032-E is for Experience Trap

032-E is for Experience Trap, originally uploaded by gingerpig2000.

We know people who have had summer cottages for decades, and it seems to us that rather than just being a benefit, they have twice as much cleaning to do and they spend a significant amount of time travelling to and fro almost every weekend during the summer.

We all have balconies, but they only use theirs for drying the washing, while we have an awning, a small herb garden and a place to eat, read and generally relax. It also means that we have total access to all our facilities, unlike in a summer cottage.

So, is it better to have a summer cottage or to choose a house or apartment location in the city that gives a relaxing dual purpose life?

Interestingly enough, when I first moved to Poland over a decade ago when I expressed the idea of living in a village or small town outside the city I was given some very odd looks; they thought I was crazy - you had to live in the city if you worked there. When the company I worked for changed locations to the other side of the city, everyone was worried how I was going to get there, and this is a small city of 400,000, where the bus ride would now take me a whole 30 minutes instead of 15!

However, now that more people are buying cars and getting some experience with travel they are beginning to take on board the idea that you can build a house just outside the city to live in and commute in. The next step is for people to build/buy houses in established villages and towns to live there, especially since so many Poles have recently been working for extended periods in the UK and Ireland and can see how many more living choices there are. Nowadays I get less strange looks and more wistful ones!

045: My Love for Ania

My Love for Ania, originally uploaded by gingerpig2000.

Catchlights

The sun is setting in the west as I look towards New York, where my wife has to stay for another week to teach a course.

She lets me become what I am, more than I ever was before. She listens to my dreams and my philosophy, letting me do what I have to do, even if that is quite different from the other people who surround us. I love her more than anything else in the world.

Catchlights are where you put reflected lights in the eyes to make them more noticeable, and here they look rather rectangular because they are reflections of the sky over the building opposite. In the same way, I processed the image so that the background has become fuzzy, putting more attention on my face rather than losing it among the kitchen units.

24: Silly Walks

Freedom with the Hiber Nation!, originally uploaded by gingerpig2000.

Today the group really managed to confuse things, I think some of them have spent too much time in the sun. Luckily, my image happened to fit the finally chosen theme.

Religion is here again, and government, both organisations that have massive problems with public nudity and very little concern with violence on the roads and in social situations, especially here in Poland where religion is measured in how many arrive at church each week rather than the quality of belief.

Sleep is a place I can escape from the bigots.