You may recall that neighbour Nik had acquired an ancient Bolex cine camera.

Cue trumpets and extended sighs.

Well, that was a long break. Did you miss me as much as I missed you? “Not at all” would probably sum it up for both us. But at least I have an excuse, I have been too busy to waste my time on human emotions.

The culprit was a wooden floor, twenty seven square metres of rotting ruined planking which had never recovered from being the unwitting recipient of a burst-pipe induced flood a few years ago. It had to go, and it had to be replaced by tiles, and nobody was interested in taking on the job.

Been a crazy week. More details, you do not want, to follow. Meantime:

Those who care about these things may like to know that Lightroom 5 is now available. The price in the USA for the upgrade is $79, the price in the Adobe South East Asia store is 2,363 baht, which is pretty much the identical price; a pleasant change after some of Adobe’s previous pricing strategies outside of the States.

Anyway, I have handed them my credit card details and the software is currently downloading. Hopefully my existing catalogues will convert without a problem (assuming they need conversion).

One of the attractions of the park is a dawn view where you look over surrounding mountains surrounded by mist. Opinions probably differ whether this is worth getting up at 0445 to experience; my opinion was that it wasn’t; but we did anyway. While the rest of the gang tucked into pork congee soup, I stuck to my vegetarian credentials thanks to yoghurt, muesli and blueberries that I had carefully transported from home; what a star.

Then it was into the back of a truck for the long drive to the top of the park, and a chance to discover just how many bugs are up and about and committing suicide against your face in the pre-dawn light.

The view from the top was not as misty as it should have been and we were left to wander around with a vague feeling of disappointment; lifted slightly by the arrival of a troop of monkeys that swung through the trees with considerable crashing and general exuberance; pausing only briefly to check us out.