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Wednesday, November 30, 2011

Rib update


Our Courtyard 15 November

You haven’t asked about my ribs for a while so I thought I would give you a status report – because it is nearly a year since I broke five of the little blighters in Lapland – by falling off a dog sled onto my Canon 400D camera. 

Well they are much, much better – but not completely mended. I still get some pain and discomfort and they are uncomfortable at night when I roll over in bed – not that this is easy to do anyway when you have cats perched on top of you.

The reason I was reminded of my ribs was that on my last day in Paris I got a doozey of a cold - the worst part of which is a gasping, rasping, hacking, wheezing cough – which when performed in public makes people move away very quickly indeed.

This still gives my ribs a twinge – but had I had it last January would have finished me off completely. For the benefit of those who have never broken five ribs - I have described some of the ramifications here.

But I am sure it will be better soon. Molly got me some cold tablets in Paris and I am taking these assiduously.  Not that I think cold tables do much, but I do like to avoid – as much as possible – the leakage that attends these types of events – and cold tables tend to mitigate these. 

So there is not much one can do when one is in a complete fug so last night I turned to learning how to use Aperture which is the Apple equivalent of Photoshop.

Now I will never be any good as a photographer – have no pretensions or expectations to be - and in fact take all my photos on the automatic setting so as to avoid the fiddling.  

Such adjustments as I do make I do with the Aperture software and I like playing around with special effects. You will have noticed that I like saturated colours.

But I have barely scratched the surface and have never even opened the book – which I bought a year ago – until recently – when I loaded the software and photo library – which one needs to do the lessons.

It was then that I discovered that part of the library - the ‘San Diego Zoo’ was missing. This is unfortunate because the first few lessons about white balance and exposure need the pandas and Saki monkeys and bears and other critters in the zoo.

Well – they would not give me a book and CD without a critical photo library would they? So it must be there somewhere. I will just have to find it.

Well I examined that CD within an inch of its life and I could not find the San Diego Zoo file. I did find and downloaded a lot of other photos that were not downloaded in the initial foray.

I also – somehow – managed to hide my main Aperture Library. Yes this was the library I just spent weeks building and culling from 35,000 images to 23,000 images and putting into projects, folders and albums.

This caused a temporary (but wild and heart thumping) panic until I discovered that I had moved it to another folder.

So I am never going to be much good at correcting the white balance on pandas – but we are through the zoo stage and I think I have everything else I need.

10 comments:

  1. How is the Canon 400D?

    I am cold-ing, too. Dr Pepper helps.

    Word Veri: mishin - a common word before 'imposibl'; also a small town in South Dakota.

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  2. esb: DOA but we had it repaired for $500 and have it as a spare. I am using an Austrian white wine instead of Dr Pepper. It works pretty well.

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  3. I LOVE your courtyard. I wish I lived somewhere where we could see the change of seasons - I think they are just beautiful !

    I hope you feel better soon - Mom broke a couple of ribs a few years ago and I can remember how sore it was for her to cough for ages afterwards - but, it does get better (sometimes it just takes a while !!)

    Have a great day !

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  4. Thought of you the other day when I found some uses for vinegar. For headaches it is recommended to soak a washcloth in water and vinegar (no ratio provided), wring out and place on the forehead. Another one was to boil some water, put in half cup of cider vinegar and breathe the vapours. Nothing for ribs though but suspect the Austrian white wine can't hurt.

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  5. Good luck with the Austrian white wine.

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  6. I am using Benedictine as well, just not tonight. Using cough drops. Benedictine is made in France, Normandy coast, Fecamp.

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  7. Good cough remedy:

    - a shot of Stone's Green Ginger Wine (or brandy as a substitute)
    - a couple of shakes of cayenne pepper
    - a couple of cloves

    Mix it all together and let steep for 5 mins. Remove the cloves. Prost!

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  8. Me: I am sure I will be fine in a few days. Thanks for your kind words.

    Sandy: The Austrian white seems to work for the ribs.

    fmcgmccllc: Thanks

    esb: I have been to Normandy three times and have never been to Fecamp. If only I had known.

    nzm: Certainly worth a try. Thanks

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  9. They even have a museum. Just check out their website.

    http://www.benedictinedom.com/lda/

    Hah! Today's wordveri: mismsism - how 'museum' is pronounced if you've had tooo much Bénédictine

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  10. esb: We are going to Brittany next year so will try to go there.

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