Posts Tagged ‘Life’

You see… I don’t usually reply to memes… but that one was posted by my favourite distraction and I can’t just say no to Emma can I?

So… Liphook… where do I start from??? We’ve been living here for ummm about one week now so you imagine how much I can tell you about that picturesque pretty little Village…

Where to start from?!?!?!

We live here:

Yeah… quite different from living in London like we did just 5 days ago…

We are no strangers to Liphook. The wife spent most her life before we met here actually and we used to come along every year for the Liphook Carnival… That and the MIL’s world famous Roast Dinners (remind me to comment on the the MIL’s culinary skills at a later date).

Living here is a total new experience to me as it is THE FIRST TIME EVER I live in a small town. For one side I am finding the novelty awesome… trying out the country side life is inspiring me to get quite a few projects out of the drawer… and to pursue a few others together with TB and soon also with Mr. A (we’re gonna grow a vegetable patch!!! and our own tomatoes!!! ) And I am considering transforming the Garage in a den/studio, so just wait and see.

The other side of me is terrorized (Did you know the only computer supplies shop in town only opens in the morning??? I supose I should be grateful there is one at all… but hey… The silence gives me headaches!

The village has about 8000 inhabitants and it is located 4.1 miles west of Haslemere down the A3 from London and in the Coaching era was a midway point for post sent from Portsmouth and Southampton to London. Local tradition has it that Lord Nelson spent his last night in England in Liphook before sailing for the Battle of Trafalgar.

Local attractions include the Forest Mere health spa and Hollycombe Steam Collection. On ‘the night the clocks go back’ (usually the last Saturday in October) the village plays host to the Liphook Carnival, a procession of floats through the village followed by a bonfire which has taken place since 1903

Apart from going to The Anchor there isn’t really much to do in town but at  least I can still have my summer distractions!!!!

Life is a journey… And I feel I am embarking in a brand new one.

How is it gonna be living in the town I live? I have no idea…

But I am sure going to my best to make it fun!!!!

Hasta La Vista

I am probably about to lose quite a few readers and people I know in person with this post so bear with me… read it to the end and I REALLY want to know your position on it… so don’t forget to leave your comment.

I don’t believe in God.

At least not the same way you do. And in 90% of the cases not the same God. Not the limited God we learn to believe at church.

Yes… I have a problem with the church as an institution… Yes… I believe the church is a bankrupt institution, the biggest fail in the past 1800 years give it or take it a few years… and Yes… I am an Ordained Minister having being a pastor for the past 3 years or so.

I am not here to speak about CHURCH today tho, so let me stop here before I get started on the subject.

I am also refraining myself from talking too much about what I believe today.

I am here to talk about fact. To present my case and to know what YOU think.

I was 18 years old when it happened… and it was all because of a broken heart… looking back at it I say it was the most foolish thing I’ve ever done… well at least the most foolish one for the most stupid reason.

Let me rephrase that… the most foolish withn I’ve ever ALMOST did for the most stupid reason ever (what??? you wanna know the reason? I’d been broken up with… the one and only person EVER to brake up with me).

That wasn’t the only reason, but it was the one that made me reach the amount of things I could hold at once in my chest. (I was never one to open myself to anyone about what was going on with me).

It happened over 10 years ago but I remember the episode as if it was yesterday… I got into the house, went to the bathroom’s cabinet, picked up a bottle of aspirin (one of those with 500capsules they sell in the US) and locked myself in my bedroom.

The moment I turned the key I started crying.

Aspirin was my weapon of choice for 2 reasons (I could have chosen the .22 rifle I had inside my wardrobe): 1) I knew that based on my age/size/weight that as little as 20 could have killed me (I had a pot with nearly 500) 2) I am extremely allergic to the Acid Acetilsalisilic which is the main component of aspirin.

You see… I was born and raised in the church (my dad is a Worship Minister/Pastor and mum is a Bishop)… and it doesn’t matter how confused I was about things I had “discovered” (things I always noticed but only then started to make sense) I still had the “Fear of the Almighty” within me.

I made an ultimatum to God… He had 15 minutes to TELL me in a way I would know without doubt WHY should I not kill myself and made a series of questions which I knew I would never in 15 minutes would be able to get responded to me. I took my watch, took off my wrist an turned on the chronometer, opened the bottle and sat looking at it reading myself to have it.

with 15 seconds to spare my phone rang. My first impulse was to ignore it but I answered just for the hell of it.

On the other side was one of my closest friends. What he told me was more proof than I ever dreamed.

“Hi Yuri. I was praying just now and God touched me telling me to call you and tell you… that and that… and that… and that… (THAT meaning every single one of the things I demanded to know)”

So you see… for as much as I loathe the Church I have more than enough reason to believe in God.

And really… I don’t care the name you call Him/Her/It: Jehovah, Gaia, YHWH, Allah, I Am, The Force… There is something or someone out there with a bigger plan than you can thing or imagine.

And don’t start with the whole why doesn’t Got stops catastrophes, Tsunamis etc… they are all part of life.

I still believe God is LIFE.

I am still a believer… I BELIEVE IN LIFE!

How about you????

What do you believe on?????

And where did the past week go????

Time is ticking away!!

I had plans and things to do and so many things to finish it seems the things I had to say got sidelined.

Why all that? Well, if you follow me on twitter you will find that I’ve been quite secretive with some great news that I have been waiting to make themselves concrete for a couple of weeks. Well the thing is concrete now so I can say it loud and proud! I am the new Designer responsible for the diagramation of BrasilEtc Magazine (one of the main mags dedicated to the Brazilian Community in Europe published and distributed in the England, Germany, Ireland (both of them), Belgium, France, Holland, Italy Spain and Scandinavia and soon in Scotland and USA.

I took  a break to tell the news because If I didn’t unload, the creative juices inside won’t flow (I think that is a good excuse anyway!! ).

It is a short break so I will maximize time and tell you what we’ve been up to the best and fastest way I know: An image says more than 1000 words.

So… Friday: We went to see How To Train your Dragon in 3D at the big IMAX. First time there for the 4 of us (yup 4… Mr.A came with us and actually behaved well throughout the film! Me and Vic Loved it and TB was well impressed (even for his 3rd time watching the thing… something to do with the size of the screen. ) from there we went to the park to wait till rush hour was gone! FUN!

Saturday: We did nothing… no… literally… NOTHING! And there is good reason!

Am I comfy or what!?!?!? on 12seconds.tv

Sunday comes with a surprise: I cut the grass!!!! yup… rare stuff and it had to be commemorated with a BBQ and Marshmallows  ! But not before I fell inside the rabbit hole!!! (nope I didn’t end up in wonderland or any other pot head world of fantasy… heheheh)

I just fell into a rabit/fox hole on 12seconds.tv

Monday: Monday was… well Monday…

I can haz coffee!!!! on 12seconds.tv

Tuesday brought loads of work to do so no time for pictures… as it was today

But I am getting thigs done… then that makes me happy!!!

And before I forget… you still got time to make a fool of yourself and win a cool Orginial Urbanvox Photoart prize!!!!

What have YOU been up to?????

zya!

… that’s what I do…

It is compulsive and without a camera (any type of camera… even it it is just my mobile’s one) I feel naked…

I take Pictures… and that is my thing… and my addiction since… well since when I can remember. I photographed trips and days at work. Births and funerals. The first time I saw my wife and the first time I saw my sons.

I took pictures when London was bombed and of many od the celebrations that happened in the city. I photographed the Brazilian Community Night life and the day to day lives of people walking on the streets.

I’ve been published. Done photos for Magazines, Newspapers and News Portals. I’ve also done some Marketing and advertisement work.

I’ve done pretty pictures for models and hookers (OK… not hookers… they called themselves Escorts…). And Did Fun Driven Family Portraits and Celebrations for achieving the “age of the she-wolf).

I am working on a photography Book / Exhibition… OK… I’ve been working on that one for the past 2 years on and off… but hey… One day it will be out there for everyone to see it.

I can see beauty through my lenses… There is beauty everywhere and we get so busy with the ugly things that we forget to look at the pretty flowers.

You are beautiful too… no matter what you think… OK that sounds too Pink(ish)… but it is true.

I can see God through my lenses… On the minimal things… and all little thing is a celebration of LIFE!! (I don’t care if you call God God, or Ala, or Jeovah… Or THE FORCE!!! YHWH is everywhere… Spiritus… the air we breathe… LIFE and that’s what we should live and worship… LIFE… that would end soooo many wars if all saw that same lil thing… And Nope… I am not trying to convert you to any religion… RELIGION IS THE RUT OF ALL EVIL!)

But back to the subject before I start going through another tangent…

I take pictures… And that’s how I show what and how I’m feeling… The day you see me without a camera is the day you should worry about me.

Then why on earth Shouldn’t take pics of Mr. A’s LP??? Is that not part of life????

How about you??? How do you express yourself????

I’ve once heard someone say that life is what we make out of it.

If that is the absolute truth then I must be the biggest self saboteur in the world!

And yet, somehow, I get by…

The truth is that I seem to be always in waters that are deeper than my footing… I can hardly remember a day in my life where I’ve been in a situation where I have been 100% comfortable with a situation or another. And as I grew and became an adult things seem to have intensified.

For a start, I never had a 9-to-5 sort of job. I don’t really think I could have survived the boredom of one. My family has 200000000 political connections in Brazil and my grandmother and grandfather (RIP) used to beg me (and all the new generation of the family) to get into the public sector, an idea that I would probably like if it didn’t involve spending a few years working for some senator or deputado (same as an MP) to “acquire experience”… The fact is that a desk job would probably kill me.

But what does one do when a stressful one would probably have the same effect?!?!

I am here sitting at the Starbucks in Wimbledon and looking to all these people walking and going to their offices and living their routine-bound lives… routines that some time bring so much excitement at something that from someone outside their circle might look like a small achievement or a huge one for others… and I can’t stop to think “how do they do it??” and a bit inside of me can’t stop to wonder in amazement and to wish I too could have a life like that.

I have dreams… loads of them… but I also have a family to provide for and that fact alone makes me realize that I can’t achieve most of them. I am eternally grateful for my wife. She even started working  and became the pillar of the family providing for the basic needs of the family so I can get out there and pursue these dreams. It would have worked too… I had a contract with an agency to be a glamour photographer and a career that seemed to be lifting off… And  I dropped it to become a minister of religion… a religion that I am not completely sure I completely subscribe to anymore.

Does that prove my self sabotage theory???

And of course re-lifting myself as a photographer is proving harder than last time… all a question of opportunities and well… luck I guess. The perfect circumstances that had presented themselves favourable to me at that time are not so favourable this time around and the contacts I had then seem to have all but disappeared from the face of the earth!

Yeah… and there is the family business factor too… One that I can’t JUST walk away from. That would be admitting defeat   and that is just something I don’t know if I can do again if I am to EVER have some cred with myself again.

I am SO complicated…

Life is what we make out of it alright… It is all about the decisions we make and the ways we take.

I am nearly 30 years old and having to start all over again…

That’s NOT what I had imagined my life would be when I was younger…

But a men has got to do what a men has got to do!!!

How about you?? Have you ever considered what would have happened if you had taken a different approach to one of these infamous opportunities that present themselves to us? What would YOU have done differently???#

Zya!