The hedgehog of discontent

I took this blurry photo of a little frightened hedgehog last evening, while driving home after a really pleasant barbecue for the first of May with friends...I had to share the hilarious dialogue that was being carried on while trying to take it...We saw the little guy crossing the street and we stopped our cars instantly to get down and look at it...I had a camera so yeah, let's take a pic of the cute animal! The cute animal though hid in complete darkness by the wall of a block of flats...I and Crina, a friend, followed it. I couldn't see a thing so my first shot was that of a white wall, when a voice from above (turned out it was coming from the second floor) asked:
"What are you doing there?"
"We saw a hedgehog and we're taking a picture of it!", I said automatically in the most angelic voice...
"Please step away from the building!", the voice continued and it sounded like we were part of a bad, bad movie...
"Damn!" I said, furious at the first shot I took, "it's just the damn wall! I can't see a thing!"
"You can photograph hedgehogs at the Zoo!" the voice carried on, starting to really piss me off. I was thinking one can't really photograph hedgehogs at the Zoo anyway...
"We'll be gone in a sec" added Crina. "Why don't you carry on with what you were doing?" she suggested....
I was thinking yay, now we'll have an argument with a guy on the second floor and all the people in the building will witness...Fun! lol
And that was the moment I took this shot, the second...and right when I was getting ready to take just the perfect one my battery went dead..
"Damn! My battery's gone! Shoot!" I said and I was thinking that it was all in vain...

That's why I'm posting it here now...And that guy...I know there are lots of paranoid people out there...but to guard one's building wall from your window instead of spending your evening with the wife it's pretty desperate...We laughed like there was no tonorrow in the car remembering the exchange of words we had with the guy (some were left out from this dialogue for obvious reasons...;)) Maybe they hate tourists...or maybe that's the way they are...sad!

Fairytale land - San Gimignano, Tuscany

This is a repost for my new friends here on Blogger who love Italy...I think I've got one or two more on my old blog and I'll gladly repost them...I was watching some little videos I posted on Youtube and found one from San Gimignano, one of my favourite places on Earth, this little Medieval jewel hidden among Tuscan hills...That year (2007) I had lost significant weight and was going through a bad time so a friend in London had the idea of me visiting there. I said yes, especially I hadn't visited England before...And my friend Erca and my cousins Dana and Dan wanted to visit Tuscany so I did that too at the end of August...It was a great year for travelling and that worked miracles for me...Anyway, here's the repost, it's more like a note with photos and videos. I think my post about Florence was better...I think...ha ha ha!:

"VIAGGIATORE DI PACE

e' qualcosa che sei

che costruisci

che dai agli altri

anche qui

ora"

TRAVELLER OF PEACE

is something that you are

that you build

that you give to the others

even here

now

These are the words that welcome you when you go up the Rock of San Gimignano, one of the most wonderful little medieval towns that have survived history...I had been here a few years ago, on a beautiful afternoon, right at sunset and the image I had of it was that only fairy-tales can give you...So I went back there this year to see if the time passed over me will make me change my mind...And no, it didn't...It's all there...the towers, the little streets, the magic...Not even the too many tourists could distract me from my thoughts and constant wonder...

We witnessed two weddings too...the first couple was British...:)

We discovered there are lots of British and American visiting this place, as they do with the whole Tuscany and when we entered the church of Sant'Agostino we saw an add saying they celebrate mass every Sunday at 11 in English...:)

I would go back and stay only there ...definitely so...Oh, I loved a jeweller's shop...all hand made...so beautiful!
Here's a little video I took at the Rock there...forget about my voice...(actually it's kind of funny cause I say at some point "we've arrived here...pause...pause...pause...by bus...ha ha ha!)...I took the video because of the lady playing the harp. Sorry for the quality of the video...:(



After one year, in august 2008 I returned to Italy because my mother hadn't been there in like 15 years...and I found the same lady....I did have the chance to make a short video out of her playing...and I bought one of her CDs...

When tagging is oh so nice...:)

Good morning! I discovered this morning I was tagged by my friend Tina (http://hotkerfuffle.blogspot.com/) and it's an easy one so I'll gladly do it!:)

This is what you have to do:
1. Go to the the 4th folder where you keep your pictures on your computer.
2. Post the 4th picture in the folder.
3. Explain the photo.
4. Tag 4 fellow bloggers to join in the fun. (Lusy, Claudia, Arty, Viv)

My fourth photo from my fourth folder (the first ones start with numbers so they're not alphabetically ordered for this reason by the computer, this one is named 8C) was taken last June at my ex class Prom, and it's of four girls (now that's a cool coincidence!;)) chatting at their table: Anca, Oana, Adela and Iulia.

I loved that class so very much and the Prom was so much fun for all of us...We partied till dawn!:)

I have to go and get ready for school now. This was so much fun to do!:)

My Flickr Almost Mosaic

I saw this on my friend Tina's blog and loved the idea very much. Unfortunately the last photo (which is mine) doesn't show up even though my Flickr settings allows people to see my photos...Well, I'll just post it at the end of this entry. But how does it work?

You answer 12 questions, and then use those answers to search Flickr.
1. You have to type your answer to each of the 12 questions listed below into Flickr Search.
2. Then, using only the first page of search results, pick one image.
3. Copy & paste the URL for each image into this cool mosaic maker (after adjusting it to make sure there are 12 squares).
4. You then put the photos you get as search results into a mosaic, that while are not your images (I have the credits listed for the talented photographers in a list below, as well), but kind of describe you and your life in a visual feast of a photo collage (mosaic).
1. What is your first name? (Patricia)
2. What is your favorite food? (grapes)
3. What high school did you go to? (Liceul George Calinescu, Constanta, but I had to search for Constanta cause there were no results for my high school)
4. What is your favorite color? (green)
5. Who is your celebrity crush? (Johnny Depp)
6. Favorite drink? (wine)
7. Dream vacation? (Peru)
8. Favorite dessert? (creme brulee)
9. What did you want to be when you grew up? (theatre actress)
10. What do you love most in life? (peace)
11. One word to describe you. (intuitive)
12. Your own photo on Flikr. (it's a photo of a small ship I took here in Constanta)

Here are the titles of the photos I chose:

1. Eyes of an Angel..., 2. seasons, 3. the wind, 4. green spar, 5. +[ Johnny Depp: drop dead gorgeous ]+, 6. Acquarello, 7. Caracara takes off, 8. day 58: creme brulee, 9. phantom of the opera, 10. Wall Of Peace, 11. E y e l a s h *, 12. Ships in Constanta

And this is the photo which does not show:

Sunny October week-end

Have you ever had that feeling when you wake up in the morning, not sure what day it is and wondering whether you're late or not for work...or some other mysterious activity? That's how I woke up this morning and when I remembered I had been invited for coffee to some relatives' new house I swear I didn't feel like going much, especially because it was such a foggy humid warm morning, after an amazing foggy night which seemed to have come out of some sort of a horror movie...

Anyway, I'm really glad I went cause I had the chance to see a beautiful tiny garden and relax with some quality chatting...plus it turns out their neighbours are some really old colleagues of mine with whom I went to a winter camp....about 10 years ago!:)

Now it's really sunny and hot outside, one could swear summertime is back on Romanian ground!:) Anyway, let me share with you some shots I took today!

Weevil&green pepper flower

I loved these, I have no idea how they're called

I always forget the name of these flowers...:(

I believe people in Romania call this the "ice flower"...

Garden windmill with smilies...:)))))))))

Coto, the chaw chaw, la "piece du resistence"...;)

I want a house with a gardeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeen! God?