FEBRUARY, 14TH – ST.VALENTINE’S

Happy St.Valentine’s day!!!

FEBRUARY, 13TH – MORE IBISCUS

The thing is that taking random pictures around the house, you happen to notice small items that usually you would hardly notice. And after you paid attention to them, they kinda get inside your little world, as if they started existing only since you noticed them. So it now happens that when I walk down the stairs, I take a look at the ibiscus I took a picture of the other day. And I noticed pnly now, that it closes in the evenings. 

FEBRUARY, 12TH - CHICKEN WITH CHORIZO AND PAPRIKA

How to spend a Saturday night wit with sister + boyfriend (hers): let the boy do the chopping, the sister do the cooking, and just sit on the sofa with spicy chicken in front of some horror movie. Simple, but effective.

FEBRUARY, 11TH - FRIENDS

About time to introduce you to my friends...

FEBRUARY, 10TH - NO PICT #8

(((

FEBRUARY, 9TH - IBISCUS

Ibiscus flower on the stairs.

FEBRUARY, 8TH - NO PICT #7

((

FEBRUARY, 7TH - NO PICT #6

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FEBRUARY, 6TH - DINNER AT OUR PLACE

Dinner with friends, brother and sister, who doesn't want to be published on my blog. So I must limit myself.

FEBRUARY, 5TH - LOOKING FOR A HOUSE

Saturday afternoon spent with my little sister who's looking for a house to rent up in the hills. I kinda liked this one!

FEBRUARY, 3RD - SELF-PORTRAIT #2

Maybe not a classical portrait, but who said there must be a head ina portrait? That's what I'd call a portrait with environment (once again my room)!

FEBRUARY, 2ND - ROWING IN VENICE

Among the many medical certificates you need in order to obtain a Seaman's Book in Italy, you also need to pass the so-called "Swimming and Rowing Test". The swimming part was just showing that you can swim and float: I always thought that somebody who can swim must also be able to float, but apparently it's not so automatic. And there actually was a girl who swam quite normally, but once she stopped to float Sshe sinked almost to the bottom, saved by the lifeguard. The second part was much better, and consisted in rowing in a boat down one of the channels in Venice, trying to avoid taxi drivers and police boats going by. When the first boat leaved, they came back much later and the comment was: "We went left at first, but there were too many rats, so we had to take an alternative route". Too much fun! When I'll finally settle down here for living, I will surely join one of the rowing teams in Venice!

FEBRUARY, 1ST - PHOTO LAB SESSION

Old friend Gabriele invited me to see how he develops films. Too bad he's still learning, so I can't say I had a real master calss. But had fun and was very inspiring, had thought of putting up a photo lab myself, and now i know it's not so hard. I got one of the wrong-developped pictures as a present.

JANUARY CONCLUSIONS

4 days without pictures, actually not even so bad for me. 2 of those days I was really sick, so at least it was not for laziness. I took too many pictures in my room, though. And delayed a lot in posting, didn't do it once a week like I intended to. And have too little fans! People subscribe and get me going!! Please!!!

JANUARY, 31ST - GETTING OLD

This evening I went to the swimming-pool coz in a few days I will need to take a swimming test (you'll read about it). And it was pretty sad to realize that 10 years ago I was in a swiming team, used to swim back and forth 20 times just for warming up or cooling down, and could swim more than 50meters withouth breathing. And now.. well, as I said, it's pretty sad! Once at home I looked at one of the school-time little trophies, the once I got with the skiing team, just to remind myself that I need to exercise more...

JANUARY, 30TH - FRISCHE LUFT SCHMECKT GUT!

After going to bed at 2 in the morning because of a small heating problem in the room (the heating was off when we went to bed at 1, so had to wait a little bit longer in order not to freeze..), we woke up and decided to head to the mountain, even with snow. Pretty good walk.

JANUARY, 29TH - LESSINIA

Short weekend trip with Paola and Giorgio to the moutain region of Verona, called Lessinia. It's an area known the numerous fossils, and look what we found having a walk in the woods! The picture of myself was taken by Paola, I was trying to see if the ice on the lake was strong enough.. and luckily it was ).

JANUARY, 28TH - JAGER AND SIGARS

Another view of the interesting objects in my room. Sigars from Canary Islands (remember the pirate's treasure onboard the cruiseship?), and Jaegermaster baby-size that Paola and I took to Jutenheimen for the good hiking.

JANUARY, 27TH - VENICE

Trip to Venice to get some burocracy done. Nice walk around. View from Rialto.

JANUARY, 26TH - SALGARI

This is one of the pictures hanging in the corridor of my house, made by myself years ago. Now, I visited my cousin some days ago and I noticed her corridor is filled up with drawings as well, the only difference being that her kids are 8, 6 and 4.. Anyway, this picture alway reminded me (even at the time of making it) of the adventure novels by E.Salgari, a writer from Verona who wrote dozen of novels about pirates in South East Asia. That's where my love for corsairs, ships and jungle come from, I guess.

JANUARY, 25TH - DREAM DREAM DREAM..

More girlish stuff.. sweet dreams are made of me! The rose was part of the weekly treasure during cruise-ship time: at the end of the cruise I had to catalogue all the lost and found items, and I must say I found several interesting objects... a real pirate treasure every time ).

JANUARY, 24th - SELF PORTRAIT #1

Here we go with the very first self-portrait of ther project! Still inside my room, still trying to grab some of the countless useless objects that populate it, reminding me of old times like this little mirror. I decided it was about time to begin with a new series, so from time to time I will try to take interesting pics of myself, hopefully not only taken at the mirror in my room...

JANUARY, 23rd - CHINESE CALLIGRAPHY SET

Yeap, among many other things I do have a Chinese calligraphy set! I never quite got all the mystical stuff behind calligraphy, but watch the movie Hero and you'll understand a little what it is all about.

JANUARY, 22nd - OLD TOYS

I'm still wandering around my room in the evening, rying to find out interesting stuff. Fot today I've got an old carillon, actually not even that old, and actually not even mine... It's my sister's, and as many other things found home in my room over the years. Every time I come back home, I keep finding objects that moved over to my room, probably in an attempt of avoiding being thrown away. They must have found out that I never throw away stuff...

JANUARY, 21ST - DREAMCATCHER

It works like this: when you have nightmares, they all get stuck in the net. At dawn, when the sun comes out, the light hits the centre and radiates all the threads, making the nightmare disappear. Pretty simple and very useful! Self-made of course.

JANUARY, 20TH - NEW SHOES!

Perfect buy at Auchan for 10euros: no matter how often I will use them, they're a perfect subject for pictures!

JANUARY, 19TH - DINNER IN PADOVA

Evening in Padova: salmon and cottage-cheese apetizers, cous-cous with vegetables, and of course red wine.

JANUARY, 18TH - MY ROOM #5

Ok, this is a pretty lame picture, but at least I took it! I'll try to do better...

JANUARY, 17TH - THE FLAMENCO DANCER

The flamenco dancer is one of those childohood things that have been in my room who knows for how long. Actually, we travelled to Spain when I was 5 yrs old, so I guess it has been on here since then. I liked to have the dancer posing for me, I guess she could be part of any setting and look different every time. Hopefully I will experiment again with her. This time, she played the role of a decadence dancer/actress, with her body laying on the stage at the end of her career/life: maybe a broken leg, or maybe a gunshot from a jelaous fiance. But all the same showing all her beauty. It came to my mind a setting of "La Traviata" and the movie "Moulin Rouge". Probably next time she'll get rid of the romanticism and tragedy to play a more cheerful or commercial role, we'll see what suits her best.

JANUARY, 16TH - ALUMETAL

Wonderful and inspiring day in Rovereto! We spent the afternoon exploring an abandoned industrial complex. Jumping over fences, wandering aroud the engine room, testing old wooden floors, discovering out-of-place objects (bottles of wine, shoes, pirate's treasure chest, dried-out flowers in a glass bottle and so on): that's what i call an indoustrius Sunday! PS: The last pict was taken by Giorgio.

JANUARY, 15TH - NIGHT IN ROVERETO

Morning walk with Giorgio and my dog around my little village. The first picture was taken there. The second and third are at Giorgio's place after dinner and the night out with friends: Giorgio "swooshing" the sheet on the sofa-bed and a common friend ).

JANUARY, 14TH - NO PICT #4

 4th day of laziness.

JANUARY, 13TH - MY ROOM #4

Close-up of the lamp hanging from the ceiling of my room.

JANUARY, 12TH - MY ROOM #3

After the books, another important part of my room: the earrings stand!! Yep, very proud to show a glimpse of my great earrings collection and the girly side of myself!

JANUARY, 11TH - NO PICT #3

3rd day with no picture! This time I can't even remeber the excuse, I guess it just slipped out of my mind..

JANUARY, 10TH - RECYCLING

New use of old objects. When I was in Geiranger last summer, I collected some nice glass bottles for the flowers I liked to pick up. So the pitch outside my caravan was always looking very neat (well, kind of..). I did't want to throw them away, but I dont't have fresh flowers everyday now. So I came up with these plastic ones, that don't even look so bad after all. But the best part is still the bottles!

JANUARY, 9TH - CABERNET

Today I have something different. My brother wanted a picture of his Cabernet bottle. If you don't have a studio set-up it might be a little difficult, but I tried all the same. So here goes the "recepie":
1- take one bottle, or the object you need a portrait of;
2- take one of your siser's fancy dresses, possibly velvet-like so that it absorbs light;
3- take that golden dish that somebody gave as a Xmas present to your Mum (to be used as a reflector);
4- find a spot where you can lay everything down at a decent height so that you can catch some sunlight from the window;
5- if you can't manage to set the reflector to stand, ask your brother to hold it for you.
Not really professional, but I liked the experiment.

JANUARY, 8TH - MY ROOM #2

The series "What's in my room?" goes on! Some of the books that never leave the shelf, those that I kinda like to look at once in a while.

JANUARY, 6TH AND 7TH - NO PICT #1-2

First 2 days without pictures... the excuse? I'm home with the flu, moving from the bed to the couch.. Not such a good one, I know.

JANUARY, 5TH - MY ROOM #1

I must admit, once I am home this is a very difficult task to follow.. when you don't have so many stimulationg images in front of you, you might end up snapping a random picture just before jumping in your pijama... that's what happend here, but to turn it a little more interesting I'll tell you a bit on what's hanging on my wall. From left to right you find:
1- little canvas bought in Salvador de Bahia, Brazil, the first time I visited the country.. unforgettable memories of the craziest trip ever, shared with my best friend and irmozinha Jessica!
2- hand-carved horn bought in Temuco, Chile, in second craziest trip I had, through South America again, but in company of Silvia and her friends Tania and Hugo.
3- hanging from the horn you can see some hair-decorations (they are used to end your braids) typical of Bolivia and some parts of peru, bought them on lake Titicaca, on the Islas de los Uros (floating islands, you know everything about them right?). Interesting for you to know, dark colors are worn by married women, bright colors by girls looking for husbands (didn't know this at the time I bought them, but turned out to be the right choice!)
4- flute bought in La Paz, Bolivia.
5- typical Bolivian male hat, bought in Potosi, Bolivia, original (meaning to say it was not a souvenir hat but a real one).

JANUARY, 4TH - LISBON, GOODBYE!

Last picture taken in Lisbon, waiting for the taxi at 5.30 in the morning outside Silvia's house...

JANUARY, 3RD - NEW YEAR WALK

With only one hour and a half of time before having to head to the airport (at the time I still didn't know I was speding a night more in Lisbon), I just went down to the centre and found the perfect spot for pictures at the little beach by the square. Lovely morning, plenty of people - not only tourists - wandering around (even found a man who gave me a guided tour of the centre, sharing plenty of stuff on the capital), and myself kneeling on the sand and playing with objects found on the beach, sticks, tiles, bottles of champagne...

JANUARY, 2ND - END OF PARY CLEAN-UP

The first picture is the patio of the house where I spent New Year's Eve in Avis, Alentejo, Portugal. Bright sun, lovely day, cleaning up.
The second picture is in Lisbon by the Expo, just after we dropped off friends at the airport and railway station.

JANUARY, 1ST - BAGAçA!

Bagaça is the new word I learnt in Portuguese! It's the national strong alcoholic drink, equivalent to vodka for Russian and Polish, to aquavit for the Scandinavian countries, to cachaça for Brazil, and to grappa for Italians. Apparently, asking for bagaça is not very "in" for young people, that's why people normally don't drink it. But our brave Tania asked for one when everyone esle was having coffee (first time we could actually get out of the house after the previous night party), and starting playing with it. So here's the recepie:
you drink your coffee and leave but a tiny sip in the cup;
you pour in the bagaça and add lots of sugar in it;
you start burning the sugar out until it is all melted;
you drink your lovely sweetened bagaça (which anyway smells as pure alcohol)!

31 DECEMBER, 2010 - BIG DECISIONS

This is the opening picture of the project, taken day 31st Dec at Frankfurt airport. I was flying to Lisbon for New Year's Eve, but there was an over-booking: I had to take the plane flying through Frankfurt and arrive in Lisbon at 8.00 in the evening, quite late since we then had to go to a place 2 hrs from the capital! Glad to say we made it on time before midnight, and with my greatest pleasure once I got back I was even refounded for having the flight changed!
Among the many surprises that Tap gave me for the new year (my flight back was also a little messy, but I really appreciated the extra time I spent in Portugal!), I found myself with a little time for thinking and came up with the great idea of my New Year's Resolution. In the picture you can spot my original plan written on a cardboard, of course killing-time magazines (what else but picture magazines?) and little items that kept me company for those hours (still afraid I might get stuck at the airport because of the snow!). And in the background you might be able to spot one of the Lufthansa planes.

ONE PICTURE A DAY PROJECT

New year, new you! Isn't that how it is supposed to be every year? 31st of december coming closer, people rushing to find a New Year Resolution, promising themselves they will give up some bad habit and catch a good one instead.. Yeap, I've done it tons of times as well, but never really meaning it I guess. But this time's for real! At least, one week after I took it, my resolution is still up (and for those who know me for real, you'll know it means a whole lot!). So, wanna know what it's about?

Only one resolution, that will nevertheless imply other actions to go along with it:
Taking one picture every day starting Jan, 1st and ending Dec,31st.
The pictures will be uploaded on the blog time permitting, even if I will try to do it once a week.
The rule says that pictures taken on the same day can be uploaded anyway, but are valid only for that date. Exemptions to take pictures should be extremely limited!!!

What does it take to complete a target?
Clear target: we all know that the more specific a target is, the more chaces you'll have to complete it ("losing 5kg" is easier that a generic "losing weight")
Time limit: you need to set a limit of time so that you know you have to struggle just to a certain point!
Making it public: this is where I need your help! Apparently, with an audience following your steps you are less likely to give up, just because you feel responsible for those people (or ashamed in case you give up??).
So here's the deal: the more people I'll have following and commenting my efforts, the more chances I'll have to complete my target!! Now you have shared responsibility on my succeding as well.. so keep me going!

ABU DHABI

stop in abu dhabi for today ) went to a nice beach right by the city center, a newly "built" beach with sand brought there from the desert played fresbee with friends, cut my foot on a shell, kept playing fresbee anyway, jumped in the water, fooled around all day long.. not a bad day at all! tonight i'm sitting at my desk, all work done already.. tonight we're having 1 hour back to adjust to Bahrain's time, meaning that while everybody on the ship is sleeping 1 hour more, i get to workl 1 hour more!!! but not too bad, tomorrow i'll have my revenge when we'll get back to uae time )) not much else apart from the nice sun and sand.. ))