A Photography Workshop With Gabrielle in Italy

I can write, without exaggeration, that every single photography client I've worked with has made me feel so very privileged to know them.

Gabrielle was no different to all those who came before her. And perhaps it's the fact that the workshops are all about photography &  travel.  Or that they happen in Italy or Antwerp or that they attract women who are ready to wander or already wandering.  Like-minded souls out there in the world.

I end up feeling like I'm working with old friends.  People I would choose to spend time with.  People who somehow manage to pack so much life into the hours we have to work together.

Gabrielle and I walked all over Genova, ate some divine food, met at Douce every morning for breakfast (and returned there whenever we could think of a reason).  We dined at Il Genovese and enjoyed it intensely, we explored Castelletto and Boccadasse, found exquisite gelato and took a million photographs too.

It was a special few days.  Grazie mille, Gabrielle!!

A Early Morning Post from Belgium.

An early night, as in anything before midnight, means I'm almost guaranteed an early morning. 

5am and my mind kicked into gear, with remarkable clarity, driving me out of bed to escape the court hearing I seemed to be hosting in there. 

Downstairs I made the usual selection, choosing between the Dutch-speaking Radio Nostalgia, and something similar in French.  I take that forgranted now ... rarely wondering how a life would be lived in a country where radio was once again heard only in my language.

In Genova I slip easily into a routine that involves a glass of sparkling water, an espresso and a crema-filled pastry at breakfast.  Here it's quite different.  My coffee machine doesn't come close to making good espresso.  My brioche becomes a couple of slices of a particular bread, covered with butter and peach jam.  And the view is of the dining room and lounge here, as opposed to that piazza called Matteotti.

Soon there will be the chaos of an extended family going in different directions, each of them with their different needs. Dutch mixing with English, 'cereal or toast', an Earl Grey for him, water for her ... bicycles being rolled out the front door from their week-day resting place in the hall.

Then sometimes it's me rolling my bike out.  Miss 10 and I ride through the massive park nearby, cycling to a school much closer than her previous one.  We ride through the park, and then under the massive motorway that cuts our section of Antwerp city off from the centre.  Sometimes we hold our breath as we pass under it but it's pointless I know.  I see the brown air is all over Belgium when I fly from this country. As one of Europe's hubs, pollution levels are high.

It's almost 7am as I write this.  Soon people will wake and, as something different, electricians are due at 8am.  Something about the power company changing fuses ... 

And so it begins ...


Remembering Good Food and Good Friends

Last week ... this was the dinner starter at Il Genovese. 

It's a little of this, a little of that, to be shared between five.  Outi, my Finnish friend living in Liguria.  Alessandra and Davide, lovely Italian friends from Genova.  And Gabrielle, my Australian client, the one who has become a lovely friend too.

The food was exquisite ... of course, and the company.

Today finds me at my desk and working, back here in Belgium, freezing.  I'm wearing Fiona's hand-knitted woolen rainbow socks and warm clothes.  It's grey, cold and raining, and I remembered this photograph.

Mmmhmmm, I just had peanut butter on toast and a coffee for lunch.

I miss Genovese food. 

Microguagua - street power Reggae!

These guys. 

I was in awe of the high-energy, joy-filled street performance of the Reggae band called Microguagua.

I bought one of their cds because I wanted their music back in Belgium. 

They're brilliant.  Seeing them perform live made me smile.  Perhaps I caught a sense of them here but honestly, their music makes you smile.

I found them out in Via San Lorenzo, in Genova.  I had to stop for some photographs.