Supermarket

I got a request to do a 'stock photography' style photo from a friend for a webpage. This is also the first time I've tried the technique of slightly blurring the background to enhance a point of focus.

Brugges facades

Typical Brugges scence - flemish façades and horse drawn tourists. Brugges, Belgium

Lone Bike

In Belgium, like Holland, people use bicycles a lot to get around. Brugges, Northern Belgium.

Brewery

Brugges, Belgium

Clog

High contrast. Brugges - Belgium

Lacemaker

Belgian lace is a common product of Brugges. This photo was taken in front of a lacemakers store.

John Butler

From a rocking Australian band called the John Butler Trio. They played a short set at the local bookstore in Lille, France

French politicians have fake suntans

There are some upcoming presidential elections round the political corner, and - as with any modern democracy- this translates to a lot of talk time. What is quite singular about the French democratic process is the sheer number of candidates that put themselves forward. The road to presidency is littered with hitch-hikers holding 'Elysée' placards. While most of them will become nothing more than roadkill (circled by media vultures - just go with me on the lonely desert road political bandwagon, vultures picking the bones of the politically dead imagery ok?) it is this system of supersaturation that resulted in Chirac winning the last lot of elections. With the vote split amongst a large number of candidates, the two candidates whose heads were peeping up a little higher from the pile of political carcasses were from the centre right (Chirac) and the far right (Le Pen).

In April we had the first round of voting for the Presidential elections.
In May it will be down to 2 candidates, Nicolas Sarkozy and Segolene Royale

The lost art of sleeping in

I protest! Ok, so I've never been someone able to sleep in to a great extent.
My mother would tell you differently but even in the halcyon days of life as a university student, unless I tried really hard I couldn't sleep much past 10.30am. This, amongst my slacker intellectual peers, was regarded with some horror. And despite what the old adage may say, the early bird does not always get the worm, more often what (s)he gets is the job of cleaning up the beer cans, bottle tops and cigarette butts. While those days of excessive post party clean ups are long gone now, and I don't regard that with any sense of nostalgia, and 10.30 is a bit late to be laying about in bed, 7.30 is still too early to be up on Sunday.

It's an unusual sleeping pattern for a period of unemployment (I've had one before, I'd hoped it'd be my first and last combined). Generally the panic and stress keeps me up until the early hours of the morning, and the depression keeps me under the covers until the mid morning. But no, here I am, up bright end early every single day. Not that its changed anything. Last week I got interviewed and subsequently knocked back for a 2 week high-school graduate level job as a data entry person for wetland biodiversity studies. Financially speaking it wouldn't have made any difference, it WAS only two weeks, and it was a hell of a difficult commute to get out there, but I was still angry. Probably because I'm looking for any excuse to be angry. Otherwise I'm just being knocked back from the usual - admin assistant, bilingual assistant. Mostly I'm just looking forward to heading back to Australia at the moment. Should give my body clock something else to think about at least...

Ardennes horse

The Ardennes is one of the oldest breeds of draft horse originating from the Ardennes area in France/North Western Europe.

Fallen log

Moss hanging off a fallen log in the Ardennes forest, north-eastern France

Kites in Berck Plage, Northern France

21eme Rencontres Internationales de Cerf-Volant (21st International Kite Festival)

This is an annual exhibition of kites that takes place in Berck Plage, Northern France. Entrants from around the world have an opportunity to show off their spectacular kites and compete in kite flying competitions.

Ivy on Brick

Easter at Meert

Meert, one of the nicest gourmet dessert shops you're ever likely to find
Lille, France

Dove at sunrise

Surburban nature