Scattered Strawberry Summer: September 2013

Autumn is upon us

It is hard to believe tomorrow is October already, time flies fast when you're an adult. It's been very mild, we haven't had heating on yet. Christmas stock has already hit the shops, I can't bear to go past it, it's September, I wish they'd wait till December, Christmas would be more special. On more positive note, new series of various are coming out, which is brilliant. Well there is only one show I'm really waiting for, Sherlock obviously. Hopefully, new series will come out before new year... It's been two years!Two years too long.

On unrelated note, I've got an award, an equivalent to employee of the month, for doing all those photos. I'm quite a happy about it, I've got a certificate and love2shop voucher, not too bad. Not too shabby for Rachel.

Monday, September 30, 2013
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South Downs

day out

I spent my Sunday afternoon walking dogs on South Downs with my SO and his father.

It was very misty, we couldn't see the sea, though we could see the lighthouse far far away.

We walked quite far before turning around to get back to the car, yet the dogs still had some energy left.

Sunday, September 29, 2013
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When you dream of me, dream of nice things

marta

A short photoshoot with Marta. I went to her place, she lives in a village. Country lanes, fields and forest, beautiful place to live.

We'll do another photoshoot fairly soon for a very special occasion. I can't say much more, I already told you too much

Saturday, September 28, 2013
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Something different

photography

Last week I've done profile pictures for everyone at our office and this Friday I will be doing pictures of London Region staff. It was great fun and most people were easy to work with. I've spent quite a few hours editing them, I finally learnt how to airbrush properly, I don't usually bother with things like that. I still need to find a technique that works best for me, so I will be looking into more photoshop tutorials.

I needed a picture for myself too, not entirely happy with this, but a decent result nevertheless.

I do so many things that are not in my job description here but I'm quite happy to be given this opportunity to do things beyond my day to day job.

I've planned a photoshoot with my friend so I hope there will be some good shots.

Monday, September 23, 2013
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Interesting fact: a shark will only attack you if you’re wet.

comedy

I bought tickets to see Sean Lock: Purple Van Man! Sean Lock is one of my favourite comedians and it will be amazing to see him perform live. Woop woop!... It's still a long wait, it's only in November, but the tickets are selling fast and I don't want to miss out, like it happened with Michael McIntyre's show.

I wish more comedians would come where I live,I've seen Jimmy Carr live twice, I need moore! British stand up comedy is one of my favourite things.

Friday, September 20, 2013
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I hate beige. It’s the colour of death. Don’t wear beige; it might kill you

ageism

The other day I watched Fabulous Fashionistas- a documentary following the lives of six stylish women - who have an average age of 80.

I turned this on for fashion, but stayed for inspirational and strong women. I didn't expect this to be this good. One of them, Daphne Selfe is a model at the age of 85. And she looks fabulous!

Colourful, eccentric and with a healthy attitude to life. What I loved most and what united all of them, is that they do not give a damn anymore what other people think, they do whatever they like.

Thursday, September 19, 2013
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Tomorrow is a big day, I'm taking profile pictures of my colleagues. I practiced on a few people today, it was fun. Bring on tomorrow.

Monday, September 16, 2013
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photography

A test shot of the lovely Jessie J aka J Raahb

Tuesday, September 10, 2013
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Memrise

courses

I've recently discovered memrise. It is amazing website where you can learn so many things but I'm mostly interested in languages. I've started German course.

What I like about it is that it is fun and I actually feel like I am learning something and a lot of it is due to the method they use:

Memrise makes use of Spaced Repetition, helping you review items at expertly spaced intervals to help you maintain them in memory in the most efficient manner possible. Reminders space out in time as your knowledge for an item gets deeper, meaning you don't forget, but don't waste time reviewing what you already know.

Third, Memrise systematically exploits the Testing Effect, which shows that by actively recalling a memory, you strengthen it. Because the degree of strengthening to a memory correlates with the difficulty of the test, Memrise automatically makes the tests more difficult over time, again helping you boost your learning in the best way possible.

Even though I won't be fluent, but I will learn enough to get by next time I'll be in Germany.

I'd highly recommend to try, they have thousands of courses in various subjects.

OK, it's time for me to water my German (aka review).

Sunday, September 08, 2013
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photography

I'm not enjoying my weekend, I've got a cold. Never mind, I've had worse.

Good news is that I've been asked to do some photos again. Our company have recently added staff pictures from staff directory to emails, so whenever you receive an email you can see who send it. Great idea I guess, but it exposed many really poor quality and generally bad looking pictures, that includes obvious selfies and mugshot like pictures. So I've been asked to take pictures of regional staff on the day of regional meeting. Now I have a week to learn how to do business portraits. I only ever done pictures of my friends for fun and now this is entirely different thing. Lots of things to consider, but what I worry about now if I will be able to make people be relaxed in front of the camera. Also, what if people are unhappy with their pictures.

All worries aside, I'm quite happy to be given this opportunity. I'm sure I'll learn quite a bit on the day, so yippee!

Saturday, September 07, 2013
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Nederland

day trip

As I mentioned in my previous post, I went to the Netherlands for the first time. My mother suggested to go somewhere, she said we could go to any of the neighbouring countries: Luxembourg, Belgium, France or Netherlands. I chose the Netherlands as it's closest and I have never been there before. I then had a task to select a town or city to go, so I just looked at the map and googled towns close to boarder. Most interesting seemed to be Roermond, so that's where we went to.

It's a small but such charming town, town centre's been designated as conservation area and for a good reason, it's beautiful! Lots of cafes and shops and we didn't know, but you can get there designer clothes cheaper than usual.

There was a band in another square, cafes were full of people enjoying live music.It really created a very nice atmosphere.

There was a market in town square, mostly food and clothes.

In another square there was a flea market.

I would recommend to visit this town if you ever find yourself in this area.

Thursday, September 05, 2013
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Deutschland-again

germany

I'm back on the British land!

It was fun but short week in Germany but I enjoyed it thoroughly. I was there last April.

I had so much Lithuanian food cooked by my parents, many dishes I never make. My parents have a lovely rather spacious garden, so we had most of our meals and tea there. It's fantastic feeling to have breakfast in the garden with warm morning sun on your face. Now I want to have a garden even more.

The weather was rather decent, we went to two different swimming pools. First one we went to was outside pool 15 minutes bus ride away. That is if you manage to get off the right stop. We didn't, we had two walk a bit but it was fine. It was a weekday and the pool was practically empty, it was nice but it got cloudy and all the things there more for children and we got bored soon. Next day was very hot..so we went to a different swimming pool, the slide was higher, much more fun! I was knackered, my little cousins-not so much.

My parents have done many changes in the garden, they have grown so many vegetables, mostly tomatoes and cucumbers

My auntie showed up with two cousins and one of them, Julia, stayed over night. She's such a lovely girl but wow she's got so much energy.

We found a ladybird in the garden. Not sure if she's doing fig on purpose or not, but knowing her, I think she did.

We went to Dusseldorf as my SO hasn't been there before. We did a bit of shopping ( I got lovely pair of shoes) and went for a walk by Rhine (Rhein).