Ben & Lucy’s

Saturday, March 16: Sunny and somewhat windy until the clouds appeared in late afternoon

This was a day for a latish start after all of the action yesterday, but I did want to drive down the Otago Peninsula & see if I could do some walks, but first there were a couple of computer matters to deal with.

Developing the pictures from Milford Day 1 virtually filled up the hard drive, so a solution had to be found to avoid gridlock. Looked around a bit and saw that Dick Smith had a 2 TB hard drive for $149 and that will have to do as a backup device for the moment. Tried for ages to get the other 32 GB card to become bootable for the SX 120, but if it were bootable at all it couldn’t find the necessary modules to load for grids, etc.

Decided I had to get out and enjoy the day before rain sets in tomorrow and drove down Hanover St in search of a petrol station to wash the windscreen at. Found one and now with clear vision made aim for the peninsula, and arrived after a short drive at Portobello where I had a pie and an apple in the park next to Coronation Hall (1912) for lunch. Had passed by the castle, but the entrance fee seemed rather steep, and I wanted to see what was on offer in terms of albatrosses and penguins. They, too, were not cheap, but the scenery was, and it was very pleasant. Faced with the choice of a gravel road to a free hideaway at which to enjoy the penguins, and a chance to go to South Dunedin to see what was on at the beaches, I chose the latter and was soon back in town and along Prince Albert St (plenty of small shops & takeaways) to St Kilda & then St Claire. Took a couple of tours of the block to find a parking space, and then took a walk along the promenade to the hot saltwater baths (which were mentioned in the first diary) & watched the surfers in the meantime. This was as close to that summer’s day in 1974 at St Kilda as it gets, lifesavers included.

Then it was back home to buy the hard disk and start the data transfer to it. Managed to get one card booting with the latest version of CHDK, and finding everything. There was a mail from Jenny about Monday (now at 1:00), then I had the hard choice of finding something for dinner (a Bob’s burger from Angus Burger on George St; with chips for $11; quite a meal) and brought it back to the flat. Exchanged a couple of words with Lucy and then had to buy some milk. Back here made one false start with the Picture Processor, then set it going, had a shower and am now winding down.