Last summer part I

Time for a recap from the time when I wasn’t blogging last year, starting with a bunch of random pix from France. For the last couple of summers we’ve taken the train down to the south, to spend time with my sister and her family at their house there. It’s not the most straight forward of journeys, but I like to think that if we can opt to go somewhere by train rather than fly, then that is what we do. This has usually worked out well, but last year we were unlucky in that our onward train from Paris got cancelled, as did all trains heading south that day - a mini tornado (climate change much?) had knocked down trees onto the tracks. So not only were we then stuck, but we were stuck in Paris, during the Olympics. Anyway, after standing in Gare du Nord for 5 hours in +35c degree heat (with armed police doing the rounds of the station because of heightened security measures - très relaxing), we got allocated a hotel room by the train company, ironically by CDG airport, and continued our onward journey the day after. I took this picture as we had to sit in the café carriage, waiting to be allocated seats on the train, and as I did a guy walked past and asked “Did you get a good picture?”, and you know what? I think I did.

So, we arrived a day late, which was luckily no big deal, and that evening we went for dinner in a small village with a view, where I took a pic of a selfie being taken with the view, rather than actually taking picture of the view. I did take a pic of the sunset though.

After the meal, as we walked back to the car, I was happy to see these two young guys playing pétanque past sun down.

It was very hot for the duration of our stay, as that’s what’s southern Europe is like these days, but dunking yourself in the pool to cool down always worked.

We were lucky (!) enough to have a couple of days when the weather turned. This cloud showed up a few minutes before there was an almighty hailstorm,

as did this one on another day, when the sky rumbled with thunder.

Another picture from after another dinner out, with one of my nieces tying her shoe laces. Her aunt found it picture worthy.

Me and my shadow, him and his shadow.

This is where we’d eat all our meals at home, while mosquitoes in turn would feast on us. Turns out my sis is an amazing cook who can whip up a multi-dish dinner for 10+ people, whilst also cooking something different for the youngest kids and for the one pescatarian grown up (🙋🏽‍♀️), without even getting remotely flustered.

A sunset without my glasses.

In one corner of a covered terrace a couple of swallows had nested, and they were working so hard every day to feed their little ones. I’m very chuffed that I managed to catch one mid-air with a worm/bug in their beak, on the way to the nest.

What else? Well, at one point there was some horse snuggles,

some very well trimmed trees

and some jumping shadows.

There was also a vineyard,

the moon

and time for star gazing. We’d go and lie on the pool loungers in the dark and watch the Persied meteor shower pass by, and shout “There!” every time we saw a ‘shooting star’. You don’t see this many stars home in London, so even just looking at a night sky like this, without a passing meteor shower, is pretty special.

We also had fun showing the nieces the magic of light painting, of which Mr Famapa is a master. He drew this one around one of the nieces with the torch on his phone, and I shot it on a long open shutter, and voilà - photographs are magique and that’s a fact.

United Colors of June

Some colour from a day in June last year, when I went for a neighbourhood walk around East London with my pals A & D. There was a very funny moment when we met, as we realised that we were wearing dresses in the primary colours when together. We got a lot of funny looks that day… Whilst uploading these and looking at what they looked like as a post, I thought “How very blog-like, circa 2008”. And you know what, in this day and age where everything looks exactly the same everywhere online, I don’t mind that all.

Cheers! 🍻

Took these a few weeks ago, and was wondering what to write about them, only to remember the significance of today’s date: 17 years ago today I started My Funny Eye! The internet has changed so much in that time, but I’m very grateful that my own corner of it is still pretty much the same. So, I raise you all a glass and thank you for being here throughout the years 🥂

People in galleries I

Vermeer

Magdalena Abakanowicz

Edvard Munch

Magdalena Abakanowicz

Robert Indiana

Continuing on from my earlier post; over the years I’ve taken pictures of people looking at art without thinking much about it. I now realise that I should be more mindful of doing so, as I could easily turn it into a project. These are from the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam, Tate Modern and the Courtauld Gallery in London, and Yorkshire Sculpture Park. The three first pictures are from the packed Vermeer exhibition that was on a couple of years ago, and can you believe it, I got told off for taking pictures of people! That’s never happened before. In the old days you’d get told off for taking pictures of the art on display, but this was a first. They made me delete pictures there and then, but I didn't show them all the ones I’d taken. I think it might have been because they didn’t want it to be known how busy it was, or maybe it was a privacy thing. But guys… it’s me! I take pictures of people from behind, weten jullie dat niet? Although pic 5 is clearly evidence to the contrary… 😬