When the sun is setting, between dusk and darkness, there is a moment when the light turns blue. And the world stops for a heartbeat.
Road trips are a travel of choice for Stuart and me – to my mother’s absolute surprise. When I was a child, I could not keep my eyes open for more than 3.5 min in a car – if I was lucky. I still get snoozy occasionally, but luckily Stuart really likes driving. I just try to keep my snoozing limited to the boring bits.
Road trip in Namibia is on our near-future to-do list. One needs a 4×4, but the scenery is sure to be worth it.
We had a baby shower for a colleague this morning – a lovely breakfast with all the office ladies. An event made somewhat shorter by the fact that the mother-to-be – to whom this was a surprise – went to the wrong restaurant, got stuck in traffic, and appeared 40 min late. In the meantime, there was plenty of time to take photos of the restaurant fountains.
I like shooting with very wide depth of field and push the boundaries on ‘almost HDR’ (with a single image, tho). But it is early summer and the little details are so much more beautiful than the whole.
Merlin appears in a lot of my photos – in even more of them, he is hovering just outside the frame, wondering what is going on… Yet again! In fact, quite a few of my failed pictures have some part of Merlin in them. Typically the nose.
Although he is most often willing – even enthusiastic – model, this one was cutting it a little too close to the dinner time.
I am a huge fan of bright colours. Our house, for example, has a lot of dark red, including our couch. In fact, I was very excited to finally get a chance to paint a wall in our bedroom rich, brownish red. Luckily Stuart shares my taste – or is indifferent enough to tolerate it.
Merlin has a real talent in finding mud. After several month of dry season, he still manages to get muddy on almost any walk – and whenever we let him out in the mornings. We have white tile floors in the living room and kitchen, and every paw print is visible – but luckily easy to clean. But let’s not talk about the bedroom carpet.
The past two days I have spent in Singularity University SA. It is a cool concept – two days of speeches from some of the top experts in the world on exponential technologies, e.g., using Robotics, developing Artificial Intelligence and manipulating DNA. One of my favourite speeches was from an astronaut, who did his best to describe what space feels like (as if one could do that…).
My pet peeve for the entire two days was the host, who did his very best to create hype and excitement – while reading straight from the prompter. Words and presence did not match.
But definitely not a ‘normal day in the office’.
South Africans love rain. For a Finn, that is hard to understand. Intellectually, I understand rain is necessary after 6 months of dry season. I may even enjoy the fresh air after the downpour when all the dust settles. But I don’t enjoy rain itself. And South Africans truly do. I guess that for a country where succulent plants are the norm, it is (somewhat) understandable.
A colleague made me laugh last year. My parents were flying to Johannesburg, and the forecast promised rain for the entire weekend. Very sweetly she came to me, and from the bottom of her heart wished that the forecast would be correct, and we would have proper rain for my parents. For her that was the best thing she could wish for. For a Finn, that is the very last thing you wish on your holiday!
Sun is out and trees and bushes in the park start to bloom. I am grateful yet again that Merlin is a low-shedding dog. I do remember the amount of hair every spring with my previous golden retriever. Not having to continuously walk around with a vacuum cleaner gives you more time to enjoy the spring.
I have mentioned before how both Stuart and myself are partial to Asian food. We have a very good Korean grocery store in the neighbourhood, so we have a possibility to often cook Korean. There is a lot of variety in Korean kitchen, but we are specifically fond of street food. It is simple, tasty and quick. Bibimbab – a rice pot with vegetables, beef and chili sauce – is one of our every-day favourites. Some months ago we even invested in the ‘proper’ Dolsot Bibimbab bowls. Layering the meal in these hot clay pots makes rice nice and crunchy. Our kind of food.
