Weather is still lovely, blue skies and sunny. I was at the hospital this morning, and decided this afternoon to do something about my camera. I thought it just needed a new battery, that was all it needed this morning, but I couldn't get one in Shawnee, so I decided to be brave and risk driving to Mid West City, about 30 miles away along the interstate, where I'd established a battery shop had one.
The car actually is okay, it drives along fine, the problem is the fact that it is long overdue for a new timer belt - whatever that is - and if that goes while I am out driving then I will have a much bigger problem, hence the anxiety and the caution. The timer belt is actually quite an insignificant part, the $600 it costs to put in a new one is all down to the labour charge of having to take the engine apart to fit it.
So I puttered along at just under 40 miles an hour and it seemed to take forever to get there, and when I did I was surprised to find a HUGE shopping area with some nice shops and department stores. At another time it would have been nice to have browsed around there.
Anyway, I got the battery, the guy in the shop put it in for me and to my extreme dismay, I found I couldn't see anything at all through the viewfinder. It is just totally black. The assistant seemed as perplexed as I was; it wasn't a camera shop, they just sold batteries and light bulbs. But I took the new battery - the existing one had been in the camera for years - so I obviously needed it but now I have a worse problem to deal with, because I don't know who to go to now ..... as I have no idea why it is malfunctioning.
Shawnee is a sizeable town, I just don't know why they haven't got a proper camera shop. Hailsham - which is nothing like the size of Shawnee had/has, one.
The manager in the battery shop volunteered the information that they have a branch in Norman, and opposite the branch there is a camera shop. IF ONLY I had known that in the first place. But I think I will have to go, a camera repair shop is the only answer. They gave me their card with the address on it.
Driving back, I am carefully following the GPS instructions, but there are a lot of road works going on, and I think that was the problem. I found myself at a road with a sentry in a box, obviously wanting to know where I was going. I gaze around and realise I am on the biggest military base in the world, people who live here will know where I was. Military man at the box wants my driving licence, and I can't find it. While I am rummaging around in confusion and panic he spots my passport, and asks for that. Honestly, I take a wrong turning, and I need a passport!! But I don't argue, obviously. I go all confused and humble. So clutching the passport in one hand, he tells me he wants me to do a U turn, indicates where I am to go and says he will see me round the other side of the box, where he hands me back my passport. Phew! From there I was on to the interstate and it was downhill all the way. I needed a little rest this afternoon to recover.
Actually, I had made some moist fruit cakes for the Kiwani bake sale yesterday and I was out early taking those to the Senior Centre. They're very popular, they didn't even stay on display on the table, and I thought I'd pass on the recipe - grand daughters, my own or others, might like to try them.
You will need - (and just multiply if you are making a few like I did).... A large saucepan.
12oz dried fruit. 4oz butter. 4oz sugar (brown or caster) 13oz tin crushed pineapple. Simmer a few minutes, then cool.
Stir in 8oz flour. tspn (or so) of spice. 1 tspn baking soda. 2 eggs. And cook in a low oven, like 350, for however long you think it takes, depending on the size of the tins. I actually use little disposable aluminum loaf tins.
I've had this recipe a long time. Years and years. A colleague in the radiology department at the Nuffield, Woodingdean made it, and it was so popular everyone had a copy of it.
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