Olympic Flame

"Go on officer, please give me a light".  Well done to all of those that ran with the Olympic flame from Aberystwyth.  I dragged myself out of bed nice and early and was met with a pleasant surprise.  The position that I took along the promenade was exactly where four friends were stood and none of them are connected to one another! So I had a nice chat here and there, but had to keep apologising as I turned to the next person to chat to.  What a lovely start to what turned out to be a lovely day.  Made a little bit better with my Canon 600D and it's tilt screen that allowed me to hold the camera at extended arm height and shoot some shots from above the crowd.

Now don't get me wrong; I'm not a 100% happy as Lord Thingy and Boris messed up the 2012 Olympics for me and it might as well have been on another Continent.  That is until the flame came to Aberystwyth. When I say 'messed up' I don't mean that they went out of their way to nobble me.  Mind you, it does feel like that when our multiple bids for 5 family members materialised into 2 boxing tickets.  You don't have to be a maths genius to know that 5 into 2 doesn't exactly go, and I don't go to the Olympics either.  So it's a good job that Boris got re-elected and the Olympics came to Victoria Terrace in Abersytwyth on a lovely sunny day.  I waited for ages for the above shot while leaning to support my 300mm zoom lens.  I knew that if a few people moved out of shot and the torch carrier turned towards the policeman; then there was room for a caption, e.g. the one above or even "go on, tell us the way". 

My highlight of the day was taking a photograph of 'The Sun' photographer, taking a photograph of a policewoman and the above torch carrier.  Everyone expected it to make 'The Sun' tomorrow, but once the torch bearer got invited to sit on the Police bike, it was down hill for any other likely photographs.  The good news is; I may not be at the Olympics this time around, but at least I now have a little bit of the Olympic fever. Oh, unless of course Boris or the Lord want to send some free tickets my way?  You can find me on Facebook, I'm the Roger Bennett (AKA Lord Crindau) with the dark photograph holding a pint of beer. 

The reference to Lord Crindau being how someone addressed me in London over the weekend. "Well", he said, "I never thought that I would meet Lord Crindau".  Nice one matey, I thoroughly enjoyed that comment and it was nice to meet someone from St Julians in Newport South Wales.

Olympics

My Olympic money was here,

But now it’s gone,

For what and when I don’t know,

But for others there is none.

Oh London 2012,

You confused me with your ruse,

Not to sell the tickets,

Even to your muse.

I thought it was a celebration,

Chance to see the best,

Let’s hope there’s no black market,

But bidding like the rest.

Track, field or equestrian,

The system doesn’t say

My mind was blank,

But yet you made me pay.

How I longed to be there for you, 

At this feast of sport,

But now watching television,

I shan’t be your cohort.

Roger Bennett (all rights reserved)

Ford GT40 at Monaco

Another YouTube Video of the Monaco Themed Scalextric Layout that I built. This time with wifey driving a Ford GT40 and a nice view of the bench made out of card and stuck down onto a metal base so that the magnetic biker figures from the States stand up nicely when posed in front of the bench.  I am particularly proud of the bench model as it is all made out of card and each of the slots in the concrete ends that house the planks were cut with one go only and through thick card to boot! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6kubNgU1dYQ

Monaco Themed compact Scalextric layout

A video has now been uploaded to my Facebook and Youtube pages showing the compact Monaco Themed Scalextric Slot Car Layout that has taken in excess of 300 hours to scratchbuild over the last two years.  It sounds a lot; but really it's a bit of time here and there.  The layout was a gift for a good friend of mine.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=61Xp7QtRYeQ&feature=youtu.be

The yacht was a rebuild from a wrecked hull and includes matchsticks with two holes drilled through them inserted into cut ice cream tub plastic and both components glued into holes drilled into the decking.  The barrier edge is a long piece of picture frame wire that has been unthreaded into a single strand and then pushed through the holes in the matchsticks.  Nearly all of the items on the Monaco Themed Scalextric Slot Car layout are scratchbuilt from card.  Usually the type of card that you find on the back of writing pads.  PVA is the main glue, but there is some contact adhesive to stick down some of the figures.  Other figures are magnetic based and these stand on strategically placed metal washers or strips of metal that are glued into position around the layout.

The video was shot by yours truly while the speeding car is driven by wifey

Scalextric Vanwall and NINCO Lexus

An enjoyable part of the Scalextric layout construction and scenery and building model making is the photography.  This image of a HORNBY Hobbies Ltd (Scalextric) Vanwall MM/C/87 Number 1 was taken using the monochrome setting on a Canon 600D Digital SLR using a f1.8 50mm prime lens.  

This image of a modified NINCO Lexus 430c gt500 with slot it alloys and older nc2 motor was also taken on the 600D but on this occasion using the 50mm prime lens with the camera set on landscape mode and a table lamp housing a daylight bulb just above and to the right hand side of the scene.

Questions and Models

I have added a new Question to the 'Question' tab, and some text and an image to the 'Models' tab. 

I have an awful lot of questions at the moment and not all of them are being answered.  They certainly cannot all be uploaded here, which is a shame really, as a burden shared is a burden halved.  Maybe this is why I have been so immersed in the model making.  Vigorously building this or that out of card, plastic, sand, and glue.

Activities keep the mind busy and deflect attention away from the unwelcome thoughts that so often intrude upon us.  I have a very good friend who is suffering badly with mental ill health at the moment. I can't really say to him; "I know how you feel".  The comment would be inappropriate as the bottom line is with these invisible illnesses; none of us know how another person is coping or the impact or events that pushed them into where they now find themselves.  All we can do is to be there to support our friends in whatever way is relevant to the circumstances.  For that reason I would like to thank those that from time to time, support me.  One thing that I have noticed about the dark days is that you can inadvertently let your friends slip by.  With that in mind it was lovely to hear from Simon the other evening.  Good friends keep in touch and don't have a balancing of the books system.  It doesn't matter if the other person has been silent, they still pick up and try.  It was nice to catch up with Simon so I shall now try to meet up with another friend called Adam. 

I shall also continue to ring the various telephone numbers of someone else and hope that at some point he picks up as well.  Yes it can be dark, but it doesn't have to be lonely.