Distressed child

I recently went into a supermarket so see a young girl, around five or six, bawling her eyes out in one of the isles. She’d lost her Mummy. My first instant was to go over the help her, but before I could do that I was subconsciously prompted ‘don’t’. Why not? The reason is very clear. If I, a male, go to help a young female child who is in distress, then her parent, upon finding me assisting her daughter in her hour of need, this maybe involving me in physically comforting her, could take me to court accusing me of molesting her daughter for some ulterior motive, and that could wreck the rest of my life, and would tarnish my reputation for a very long time. So subconsciously I was stopped in my tracks.

I took comfort in seeing two other women in the area looking as though they could be mothers and therefore knowing what to do. They would help the poor distressed child. But they didn’t, they just kept on shopping and ignored her other than seeming to just give her glance in passing. I thought that was appalling, so I started in her direction, ignoring the potential risks that I could be incurring. I couldn’t live with myself if I didn’t offer to help the young lady, and offer some degree of moral support. Bugger the legislation. It was more important to offer to help, whatever the consequences. I didn’t take more than a pace before a woman appeared round the end of the isle and took control, and the child’s reaction suggested that it was her mother. Good, but it left me worried and disturbed.

How is it that the government has organised such a legislation that stops an ordinary member of society helping someone else in a time of need and distress, just because they are a child? It is quite inhuman! We must not forget that child molestation will not stop because of legislation; we must not kid ourselves that it will. It won’t!

The only positive thing that can come out of this type of situation is that the child will naturedly think the general public are a very nasty lot, and are not prepared to come forward and give them a helping hand when they are obviously in need. Very disturbing! It can surely only lead to the child growing up the same, to imitate what they have experienced, taking what they have observed as an example of what is expected of them when they grow up. It is sometimes very difficult not to despair of civilization!

Sea cauldron

This is the result of taking a recent original photo, shown earlier in the blog, and treating it with some software. I think it has dramatised the scene greatly. Is it now molten lava?

I think it now looks very exciting and dangerous, and I don't know that I would want to be on the beach if it looked like this out to 'sea'. No way!

Waves off beach

Just thought I'd like to see what we could do with a basic 'waves off beach' scene. This is the original photo.

The following photo has had some cropping done just to try and improve the composition. I think this gives a better feel to the atmosphere, makes it feel a little bit more menacing. One can notice the brown tinge to some of the waves. This is due to the undertow off the beach, it taking sand off the beach with it. This gives a sign to the bathers and surfers that the undertow might be dangerous.

It is also possible to see the spray being blown off the top of the waves. It could be that a tighter crop might have improved it further. There are no rocks in this photo, just waves!

A future post will show an interesting alteration to this photo, I think quite dramatic, but you can decide.

BT problem

When I first joined BT broadband, I was able to set up my email account without any problems. Then when I wanted to make use of one of the free sub emails there was likewise no problem. I could do it simply from my computer. Then BT merged with yahoo.

I now wanted to have access to one of the free remaining sub emails. I tried everything, but to no avail. I had to go down the help line. That was an automated service that accepted my question which was geared to finding how to get the extra free sub email address; I ended up being diverted to something that was quite irrelevant. I tried a different route by changing the question slightly, and that sent me to an 0800 number, in other words a free phone call. I had no problem with that.

I ended up with what sounded like an Indian lady. I checked where she was. ‘India’ she responded. Well at least I could understand her which was a great advantage. She didn’t say what I should do, except pass over my computer screen for her to manage, and told me not to touch my mouse unless specifically instructed. She moved around the screen hither and thither, asking me questions on the way. All I could see was this nervous mouse pointer moving all over the place with new screens appearing, and entries going onto them. I was a little uneasy with this foreigner probing my computer, even though I was assured that there was no risk. I ended up with my new address. The end result was fine. But why is it so much more complicated than it was before yahoo became involved? Mind you, they may have been involved before, it may be just that I noticed them this time, and wanted to find someone to blame. That was about a week ago. I was then able to set up a new blog.

Today I wanted to add to that new blog. ‘They’ wouldn’t let me because I hadn’t confirmed my email address. Everything I tried wouldn’t work, and I couldn’t get access to my new address! Oh dear! Tried again through the computer to get access to this problem. No good. Had to go down the same telephone route as before, back to India! This time I couldn’t understand my assistant. I had to get him to slow down and speak more clearly which he did for most of the time. Not a good start!

He went through the whole system again, taking control of my computer, with me not really relaxed while he did it. Couldn’t work out what he was doing most of the time, just watching the mouse pointer flipping here and there. I once went to move the mouse to help him and was instantly told off! Charming! In the end, after another 50 minutes, he had won. I was now able to access my new email account.

I’ve come away with my experience of BT severely damaged, with considerable trepidation now about the security of my system. Hearing at times of the personal information that appears out of India and is distributed to anyone who pays for it, I have severe reservations about the experience I have just had. I have found it all very disturbing.

Running reflection

When pursuing the last post content, I didn't want the final picture to be too cluttered but wanted the runner to be the point of the scene. The second picture, whilst having a more interesting sea, was felt to have the runner in the wrong position in the frame.

The choice was made of the first picture, with the bystander taken out, and then cropped to give a more spacial feel to the beach. Nothing else was done to it.


I love the way the runner seems to be in motion, with neither foot planted firmly on the ground, and with the footstep firmly imprinted in the wet sand behind.

I think the picture creates a mystery. Why are they running in such a peaceful scene, or do we not really perceive the threat that may be coming in with sea?

Australian beach with runner

I took a number of photos on a beach in which two especially interested me because they looked promising, partly because something was happening that was to me unusual - they both included a runner who was casting a reflection in the wet sand.

I worked on one of these to provide a picture that I thought was both delightful and intriguing.

The next blog will show the results of this work.

spider at speed

As I got into my car, I noticed a spider in the centre of a web spanning from my wing mirror back to the car. The spider was about 10mm across, easily visible, and in the centre of the web. I wondered how it was going to cope when travelling at speed.

I took off and noticed that the web started to stretch, and as I speeded up, the spider bunched himself to reduce the drag on his body. As I further increased speed, up to the maximum on the road of 40mph, I noticed that he was being thrown about in the web, in a nasty looking combination of violent vibrations, with ever increasing circles of movement, with the web also stretching backwards.

He slowly unravelled his previous tight ball with the occasional leg being thrown out and to the rear. Near the end of the journey he was looking like a stretched out skeleton with legs going in all directions. Clearly this was an experience that he was either finding extremely enjoyable, like being in a funfair, or he was suffering physical torment – I couldn’t tell - certainly he seemed to be still in one piece.

I stopped the car with the web shrinking back to its original shape. It then became clear that he was still in one piece, with two legs tied to the web. He rapidly pulled himself back together, unravelled the two lifelines, and moved fairly swiftly off the web, seemingly uninjured, but with a certain degree of having some trouble getting the limbs to move as smoothly as before.

I found the experience absolutely mind bending, with the spider and web seemingly not really any the worse of wear. Isn’t nature amazing!