She Stoops To Conquer

Jackie lunched with her sisters yesterday. As is not that unusual this resulted in a printing project for me. She brought back three more photos of her parents.

Mum R and friend Sheila 1937 back tapeThe first was of her mother and her friend Sheila, the pairing who had featured in ‘A Statuesque Beauty’. My task today was far more difficult than the scanning and printing of the earlier photograph. Indeed, it was the most daunting challenge of this nature that I have, naturally most willingly, taken up. This time I was presented with a print of 8 x 5 centimetres, including the margin, in size. It was badly torn, ink stained, and taped up on the reverse. The tearing had effectively created holes in the print. Correction of all this requires careful application of the retouching tool.

As I understand it, the essence of retouching is that you are transferring pigmented pixels from neighbouring areas in order to mask blemishes. The missing sections are effectively blank paper, and beyond my skills to cover completely. This is what the original looks like:Mum R and friend Sheila 1937 original

And here is the result of my effort:Mum R and friend Sheila 1937

These two sixteen year olds were dressed in their outfits for their school presentation of Oliver Goldsmith’s comedy, ‘She Stoops to Conquer’.Don Rivett c1959 002Don Rivett c1959 001

Compared with this, scanning and printing a couple of photographs of Don Rivett c1959 was a piece of cake. From the little wallet in which these have been contained, they are the work of Penge Studios of 82 High Street, London S.E.20. That building is now occupied by a cycle shop.

Jackie’s father wears his uniform of the Kent branch of the Civil Defence Corps. Wikipedia has this to say about the organisation: ‘The Civil Defence Corps (CDC) was a civilian volunteer organisation established in Great Britain in 1949 to mobilise and take local control of the affected area in the aftermath of a major national emergency, principally envisaged as being a Cold War nuclear attack. By March 1956, the Civil Defence Corps had 330,000 personnel.[1] It was stood down in Great Britain in 1968, although two Civil Defence Corps still operate within the British Isles, namely the Isle of Man Civil Defence Corps and Civil Defence Ireland (Republic of Ireland).’

My favoured paper for making these particular 5″ x 7″ prints is Ilford Gallerie pearl. I only had one sheet left, so this afternoon Jackie drove us to Wessex Photographic in Ringwood, which is the nearest outlet where I have found it. They didn’t have any, so I bought some Canon Photo Paper Plus Glossy II, which is all they had in the size I wanted. As this is also the only place where I can be certain of finding my Series 8 inks, although I didn’t think I needed any, I bought a few spares. Almost as soon as I had begun printing, two of the inks were exhausted. One that I had just acquired was Cyan, and I hadn’t already got a spare. The Canon Pro 9000 printer uses 8 different inks, and, even if you are printing in black and white and have an active black ink, it will not work if there is just one colour missing. So it was a bit of luck to have bought the right one.Mr Pink's Fish & Chips

This evening Jackie drove us both down to Mr Pink’s Fish & Chips shop in Milford on Sea, to buy our takeaway dinner.Fish and chips and pickle fork

We enjoyed cod and chips, pickled onions, and gherkins. So free of grease is this superbly crisp food, that ‘The Great British Take Away’ paper bags in which it is presented are perfectly fit for recycling. Not least is the requirement for pickled onions to be kept crisp. The one on the plate was bought at Mr Pink’s. Those in the jar are Garner’s. In order to retrieve them from their container, we now use the “Auto” silver plated retro pickle fork complete with its original box that Elizabeth bought me for Christmas. If I don’t mention that I was very confused about how to use this very simple implement the first time I tried, I am sure that one of my dear family readers will make the obvious comment.

A First Class Service

MothFirst thing this morning I photographed a moth conveniently spread out on the kitchen work surface.  When I showed the picture to Jackie she said ‘you know it’s dead, don’t you?’  She had picked it up from the floor and laid it to rest so that I would be able to photograph it.  Possibly she has me sussed.

For at least a week now the car has been throwing a spanner in the dashboard.  At intervals it has elaborated on this warning sign with the message Change Oil Service Required.  The vehicle was booked in today.  Despite really struggling with Shingles Jackie was determined to take it in.  So off we went to Ringwood.  Wells garage is just outside the town. Whenever we go there we wander to the shops and await a call from Tony to say the car is ready. Bistro Aroma Today, before shopping, we had brunch in the Aroma Bistro where the excellent food and friendly service is as good as it was when discovered in December last year.

Shopping included more photographic material from Wessex Photographic, among which were the Red and the Green Canon Series 8 inks.  So accustomed am I to no-one, especially Jessops, where I bought the printer, ever having these in stock, that I told the assistant I expected to have to order them.  She went straight to them and pulled them off the rack.  Most of the other six different inks required to make the printer work can be obtained somewhere or other, with the notable exception of the original supplier.  They are exhausted very quickly.  The red and green varieties can last a year, which is maybe why they are not usually on the shelves.

Walk of Art graffiti (3)It really took quite a long time for us to walk back to Wells garage.  The way is along very pleasant lanes and footpaths, except for the underpass that takes us to the requisite side of the A31.  Some civic authority decided to brighten up this route with art works.  Quite reasonable representations of well known paintings adorn the well-lit tunnel.  Walk of Art graffitiGiven that these are usually pretty dispiriting thoroughfares I thought this an excellent idea. Walk of Art graffiti (2) One would have hoped it could have deterred the graffiti wits.  Unfortunately not.  It even seems to have encouraged them. A Walk of Art The tunnel is named ‘A Walk Of Art’.  There is someone after my own ‘eart in an influential position in the town.

We had not received the usual phone call, but Jackie really needed to sit down, so we decided to return and wait at Wells’s, taking several rests en route.  Tony warned us that we would still have to wait for an hour and a half.  We settled down to wait, during which time we got talking to Hazel, the Managing Director of this long-established family firm.  I had been amused by her telling the others that she had been correct about an unnecessary bank query.  NatWest had corrected her addition of cheques paid in by machine.  She knew she was right and was able to prove it.  The amount in question was 20p.  Well, it was the principle that mattered.

Service at Wessex Photographic had been startling.  Service at the Bistro had been friendly and welcoming.  The car had been booked in for a short service, but what follows was extensive service.  As we spoke with Hazel, Tony appeared clutching a piece of broken front suspension spring.  Things were going to take a bit longer.  Not even knowing of Jackie’s illness, Hazel arranged for Peter to drive us home in one of the firm’s cars.  This friendly local man did so willingly. Having known the deceased owner for more than fifty years, Peter has a three morning a week job in retirement, doing any driving around that needs to be done.

Frozen brambles - Version 2

Back home, it was down to work in the ‘factory’. Frozen brambles - Version 3 After a lie-down Jackie was raring to go and getting me to produce cropped versions of pictures we had already used in toto. The frozen brambles is one example.  The benefit for her is that she doesn’t have to chop them up, just breathe down my neck whilst I play on the screen.

Today’s tally was 29 cards, bringing the total to 182.  After this Jackie was still able to produce our evening meal of keema, certainly not korma, curry; tandoori chicken and special fried rice.  My drink was Roc des Cevaliers Bordeaux superieur 2011; hers was Hoegaarden.