Hitting the streets of Turin

A Short and sweet entry with some photos I posted over here for Poppytalk. Thanks to Pugly Pixel for showing the waay. :)

Altars on the Highway

Altar on road cliff in Kythnos.

Its been a busy week. A bit of perspective on which things to prioritize has led me to get back to work on our    Greece project from eons ago.. I know, its been a year and a baby later and still so much needs to be done. Hours of footage have been cut into bits and now piecing them all together (plus animation). Small steps like this series of photos which I took during our trip of over 50 different altars, compiled and prepped for something to be launched soon - posting just a few here. These altars are like headstones for those who died on the road. Considering that throughout our journey (about 2000kms of driving) we saw many of these everywhere we went - a clear sign of how easy we can cross over to the other side, on the road.

A well-kept altar in Mani.

On the edge of the road in Delphi, looking over the valley. Contents shown on the right.

Chance Encounters: 8

New Year's day we met them on the road taking photos of each other, so happily married. I thought I'd give them a hand, took a photo of them together with their camera and asked to take another from mine. Sudan, they told Fra and he remembered someone telling him "Sudan is in the middle of Africa". Then I remembered this documentary we saw on the lost boys of Sudan called God Grew Tired of Us.

Il Baratolo (Flea Market) | Muffin Snobs

Early last week Fra was rummaging through the house (in a state of mess after the crazy holiday rollercoaster) ready to just put everything in a box and send it off to another place. The trash bin seemed to be the nearest exit so I had to put my foot down and convince him its better to try and sell them, surely there will be others who'll fancy some of these things (and many of them I really like.. still.. we'll be moving out of this apartment come April and whats the use keeping stuff for a house we don't have - yet). Spared from this diaspora of stuffage were my paper cutouts collection, some craft materials, fabrics, and treasured books. Lucky also on that sunday there was the Baratolo or monthly flea market. So for roughly two days I set off to pack everything we could let go off - one table and a rack for display and the night before the big day, I thought - hey why not I bake some muffins to give away to whoever buys something? Clever marketing strategy isn't it? I wanted to sell, thats for sure.

But anyway, it was KOLD and while the provincial and local "nobles" of Macerata walked around and inspected our wares, my grand muffin attraction only encouraged quizical looks (and smirks from our neighboring sellers. inside joke spread out about my muffin-fail without even having tasted it) we had some sales and not surprisingly from eclectic folk but really, if it weren't for that couple from Kosovo with his pregnant wife, we wouldn't have sold a basketfull of Adamo's baby stuff just like that.

Still, better to try and learn for good than theorize everything in the mind. Italians just aren't the kind who like freebies like food in a flea market intended for used and vintage items - it just doesn't fit! Some cultural rules have to be understood like eating is inside the house or restaurant and only at these hours: 1pm and 8pm on the DOT. No breakfast because thats usually just a shot of cafe espresso and a brioche (or some other sweet). It was a good day for a few good lessons on Italians and Italian behavior towards muffins (unheard of by many). Some friends who came by enjoyed eating them though and even brought home some for next day's breakfast.

suddenly we're here

We've crossed over to... 2012! What can I say, I hardly had any time to brace myself for (last) christmas let alone new year but here we are and there it was. Wella flew in from Abu Dhabi and spent some time with us during the holidays. A bit of Marche countryside action, fresh cool breeze filled our lungs, my throat was out of order but all the better to keep the silence and allow the rest of the world to resume the flow. Abandon all sense of control and notice how it all goes on anyway, even without you. Free we are indeed.

To Wella and to all seekers of the world, your calling will take you anywhere you want to go. The line goes on and on and on and on... Much love and light to you all and a great new year!