You have arrived at Dio Bach's Web Fun - mainly being a random compilation of digital photography, writings, art, web design, personal moments and opinion by Welsh webmaster and artist David Lloyd - aka Dio Bach.

Monday, August 25, 2008

Recent Trips - Picton Castle And Folly Farm

I've finally sorted through the backlog of images I've taken the last few months, on various cameras, and will post them up over the next couple of posts for anyone interested. I've ordered a battery charger for the spare camera we've got here, so hopefully that one will last a day or two and allow me to take a few more shots.

First up are some photographs of Picton Castle and the grounds. I particularly liked the fernery and walled garden they had there, I would like to go back again one day without Elis and spend a long time looking there. I didn't get much chance as we were busy running around and playing hide and seek and stuff. I also like the carvings on the castle's doorway.

Picton Castle

Weathered staircase at Picton Castle

Door carvings

Inside the fernery

We've also had a couple of trips out to Folly Farm. I really like the place, we ended up getting season tickets so we can go there as often as we want now, I think it's only about 6 trips in the year and the ticket has paid for itself. It's a handy place to go to on a wet day thanks to the extensive indoor play areas and animal pens. I also love the antique fair rides, fruit machines and stalls - it's a really entertaining day out.

Folly Farm fair ride

Inside the Folly Farm fun fair

On the sky rocket ride at Folly Farm

Posted by Dio Bach at 15:38 | 0 comments | links to this post

Sunday, August 17, 2008

Camera Catastrophes

I'm in a bit of an annoying position at the moment, both the new cameras we had in the last year have packed in. My Sony has been playing up pretty much since the first time it was taken to the beach, and has now decided to work only about 20% of the time. We went to London two weeks ago, so I took the Canon I gave to my wife. Half way through our visit, that packed up as well. At had to finish the trip using my iPhone as the camera, which was less than ideal.

So, I'm currently cameraless, which maybe just as well, I've got a couple of months of photographs to sort out and some to add here. We have a small Panasonic camera here that we had as a gift, but unfortunately we've lost the charger for it. I'll have to see if I can get a new charger for it, as I don't particularly want to shell out for a new camera so soon after the last one. I can't believe the last two have so a short life, it's pretty annoying.

Posted by Dio Bach at 10:36 | 0 comments | links to this post

Saturday, August 16, 2008

Hopper (?? - 2008) - Farewell Old Fella

It's with great sadness I write today to mark the passing of one of our 4 cats, Hopper. He was put to sleep yesterday around lunchtime, following the discovery of a large tumour on his insides. We've all been devastated by his loss, the house feels that little bit emptier since his passing. If this is already to maudlin for you, move along now, but I'm going to mark his passing with some words and pictures.

Hopper came to us as when we moved back to Cardiff in 1998. He turned up on our backdoor skinny as a rake and obviously neglected. We took him in, much to Piri's disgust and he's been with us since. As he was a stray, we don't know exactly how old he was, but I think he would be around 12 years this year.

He always had a glint in his eye and was prone to mischief of the scratching kind. His favourite place to sleep was the other cat's baskets, and without fail he would greet Louie every morning with a sharp jab to the head. You'd think Louie would learn, but everyday he went to try and rub heads with Hopper, only to get a head full of claws for his trouble.

That said, Hopper was also a very loving cat, and looked out for the rest of the bunch if any other cats showed up to challenge the territory. He was also a caring cat, and would always be there to say hello and check up on you. If he came and sat on your lap, it was an honour and you knew it was because he wanted to and trusted you enough.

We bought him home yesterday, spent an hour or so with him in the garden whilst we prepared his final resting place. We chose a spot at the end of the garden, roughly where he would often go to laze in the sun since we moved here. We lined the hole with grass and mint as he was a big fan of it. If I ever left chewing gums in a packet where he could reach them, he would pull them down and play with the packet, so fresh mint from the garden seemed fitting. We said our tearful goodbyes as a family and left a marker for him.

Today, as if the cosmos decided to play a little one of those strange coincidences on us, Mrs Dio found a grasshopper on the bed where Hopper would often spend his days. You have to smile. I haven't seen one for years and then it turns up like that. How it got in I can only guess. It's gone back to the open now, like our Hopper. I'm missing him like crazy right now, and I think the other cats are also feeling a loss and wondering where he's gone. Hopper, thanks for 10 great years my little love - take care.

Hopper and me

Hopper

Hopper, photographed by Elis

Posted by Dio Bach at 23:11 | 2 comments | links to this post

Sunday, July 20, 2008

A Few Recent Anniversaries

I can't put into words how busy I am at the moment, right at a time when everyone else is slowing down for the summer. I love being this busy, but we're going to be all over the shop the next few weeks, so it'll be smash and grab working up until then. None of this has been helped by the fact I managed to crash my car a couple of weeks ago, writing it off in the process.

I skidded off the road and hit the verge on a wet S-bend near the Monkey Sanctuary in Begelly. Apparently it's an accident blackspot, the guy from the sanctuary came out and gave me a big helping hand, and said it happens all the time there. If I'd have been going fast fair enough, but I'd already slowed right down to go through the first section of the S-bend, and then on the second part the car started to skid, I tried to steer into it, closely missed oncoming traffic and ended up with a big bump, no injuries and one written off Vauxhall Corsa.

I'm gutted because we've had that car for nearly 5 years, and it's been superb. So tomorrow we'll go back to Haverfordwest after a look at the weekend, and pick up one of three potential cars. Fortunately my parents are staying with us this week, and they've been able to ferry us around. In fact, they have to go to Haverfordwest as my aunty and nan are there in a caravan at Broadhaven (images to follow), so we can get dropped off and Elis can go with them to play with his second cousin Ieuan.

Anyway, mental, so mental that there's been a few big anniversaries the last month or so that I've completely missed, and wanted to mark for my own satisfaction. First up, the 11th of July was my wedding anniversary, so me and missus Dio have been hitched for 10 years. I can't recall what that anniversary is (paper, tin, etcetera), but with everything that's gone on, we didn't really have the chance to mark it in any substantial way. Without wanting to say anything too sloppy, they've been a wonderful 10 years, and here's to the next 10 and the ones after that.

The second anniversary is a pretty big one for me personally, at the start of July it was two years since I voluntarily left the BBC to set up my own business. I got to within a week of having to go back to work for them, but luckily I was able to turn it around, and currently, touching wood and hoping the credit crunch passes me by, it's going stronger than ever. There's not a day that goes by that I don't think it was the best thing I've ever done.

On a smaller note, it's now roughly a year since I switched to Mac from being a lifelong Windows fan. The stuff I was hearing about Vista made me take the plunge and try Apple instead of it, despite being a big anti-Apple type. It's not been without its downsides and a few Apple specific niggles, but overall, the move was another positive one that I'm happy I made. Lets hope this stays the case as at some point over the next week, I will be finally upgrading to Leopard. I'm planning a clean install, so I hope I can do that without messing up all my partitions and stuff - if you don't hear from me for a while, you know why...

I think there were a couple of other little things I wanted to mark, one of which is come August, it's been six years since I gave up the fags, and remarkably, in all that time I've not once even considered trying it again. Thank you Allen Carr. There was something else, but it escapes me now. If it comes back, I'll let you know.

Posted by Dio Bach at 22:27 | 1 comments | links to this post

Tuesday, July 01, 2008

200 Nipples On My Chest...

I'm a sucker for a good idea - I just spotted 200 Nipples via the Metafilter projects page. Basically, they're a new homebrew T-shirt company. Their premise is simple, they produce one T-shirt a month, with a design by a local artist. The T-shirt is limited to an edition of 100, and after they're all sold, the screen is destroyed.

I like that, it sort of reminds me of the spirit behined Constellation Records' cover designs and the like, the use of local artists and handmade finish and all that. The design on the first one was appealing also. The T-shirt is priced from $1 for number 1 through to $100 for number 100, so not wanting to get caught out at a later date, I decided to buy one. I got myself #23, and will look forward to its delivery.

The sad thing is, I don't actually know if I want to wear it, just like I know I don't ever want to play the vinyl version of God Speed You Black Emperor's first LP I ordered from Canada. Maybe I should order 2 - one to wear, one to put in the cupboard for future reasons. I don't know if the 200 nipples idea will take off, but hats off to them for trying, and if the quality of the designs continue to be the same, there's a good chance they will.

Posted by Dio Bach at 20:13 | 4 comments | links to this post

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