On Monday evening, I discovered this place by chance, just walking by it (and absolutely not in the mood for grocery shopping) when I was stopped in my tracks by the amazing sight of watermelons, peaches, papayas, mangos and other amazingly fresh looking fruits at the entrance of the shop. I went a little closer and suddenly was completely overwhelmed by the smell of fresh herbs a bit further into the shop. Needless to say I didn’t come back empty handed that evening!

Today I decided to return there, this time with intent, and this time I explored every aisle of this amazing place - a real paradise in Brighton. There is everything one could dream of and more! Indian, Chinese, Turkish, French, Greek specialties, spices, fresh herbs… This is my new place for food.

A few examples of what I got today: a bunch of fresh sage, a box of Pakistani mangos, cherries (almost as good as the ones from my grandfather’s garden), gulabjams (the Indian desert), fresh cheese bread, wild salmon pate, ranbutan (the fruits), Turkish cheese, stuffed wine leaves, and much more….

In the series: what are people doing by the sea - here are a couple of people actually managing to bike on the pebbles…
I made the photo black and white as I think it makes it look even nicer, putting emphasis on their reflection as well as on their silhouettes.

Juggler or conductor?

I guess it is a bit of a tradition in every country to do a bit of a wild party before a wedding - in France you call it “Enterrer sa vie de celibataire” - to bury your life as a single person. In this country it is referred to as having a “Stag Party” for the boys, and a “Hen Party” for the girls - and I must say I have never seen anywhere else this tradition taken so far and with so many accessories… there must be a whole industry specialized in just that! Now is the wedding season so every week-end without fault, you can see groups of boys and group of girls in various costumes (sometimes a bit shocking) with a big “bride to be” or “groom to be” banderole around one of them.

I took a photo of these guys because I was amazed to see a stag party coming out of a genuine firetruck… Very original! They seemed to be having a good time and to be happy of the attention when I took their photograph.

However, I must say I have no regret at not having had one of those parties for myself!

I saw the film SOLARIS yesterday, an excellent, moving, thought-provoking film (also quite scary at times!) One of the things that I think will stay with me from this movie is this phrase:

“There are no answers. Only choices.”

I think this is such an important thing to keep in mind when living your life. So many times I have let things happen to me, without realizing that I had choices, without realizing that I could take control of my life. Of course sometimes things happen that cannot be helped, and you need to survive through them. But I think you can also either bury your head through the difficulties, or study them, analyse them, learn from them, and become a better person because of them. That also is a choice.

Maybe it is so hard to make decisions because sometimes you think you need to find the right path – as if there was one! You feel that if you take one of the roads, you will be happy, while if you take the other one, you will be unhappy, and you don’t know which one it is. But nothing is further from the truth: though your life could potentially be dramatically different if you take one of the roads as opposed to the other, each road will offer good and bad things – happiness and unhappiness might be on both ends. Furthermore, there will be more choices to be made alongside each road. The one decision you are taking, though important, will not determine your whole life forever.

In addition, when you are faced with a big dilemma, if you simply say – ok, now there it is, I decide – you will feel so much better, so much more at peace afterwards, no matter how hard it was, no matter how painful. It is so much better than waiting for fate to somehow decide for you.

The Pavillion Gardens are georgeous this time of the year… And the weather is really hot, it is hard to stay indoors, much better to go out to read in the park!

Full moon over the west pier - I love how big the moon looks when it is only just rising - apparently it is because when it is closer to the horizon line and the Earth, we are more aware of its size than when it is higher up and not close to any other planets to compare it with.

We’re back to straight photography this week - no more crazy photoshop filters (for a while )

I like the juxtaposition of the street lights and the sun behind the clouds in this image. It was such an amazing looking sky…

Yesterday was suddenly very, very hot! Summer dresses need to be taken out, and I am now seriously considering checking how the water is…

As to the beach, I had not seen it so crowded until yesterday! Now it really feels like a holiday town.

I’ve applied a watercolour effect to my photo.

A beautiful, perfect flying kite in the sky above the sea today. I am using this filter so that the regularity of the image is broken down, almost like a puzzle.

This photograph, taken on the 21st of December 2004, was enhanced solely by playing with the colour balance of different section - sky, sea, earth. The end result feels very surreal to me!

I’ve taken this photograph on the 20th of February 2005. Those little “wind flowers” (not sure what the correct name is!) and UK flags are sold on the seaside. They have very beautiful, bright colours normally but this filter makes the image look like a very old photograph, and makes the whole image feel melancholic. Nice effect!

A man and his boat in front of the sea. I took this photograph on the 11th of May 2005. I have just finished working on it.

This dog can often be seen waiting at the door of a store in Gardner Street. I took this photo on the 11th of May and worked on it digitally today! Did I mention that I love Photoshop?

This week I am feeling like exploring older and newer photos, and playing around with them in photoshop - for a bit of a change! So here is the first one, the photo was taken by Aral in April, and I played around with it in Photoshop today!

The sun is still high in the cloudy sky late in the evening… I love it when the days are long.

Beautiful, small flower in my street.

I like the way the woman seems to be walking on the water towards the Pier. Maybe to fly up there afterwards?

My little cousin, Charlotte, has her own blog! She’s posting drawings and I am amazed at how talented she is! Keep at it Charlotte, you’re going to go far!

Her latest drawing:

It was a very windy day today, with big waves, and many floating seagulls in the sky. The view was quite extraordinary with the sun reflecting on the sea so strongly!

It is hard at times to remember that it is spring with all the rain we are getting… But at least we still have lovely flowers!

Teenage girls waiting in line outside the cinema: note how they all seem to be freezing but do not seem to understand that this is not the right weather for short skirts!

Scary how they all dress exactly the same way! Freezing for fashion… not really my thing!