Laneway escape

I spent most of the afternoon in town buying cards and trying to decide on two final presents. It was a fairly nasty experience. Everyone was rushing around with determined expressions on their faces, the atmosphere was more threatening than festive, and I didn't enjoy a minute of it.

The only relief I got was when I nipped back to the parked car a couple of times to leave bags and packages in it rather than have to carry them around. This unprepossessing laneway is off Leinster Street, and was just about the only place where I found any peace and quiet. I'd finished my shopping expedition by 6.30 and decided to stay in town for a meal rather than face the rush-hour traffic on the way home. That didn't turn out to be such a good idea either, since most places were booked out. I finally got a table in the downstairs overflow room in an Indian restaurant and had an okay meal before coming back home.

To cheer myself up a bit, I decided to experiment with the textured layering techniques described by Bluesheep and Photofiend[/i] and had some fun with Photoshop before retiring to bed for a good read. While good fun, the textured experiment wasn't exactly successful, mainly because the base image I chose is too dark. Here it is anyway. I'll definitely try again, hopefully with better results next time.