Yesterday I finally spent a few hours to sort through my photos of Gozo and pick the best ones – to submit to Arkadia’s photography competition! I’m quite late with my submissions (though it is open until September), and there are a lot of (very good!) photos that have had a head start on mine… but I thought I’d try anyway.
I would be very grateful if you’d help me by voting for my photos (the only snag here is that you have to be a Facebook user to vote). Below are the pics I submitted – each is linked to its voting page on gottagotogozo.com, Arkadia’s competition page.
Finally, here are my photos of Roger Hodgson‘s gig at Tollwood. Hope you’ll like them; the quality is a little better than on facebook!! Unfortunately we were only allowed to take photos during the first three songs. That means I didn’t get the chance to catch Roger playing the piano… sadly! But I guess you can’t have it all, eh? I’m happy with what I got!
I’d like to say a heartfelt thank-you to Linda Tyler for allowing me to take these photos. Linda is one helluva kind lady, always smiling and always there to help Roger’s friends/fans with whatever we need. She’s simply amazing!
And then there’s Kathy, our dear friend who is the driving force behind Roger’s Garden Gate (and Roger’s web-master!). She is the one who has brought us all together… Here’s a big virtual hug for you Kathy – but you really should have been there with the rest of us for the real thing!! Maybe next time??
Click on the images to see their larger versions. Enjoy!
Finally a cooler day… The weather was incredibly hot until last night a heavy thunderstorm cooled things down. Today it’s been raining on and off; I’ll enjoy it as long as it last! Seeing Malta’s weather forecast really makes me want to stay here forever!
Six long months waiting for Roger Hodgson’s gig at the Tollwood Summer Festival (I bought my ticket in January!) – and now it’s already over; the days have flown by, just as good times tend to do!
Tollwood, Munich
Tuesday night our friend Gregor received a shocking e-mail from Linda: After Roger’s concert in Quimper/France they were unable to fly to Munich because French air traffic controllers chose to strike exactly between Tuesday evening until Thursday morning!! In another e-mail at lunchtime on Wednesday Linda told him they were still in France… She certainly managed to keep us in suspense! Well, we all know how dedicated Roger is to his fans. In the end they drove by bus to Germany, then hired a “little jet” and arrived at the venue half an hour before the start of the gig!
Even after such a harrowing journey, a beaming Linda came out before the show to greet and hug each of us, after arranging photo passes for those of us with cameras and organising those coveted little “after show” passes for the whole gang…
And what about Roger & Aaron? Nothing short of astonishing. You could not only see, but also hear and feel how much they enjoyed playing for about 4,500 people! After opening with The Long Way Home, Roger explained to the crowd what had happened that had caused the delay, and then played Give A Little Bit. Thank you Gregor (again – I’ll be forever in debt with you LOL!) for capturing it. I had recorded the speech too, but the sound is awful…
Because of the half-hour delay to the start of the show, they also did away with the intermission as apparently there was a curfew and they weren’t allowed to play after 10 pm. Roger’s voice was impeccable as always – and if you believe that I’m biased (which I am but that doesn’t mean I would lie!), today’s ‘Abendzeitung’ captioned Roger’s photo thus: “Glasklar wie immer” = crystal-clear as always! (Although the journalist who wrote the article, a certain Arno Frank Eser, should be ashamed to change Aaron into Eric… I mean, that guy gets paid for his writing/researching, right?!)
Still not showing any signs of fatigue, Roger welcomed quite a crowd of fans at the after-show meet & greet – all separately in individual groups of friends. His incredible gift of making you feel good is just amazing. Thank you for being the person you are Roger!
I will post photos on Saturday or Sunday, but if you don’t want to wait that long, there are unedited pics of the concert on facebook. But here’s the set list – kindly provided by Gregor (thank you!!). I don’t know how he does it, but he seems to get it every time LOL! *envy*
Friends
The friendships that were made through Roger’s music are lasting ones; it never ceases to amaze me how well we’re all matched, even though we’re all so different from each other.
Our little Garden Gang group was almost unchanged from March 2009: Mick & Sharon (Ireland), Claudia (Germany), Christine (Austria), Gregor & Family (Germany), Anina & Sámal (Faroe Islands), Miriam & Olaf (Germany) Sylvia (Switzerland), and last but really not least, Lisa & Jenna (Wisconsin, USA) (yes that’s right, USA!!). Seeing each other again was like coming home… We all stayed at the same hotel (Best Western Aparthotel) very close to the Tollwood venue, which meant we were able to spend many hours together. Especially dinner and after-dinner drinks on the first night were hard work on the muscles: the laughter was killing us all LOL!
We’re already looking forward to the next time… Mick mentioned Dublin to be a possibility in the future – well, I think I’ll be there!
Something that’s been nagging me
I don’t really want to taint the wonderful time we all had with negativity, which is why I’m hesitating a little to write about the organisational aspect of the event. On the other hand I believe one should mention these things, not least because people might mistakenly blame Roger or his management. Interestingly, Roger said in the beginning, “I don’t know if they allow you to dance here, but…” As if he knew already that dancing was a big no-no as far as the organisers were concerned.
But for more serious starters, there was the opening of the gate – or more precisely two openings. After queuing for hours at the outside gate, one scrambled to queue at one of eight entrances to the concert tent. And “queue” isn’t even accurate; there were no lines to speak of, just crowds. Because of the delay, tensions started to rise a little, and by the time the metal doors did open (to the outside, i. e. onto the crowd and no security staff in sight!), people just seemed to be crazy. I’m honestly surprised – and relieved! – that nobody got hurt in the resulting stampede as people scrambled for what they could scramble for (really, really sorry for the pun!!), which were the unnumbered seats! It was like a huge game of musical chairs, only it wasn’t funny.
I’ve decided not to describe the events as they kept unfolding throughout the concert, courtesy of the security guys and girls. The name printed on the staff t-shirts was “MfG”. That is a German abbreviation for “Mit freundlichen Grüßen“ (= with kind regards). Of course I’m sure that’s not the company’s name, but the association in the mind is there. Well, what can I say, I’ve never seen security staff behave like these people did, and kind or friendly aren’t attributes that would jump to mind. What’s certain, however, is that the organizers didn’t have a clue what Roger Hodgson is all about. Let’s leave it at that. Maybe, just maybe, they will know better next time, but I doubt it…
Yesterday I woke up at 4 am once again. It has become an annoying routine that I really wish I could break. During the week it’s obviously worse as I can’t just hang around at the office but need to work, which is a drag after a sleep-deprived night…
Well, yesterday was Saturday so instead of twisting and turning and trying to get back to sleep I got up and made myself a coffee. A glimpse outside the bedroom window revealed thick fog patches and then it didn’t take me long to get dressed and go out with my camera!
As we all know, life definitely is a bitch sometimes, and yesterday was ‘sometimes’. I headed for the harbour as I’ve wanted for ages to catch one of those shots of Comino, Cominotto and Malta sticking out of fog banks, with the sea hidden beneath white cotton. But the fog apparently had other ideas about the perfect location – and the harbour was not it.
I had no idea which way to turn (I later learnt I should have headed for Ramla/Xaghra), so I decided to stick it out on the eastern part of the island. The results weren’t what I intended, but they still turned out ok I think.
Last Saturday we had the (full-day) wrap-up of our photography course, and I wonder how many of us will miss going to Rabat tomorrow morning! George Saguna said on his blog what I’m sure we’re all thinking. It was a great group of all ages (well, nobody was over 60 or under 17 LOL), and I personally look forward to keeping in touch with all of them!
How funny that the venue of our last day was the Ninu Cremona School in Victoria. I was still fighting my pain demons and thus wasn’t able to take full advantage of all the weird nooks and crannies that offered such marvellous settings for a photo-shoot. Here are my best shots, but if you like you can see more – and better ones! – in the group photo album, which has now been made public (though I think you’ll have to be on facebook – but I’m not sure!).
I went back to work last Monday as planned and had some better days, and some worse. The heat hasn’t been helping at all – upon coming home I usually find the nearest horizontal area and collapse in a steaming heap, with nothing further from my mind than blogging about the photography course!
Well, a week ago today we met up late afternoon for a change, and the photo shoot took place at sunset. At first I was a bit miffed when I’d read about the chosen location – Dwejra. I’ve been down there so many times that I should be made a honorary something of Dwejra!! But I hadn’t known that it would be a sunset shoot much different to the ones I’d undertaken before. I loved it – except for the mosquitoes that attacked us like kamikaze bombers…
Model: Francesca Caruana
Our tutor, Kevin Casha, took photos with lighting… While I’m happy with my silhouettes, his pics make me green with envy!!
This shall be the last post revolving around my painkiller addiction (unless something unexpected crops up!). I’m getting there: stopped Solpadeine a full nine days ago and haven’t touched any tablets at all for four days. During the daytime I even have short spells of being completely pain-free, and actual headaches are hardly ever making an appearance any more! It’s only the pain in various muscles that doesn’t want to leave me alone yet…
Nights are still a big nuisance. No matter what I do or what time I go to bed, there’s a strict sleep pattern of 4 hours + 3 hours that can’t be broken. And the waking after the first four hours is pretty bad with my whole body aching, making it tough to get back to sleep for the second stretch. Having given up my daytime naps altogether I fully expected the sleep problem to be over by now, but alas…
This weekend is going to be relatively busy; tonight another photography course session including sunset shooting awaits – then tomorrow the last one (full-day!). That will be a rather taxing one; I hope to make it through till the end.
And Monday I’m going back to work. I’m actually looking forward to that, to feeling useful again. Though I can’t deny there’s some trepidation in the picture, too. But I’ll tackle one day at a time, and I’ll be fine. I’m on the mend!
Last Saturday was a very tough one for me – see my previous post. Nonetheless, I did get a number of shots done before giving up. The setting was one of Ray Bajada’s beautiful Butterfly farmhouses, and the models were Tiziana Vella (who we’d already met in session 2), Francesca Petra Caruana and Shaun Sultana. Dress: D Elegance Bridal and Occasion Wear Victoria Gozo
I thought I’d relate my experiences with painkillers. If you get bored easily just don’t read on. If you found this post googling “solpadeine addiction“, you might read on and find some encouragement. In any case, if you think it takes years to get addicted, you’d better think again!
Over the past six days or so, I’ve travelled to hell but I believe I’m slowly returning to life now.
To recap the beginning (I’ve talked about it elsewhere on my blog): I’ve been having permanent headaches for about 3 months or longer, I can’t exactly pinpoint the start of it any more. Initially, I used to take ibuprofen (Irfen, Nurofen), sometimes paracetamol (Panadol). Sometimes they’d help, but more often they would just dull the pain, not really rid me of it. When it became more than just a nuisance, I saw a doctor (our family doctor was on holiday), who said it was probably due to my working long hours in the same position in front of the computer. And he recommended I should take Solpadeine instead of the other painkillers…
For a while, Solpadeine (a combination of paracetamol, codeine and caffeine) worked really well. Their effect lasted about 7 hours a stretch, and two doses a day of 2 capsules each helped me to function pretty well – never mind that my sleep patterns got “patchy”. Then I noticed that 7 hours decreased to 5… and I read up on Solpadeine on the internet. Googling “solpadeine addiction” opens up a whole world of terror to you!
Well, the headaches just wouldn’t let up; in mid-May I spent three days in hospital where all findings including x-ray and CT scan where found to be normal. A couple of weeks later I started physiotherapy and went swimming several times a week after work. Nothing seemed to have a lasting effect though. Regarding the danger of addiction I fooled myself by taking Solpadeine first thing in the morning (by then I woke up regularly between 4 and 5 am) and at lunchtime switched to Panadol , or sometimes Irfen… And on and on it went… you get the picture.
Last Wednesday, after having slept just 2 hours the previous night, I went to my doctor and cried (quite literally) for help. In the end he gave me Paxetin (paroxetine), an antidepressant, and told me to stop immediately all painkillers including Panadol. That’s when above mentioned hell came into the picture. After the first day I couldn’t eat anything, my mouth got so dry I couldn’t swallow anything except for water and grapes, which became my exclusive diet for 4 days. I tried half a bite-sized ‘Bounty’ chocolate and just couldn’t get it through my throat. On top of all that, headaches and muscle pains became horrendous.
My husband was abroad till early Saturday morning; I spent all days and nights until he came back wandering restlessly between the living room sofa and my bed, depending on heat and noise levels (because how Murphy’s Law just loved it, the village feast was being celebrated right in front of our doorstep!). Saturday morning I took a deep breath and made myself go to the photography course, the first time I’d left the horizontal since Wednesday! I pottered through somehow, but after a couple of hours I had to give up shooting, I just sat there in the shade watching the action, hoping time would pass quicker than normal.
On my return home, I collapsed in pain and exhaustion. I assure you I’m not making this up, I was totally out of it. Late afternoon I phoned my doctor but he was at some event and couldn’t discuss things over the phone with me, he said, “well take the Solpadeine then, but they really are not the solution!” Well, I really thought so too! Saturday night was worse than anything I had experienced until then. The pain in my head and shoulder/back muscles was practically matching the petards exploding outside the door, like I was connected to some kind of electrical device firing at random locations of my body.
The only reason why I did NOT resort to Solpadeine again was the awareness that I’d been off them for four whole days already. It dawned on me that perhaps my original headache might not really exist any longer but that I was “merely” (ha!) suffering withdrawal from the bloody meds!
Somehow the night passed, and Sunday morning I decided to get rid of the paroxetine, too. I hardly moved away from the sofa all day, taking Panadol at minimum intervals of 6 hours and drinking enormous amounts of water.
Well, that was yesterday. The pain hasn’t disappeared but it did let me sleep for a whole four hours in one go last night. I couldn’t believe I was waking up to bright daylight!
The last time I took two Panadol was eight hours ago, and I’m desperately clinging to all sorts of distractions from taking the next dose – I’m certain that the paracetamol has to go from my system, too! I forced myself to watch silly videos, doze off, write this post, finally have a look at my photos of Saturday and edit a few. At times I’m just staring into space, but that’s ok too, no?
It’s so strange; yesterday I was absolutely certain that I was going to quit the course, cancel my trip to Munich, and maybe never get back to normal again. And only 24 hours later I’m for the first time seeing a strong light at the end of the tunnel. I’m going to beat this shit!
So on Saturday we all met up again at the Citadel for another lecture. The subject was composition, which wasn’t really that important for me. But the photo-shoot that followed definitely was: once again in the glaring midday sun, we got the opportunity to shoot away at a ‘real-life’ model! As you’ll have gathered from the growing collection of my photos, I’m heavily biased towards landscapes and animals. Where people come into play, I’m happy to shoot musicians at live gigs, but people aren’t usually my favourite subjects. For some strange reason, I’m lacking some kind of confidence, even feel awkward.
I’m quite happy with the outcome of our model session. The model is Tiziana Vella; I had seen other photos of her before, and if I’m honest I hadn’t particularly liked them. Now, I’m in no way insinuating that my photos are better. I didn’t do much more than taking advantage of Kevin Casha guiding the model, and then just shooting. Which was an eye-opener in the sense that I hadn’t thought about how important the photographer’s respect for the model is – and of course the ability to get the best out her/him. And Kevin is good at that! I doubt I would have gotten the same results if I’d had to do it alone…
Next Saturday there’s more good stuff to come; I’m really glad I had the opportunity to ‘slip in’ as participant when the course had been already fully booked! It has already been worth the money I spent on it. And apart from the main part, learning photography stuff, we are also a great mixed group that I look forward to meeting every weekend!
Finally, here are a few more shots I took “on the side”:
