Tired

Tired of the people on my MSN and GTalk who I never talk to...
Tired of having phone numbers on my phone that I never call...

DELETE: yes
SUPPRIMER: oui

What have we become? In this time, when it's too easy to 'communicate', so that we just DON'T communicate anymore?

It's a sad, sad story...

Nikon 50mm f1.8

Have to write about this: today the wonderful nikon 50mm f1.8 has arrived!
I have been bidding/ looking at ebay for second hand lens A LOT lately.

And bon, finally!

I have tried out this lens. It is hard to tell what's focused...but I guess that's the fun part as well.
Practice makes perfect, and I surely like to practise on this one!

Vieux

Seine

Magnifique!

Filters

I haven't been posting so much lately.

Guess I am bored.

Just received my 'step-down' ring so now I can fit the smaller filters to my bigger lens.
Have been playing with filters a bit.........seems like in the digital age filters are no longer necessary.
But it's old-fashioned fun. And I like that.

Kind of Blue

As title.

But today it was actually really sunny and I felt happy for the first time since a very long time...

Spring Princess

Spring is here!

And these are so lovely!

Maybe they can turn me into a spring princess?

Printemps

Took a walk in Jardin Luxembourg.

Asked Johan: What's happening?

He said: Spring is happening.

La premiere tirage

This is the first ever tirage I have made.

Amazed and excited...

Un plus...

J'ai joué avec les filtres d'appareil de la photo, et j'adore cette photo!
C'est de ma peinture, en fait....

La fenêtre sale

Je vais recommencer d'écrire dans mon blog.
Je vais essayer d'écrire en français de temps en temps.

Oui, c'est ma fenêtre dans ma salle de séjour.
J'ai essayé mon autre appareil de la photo argentique: Olympus OM-2 spot/program) et j'ai regardé à cette fenêtre et j'en ai trouvé très jolie.
J'ai pris une photo d'elle avec mon appareil numérique Nikon D40 et après j'ai vu la photo, j'ai aussi trouvé que ma fenêtre est très sale!

Nous ne avons jamais nettoyé les fenêtres depuis notre arrivée!!!

On peux voir plus clair avec les objectifs! C'est vrai!!!!!!

Boy A

A lot of emotional moments today.

For quite some time now, I have not stayed in the cinema after the film is over, sobbing, listening to the music to let my emotions settle down, going through the whole credit list, waiting for the light to turn on, before I step out of the room.

It has been a long time that since a film has grabbed me from the very beginning to the very end, that I care for the characters so much that I reacted to every moment of the film in my spectator seat.

I was so touched.

This film has one of the best opening scenes that I can remember. It really brings you into the film, into how fragile and kind this character is, even though everyone else has and will think of him as a monster.

But how can you not love him from the first sight?
How can it not hurt you when you see him struggling with every step he takes after being sent back to society?

I was constantly aware of the fact that everything will just go wrong at any point. And it hurts me to be feeling like that. I care too much for the character.


This film addresses a lot of difficult issues, mainly on who deserves a second chance. A second chance is presented to Jack, when he got to pick a new name for his new life. A second chance is presented to Terry, when his son came back to his life.

Jack is incredibly sweet, innocent and fragile. He cannot believe in this new chance he got and all the love he all of a sudden receive. He tried his best, even though when he was underaged, he killed a young girl with another boy, Phillip, the almost unspeakable name. Andrew Garfield delivered an amazing performance playing Jack. My heart ached when I saw him reacted to happiness and love with bitterness and disbelief. He is like an angel who really really deserves another chance.

But Terry's son got jealous of the attention Jack got from Terry. He sent out information on the case to everyone so that Jack was forced to go on the run, forced to wake up from this beautiful dream. Jack took a train to Brighton, the end of the world, and the film ended with his phone messages to Terry and Chris, a colleague and mate from work. Jack was on the way to kill himself. The last words he said to Chris was 'Remember the girl I saved. Remember her', as if to say 'remember me as the man who saved her', not as a monster.

This is incredibly sad and hard to watch. It seems like a tragedy from the start and somehow Jack is trapped in the past no matter how much Terry told him that Jack is now someone else. And they had the most sincere father-and-son relationship. Terry used to call him 'son' when they talked. Terry helped him in how to live.

Ah....there are just so many things about this film that moved me. The topic of life, forgiveness, love, redemption, faith and destruction............

It is just a great film. Everyone who cares about the above topics should go and see it.

Faith

Faith.
It is such a big topic.

There has been many things and happenings around me that challenged my 'faith': in people and in myself.

Today I went to the food market. In one of the stalls, a woman put the bag of tomatoes back onto the weigh after being told how much it costs.
The man who worked in the stall got really angry. He was going on and on about 'no confiance' and so on. The woman was quick shocked and tried to defend herself.
I didn't understand everything but that had been going on for quite some time.

So when I paid the same guy, I struggled to give him exact change, simply because I had a lot of coins that I wanted to use. I was a bit skeptical about how exact I've got but he just took the handful of coins without counting them.

I said: You're sure it's correct?
He said: I have confiance (confidence in French) in you.

Wow.
It was not a big thing. Not big at all.
But it felt good.
I don't know if he's doing it because the woman just showed 'no confidence' in him or not.
But it felt good.

And then on the way back to my flat, I was carrying this trolley full of food and trying to walk up the stairs.
Then I met this guy. I said: 'Apres vous' (after you).
Then he said something I didn't understand. (with 'voulez-vous' probably).
I either said 'Pardon'? or looked puzzled (probably both).
Then he imitated the action of carrying the trolley up the stairs.

'Ah! C'est bon, merci.'
Then he walked up in front of me.

I really wanted to shout 'bonne journee' to him from the back, but I was held back by something.
My recent lack of faith in people and thus myself.
I was not acting like myself.
I would have smiled and said 'merci beaucoup' to him.
But I was held back with cynicism just now.

And I regretted it.
Why should I change?
I am who I am. I will always open up and try to be as friendly as I can.
I don't feel the need to hold back or protect myself so I won't get hurt.

People are generally nice and friendly. I always believed in it.
So why change now?

Is it because Paris has been so hard for me?

I believe you get what you expect to get.
Altitude is the key.
And it changes everything.

I am going to be the 'old' me. Friendly and full of faith.

I found my faith again, slowly.

A flash of gold

When I was taking this photo, I felt like a paparazzi.

Pretty

Honestly I have nothing to say about this photo.
It's just pretty.

It's not good for a girl to be just pretty, but for a brooch I guess it is alright.

Another lamp

Apart from eyes, my other obsession is with lamps.
And although this is no way as beautiful as the lamps my beau-parents have, the photo turns out to be not bad.

Not bad at all.

Not yet?

Really? I have not taken/ uploaded a photo of this lady yet?
Well, here it is.

'She' is indeed gorgeous.

Prendre un verre

We had a great dinner last night.
Today we continued with wine.

And I got to take a photo of the wine glasses but then my hand turned out to be nicer.

Cotton

Happy Anniversary
even though we still don't have rings

Tea pot

This is my new teapot.
It is a bit kitsch but I like it.

It is also genuinely Chinese.

Photography class

Went to my first photograph argentique noir et blanc and liked it.
This is my photo of the night.

Light

It is another obsession--noir et blanc.
It is so beautiful that I simply cannot take colour photos anymore.

How magical is noir et blanc?
It purifies everything.
It brings out the contrast.
It nurtures the drama.

Je t'aime, noir et blanc.

Double-bill

This is not at all hippie
Coz it's way too cute

And I cannot be a hippie
Because I care too much

Metal

It is strange how the metal bracelet gives life and power to his arm.
It is so small but it almost defines it in this shot.

Butterfly

Qu'est-ce que le papillon?
Il est doux, gentil.
Il est comme mon mari.

Rain cheque

Obviously this is not taken today.
In fact, I have not been taking photos since last weekend.

But how about a rain cheque? Or an old rain cheque from last week?

One day

一天之後，我就老了。

'What a difference a day make? Twenty-four little hours'

And in this case, it was less than 7 hours...

An old photo

When I took it, I did not know it was for someone special.

Now I know, and then I cannot show him the photo anymore.

Too late? It is just curious.

I hope you like it, SAS.

Keep it up

Straightly speaking, this is a photo of someone else's photo.
But I have to keep up the photo diary, so I am posting what I took last night in the photo meetup.

C'est joli, n'est pas?

The missed snow

I missed the snow in Paris in the new year.
Today I got it back.

But still I am missing someone...

Free Sunday

It is very lucky to live in Paris.
You can go to all these wonderful places for free on the first sunday of the month.

The Chinese New Year Parade

Glad to be back.
Went to the Chinese New Year parade in hotel de ville, but it is like 霧裡看花 (looking at flowers in the mist).
I arrived late and there were way too many people---but my only intension was to try my new lens, and I got to.

life

Life goes on...
Don't stop laughing, loving and living.
And nothing else really matters.


To the beloved SA. You will always be in our hearts.
01-01-2009