Ready to Rock

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Well not quite yet. All the elements of the guitar amplifier are now tested and working, the Leak valve amplifier, the two loudspeakers and the preamp with tone control. The next phase of the project is to make the cabinet and fit all the internal gubbins.

Tone Amplified

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An hour ago, I finished building the preamplifier stage, with tone control, for the guitar amp. The volume, bass and treble control knobs are machined aluminium and the housing is hammer finish die-cast alum. A test is not far off.

Americana

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A watercolour by my friend Barry, which depicts the obsession of young Americans in the fifties with sex, cars and rock n' roll.

Spuds

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My spuds were planted back in early March and they have shot up in the last 10 days. I don't know what variety they are, because the seeders came out of a supermarket bag.

Hi And Lo

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I've just built a nice little tone control for Richard's guitar amplifier, which I hope to be assembling very soon. It gives a bass and treble adjustment of plus or minus 20 dbs, which should be more than enough to get the right sound.

Making Steam

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A 2 metre oil painting, hanging in the engine shed at the German Technology Museum in Berlin.

Shadows Of The Past

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Two friendly gee gees enjoy a bit of Berlin sunshine watched over by their bronze brothers. This day in the capital was the only warm one in the first half of April.

Speed Bahn

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A commuter train whisks in to Berlin's main railway station, the Hauptbahnhof, as another pulls out.

The Trench

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I've just dug a 15m trench diagonally across the back garden, to bring power to the newly plastered workshop. The cable will run in 3/4" heavy duty plastic water pipe at a depth of 2 feet. The dig was made very difficult due to slow penetration of a layer of building rubble just inches below the sod.

Unholy Lineup

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This unusual view of the former Communist East Berlin TV tower and the beautiful St. Marien Kirche is seen as you walk down Karl Liebknecht Strasse towards Unter den Linden.

Indian Melodies

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This group of South American musicians in Berlin's Pariser platz were wired for sound with every conceivable electronic gadget.

Deadly Transport

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A beautifully restored Mercedes Benz hearse is used as daily transport by a Kreutzberg resident in Berlin. There are lots of cobblestoned streets in Berlin and they are all maintained in good order and definitely never tarmacked over, ever.

First Wall

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9 am. and I am nearly half way up the first wall. Mixing and plastering on your own is no joke.

Holy Smoke

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A study of my brother in law, Joe Dillon. The carboniferous exhalation is frozen by the flash.

The Plastering

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The plastering has begun, or is it more accurately called rendering, when sand and cement are used. It's such a long time since I did any of this kind of work, I decided to start on a small section which is a buttress on the original garden wall. I'm looking forward to the rest now, even though it will be back-breaking work.

Suspense

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A twin-engined propeller plane is suspended over a viewing platform which extends high above the street below at the Berlin Technology Museum in Kreutzberg. The famous television tower in former East Berlin can just be made out in the lower right of the shot. Photographing against a bright sky background is not easy and this shot has had a lot of computer manipulation. I always shoot in "raw" format to allow more latitude for tweaking the shot later.

Kaiser Bill's Monkey Is Missing

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The organ grinder in Berlin's Alexanderplatz is content to use a toy monkey for his performance. The more civilized European countries do not allow the exploitation of animals in this manner, which is a good thing, but the use of animals for medical research and for sensitivity testing in the cosmetics industry is still widely practiced.

Berlin

I've just returned from Berlin. I'll post some nice shots in the next few days.

Mission Accomplished

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My grandson Simon dismounts after a spectacular 40 minute chopper flight over Manhattan last year. Grandad had to sit in the back. Everything in New York is great value, with the Greenback at such a low compared with the Euro, at the moment. We both agree that of all the places we have been together, New York New York beats them all. We can't wait to go back.

The Wall Ties

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Whoever built my shed, soon to become my workshop, didn't bother to connect two of the walls together, which has meant that they have separated by about 3 inches over the 40 years or so since construction. To halt this migration and to prevent a catastrophic collapse, I have welded up a couple of heavy-duty angle brackets, rawl-bolted them to the left wall and through-bolted them with exterior plates on the right. The cemented-up gap can be seen in the middle.

The Door

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The door is now hung on my new workshop. I gave it 3 coats of tough acrylic paint to withstand the Atlantic onslaught that we get over here in Ballybunion during the winter. I painted it battleship grey to contrast the new white masonry paint that I will apply during the summer.

Broadcasting from the Bench

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One of the very first broadcast transmitters to use the new "Thermionic Valve" technology, photographed through it's glass cabinet which unfortunately obscures the shot somewhat. It's output power was 1 Kilowatt and it can be viewed in the Frankfurt Communications Museum on the banks of the river Main close to the city centre. Link to Frankfurt museums guide.

Dry at Last

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The roof has gone on to my workshop at last during a weather window (no pun intended) here in Ballybunion.

More of the Ballybunion Parade

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These people do a very important job here on the west coast.

Bahia del Puerto

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The apartment block in Torrevieja, in southern Spain, where I lived for four years after my retirement. The Google Earth satellite photo shows the building in the centre.