Week Forty-Five: Curry Favours

Do you know what is delicious? Thai Green Curry. Do you know when it is even better? When I don't have to make it. Do you know what makes it better still? When it is not out of a cardboard box. These are the things that keep a person sane. Good food made with love by someone else. Which in my case is always a good thing. I've heard they are thinking of outlawing the phenomenon of me cooking. Because while I beg to differ, I've been informed that nuking things is not cooking.

Day 1 (309): 13th of October
Somehow this being a short week (again) makes things more stressful. For example, finding oneself at work on a day off, attempting to do something useful to get ahead of things, is enough to make one wonder how Life went so wrong. Probably just me - after all, I was that girl as a kid. You know, the one who did all her homework, read lots of non-assigned books for fun, and lived for extra credit. Being the grown-up (sic) who feels compelled to go in on a free Monday for several hours to help people sort out something she knew would confuse them, is just the way these Things end up. Damn them. The Things. Can't I just spend the day on the sofa re-watching Gilmore Girls or The Blacklist? Or get someone else to do Things? Oh, wait. I'm much too stubborn to not do Things myself.

Looking down from the roof where I took the above photo.

Day 2 (310): 14th of October
Another Tuesday pretending to be a Monday. Oh, and Naples didn't get the message that it is OCTOBER. We had nice and cool(ish) all summer. Last year I broke down and turned on the A/C one night when it was just too painfully hot to sleep. This year hasn't come close. But now that we are in what ought to be the cool down (and too soggy) start to fall and winter, the heat has to turn on. Way to be late to the party. First, this happened.

Then, this happened. Whatever might happen next?

Looks like we won't find out. Here is a flower.

Day 3 (311): 15th of October
You know what is nice? Hot tea with milk in the morning. Even better if it comes with Hobnobs (or the generic equivalent, they are really almost as good, flavour-wise). Better still if I don't forget it by the kettle so it steeps for half an hour and then gets cold. Smoky hazy day today. Every word in that ended in "y." Hmmm. Webby yellow flower weed. Those words all had "w" in them.

My focus on this one was all over the place. But the light was neat.

Day 4 (312): 16th of October
Have I mentioned I hate Thursdays? If not, I hate Thursdays. This one had dental evil, earthquake drills, increased force protection measures, multiple meetings, homework, and late night airplane travel. Actually, that last bit was rather nice. Mostly because it took me First Class British Airways the hell out of Naples. Buh Bye.

And hello to my cheap and cheerful (but not dodgy) little hotel "room." Vague resemblances to Depression-era lodger spaces are totally accurate. But it's nice enough and close to where I need to be.

Day 5 (313): 17th of October
Traipsing about London is grand. Busy, as it is rather a large city (in case that comes as a surprise). Talking to artists is usually grand, except when they are snobby, or the not-listeny kind of people. Then it is rather less grand. But Chinatown is fun. Bad place to go when one is hungry and has eaten nothing but a sausage roll all day.

OK. That one was silly. This is better. So is finishing the day with lovely family who are splendidly kind and fun to be around (and feed me beer and curry). Really don't know how my cousin does it. She really is Super Mum. Anyone who can raise three young humans and keep all their myriad lives in order truly is a hero. Why do you think I don't do it?

Day 6 (314): 18th of October
So many walks of shame. But not really, I guess, as there seemed no shame in any of it. I felt bad at making my poor cousin-in-law (is that a thing?) get up at ungodly hours to take me back to the train station after I drank all the family beer, ate all their food, crashed in the guest room, and probably filled the children's' heads with horribly corrupt American cheeky inappropriate something. They are so nice. Wish I could see them more often. But my walk / train / tube of shame yielded a great morning shot over the Thames. Wait, did I just say tube of shame? That sounds rather scandalous...

This one came out a bit nicer (the light worked a bit too hard in the first shot).

And a day spent amongst other shame(less) walkers, many of whom were dressed as any number of things, characters, and allsorts (not the gross licorice sweets), yielded a lovely time. Got to meet and chat with the chap who played Boba Fett, and had another nice chat with the guy who was inside Darth Vader. Oh, and to complete the Star Wars w/end, got my photo with Carrie Fisher, and met her brilliant dog. And then I---Look! Pretty! I want one!

This place was so civilised they even had a full bar with relatively not insanely expensive drinks prices (all relative to the level of need, you see). So the day started with tea and sausage rolls, middled with pints of Carlsberg (only one of which I bought myself), and ended with some insane curry lentil bacon soup thing I wanted to marry and live in forever. Here is a spider. It is the size of my horse thumb and on the biggest web I've ever seen, just outside my hotel room door. So cool.

Day 7 (315): 19th of October
Another day, another round at the NerdFest. Met another fellow who played the Doctor (Colin Baker this time). Such a kind gent. We chatted about all sorts of things. He's another person fascinated with Idaho (only as he's not ever been, but who has, really). So nice to just have a nice chat with a genuinely nice person. Also a treat is the gal who played the sister in Jurassic Park. She's an artist now (check her out here) and does really, really great portraits.

Same thing in Black & White. Leave off. I have homework to do.

What else has this to do with curry? Or with favours? Not sure. Two days involved curry. All days should involve curry. On the fence about favours. Sometimes they are good, and sometimes not. Favourite things are good, though. As are party favours. And being in someone's favour. What do I know. I'm just here. 

Week Forty-Four: Keep it Simple

When things get excessively complicated and seem to be ready to take over, I often find it is easiest to merely force a simplification of matters. Sometimes that means sliding out of the picture and into the shadows, and sometimes it means just going at things one small chunk at a time. Like a wee bird who has a lovely kind mum chopping up his food into easily consumable bites. Though how she holds the knife I'm not sure. The paper due at the close of this week might have been better handled if such a philosophy had been applied. The small chunks of things, not the chopped up bird food. No matter. Things get done by hook or by crook. And photos get taken. I opted to feature one object against one piece of construction paper, and then give each the shadow treatment.

Day 1 (302): 6th of October
Another Manic Monday. Don't really wish it were Sunday. Sunday's just the day before Monday. And lately that means Homework Day. Also Blog Day, but that's hardly a chore. Right. To the photos. Or rather the photo. Can it be plural if I use two versions of the same photo? I do like the yellow on purple combination, but didn't really get the angle I wanted on the light. Probably could have gotten an external light to balance it, but wanted to use natural light this time, and it was evening when I was shooting.

Went rather dark on this, and I really like it. Makes the Pac-Man look all horror film-ish.

Day 2 (303): 7th of October
Another evening light shot, this time a candle on yellow paper. One of these days I'll sort out the lighting of white things. Always goes a bit shiny when I have a lot of light. Probably a simple solution. Must look into it.

Surprisingly, the light colour on light colour went black and white rather nicely. Except for the excess shiny on the candle.

Day 3 (304): 8th of October
Not sure about today. Went home via the dodgier route, and randomly decided to throw in the Black Hawk Down soundtrack (have been in a throwback music mode lately). Was cranking it as I blew around a curve by a bunch of local Somalis, and as I looked back at them I felt a tiny bit odd. Not that they had anything to do with those events; these kids are maybe 25. But I've no idea what the foreign language songs on that CD are saying, so I just hope it wasn't anything obscene. So this is a knife I recently added to the collection. Dragon Cycle!

Kind of an odd black and white here. Probably went too heavy on the vignette. And the TiltShift. Ah well.

Day 4 (305): 9th of October
Whatever will the future bring. Will this thing I have to do happen the way it should? Will I finish my paper in time? It is due Sunday and I've done little more than research for it. Magic Eight Ball says "Most Likely." I'll take that as a yes. Must photoshop out the sticky residue from the label I affixed that reads "Do Not Shake Me." Why do people always shake the Eight Ball?

Really like the way this one went greyscale. Less heavy on the vignette this time.

Day 5 (306): 10th of October
A blessed Day Off. And after last night, all I can say is Thank Goodness for odd holidays based on controversial historical figures. Spending most of this w/end doing homework and writing a paper I've procrastinated too much. Means I don't get to go to Stockholm with my friends. I suck at things. Like getting the wind to not blow at inopportune moments whilst I photograph things. This mask was a gift from by best friend in elementary school. She gave it to me in the fourth grade (or thereabouts). We're no longer really friends, but the mask is lovely and has some nice memories associated with it. Funny how that happens with friends.

Again in the black and white / greyscale. And again with the vignette. Not too heavy with this one.

Day 6 (307): 11th of October
Another day. Another go at the homework. Tried to go in to the office to get it done, but after taking the wrong way / long way (thanks, autopilot) I got out of my car and halfway up to the office before realising I'd left my access badge. Well done, Rodeo. Decided to sit in the car and read for a bit before getting back on the road. Brain Death is a grand thing. So is my Mars necklace on black paper.

Let the barest hint of red come through the black and white and I think it gives it a neat look.

Day 7 (308): 12th of October

The fact that this is listed as day 300 makes me think I've mis-numbered a few times along the way and am now all wrong. Seems between now and 9th December there are fewer than 65 days, but short going back through each day and fixing it, there is little to be done at this juncture. So I give you my regression to grade school and my attempt to safely use scissors and freestyle cut out zeroes. Thought about using the halves of my morning bagel as the zeroes, but my stomach had other ideas. Thus is the small butter smear on the top of the three. You'd probably not have noticed it had I not said anything, but there we are.

Went a bit mad with the vignette level, but the whole photo looks a bit less insane in greyscale.  

And because I am incapable of just leaving well enough alone and letting a thing be a thing, I give you a strangely composed, hastily shot, oddly edited photo of a blossom on the lemon tree.

Bit of a round-ish theme again this week, but done in rather a more useful (photographically speaking) manner. 

Week Forty-Two: Idea Flight

Hard to come up with an intro for this week. So hard I didn't even do it when I first posted this thing. But as I am being overrun at the moment by a cat who talks in his sleep (who knew cats were dreamers?) and who thinks I am his personal bean bag, I figured I'd go back and do it right. Or at least as right as one can with subject matter that so defies categorisation. So consider this week introduced.

Day 1 (288): 22nd of September
Have you ever waited for a thing for a long time, and wanted that thing, and then one day realised that thing had long gone out of reach? You build it up in your mind for what seems like ages, then find that Life did whatever it had always intended to do. What is that about Life happening whilst we make plans? I think it prefers to just ram through those plans, squealing with laughter. Or so I think. My plans usually consist of "if I had my druthers..." and little else. Big scary fence. At night. Kind of slanty.

Scary wavy weed trees. At night. Not too bad an execution on this one. Didn't even use the tripod. Just my thick skull propped against the wall. It's almost October, so I guess the Dark and Stormy thing works.

Day 2 (289): 23rd of September
Today was angry music Tuesday. Just needed to hear a little shouting on the music box, so out came Halestorm radio. While it occasionally hits the odd christian metal song, there's only a rare need to hit the down thumb. Have you ever noticed that the only time things get really clear is when we are dreaming? Makes sense, then, that we can never really clearly remember our dreams; the only thing that is easy to grasp is that maybe things made sense for a minute. Jabba the Hutt makes no sense. Neither does this photo that was poorly captured and more poorly edited. Not terribly clear at all. Too dark.

Day 3 (290): 24th of September
An old friend of mine recently suffered one of the worst tragedies that a person can experience. His 23-year-old son was killed in an accident. As someone who has no kids and likely never will, I was left speechless (rare for this gobby, opinionated, somethingorother). Now it is taking up rather a lot of real estate in my brain. Wish I could do more for them. Really, knowing what to say to people who've been clobbered like that has never been my strength. All I know to do is to be there and hope I keep my foot out of my mouth long enough to be of a tiny bit of help. I only kind of knew the boy, but he was such a good kid, and had just gotten into the groove of following in his old man's naval footsteps. Golly. Any rate, following the theme from yesterday, got a better pic of a conversation no one ever thought happened.

And then got this sunset. Didn't even tweak more than the exposure a little bit. All but the sun itself came out alright.

Day 4 (291): 25th of September
What's the cure for a brain out of whack? I really wish I knew. Knowing the things need done, but finding it nearly impossible to dig in and bloody well do them. Stayed far too late at the office today because I stuck around to get homework done and forgot to put the "CLOSED" sign out on the door (and was dumb enough to answer my phone when it rang). Real highlight though was getting home to find the internet finally functioning. Thank the Wee Man. Realising as I post this that the following picture is a bit serial killer-esque. But no matter. Playing around with an old lens for this one.

Another killer sunset that needed no editing at all. Makes my work easier.

Another rose. What can I say. They are not my favourite flower (not my least, either), but they are everywhere, so I photograph them. If there were lilies out here, they'd be featured far more. Who doesn't love lilies?

Day 5 (292): 26th of September
End to a dragging on week. Brain still feels like someone is jangling keys somewhere just out of sight, which is incessantly distracting. Temporary ADD, I think. brought on by madness in the surrounds and an uncertain future. By the time one is thirty, these things ought not be issues any longer. The ubiquitous "they" say directionlessness is a thing for twentysomethings. Liars.

Day 6 (293): 27th of September
One can be in a strange mood all day (week?) and never know the cause. There are a great many Things Needing Done, but only a rather small number will see the light of completion. Not because there's no time, but rather because there is no inclination. I watched a cat get in an epic battle with a blue Beanie penguin wearing a santa hat (the penguin wore the hat). Then later, to get out of my funk, I threw Under the Table and Dreaming into the car CD player and got so lost in the perfect that I drove nearly three miles past my exit before I realised I was going in completely the wrong direction. Came home to find that it is the 20th anniversary of that very album. In honour of spending far too much time with a fool feline, here he is in classic repose. Gosh I need a dog.

Pretty scenery, though. If you squint, you can just see the islands.

Day 7 (294): 28th of September
Got to do the school. The midterm, any rate. Gave myself a few hours for fannying about this morning, but now it's time for Important Things. To do with this. There is currently a ginger feline form lolling about on it, decidedly not helping. Gosh I need a dog.

Crazy. But that's how it goes...

Week Thirty-Four: Murphy's Back for More

All my life I've had a love-hate relationship with Murphy of Legend. His Law has long been woven into the fabric of my life, much like Monty Python, ISIRTA, and large equine quadrupeds. How it chooses to manifest is always a surprise, and when it works out in the end I am the first to offer thanks. Other times it is just hateful and obstreperous. Yes, I just used the word obstreperous in a photo blog. Deal with it.

Day 1 (232): 28th of July
Such a drag when the day starts earlier than is legal when one has gotten no sleep and has a seemingly unending journey on the itinerary. Not to mention rending one away from the delightful clutches of home and hearth. One would think these things get easier with practice (and I've had some practice, let me tell you). Truth is (apparently) that it never gets easier, and in a way gets more tiresome. In my silly youthiest years, I rebelled against a great deal of things (most of them illogical or not in need of a rebel), and one of those things was homesickness. I was far too cool to be tied to anything (or anyone) and wanted the life of transit and first class lounges. Was quite good at it, if I'm honest. It all seemed so sexy and easy.

Not that I hate travel - far from it. I still love gadding about and seeing all the things, but those fool blood ties and such are not so distasteful any longer. May be able to live any old place, but going home will never be a bad thing. Even traveling the posh way doesn't make the outbound journey more joyous. Just softens the blow a bit.

Day 2 (233): 29th of July
Best part of two days eaten by travel. And lots of free booze (not going to lie, it was nice). But now I've a headache to wake the dead and have to go to work tomorrow. And my power went out whilst I was gone. Thus my fridge and freezer were stinking soggy moldy heaps of vile malodorous death full of meat, veg, and cheese that had gone off beyond what can possibly be natural. Much bleach and profanity later I have a fridge with rather little in it as far as food. So this is all I will be giving you for the day. Munich, everyone.

Day 3 (234): 30th of July
Praise be I only have three days of work. FITREPs due this week, several new taskers accumulated in my absence, and apparently I will be embarking on the Good Ship Whitney (lord knows why) for a week. Just wait till the jet lag hits... Oh, and to add to the tiring litany of whinging, the power blow killed my wireless router. So I have no connection until I get a new one. But the sky is pretty, to there's that.

And there are clouds.

I may have been missed, but really, I think the Return of the Grub is more the cause for attention.

Day 4 (235): 31st of July
Found an old wireless router, but managed to blow it out, even with a transformer. Will just have to suck it up and go purchase a new one. Ugh. Buying things is annoying. So is moaning about every little thing. Isn't it? I agree. Photos are better. Here is a lighter.

And pretty trees.

And this guy again.

Day 5 (236): 1st of August
I'll not lie; the odd mood continueth. Got good news that I'll be teaching another class in September, and this one's in Madrid. Also learned that the reason I'll be embarking is simply because I am an officer and there were not enough of us going. Don't really have an issue with the trip; the commute from bed to work is about three minutes, someone else cooks all my meals, and we'll be getting some port time in France. I only rankle at the logic train. Really should know better after a decade of doing this. Logic has no place in the military. Which is why I put my TIE Interceptor in a tree.

Merry was rather bored by the notion.

But the Empire flies on.

Day 6 (237): 2nd of August
Despite the delayed-onset jet lag, have gottten crap sleep all week. But slept until v late in the morning, and then proceeded to do little more than my PT and read. And drink tea, because one just does. My alarm went all screwy again, so I await the gracious landlord's assistance. But now I have a new wifi thing, so am no longer disconnected (to the internet... life is another kettle of onions). And I may have to go in to work at midnight for about six hours. Waiting for that sort of call is really lame. Not lame is the 12ft Tom Baker scarf knitted for me by my darling Grannie. Now my TB hat has a mate.

Day 7 (238): 3rd of August
Praise the sweetness the call came to take me off the proverbial hook (not sure I know that proverb). Good news, as I've still not gotten back to a sane sleep schedule. Getting older is lame. So is having a poor vocabulary. Getting older is rubbish. That's a bit better. What is not rubbish is the display of amazing that is dance on my only reality show (SYTYCD). At least once an episode I can be brought to a complete halt by a routine. Usually those choreographed by one Travis Wall or one Sonya Tayeh. Honestly - their work can stop me mid sentence (not easy to do) or even mid chew (even harder). Check it out some time. In the meanwhilst, here is the random moment of zen for the day.

Murphy never rains, but he pours, no? But I suppose it keeps life a bit more interesting.