I have been back to my Italian home town for a few days now, yet another road trip completed successfully. But this time my old Land Rover Defender just made it: leaking steering pump, quasi-dead steering box, dry ball joints are just some of the issues. The vehicle is not in good shape and needs some costly TLC, but how can I retire it with endless roads still ahead of us?
In other news: Summer weather is gloriously hot and sunny, and I have quickly sunk back into the laid-back attitude of Italy's backyard. A little frustrating since things really seem never to change here: food, drinks, trips to the mountains. More food. Mostly this is how I spend my days.
Lazy? Never. It feels slightly different. I was talking about it with a friend just now and, how did I put it?... yes:
"It's like being at the end of Summer holidays, when in September you don't want to go back to school. You haven't done your homework and you're worried of having to get up early once again."
Plus, saying that I do don't much with my time wouldn't be true. I've done some picture editing and lots of tweeting.
So time has come to leave this oasis of tranquility and get going again. The trip back to Italy will follow a well-known route: from Barcelona through the south of France — Languedoc and Cote d'Azur — across the Alps into Italy, and then north towards Biella.
Fran and Trabucco the house donkey — Cenicientos, Spain.
The following are a few images of the last week or so.
Girl and dog playing in the Abbey's courtyard — Cluny, France.
Noori, my favourite baby girl on the planet — Avignon, France.
I am still in Cenicientos, a small village in the Madrid region, a mere one-hour drive from the Spanish capital but a whole lifestyle away. Rural, simple, and very quiet.
The other day, my good friend Federica and I went to visit our old friend Gwen, a lovely French girl who's lived in Madrid for the last 2 years, and while in town we had the opportunity to see a couple of the many exhibitions of this year's Photoespana.
Firstly we saw the work of German artist Gerhard Richter, some 400 overpainted photographs taken during personal trips and family occasions since 1989. See the complete series here.
After that we went to see Annie Leibovitz: a photographer's life 1990-2005, a great exhibition of more than 200 images shot by one of the most acclaimed portraits photographer of our times. And indeed some of the pictures displayed are such unique and true works of art, in which Leibovitz conveys the signature familiar approach with her subjects.
Finally, we quickly looked at a couple of exhibitions held at the Circulo of Bellas Artes — Club of Fine Arts: quirky images of shop windows in the 1930s by Chzech artist Jindrich Styrsky (On the Needles of these Days); a small retrospective of portrait photographer Patrick Faigenbaum (Photographs: 1974 - 2008); a film on urban China by documentary photographer and filmmaker Zhao Liang (City Scene).
It occurred to me the other day when I was crossing the English Channel — La Manche in French — that traveling is a lonely business. One can love and hate being by oneself, and being alone is both a curse and a blessing that often occur at the same time.
Postcards of Cluny, quaint little town dominated by what remains of its grandiose abbey.
Even when traveling in a group of people, be they close friends, simple acquaintances, or strangers met for the first time at the beginning of the trip, one cannot help but being somewhat introspective, feeling that they can enjoy it as well as fret about it. Travel than become a true journey of self discovery, of varying proportions and impact.*
I personally experience the full impact of this when I am on a road trip and am driving, then it really does not matter if I am by myself or I have somebody sitting in the passenger seat, as I can very easily drift off and begin to wonder: about the the road ahead of me or the one just left behind, about new and old work ideas, about projects, people, friends and foes. Driving as a Zen-like activity, this is how I came to see it. Very much like cooking, it is an activity that feels natural and calms me down to a point where my mind enjoys a serene focus.
I am in Avignon in the south of France at the moment — pinpoint E in the map above — visiting some friends before they also leave for a road trip, and before I finally make my way towards Spain. They got in touch with me on my first day back on the continent, and in a minute my plans were changed. The idea now is to leave here tomorrow morning, get to Barcelona first, spend the weekend there, then see my good old friend Yoga Dhara near Madrid and spend a few days with her before beginning my long(ish) journey back to Italy.
Stay tuned — more pictures soon.
*I envisioned quoting from Jack Kerouac's book Lonesome Traveler here, but I haven't gotten hold of a copy yet. Please feel free to add any thoughts or extract from the book if you've read it.
It will probably take me two or three days to get to the UK, I will spend some time in and around London, and finally make my way south towards Spain, Barcelona, Madrid, and long-forgotten friends.
My new website is almost ready, and am now just taking a step back from it for a couple of days before making it live. I will keep you posted on the move, even if this blog will still be available for some time.
As hinted at some time ago, I will soon make a transition from this blog to a new website that is better suited to my products.
Please bear with me while I undergo this process. It will take some time, especially because I am leaving for Europe tomorrow, and I will be mobile more or less all the time I'm abroad*. But it will happen. I also have another couple of projects and ideas up my sleeve that I am going to look at and develop in the coming weeks. As usual, stay tuned on this page — or through my Facebook NetworkedBlogs ap — for updates.
*A Rough plan is as follow: fly to London, then Italy, then drive to London, carry on to France and Spain, and from there back to Italy. Similar in a way to my trip last summer, but this time I'm setting off on my old Land Rover for very different reasons.
I am currently on a road trip around Southern Africa on my old VW Fox: South Africa, Namibia, Botswana, and back to South Africa. Make sure you keep an eye on my movements by visiting my travel journal. Stay Tuned.
A London Metropolitan Police officer "identified himself to his team leader as being potentially involved in the incident shown on the video footage", Euronews 24 reported today. Good news, the chap has shown to be a man after all — seven days and an incriminating video after the incident, as duly noted by the Scotsman.
On a slightly different note, off-beat watchdog Boing Boing has promoted theremix challange to raise awareness and counteract the ludicrous, new 'anti-terror' campaign run by the Met. The image above is an example of the mock posters, make sure you check the other ones, some of them are pure genius.
In a turn of events that is the dream of every newspaper editor, The Guardian has obtained a short video that shows a Police officer attacking a passer by minutes before he dies during London's G20 protests.
City of London’s newsagent Ian Tomlinson was walking home from work on Wednesday, April 1, when he found himself caught between riot Police and demonstrators near the Bank of England. After collapsing on the ground — and allegedly being succored by Police medics despite being “pelted with missiles believed to include bottles as they tried to save his life” as reported by Sky News — Tomlinson stumbled away and died of a heart attack soon after.
The incriminating footage is part of a dossier that The Guardian has put together and presented to the Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC), which also includes a collection of testimonies from witnesses. According to many commentators — see here, here, and here — the episode is only the last dramatic testimony of the way Police forces in the UK have recently been dealing with demonstrations trying to challenge estranged political and financial classes*.
Early Police statements did not acknowledge any misbehaviours committed by officers on the ground during the clashes, and, as the Sky News example mentioned above, mainstream media were quick to pick up the down-with-these-noglobal-rioters line. The worst of all was The Evening Standard**, which carried a (now) unfortunate double-page spread with a rather dramatic — but completely off the track — headline.
Fortunately, an amended article is now online here, and the ES actually carried this article on today’s edition.
Also, IPCC Commissioner for London, Deborah Glass, admitted that “witnesses” have reported Police involvement in the incident. “It is important that we are able to establish whether that contact had anything to do with [Ian Tomlinson’s] death," she said.
*See also what happened at the Nato Summit held in Strasbourg, France on April 4 as reported by Current. **London’s widest-distributed daily newspaper has recently been sold by its historical owner, Daily Mail & General Trust PLC, to Russian tycoon Alexander Lebedev, a former KGB spy. Strange as it seems it could be a much-needed boost to liberal journalism in the British capital — see here for details.
© Claire Homewood
