A fine fellow with a fascination with guy-liner presented me with a macro lens a while ago.  Gave it a spin around a garden on a sunny day

clicketty for bigger

I have a theory that ducks have developed the ability to draw nourishment from the very air when the sun is not shining brightly enough to entice folk to come throw them treats otherwise why else would people only go feeding them when it’s sunny?

Read on….

The park near me has a nice duck pond lake inhabited by a number of mallards (the baby mallards are out and about now! *squee*), Canadian Geese, not-so-canadian geese, some other as yet unidentified (by my at least) ducks and a few Moorhens.

Upon a sunny day you might find not one but two mobile ice cream establishments (one traditional one Mr Whippy), a toddlers play group and many many people. On a sunny day many folk dust off their shorts and their spare scraps of bread and announce unto their family “Behold for today the sun tis bright in the sky to yea to the park we shall attend and yea many-a-duck shall we feed”.

Now this is all very good and nice but there is a small problem – the number of hungry ducks is dwarfed by the number of eager bread-laden folk resulting in some rudimentary bread-beaches forming around the pond lake. The ducks devour what they fancy and, quite reasonably, leave the rest. But, I find myself pondering by the pond, with all this out pouring of desire to feed the ducks on this indeed sunny day what about in the colder nay more frozen times?

I can only conclude that ducks and geese and other such pond lake dwelling souls have developed a mystical ability to not require food below a certain ambient temperature! Amazing, I know. Otherwise why else would folk ignore the poor beakers on non-sunny days? I’ve been to the park on colder nay frozen days and have none the less found the duck folk to be terribly eager to accept bready treats – almost as if they were actually very hungry. That must not be the case though otherwise surely everyone would be out throwing them some tasty treats in less clement weather!

On that thought I may dig up some bread and head to the pond lake for the sun is taking a constitutional behind some clouds today and I suspect folk will be less keen to feed the the duck folk today ^__^

While enjoying some time out on the town in Leeds there was a small mater of dispute between our gathered folk and a gentleman we later have come to affectionately know as Mr 70.  To call it a territorial dispute would be, perhaps, an overstatement but none the less the Tale of Mr 70 takes many (few) twists and turns in an epic voyage of loss, rediscovery and abandonment…. read on.

We had gathered in celebration of the end of Uni exams for some fine and worthy folk. This, as you’d expect, involved cocktails and enchiladas. Oh and tapas and let us not forget the chimichanga. Delicious. Las Iguanas, by the way, does great cocktails and latin food.

I’ve never understood why spanish / mexican style grub / culture is referred to as “latin” or “latino”. Surely latin would be more something associated with Rome, Romans or at very least Italy. Answers to this conundrum on a stamped addressed comment below.

Anyway, I digress. We relocated to a pub for some further fine beverage appreciation. The place was busy with few tables to be had but that was ok, for we had booze. “HARK!”, cried one of our number. “For that table… it has become unoccupied!”* We made our way to said table and gathered around it and yea there was much rejoicing.

Some moments later an elderly fellow approached our personal space and testily announced “I was sat there”.
The statement seemed informative and I had no reason to doubt his claim so I cheerfully replied “Ok… and now you’re not ”
The elderly fellow seemed in desire of further conversation and so continued
“I was sat there, I had a beer”
Now at this point it’s important to be aware that there was indeed what appeared to be an abandoned beverage on the table. We had shifted it to another, less desirable, empty table.
There was talk of having “only gone out for a smoke” and how this was “just rude” yet he “came here every day and never had this happen”. Aaaah, we thought, you’re a drunk. It all makes sense. Apparently because we didn’t all live permanently in the city centre we couldn’t possibly understand.

After the question “Would you like us to move?” was posed the drunken table-theivery victim grumbled to himself, retrieved his pint, and ambled away. I couldn’t help but feel that we had somehow wronged him. What if this WAS his table? What if he really did have some sort of time honoured claim to it? Surely if that was the case there would be some form of notice or labelling to that effect, maybe even his name. Then it became clear. The only identifiable marking upon the table was a small metal disc bearing a number.

So to you, Mr 70, I apologise for having savagely taken your abandoned table and relocating your lonely pint. I can only hope that you face not such rude and uncivilised folk as us again.

Epilogue:
Another table, occupied by a couple of indeterminate age but identifiably horrible dress sense, was later ‘abandoned’ in a similar fashion. I watched in confusion as the couple left two drinks and a mobile phone to enjoy a cigarette outside. Perhaps we were somehow in the wrong for concluding that a table that has had no occupation for 5-10 minutes would inexplicably want to become reoccupied by it’s previous tenant.

* quote may have been altered for dramatic purposes.

Kinder Egg - Chocolate AND a toy!

1. You can buy a Kinder Egg whenever you want.

2. Ice cream is a valid foodstuff for any meal, any time of the year.

3. Getting new toys is no longer limited to Birthdays and Christmas

4. Staying up as late as you like incurs the wrath of no body (except Future You the following morning).

Throw me some other reasons – there must be more!  Commenting, as ever, is freely open

This is the best road sign I have ever had the pleasure of seeing in the UK.  Enjoy!

Of the two posts yesterday the coverage of my 2 minute Uncle Bens rice gathered 50% of the days traffic with my posting about the proposed UK Broadband tax gathering a mere 5%.

Speaks volumes to what The Internet holds important methinks

Comments, thoughts?

Gotten very hungry but also pretty busy and lunch isn’t till around 1:30pm for me today… Uncle Ben to the rescue! I jot these words as his 2 minute rice delight spins in the microwave to bring warm happy food to my belly. Way better than Peter Parker’s Uncle Ben. All he ever did was give advice and get killed. Uncle Ben gives good rice.

*ping* Yush! Now to feast. Then to look forward to mixed grill times tonight. It’s a good food day.

…then when I woke up it was raining outside! See, who says dreams don’t come true Some might say I dreamt about the raining because I heard it in my sleep but what if the rain happened because it heard ME dreamining about it?

Posted by Wordmobi

There was a very real risk that the snow, pretty though it is, was going to scupper my Christmas movement plots.  Thankfully I was able to escape my street and make it to the clearer less-iced-over main roads  Have had a couple of, how shall I put it…, interesting driving moments – mostly involving hills and Science.  More specifically the aspects of Science dealing with gravity, momentum and friction (or lack-thereof).  Anyway, bygones.  None of my motion-based missions have resulted in slipping and falling or myself or myself contained within a car so all it well  I’m where I’m supposed to be for Christmas now so time to chill.  In celebration of this I post up three more pics from the snowy time all from today.