Collingwood and Meriva

The silk of soft summer rain came as a comforting surprise as I scattered a little bird food after my short post-night shift sleep. I was pleased; I had actually been looking forward to the rain. Probably not as much as the gardens and fields of the south, but looking forward. The BBC forecast is notoriously inaccurate, its icons on my home page, a waste of time. The met brief at 4am had seemed to dash any hopes of rain in my area. But, yesterday, after a successful photo-shoot at Collingwood I had invited rain to provide new challenges for the camera, perhaps in b&w.

The open day at HMS Collingwood was a success both photographic and moral; the former as already stated and the latter because I am increasingly reluctant to waste the time between and after nights. It had been a challenge then to go already tired on a humid day to an inevitably crowded venue. It was crowded. Parking was well organised and entry well facilitated with only light handed security. Only the ominous presence of a Police CCTV van jarred slightly as we entered, a reminder of surveillance Britain but perhaps a low-key way of providing the security needed at a military establishment on a public day. I thought it might be being used NPR-style on people so that if the Stubbington chapter of Al Qaeda should turn up, the authorities could act appropriately, perhaps by sealing off the bouncy castle. The accessible parts of the grounds were, for the day, like a funfair or county show. I don't think the attractions revealed much about the everyday life of Collingwood but to wander around with 'a different eye' revealed plenty for the lens. It was about picking subjects, imagining what the results would look like, could look like in b&w and being incredibly if uncharacteristically patient to exclude the people from most shots. I think my set 'HMS Collingwood Open Day' on Flickr is a success.

I haven't had a bath in four years. I should hasten to add that I have occasionally showered in the same period but I just don't have the inclination to lie around in a bath, a terrible waste of time for the creatively tense (neurotic, near-autistic). Yesterday was an easy exception. I was tired, hot and dirty when we crawled back in from nearby Collingwood. I ran the bath, put some sort of bubbly stuff in it and soaked for the Oram equivalent of a very long time. I wrapped myself in a luxurious towel, dabbed and dried and stepped into pyjamas which would stay on until it was again time to prepare for work. By that time I was having serious doubts about the future for Ronan Parke and quietly predicting (really) a Jai McDowall victory. I think the BGT result was fair but, with three singing acts filling the top spots, Simon needs to decide if the show has somehow become X-Factor's Siamese twin.

We have had our new car for over a week now and wonder if we can remain attached for as long as we did with the Vectra. It is nice in many ways but there are too many irksome things. I think we would both like to return to bigger load space. For that, we are looking forward to the Zafira facelift. I am not convinced that opposing doors are anything but a novelty and running lights remain a curiosity in this country. I do not much like the electronic parking brake and I am not much looking forward to calling the AA if one of my tyres encounters anything larger than a drawing pin. That may seem a little disingenuous because I have no intention of changing a wheel but a spare of some kind does mean going home before finding the nearest tyre retailer. The cruise control problem is only intermittent and we have not been able to reproduce it for a couple of days.

Now it remains only to see which I enjoy more; two afternoons on White Watch or a week in Norway. I should cruise through both.