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While I was visiting family in Europe I raided my family’s old photo albums. There were lots of old b&w photos. I spent a good amount of time going over them and asking, ‘who’s this? and this guy?’ It’s amazing that most of us don’t know what our great grandfather looks like. I think things will change considering how nearly every one owns at least one camera these days.

I found a lot of them interesting and I thought I’d share two of them with you.

So I was about this young and my grandfather took me on my first fishing trip. He made a fishing pole out of a stick with some string on it and a metal hook at the end. You would never have guessed it but I caught a fish with it and I do clearly recall the memory of catching my first ever fish. It was a tiny fish, nearly as small as the hook actually but that didn’t matter. Of course the fish was placed there by my grandfather pictured next to me. I’ve no idea where he got the fish but he pulled it off and gave me a memory that stayed with me.

As I grew older I often recalled the memory and eventually came to the conclusion that I didn’t catch the fish. The hook was simply too big and there was no bait on it to begin with.

You can imagine my surprise when I came across this photo. It gave me a really warm loving feeling. They say that most people will run for their family photos first in the case of a house fire. I don’t blame them and in fact I will be doing the same.

The other photo is a really old family portrait. They are all from my grandfathers side in their village, Kumanovo in Northern Macedonia. I just love the composition, the way they are arranged in height order and the proud look of the man of the house on his tractor.

Hello my two friends that read this blog. Or did one of you stop coming already?

Today is the very last day of my 6 week holiday in Europe. So, is there anything to tell? Probably. But I don’t want to get carried away so I’ll just spew out a few sentences for now.

It was just a visit-the-relatives-overseas type of holiday. I don’t want to make it sound dull though. I did have a fantastic time. My cousins over here are fabulous and I loved getting to know them better. I went to Croatia for 7 nights which was fantastic. I did get sun burnt pretty badly on the second day but that didn’t stop me from enjoying all the history and scenery around. I’ll have a few photos to show at my photo-blog over the next few weeks.

Most of the time was spent in Macedonia. I was born there and have lots of family. It was great seeing them. Last I saw most of them was 13 years ago… The country itself is in better shape. That is to say it’s improving but still has a long long way to go. I would class it as third world. I could complain about the lack of systems around daily life, bad roads, poor health care, extremely high unemployment rates and low wages… but I will bore you I fear. The country has a lot to sort out and they are making slow progress.

The social/networking side of things is great though. It seems that everyone knows everyone and even if they are poor they still manage to go out to restaurants and cafes and generally enjoy themselves every single damned night of the week. I swear I’ve gone out to dinner at around 10pm every night for the past 5 weeks. It truly is an experience.

Alas, the trip is over and I’m coming home. My flight leaves Macedonia from Skopje Airport in 16 hours. I am looking forward to seeing everyone I left behind including half of my immediate family and all my friends. My dog my car, bed and shower, job and cameras and every single materialistic thing Sydney life is good for. I’ve no illusions, I am a slave to materialistic things and I do miss my life there.

Just one more thing…

On a day tour a couple of weeks ago we drove up this mountain to see some historical monuments where we ran into some paragliders launching off a hill. It looked interesting so we stopped for a picture and a look see.

They would carelessly launch off the hill and float up and up just like a feather in a cool breeze. It looked like so much fun. It stayed with me all day.

The following day I had to find a net cafe to read up on the sport. After a few days wasting too much valuable holiday time I decided to try my hand at hang gliding. As it turns out us Aussies seem to be at the centre of the sport and there’s even a popular site close to home: Stanwell.

I’m actually a little surprised I haven’t previously looked into the sport. I’ve done a few solo sky dives and I was always a little different in the fact that I preferred the canopy ride to the free fall which is what attracts most people. It only seems natural to take that canopy ride and extend the experience. Here’s to another little adventure in my life…

Hello there. It’s been a while since I’ve posted but I have legitamite excuses. Note the plural. Work has been pretty full on and that’s my main excuse. I’ve gained a staff member, trained them, been promoted, fired someone, hired someone and trained them. All the while taking on new tasks and drinking lots of coffee. Yay. I’m really happy about the promotion. It does seem like hard work pays off.

Apart from the fun stuff at work I’ve not done much else. My photography has slowed down but my enthusiasm hasn’t. A mate and I just purchased a bunch of film for experimenting and I’ve shot a couple of rolls already. One of those I completed in 5 minutes earlier tonight and boy was it fun. My little brother was rocking away on the drums while I got creative and experimental with a roll of Ilford Delta 3200 shot at 1600. The Olympus OM-1 I was using only goes up to 1600 unfortunately. To be honest even if none of those shots works out I trully did have a blast taking them. Next roll in the camera is an Ilford HP5.

It’s confirmed. At the end of June I’ll be boarding a plane to visit my birth country, Macedonia. I’ll be staying there for 5 weeks, visiting my family and the surrounding countries. I’m really looking forward to seeing my grandparents from both sides and all my cousins, aunties and uncles. I have more family there than I do here and it’s always far too long in between visits. The last time I was there was in 1995!

Sad to report that I have failed NaNoWriMo 2007. I’m not surprised that I did. I had that bad feeling a few days in when my story was turning to shit and it wasn’t fun to write nor did I like the direction it was heading nor did I like ANY of the characters. I shouldn’t really offer excuses though. Next time I’ll plan it better with more than a days lead time. I’ll probably still fail though. Haah.