Hamarana

You might think I am over-reacting, but I am totally amazed at the behaviour of scavengers. I put a bunch of stuff out on the street in readiness for council cleanup. You know, old broken office chair. A stereo thats elderly but not totally past it, I just dont want it anymore and its not sellable. A couple of perfectly good bedside lamps which might have served someone well. A coffee maker. Two heaters, getting on a bit but still useable, I just don’t need them now. Two water filter units, both still serviceable.

I expected people to come by and pick stuff they wanted. I expected that most of the stuff would be gone by tonight (I put it out this morning around 9am). But that is not what happened. Within an hour of my putting the stuff out, scavengers had been by.

They cut all the electrical cords from the items mentioned above. In the case of the lamps, they didnt take the plugs, they just threw them on the ground. They cut off the metal spouts from the filters, and they took the old metal kettle, and an office chair which was broken, obviously for the metal. They have left everything in a state where if someone comes by now, there is nothing retrievable. What completely selfish bastards.

I’ve been out tonight and tidied up the mess they left, because they scattered it around: as they were finished with each item, they just threw it to the ground. The council may not even pick up my stuff now, its in bits and pieces, not all neatly stacked as it was.

I am bloody furious. And there’s not a damned thing I can do about it. One thing is for certain… I wont be doing council cleanup again, anytime soon.

How long have I been busting to get a dSLR? How long have I waited? How much have I enjoyed the one I have? Short answer: long time, lots.

I’m going to have to sell it. Or put it in mothballs…. the RSI of my right wrist has become too painful.

I am thinking I am going to revert to using the Fuji for a while (since nobody wanted to buy it and now I am thinking thank goodness) and see how my wrist repairs. Last week I was thinking that it was computer use that was causing my problems, but I went all last week, and the weekend on the computer and not taking photographs and I was fine, but went Monday morning for an early shoot and I’ve had to have the wrist brace on ever since then. With the benefit of hindsight, I can see that every Pentax camera session has been followed by days and days of brace and aspirin. Unfortunately, every time it happens, its longer and longer between shoots, and its really getting up my nose. I would rather be able to take photographs with a camera thats not a dslr, than have to wait for days between shoots because of the pain.

With all this typing-thinking… I think I have convinced myself that I have to go back to using a bridge camera which is much much lighter. Not as good as a dSLR, but I have managed to produce some pretty decent stuff, and the bridge cams are getting better all the time (thinks… why the hell did I not wait and get the Panasonic FZ28!!!!).

OK, Pentax K200D with Pentax 18-55mm and Tamron 70-300mm lenses and a snoot bag for the cam + 18-55, UV filters for both lenses and a circular polariser for the 18-55 (brings up the clouds beautifully!) on the market. I’ll also throw in my old camera bag. And a truckload of batteries. And for an extra $60, the rechargeables and charger too, and no, they cannot be acquired separately. Guess I will try the work intranet first and then hit the papers. And no, I will not FeeBay it. Asking $950, negotiable. Novocastrians can write to kyteflyer at gmail dot com and arrange to see/make offers. I won’t post it, the gear is too fragile to trust to Australia Post, so it will have to be sold locally or to someone willing to travel to Newcastle to collect it.

Change of mind, temporarily. I’ll use the Fuji for a while until the wrist recovers, then have a last shot at using it and keep all appendages crossed that its okay. I waited too long for this to give up now.