Diary: February 24

Continued 3/3.

5th

Accompanied Charlie to Borders General Hospital this evening, he was suffering from chest pains, doctor sent him with a letter requesting the Emergency Department complete an electrocardiogram test. I watched the read-out for three hours, blood pressure 118/78 and heart bpm was between 50-60, normal for somebody on beta blockers.

They performed blood test, COVID-19 test then an x-ray. Doctor returned with results that confirmed my suspicions, that he was OK; we left the hospital after 10pm, visited the farmhouse to collect Sam the sheep dog, then arrived at my flat at 11:30pm! Remaining hours of the night were disturbed with agonising toothache and raging volcano style acid reflux.

3rd

Journeyed to Galashiels to pick up my HAC clock from a fairly local horologist; there was a broken cog, and the mechanism required a new spring. Hopefully I'll have a German 14-day strike clock, that will last another fifty years. I kept away from the town centre, as I predicted, my mind was plagued by auditory hallucinations; Gala has become a dark place that unhinges me whenever I am there.

This morning I took some spherical pictures of the farmhouse; I've also been using my new bridge camera, clicking through settings attempting to find a sports function, I'm finding the camera and the instructions somewhat confusing.

Auto ISO incorrect in this photograph, white over exposed. Pictured: Donna the cade ewe lamb.
Auto ISO is correct in this photograph. Pictured: Donna the cade ewe lamb.
Picked from one of three photographs. My aging Herdwick Ewe, she has a quiet and calm temperament. I own four sheep!

Charlie doubts if my Herdwick is in lamb, I'm hoping she gives us a couple of lambs because she is quite old; most of the flock she came from had no or few teeth; she has her teeth, so we got lucky, I hope. She has a home with us until she dies, Charile promised.

2nd

Pulled up outside the doctors, took a spherical photograph, fish eye lens distorting to exaggerate me being overweight. My BMI is obese, thankfully not morbidly obese.

Ceasing walking after hiking 20+ miles every day, for years, offset my metabolism, I eat hardly anything yet cannot lose weight. Ailing mental health exacerbated the problem, ken.

1st

My Samsung Gear 360 camera arrived today, a white globe unit containing two 16 megapixel lenses, purchased online from CEX for a mere £20. Other spherical camera's sell for £100+. Unfortunately there is no functional app for iPhone; the existing app only supports Wi-Fi of the 2017 model, my camera, an older 2016 version [C200] utilises Bluetooth.

I do like a drop of wine, although usually not from a whiskey glass, I only drink French White.

It is the same model camera I used to take spherical photographs when I was in India and Sri Lanka during early 2017, only then I linked to the camera with a Samsung Note 5, uses Android 7 or 8, and not an iPhone 14! I still have yet to purchase a suitable monopod, and micro sdcard; there tools on Github I can use to convert dual fish eye into equirectangular.

Samsung ceased supporting Gear 2016 and 2017 model 360 cameras in 2021; I surmise VR technology never really took off. My first attempt at astro photography failed dismally. I read a few website pages, then changed the settings on my new DSLR camera, the photos captured nothing but a black empty void, with additional background noise.