Christmas 2013

Just a few pics from the last few days...

Der Struwwelpeter

"Der Struwwelpeter" is a German children's book written in 1845 by Heinrich Hoffman. Not just any old children's book though. This one goes against the convention that children's books should be fun, fluffy and friendly. The book consists of ten rhyming stories... this being the second (translated, as best I can, from German to English):

A story from the evil Friederich

The Friederich, the Friederich,

That was an arrant tyrant!

He started the fly in the house

and tore them the wings off.

He hit the chair and bird died,

the cat suffered great distress.

And hear only how evil he was:

He whipped, oh, be Gretchen even!

At fountain stand a large dog,

drank water there with his mouth.

There with the whip crept near

the bitter Friederich;

and hit the dog, the howling very,

and kicked and hit him more and more.

Then bit the dog him in the leg,

right deep into the blood.

The bitter Friederich,

the screams and wept bitterly.

However back home ran the dog

and wore the whip in the mouth.

In bed must Friedrich now into,

suffered many pain on his leg;

and the Mr Doctor sits there

and gives him bitter medicine.

The dog at Friedrich's table sat;

where he the large kitchen ate;

ate also the good liver sausage

and drank the wine for his thirst.

The whip has he brought

and takes it very carefully.

Not exactly what you expect from a children's book.

Not Falling into the Rut Routine

I haven't produced much blogging action for quite a few weeks so here's a little note to make up for my absence.

What have I been up to? Not a lot of excitement, that's what. Work has taken over my day time life and has caused me to be too tired to enjoy any sort of night time life. Despite this, I'm content with the situation. I'm as ever determined to not allow myself to slip into a 9-5 "rut routine", as I like to call it. I think the best way to do this is to maintain hobbies outside of work and constantly make plans for the future - and then, most importantly, live the plans. So that's what I've been doing.

Hopefully I'll do some WWOOFing next summer, i.e. working unpaid (in monetary value) on an organic farm in exchange for a roof over my head and food on my plate. I'll probably go do this in Germany to cure my itchy feet and to also give me an opportunity to improve my German. Despite the move being a big step into the unknown and no doubt worrying my family back home into a pit, I am determined to do it. What an experience that would be! The agriculture industry is arguably the most important factor in maintaining human existence and I can't wait to learn and get to grips with a basic necessity I have so far relied on other people to produce for me.

After some hard grafting I may go meet some mates in Prague for a beer or six.

Now to make sure I live them plans.

An Afternoon at Eastbourne Harbour

I spent yesterday wondering around Eastbourne's Sovereign Harbour snapping pictures of marine life.

Photo Challenge #1 "Complimentary Colours"

I found this awesome website the other day. A new photo challenge every Tuesday. Click on the link for more information.

Photo Challenge

This week's challenge involved taking a picture where the two primary colours contrasted with one another. Here is my entry...

Off to work!

Starting a new job tomorrow, time to bring out the ties.

It's supposed to be a fajita...

I'm far from the world's best photographer and even further away from being the world's best chef, but tonight I mixed the two...

Shooting Fruit

So by some random internet miracle (or just some weird cyber internet hacking system) I have clocked up 37 page views on this blog despite just one post.

16 from the USA and 2 from Serbia, the rest are British.

How are you people finding me?!

Anyway, I picked up my camera and started shooting shiny fruit - because, you know, shiny fruit is always worth a photo.

Despite owning the DSLR camera for about a month now, I am only just starting to fully understand how to set the correct exposure. Taken indoors on manual mode the ISO was 2500. I don't own a tripod so a quick shutter speed was needed (1/80s) and I used a large aperture (f5.3) to let in the maximum light.

I heard that setting a high ISO should be avoidable due to the disadvantage that a higher ISO=more noise but I feel this photo looks sharp enough for my liking. I suppose if I wanted to zoom in on the image in post-production we might begin to see some of that noise.

In other news I handed back Splinter Cell Blacklist to Blockbuster after a week's rental. Brilliant game that is probably worthy of a buy rather than just a rental. Co-op was the most enjoyable mode but the Spies vs Mercs and Single Player were also at a very high standard. Despite this there is one glitch in the Co-op's latter missions that disallows you to progress through the mission - it is very surprising the developers allowed the game to be released with such a major technical error. Nevertheless, a great game that gives a nice change from the typical shooter.

Cuban Música!

Buena Vista Social Club - me gusta!

I found out about this 1 hour 40 minute documentary from travel magazine Wanderlust and what a discovery! Buena Vista Social Club interviews and records the musicians and music from the Cuban band of the same name.

The music featured is arguably some of the most beautiful and real music I have ever heard. A mixture of country, soul and jazz the experienced Cuban musicians, who play a wide variety of instruments, found International success in the late 1990's.

The wonderful Ibrahim Ferrer, the "Cuban Nat King Cole", was a highlight of the bands early days days and despite his sad passing in 2005 the band still tour worldwide with new and veteran members.

The documentary also features clips of Cuban street life that has just heightened my desire to visit the country even more.

Introducing Ibrahim Ferrer and Omara Portuondo of the Buena Vista Social Club...