My first job found me working in Sharjah in the UAE. Thwarted for years, I carelessly used most of my fourth monthly paycheck to buy the state of the art Canon A-1 in 1979, taking advantage of the freedom from purchase taxes in neighbouring Dubai. Friends and colleagues were buying the more affordable AE-1 but I thought I’d likely hold onto the camera for a decade so I went for the A-1; future proofing was the justification for acquiring this object of professional desire, with its better viewfinder, faster shutter speeds and exposure compensation. It was worth it because the A-1 made me out to be a better photographer than I had been. And it helped that there was often more sunlight in the desert than in Ireland.
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Free Associations
Isn’t it ironic that my brain started making it’s own free associations at a time that social free association is proscribed?
It started again when there came a pier walk first thing this morning. And with that came a waft of stale urine from long closed public conveniences.
[Read more…] about Free AssociationsMissing Notes Left in Space
Libran Writer posted earlier this year about a visit to see an exhibition in Margate. The post was ten months ago, which seems almost as hard to believe as that the visit itself had occurred exactly a year before. Since I’m married to Libran Writer, you won’t be surprised to learn that I was there too. We had stumbled into the show the day before the official opening so we had the place pretty much to ourselves. What a treat that was.
[Read more…] about Missing Notes Left in SpaceNine Years On
It’s a shame that not everyone has the opportunity to visit New Zealand. Sometimes, our planets align and there are multiple reasons to do something. Let’s face it, visiting the other side of this planet requires unusual alignments.
[Read more…] about Nine Years OnOn Parking, Pints and Mites
First Thoughts
We were in Paris back on this day in 2009. I was working in London and my wife was working in Paris. I was lucky enough to spend every weekend that October with her using the convenience of train travel on Eurostar.
Paris is all about art, food, architecture, culture and so much more more. Sometimes, the more interesting story is about the daily grind of city living. On street parking is such a story and it was very restricted, even then. So limited were the opportunities that I snapped several solutions with my small Sony camera. Here are two that I stumbled over earlier.
[Read more…] about On Parking, Pints and MitesBasketball Manifestations
I boarded the plane in Charles DeGaulle Airport, destined to stop over in Abidjan, the capital of the Ivory Coast, en route to Niger. Happily, Lia had come to Paris with me for a few days while I collected a work visa from the Niger Embassy.
Meanwhile, half time was all about aspiration.