Still here

I'm still here, but unable to get printing at the minute, so it's one from the Archives:

Lith print, detail from a house in Bergamo, Italy

Life's busy for San Miguel right now.  Daughter is finally moving into her new pad in Liverpool, as she embarks on the latest stage of her education - a three year doctoral programme in Psychology and Neuroscience. She's collecting certificates at a fearsome rate; determined to out-do her old man, she is - and good for her.  

So the car has been serviced and we are in the process of loading it up with an absolute ton of 'stuff' she wants taken over.  It'll be great to have her settled for the next few years, although her new place is unfurnished, which is good and bad.  Good as she can finally escape the 'student hovel' type of place she's had to endure for the last couple of years in Oxford and Newcastle.  Bad as there is expense involved.  Parental expense. Sure it's only money, I tell myself, and I really don't need any more cameras.  

Stars&Stripes

They like their flags in the historic centre of Geneva, Illinois:

Paper Windmillls (well, probably plastic windmills)
FP4+ on Foma 313 paper

I've a ton of films sitting waiting to be developed from our days out when The Brother was here - but we're all still a tad fatigued, from the visit as well as the virus, so for now they sit in the darkroom, making me feel guilty every time I pass them.  Some day soon, I tell them.

The Little Traveler

US spelling of traveller, 'cuz we're back in the quaint historic district of Geneva, Illinois:

 

Sign outside a store downtown Geneva; not anything like Walmart, obvs.
FP4+ on Foma 313 paper.

The Brother arrived here in The Liberties a couple of weeks ago with his eldest daughter, for a short visit.  It was poor timing, as we've all, one after the other, gone down with Covid.  It started with the twins father, who picked it up at a wedding a few weeks ago.  Then his wife got it, then one of the twins (that required an overnight in hospital for the poor wee thing, but he made a good recovery and is back to normal now).  We stood no chance, as we'd been babysitting just beforehand.  My wife first, then me, now the Brother.  Agh.  Sore throat, congestion, shivering and aching all over for a few days.  Coupled with extreme fatigue.  I've still got what seems like a bad cold and can't seem to get a breath without coughing but am definitely on the mend.  Staying away from mother as the consequences for her could be more serious.  

The originator of the virus (father of the twins) is susceptible to any bug going around.  We think it's largely due to the fact that he works from home (he's in software).  Plus, he doesn't socialise much so when he's in large crowds he invariably picks up something.  He's fit as a fiddle but I think he just has a rather poor immune system.  His current job, which he moved to during the original Covid pandemic, is for a large software company originally formed in Belfast but which now has global operations.  An interesting fact is that he has never actually met anyone 'from the company' in person in the 5 years he has worked for them.  A couple of times he has had to travel to England to deal with projects but he only meets outside contractors and/or clients, not other company personnel.  Ain't that weird?  He likes it like that, and has always said if they ever insist on him 'coming into the office' to work he'd leave and work for another company which would allow him to continue home working.  It's great he has a job that suits him, but as I said earlier, the downside is that his lack of social interaction probably has consequences.  Obviously, we've all given him a suitably hard time for making us ill ;)

Unwanted visitor (updated)

I was using up the last couple of shots in my camera last time I was leaving Newcastle after visiting my daughter.  This scene caught my eye - all those lines and light and shadow. Then just as I pressed the shutter release some big Geordie lad decided to enter stage right.  Typical.  He's wearing black so not too visible, but when you know he's there...

Metro station at Newcastle Airport
FP4+, Foma 313 paper

This week sees Portrush host The Open golf tournament, when the world's best players try to lift the famous Claret Jug and become 'Champion Golfer of the Year'.  Needless to say the place is chaos - more than 250,000 visitors are expected.  It felt like they were all there yesterday when I strayed too close to the town.  I'll not be making that mistake again - I'm staying well away, although I may watch a bit on TV should one of the local lads be in contention on the last day.  Last time it was held here (in 2019) Shane Lowry won - and a very popular winner he was too.  Sure he's almost a local boy - from Clara, in County Offaly (almost dead centre of the Emerald Isle).  Everyone would like to see Rory McIlroy do better than he did last time, when he lost the plot on the very first hole.  Whatever happens, hopefully we'll get good weather without too much of the wet stuff, although it might sort out the men from the boys if it starts bucketing down on the last day (Sunday). 

I wondered if this crop might not work better:

     

Big gun

While staying with The Brother we went for a walk around his local large town - Geneva, IL.  Outside the courthouse stood this big boy, ready to blast any undesirables to Kingdom Come:

Note Brother's hand on the little wheel thing, taking aim at an unsuspecting passerby.
FP4+ on Foma313

Geneva is a very genteel sort of place - at least around the Historic District.  As us two shifty-looking Irishmen walked aimlessly around we were greeted by an elderly gent, who asked if he could help us find what we were looking for.  The Brother answered to the effect that we were just going for an exploratory walk and thanked him.  He looked disappointed - clearly, he wanted to help.  Later on as we neared the car we met him again.  I greeted him but he didn't respond - maybe he was still hurting after our earlier rebuttal.  Or maybe he had come to the conclusion we were up to no good.  Perhaps, in fact, that was his first thought, as we probably looked like we didn't belong.  Oh well, can't win 'em all.

Flying high

Another shot taken during our short comfort break off the I-65 in Indiana.  I was going to title this 'Mine's bigger than yours' as it's not often the golden arches are outdone, but decided on 'Flying high' instead.

We didn't eat at a McDonalds, but we did a late breakfast stop at an IHOP diner in Lafayette as we stopped to charge up the brother's electric SUV.  The menu ran to about 20 pages with every conceivable option but I eventually settled for a mushroom and spinach omelette which arrived in super-quick time.  It was rather good I have to admit, but was smothered in a little too much cheese - unnecessary, and not terribly healthy.

The fast chargers were outside a Walmart (where else?).  It was my first time being in an electric vehicle and I was impressed - very smooth, very quiet and very fast.  Charging was fairly straightforward - check the App for the closest available chargers, navigate to the location and then drive round the car park for 10 minutes until you spot them.  There were four chargers in this particular location and they were pretty popular, though this was Memorial Weekend so a lot of people were on the move.  Although each charger had two outlets strangely only one worked at any one time (we found this out when another guy showed up and selected the other outlet on our pump...which promptly disconnected us.  He was most apologetic).  We went from 30% charge to about 70% in about 15 minutes but then the rate slowed dramatically.  To get from 70% to 90% took almost as long.  That was more than enough for the 2-hour trip home.  I guess a longer trip would take a bit more planning.  But if there's to be a lot more electric vehicles in the future (as seems to be the case) there's going to need to be a heck of a lot more chargers.  

Back home I see a lot more electric vehicles on our roads.  I think we probably have a near perfect environment for them, as for most people here, a 120-mile round trip to Belfast would be probably be the longest drive most people would make on a semi-regular basis - and generally speaking 95% of journeys are likely to be a lot shorter.  So I think most people with electric vehicles here rarely have to worry about charging up away from their own house.  

Somewhere in Indiana

On the way back from Indianapolis to Aurora we pulled in for a stretch of legs.  It was hot and those highways are a tad relentless, so it was a welcome 10 minutes.  When I saw the flag and then the all-American Airstream trailer I had to take a shot:

FP4+ on Foma 313 paper.