Pay it forward

One of the fastest growing 'hypes' I've seen over the past 24 hours is the 'Suspended Coffees' (in Dutch Uitgestelde Koffie).  A new way to to help somebody in need.  Everyone can help, by either paying in advance a hot beverage - or even some food - for people who need it and cannot afford it.

I love the idea, and I am not the only one, as all social media seem to have picked up this story.  In Oostende, one group of people started to implement the idea for coffee and hot soup.

I just hope my local cafés and brasseries will pick up on this and help as well.  The only thing I can do right now is just share the idea - you can as well so please share !

We'll see how it pans out.

Marleen

International Day of Happiness

March 20 - International Day of Happiness.

Established by the General Assembly of the United Nations on June 28, 2012.

Conscious that the pursuit of happiness is a fundamental human goal...

What is happiness and why do we need a special day to celebrate it?  According to happinessinternational.org happiness is when your life fulfills your needs.  And the road to happiness is

• Change your needs to fit your life
• Change your life to fit your needs

Simple words, but quite a challenge.

Trapped (Oostende, a couple of years ago)

Marleen

Ice Cold

Ice cold 

Waking up 

Wet face 

Bedding balled up somewhere on the floor 

Strange wars being fought out during the night 

No winners 

Crushing elevators and angry men 

Running without escape 

Emptiness 

Thankful for morning light.

Marleen

This night too will pass

This night too will pass (photo 2008)

Ich will mit dem gehen, den ich liebe.
Ich will nicht ausrechnen, was es kostet.
Ich will nicht nachdenken, ob es gut ist.
Ich will nicht wissen, ob er mich liebt.
Ich will mit ihm gehen, den ich liebe.

Bertolt Brecht

I want to go with the one I love.

I do not want to calculate the cost.

I do not want to think about whether it's good.

I do not want to know whether he loves me.

I want to go with whom I love. 

Bertolt Brecht

Marleen

Long Winter

Just a little more patience needed to welcome the spring 2013.

Due to the snowstorm today,  more than 1600 km traffic jam in Belgium - a new record.  Trains have been cancelled to and from Brussels late in the morning.  I wonder how the commuters will get home today.

Studio - playing with ice

Lucky me, I am teleworking today and can write a little blog during lunchtime :-)

Marleen

Presents in life

So happy to know

Company and a good real life talk is just a phonecall away.


Marleen

Get Rhythm

Get Rhythm When You Get Blues as Ry Cooder sang in 1987 - although this is a cover of a Johnny Cash song.

Hey, get rhythm when you get the blues

Come on, get rhythm when you get the blues

Get a rock 'n' roll feelin' in your bones

Put taps on your toes and get gone

Get rhythm when you get the blues

Studio shot, trying to capture movement

So we try, even if tomorrow there will be a different kind of ever increasing work rhythm at play.

Marleen



PS interested in seeing more ?  Visit my photostream.

Color

After a promise of spring, another very grey and gloomy day.

I want colors and light !

Tomatoes on my kitchen table (on a day with a tad more light)

Marleen



PS interested in seeing more ?  Visit my photostream.

Friendship

Some pictures don't need words.  Like this one.  I think the expression on the faces tell everything which needs to be told.  It's about the emotion being captured.

Taken a couple of years ago in my neighborhood.  An area labelled 'the ghetto' by some of my new city council members.

Damn proud to live here.

Friendship

Marleen



PS interested in seeing more ?  Visit my photostream.

March

March, month of hope.

Hope of some warmth, the beginning of spring, if we are lucky.  This year's winter seems to have been extremely long, but it is probably just a perception.

Hope to be able to shed the extra layers of bedding, and live in longer days.  Hope to enjoy the first rays of spring on a sidewalk cafe, or -even better- to take a walk in the woods.  Hope to see the best colors of the year, with the delicate greens, indicating the new life there is after the temporary death or rest of winter.

Let it come.

Hallerbos in spring

Marleen


PS interested in seeing more ?  Visit my photostream.

Invisibility

When going to the railway station an early morning last week, a couple of young guys literally ran into me.  Hard as well.  My first thoughts were pickpockets but no, they had not seen me (an apology would have been nice).

Invisible

Surveys have shown that women over 46 become "invisible".   They get run into, overlooked, and feel it as well.  Ever thought about all the botox, nips and tucks this generation so willingly undergoes?  The efforts being made into looking younger?

Supposedly, it is a genetic thing, men's brains wired to look at young fertile women and oversee the older ones.

Funnily enough, about the time women turn 60, they become a little more visible again, but then as 'old ladies', senior citizens.  Although these days 60-year olds are still fit and active, our brains still haven't caught up with the new reality.

So I suppose the only thing I can do is stand tall, take and fill my space, and make sure I am not overlooked.

Marleen

PS interested in seeing more ?  Visit my photostream.

Patterns and bragging rights

People who know me well and my photography know how I love to photograph geometric shapes and patterns.  Even better when there is just one little disturbing element in them.  Seeing these almost "picture-perfect" shapes make my day, especially since I never arrange a scene in my photography.

Being Belgian I was raised to be humble, not to blow my own horn, even not to mention your own success.

One of the 30 pictures on Nikon's photobooth.

On my birthday last month, I received an email from Nikon Belgium, asking if they could use one of my photographs on their photobooth during the Photo Business Days, in Brussels on February 24-25, 2013.

Of course I said yes, imagine my pride and gratitude, thinking of my picture being one of the 30 images displayed in their booth.

Writing about this is yet another broken pattern.

Marleen

Goodbyes

Over the past couple of years I've had to say too many goodbyes.  And I am not good at it either.  This week there is another goodbye I am forced to say.

Such is life - it is what it is - accept what life throws at you - accept choices other people have made,  or were forced to make;  equally accept our own voluntary or involuntary choices.

So here's to you - and you know who you are.  Sad to see you go, thankful for the time we spent together, thankful for the friendship, the guidance and the lessons we thought each other.

Wishing you good speed, great projects to work on, and Be Happy!  Hope to hear from you, and see you from time to time.  Dance to the music life throws at you.  And don't forget to make your own music and dance to it  from time to time.

Marleen 
(je Indiaantje)

PS interested in seeing more ?  Visit my photostream.

Music is my madeleine

It never ceases to amaze me how the involuntary memory works.  Hearing the first notes of Mozart's Piano Concerto 23 and I am instantly transported back more than 35 years ago - Sunday around lunchtime, lunch being prepared by Mom and Dad enjoying 'a small Mozart before lunch' as he called it.

These musical memories are a big present and also a curse.  Van Morrison's Moondance will always remind me of a tender first kiss on a sunny summer night, and Taiko music will always remind me of a dear friend I recently had to say goodbye to.

Going through my cd-collection is stepping back in the past, with all the joys and pains that brings.  It is meeting old friends with bittersweet memories.

Maarten Van Ingelgem at the piano - Mazzic 2013

Recently I was lucky enough to be able to attend all the concerts of MAZZIC 5 - the fifth edition of a local music festival in Aalst, curated this year by Jan Michiels. The joy of it is that, not only did I enjoy all the music when attending the concerts, but they will bring me joy and incredible feelings in all the years to come, when hearing the pieces that were played that weekend.  Although some were one-offs and can only be played back in my head.

Marleen


PS interested in seeing more ?  Visit my photostream.

Marleen

Spring

I know I am ready for Spring when I start looking for something 'springy' to work on and to post.

We don't know what happened but one day the parents didn't show up at the birdhouse to care for their eggs anymore. After a couple of days, my Mom carefully removed the nest from the birdhouse so other occupants could move in.

Marleen


PS interested in seeing more ?  Visit my Flickr photostream or my website.

Did you get framed today ?

How many of you did fall for an April fool's day joke today ?

                                          Photo taken last week at The Egg, Brussels


When I was a kid we got sent to get non existing stuff from the store, or sent for foolish errands. Nowadays it seems most jokes are funny articles in the press. An interesting story today when the Google algorithm sent a spoof story to the number 1 spot in the news - see here.

There seems to be a bit of confusion as to where the April Fool's day originated. Some people think it started when the switch was made to the Gregorian Calendar, as New Year was celebrated between 25th March and 1st April before the new calendar. But this story is probably not true. Le Poison d'Avril was first written about in France in 1508, in Flanders there is a poem dating from 1560 mentioning 'verzenderkesdag'.

In the middle ages, there was a festival called 'La Fête des Fous', which was very popular in France in the 5th through the 16th century. What the basis was for this festival, we don't know.

Marleen




PS interested in seeing more ?  Visit my Flickr photostream or my website.

Oscars 2012

With Rundskop/Bullhead nominated for Best Foreign Language film, the Belgians are a tad more interested in the Oscars this year.

     Picture taken an early morning last year at another Film Festival.

It is the sixth Academy Award nomination for Belgium.

Other Belgian nominees were:

1970: Paix sur les Champs
1988: The Music Teacher
1992: Daens
1994: Farinelli: Il Castrato
2000: Everybody Famous!

I hope they come home with the statue!

Marleen



PS interested in seeing more ?  Visit my Flickr photostream or my website.

The weather gods love Carnival

Yesterday it was raining cats and dogs well into the late hours.  But today, the weather held up !

                               The Kings in Waiting for their turn to be shown in the parade today.




More impressions of today can be found in this Flickr set.

Marleen


PS interested in seeing more ?  Visit my Flickr photostream or my website.

Spread it a little

No way one could miss Valentine's Day as the retailers use this day to get more sales (who can blame them?).  Today is supposed to be a 'special' day.

Wouldn't you rather be loved all year round?  Wouldn't it be great if we all would spread our love around 365 days a year ?

Marleen

                        Photograph taken on a train ride this weekend 





PS interested in seeing more ?  Visit my Flickr photostream or my website.