After the freezing temperatures we’ve had recently the weather’s changed dramatically. The snow’s been washed away by torrential rain, assisted by temperatures in double figures. Then the wind arrived – with a vengeance! These weren’t exactly the ideal conditions for performing some external DIY, but when needs must. This afternoon I spent a couple of hours ‘fettling’ the front door frame, which gave me exposure to and appreciation of just how wet and windy the day was becoming. Once everything was ship-shape, secure and protected from the elements I retreated to the office for a couple of hours to catch up on some work. Whilst doing so my email account was regularly ‘pinged’ with messages about the imminent arrival of my new ‘toy’. To be honest, it’s been an interesting lesson in the global marketplace. I bought my new camera online at a very competitive rate compared to established UK retailers whom I’d normally use, but the fact the savings were in four figures made it a bit of a no-brainer. One of the reasons for the price differential is it’s being shipped from the USA, which always had a reputation for keen prices. I had considered buying kit in the US before, but in those days Nikon used to have separate designations for that market. So, for example. My old F801s film cameras were called the N8008s on the American market, so it was obvious where you’d bought your kit. Nowadays all has changed and model numbers are the same. It’s been fascinating watching my purchase make its journey from the US courtesy of Fedex. It started out in Union, New Jersey before making its way to Newark, where it travelled by air to Memphis Tennessee. It’s from there that it began its transatlantic trip to Stansted Airport, where it arrived yesterday. Now it’s making its way North by road ready for delivery in the morning (storm Isha permitting).

This evening I ventured out once more in order to get my daily exercise routine completed. This involved donning full waterproofs as the weather really was foul, with torrential rain and gale force winds. I broke my walk up by calling in at our local for a bottle of alcohol-free Erdinger and chance to dry-out in front of the fire before heading home – a much needed pitstop in such awful conditions.

Now I’m happily settled in for the evening, catching up on some picture editing whilst listening to the howling wind outside. I’ll leave you with today’s picture which is from Manchester. This is the approach to Manchester Piccadilly station. In a few years time the station was meant to have a massive capacity increase as the new HS2 station was due to be built next door to the left of this shot. Now, these ageing tracks are going to have to cope with this governments crippling lack of ambition (and more trains) for the foreseeable future.

I’ve a small favour to ask…
If you enjoy reading this or any of the other blogs I’ve written, please click on an advert or two. You don’t have to buy anything you don’t want to of course – although if you did find something that tickled your fancy that would be fab! – but the revenue from them helps me to cover some of the cost of maintaining this site (which isn’t cheap and comes out of my own pocket). Remember, 99% of the pictures used in my blogs can be purchased as prints from my other website –  https://paulbigland.zenfolio.com/

Or – you can now buy me a coffee! https://ko-fi.com/paulbigland68312