My life in Vienna
17 July 2005
Another very interesting month gone, have learnt some new things, have done a lot and at work things
are gouing smoothly. Have taken
some pictures and finally bought the camera I've been wanting to buy for for a long time: a real Hasselblad V Series.
The idea behind buying myself this expensive present is that I've spent so much money on old cameras but really
wanted a Hassy one day so this should be the camera that will stop me from buying more... hopefully :o)
Haven't taken any pictures with it but soon will. Think it won't get the same treatment as my Large Format
camera, which hasn't been taken out for a spin yet. Next weekend, in the mountains, both might get some
exercise. Fortunately there is no excesive hiking involved as their very heavy.
Ah, that reminds me to take pictures of m cameras and put them online. Should just make time for that but
first have to design and write 2 websites again. No time, no time.
Summer is back again, time to sit on the street with a coffee and a nice easy book. Well, not too easy as
it might be finished before getting fed up with sitting in front of a cafe and that would be a shame.
Also took my bike out for a spin a few times (not enough) and tried to fix one of the newly bought
mountain bikes, with some luck but the chain is ruined and I think I'll just bring it to a shop to fix
that part, just being lazy. Summer also means: movie festival at the Stadtkino, my nearly-home cinema
as it's just around the corner. Very nice to watch a good movie and drinking a white wine. So much nicer
than watching television, even than watching television with your feet on the table and a beer in your
hand, my home cinema is a lot nicer. Just enjoying life.
Isn't that why people keep diaries -- to be read by someone else?
Why would they keep them otherwise?
Nagiko's husband, in Peter Greenaway's "The Pillow Book"
16 August 2005
Just returned from a very short trip in the mountains. The idea was to go to the same mountain range
I went to in September 2000 but unlike the then North-South crossing
this time it was going to be a 5 day West-East hike. But like in August 2002,
when the East-West hike was planned, the mountain didn't want me and after the first afternoon of sunshine,
it decided to
rain and build very thick fog. It would be able to complete the next day but well, what's the
point of hiking an extremely nice hike but you can't see anything? So the day after I'd arrived,
I went down again, walked around the rainy Gosau See and walked back to the village in order to
take the bus to Bad Ischl, which turned out to be extremely touristy. The weather forecast for
the rest of the week is rain, rain and thunderstorms so decided to either stay inside, do some
shopping or go on short cycling and hiking trips. My holiday for this year :o(
I've been keeping my resolution of not buying any more cameras, I haven't bought any still cameras
anymore. Well, that is to say, there is a nice late-1930s movie projector standing in the room
now, a dual format, 9,5mm / 16mm Ditmar 2960. Got it for one Euro in a box with other "interesting" things and it
seems to work. Bought some movies to try it out and still waiting for the new rubber belts, the
old ones were dried out, a usual thing on movie projectors this old and also wondering about the
use of a few knobs and buttons so also waiting for the manual a very friendly Englishman sent me.
The internet is great to get in touch with people and I'm responsible for the physical connections
of Austria to the world :o)
You can say with safety that nowadays women have finally acknowledged their
position of not liking men. We could say now that women don't like men. They
can acknowledge that they prefer the company of their own kind. I think we can
also say generally that most men do not like other men. Most men prefer to like
women. So women are the most liked by the most people. Men love women, women
love children, and children love hamsters. A one-way slide. There is little
going back the other way. Can hamsters love children? I leave you to deduce the
rest.
Palmira, in Peter Greenaway's "8 1/2 Women"
24 October 2005
A very long silence this time but it doesn't mean that the website hasn't been updated. My camera collection has been growing gast over the past years but I somehow lost track of what I had, what it looked like and how it worked. Autumn started, with real autumn weather so what can you do when it's raining outside and you don't feel like going out? Checking the camera collection! And as everything was taken out of the box anyway, it could be photographed and put on the web at the same time. Cool! So that's what I've been doing, that and restructuring the Collection pages at the same time. Think it's been successfull but it took quite some time, time that could have been spent taking pictures outside, pictures of the great fall colours. Well, if only I hadn't been so lazy...
In the mean time I've been reading a lot about European history, Germany, Russia and now about England during the Thatcher era. Very interesting and great to see how and why things happened and why the world is as it is today.
The day after tomorrow is the day we will drive to the Netherlands for a short 5 day visit. Not only to visit some friends but also to pick up my small "collection of nice things" piling up at my parent's place and in Amsterdam. Sometimes it's not good to know you're driving back by car so that weight is of no importance.
I never travel without my diary. One should always have something
sensational to read on a train.
Gwendolen Fairfax in Oscar Wilde's - The Importance of Being Ernest
1 November 2005
Just returned from Amsterdam and it was great. Met some friends, went to my parents and came back to Vienna with many interesting items: a new used Hasselblad camera, a large format Cambo monorail camera, a 16mm Charly Chaplin movie, a very heavy Manfrotto tripod and a very happy feeling. It was a great visit and the weather was great too, unlike what I had expected. It was about 22 degrees, blue sky and only a little wind. Just perfect. Carla, thanks for keeping up with me.
You always want to stay a bit green, you never want to become ripe;
because once you become ripe the next step is to become rotten.
Napoleon Hill
29 November 2005
Hopefully I will be able to continue traveling like I have been doing these two months. October for Amsterdam and November for London. Just returned from a two day meeting, with 3 days holidays attached, in London. Was great to visit the city again and great to see all the differences in the way people interact with each other on the streets and in the bars. Also great to see that the city traffic became a lot more relaxed with the congestion charge, a lot less cars and the streets are mainly taken by taxis and busses. Great idea and I hope Vienna will do the same soon.
On the photography front it's been quiet, didn't take a lot fo time to take pictures but took my Hasselblad with me and took some pictures. But of course, being new to it all, I still have to learn how to use it properly :o)
At work there are many things to do. The budget planning is done now so some little projects that got pushed around a little are now re-activated and of course need to be finished urgently.
Aus dem üblichen Kreis der Gewohnheiten,
Zeremonien und Aktivitäten ist irgendeiner herausgetreten,
der den kühnen Entschluss fasste,
sich von der konventionellen Gemeinschaft zu lösen.
Ein Verweigerer, frei und tragisch-komisch,
allein mit seinem Los.
Ein Mensch, der jedem von uns gleicht
und dennoch unendlich fremd ist,
jenseits dieser Schranke,
die nur durch die Poesie überschritten werden kann.
XENOS - Ulrike Kaufmann und Erwin Piplits
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