What ever happened to July 23rd?! I was going to write a short blog about how we've been here for an entire year now! Last year at this very time we were living in the Xen Source flat, trying to find a place to rent, scheduling to pick Nelly up from Heathrow, and all manner of other crazyness.... missing our family and friends but excited about this new adventure Gd had brought us on. Wondering why the ch was basically shut down for the summer. Wondering why it was so cold here in the summer. Wondering why our flat washer sounded like the space shuttle. :) I can't believe it's been that long!
A year later and here we still are! When we came here we didn't have a 100% view of what we'd be doing here, what we'd be learning, or how we'd be preparing to be tentmakers somewhere else in the world. (BTW tentmakers are people who use their career as a way of reaching people in hard to get into countries. It comes from Paul, who made tents and spent his weekends telling folks about JC wherever he went.) I just had to do a summary of some of the events of this past year- it's been very crazy. :)
-Moved to the UK
-Learned to drive on the other side
-Repainted our entire cottage and redid the entire garden
-K co-lead the international ladies study
-Nelly learned to like cat milk
-Learned to like Marmite
-Our car died
-Got a new car
-Went to the Peak District
-Took the 10 month TEAM training course
-Lead the internationals table at the Arena outreach
-Got involved with a Home group
-Bought something from an auction
-Sold something at an auction
-Learned about hand made rugs
-Caught at least 30 Giant House Spiders
-Learned to dry our clothes on the heat radiators
-Learned to identify the gender of house spiders by their size and the season
-Got internet at our cottage after 6 weeks of G on the phone with the company
-G's company Xen Source got bought by Citrix
-G got to know his coworkers
-Nelly learned to chase Giant House Spiders
-Helen and Robin came in September
-G's mom came in October
-Marc came in October
-We enjoyed fireworks on Guy Fawkes Day in November
-Nelly feuded with Cat Fiend
-Made new friends and became part of STAG's community
-Explored Swavesey and surrounding areas
-The ladies group had many outreach events
-Visited MI for Christmas
-Went to Australia for 3 weeks
-Saw the Great Barrier Reef and the Whitsunday Islands
-Visited friends in Melbourne
-Nelly stayed with our friends for 3 weeks
-Went to the Scottish Dancing ball on Groundhog Day
-G went to Seattle for a conference in March
-Hope and Jen came to visit in March
-Went to Wales
-Went on an international weekend away
-Lead iBASE, our group for 18-20s internationals here at STAG
-Went to 2 dear friends' wedding in April
-In May we trained students for their summer trips overseas
-Helped plant K's parents' vegetable garden
-Came home to a leaking toilet
-Went to Norfolk
-Ate blood pudding
-Learned to shop at the local store instead of Tesco
-K lead a group for internationals who wanted to learn about JC
-Took up mountain biking
-Took the tests for the UK driving license
-iBASE friends went back to their home countries, and many other friends left for new jobs or school.
-In July K came back to MI for my parents' birthdays.
That list certainly isn't exhaustive- if you want exhaustive details you'll have to go back over the past year's blog. :) It definitely hasn't all been easy, but we feel more prepared to be tentmakers now than when we got here a year ago. We're also aware that we're still in process, and we might be here another year yet. Now that TEAM has done, we're ready to more fully put into practice what we learned there. We've been asked to lead iBASE again this year, which is a great opportunity for G to be in charge of a group himself. (Think like a campus ministry). I'll be continuing with the ladies' group and joining in with a new female staff person, and we'll be getting involved with the moms of preschoolers group in order to meet international ladies. We don't know if we'll be here a full year again or not, but for sure 6 months, pretty likely through next April. We don't know all that Gd has in store for us, but we are enjoying life in the process and feel very blessed to be a part of the international work here! Who knows what that list will look like next year at this time, but I'm sure it will be full of ups and downs and adventures of all sorts. :)
Monday, 28 July 2008
Friday, 25 July 2008
July 25, 2008
It's Day 2 for me back in the UK, and I'm feeling better already. It actually hit 80F here today, which was nice for a change. This is the first day I've been able to wear a tank top and shorts in the 1 year that we've been living here! My garden needed a bit of help since I was gone for so long (G kept up with the watering for me so it wouldn't die) and things are already looking better. In other rather mundane news I put lights on G's bike, and transferred my old bike lights to my new bike. Sadly the sun is setting at 9:10pm these days, and although we're able to see until about 10 no more nighttime biking for us. On the flip side though we can sleep better. :) I'm also learning about bike maintenance- since we're wanting to cycle everyday or close to it things get dirtier faster, and the chains need to be cleaned, and the brakes need to be tweaked, etc. I love the new bike- it is so light, and very comfortable. G took some photos of me on it but he hasn't gotten them off the camera just yet.
We don't have any weekend plans, except moving our new bed frame into our bedroom so it'll be ready when the new mattress arrives on Wednesday. But who knows- we never plan very far in advance so we might just decide to go somewhere for the day. I know we won't be going into London because Thursday some old friends of G's are coming into London on a 12 hour layover on the way to Tanzania to do translation work, so we're going in early to do some stuff and then hanging out with them for a bit. They have 4 kids, all under 8, so extra pairs of hands and eyes is helpful on the Underground. :)
I have my photos up onto Phanfare now from my trip to the US. There are still a few on my cell phone camera that will be making their way up there as well. I let my nephew use my big camera again and put his photos on his page. He told his grandma "When I grow up I want to be a photographer." :) I felt very humbled by that. He has a very good natural eye for composition for his age, and I think if he keeps practicing he'll get even better. Maybe he could even take some photo classes from WCC in high school through Michigan's dual enrollment program. Anyway that's a long time off and he's only 8. But when he gets a little bigger I think I'll start commissioning him to photograph family events for me while I'm away. :) If you happen to have a used "prosumer" digital camera (it's a sort of inbetween point and shoot and SLR) that you're willing to part with or sell for a reasonable cost let me know- I'm keeping an eye out for one that he could keep at my parents' house to practice with.
We found this giant beastie in the kitchen last night- G stomped on him but he wasn't really dead (or even injured) he was just faking it. I guess this is why we need those giant house spiders... this thing was over an inch long.
We don't have any weekend plans, except moving our new bed frame into our bedroom so it'll be ready when the new mattress arrives on Wednesday. But who knows- we never plan very far in advance so we might just decide to go somewhere for the day. I know we won't be going into London because Thursday some old friends of G's are coming into London on a 12 hour layover on the way to Tanzania to do translation work, so we're going in early to do some stuff and then hanging out with them for a bit. They have 4 kids, all under 8, so extra pairs of hands and eyes is helpful on the Underground. :)
I have my photos up onto Phanfare now from my trip to the US. There are still a few on my cell phone camera that will be making their way up there as well. I let my nephew use my big camera again and put his photos on his page. He told his grandma "When I grow up I want to be a photographer." :) I felt very humbled by that. He has a very good natural eye for composition for his age, and I think if he keeps practicing he'll get even better. Maybe he could even take some photo classes from WCC in high school through Michigan's dual enrollment program. Anyway that's a long time off and he's only 8. But when he gets a little bigger I think I'll start commissioning him to photograph family events for me while I'm away. :) If you happen to have a used "prosumer" digital camera (it's a sort of inbetween point and shoot and SLR) that you're willing to part with or sell for a reasonable cost let me know- I'm keeping an eye out for one that he could keep at my parents' house to practice with.
We found this giant beastie in the kitchen last night- G stomped on him but he wasn't really dead (or even injured) he was just faking it. I guess this is why we need those giant house spiders... this thing was over an inch long.
Thursday, 24 July 2008
July 24, 2008
As most of you know, I was in Michigan for a week celebrating my parents' birthdays (and mine) and trying to see as many people as I could in that short time. Clinton is 45min south of where we used to live in Ann Arbor, so it takes that much longer to visit the people I'm used to visiting. :) So I had quite a few late nights, driving back at 1:30am or 2:30am, and getting up earlyish so I could visit other people or get things done. So I've got some sleep debt on top of the jetlag that I'm experiencing now that I'm back in Cambridge. This morning I felt like I'd been run over by a truck. :) I'm feeling a bit better now, though still tired.
Last night G and I went for a bike ride for me to test my new bike- what a difference the suspension makes! It was so much more comfortable, and combined with the new gel bike gloves I got at REI I felt great instead of in pain after we got back.
My trip back wasn't too eventful- however may I suggest to you all that Newark isn't the best option for a layover? There was too much air traffic going in there, so our flight was delayed in Detroit for over 2 hours, and then we had to wait another 30 min on the tarmac. It only took an hour to get there, but it's not well signed there and I had to ask someone to help me find Continental. The flight was short at least. But I do have a funny story that has a cultural element. When I got to the gate, I saw that there was a line in front of the desk, about 20 people long. Rather than stand in a line without knowing why, I asked the woman at the back of the line, who turned out to be British, why she was standing in the line. She said, " I've no idea- everyone was joining the queue so I did as well." I was a bit surprised- the line was barely moving, and this woman had no idea why she was in it. The man in front of her heard my question, turned around, and he was also British and had no idea why he was in the line either! Well I went and sat down, not too far off, but I heard several other Americans ask what the line was for, and none of them stood in it when they found out that there was no real reason. Now, what did those British folks say to the woman when they got to the front of the line? Why did they stand there for over 30 minutes? They were still standing there when the plane started boarding. Standing in a line is good, if you have a purpose, but just getting into a line when there's no purpose doesn't make sense to me. :)
It's warmed up a bit here today- I think it might even hit 75F! :) I miss the hot Michigan weather already.
Last night G and I went for a bike ride for me to test my new bike- what a difference the suspension makes! It was so much more comfortable, and combined with the new gel bike gloves I got at REI I felt great instead of in pain after we got back.
My trip back wasn't too eventful- however may I suggest to you all that Newark isn't the best option for a layover? There was too much air traffic going in there, so our flight was delayed in Detroit for over 2 hours, and then we had to wait another 30 min on the tarmac. It only took an hour to get there, but it's not well signed there and I had to ask someone to help me find Continental. The flight was short at least. But I do have a funny story that has a cultural element. When I got to the gate, I saw that there was a line in front of the desk, about 20 people long. Rather than stand in a line without knowing why, I asked the woman at the back of the line, who turned out to be British, why she was standing in the line. She said, " I've no idea- everyone was joining the queue so I did as well." I was a bit surprised- the line was barely moving, and this woman had no idea why she was in it. The man in front of her heard my question, turned around, and he was also British and had no idea why he was in the line either! Well I went and sat down, not too far off, but I heard several other Americans ask what the line was for, and none of them stood in it when they found out that there was no real reason. Now, what did those British folks say to the woman when they got to the front of the line? Why did they stand there for over 30 minutes? They were still standing there when the plane started boarding. Standing in a line is good, if you have a purpose, but just getting into a line when there's no purpose doesn't make sense to me. :)
It's warmed up a bit here today- I think it might even hit 75F! :) I miss the hot Michigan weather already.
Monday, 14 July 2008
July 14, 2008
Now that the surprise has been successfully executed, I can tell you all that I'm in Michigan right now- I flew back to surprise my dad for his birthday, and to celebrate my mom's birthday too (which happened to be the day I got in!) But that meant flying out of the UK on my birthday, which is why I didn't respond as fast as usual to the many birthday wishes of all my friends. :) I had a good flight in, and was over my cold for the most part but I'm getting the chest congestion part of it now.
Thank you all for the many happy birthdays!
Thank you all for the many happy birthdays!
Friday, 11 July 2008
July 11, 2008
Our network has been really flaky these days- the router has to be turned off or hard reset like every 3 days now. I think we might have to send it back, so I may be offline for a day or two. Since I'm basically attached to the internet all day it feels a little weird to not have instant access whenever I feel like it! But I felt very blessed on my birthday yesterday even though I was still sick. :) I'm feeling a lot better now thankfully. Anyway since I've been at home sick there hasn't been much to blog about. :)
When in doubt, talk about the weather! :) That's what Brits do. It's been very wet and rainy here- we needed it because we had a long dry spell. The days are finally getting shorter, so it's not so hard to sleep at night, although the sun came up this morning at like 5am still. :) At least it was darkish at 10:30. :)
This weekend should be exciting- now that I've got my photo files all sorted I'm itching to do some new shooting. We've been wanting to go into London to see the kin Tut exhibit there, so I think we're going to try to brave the crowds and do that over the weekend. It's holiday season now so the crowds are bad in London, but the exhibit is supposed to be awesome, and there's so much of London we haven't seen at all. A friend of mine took a photo of the mummy, so if I can I'll do that too and post it on here. :)
When in doubt, talk about the weather! :) That's what Brits do. It's been very wet and rainy here- we needed it because we had a long dry spell. The days are finally getting shorter, so it's not so hard to sleep at night, although the sun came up this morning at like 5am still. :) At least it was darkish at 10:30. :)
This weekend should be exciting- now that I've got my photo files all sorted I'm itching to do some new shooting. We've been wanting to go into London to see the kin Tut exhibit there, so I think we're going to try to brave the crowds and do that over the weekend. It's holiday season now so the crowds are bad in London, but the exhibit is supposed to be awesome, and there's so much of London we haven't seen at all. A friend of mine took a photo of the mummy, so if I can I'll do that too and post it on here. :)
Wednesday, 9 July 2008
July 9, 2008
Unfortunately I seem to have caught whatever is going around here- I woke up yesterday with a sore throat and feeling a bit feverish, and today my sore throat is worse, although I feel less feverish, which is good. Anyway it's hard to think of anything to say when you're feeling sick, except "I don't feel good" which gets old. :) So don't be surprised if you don't hear anything from me- I'll probably be resting at home most of the weekend and trying to get over this.
Please pr for E- I've heard an update from one of the ladies who is primarily taking care of her (there are 3 ladies watching over her) and E is still severely depressed, and in her perception it will never get better. She is considering whether to have her parents come and get her, which would involve them driving from Poland, but although she'd have someone around 24-7 her depression is not likely to get better there because she'll have less access to treatment and to C friends who can take care of her and encourage her. Her relationship with her parents simply isn't good anyway. Also E feels her prospects in Poland are dim, because she came to the UK to get work, which young people are not finding in Poland. So if she returns she feels she'll be permanently unemployed. Her medication is not working yet, and people are trying to be sure that she's eating and taking the medication even.
This is a hard situation that's going to get harder, because many of E's friends through StAG are the iBASE girls, 95% of whom are returning to their home countries in 2 weeks and not returning. A very few are leaving and returning in August. But this is a mass exodus time in Cambridge, and E's support group is dwindling. N, one of the women who is mainly caring for her right now, is also leaving in 5 weeks. Please pr for Gd's direction in this situation, for the best thing to be done for E.
Thanks for your prs.
Please pr for E- I've heard an update from one of the ladies who is primarily taking care of her (there are 3 ladies watching over her) and E is still severely depressed, and in her perception it will never get better. She is considering whether to have her parents come and get her, which would involve them driving from Poland, but although she'd have someone around 24-7 her depression is not likely to get better there because she'll have less access to treatment and to C friends who can take care of her and encourage her. Her relationship with her parents simply isn't good anyway. Also E feels her prospects in Poland are dim, because she came to the UK to get work, which young people are not finding in Poland. So if she returns she feels she'll be permanently unemployed. Her medication is not working yet, and people are trying to be sure that she's eating and taking the medication even.
This is a hard situation that's going to get harder, because many of E's friends through StAG are the iBASE girls, 95% of whom are returning to their home countries in 2 weeks and not returning. A very few are leaving and returning in August. But this is a mass exodus time in Cambridge, and E's support group is dwindling. N, one of the women who is mainly caring for her right now, is also leaving in 5 weeks. Please pr for Gd's direction in this situation, for the best thing to be done for E.
Thanks for your prs.
Saturday, 5 July 2008
July 4, 2008
Happy Independence Day everyone! I hope you're enjoying the long weekend and the fireworks, and BBQs and other American things. :) It's obviously not a holiday here, so G had to work, we decided to have American food for dinner. So we had pizza, chicken finger things, and garlic bread. It was pretty good, although not so good for you. :) That's the first American meal we've had here. :) It was a good day to think about what freedom is and not to take it for granted.
I had lunch with some international friends that I met through the CE course, who cooked a wonderful Japanese lunch. They are very interested in the bbl, so I gave them 2 of the ones we brought back with us. The husband has been studying the bbl and has a million questions, but was too shy to ask them on the first meeting. :) Both he and his wife are very open to Gd and to learning about JC. So pr for us that we'll be able to continue meeting with them. Time is short because they will be returning to Japan at the end of August.
I had lunch with some international friends that I met through the CE course, who cooked a wonderful Japanese lunch. They are very interested in the bbl, so I gave them 2 of the ones we brought back with us. The husband has been studying the bbl and has a million questions, but was too shy to ask them on the first meeting. :) Both he and his wife are very open to Gd and to learning about JC. So pr for us that we'll be able to continue meeting with them. Time is short because they will be returning to Japan at the end of August.
Wednesday, 2 July 2008
July 2, 2008
Our CE course ended officially on Monday, and I wanted to update you on this critical outreach that I've been involved with, along with many of the ladies in our Int'l ladies group. I can't believe the course is already completed- the time went so fast.
We had 4 ladies in our course. They are all keen to understand the bbl, and 3 of them will return to Japan in August. They are all moms, so meeting during the daytime is more convenient for them. Please pr for the ladies- they all understand about JC and about sn in their hearts and lives, but are finding it hard to choose him because of their cultural backgrounds.
At- right now she feels she can't choose JC because in Japan, people believe in many gds and they don't choose one over the other, or which one is greatest. Pr for her to understand about Gd.
Sash-when we asked her what it might look like to follow JC for her, she said that if it meant denying herself (ie putting JC first in her life) then she would not choose it, because she wasn't sure that etnl life was very valuable to her. Pr for her to see etnl life as a valuable relationship right now.
Kaz- has asked for a bbl and is serious about wanting to read it. She has asked several people about getting one, and I know she wants to understand more about Gd. She still finds it hard to choose JC because her husband has many questions that she can't answer about the bbl, and she feels that a greater understanding of the bbl will help her to believe. Praise Gd for her open heart.
JY- says she believes in JC, but comes from a culture of cultural belief in JC. When we described a C as a person who believes and follows JC she had mant questions about the following aspect, and her questions indicated some underlying problem with needing to follow and not just believe.
Thank you for lifting up these ladies with me this past 7 weeks. Our follow up time with the 3 ladies from Japan is short, since they will be returning home in 5 or 6 weeks and they are also taking many vacation trips to travel in Europe. Please be asking that we could meet one on one to study and chat about these things more. Believe it or not I didn't think to take a photo of our group! I'll try to get some photos at the next social event if I can so you can put names with faces.
We had 4 ladies in our course. They are all keen to understand the bbl, and 3 of them will return to Japan in August. They are all moms, so meeting during the daytime is more convenient for them. Please pr for the ladies- they all understand about JC and about sn in their hearts and lives, but are finding it hard to choose him because of their cultural backgrounds.
At- right now she feels she can't choose JC because in Japan, people believe in many gds and they don't choose one over the other, or which one is greatest. Pr for her to understand about Gd.
Sash-when we asked her what it might look like to follow JC for her, she said that if it meant denying herself (ie putting JC first in her life) then she would not choose it, because she wasn't sure that etnl life was very valuable to her. Pr for her to see etnl life as a valuable relationship right now.
Kaz- has asked for a bbl and is serious about wanting to read it. She has asked several people about getting one, and I know she wants to understand more about Gd. She still finds it hard to choose JC because her husband has many questions that she can't answer about the bbl, and she feels that a greater understanding of the bbl will help her to believe. Praise Gd for her open heart.
JY- says she believes in JC, but comes from a culture of cultural belief in JC. When we described a C as a person who believes and follows JC she had mant questions about the following aspect, and her questions indicated some underlying problem with needing to follow and not just believe.
Thank you for lifting up these ladies with me this past 7 weeks. Our follow up time with the 3 ladies from Japan is short, since they will be returning home in 5 or 6 weeks and they are also taking many vacation trips to travel in Europe. Please be asking that we could meet one on one to study and chat about these things more. Believe it or not I didn't think to take a photo of our group! I'll try to get some photos at the next social event if I can so you can put names with faces.
Tuesday, 1 July 2008
July 1, 2008
I just heard some great news from my Living Proof friends at CCBC- our friend Joyce is getting married! We're so happy for her and her husband to be, Albert. Their wedding is going to be July 19th, and we hope that someone will take photos for us so we can see it. :)
The Swavesey Festival ended over the weekend, and I hope to put some photos on here so you can see how interesting and quaint it was. :) The last night they had a band called QED whom I've never heard of, and they played for quite some time. We even had a bandstand with flashing lights and stuff- very exciting. :) People brought their gazeebos and picnic blankets and set up around the other 3 sides of the village green, and were there all day. The strangest part was at the end of the evening, around10:20 (it's still light here very late) when as their ending song they played Greased Lighting, and suddenly all the women jumped up and started doing some sort of line dance! All these random women from like every tent ran out in front of their tents and started doing random forms of dancing- some did that line dance, some just jumped around. It was strange indeed. :) The evening ended with some pretty decent fireworks that went on forever! Plus they like to play music during fireworks shows here- there's nothing like Greased Lightning into Fireworks combined with the X-files theme song. :)
As many of you know I've been slaving away at reorganizing my photo files- all 15000 of them. When I began photography I didn't take the wise advice of my instructor who suggested renaming each shoot and editing the file info right then. I just put them into folders based on the shoot and left it at that. Well the camera rolls over it's counting scheme at 10,000, and that has of course been a problem. :) So I've redone everything, renamed, edited the ownership and copyright info, and used keywords to make them easier to search. I also uploaded about 1000 new photos onto my phanfare site, some I'd forgotten I had! Now that this major project is done I've been looking for new projects to take on, and yesterday I made my first foray into the offical freelance community. Lots of photogs want projects where they can photograph stuff, but the real opportunities are in digital file editing, because most people don't know how and don't want to do it if they do know how. Anyway I wrote up a project bid yesterday and I hope to hear back today on whether I've been successful or not. This is a good one because it's ongoing every week, which gives a steady weekly income. I'm pretty excited about it. I've been taking freelance projects here in town for free, mostly doing things for my friends at STAG just to get the word out and gain experience, and I enjoy it. I did a shoot on a few lesser known Cambridge College buildings in December, and this month I photographed some professional Chinese paintings which a friend of ours has bought as a start to an art import business. He needed the images to send to galleries, and the galleries he emailed them to said they were perfect at showing what the original image is like. I'm going to go round and talk to someone at the gallery about photographing more of their art work and see how that goes. And lastly next week I'm doing a portrait shoot for an American friend who has a book coming out soon, and she needs an author photo. She's concerned about her braces, which I can remove in Photoshop. :)
That's a lot about me, but G is doing very well too, and he's enjoying his work. He had a good conversation with a new guy about fth which was exciting. Nelly is also well, although she is currently angry with me about the antiflea goop I had to squirt on her neck. She has some kind of teeny skin mites that make her scratch in front of her ears, so she has to have this stuff once a month. I bought the natural kind in the US so at least it smells good. But she doesn't like it and she's still giving me angry looks. :)
We're hoping to find a 4th of July celebration here in Cambridge- there are enough Americans that there could be an Americatown here so I'm sure someone is putting something on. :)
The Swavesey Festival ended over the weekend, and I hope to put some photos on here so you can see how interesting and quaint it was. :) The last night they had a band called QED whom I've never heard of, and they played for quite some time. We even had a bandstand with flashing lights and stuff- very exciting. :) People brought their gazeebos and picnic blankets and set up around the other 3 sides of the village green, and were there all day. The strangest part was at the end of the evening, around10:20 (it's still light here very late) when as their ending song they played Greased Lighting, and suddenly all the women jumped up and started doing some sort of line dance! All these random women from like every tent ran out in front of their tents and started doing random forms of dancing- some did that line dance, some just jumped around. It was strange indeed. :) The evening ended with some pretty decent fireworks that went on forever! Plus they like to play music during fireworks shows here- there's nothing like Greased Lightning into Fireworks combined with the X-files theme song. :)
As many of you know I've been slaving away at reorganizing my photo files- all 15000 of them. When I began photography I didn't take the wise advice of my instructor who suggested renaming each shoot and editing the file info right then. I just put them into folders based on the shoot and left it at that. Well the camera rolls over it's counting scheme at 10,000, and that has of course been a problem. :) So I've redone everything, renamed, edited the ownership and copyright info, and used keywords to make them easier to search. I also uploaded about 1000 new photos onto my phanfare site, some I'd forgotten I had! Now that this major project is done I've been looking for new projects to take on, and yesterday I made my first foray into the offical freelance community. Lots of photogs want projects where they can photograph stuff, but the real opportunities are in digital file editing, because most people don't know how and don't want to do it if they do know how. Anyway I wrote up a project bid yesterday and I hope to hear back today on whether I've been successful or not. This is a good one because it's ongoing every week, which gives a steady weekly income. I'm pretty excited about it. I've been taking freelance projects here in town for free, mostly doing things for my friends at STAG just to get the word out and gain experience, and I enjoy it. I did a shoot on a few lesser known Cambridge College buildings in December, and this month I photographed some professional Chinese paintings which a friend of ours has bought as a start to an art import business. He needed the images to send to galleries, and the galleries he emailed them to said they were perfect at showing what the original image is like. I'm going to go round and talk to someone at the gallery about photographing more of their art work and see how that goes. And lastly next week I'm doing a portrait shoot for an American friend who has a book coming out soon, and she needs an author photo. She's concerned about her braces, which I can remove in Photoshop. :)
That's a lot about me, but G is doing very well too, and he's enjoying his work. He had a good conversation with a new guy about fth which was exciting. Nelly is also well, although she is currently angry with me about the antiflea goop I had to squirt on her neck. She has some kind of teeny skin mites that make her scratch in front of her ears, so she has to have this stuff once a month. I bought the natural kind in the US so at least it smells good. But she doesn't like it and she's still giving me angry looks. :)
We're hoping to find a 4th of July celebration here in Cambridge- there are enough Americans that there could be an Americatown here so I'm sure someone is putting something on. :)
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