Truth about our job

This exquisite film says it all.

http://www.xtranormal.com/watch?e=20090929103500534

Rafal goes to NY!

Brilliant Polish photographer Rafal Milach scooped a prize in Blurb photobook contest!
Have a look at the book on his blog and his website features a multimedia presentation of the project too. Go Rafal, go!

Sunday pudding

My new ideas notebook

Finally I might be able to stop scribbling on old bus tickets, Boots receipts or even paper hankies. I present to you my brand new ideas notebook, with Paris on the cover. May one of these ideas be brilliant enough to allow me to go to Paris next year! Amen.

Still pristine; not for long though.

Autumn

Autumn equals coming back to college. On Thursday I am staring my last year in education (I have said that - teaching/learning? Never again.) and after many a deliberation I decided to cintinue my postgraduate studies. Last year I was quite disappointed but this year I am promising myself to squeeze every last possibility out of this college and their facilities. Just like they are squeezing every last penny of my funds.

Simon was against me continuing - with all that money pumped into tuition fees I could have done a great deal more with my project - to travel, to put the portfolio together, go and actually meet curators. But maybe it is my Polish upbringing - one has to have a degree. Well, even if you already have one then get youself one more!

However maybe I just need an eye opener - I am not longer a kid in need of guidance, I can actually make the decissions myself. But maybe that is why I needed that year and that ridiculous amount of money to realise that.

Now I need to earn enough to complete the project and pay for the college and what is even more important, I have to make all the right decisions so that all that effort and two years of financial sacrifice are not wasted. Please, pray for me!

Fish for Monika

After our conversation yesterday where we have discussed some funny fish that change shape (rybka-rozdymka), I managed to spot a fish tank in a nearby hotel and took a picture of a somewhat surprised fish. Your ones were much more radiant, Monika!

P.S. Just to explain this to people who do not know these girls: my friend MoniCa is a tallented graphic designer and lives in Berlin. My other friend, MoniKa is a great photographer and interior designer and lives in Krakow.

So now you know who is who!

Viva Jamie!

I must say that I never been a big fan of Jamie Olivier. His recipies seemed too fancy for my taste, his books and persona a bit too well promoted and for me he lost his zest. Until tonight when Simon and I watched an episode from his latest TV series, when he goes to New York (it is the only place in America that I really would like to visit) and visits some real underground kitchens.

Jamie turned out to be truly charming, professional and funny and as it turned out also a Sudanese in 6th generation! (Hence these plumpy lips). He really made me to (almost) establish in Dodie's (Simon's mum, an excellent cook herself) and make one of his recipies actually happen. A certain domestic goddess never have moved me this way!

P.S. Keith Floyd, the very first celebrity TV chef died today.
P.S.2 Off to have some muesli.
P.S.3 We do not have a tv so we will not be able to see how Jamie goes South in his next episode.

I want one!

Christmas is approaching. I have already seen a decorated christmas tree in one of the Edinburgh's hotels! I am beginning to put together my list for the Santa. The number one goes to this.

Fonts

I remember my friend Monica taking pictures of various letters and signs when we were studying in Paris. Some of these fonts were really beautiful, especially vintage ones like this one I came across in Haddington's High Street. Btw, I still have trouble remembering that Polish apteka is actually Chemists in English as I keep on refering to it with it's French-like version 'pharmacy', to Simon's annoyance.

So this one is especilly for you, Monica!

Sell your own kids

I have mentioned earlier, spending a lot of money on not being able to go on holiday but for the price of mounting Simon's prints we could have had two weeks of holiday... with kids!

Anyway -they look gorgeous in a thick museum board mounts.

Last minutes of sunshine

Autumn is inevitably settling in. I went out today in a woollen scarf and my new wet weather boots. As usual I came accross some people just in their tshirts and shorts but some goosepimples on their calves just proved that the Summer is over. If it actually ever ventured that far North on the Gulfstream. Another umbrella got broken today but I proudly paraded with it, not taking care of a slight wobbling of the construction. It was still protecting me faithfully from a permanent drizzle.

Images actually come from several days ago when we peeled ourselves from in front of our computers and hours of image-adjusting and ventured out to have a lunch made of a baked potatoe, bought from a cafe in Royal Mile called Always Sunday (you bet, when you do freelancing!). Due to last days of the Festival there were no seats available inside so we ate our lanch sitting on the steps of the back entrance to the St Giles Cathedral. It was a last sunny day of September - it has been raining ever since.

I had a lovely two hours chat with my friend Monika from Krakow. We were discussing how Annie Leibovitz is going to pay back her debts. The deadline was yesterday, I think!

Fireworks!

The Festival officially finished last night and we had a chance to watch spectacular fireworks above the Castle (though we could not hear the music well from the place where we were standing in the street). My heart goes to all the dogs in the area who must have been in quite a state after 4 tonnes of explosives went into the skies above Edinburgh.

Under the Bridges

We had a dreadful couple of days with Chinese water torture in our very own flat (well, rented of course but we like it a lot). Though there are some good sides to this story - our wallpapered ceiling looks much better now than it did when we moved in (the gap from a previous flood has stretched and flattened itself after the current one) and we had a good excuse to go to South Queensferry for a couple of hours when it ceased raining in the afternoon.

In my opinion the best way to get to this little town on the seaside is to go by doubledecker (no. X43 or 43) sitting on the top floor of the bus of course. When it moves up and down through the countryside you can see the red Forth Rail Bridge emerging from time to time, like some sort of an ancient creature. The Bridge was opened in March 1890 and since then has required regular painting of its steel structure - a saying about this perpetual need of painting it became a feature in the English language, so that when they finish at one end the other end already starts peeling and a procedure starts all over again. Children are still teased that the trains go up and over the spans of the bridge like a giant rollercoaster.

The last image from this set has been taken from a train while crossing the Rail Bridge. The train DOES not do the rollercoaster thing, I do assure you.

Wet

It has been raining two days non stop now and this morning we woke up again to the sound of drops banging on the window outside.However, this time there were also drops falling from the ceiling. Inside. We have no idea what might have happen up there, in our top floor neighbours' flat. All we know that the flood was over after 20 minutes of dripping and our ceiling looks like that now: