We popped in to the camera shop to pick up some A3 photo paper so my husband can print up some nice big photos.
We came out with a second-hand barely used top top top end professional digital camera. Or rather, he did. He's a very happy man.

Cameras fall in to his hands the same way a recorder always seems to fall in to my bag at Greenwich

I was very good and did only look, even managed to get out of the sheet music section without buying anything




Not too much more surprisingly, and of course if at the end of the rental period I wanted to buy it then the rental payments are deducted from the price. Still a lot of money though........

That is an achievement!

I know there was, of course, plenty of temptation, had it been payday yesterday......... (only joking teacher, I know I've got loads of stuff to keep me occupied)

I think Bagpuss should one day write a memoir of entertaining catastrophes experienced during life as a music teacher and peri. I'd buy it! It could be like the James Herriot of music...



That said, it would be much more fun to read about these situations, rather than live through them! Hoping you have a quiet, relaxing and enjoyable few weeks now the exams are over!

What a great idea, Bag's posts are great to read

Daughter just knocked 13 seconds off her PB for 200 breastroke...only another 7 to go and she's officially going to Bermuda. She's done that in 2 months, and has another year to hit her quali time

What's happening in Bermuda?

Wow, that's great Sunrise

Thanks!! I'm delighted for her...and think she's going to look like a cheshire cat all night! I just told her Dad the she swam well....it's up to her to break the news to him!

Ouch! If it's something like a Nikon D3 or similar, I reckon you are pretty safe buy a set of Renaissance, A415 and A440 recorders at Greenwich this year....




Sorry? Leave a music shop - empty handed? I'm shocked, shocked I tell you

Misti - in actual fact "It Shouldn't Happy to a Peri (memoirs of a Bag)" is already underway albeit at a rather embryonic stage....

Bx

I for one am waiting with baited breath for this tome......should be a good read!!

Oh fantastic! You'll have to make sure we all know if it ever reaches the publication stage.

(And if you're needing a proof-reader, I'll volunteer, although I think you're read enough of my posts not to trust my grammar sense one whit!)

Oooo. What is it?

SB

Finishing my arrangement of Olly Murs' Dance with me tonight for clarinet quintet. *is very happy with herself*

You're shocked, imagine how I'm feeling then

I put a new E string on yesterday. Today my violin is sounding lovely.

I hadn't been getting the sound I wanted for a few weeks and thought it was me being rubbish. At my last lesson it didn't sound quite right for my teacher either. I bought 2 new E strings at Glasgow Violin Shop this week when I was in Glasgow for a meeting. There were so many beautiful looking violins, but I was very good and didn't try a single one - I was scared I might fall in love if I did. Luckily I've fallen back in love with Chloe now that she has her new E string.

It's interesting that my violin strings seem to need replacing before they break. My cello strings only needed replacing when they broke, and not before.

LOL!!!

I can't wait to read it, either!

Sounds like me leaving a camera shop empty handed. It doesn't happen very often.

My wife once asked me how many cameras I needed. I had barely started to answer when she asked the dreaded question; 'so how many cameras have you actually got?' I couldn't answer that one.

SB

Couldn't or daren't?

D3x - so now his D700 is relegated to spare back up body
The D300 which was our shared back up will now get sold (I'll keep my D300s, and should I need a spare in an emergency, oh dear, I'll just have to borrow the D700 and all his lovely full-frame lenses! Or bring my beloved F3 out of retirement )



N+1, as it is called in the bicycle world. I've found it applies to recorders, cameras and many other things. If N is the number you have, the number you need is always N+1

This D3x, by the way, is in astonishing condition. Usually for secondhand professional gear, you expect it to have been professionally used. This one is near perfect...in fact, only the camera has been out of the box. All the accessories (software, strap, charger, etc) were all still sealed in their plastic bags.

We know the camera shop very well, so we got an honest answer to they 'why is he selling it?' question (they're selling it on behalf of another customer). It turns out that this chap had been really in to photography as a young man, but could never afford lovely equipment. And now he can...though he doesn't do so much photography.
He'd bought himself a D3x and a D3s He'd only used one charger/software/leads/etc, hence the unused ones found in the D3x box!
The D3s has had 750 shots taken, the D3x 500. He's decided he prefers the D3s of the two, so he's selling the D3x and replacing it with a D800E

I take it this guy has serious money then? That's a LOT of kit..... I'm not jealous, honest

My old F90X is languishing in retirement. I can't afford to spend the kind of money I used to on kit. I have my trusty D80. I was seriously thinking about the D700 replacement then I saw the price hike on the D800 and I've had to rule it out. Maybe I'll do for a D7000 eventually....

A friend of mine has a D3 and a fleet of pro lenses (same age as me, but he's retired.... I've got years to go yet) but he's trying to go semi-pro.

Well we've been very fortunate and had a couple of good things recently, so we were able to afford this secondhand beauty (I think it was still about 50-60% of the price you find for a new one). His D700 and lenses to go with it he could only get because of his inheritence when his mother died, and he never anticipated a further upgrade being possible, well, certainly not this soon!

He is definitely up for the idea of semi-pro, if he can work out how to make it pay...and especially if it ends up that we need to move somewhere prettier in the UK Though to be honest at the moment he's just really really happy taking lots of photos and enjoying it - I don't think he'd ever want the stress of having to pay the mortgage from it though!

He's just uploading an album of photos of Ely cathedral in infrared - I used to do all the faffing with IR film, but last year we had a D70s converted over to be a dedicated IR camera - great fun!

His Flickr page, because he's always happy to show off to as many people as possible

Lovely, lovely photos. My favourites all seem to be in Scotland. And the ladybirds

My happy is that on Wednesday my son dug out my husband's neglected alto sax and is teaching himself to play it, and today he found his brother's neglected clarinet and is making a rather nice sound on that too

Just had coffee in the garden - almost too hot and had to sit under the pussy willow for a bit of shade. We were accompanied by poodle and one of the cats. Then we mended tha washing line which had fallen down for the umpteenth time - and up came a little breeze to dry the washing billowing against a bright blue sky. And best of all we have put the clocks forward to summer time so this week I won't have to come home in the dark, fumbling with a torch.

I'm working tomorrow, but then I've got 2 weeks off. Nothing much planned, just catching up on some of the 101 things on my to do list. I've just checked the weather forecast and it looks like its giong to be beautiful weather for chilling out at home.

Spending almost three hours sitting in the garden reading and drinking coffee, what a glorious day it has been, far too nice to waste indoors.

Sun is finally out here

I don't think it's going to get down as far as us today. It's still very grey.

But, as this is the Happy Thread, it's been a lovely day anyway

Went to an afternoon party, we all played something as part of the entertainment and then after the food I was jamming on fiddle with a few others (sax, guitar, keyboards). Was alot of fun!!

Tallis, Sch?tz and others.

Darn it will I ever learn? Schutz, for goodness' sake.

I couldn't; well not without thinking about it anyway!

What constitutes a camera anyhow? Some of mine have detachable backs and prisms, and I have a large collection of lenses, so I could potentially make two or three complete cameras with bits to spare.

I still enjoy using film, especially medium format, but also have an OM4Ti and OM2 SP, which are usually loaded with Velvia 50 and FP4+ respectively. The OM's are a joy to use, especially with fast prime lenses, but sadly are no longer practical for my day job, for which I use an Olympus E5 and Canon G11.

Anyhow, I am really pleased to hear about the D3x, and it's great that such a nice camera has come into the hands of somebody who will enjoy and appreciate it for years to come.

I would never consider becoming a professional photographer myself, but there are many other jobs in which photography represents an essential, and highly enjoyable element.

SB

Evensong - the last in our series with the Bishop of Derby.

Just got back from the choir party which followed our performance of the Bach St. John Passion. My chocolate truffle torte was demolished

Grrr, it's doing it again. I've just hoovered it out gently, though there was hardly any dust in there, and at least I've got as far as being able to log in to the forum without it shutting itself down. One of the fans seems to be struggling a bit, I don't like the noise it now makes

And I'm sharing the office with the tiniest mouse I've ever seen. It's currently hiding up the side of the bookcase...I've got a big box set up where it will come out, with a bit of shredded paper and some rat food in it, in the hopes of enticing it out so I can release it back in to the wild. Cat is excluded from office


Edit: Sorry this is the happy thread! The sun is out whcih is very happy making...oh, and the PC seems to have stopped making the weird noise for now

Appraisal at work went well


only, the redundancy word has reappeared

Sunshine. The washing is drying on the line and tadpoles are wriggling in the pond. I'm at home with my 1st day off in a fortnight and am enjoying relaxing.

Seeing a beautiful old wooden floor appear from beneath some ugly old paint. (And not having to sand it myself )

Sunshine.
Spring flowers.
Making a perfect ciabatta loaf.

A couple of emails from parents thanking me for jus' doing my job.

Pleasing nonetheless. Let's face it, we rarely get thanked.

Bx

just bought the sheet music to this http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u-rLrMGBUv4

no doubt after a few weeks I will be along on the aargh thread to complain about it.

We're playing music from one of them in orchestra...

Well huge celebrations here tonight....after her very quick swim on Sat, daughter has qualified to represent Gibraltar in the European Small Nations Swimming Championships in Andorra (Pyranees) in June!!

Excellent, specially after all your aggro at school lately.



Well done

What's made me happy? Arriving at the end of the day. Started at 8.05 this morning with the fence man ringing up to say he'd come and fix our fence that's been down for ages - so I suppose that's a source of joy , but it meant that I was running round "fire-fighting" all day, trying to catch up with myself.

Looking forward to bed.

Pleasing indeed!

yup, always lovely to get thanked/good feedback

Congratulations to her!

Thoroughly deserved I'm sure Bagpuss







another sunny day is my happy so far today and the prospect of a quiet evening later on