Photos and news.

The Christmas days were spent at home with the family, and it was almost an uneventful period.
However, it wasn't entirely unproductive, as a couple of situations proved that carrying the camera with me was a very good idea:



And the news part: we'll be spending the passing between years, in the mountain area near Balea lake.
Now, with the flu out of the picture, we can finally enjoy the cold at high altitudes, the snow and the remaining free time.

Change of plans.

Unfortunately, our initial plans had to change due to the heavy snowing and road condition. So, skiing was postponed, for now.

Instead, we had Andu and Ioana at our place for some mulled wine, and had some fun experimenting with painting clay objects.


Afterward, we decided to go out and capture the city's new look during the holiday time.


As for the rest of the night, it was spent in the university campus, where one of ours friends celebrated his birthday.
Until 4:00 o'clock in the morning we talked, played mafia and ..of course, there was "some" drinking involved as well.

By the look on the Victor's face, it's safe to say he enjoyed the present we all took for him: a Microsoft wireless controller.

At some point, one of us came up with the idea of snowball fighting (bad idea). It was fun and refreshing (thanks Victor, for that one), but now I have a sore throat, nausea and a pretty serious cold coming up fast.
So, for the next couple of days, I'll probably be staying at home.
Just me and the stash of napkins.

CouchSurfing - Pavel & Marjorie (and more news).

It's been a while since we posted here, not because we were lazy, but because we were a bit busy these days.

Since the last entry, several things happened:

*We've hosted a very nice couple from France: Pavel and Marjorie.
It was their first experience as surfers and we were glad to be their first hosts.
From them, we learned about Iceland with its amazing unearthly appearance and the natural hot water pools. Also, we've discovered that Bucharest and Paris are related, not only through the illumination system, Arc the Triomphe, Charles de Gaulle plaza (Bucharest being called the little Paris); but also through the "crotte de chien" (dog poo) on the sidewalks..
Beside comparing nations, we played an interesting society game, which we enjoied a lot and, in the end, it convinced us to buy some similar games.
Pavel and Marjorie were interested in the pottery classes, so they got the chance to get their hands dirty. Afterward, the clay creations (abstract ones, as Pavel said) accompanied them back to France.


A couple o wow's coming :) :
*Andra had a TV recording in the pottery workshop; she also had an article in the evening paper, dedicated to her work on Christmas decorations;

*Andra recovered her stolen Iphone (which had a sentimental value - as a present from Bitdefender - for her hard work).
Having it back was a totally unexpected surprise, compliments to the Romanian police for the great work!

*And finally, the first real snow completely covered the ground and now it really feels like holidays season.
Since yesterday, that first blanked of snow turned into a menace for both drivers and pedestrians, due to heavy snowing.
It is still better than not having snow at all.
With this ocasion, some friends of ours (Andu and Ioana) made us "an offer that we couldn't refuse" :), and, on Saturday, we'll all be heading to the mountain area for some skiing.

Wish us luck and no broken arms or legs :)

Creativity and photo session.

Here are some pictures with the latest hand made objects.
For everything you'll see below, the proportion goes like this: 5% mine, 95% Andra's :).

Painted globes and comparison with raw ones:


Paper star:


Various objects made from clay:


Well, this was a partial view over Andra's workmanship.

Curious about my clay creations? :) Here they are.
- made at the pottery wheel; this is supposed to be a candle holder...and I emphasize on "supposed" :)


- made by hand:



And, finally, an HDR photo at 1.8 aperture: