Still (sort of-ish)

In motion Kind of, in a stop-go sort of way.

Had a busy day.
It started with Mimi's nativity play. I managed to catch the odd glimpse of her on this bloke's camera. Could not believe the queue of eager parents when we got there.
I asked my boss (she is the reason why working for the Company is still bearable) if I could start late today, due to Mimi's seasonal religious extravaganza. She asked me "what role does she have?" I replied "the Virgin Mary". She authorised a late start on the spot.
Except that Mimi had been downgraded to mere angel for the play this morning. She must have been caught by the teacher singing her Christmas favourite tune: "Jingle bells, Santa smells, farting all-the-wayyyy"
Not suitable words in the mouth of a divinity's mum, fair enough.

Anyway, went to work, and the place was snowed under.
Scene of chaos in Dun Laoghaire. Double decker buses with their wheels locked sliding down the street.

Did manage to grab a shot that I would have thought unbagable even just a couple of years ago. A shot for which bookies would not have given me any odds.
A shot which is leading to a bitter e-mail challenge with pet photographer extraordinaire Oldmills behind the scenes.
I give you, ladies and gentlemen, the Asian Ban Garda in the snow shot. Ireland has come a long way in the last decade, this is one of the better examples.
You beat that one Oldmills!

When I got back home, Mrs Raheny went to the Zomba work out and Christmas party (I had visions of them doing energetic yet complicated latin dance moves while struggling not to spill their wine) and in the absence of a reasonable person around, I decided to take the kids out for a nocturnal play in the snow. I thought that we'd be back within 15 minutes with tears and snot and tales of frostbite but they must be getting hardy because they lasted a full hour.
This linked little video is 3 hours old, and yet it is already a great memory for me, with massive nostalgia potential.

PS: if anyone knows of any cheap (or freeware) software for the animation of jpeg images, please let me know. Even as the low-tech king, I find that filming my computer screen with an old Ixus while scrolling through my photos in the image viewer is a bit... well... limited. The sound quality is not great, some of the bits sound as if they are sung in Arabic. Not a bad thing per se, when Cheb Khaled holds the mike. Not Anthony Kiedis.