Europe Photos: Auschwitz; Autumn 2010

Du hast gelernt, was Freiheit heisst, und dass vergiss nie mehr.

-Anon.

These shots were all taken on my compact camera. It's surprisingly fantastic in tricky light situations- with my SLR I have to completely ignore the exposure reading and go with instinct in situations like this.

On the day, it was absolutely freezing. Krakow was definitely one of the coldest places I visited. There was this icy, vicious wind. We paid a visit to the sleeping quarters at the camp and it was ridiculous. I honestly felt like my legs were going to drop off- it was that cold. And I was there in Autumn. I can't even comprhend what it would be like in winter- with nothing but a few pieces of wood and sheer determination keeping you alive.

-m xx

"God, grant me the serenity
To accept the things I cannot change
Courage to change the things I can
And the wisdom to know the difference"

-Reinhold Niebuhr

Crappy Valentine's Day!

I'm a bit of a rare breed. For reasons aside from any of the obvious neuroses you may have already picked up on that is (have we met?). I hate VDay. But I'm not single, and can only remember one year since I turned 13 that I was (technically) on the day. Plenty of people dread Valentines day. Most, because it reminds them that they haven't got that special someone, and maybe they should be feeling alone right now. This, despite the fact that it probably doesn't even bother them on the other 364 days of the year, when they're basking in singledom.

Others, particularly men, resent VDay due to all of the pressure that is unfairly placed upon them. It turns love into a competition- whose boyfriend will send the most embarrassingly large bunch of red roses to their work/school/home? Who will induce the most jealousy on the 15th when they're exchanging tales of the romantic surprise dates they embarked on the day before?

And then, there are people who hate Valentine's Day because it's lost all original meaning, having been reduced to a commercially-driven, Hallmark run excuse to increase the prices of flowers.

As for me? It's all of the above and more, I suppose. Like marriage, I find love because-the-calendar-says-so is not romantic in the slightest. I mean, sure, give me flowers and take me on a surprise date- any other day of the year. I'm all for declarations of love for me emblazened accross the sky by an undoubtedly well-paid but probably very dizzy pilot, so long as it's any day EXCEPT the 14th of February. In fact, it's probably best to leave any impulsive, crazy expressions of love on the backburner for that whole week. Just don't do it. Honestly, if someone I was romantically involved with gave me a gift on Valentine's Day I would actually be annoyed, simpyl because they should know me better than that. And don't even get me started on VDay marriage proposals!

To put it simply, I just don't celebrate it. In fact, last year I tried to organise a "Valentine's Day sucks" Ladies dinner, but apart from 2 or 3 single friends who clicked that cursed "maybe" button on the facebook event, the response wasn't great. I was actually shocked. I assumed anyone who's not completely pathetic realises that VDay is a joke. Maybe it's more a case that they don't care, and would rather enjoy the day without questioning whether it's worth a mention on the calendar or not. I know I seem like a total cynic, and I'm sure someone out there is supressing a giggle as I assure you I'm not. I just don't believe in believing in something (marriage, VDay, Christmas, etc.) simply because I'm supposed to.

(I'm just a rebel without a cause, baby.)

-m xx

Nostalgia

Take that, hot-chick-from-Scott-Pilgrim.

(Back almost three years ago. When I had no respect for my hair and didn't know how to dress myself.)

Balls to You

Yupp. What she said.

It's hot.
Really hot.
Actually, if I'm honest, today isn't so bad. My house however, has been converted into an oven due to the heat this week, so it's hard to appreciate that today is colder than yesterday.
Yesterday was the hottest February day in Sydney in 85 years.
It hit 30 degrees at 8:30am.
By 9:30am, it was 36 degrees.
It hit 40 at 11am.
and the maximum of 42 at 2:45pm.
It was 35 degrees at 11:30pm last night- the hottest night in Sydney in recorded history.

And when did I go to bed? Oh about 11:45pm. Yeah, not fun.
Me and J lay flat on our backs, with a wet cloth which we moved every couple of minutes so another body part could experience to delicious coolness. I woke up at 7:30am, for absolutely no reason.
It's 10:30am now and it's already hit the predicted maximum for today- 32 degrees. This does not bode well...

I'm just hanging out for the cold change coming this evening- end of the heatwave! Mid to high 20s next week- oh the joy! Never before have I thought of that as cold.

-m xx

Why Write?

The new(ish) Sydney Westfield, Pitt St.

If anything, it was only when stopped thinking about what I hoped to gain from my writing that my writing really began to improve. This is why I believe the single most important question you can ask yourself as a writer is not why you write, but if you would still write if there was absolutely nothing in it for you. If noone published it, if noone liked it, if no one - not even your loved ones - could be bothered to read whatever it was you were writing, would you still have the urge within you to sit down and drag the words out?



If the answer to that is yes, then that is why you write.


Because you're a writer


-Daniel Clay