A favourite Istanbul Place ... Rumelihisarı

Rumelihisarı, Istanbul, originally uploaded by - di.

This fortress, built back in 1451, is one of my favourite Istanbul places.

After catching the sunrise on the Asian-side, Gert, Yakup and I wandered over to Bebek for breakfast. Afterwards , for 3 turkish lire (1.50euro) we had the freedom to roam in this beautiful ruin.

You can see the second Europe to Asia bridge crossing the Bosphorous there in the distance.

The peace and the view make it a truly lovely place to wander.

Home Again ...

Bosphorous Gull, Istanbul, originally uploaded by - di.

We watched the rain roll in as we sat in the boarding lounge at Ataturk Airport. We felt the wind buffeting the plane around in a boisterous manner I didn't enjoy as we took off, and Lisen smsed to let us know we had missed hail and an Istanbul-spring slide into winter.

Belgium where the skies were mostly blue and the air still warm after 7pm ...

I'm sitting here backing-up all my Istanbul photos to another external hard-drive. It is taking forever. Something to do with having 6,790 items to transfer (73.6GB)

As soon as it's done, this tired wanderer is heading for bed.

Tot straks from Belgie.

Istanbul Airport has to be one of the best airports so far ... free wifi connection, a great choice of restaurants, fun duty-free and at least one good bookshop. We're too tired to do more than find a restaurant with cool air and good food; a place to relax while we wait to leave.

Our time in Istanbul has passed by in a mad whirl of photography, photography and some more photography actually.

Coincidence has played a huge role ... with Hayden flying in from Japan just after we arrived, TJ turning up from Australia for the tourist season, Emma - my much-loved niece from New Zealand, flying from her new base in London, Antwerpen-based Mehmet on the same flight from Brussels to here and meeting Shirley, a New Zealander who went to school with my mum and her sisters, in the street. I even ran into Veyser in the street, a lovely Turkish guy interviewed back in those days when I lived here.

The coincidences just kept rolling, keeping me a little off-balance and more in the Land of Wonderland than real-life Istanbul.

We've eaten most kinds of Turkish food, revelling in being back in the land of the very best cuisine, and last night found us as guests of Seniha, Nail and Aylin - parents and sister to our lovely friend Beste. 5 hours of eating and drinking and we could barely roll ourselves back to the European-side of Istanbul.

I'm over-flowing with stories and have at least 4000 photographs to sort through and organise ... after 2 nights working on Flanders Fields starting Friday.

My new website ran into a photo gallery problem and so my web-designer decided to re-programme the whole section. The launch has had to be delayed just a little bit longer ... I'll just keep loading the stories and keep my fingers crossed.

Gule gule, from Istanbul.

And the winner is ...

I trotted through to the lounge and asked Lisen to make the prize draw. It's 00.56 and we're just in from a beautiful meal with some of my favourite people on the Asian-side of Istanbul.

Beste, your parents and sister are such very good people and we had a lovely evening out with them but ... the prize draw.

The winner is Paola!
Congratulations and see you when I get home, and to everyone else, I hope to have another prize draw soon.

More than 3000 photographs and still going ...

Sunrise on the Bosphorous, Istanbul, originally uploaded by - di.

My much-loved Canon EOS has run hot here in Istanbul.

Most days we have spent 10 hours out taking photographs, returning to the apartment to organise and process them but I have never managed to keep up ... having taken 586 photographs on Saturday alone.

My photo folders are overflowing and after a hectic 48 hours of good people, a beautiful hotel, a niece from New Zealand, 2 kiwis who lives here, a little too much red wine on a warm Istanbul night and amazing photographic opportunities, here I am, processing and trying to put things back in order, having not even had time to view the images taken at 6.30am Saturday out on the Bosphorous.

Istanbul is one of those cities where I can't stop using my camera, it's a passion, a compulsion and a pleasure but my body is protesting.

I fly tomorrow.

I know people who know people who know people ...

And as a result, this Istanbul journey can only be described as truly remarkable.

Last night was a mix of marvellous coincidence and good friends. I introduced Lisen and Yakup to Hayden, the New Zealander of Zen Turkey.com, who has lived here forever. Over dinner and drinks, information was exchanged that will benefit both and I was happy. Maybe it's a kiwi thing but we love making connections, meeting new people, introducing people who can surely help each other while knowing that they will like each other too.

Dinner over, we were sitting outside in oldtown Sultanamet when Hayden's phone rang and another voice from my Istanbul past arrived amongst us.

I had twice travelled to Eceabat, on the Gallipoli Peninsula and taken the WWI tour with TJ. Like the lovely guys on Flanders Fields, there is nothing that TJ doesn't know about the Commonwealth soldiers left behind in the war.

He runs tours there and has some nice places to stay. You can find TJ's website here.

Met some Australians over breakfast ... need to go chat.

Gozleme Filling, Kurtulus, Istanbul

Gozleme Filling, Kurtulus, Istanbul, originally uploaded by - di.

I love gozleme.

Actually I love so many Turkish foods but potato gozleme is an absolute favourite.

Yesterday we returned to the organic market here in the city and were greeted by the lovely ladies who allowed us to photograph them making their gozleme last weekend. I've promised them copies of the photographs, it's just about organising the images and finding a print shop but anyway ...

I'm almost sure their gozleme is so good simply because so much laughter goes into the cooking of it.

Pictured are the bowls of full of gozleme filling ... the front is full of potato, then next is cheese I think and the back one was spinach and cheese. They pour some oil onto a yufka pastry that has been rolled into a big circle, add the filling, fold the pastry in half and cook the gozleme on some kind of warm metal ...

You cannot imagine what we did today ...

But I can't really tell you the details of how fabulous it was however ... but I was photographed at work in a doner kitchen .... which was something else but excellent too.

Istanbul has not only opened her arms to us, she's also whole-heartedly embracing this yabanci from yeni zelanda who knows some truly excellent people.

Istanbul Ferries

Istanbul Ferry, Princes' Island, originally uploaded by - di.

I love these old ferries, although this one doesn't look too shabby in this shot.

It costs 1 or 2euro for the hour long ride out into the Marmara Sea to the Princes' Islands. No trip to Istanbul is complete without a ferryboat ride, and I'm just as happy with the ride across the Bosphorous - from Europe to Asia.

It was a good day.

Princes' Islands

Istanbul Gull, Marmara Sea, originally uploaded by - di.

Today was one of those glorious Istanbul days - blue sky, sunshine and a trip out to the Princes' Islands on the old ferries ... and as you see, there were seagulls out wandering with us.

We spent a couple of hours exploring the beautiful tree-lined streets of Buyukada, enjoying the lovely old homes and quiet of the big island. Then we hopped back on a ferry and popped over to Heybeliada, where Lisen and Yakup have bought a house on a hill. I do believe I fell in love and once you see photographs of the view ... you surely will too.

I have already made enquiries about them adopting me.
It seems possible.
I would very much like to live in that house on the hill with beautiful view ...

Shoe-Shine, Istanbul, originally uploaded by - di.

Don't forget to add your name to the comments section on this post you would like the chance to win two of my prints.

Meanwhile, this kind man allowed me to take more than a few photographs of him at work here in Istanbul.

Past Lives and Memory ...

I struggled with how to title this post but I knew it had something to do with the nostalgia inspired by smell and a yearning for familiar things...

I woke early here in this Istanbul world and decided to get up. I've been alternatively working on photographs, with an occasional detour out into a new book I'm devouring but don't have much time to read - The Attack by Yasmina Khadra, is worth checking out if you're looking for an interesting fiction about suicide bombers.

It's too early for anyone else and there is the promise of hot fresh borek if I'm patient, so I quietly found a banana to eat while my Turkish tea stewed in the top pot.

The banana was ripe and breaking it open delivered me back, just for a moment, to my childhood of bananas bruised by their trip to the river's edge in our picnic box.

Savouring that scent here in Istanbul, so very far from the world I grew up in made me stop to think about the way that scent has been taking me 'home' lately ... the way that smell has become something akin to an album of memories I carry inside of me.

You see, there is a particular soap I use occasionally, it's one that transports me directly back to a childhood of happy visits to Nana and Grandad's Invercargill house. And a colleague of mine delights me by smoking the same cigarette brand that Nana once smoked, a long time ago. Gidon is less than excited by this fact that he reminds me of Nana sometimes ... he is younger than me.

Shampoos and conditioners pick me up and take me home but they come from so many periods of this strange life of mine ... there were those childhood toiletries, then there is that one I used in America, another was discovered in Istanbul and they too offer a surprisingly powerful journey into memory.

It's like that these days but the house is waking now - this took longer than I expected and my tea-glass needs refilled. Soon there will be piping hot borek in my tummy and here I am, creating a whole new set of memories in this different place.

You know when ...

Balloons on the Bosphorous, Istanbul, originally uploaded by - di.

You know when you're walking along the edge of the Bosphorous on a blue-sky-sunshiny-day and you discover balloons floating out on the surface of the water...?

I was stunned and may have photographed them extensively, muttering, all but incoherent with pleasure as I worked.

But that's Istanbul ... anything and everything is possible.

I'm sincerely sorry not to be blog reading and commenting during this period but last count there was almost 2000 new Istanbul images filed on my laptop. Another heavy edit is required but this city is just one huge and exciting cascade of beautiful images.

Today, the only fisherman I spoke to on Galata Bridge was from Belgium. This was a purely chance meeting as I was looking to interview one of the fishermen there and chose him because he was there with his son.

Another man spotted me photographing his pigeons in the alleyway next to the Egyptian Bazaar and took out some seriously beautiful birds for me to photograph close-up.

The shoe-shine guys allowed me to photograph them too, just to mention a few. Then there's talk of a more extensive working trip through Turkey in the months ahead but that's a whole other exciting story to be told when life isn't all about taking photographs, editing photographs, processing photographs, getting up the next day and doing it all over again.

I'm absolutely and completely enjoying being back here - wandering all over the city, catching the metro and eating the most stunning food, meeting the same warmhearted generous people I've always found here in this delicious city called Istanbul.

11.34pm and still working.
I hope all is good in your world.

Another Print Give-Away ...

Istanbul Kitty, Ortakoy, originally uploaded by - di.

Cats are a huge part of Istanbul street life and they come in all shapes and sizes, good health and bad but I love seeing them out there, owning the streets and being fed by kind Turkish people. There are dogs too.

This little kitty was comfortably seated on someone's scooter in one of my favourite Istanbul places - Ortakoy, situated almost under the first Europe-to-Asia bridge.

Anyway, if you would like to go into the draw and win two of my prints (your choice but excluding most people shots) then leave your name here in the comments section and we'll have a prize draw Tuesday 21 April.

I'll print the images up to 30x45cm, in glossy or matt and post them to your home, where ever you are in the world.

Off wandering now ... Istanbul city is calling.

A Passion for Istanbul

Garlic, Istanbul, originally uploaded by - di.

I guess this is a passion ...

Passion is all about finding some everyday ordinary person stunningly beautiful. And so it is, that this passion I have for Istanbul surely makes something as ordinary as this bunch of garlic seem extraordinarily beautiful.

Istanbul ... one of so many faces

Kebap, Istanbul, originally uploaded by - di.

This man, like so many Istanbul citizens, so very kindly allowed me to take some photographs of him at work.

Catching the Tram, Taksim, Istanbul, originally uploaded by - di.

I never ever did this either ...

Istanbul Ferry (and how not to disembark, perhaps)

Disembarking, Old Ferry Istanbul, originally uploaded by - di.

I only lived in Istanbul for two years but I never ever developed the courage to be first off the ferry ... and never ever ever jumped off like this guy.

I had heard of people being crushed between the wharf and the ferry, I know how it is with me and that kind of thing. If I tried it, I would die a slow and horrible death ... mortified.

Quietly deeply mortified, probably saying 'Sorry' with that last breath.

Ancient Sundial, Istanbul Mosque

Ancient Sundial, Istanbul Mosque, originally uploaded by - di.

I love the way ...

Shoe Repairs, Istanbul, originally uploaded by - di.

Really, I love the way that Istanbul is everything and more ...

It's post-modern and ancient, it's modern and old-fashioned, it's chaos while making perfect sense.

This gentleman was kind enough to allow me to photograph him in his shop.

Today ...

windows in a church, Istanbul, originally uploaded by - di.

Today we have a letter giving us permission to photograph the mosques here in Istanbul.

Sunshine here and an exciting day planned.

Stories to follow ...

Haydarpasa Railway station, Istanbul

Railway station, Istanbul, originally uploaded by - di.

On a grey day, light was like gold ...

I loved this railway station on the Asian-side of Istanbul.

Nurbanu Validei Atik Sultan Camii, Istanbul

Mosque, Istanbul, originally uploaded by - di.

The public space in mosques is often both beautiful and peaceful - this space surely fulfilled my expectations.

Wandering in Asia ...

Blue Boat, Istanbul, originally uploaded by - di.

We're not long in from 12 hours spent exploring the Asian-side of Istanbul.

Yakup drove and we visited all kinds of sites as we travelled all the way to the Black Sea to explore an ancient castle on a hilltop there.

I have 500 images to download, resize, organise and ... on it goes.

We ate ... we ate all day long.
Turkish food is surely the best food in the world. There's a huge range of choices, it's always beautifully prepared, the customer service is stunning and well ... photographs to follow, on the new website ;)

Galata Bridge, Istanbul

Galata Bridge, Istanbul, originally uploaded by - di.

I love this bridge.

It halfway through a route that I love, the fishermen are always there providing the area with a really nice energy, and I'm crossing the Bosphorous when I'm on it.

This was Friday ... back on the bridge.

This ...

making gozleme II, Istanbul, originally uploaded by - di.

is how you make gozleme.

Or how you begin.

Gozleme, Istanbul

making gozleme, Istanbul, originally uploaded by - di.

I love gozleme, and we had breakfast at the organic market, here in the city of Istanbul, this morning.

This woman was so very kind to this yeni zelanda and the camera she was toting ...

Who wouldn't love this?

Istanbul Fountain, Sultanahmet, Istanbul, originally uploaded by - di.

Istanbul is being so good to us.

Today Lisen and I interviewed a Roma fashion designer (and I bought little Miss 4 a stunning blue dancing costime.

We started the day eating stunningly excellent gozleme at the organic market, a tasty kofte lunch at Ayvansaray -and, took incredible photographs all day because the people and the sights we saw were simply incredible.

A stunning stunning day, here in the city of Istanbul.

Huge thanks to Lisen and Yakup, the best host and hostess a person could wish for.

The 'Welcome to Istanbul 'cat, Taksim, Istanbul

Istanbul cat, originally uploaded by - di.

Did you know, cats own the streets of Istanbul. I love it of course, and this one was particularly friendly, nudging my wide-angle lens as part of it's 'oh-my-god-you-are-so-yummy-you-must-pat-me-NOW!

First Morning - Istanbul

I'm writing this, 8am on my first morning back in Istanbul. The air is a little chill after the blue-sky warmth of yesterday but I love it. It's fresh, people are walking by and across the road the pharmacist … the eczane, is opening his store.

Istanbul is breaking open. There are new leaves on the trees and yesterday, tulips in full-bloom lined the coastal highway we took back into the city.

Did I mention how good it is to be back here?

Last night, Lisen and Yakup created a Turkish meze kind of meal for us. A cold meal of many plates, to be accompanied by Raki … it was delicious, as is most Turkish food.

The sweet flavour-filled tomatoes were cut into wedges, drizzled with good oil, basil and salt. There was a lovely potato salad with parsley and dill. A cold red lentil and bulgar patty that was so very good. We had a little Passchendaele cheese, brought in from the flatlands, served together with Turkish salami and a stringy Turkish cheese that is a huge favourite of mine. Olives marinated in some lovely concoction of herbs and oil, hummus, a yoghurt and herb dip, bread – with another saucer of herb-enhanced oil for dipping.

This morning, as I write this, Lisen is cooking my most favourite of Turkish foods – borek - layers of thin pastry cooked with cheese and herbs. My cup runneth over and we haven't been here 24 hours yet.

And having written such loving descriptions of the food, you need to know that the food isn't my big Istanbul passion. I love the city even more and today I'm heading into the city that fills another part of my soul ...

We'll be wandering in Taksim, with a visit to Robinson Crusoe – a favourite bookshop, the flower passage, Galata Tower for that 360 degree view over the city with the Bosphorus and the Marmara Sea below. Galata Bridge and the fishermen leaning over the edge, the probably through into Sultanahmet with Haghia Sophia, the Blue Mosque.

Today is a day for full-immesion in this stunningly beautiful crazy-busy city I love.

Photos to follow.

a transaction between a dad and his son, originally uploaded by - di.

Riding the ragged edge of disaster ...

Who knows what compels me to over-commit myself...

Making my way through the list to be done within the next 24 hours, having taken the slowest train in the world home from work this evening, bringing work with me.

The fast hourly Amsterdam train was cancelled for reasons unknown and I lucked out with a train that took twice as long. We were all struggling to stay awake after the 470th stop.

The bright spot in this self-created chaos?
I'm meeting a Belgian blogger tomorrow ... a Belgian blogger blogging out of New Zealand.

Flat Stanley will be riding with me through my mad chaotic world. Here's to getting on with a little more of his Belgian story before he flies off to Istanbul.

Anger

There's an excellent article over on Marianne's blog - Zen and the Art of Peacekeeping. I borrowed the following quote from her:
“Anybody can become angry,” Aristotle wrote, “that is easy; but to be angry with the right person, and to the right degree, and at the right time, and for the right purpose, and in the right way, that is not within everybody’s power, that is not easy.”

Aristotle’s voice is reasoned but difficult to hear. Emerging from the most violent century in human history, we are much quicker to recall examples of anger tied to physical abuse, violence and discrimination. Surely, we think, anger must be removed entirely from our lives. And yet, Saint Thomas Aquinas ... commended an anger which ... can, when governed by reason and will, be called “morally excellent.”
Anger is a neutral and necessary force—for moral excellence, for authentic mercy and justice—pulsing within every human heart which sees and senses that something is not right. To borrow a common metaphor, we are “hard-wired” with anger. Erasing it from our lives would leave us defenseless and voiceless in the face of evil. Anger is a traveling companion of courage on the road to justice and truth.

I try to imagine a world where no anger stirs men and women to dream and to bring about the impossible. ... It is a far crueler and more inhumane world than what we know today, for it is a world without William Wilberforce, Martin Luther King, Jr., Mahatma Gandhi, Alexander Solzhenitsyn, Mother Teresa…"

Packing for Istanbul

Today is the beginning of packing for Istanbul ... packing the camera equipment and associated tangle of card readers, chargers, lenses and other important 'stuff ... but wait, then there's the notes and reminders, website addresses and interviews', voice recorder and all things associated because the plan is that I will load and launch the new website from Turkey.

And then, in the true spirit of climbing Mount Everest-like endeavours, I'm also writing and mailing the NGO's bi-monthly newsletter while over there - my Brussels job travels quite nicely thank you.

And Istanbul ... ?
Well it's all about a series of huge day-long photography missions in that city I love so well. This morning I received news of two exciting new finds to be photographed and also included was the news that permission to photograph details are being carried out in advance of arrival. So much simpler than being harassed about the tripod in Haghia Sophia.

So today is Stage 1, the piles of papers, lenses, wires and oh ... some clothes too.

Tot ziens.

Running with sheep ...

So you can run with the bulls in Spain OR ... you can attend The Running of the Sheep back home in New Zealand, although a word of caution, a woman was knocked unconscious during the event this year when a few sheep ran amok.

You can't begin to imagine how dangerous it was to grow up back there ...

An extract: Safety arrangements at New Zealand's answer to Spain's "Running of the Bulls" - the "Running of the Sheep" - is being reviewed after hundreds of the animals ran amok through Te Kuiti injuring a spectator yesterday.

They leapt over barriers designed to keep them on the main street and protect 7000 spectators who turned up to watch the annual event.

All semblance of order completely broke down, the sheep crossing the main road and the rail track before heading into the hills.

Just playing with fotos from Rome

Rome fresco , originally uploaded by - di.

The Australians.

Post 4001 ...

I didn't realise but I guess it's more than possible. I started this back in November 2005 and I've done a few things since then.

But today ... today was a good day spent wandering with 2 lovely Australian scientists who are settling into a new life here in the flatlands.

And it turns out that they are great travellers. I learned that I must try and visit Veliko Tarnovo in Bulgaria - a relatively straight-forward train trip from Istanbul and that Mount Chimaera must go onto my to-visit list for one day.

I could write a long post about how much I enjoyed the company of two people who approach life in a way that completely charmed me ... but I won't, not today. It seems like something one asks permission to do.

Maybe next time, if I ask first. I'm hoping to organise one of our parties in May. There might be a couple of weekends when I'm in town ... let's see it.

A busy day

wandering, originally uploaded by - di.

Late afternoon found me sitting at the outdoor cafe in Rivierenhof - a beautiful park here in the city. I was meeting the family I was photographing there.

They were 3 children late but it was fine because I know how it is to try and get 3 children ready to go out after they've had a long day at school.

And it was hot here ... really hot!
Outdoor cafe hot weather.
Quite remarkable and all but forgotten over winter.

I'm reading the second of John Simpson's books and loving it too. News from No Man's Land is another collection of stories John found and experienced out on BBC Road.

The photography session went beautifully chaotically well but for my ripped pants that no one mentioned until I found the tear myself ... One serious paper clip patch-up job later and we were back at work.

I've been working on the photographs tonight and I'm pleased.
Tired though ...

Tot ziens from this kiwi living in Belgie.

Madness and mayhem ... or is that just everyday life?

So Gert had a doctor's appointment this morning. He's had the most agonising shoulder/chest pain and it wasn't going away. Next thing I knew, he was phoning me from the tram on the way to the hospital - an x-ray was needed, just to make sure it was nerve pain and not a popped thingyamejig in his lung.

The diagnosis: a repetitive strain from doing the exercises that were helping his back.
Result: serious painkillers for a few days.

His 12 year old son had arrived last night, with another bout of the vomiting bug.Bloodtests were called for as he had been sick with the same thing a week or two ago.

The diagnosis: low iron and blood sugar. Jessie and I have been nagging for ages, as this 21st century kid only allows certain foods to pass by his lips and they surely lack anything valuable in the field of iron.

Little Miss 4 was complaining that she would vomit before breakfast this morning. I might have been teasing her about 'which bowl?' - the sieve or the plastic one, simply because she's been playing with the notion of vomiting lately.

We're now calling the incident Revenge of Last Night's Easter Eggs here at the apartment. One moment I was laughing about bowls, next horror-filled moment, I was sprinting towards her as she vomited all over the couch and the carpet.

You see, Jessie woke up with a powerful headache and neck, possibly after working hard in our balcony garden last night. She was bed-bound for a few hours, Miss 4 seemed to be playing along with the whole ziekenhuis thing.

But no ...

It's been an interesting and unusual few hours.

Meanwhile I'm preparing my gear for a family photography session at the park soon.

Sunshine and warmth.
It's not a bad kind of day and slowly but surely, everyone is reporting back in from the land of the ill and infirm.

Hands, originally uploaded by - di.

No one is born hating another person because of the color of his skin, or his background, or his religion. People must learn to hate, and if they can learn to hate, they can be taught to love, for love comes more naturally to the human heart than its opposite.
Nelson Mandela.

Thank you to Yoli, over at Musings.

Home ... in a way that I remember

Imagine if someone described your old world this well ... this heartbreakingly beautifully that you recognised it, without even imagining that might be where she was.

Wouldn't you be homesick too?

Helen Clark, the new head of the United Nations development programme

Helen Clark, originally uploaded by - di.

Back in January, I was fortunate enough to spend some time wandering Flanders Fields with Helen Clark, the then ex-prime minister of New Zealand.

I was talking to my sister tonight and Sands mentioned that John Campbell had interviewed Helen about her new position head of the United Nations development programme, the most senior position ever held by a New Zealander at the UN.

Apparently she received a standing ovation from political friends and foes alike as they celebrated a politician who was prime minister for nine years, Labour leader for 15 and an MP for almost three decades.

You can view the Campbell Live interview with Helen Clark in Labour's caucus room at Parliament by clicking here, and you will surely see why it was such a pleasure to meet her.

From Loreena McKennitt, The Book of Secrets

Thanks, Barbara.
I loved it.

The secret, originally uploaded by - di.

ANZAC Day, 2009 in Belgium

ANZAC Day commemorations in Belgium will be held on Saturday 25 April 2009 in Mesen (Messines) and Ieper (Ypres) in West Flanders, Belgium.

You can find out more about events over on the New Zealand Embassy website.

The Flanders 1917 website also has information. Martin writes: Carleen Ebbs, a young award-winning New Zealand lyric coloratura soprano, will sing at the ANZAC Day services in Flanders this year.

She will sing at the Dawn Service at Buttes New British Cemetery, Polygon Wood organised by Zonnebeke, the official New Zealand ANZAC Day service at the New Zealand Memorial Messines, and at the combined New Zealand - Australian service at the Menin Gate in Ypres.

Carleen completed a Masters of Vocal Studies with Distinction at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama in London after obtaining a Masters of Music at Victoria University of Wellington.

Homegrown Events - ANZAC Day in Holland

Kiwis/Aussies & friends of Antipodeans,

A quick update on the next big event... ANZAC Day Concert at Bitterzoet, Amsterdam - Sat 25 April, 2009.

Entertainment provided by 2 great acts: Yakuza Smile (Aus) & Mike Berry (NZ).

Click here for more details.

Sigh ... my life.

So going to the bathroom is just one of those things people do ...

Not so in my apartment, no no no.
One should never relax, not for a moment.

I wandered up the hall, noting that Gert had left the bathroom light on after showering, smiling over the mocking I might have been thinking of giving him, as he's so much better at being an adult than I am and sometimes gives small lectures on the apartment being lit up.

I rounded the corner and wandered into the big bathroom only to fall back, clutching at my chest, gasping in fright ... there's Little Miss 4, sitting on the toilet like a cute little elf.

Normal enough you think but no, little Miss 4 has just entered into that period of no more night-time nappies. Winter was long and cold and grey, spring seems more ideal for those sheets accidentally wet.

Fright over, I was so proud of her.

Then she reached up to me, eyes pretty much closed, with something pinched between two fingers, 'Here, you can have this.'

I was naturally wary, suspecting she might be gifting me a bogey, or a snottebel , Flemish for the long wet snot that hangs from a childs nose but so amusing a word that we kiwis now use it when talking of bogeys in general - not that we do that kind of thing regularly.

How could I have so misjudged my granddaughter?
She was handing me one of the plastic diamonds she had stuck to her earlobes today ... or perhaps it was the one from the middle of her forehead.

Anyway, what can I say but 'this is my life ...chaotic delicious unexpected and oftentimes amusing.'

An Angel, Rome, originally uploaded by - di.

I learned this, at least, by my experiment:
that if one advances confidently in the direction of his dreams,
and endeavors to live the life which he has imagined,
he will meet with a success unexpected in common hours.

He will put some things behind,
will pass an invisible boundary;
new, universal, and more liberal laws
will begin to establish themselves around and within him;
or the old laws be expanded,
and interpreted in his favor in a more liberal sense,
and he will live with the license of a higher order of beings.

In proportion as he simplifies his life,
the laws of the universe will appear less complex,
and solitude will not be solitude,
nor poverty poverty,
nor weakness weakness.

If you have built castles in the air,
your work need not be lost;
that is where it should be.
Now put the foundations under them.
Walden, Thoreau, 1854.

Borrowed from Gypsy Girl's Guide, a delicious blog rediscovered.

Remembering Tom, Raffaele Ciriello and a few of the others ...

Tom Hurndall had stayed in Rafah. He was only 21 where – in his mother's words – he lost his life through a single, selfless, human act. "Tom was shot in the head as he carried a single Palestinian child out of the range of an Israeli army sniper."

On Saturday, Robert Fisk wrote an article on Tom under the sub-heading, I wish I had met Tom Hurndall, a remarkable man of remarkable principle.

You see, there's me, who writes about the Middle East situation from the safety of home and then there was Tom Hurndall, following up his words and beliefs with action.

BBC made an interesting documentary over here. And News Safety reported on the killing of an award winning film maker, James Miller, by the IDF.

Iain Hook was shot in the back by a sniper with a scoped rifle, from a distance of 20 meters. Co-workers evacuated Hook through the hole in the wall made by militants, but he died of a gunshot wound to the abdomen before reaching a hospital.

Then there were the 4 UN observers: It said the four, from Austria, Canada, China and Finland, had taken shelter in a bunker under the post after it was earlier shelled 14 times by Israeli artillery. A rescue team was also shelled as it tried to clear the rubble. You don't want to research this one, as the killing was a drawn-out but wikipedia has covered it here.

"An Israeli bombardment killed four United Nations Observers, despite multiple warnings by UN peacekeeper. The peacekeepers at the post said the area within a kilometer of the post was hit with precision munitions, including 17 bombs and 12 artillery shells, four of which directly hit the UN observation post. The fatal strike with a "precision-guided weapon" according to UN military personnel hit the post at about 7.20pm. The victims were Austrian, Canadian, Chinese and Finnish UN-observers.

I became aware of this no or very small consequence style of killing when Raffaele Ciriello was shot by the IDF a few years ago. I had just found his website when I learned he was already dead.

The Guardian newspaper mentions it here.

I suspect it's going to be even more important to speak out with the newly-forming right-wing Israeli government. I hope things work out differently but let's not forget the past and the people who died trying to make a difference either by turning up to help or telling the less talked about side of the story.

The oddest thing ...

Gert and I ate out tonight, as he had a last-minute meeting to attend and not enough time between work ending and the meeting beginning to come home and return to the city.

We were having a lovely time at our second-favourite eating-out place when my phone rang.

It was a Turkish guy I know from the integration centre and his English isn't so good and my Nederlands and Turkish are 'interesting' when it comes to conversation so his English-speaking friend came on the line and translated for him.

You see, he had wanted to tell me that he was visiting Istanbul in April and wondered if I wanted him to bring anything on his return.

We talked some more ... it turns out that we'll be travelling on the same flight on the same day at the same hour.

There are 10 million people in Belgium and at least 14 million people in Istanbul and here we are, on the same plane by chance.

No paparazzi

No paparazzi, originally uploaded by - di.

Mother of the cutest thing ...

Mother of the cutest thing ..., originally uploaded by - di.

This mother hippo watched me for ages, letting me take photographs and then her hippo kidlet surfaced and I was torn between the extreme cuteness of the little one and this incredible eye contact with the mother hippo ...

The cutest thing ...

the cutest thing ..., originally uploaded by - di.

I thought his mum was lovely, as she eyed me and my camera as I photographed her in the indoor pool at the zoo ... and I had seen a small snout surface for air but didn't imagine a baby hippo could be quite so cute!

Monday ...

early morning light, roma, originally uploaded by - di.

My body aches this morning and so, like a cat, I'm sitting here in the sun in the quiet of an apartment empty of people, with Louie and Ella Fitzgerald singing April in Paris, just being ... and writing this because for some odd reason, I find writing this blog relaxing.

The latest project is a Flat Stanley project for furiousball's son and so today is about heading into the city with Flat Stanley and showing him around; introducing him to the giants in Antwerpen's history and we think we'll go to the castle on the edge of the river too ... with the camera which makes everything so much more fun.

Jessie's quite keen to take Stan to our zoo - rumoured to be the oldest in Europe, I need to check that. Her antibiotics are kicking in finally and I'm hoping this is a turning point after so long with the cold/flu thing.

As of last night, my niece has all the information I could think of for her 5 French cities project, with any photographs I had and ... a drum roll moment... my sister's birthday present is on its way to her for 5 April.

I'm an unreliable creature and so it's always a drum-roll moment when I manage to co-ordinate things like birthdays and other important events.

Working all weekend left me a physical ruin, as my ergonomic situation would make people who know about these things throw their hands in the air in horror. I always think 'just this time and then I'll fix it' ...

Late last night found me working through photographs with the intention of finally filling the IKEA frames I bought during a moment of financial well-being. It took hours and turned out that my favourite photographs almost all came from the Rome trip, with some Genova photographs making the cut too. It seems the obsession with beautiful Italy continues and is deeply real. I looked through almost every photograph I have and have a bridge series in early morning Roman light, as seen above.

I love light, I get excited when the light is right but don't ever try to have a technical discussion with me about it. It's an instinct that I'm learning more about every week but explaining it all ... ufff!

Istanbul in 10 days.
2 weeks of taking photographs of that beloved city, with a side-trip to return to Gallipoli and another set of battlefields my grandfather fought on, I hope.

I return to unpack and repack for ANZAC commemorations on Flanders Fields, still following Granddad's footsteps ... a fact that would have undoubtedly stunned him had he still been alive. He was with the Otago Mounted Rifles and they were in Gallipoli, then Egypt and then on the Somme - where he was injured and his horse killed. After the Somme they came over to Belgium and were involved in the Battle of Messines Ridge - a landscape I have become so familiar with over time.

But anyway, enough rambling, camera gear to pack ...
I hope you have a lovely day where ever you are.
Tot straks.

Ms V, Blogger and ...

I really loved this post by Ms V over on her blog ... Compost Studios - The Art of Life, and decided to send it on out into the world.

If you go down to railway station, you never know what you will find ...

Martin mailed me a link to this Antwerpen Railway Station event . There was me thinking the long conversation Clare and I had with the guy in the yellow tuxedo at central station was a little out of the ordinary ...

Processed the lovely Belgian politician's photographs and burned to cd.
Loaded the Ides of March Rome Run onto another flickr account, burned cd.
Starting on Clare's photographs now ... found Keith Urban during a timeout in the New York Times. We're working well together.

This made me laugh. I keep searching new Urban songs on youtube.
I could be some time.

I complain about housework but I'm glad this isn't my place ...

I'm not sure I would take kindly to that kind of treatment.

How the day ended ...

The photo-shoot went so well. I'm rapt with the results as viewed so far.

The antibiotics have kicked in and Jessie is out of bed, still taking painkillers for the headache but just seeming a little brighter.

Miss 4 ... well, an sms came in during the outdoor section of the shoot.
Was I picking Miss 4 up from kindy?

Oh my goodness ... I had lost track of time, common enough with me and photography but this wasn't so good. Rain was starting to fall, we were wrapping things up anyway and as I phoned about for a solution to my late arrival, my client offered to rush back to the car and take me there.

Miss 4 was duly rescued, on time, horrible gran that I am.

Jessie's recovery was timely because ... this morning, on my way to kindy with Miss 4, strangers stopped me in the street and without English showed me Jessie's Belgian identity card and year-long bus ticket, taped to the inside of a closed shop. It seems they recognised Miss 4, maybe me. It's like that with the early morning school crowd I guess.

Anyway, Jessie's the only one who can pick it up ... me not being her and all that.

It's been a day.

But the photography ... that! made it all worthwhile.

Just so you know ...

Did you know, if you rush the cleaning and have unreasonable standards for what is achievable, you will knock over that half-full cup of coffee on the breakfast table; the vacuum cleaner lid will somehow come undone and you will have to work with it open ... like some weird little robot creature. The wind will find all the pot plant containers you thought you had secured on the balcony and blow them out in front of the huge windows in the lounge again. The clothes-horse may follow, you know this ...laden with clothes. You will probably also find more dust than you knew due to the complication of having to clean everywhere because lounge suites, carpets and other furniture will be moved during the photo-shoot.

You know all this ...

A little later and I discovered this has hugely magical properties if played loudly while mopping the floor.

Just so you know that too ... if you didn't already.

Madly disorganised chaotic Me.

I seem to have some kind of Olympian dream happening with regards to just how much I can get done in a given week. Some demon inside me keeps saying yes, or even putting my hand up when I should be quietly stepping back and working on the new website or on marketing my photography. The same demon finds every person I meet interesting and knows there is a story in them.

Questioning myself hasn't worked out.
I'm an evasive creature when it comes to serious conversations with myself. And yes, I really do know that exercise and healthy eating is vital, I just don't have time for it.

My daughter has had a cold/flu for almost a month now. One of those ones that take you by the respiratory system and throw you on the bed, slamming you with headaches, body aches and lots of gunk that insists on coming out. A flu that comes and goes at will, one that the doctor finally said 'Enough!!'to and prescribed some hard-hitting antibiotics.

Little Miss 4 has missed 4 days of kindy due to a heating system failure.
We would walk there in the morning and ... come back home.
Walk there in the morning ... and come back home.

This morning Gert phoned and voila, the heating is fixed and I am faced with a quiet day EXCEPT for the politician popping over for a photo-shoot just after midday.

And that's lovely but for the fact that I like doing photo-shoots here in the lounge. The light is grand, the background perfect, I have my step-ladder close by and all of that however ... my lounge has also been Miss 4-ed and that's less pretty than you can imagine.

I have a couple of hours of intensive cleaning ahead of me I think, just to get it somewhere close to the standard of sterile photo studio.

Today is the first day without rain in days.
Did I mention that our clothes dryer broke about 2 weeks ago. It might be fixable but Gert destroyed his back and I've been running around like a crazy thing. We need to pull the dryer out of our very small laundry room and see if it's salvageable, then decide on what to do next.

Today's sunshine means that loads of washing are spinning as I write, destined for the clothes line out on the balcony.

I processed all of the Rome run photographs and posted them to Facebook because I haven't had time to open a new flickr account for them. Crazy but true and I'm not sure the guy in Rome understands how that might be possible but the fields to fill out just drove me crazy when I tried to do it in a hurry.

Recently, I had excitedly promised my much-loved niece information for her project on France. I finished at midnight last night, running late on my self-set deadline and wished it had been as simple as turning up at her place to work with her in my sister's beautiful dining room area back home in New Zealand. I miss my nieces. They are people who make me so proud.

Yesterday was the dentist, one broken tooth to be repaired at the end of April. She cleaned and polished my teeth and later, that really hurt. I sat down for a moment in the afternoon and fell asleep.

Yesterday was 3 trips to the supermarket, dental floss pre-dental visit, post-finding out kindy was closed again. Then there was the chocolate donut visit as a reward for little Miss 4 because she was so good at the dentist and I had to buy some supplies for dinner, and then out again for orange juice for her mum at the end of the day when I went out to pick up her antibiotics but ... forgot her social security card and so had to go home and out again. 8euro with the card, 25euro without.

My desk is covered in travel books and invoices for my taxes and cds and dvds for burning photographs on and chargers for various pieces of equipment and skype headphones and books and papers and it's buried ... so completely buried.

Last night I opened the red wine at the end of what has felt like a long week while I was cooking dinner and the cork had white stuff on it, mould I think. Gert tasted it later and pronounced it 'dodgy'(his New Zealand speak is coming along nicely thank you) so that was the end of the last bottle of wine.

My life feels like many lives, often in one day. I imagine that's most peoples reality but sometimes I really really struggle with all this reality.

This post was just so you know that I travel, I have nice adventures but I lead a madly disorganised chaotic life most of the rest of the time.

I hope things are good in your world today.

Fountain Fish, Rome, originally uploaded by - di.

Literary Life is more exhausting nervously, than most, because it works with nothing definite or regular, it is a continuous improvisation of reality out of illusions and fantasy, without set limit or hours. One needs to provide substance and duties to the life.
Ted Hughes, poet

Castel Sant'Angelo II, Rome

Castel Sant'Angelo II, Rome, originally uploaded by - di.

I used to sit on the banks with a raft and watch the water roll lazily by. One day I pushed my raft into the shallows of the water and found the water moved swifter than I thought. My raft was actually a boat. Then, after some time, I rowed my little boat into deeper water. There were great storms, mighty winds, tremendous waves, and sometimes I felt so alone. But I have noticed my little rowboat is now a mighty ship manned by my friends and loved ones; and beautiful calm seas, warm sunny days, and nights filled with comfortable dreams always double after a storm. Now, I could never go back and sit on the bank. In fact, I search for deeper water. Such is life when lived.
B.D. Gulledge

Thank you, Raquel.

My head on the pillow in Abu Hazim's house. Another home for the traveler, another pillow for the head. My relationship with place is in truth a relationship with time. I move in patches of time, some I have lost and some I possess for a while and then I lose because I am always without a place. I try to regain a personal time that has passed. Nothing that is absent ever comes back complete. Nothing is recaptured as it was.

'Ein al-Deir is not a place, it is a time. Evidence of the last rain that we can see on our shoes even though our eyes tell us it has dried. The thorns of the brambles trained our hands and our sides to bleed early when we were children returning home at sunset to our mothers. Do I want to scramble through brambles now? No, what I want is the time of scrambling. 'Ein al-Deir is specifically the time of Mourid as a child
Mourid Barghouti, from I Saw Ramallah

And so it is ...

Writing requires, for me, not only the actual time when I am writing, but a span of time for dreaming, taking notes, reading, meditating in the bathtub, walking alone.

That peripheral time is just as crucial.
Frances Mayes, author of Under the Tuscan Sun.
- interview extract from Salon Travel.

You know those days when a Guru stops you on a city street?

It was one of those days today ...

I had spent the morning with Marc, a hugely talented Belgian photographer whose BBC English is better than my kiwi and panoramic photography that just astounds me. He's getting into 3D now.

The afternoon was about picking up two spare batteries that had finally arrived for the Canon 5D and about putting in one of the sample photographs for the art series in Berlin and then, the guru approached me.

Hasher's Hand, Rome

Hasher's Hand, Rome, originally uploaded by - di.

An abundance, with some madness.

In Brussels at work all day today and I'm already so behind on everything ... posting, replying to peoples kind comments, reading the blogs of others and commenting there too, loading my new website, processing photographs from a variety of shoots, organising the trip to Istanbul in April and then a return that sees me unpacking and repacking overnight just in time to spend a couple of days taking some photographs of ANZAC Day on Flanders Fields. May to Italy to visit with friends and a promise of Pompei, then Italy again in July.

My to-do list officially hit slightly disturbing tonight.

I hope you can bear with me, just while I try to sort out this crazy delicious messed up life of mine.

Tot straks.

The Aussie II

The Aussie II, originally uploaded by - di.

Gert painted a wall in his lounge area bright orange and it turns out that this is a fabulous backdrop colour.

I never know who it will suit and was almost sure that it wasn't Clare however ...

The Aussie

The Aussie, originally uploaded by - di.

The problem with hanging out with me is that stand still for more than 3 seconds and you will be photographed.

Note: This is not a reciprocal thing ...

So today we were heading for Brussels, prior to Clare leaving on a train for London. We had a schedule, a plan and we prepared to leave but the weather did that thing where it rained and the sky was greyer than grey so we decided to drop Brussels and do Antwerp.

But somehow, it happened that I had this crazy idea to photo-shoot Clare. She was wary but came round in the end and well ... I'm rapt with some of the photographs.

This is her ... unphotoshopped.
Beautiful eh!

Spiegelzuil 1981 by Michel Martens

Spiegelzuil 1981 by Michel Martens, originally uploaded by - di.

I fell completely in love with this piece of art, happened-upon today in Middelheim Open-Air Museum, Antwerpen.

Strange and wonderful scenes, Middelheim, Antwerpen

Strange and wonderful scenes, Middelheim, Antwerpen, originally uploaded by - di.

Clare and I spent a very happy couple of hours wandering around the amazing Middelheim Open Air Museum park here in Antwerpen - meeting Gert in the pub in the park later.

This photograph emerged from this rather stunning installation called 'Belgian Fun', by Dan Graham - 2004.

It's interesting in that it gives me motion-sickness if I look through these glass or plastic sheets as I walk into the installation. I can only look with the camera to my eye but the effects ... oh how I liked this.

Clare, in Spiegelzuil

Clare, in Spiegelzuil, originally uploaded by - di.

Clare and I first met in Istanbul, she saved me from that period where my new school 'forgot' to find me an apartment until just before the students arrived for the new year.

She took me in as that creature who slept on the couch. It was one of my happiest periods of time over in Istanbul actually but you can see from the laughter captured in this photograph that she's excellent company.

As for the photograph ... there was this mirror column in the middle of Middelheim open-air stature park here in Antwerpen.

Amsterdam ... on an impulse.

2CV, originally uploaded by - di.

Clare and I had an excellent day wandering Amsterdam streets today.
18euro each way and a day spent with an Australian.
An excellent day full of good food, a sad visit to the house of Anne Frank, balanced out by finally finding a jasmine plant here in the low countries.

A beautiful spring day and the sighting of a rare fushia pink 2CV.

I hope your day was as good!

A favourite friend ...

the Photographer, originally uploaded by - di.

The Aussie arrives tomorrow morning, one of the sweetest people you could hope to meet. Sweet in a strong intelligent way, and an incredibly talented wanderer with the heart of a lioness.

This photograph was taken last time she was here ... far too long ago, and as usual, we have photography high on our things-to-do list.

Work today, with a small break for coffee and conversation with Paola.

Tonight I'm feeling incredibly lucky know more than a few really excellent people.

Bubble Girl

Bubble Girl, originally uploaded by - di.

I wandered Rome with some lovely people.

We had bubble mixture and this moment happened ...

This place ...

Castel Sant'Angelo II, Rome, originally uploaded by - di.

Can you tell that I love this place ...

Doorway, Castel Sant'Angelo

Castel Sant'Angelo, Rome, originally uploaded by - di.

This ... is my favourite doorway in the world, so far.

I keep returning.