Monetary Machinations & Mysteries

In an article in Friday’s Daily Telegraph, it was stated:-

“The economies of Germany, France and Italy all contracted in the first quarter and may now be in full recession, shattering assumptions that Europe would prove able to shrug off the effects of the credit crunch.

The picture is darkening so fast in Spain that Prime Minister Jose Luis Zapatero cancelled holidays and called his cabinet back to Madrid yesterday for the first emergency session of its kind since the Franco dictatorship. The crisis meeting agreed to a €20bn (£16bn) blitz on public works, tax cuts, and a mortgage rescue to halt the downward spiral.“

So why, if the Eurozone is in such deep trouble, has the £ weakened so much against the €? Should we care? Well, on a personal standpoint yes, as we tend to spend four months or so a year in mainland Europe. The fall in the exchange rate from circa £1 = €1.45 to £1 = €1.20 (17%) hits the budget hard. Factor in the other inflationary price increases and the personal budget becomes very stretched indeed.

All industrialised countries are affected by the rapid and dramatic increases in the price of oil, other raw materials and foodstuffs, so why has the £ weakened so much against the €? Is it the price we, the voter, pay for being blinded and bemused by ten years or more of budgetary smoke and mirrors by one G. Brown? Yes - emphatically yes - and unless the somnolent Tory Party get off their collective backsides and offer some real opposition and alternatives, we are undoubtedly going to suffer more.

Macro Photography - Beasties

During our sojourn on the island of Rügen (on Germany’s Baltic coast), our caravan awning was visited by a variety of insects, the most common being various types of hoverfly. I found these to be quite interesting and entertaining little beasties, so set to with my Canon 20D and EF-S 60mm macro lens to capture their antics. A selection of photographs can be found in the Hoverfly album in my Gallery.

We had various other visitors too in and around our pitch, some of which can be seen in my Gallery albums Reptiles and Insects.  Perhaps some kind soul can tell me what they are!

Back on Air!

Well, well - finally I’m able to access my blog. Everything was fine and dandy when we left the country at the beginning of June for our tour of Germany  However, unbeknown to me, the gremlins got at my blog domain/url and made it unreachable (ditto my email address) and due to lack of internet access whilst travelling it was some weeks before I found out.  Now that we are back in good ol’ Blighty, I have struggled to find a way around the problem, but luckily have just had one of those Eureka moments, thanks to Wordpress.org   troubleshooting pages.  Sooo, standby for a torrent of new blog entries!

Tour of Spain - Report & Photo Album

Recently I managed to finally complete the write-up of our tour of Spain and also to upload photographs to the album Spain Spring 08 in my Gallery. Hopefully the report and photos might whet the appetite of fellow caravanners etc who have not yet explored those particular areas of Spain.

Given the downturn in the value of the £ against the €, this autumn may well see returning to our old haunts in Cornwall rather than our usual autumnal foray into France.

Back in the USSR (UK Branch)

Well, here we are, back in the USSR - oops sorry I meant the UK. Difficult to tell the difference really. Pervasive, intrusive government at national, regional and local levels; a politically-controlled police force; crumbling infrastructure; a self-serving bureaucracy and a political opposition that doesn’t understand the word ‘oppose’.

I never thought I would hear myself saying this but “why can’t we be more like the French?” Why, as a nation, do we sit on our backsides and let this pathetic excuse for a government impose their unworthy and unworkable ideas on us without protest? Will the people of Crewe rise up and deliver a clear and concise message to Labour that they passed their sell-by date a long time ago? Will Cameron actually articulate policies that chime with middle-England? I continue to live in hope (but despair lurks around the corner).

One of the beauties of spending a couple of months out of the country is that one is in ignorance of the day-to-day machinations of those masquerading as the ‘UK Government’. The downside is the shock of returning…

Canon 5D in Spain

Amazingly, in our first ten days or so in Spain, I have managed to clock up 5.5Gb of photos (RAW + large jpg), even after weeding out.  Compared with my 20D, the file sizes are substantially larger and I will either have to buy a stack of DVD’s to transfer the RAW files or consider changing back to using just large jpg (i.e. forego RAW).  There is a limited amount of time available for post-processing so jpg’s with a touch of in-camera sharpening offer the easy way out, but on the other hand I like the ‘comfort-factor’ of having the RAW files available for future tweaking etc.  Yesterday, in our visit to the Alhambra, I took something in the region of 150 shots, which equated to about 3.5Gb. Even just going through and weeding out the immediate ‘delete’ shots takes time and then the post-processing begins…  but so do the demands on my time from other quarters!

Given the nature of the photo-opportunities so far, I have mostly used the 24-105mm f4L. It is absolutely ideal for a ‘walking’ lens as the 24mm setting on a full-frame sensor is wide enough to cope with most shots in a medieval/historical/citadel-type situation whilst the range 24-105mm at a constant f4 allows rapid framing and shot-taking in a varying light conditions.

Tomorrow we head up into the Sierra Nevada mountains and I will put the 70-300mm IS USM to (hopefully) good use. Lots of snow still about so I plan to put it to good use as backdrop to shots of the Andalusian white-washed villages.

Spring Tour of Spain (2)

We are now almost two weeks into our tour and currently in Granada. After the blizzards and low temperatures experienced in the first week, the move south from El Escorial to Granada (via a couple of days in Toledo) has seen us make the sudden transition to mid-twenties deg C, lots of blossom on the trees, flowers in bloom and a general ‘greening’ of the countryside. It is very welcome indeed!

Toledo was a delight. The ancient citadel, perched high on a bluff above the river, is a bustling, thriving place to visit. The traffic is manic, the parking is imaginative but if one ignores such things, the buildings and atmosphere make it a wonderful place to spend time. Photos of our tour so far can be seen on my Gallery , in album Spain Spring 08.

The main point of our visit to Granada was, of course, to see the Alhambra. Yesterday we were blessed with excellent sunny, warm weather and in the main, the Alhambra lived up to our expectations. The disappointments involved the areas closed for repairs, such as parts of the Lions Courtyard and the Hall of the Kings. Also very worthy of exploration is the Albaicin area of Granada, the most important area of Granada during the time of the Moors.

Sailing to Bilbao

Earlier this week we took the ferry from Portsmouth to Bilbao, a very brave (or foolhardy) move on my part as I usually turn green on anything other than a millpond. Just prior to our late evening sailing, the Captain announced that the forecast was for Gale Force 8 or Severe Gale Force 9 winds in the Channel - I did briefly consider a swift and immediate disembarkation! As it transpired, we missed the worst of the weather in the Channel but more than made up for it as we approached Bilbao. There with winds over 70mph, the Captain declared it too dangerous to try to berth, even with help from tugs. So we slowly stooged up and down waiting for a break in the weather. Heading into wind was not too bad, but going-about (note the expert maritime phraseology) meant being side on to the wind and weather, which made for ‘interesting’ times. Eventually we made the dock, with help from tugs, during a brief lull.

Also ‘interesting’ was the drive south from Bilbao as we experienced gale force winds accompanied by quite heavy snow, giving blizzard conditions at times. Our first week in Spain, just NW of Madrid has seen us experience continuing very strong northerly winds, low temperatures but lots of bright sunshine. Good job we didn’t come for the warmth! Photos can be seen on my Flickr site

Canon EOS 5D - An Experience Not to be Repeated

Reference my post of the 21st and the struggle to obtain the RMA from the ‘Canon UK Outlet on EBay’, it was finally received on the afternoon of the 27th. Just a simple reference number generated by a computer system, yet it took five full working days and numerous phone calls and emails! The young ladies in Customer Services tried their best but were stymied by a seemingly inflexible and unresponsive warehousing system. The lifeless lump of magnesium and plastic is now back at the warehouse and I have just been informed that a full refund is being processed - but I “should allow 5 - 10 business days for the credit to be applied to your credit card”.

So what next - where to buy a 5D? Not from ‘Canon UK Outlet on EBay’, that is for sure. It appears that the majority of people buying from them are satisfied with the products and service, but once bitten, twice shy and all that. My researches on various photography forums etc point me in the direction of T4 Cameras, Swindon. Why? Well, they are local, they have an excellent reputation, very competitive prices for brand new goods (not grey imports) and Canon have just announced a £150 cashback on the 5D. So, taking everything into consideration, the end sum for a brand new UK EOS 5D is a relatively small premium over the price of a refurbished item. Now, where did I put my car keys?

Canon EOS 5D - Disaster!

My optimism of yesterday evening proved to be exceedingly ill-founded. After turning the camera on this morning, as soon as I made (or tried to make) an adjustment to the ISO rating, ‘Err 99′ appeared on the LCD followed by a complete shut-down. Repeating the processes of the previous evening were to no avail. The 5D is now a totally inert lump of magnesium/plastic.

Now began the process of trying to return it to Canon and obtain a refund… The rest of the day has been somewhat traumatic and little concrete progress has been made in persuading Canon to arrange a pick-up (”ah, we need to obtain a return number (RMA) from the warehouse, then contact the carrier, so it will probably be a couple of weeks. Only once it is back in the warehouse will a refund be issued. Send it back yourself? No, because without an RMA the warehouse wouldn’t recognise it.”) After much quiet persuasion over the phone, coupled with emails expounding the potential damage to Canon’s name, an email with RMA has been promised for tomorrow. Do I feel optimistic? Silly question.