” Perfection consists not in doing extraordinary things, but in doing ordinary things extraordinarily well.”
Angelique Arnauld
Making Picture-Perfect Memories for life
Myriad memories frozen in time
Angelique Arnauld
It all started a few months back. The one moment I would have internet the next moment nothing. I then restart my router and then for a few minutes I’ll have internet then the next moment it will say insert simcard or no simcard inserted. Then simcard busted…
Since last year I had to do 5 sim swops and everytime it costs money. The first sim swop was in September 2012, the second one in November 2012, the third one in February 2013, the fourth in May 2013 and yesterday I went for number 5.
I won’t be naming my service provider in this post, but believe me if this happens again I will not hesitate to do so.
Last year with the first sim swop I went to directly to my service provider with the problem. I was then told that because I took out the contract at a franchise I must sort it out with them. So from then on I went directly to the franchise. The first time we thought it was just a faulty simcard but after card number 3 it was not funny anymore. Everytime that I need my internet real urgent the simcard won’t work.
Yesterday I was in pain and I was mega frustrated because of the lack of internet. I told the man at the franchise that this is not exceptable and I am not paying for another simcard and I also wanted to know why my statements are still being posted I asked them in November 2012, February 2013 and in May 2013 to please send it via email. His answer to me was he cannot change it to an electronic statement. He also told me that I have to pay for the simswop. I nearly lost my cool but I took a deep breath and then I told him in a very polite voice I will not pay that simcard is only one month old. He then told me that I must take it ip with my service provider he cannot help me.
When I got to my service provider the man who helped me was in total shock when I told him about my dilemma with the simcards and the statements. He asked me where did I take out my contract and that the franchise is suppose to sort out the problem.Then I told him that the franchise who wrote the contract send me to them and that they said they can’t help me, his jaw dropped and he just shook his head and said they are fast to write the contract but aftersales service is non existent.
The friendly assistent then went to the back and when he came out he showed me to a cubicle and asked me a few questions then he did the simswop for free and told me if it happens again I must come straight to him. He also arranged that I get my statements electronically from now on.
For the last few weeks I have had allot of problems with my internet connection and it takes me twice as long to do a post. I am posting this one from my tablet. I do hope my internet problems are solved now. I was totally lost with my lack of internet connection, I could not post any photo’s, I could not read my fellow bloggers blogs and this was very bad. Normally at night I climb into bed with my tablet and read blogposts and like or leave comments.
Ruby is growing up to fast. Her latest is to snoop on the kitchen counters and the stove. You can’t leave anything near the edge of the counters, tables and the stove. She also opens my Tupperware cupboard to get something to chew then takes it to her bed… She also knows when she did something wrong when I call her she runs and hide under our bed.. Just like a child…
She still wakes me at night to go outside and with it being winter here in South Africa it’s cold and wet. I am thinking of getting a litter box for her just for the night. During the day I don’t have a problem taking her outside.
Ruby loves water and when I take her outside she always end up playing in a puddle or two. She loves being outside and when it’s not raining I try to play with her a bit. The best of all is I play fetch with her and then after the second time she disappears into the house and go throw the ball in her basket. Everything goes to her basket. She collects sticks, stones and leaves…
When I open the sliding door between our house and my parent’s Granny Flat Ruby slips out the gate and go visit my parents. The first time she slipped out I got a scare because she just disappeared and my son was riding his bike. My first thought was she slipped out and ran off…. Then I heard my mom talking to her, what a relieve…
Here is some photo’s I took this morning of Ruby using my Canon EOS 7D with my Sigma 70 – 300mm 1:4-5.6 lens and my Manfrotto Monopod. I must say I am impressed with the photo’s. I get better quality action photo’s with this combination than with my Canon EFS 18-200mm 1:3.5-5.6 IS. Now I can see with my own eyes why photographers have more than one lens in their bags… I am building my lens collection but it takes time… Still looking around to see what my next buy would be. Thinking of an 85mm but will first ask a few wedding and portrait photographers before I buy any lenses.
A while back my husband told about this girl/lady who really want’s to be a photographer and if I would be willing to help her make her dream come true. At first I thought how can I teach her anything then I remembered how difficult it was in the beginning. My friend gave me a quick crash course in Aperture and ISO and the rest I had to learn and master by myself. I do not have a degree in photography, but the knowledge and skills I do have and acquired over the past 4 years I am willing to share with her. Photography is my passion and for a long time a dream that I never thought would even come true. Now I am living my dream and enjoying every second of it.
The first day that met Lizette was in early May I explained to her that you do not become a photographer over night. It is hard work and in the beginning the exercises seems silly and don’t really make sense but later when you are doing your first birthday party or even a wedding you will remember these silly shoots. I told her that there are different types of photography and it takes time to master the different techniques. We had our first official lesson on 29 May 2013 since then we have a lesson every Wednesday scheduled from 9:00 till 12:30.
In our first two lessons I’ve covered the basics with her like ISO, Aperture, Depth of field, Shutter speed and exposure. What is very important to me and my goal is to help her to get to know her camera and to master ISO and Aperture combinations. For now we will only focus on AV mode. I don’t believe in just sitting and reading the information I believe in practice and practice so after we worked through the paperwork we went outside to practice…
Last week we went on a field trip and we focused on landscape photo’s and I wanted to see if she would be creative. I will post Lesson 3 in separate post. I took allot of photo’s and will post it then.
Today’s lesson was all about editing… She took photo’s of her niece her little boy over the weekend and I showed her how to do the basic editing of these photo’s. When she told me about the shoot over the weekend I gave her some guidelines and told her to use a tripod. When I worked through the first lot of photo’s I must say I was a bit disappointed she did not apply what she learned in the first two lessons. If she had remembered to increase her ISO she would have gotten some stunning photo’s. I hope she learned from her mistake. Something that really took me by surprise was when she said all the photo’s blur when she uses a tripod.
The next few weeks we will be focusing on portrait photography, composition and how to use a tripod.
Here is two collages of photo’s I took with our first two lessons. Love this getting back to basics. I can’t believe all the stuff I had forgotten good to refresh my brain again.
Ruby and I had a ruff night. Ruby had a upset tummy and I had very little sleep.Every time her tummy went during the night that was at 1:15, 2:51 and 4:07 she woke me up… First I took her outside and after 10 minutes in the cold I came back in and start the clean up process. By 4 o’Clock I was not a happy mommy. It’s like pajama drill with the boys all over again. Luckily her tummy is settled now but for the next two to three days she’ll eat rice and paste. Do not want another night like last night.
I took her outside this morning after she had her rice and some gravy and well last night did not effect her at all it seems. She was running around and playing like nothing happened. I on the other hand are busy falling asleep while typing this blog. Luckily she learned how to jump on the bed so if I fall asleep tonight she can get up by herself. She is still very curious and is also starting to push her boundaries.
She knows she are not allowed to go past the vibecreate wall but the past few days she is pushing her luck. This morning I had to talk in an angry voice and she turned around immediately.
Today’s photo’s I took with my Sigma 70-300mm 1:4-5.6 lens. I need to practice taking action shots with it because I am going on holiday in September and won’t have my extender for my camera yet. Still saving up. But if I get to know my lens better and know when I can push and how far I can push it so much better. I will be taking my tripod with but one always needs to master your handheld techniques also…
What can I say, Ruby is growing up very fast. She have to go to the Vet on Thursday for her injections. This madam really crawled into my heart.
This week she started barking at everything and if there is a strange sound somewhere in the house she’ll come and sit at my feet and start barking. One of these days I will not be able to let her out in front. If she’s going to start running I will not be able to catch her. We want to chip her so that if she get’s lost they could return her to us. Our Boer bull got out when our maid did not close the front gate properly. I still miss Kiara and if I walk past houses with Boerbull’s I would look at their chest, Kiara had a White Diamond shape on her chest….
Back to Ruby…. She loves sticks and stones. Every time we go outside she’ll either bring in a stick or a stone…. It is wonderful to see how her interest change and how she develops. Even though she is still a young pup I have already start to train her to sit when I give her her food. The waiting till I give the demand to eat we will work on when she is a bit older. For now I am satisfied that she sits when she sees me approaching with her bowl of food. Even when I give her and the other dogs their treats she sits. This she learned from them I think. She saw that if they sit they get a treat so she also started to sit. This reaction is what made me decide to start her training a bit earlier.
Now if I can only get her to leave Ogies our cat alone. Ogies does not want to play with Ruby and Ruby just don’t get the message.
I can’t believe another week has gone by…. Ruby is growing up fast now and eats like a maniac. She is also starting to get very naughty chewing on everything except her chew toy that I bought her.
The more time I spend with her the more I realize she is much more work than a baby… It’s cleaning up after her, feeding, playing, cleaning, feeding, playing, brushing and so it goes on and on ….
The past few days it’s been raining allot and now she starts doing what the other two dogs do. They run outside feel the freezing cold wind and wet grass and drive way, make a U turn and run back inside. This results in leaving me puddles and …. in my outside passage. I get very angry with them but at the same time I think if I am a dog I’ll do exactly just that. It’s been freezing cold… Ruby is going to grow up and I need to get it into her head that she needs to do her stuff outdoors even if it is freezing. It’s not that she have to stay outdoors for hours I take her and as soon as she is finish we go back indoors to her warm bed.
Today I also realized that she is aware of different sounds around her. When my mom’s dogs bark it does not really matter to her she goes on sniffing and chasing leaves, but when the dogs down the road barks she stands still ears straight up in the air and listens and watch down the road. In there is nothing she just go on with what she was busy doing.
Here are some photo’s of her taken earlier today…
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