photos of fruits and photos of vegetables and photos of grains

Over the last couple of weeks, G (one of my work colleagues) and I attended a three-session photography workshop (courtesy of our employer). It culminated on Friday evening, ehen the participants (or the half of us who bothered to turn up) presented their assignments, which had been given to us the previous Saturday. Mine was "a variety of different-coloured seeds." Which I didn;t really like all that much. I'd have preferred G's, which was something along the lines of "duality and contrast". Given an abstract, conceptual theme like that, I'd have had the luxury of photographing pretty much anything and then bullshitting to fit the bill. It's hard to bullshit "a variety of different-coloured seeds."

I was very impressed with G's effort (which genuinely fit the theme). He, like several others, put together a very spiffy powerpoint slideshow, complete with thoughtful text and evocative music. I just had a powerpoint of my shots. I had to click to go to the next photo and instead of Enya and inspirational quotes, I babbled about what little I know (i.e., very little) about the history of fruit and veg. I did make one joke that got some laughs, about how the first watermelon I bought was a seedless. (True, I swear!)

Anyway -- here are the photos (cos it's easier than writing lots of stuff):

hardcore regime

have been very lax with the blog of late -- trying to get on top of work and not spend too much time in the office. It's THE NEW ME.

I feel better about work etc than I did at this stage last year (not sure WHY I feel better, but am not questioning it. It might be my new HARDCORE FITNESS REGIME. I'm swimming for 30min at lunchtime nowadays. It's good for several reasons:

1. I stop at the Japanese restaurant (NOT this one) on the way back to work and pick up sushi for lunch, thereby avoiding the dubious delights of the work cafeteria;
2. I don't self-flagellate because I intended, and failed, to swim after work;
3. I avoid the work cafeteria;
4. I have much more energy at work in the afternoon; and
5. I avoid the work cafeteria.

And, I was amused by the following excerpt from the Cebu Pacific airline website's online bookimng page. It nicely sums up the Filipino fixation with nicknames (almost nobody is introduced or addressed as their own name -- everyone has a nickname). I especially like the second paragraph (partly the general sentiment and partly that they used "i.e." instead of "e.g.", which results in wonderful implications). Oh to be one of those people...

Please make sure that you enter your FULL NAME, ex. Juan dela Cruz. "Juan" is the first name or given name and "dela Cruz" is the surname or family name. Please do not use your aliases/nicknames. Or better yet, if you are a passport-holder, please enter your name as it appears in your passport and use your passport as your form of ID at point of check-in.

For guests with single-word names, i.e. just Kristanto, please contact the Call Center at (632) 70-20-888 to make your bookings.

two things that amused me today

Right, SW is back in the office in El Philippines, and that's all we're going to say about that for now, thankyou very much. For those who want to know, he sports a rugged, sun-weathered look and around 5 extra kilos courtesy of many festive-season epicurean indulgences. Nothing the work canteen diet won't get rid of before long.

Anyway. I encountered two unexpected things that made me chuckle today.

1.
I saw B, a friendly, soft-spoken , married-with-child Iranian bloke who works here. We were exchanging happy-new-year pleasantries and I asked if he'd been anywhere.

B: Just Iloilo, for some work.
SW (in jokey jokey tone): Work!? No beach?
B (smiling): No beach and no bitch!

It took a few seconds for me to process that, but I'm almost certain that is what he said.

2.
When attempting to go to this very blog itself, the autoprompt function thingy caused me to accidentally go to SWEDEN.SE - the official gateway to Sweden. There, I happened upon this:

DANCE FEVER SPREADS IN SWEDEN
by Cari Simmons, freelance writer

Need to shake off some of that Christmas food? Do like the Swedes: dance! A dance bug is going around Sweden, making people of all ages break out into salsa, African dance and street dance. What’s going on?

I'm not entirely certain why it tickled my fancy so. It was the raised-eyebrow question at the end that did it, I think. Cari Simmons, freelance writer -- I salute you!