Sawadee,

Im full. Today was a visit to the Thai food festival in London. I was due to go with Martin and Fhai but after several trips on a model train yesterday his back failed so I took Fhai and the kids whilst he speant the day on the floor.

Half of Battersea Park devoted to food was too much temptation especially with Green Chicken Curry, Prawn Rolls and fresh fish to try. That and warm weather took me back to time in Chiang Mai with great food and smiling faces. My Thai's no better but at least I remember to answer in the masculine so fewer stall holders laughing at me. It's amazing to think back a year to when I carried Joanne into the park and she has only a few words but a lot of curiosity. Now she's 3 going on 18 and asks a million questions and sits watching the young Thai girls perform the Peacock Dance transfixed and quiet for once. It seems nothing escapes her and unlike Richard she's happy to teach me a new word of Thai and drag me happily from stall to stall and feed me sticky rice. Ok on the way home in the back of the car she snored but that can be forgiven.

Martin's better, still aching and will need some more time off work but at least up and about, unlike me, full and laid out on the sofa.

Posted by Mark at 8:02 PM | Permalink

No sooner have I got the photographs sorted then the video becomes an issue. Today I have been looking at adding some of the many movies that I have to the site. I've decided to store them in Gallery and despite a PHP issue with file uploads I think its sort of worked. Im not that happy that al I get with Gallery is a default icon but I think I can get around that. What I need now is a "recently uploaded" feature to let others see whats added where....

Posted by Mark at 5:44 PM | Permalink

Scent is such an emotive sense. Sitting here the smell of warm gloss paint takes me back to the evening in winter I moved back into a small bedroom in my parents house. All weekend I'd worked with my Dad on lining the coldest wall with wood and as we moved back in that smell was there, clean and comforting. It's a bit like winter tonight. The storm has kicked in and it's raining hard outside. Im sure the trellis I fixed at the weekend will break again despite the nails and screws I used to hold it into place against the local cats. Whilst it storms outside at least its warm, comforting and a nice smell to sleep to.

Posted by Mark at 10:21 PM | Permalink

Sometimes it's the simple things which work best.

I spent the weekend at the wedding for my friend Amanda, a summer wedding with humour and love and loads of people who know and care about the couple. It was the culmination of months of planning by Amanda and it showed on the day. Perfect setting, the best mix of people and a day to remember. Of course I wandered around with a camera and took more than enough pictures to cover the day.

Faced with 200 odd images, which had to be black and white (not my speciality), I was looking at the best means of processing them. I grabbed my copy of Photoshop (supplied by the local representative of Adobe in Thai night market for a bargin price), the book on Photoshop I had and started out. I was playing around with the NEF format files using Nikon's Image View software when I noticed something. It's actually better than Photoshop ! The colour correction is better and the sharpening is crisp and easy. Im astounded and now have months of images that Im less than happy with. Simple is sometimes best.

That's also the case with cooking. I had this jar of green olive tapanade sitting on the shelf for ages and decided today to use it to cover a loin of salmon. An even coating from the jar, a hot oven and 20 minutes of baking results in a nice, moist piece of salmon with a tasty topping, ideal for eating with a salad and a crisp white wine. Which is what I did with the radio and what was left of the Sunday papers. The next two days, Im told, will be wet and windy. Severe weather warnings are mentioned. Hard to imagine on a quiet, still summer evening.

Posted by Mark at 10:33 PM | Permalink