After the glorious winter’s day we had on Saturday, today was very much an anti-climax and back to the usual routine of low cloud and mists accompanied by drizzle that slowly eroded the remaining snow, leaving the ground sodden and muddy. Hardly great for walking but I forced myself to go out and complete my full seven days of exercise even if I did come back somewhat bedraggled! At least it gave me a sense of achievement – as did having added another huge tranche of old travel slides to my ’round the world’ gallery. Rather than give you a link to the gallery, here’s a link to the first of the new pictures. You can find your way from there.

I’ve plodded on throughout the day scanning more. It’s a time-consuming, mechanical process yet I’m slowly but surely coming to the end. The bright spot is that I get to see pictures of times and places I’d forgotten about, so it can brighten up a dull day, despite the repetitive nature of the task. Even so, I’ll be glad when it’s finished and I can concentrate on the future and new pictures rather than the old.

I’m looking forward to a bit more variety this week and the opportunity to escape the confines of the Calder Valley as part of a commission, even though I won’t be going far. Let’s see what happens. I’d like to have a day out with the camera but the weather forecast isn’t looking promising so I expect to be housebound for most of the week – but taking a break from scanning slides. I let my eBay account run out of goodies to sell at Christmas, so it’s time to resurrect that to start disposing of more surplus slides and assorted railway memorabilia which has the bonus of freeing up cupboard space as well as making some money. Watch this space…

OK, on to the picture of the day. I took this in Lovina, Bali, Indonesia at the end of October 1998. Bali is famous for its dancers and their exotic and colourful costumes. Visiting a temple of an evening to watch some of these performances is always a fascinating experience. The routines are highly stylized and the dancers are accompanied by Gamelan music from a live band, so they’re real theatrical performances Here’s a young man performing the Baris (warrior) dance.

I’ll be adding this and many other pictures from Bali to my Zenfolio website tomorrow until the end of the week when I should have the album finished.

I’ve a favour to ask…
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