Digging In The Dirt

Don't talk back

Just drive the car

Shut your mouth

I know what you are

Don't say nothing

Keep your hands on the wheel

Don't turn around

This is for real

Digging in the dirt

Stay with me, I need support

I'm digging in the dirt

To find the places I got hurt

Open up the places I got hurt

(Peter Gabriel - Digging In The Dirt)

November 2012.

Good evening ladies and gentlemen,

I'm very sorry for not posting on my blog for two months... I've been too busy chasing skirts (and tight jeans)!

On a serious note, I've been working my ass off, even more so in the last two months than in the summer. I've asked for  and have been offered by my manager - the position of assistant shop manager of the coffee shop I work at, so right now we're both hoping that the HR department of the company's going to give me that chance to prove myself. It's gonna mean even more work to do, but it's a good way to start a career in gastronomy, which I've decided is what I'm gonna do with my life now that I'm no longer a student.

I'm going to spend time with family and friends in London from the 28th of November - 2nd of December. I haven't taken a whole lot of pictures recently but I'll be bringing my camera and hopefully will be back to my usual schedule of posting pictures every two or three days soon! I'll also check out your blogs again, but let me assure you that I haven't forgotten about your blogs - which I enjoy very much - but I've just been too busy. I even deactivated my Facebook account which I've had since 2007!

Speak to you soon, and I hope you're all doing great.

Dom.

Sky And Sand

In the nighttime

When the world is at its rest

You will find me

In the place I know the best

And we build up castles

In the sky and in the sand

Design our own world

Ain't nobody understand

(Paul Kalkbrenner - Sky And Sand)

Good evening!

It's been one month and one day since my last blog post, and there's no end in sight as far as my workload is concerned, but things are going to get better next month! I'll be back to posting regularly again in a few more weeks. 

I've also got some exciting plans for next year. There's a good chance I'll be coming back to England for a few months and I'll also go on a road trip around Poland with one of my best friends in Hamburg, who grew up in Gdansk.

One of my American friends is staying in Hamburg for six weeks for some work experience so we get to do fun stuff on the weekends, and my mum's got a lovely new dog, a Collie named Abby who's only three months old.

New pictures coming soon. I'll comment on all those of your blog posts that I missed once I'm back to business as usual. 

Talk to you soon.

- Dom

Sweet Little Mystery

Just that sweet little mystery that breaks my heart

Just that sweet little mystery makes me cry

Oh that sweet little mystery that's in your heart

It's just that sweet little mystery that makes me try

(John Martyn - Sweet Little Mystery)

Hey there... 

You might have noticed that my blog has been invisible for a few weeks. Let me explain the reasons.

I've never before had a more busy work schedule than the one I've had in the past few weeks, working an average of 30 hours at my first job and 15 at my second job. There's no end in sight either. 

Also, there were things in my private life that needed sorting out. 

I was involved in a car accident last year, and even though it's been more than a year now, the case isn't over yet, and it's been wearing me out because I'm not the person responsible for the accident. 

Furthermore there has been this woman I've mentioned in a few previous blog posts - one of my regular customers, the first whose preferred drink I remembered. We went out a couple times and we got along fantastically. Last Sunday, however, I found out that she thought I was in a relationship already... and that she saw me as a friend. She couldn't believe that a guy as nice and respectful as me was single. That's what you get for being a gentleman who treats women well? I'm not gonna lie... I'm disappointed. I still think she's a wonderful person, so I'd rather be her friend than not get to spend time with her at all.

Last but not least, I still haven't written and handed in my essays and papers for university, and the deadline is the last day of September.

I've been so uninspired I contemplated deleting my blog. I haven't taken a picture in weeks, except for some iPhone snapshots. I deactivated my Facebook account already. But I don't think I'm gonna delete this blog... because this blog has been like a diary to me for the past few years. All the places I've been to, the photographs I've taken, the music that's inspired me, the articles I've read... it's all there for me to look back on now and in the future.

I hope to be able to post new pictures soon, and please understand that I've been too busy to keep up with your blogs. I hope to make up for it soon. 

Have a good weekend.

- Dom

Boomboxes And Dictionaries

I took a drive today, thought about you

I thought about a friend who passed

And how much we just went through

I saw the sunshine off the hood of a Cadillac

I thought about some things I'd say

And some that I would take back

I thought about how fortunate I feel to be alive

And if you're scared of the future tonight,

We'll just take it each hour one at a time

It's a pretty good night for drive 

So dry up those eyes, dry up those eyes

Because the radio will still play loud

Songs that we heard as our guards came down

Like in the summertime when we first met

I'll never forget, and don't you forget

These nights are still ours

(The Gaslight Anthem - Boomboxes And Dictionaries)

Mystery creates wonder and wonder is

the basis of man's desire to understand.

(Neil Armstrong)

Night, the beloved. Night, when words fade and things come alive. When the destructive analysis of day is done, and all that is truly important becomes whole and sound again. When man reassembles his fragmentary self and grows with the calm of a tree.

(Antoine de Saint-Exupéry)

I hope to be able to post new pictures soon. My two jobs are keeping me busy, but until I've got new photos that I want to share with you, I don't want to bore you with old pictures.

Let me share some blogs, photostreams and websites I discovered last week... 

On Flickr: #1; #2. The photography of Roger Weber. The cucumber cocktail. The amazing murals by Herakut. Mexican Fireworks, which is one of the best collections of photographs I've ever seen on the internet. Beautiful photographs of Canada's National Parks. A beautifully captured moment. John Bauer's illustrations. Great pictures of the Dutch Wadden Islands. A series of pictures of the moon. "Criminal Minds" has some remarkable quotes. The 99 best things about summer. An interesting article on Bruce Springsteen. Last but not least, three awesome motorcycles: BMW R75/5, Honda CB350 (#1; #2), Kawasaki Z750.

Goodnight.

- Dom

Old Haunts

So don't sing me your songs about the good times

Those days are gone and you should just let them go

And God help the man who says

"If you'd have known me when"

Old haunts are forgotten ghosts

Old haunts are forgotten ghosts

(The Gaslight Anthem - Old Haunts)

Route 66, Arizona.

June 2009.

It's only Thursday but I've already worked 30 hours this week - and I'll be working from Friday to Monday, too. Today was my only day off this week, and next Tuesday is gonna be my only day off next week. That's why I still don't have any new pictures to post here - I haven't even been able to enjoy the awesome weather this week. 

No matter how much I love doing what I've been doing for the past eight months - working as a barista, that is - there's gotta be more to life than this job... and my other job... and my archaeology studies. 

Some of my friends are married already, some have children... and they're not older than I am. Some of them are happy, others pretend to be. Either way, having a wife and children doesn't sound anything like me, at least not for another ten years. I don't want to settle down. I'm able to live out of a suitcase for weeks, and I would love to do it again. I'd love to get out on the road again, and see where it might take me.

I guess I'm looking for it again - for that belief I had when I was younger, before I got caught up in the working life... the belief that I could do whatever I wanted to do... the belief that I could go wherever I wanted to go... the belief that I could live wherever I wanted to live... the belief that I could work wherever I wanted to work... the belief in happy endings.

Abraham Lincoln once said, "In the end, it's not the years in your life that count. It's the life in your years." 

I want to get more out of my life. For the rest of this year and probably the first half of the next year I'm gonna bust my ass doing what I do now, making as much money as I can possibly make, trying to save as much money as I can possibly save, so when I decide that it's time to leave, I won't need to worry about money. 


I'll definitely do something next year - whether that will be going to Canada on a working holiday visa and going on an extended road trip across the same country with friends or just going on that trip is a decision I have yet to make, but whatever I end up doing, it's gonna be awesome. 

Anyway, for the next few weeks I'll be too busy to take new pictures, maybe even too busy to post old ones, but one thing I do promise: On my next day off I'll check out your blogs and comment on all the posts I've missed.


Something I did enjoy was this year's Tour de France, especially because Bradley Wiggins has become the first British winner of the Tour. Click here to view pictures, click the following links to read what the papers, the French, and the Queen had to say, and last but not least, click here and here to read what the man himself had to say during and after the Tour, respectively.

The Gaslight Anthem have just released their latest brilliant album, "Handwritten". The song above, however, has been taken from their previous album "American Slang".

Goodnight.

- Dom