What a day. A temperature above 12 degrees. No rain. No clouds. It was the first good day of the season. Kicking off with a group of students from the Netherlands. Heated faces from a long walk to our site. Turns out their teachers didn’t feel like renting a bus or taking the tram. Delighted faces when they finally arrived. They all went off on their own, discovering the works of Patrick Scott and all the other artists. Even though modern art should be popular with  teachers nowadays, I heard some of them mention that modern art isn’t really art. Luckily one of the other visitors did appreciate our works, and told the students to get off.  However, after an hour I heard some different views: “this is actually kinda cool”. That sounds better. After a fruitful visit, the students continued their journey, walking in the wrong direction. I hope they got to the centre of Dublin after all.  

The rest of the day turned out to be like any other Saturday. Interesting visitors, smart questions and many happy faces. 

Remember, remember

During the Christmas holiday, my friends and I like to get together to talk about our a-ma-zing summer. Now I could talk about that summer for a few more hours, my friends can dream it, oh how much I’ve talked about it, however, I prefer to talk about how we always remember the smallest moments that made us smile so much. Those little times that you quickly forget, as they don’t have big consequences. Those moments: are the BEST.

When preparing this post, I thought about such a moment, however, I couldn’t directly come up with an occasion. Time for searching old photographs it was. Kicking off with visiting our friends in Groningen. Yes, I had forgotten about the ice-cream, eating lots of chips at six in the morning when we got back to the hostel, the cooking in the morning, and most of all: about the duckfaces. Thanks to this blog, I had a few marvellous minutes of reflection. I could complete this piece with photos of the event; however, I won’t do that for privacy reasons. Moreover, I won’t do that so to be sure that you guys will take me seriously in the future. 

Now, think about it yourself, everyone has those moments breaking the day, those moments which make the sun shine even if for just a moment. Everyone has experienced a small, sincere pleasure like this at least once in life. Twice. Thrice. And what a fortune it would be if that moment had been eternalized through a photo. 

Two little pleasures in one

You got up at 8:00 at o’clock in the morning, did the laundry, brushed your teeth and went off to work. Not just a boring job behind a desk, no, you are a waiter! A sportsman! Maybe a nightman! After hours of hard work, you got home, only to have found out you forgot to do the groceries. Off to the supermarket you went, only to find everything sold out. Therefore, you continued your journey to the cafeteria, where you ate some fries and then, you finally, finally went home. You took the warmest, longest shower ever and fell down on your freshly washed sheets. What a pleasure.

Now imagine: It’s the middle of the night and you are still so tired: you wake up, take a look at the alarm, and surprise: it’s 4:17. Which means (in most cases, damn you if this one does not go for you) there are like three hours of sleep left! Therefore, you turn around once more and wrap up beneath your sheets. Only to fall asleep oh so tightly once more. The next morning, the time does not matter; the fact that you’re still tired doesn’t matter: karma was your friend this night.

Ice-Tea imported from England

lifeguards imported from Spain, towels imported from Turkey, and turkey imported from Maihihehiëeeen. Instant feel good, you have to admit. I sincerely love High School Musical. There is no better way to cheer me up than by singing along at the top of your voice and, if possible, doing the dances simultaneously.

In my opinion, there is no way one can still be productive during the sixth hour. Believe me, I am miss discipline, I know. However, if being energetic and enthusiastic again, there are many ways to be productive at home. It is commonly known that music improves productivity, and still, we are not allowed to listen to it during anything that needs productivity. Now, I don’t believe music makes you concentrate (like seriously, I can only focus on the lyrics when studying and listening to music at once). However, I do genuinely believe that we should be authorized to listen to music during our last hours of school: to prepare us for an afternoon of studying, to cheer us up, and to make a day of school more within our capabilities.

Equally important, one should know that High School Musical is full of life lessons: ‘Baby to be number one, you gotta raise the bar.’ Or ‘I believe in dreaming, and shooting for the stars.’ Nothing healthier than a bit of ambition, and, since Sharpay is everyone’s major role model, this is another great example of why anything Disney related rocks. 

Why the dentist shouldn’t be fun

If you enjoy going to the dentist please mail me or something, I’d love to meet your species! To the rest of you, I am sure you have at least once in your life wondered why every dentist seems to be so BORING. Well, if you are a bit of a smartass you should know the answer. You think the dentist can do the job whilst you are laughing? Certainly not, believe me, I’ve tried. My sister decided it was polite to yell through the room why my mom was able to talk whilst she was in the chair. The dentist looked as if he was going to kill her. I laughed my ass off, just like my sister, whose turn it was subsequently. Well... that did not work out. Like seriously, not at all. She just couldn’t stop laughing and the dentist just got more annoyed and it was just like positive feedback. Hilarious. Awkward. SO MUCH FUN.

Another activity you should ‘not try at the dentist’, yes you can try this one at home; making snapchats. You know, those silly photos you send to your friends so they can laugh about them for like ten seconds? Either the dentist or his assistant will notice you, and yes, they will look at you like you are the most retarded person wandering this earth. Which might be true.

Yes, this is snapchat. Yes, this is at the dentist.

Lastly, I have one tip for all the future dentists out there: if you are capable of social activities, please understand, there is NO way your patients can talk back. So please, just don’t even try to start that conversation. It will only result in more awkwardness. The dentist is supposed to be awkward, and boring, let all of us accept that.

Why there is sooooo much more fun in analogue photography

To begin this blog, I'd like to start with an example of the diversity of present day society. Now that the western world has nothing left to crave for, but world peace, of course, we have all decided to start practicing the same hobbies. On top of the list: photography. 

To illustrate this beautiful phenomenon, here's a real life example for you to cry about.

Last summer, during my trip to New York, I made this photo:

When looking at my father’s photos, he turned out to have made this photo:

And, when searching Google, everyone else in the world seemed to have made this photo:  

Source: http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:New_York_from_Empire_State_Building.jpg

Bye fun, there's nothing special left in this photo. I did enjoy making you though. 

However, the fun returned quickly after finaaaaally being able to develop my analogue camera: my precious Fisheye. Now you'll first have to agree with me, is there anything more fun in life than a surprise? (Please don’t take into consideration love, happiness and whatever emotion everyone yearns for, let’s be honest, no one is ever going to be fully happy, we as humans are never totally satisfied.) Since to me, there is not. When making photos with my analogue camera I have no, seriously no, clue how they are going to turn out. When finally being able to look at the photos, they have turned out to be sloppy, mostly blurry, but most of all: full of ambience. Example:

 No photographic masterpiece, but a lot more fun to look at. No one else will have a photo like this, every single one is different. The advantages of analogue photography are marvellous: you have no idea how your photos will turn out, you forget about most of the photos you have made until you develop them and most of all, no one will make a photo similar to yours. It’s all one big surprise.