

Dodgylens failed abysmally to redeem itself at lunchtime today and was thus returned to its home shop five minutes before it closed this afternoon. Bloke accepted the explanation of lack of sharpness aka softness and chromatic abberation without much question. All that stands in the way for getting a nice proper fresh one appears to be the ever-present problem of courier services and their silly habits of leaving things where they shouldn't. Last week saw the anniversary of the day when Parcelforce left the first edition of my old camera in the stairwell whence it was promptly thieved. At least the probable source vendor allows for "special delivery instructions" although putting "DO NOT leave in stairwell and DO NOT leave with neighbours. Deliver to named recipient only, checking identification and proofs of address" is probably a good way of ensuring your package is first choice for electronic-component-football as played by courier warehouse staff everywhere but particularly Citylink.

Following the successful but obviously sad lightening of my camera bag I had an entire Grangeful of sunlit vegetable matter through which to wander merrily home. Not much happening apart from the plants although the behaviour of the few people I passed makes me wonder if it might be possible to assign a particular date to an annual Do Not Stare At Photographers As If They're From Another Sodding Planet/It's Only A Bloody Camera Day. Then again maybe it was the unnerving behaviour of wearing shorts and displaying bared forearms which attracted their stares when everyone knows that decent people continue to wear big fat coats until at least the middle of April when the tourist season really kicks in and locals change into slightly smaller coats to avoid being mistaken for components of tour groups.