good things this month:
– eddie izzard
– the boy ran 2 half-marathons (on the last one, he placed 24th!)
– first ice-cream of the season
– flying the rc plane
– bright sunny days
– lots and lots of nice meals with friends :)
previously: march 2013.
in march, when germany was still clinging fiercely to its winter chills, we went to cologne for a day for the local postcrossing meetup. we didn’t have much time to properly explore the city, but our lovely host drove us around to see the very impressive brown coal open air mines of grevenbroich. they’re… huuuuge! so big in fact, that whole towns have been moved to make way for the excavation sites…
because the whole thing didn’t fit in a single frame of my holga, i made this rough panorama instead (click for bigger):
it looked a bit like the surface of an alien planet, with its ridges and indentations, both beautiful and haunting. from everywhere around the mine, you can see the steam-electric plants, puffing away clouds of white… we heard that the parents here tell their kids that’s where clouds are made – a rather clever cover to an otherwise dirty reality…
…here’s to growing old together! :)
our (almost impromptu) visit to barcelona in february coincided with the la laia festivities, in honour of the city’s 13 year old patron. as the tragic story goes, in the fourth century, young eulalia refused to renounce her christianity, rebeling against the rule of emperor diocletian… which ended up getting her imprisoned, gruesomely tortured and killed. pretty depressing stuff… but she’s remembered as a martyr child who fought for her convictions until the end.
i love discovering the traditions and costumes of the places we visit, so we had to ask… how do they celebrate a young martyr? turns out, the answer is with dances, giants… and dances with giants!
people started gathering in a square one afternoon, chatting, grouping, putting their stuff on the floor… then suddenly, the band started playing and everyone around us was giving hands dancing sardanas! the footwork seemed rather tricky, with sudden twists and jumps but everyone seemed to be in on the secret steps!
after that, the giant laias and other characters walked the streets of the old town, eventually joining the dancers in the square for a little dance too while nearby, some volunteers distributed hot chocolate and buns for the children!
giants dancing, you say? yup! pretty awesome in my book!
one month ago, we saw this great ted talk by cesar kuriyama. every day, he recorded one second of his life, and after a while, edited all the seconds on a video montage. it’s a simple thing… and yet, the result is such a captivating mashup of glimpses into someone’s life, that we immediately decided to download the 1 second everyday app and give it a go.
so… one month later, this is how the past month looked like in our lives:
somedays we almost forgot about it until the last minute and ended up recording something dull (or food), so the result isn’t a showpiece… and still, like magic, every brief second brings to mind a very specific moment, which in turn allows us to instantly remember the whole day!
having a visual reminder of every single day i ever lived is pretty awesome. i think i want do this for the rest of our lives! :D