New Offie

There was a time when I had three independently-owned corner-shop-type alternatives really close to home, but they've all gone now. The couple who ran the one closest to me shut up shop a few years ago when they decided they'd had enough and wanted to retire. The other two were on a different street, beside one another, and next door to my local pub. One of these closed not long after the family-run concern, the other became a Centra and is now a Spar (yuck!).

It seemed as if both the original outlets had been bought by the same new owners, but the one closest to the pub didn't re-open as a shop and looked as if it was being used for storage by the other. Last week I noticed that shopkeepers were busily at work fitting it out and I assumed that the Spar was going to expand next door and end up twice as large. This evening I noticed that it's open, and that it's an off-licence. I don't know how it fits into the scheme of things. I don't know who the Gilmores are whose name is now over the door (perhaps the original shop was owned by a Cilmore -- I have a dreadful tendency not to remember what used be there when something is replaced with something else), I don't know if there's any connection between the Spar people and it, or if it's connected in any way with the pub next door.

What I do know is that the new shopfront is warm and inviting, and that I was glad I had my camera with me when I was passing by. This is the first nighttime shot with the new G9. It's just a snap, really, using the Night Scene shooting mode, but I turned off the flash to try to catch the light spilling onto the wet pavement from the brightly-lit shopfront and interior -- which is where the G9 scored over its A620 predecessor, because I'd never have got anything as sharp as this handheld before (so it looks as if Image Stabilisation will turn out to be a godsend).

=======================================================

Nothing to report in terms of the daily routine, really. Last night's work plan didn't go well, so I gave up, went to bed, and got up again at 3.30 am to make up for it. By 11.30 I'd uploaded lots more stuff for the client to look over, so it was back to bed at that stage and up again at 5.30. It's approaching midnight now. Things are going well, and working until 2.00 or 3.00 am should result in all but a couple of page layouts finalised. Should be on track for client sign-off on Wednesday and to get final artwork to the printer on Friday -- so still on schedule, despite the client's worst efforts.