"Werewolves of London" by Warren Zevon

A great laid back song.

"I saw a werewolf with a Chinese menu in his hand
Walking through the streets of Soho in the rain
He was looking for a place called Lee Ho Fook's
Gonna get a big dish of beef chow mein

"If you hear him howling around your kitchen door
Better not let him in
Little old lady got mutilated late last night
Werewolves of London again"

"He's the hairy-handed gent who ran amuck in Kent
Lately he's been overheard in Mayfair
Better stay away from him
He'll rip your lungs out, Jim
I'd like to meet his tailor"


"Aaoooooo!
Werewolves of London!
Aaoooooo"

Hi there Pop Pickers...

For once, here is a timely diary update for your consideration as Autumn is definitely taking hold.

In the South East of England, we seem to have gone from a strangely warm start of the month to very autumnal feeling at the end of October.

I have taken a few days leave, and done a few things.

On 9 October, I ventured to Painshill with my best friend and her sister. It gave me the opportunity to give my recently fixed Canon Powershot SX60HS a workout.
A nice day with good company in nice surroundings - <more photos here>.

The following day, we went to Hampton Court to see Henry VIII's old place. The history is very interesting, and again the camera was given a workout.  <more here>

Over the next few days, we made a birthday cake and then I spent a couple of days cutting my grass and visiting my Mum.

During the following week, day turned to night as the remnants of Storm Brian moved across Surrey.

At about 15:15, the sky turned a little yellow, but by 15:30 it was dusk like and the Sun and sky turned an incredible red, before the sun seemed to go out as it was obscured by thick cloud.

The Met Office declared that sand and dust from the Sahara and smoke from fires in Iberia were the cause.

Either way, it seemed a bit spooky and as Eclipse-like as I have ever witnessed.

I have had a couple of problems with my mid-2002 VW Golf recently.

First, I had a screw work it's deflating magic in one of my rear tyres, but couldn't get the wheel off at the roadside. A friend with more relevant came out and gave it a kick and off she popped. Thanks, Trevor.

Next, during the Wisley trip mentioned earlier, I noticed that the steering was intermittently
skippy, light and drifting.

I took the car to the mechanic and he looked, dismantled and found nothing of importance out of place, so put the bits back together. Oddly, the drive was fine after that.

I took his advice and had the tracking checked out, and it was out of alignment - after adjustment, the car seems fine.

Odd things that have caught my eye are that Battersea Power Station is almost back to it's former glory with four restored chimneys.

Other oddments are the brilliant "Cars 3" inspired cake made for my pal's neice's 4th birthday - Happy 4th Birthday, Molly.

And finally in this department, the fake owl which has been placed as a pigeon deterrent at the office. I am not as convinced about this as I might be, because there are owls in the trees in the grounds at the office so I would have thought that the pigeons would have been deterred already. We shall see.

But absolutely finally, here is a dump from Facebook of an incident which happened to me the other day -  a first for me. You can tell who your friends are ...

And on that bombshell, I wish you good day.

Take care folks... let's be careful out there.

"Changes" by David Bowie

Always loved this tune.

"Ch-ch-ch-ch-changes
Turn and face the strange"

"Time may change me
But I can't trace time"

I can't believe that another month has flown by.

Autumn has kicked in and nights are darker and colder.

Something my Dad used to say comes to mind  the "Autumn tints are lovely".

Here comes the catchup...

On 9 September, my best friend and I ventured to somewhere we had never been before.  Painshill Park is to my mind, really beautiful.

In the mid 1700s, Charles Hamilton developed and landscaped the site after being inspired by a Grand Tour. I marvel that none of it's splendour was there before his intervention.

I think it is a special place - <more about our Painshill visit here>

On Sunday 10 September, we popped up to Wisley Gardens for a couple of hours to take in the Flower Show.
<more about Wisley Flower Show here>

The following weekend we went up to Wisley again, and had a nice few hours <more details here>

A week later, we went back to Painshill again, and walked the historic circuit, but weirdly I forgot to pick up my camera, so the memories were not recorded.

Talking of cameras, my trusty Canon Powershot SX60HS had a short adventure and had a bit of a service this last couple of weeks.

A couple of months ago, after the "Scorched Earth" Glastonbury Festival and the very warm  weekend in the Isle of Wight, I felt a knocking as the zoom lens extended or retracted.

I asked people "in the know" but the prognosis was not good. At some point the dirt or muck in the lens would stop it working, so it would need replacing as it is a sealed unit.

Any how, long story short I sent the camera to the Canon Service Centre and it has just come back and seems absolutely fine once more.

The window in my driver's door stopped working  when we visited Painshill for the last time, so I had to try and weatherproof it before the glass people came to replace the glass. They came and told me that the glass was intact but the winding mechanism had broken, so the car would need a trip to the garage.
That was finally sorted out yesterday but not before I had realised just what that single piece of door glass does - without it, the car was very noisy and drafty, and the noise whenever I shut the car door when the temporary cover was in place was plain annoying.

As I said earlier, Autumn is definitely kicking in, and I took a few photos around the Canon office grounds.

Lastly, my beloved Arsenal have started their visits to Middle Earth in the Europa League. I have a loathing of this bloated competition, but the squad players are doing a fair job thus far.

Their form is the Premier League has improved and they are currently in 5th place, but are two wins behind the leaders.

Congratulations to Arsene Wenger who has now won against 45 different teams in the Premier League - a record for a manager in the top-flight.

Enough for now... until next time
Let's be careful out there.

Pip, pip!