Today is a Bank Holiday here in England which means I should be just resting enjoying myself although everything has been altered a little by this covid-19.
One place I am likely to snuck off to is the local canal towpath where while there be a number of people passing through in their barges, it is generally very restful where you'll see a lot of wildlife about if you keep your eyes peeled.
Often ducks and swans can be seen in the canal itself although the ducks can also be seen in some nearby properties gardens and fish are caught by local anglers before being returned.
The park is open and I expect to hear the excited voices of children enjoying play before returning to school on Wednesday as Tuesday is an Inset teacher training day locally.
After stormy winds as we headed into the weekend that saw me getting rather soggy on Friday actually it turned out quite well although I did hear a few airplanes going overhead dealing with the premature returns of people who needed to return due to the ongoing health crisis.
I was looking back over some photos where I spotted this of a enjoyable day on the Jetty at Conway North Wales of what would of been about fifteen years ago that were taken on a Advanced Photo System (APS) film camera of fairly simple kind.
It was supposed to make taking pictures easy and give people at the touch of a button Standard, HD (16:9) and Panoramic pictures from film but didn't really take off as most people were happy with their 35mm film compact cameras and digital photography was just around the corner.
This was a view from the harbour looking across to the other side of the river bank which may people including me went on a boat to enjoy.
It did take a bit of after the event digital processing, falling short of what I was able to take on my Olympus OM10 but does deliver on the panoramic bit.
Of course the other big attraction of Conway which does have decent bus and train links is its Castle built between 1283 and 1289 by Edward I of England during his conquest of Wales, part of the wider plan of building the walled town of Conway as a defence.
That was another part of that day not that I'm great with steps but I do enjoy things like Castles and the like so I did take some pictures.
When you have this on your doorstep maybe until things are sorted staying within the UK makes more sense?
You could say this is what goes round gets turned around as sometimes things go full circle with interests in this "Teenbeat" edition.
Way back in 1984 having an interest in the British singer and songwriter Joe Jackson to the point of owning a few of his albums on tape I heard a few tracks from his then new album being played on Radio One.
I hunted down and got the chrome cassette of Body and Soul which was both very well sounding using BASF genuine chromedioxide tape for the highest sound quality when few of us had CD Players and they were extremely expensive.
That tape was much loved - too much loved - and got replaced in time by the Joe Jackson Collected triple compilation that took many of his songs and packaged them well.
Thing was I still had strong memories of this album which was in so many ways a reaction to over smooth polished studio productions and the lack of organic live playing that is evident in songs such as You Can't Get What You Want and Be My Number Two, both singles that have a jazz/blues feel to them.
Earlier this year fledgling reissue company Intervention Records remastered this album for Super Audio cd using the services of Kevin Grey who has work for Analogue Productions and Audio Fidelity.
Getting a copy easily here wasn't easy but has been well worth it as it has a very real in the room with the artist presence with a wide dynamic range.
It simply could never sound better and in this version can also be played on regular cd players too.
As I'm typing this I'm on the umpteenth glass of pop trying to stay both cool and hydrated this warm weekend.
Naturally school is off even if sadly it was only half on at best since Spring as I struggle to recall anything like this from my own childhood as more or less everything isn't what it was since the word Covid-19 entered the daily news reports.
It's really rather more the outdoors that I've clung onto, watching birds and insects going about their business, enjoying the tree blossoms and flowers growing and even looking after this.
I've also been reading a fair bit from comics and comic annuals to the books I adored as a child probably cos in this messed up world I have the same needs for escaping what's around me.
It seems the same needs for repetition, routines and security I had then apply now and in odd sense never really being fully adult seems to aid it as inevitably we have to try to work our way through this one day at a time.
Now for another one of these!
Things don't always stay the same even though you may of thought they'd never be a day they would but this week it was announced that it would.
The Argos catalogue ever since 1973 has been an institution tracking all that we thought was needed for the modern consumerist society with items coming and going over time but always there.
For a long time it was essential because it held the item numbers with seven digits such as 1**/0*** that we needed to write on a slip of paper we handed in at the store for your item to arrive after waiting for "Customer 430 to our collection desk" as the item would come down for us to collect.
Of course the modern world added computerized ordering from a online site to it but for a good number of us just doing things old school was quick and easy but as people cannot hang around in vast busy stores and many people seeing trying to use the high street with Covid restrictions as too much of a faff are just ordering online.
That has lead Argos to say the last one will go from stores buy January 2021.
For many of us we dashed to get a copy and circle the stuff we wanted like a Strawberry Shortcake dolls and leave it for parents and relatives to find sharing thoughts with others a ritual that will end with the catalogue.
It's possible a Christmas offers leaflet may emerge although to be honest I find paper catalogues much easier to seach for things in than online ones such as Amazon's.
R.I.P Argos Catalogue
