Anyhoo (yes "anyway" was already taken).

I do so like getting paid for going on holiday. Yes, I've joined the ranks of proper photographers now. I'm just carefully not admitting to the other party that the shot they selected was one of an afflicted batch*, and so while the fault does not dominate that image unlike others from the same place, it's not all it might have been.

* Ok, I did, but they didn't seem fussed. Weird unperfectionists.

Oh, and I also pulled the Local Hero dollars or pounds thing (nearly) and got away with it. I rock. On a very small scale. More 'I pebble' really, but still mineralising.

So now I have X amount of dollars sitting, faintly uselessly, in my Paypal account. I would have converted it to pounds, but the acceptance screen gave the converted amount as £Y.45, but for some reason the connection to Paypal failed, so I had to restart the acceptance, by which time the final total was £Y.40. Being one who has never been good with the whole sunk-costs thing, I refused to take a worse rate than the one I've just been offered. I mean, if the exchange rate is slipping 5-pence per minute, then... oh bugger, that's the wrong way round. Wooyay for the pound, but I've just realised I'm holding dollars when all is not entirely well in the American markets [carnage indeed?]. Oh well, it's not like it was worth much anyway; certainly not on a par with Dan's £400 for a hotel full of Windsors - and Dan, I still haven't guessed which one (hang on, is that public domain, if so for which version of Dan? The source options are Blogger, Flickr, Facebook, email and personal website. Damn tangled social networks).

Moving swiftly on before I reveal his sort code (it's one of the Manxbanx), other recent events include discovering that inflatable mattresses come with all the comfort of sleeping on a sagging piece of single glazing. Cold, clammy and occasionally squeaky. Oh, and continuing my ever-present promptness theme, I watched the opening ceremony of St Pancras International Station via the magic of the London and Continental Railways's live-feed through BBC London.

Memorable bits were:
- Prince Philip's face on viewing the embracing couple from a vantage point dominated by the arse of the man.
- One of the fancy twiddles of on-screen graphics (of which there were many) declaring "Stratford 2012 - A New Hope". Good evening, Mr Lucas will sue you now.
- Timothy West's ability to tut bookending every word. Oh, and his "Thank God that's over" face as the Queen leaves, followed by the immortal lines "Ok, thank you very much... Are you going to give me a cue?", which was answered with a rapid and slightly terse "Go now". Ever the pro. Had to be to get through his as-Barlow speeches, which curiously make me want to resurrect the word 'tosh'.
- The failure of the trains to appear on time and the overuse of dry ice. Next we'll find Mr West was lip-syncing (rather than just lip-smacking the whole way through).
- Kristin Scott-Thomas fiendishly slipping into French while M&Sing a chocolate then being voice-overed by Ewan McGregor, who recited a work best described as inspired by Auden's Night Mail as David Coulthard looked benignly on. Assorted nameless others appeared, although they probably weren't meant to be nameless.
- The cataclysm that was an opera-voiced rendition of Ticket to Ride being met by Lamar introducing a different Beatles' song into which mire a local school choir and yet another Beatles' song was flung.
- Much breaking up and dithering following the "supper is served" announcement as the people running the feed didn't know what to show, or whether they were still showing anything. They actually managed to find unbluescreened static, while keeping the "20 All-Time Greatest Old-Time Railway Station Sounds, Volume III" CD churning out the sh-shs and the woo-woos, before cutting to an internal shot of the hideous statue to the inevitable strains (and I mean that in both senses) of Jack Johnson's Better Together. Cue cutting the signal before the second chorus.

Anyhoo,

PS. From a link of Sin's, I stumbled upon this vocab game. Addictive, yet to get past 48, possibly because I have occasional bouts of trying to argue with a computer. Oddly biased towards the works of Hardy and Burns too. Also reminds me of this chunk of arcanery (ish).