Egypt - september 2009

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A dreamjob

I am again so sick with work i seriosly have to come up with something else. I think these photos of animals are so cute and there is no such business here in the surroundings.... i should study photography a bit better and use Tessa as a model to train... Take a look at this blog of Sharon Montrose photographs . It is adorable!!

In other news, i was a bad girl again today. At work, everything was deserted as usual. We had this meeting i was supposed to attend to at 5 pm, but i dreaded to go, again. So i cam up with an excuse that i had to go to another meeting before and the times would overlapse and i would be unable to attend the meeting at 5... Instead i badged out at 14h45 and went straight home. i felt so sick, it was an awful day. Cold, raining cats and dogs and i felt like throwing up the whole time. So i figured,... whatever i just go, if someone finds out i make up a different excuse.... Now if have practically the same thing on firday, i guess i can't escape that one :(( I SERIOUSLY need to quit, tis is driving me insane!!

I wish i could spend my days taking pics of cute animals instead of having to do with evil all day long.

the story of my first sunrise

Going outsite at around 4h20 in the morning, it looked lie this - you could still see the moon

Then i waited for 10-15 minutes and the magic started:

Taken at Soma Bay, Red Sea, Egypt, August 2009

The Gimp

I have finally discovered a program that lets you postprogress your photos and give them this " old picture touch". The tool is called GIMP and you can download it for free on the net

I opened the original picture of my dwarf rabbits Miffy and Freddy and used the tool "Filter - decor - old picture".

I love the effect!!

Flickr Inspiration

This week’s flickr faves just feel full of homey goodness to me. little touches of simple things that make me happy like bikes, and dogs and great design – lots of cheery colors, too. as always, to see any of these pretty images up close and personal check out flickr.

Polaroid your pictures

So, since i am too stressed and confused to work i decided to be totally unproductive this afternoon and after checking my mails i found this fun and totally awesome tool that allows you to convert your digital pictures into Polaroids. Check out the Poladroid tool here!

This is me in Lisbon (Portugal) last January.

That was a crazy day too, but in a good way (not like today).

I had to go there for a meeting and only had to spend one night. Here at home we left at 7 in the morning with a private plane (3 crew members for 2 persons, a huge breakfast with fresh juice, fruit salad and tons of pasteries and newspapers to read). The temperature outside was below 0 and it was snowing and freezing.

Two hours later we stepped out at Lisbon airport, clear blue skies, 16 degrees. It felt so good to leave that coat in the car and walk around in just a shirt in the sunshine, to just escape for a few hours into the summer...

I only had 2 hours inbetween 2 meetings to explore the city and i did my best. So i asked a taxi-driver to drop me at the top of the city. There were amazing views of the blue sea and the whole city. Then i made my way down to the city center, to the sea front, walked to the Monument of Columbus (i think?? or some other continent explorers...) and went back to a really boooooooooooooring meeting.

But those 2 hours just felt so good. It made me realize again how much i hate to live where i live and to spend at least 6 months every year in gloomy weather, rain, fog, snow, ice, winds .... !!! Someday i am going to move south, seriously :-)

The saddest part was to get back home and to remove the snow and ice from my car and to wear that heavy coat again.

Back to posting

It has been a while since my last post. At that moment i was all excited about my upcoming roadtrip to Canada and the US and most of all to see one of the best rock bands ever in Toronto - Pearl Jam on August 21th at the Molson Amphitheater. I heard it was an amazing gig - but i didn't attend.

Two days before i was supposed to leave for Toronto i was sitting in my office sipping on a cup of coffee when i got a phone call. I was told that my dad has passed away during the night. I was in utter shock and immediately broke down and started sobbing like a baby. Thank god some colleagues where present to cofort me a bit. 

This was totally unexpected. He was only 63 years old. Ok, he never was the fittest person, he didn't practice any sports and was more of a carpe diem kind of person who loved a good meal and a good bottle of wine. But still no one would have thought he was sick. But on that sunday it was quite hot, this heavy and humid hotness that makes breathing harder. Apparently he felt sick for the whole day, threw up a lot and only at 11 pm he called an ambulance. An hour later he was dead.

That day was an utter chaos. I drove up north to my mum's house, drove back to the city to get the official papers and the death certficate from the hospital and to declare hs death at the townregister. It was an ordeal. It was so hot, i passed from anger to crying and back to anger.

Of course i had to cancel my trip because the funeral was only set for Thursday but i would have had to leave on Wednesday. And anyway i am not sure I could have enjoyed this holiday. Still i absolutely wanted to sing along to Perl Jam's "Alive" and think of the fact that i am still here.

After the funeral i fell into a severe  depression. I just stayed at home, sleeping, waking up, staring at the walls, sleeping again, yelling at my boyfriend. Then suddenly i had mood swings and became a total maniac. One night i hadn't slept at all and all night long i was thinking that i would love to buy myself a little consolation gift ( i know you can't replace a person with material things). So i lay awake next to my sound asleep boyfriend and just waited for him to go to work. Then i snuck out and went to a shopping mall because i wanted to buy a MacBookPro. I was at the mall at 9 but the electronics shop only opened at 10. so what did i do? i spent the hour trying on a million clothes and bought myself a skirt (at the end of summer and i am not at all a skirt person) and a couple of t-shirts and a purse/wallet by the brand Desigual. They are a spanish brand that i discovered recently in Madrid. They do very original and colorful stuff, a little bit in the style of Custo Barcelona.

Here is a picture of  my new favourie skirt, it just has more blue and turquoise tones:

One of the T-shirts had some dirty words about religion printed on it.. I just had to buy it. In my country it is a tradition that after the funeral a mass is being held. I was raised catholic a little bit but since i was 11 i told my parents i had become an atheist. So for me it was quite hard to be in this church, sitting trough a mass of 1 hour when all you want to do is cry and listen to some nice music and talk to friends. I really didn't agree with lots of the words of the priest and from time to time i was even close to laughing - can you imagine?

The priest kept on to this ridiculous metaphor, that the world is only like a camping or a tent and that now my dad has a real home. Come on, he owned 2 houses, he never lived in a tent, well whatever, i was happy when it was over. I don't want to hurt believers, i am just not one of them and on that particularly hurtful day i was quite bothered to having to listen to this.

Oh and did i tell you that the day of the funeral was the hottest day of the year. I had my purse filled with water bottles, everything felt so heavy and i almost fainted at one point but tried to put on a brave face.  In the evening a heavy thunderstorm passed over our village. I thought it was quite fitting the general mood...

Then i got back home and to my apathic state of mind...

I notice i drifted away from the original topic. 

Well during my shopping frenzy i got my MacBook, put it in the car and went back to the mall and then i literally bought all the other shops.  I haven't spent so much in months. In 2 shops togehter i must have bought 3 coats, 10 t-shirts, blouses for work, accessories i don't need, but at least i was occupied. I was carrying aroud so much stiff my hand had aleady incisions and marks from one of the well filled shopping bags. I carried piles and piles into the fitting rooms and bought stuff i will probably never wear.

But this was still not over. aft

er that i headed to the Garden center, bought tons of colorful flowers to make a butterfly garden, went home and planted like crazy. By that time it was alread 6 in the evening after a night without sleep and hardcore shopping. i was just like a Duracell rabbit and couln't stop doing things. 

The next days where the total opposite again, i was depressed, slept a lot, pitied myself and was full of fear to go back to work. This went on for days. Then my boyfriend convinced me to book a last minute trip to get me out of this place that is stuffed with memories and that my dad built with his 2 hands. 2 days later we were on a plane to Egypt to do some relaxing and diving/snorkelig in the lovely red sea. I have now found a new love - Underwater love... These fish where so georgeous, i really must get serious with passing this diving licence.

And one of the advantages of the insomnia was that i got to observe for the very first time in my life a sunrise. I am not kidding. I am 31 but have never seen a proper sunrise. This one was amazing. A pink ball rising over the sea and the jetty. The moon was still present on the other side. This moment felt great. i was all by myself, just equipped with a camera and enjoyed the calm and peacefulness of tis morning. I felt happy for the first time since D-Day.

I spent that last day just soaking up the last rays of sun because at home it has already become quite fresh in the temperature department. I am the biggest winter hater you might meet. I hate it so much, the cold physically hurts me. Apparently it has something to do with my thyroid. So on cold days i simply refuse to leave the house because i would become totally crammed and anxious, curb my back to avoid the shivering. To make things short i was not happy to return to a rather crisp climate. Nights are really cold already and my wearing-open-shoe days will also be over soon.

But oddly i am now quite happy to be back at work, the thing i dreaded most of them all. It helps to talk to people and to be busy. I am now trying to do my best at work and today for instance i stayed in my office until 9 pm until i was done with everything. I felt tired and exhausted, but proud.

Yesterday i got the chance to meet and speak with my new boss, to get to know him a bit and he seems like a very nice person. Still i am a little afraid. Anyway, I am afraid of everything and everyone.

But the very best news is that my former boss wants to meet me on monday in his office because he heard i was still interested in culture. I am so impatient to know what he has in mind for me, maybe nothing and my hopes will be crushed, again. But he hasn't called for no reason so there must be something up. I can't wait!!!

Good night everyone....

I will later post a more detailled piece about my trip and will aslo share some photos.

Today i got my new Diana F + Camera

Flipping trough my favourite blogs made me want to get back to the old school kind of photography. I am kind of a big fan of everything retro or vintage related and i think that the kind of pictures that you can get with a Diana F are of a totally different kind then the ones you snap with the newest most hichtech and overpixelled digital camera. I like the dreamy shades and tones and the stories you can tell this way.

So here are 2 photos of what i received today, the camera with a removable flash and to my surprise a very intersting book containing lots of picture galleries taken with this camera, vignettes, short stories etc. There are also links to internet sites where you can submit your pics, for contestants, for example, or just to share....

I couldn't wait to shoot away. Unfortunately there was only a black and white film left, but i hope to take my new friend to my upcoming trip to Canada and North-East USA...