Alex_Oi's blog

From the Ho Chi Minh French library, I borrowed “L’île des gauchers” – which in English would make “The island if the left-handed” – by French writer Alexandre Jardin. I do not know if this novel is goor or not ; I haven’t read it yet.

L'île des gauchers

Whenever I pick-up  a book at the library,  one of the first page I read is the handwritten list of subscribers who read it already. The computerization of libraries force the lists to end around 2004, but still, it is nice to see how many times the book was picked up.

In this particular book, the second page caught my intention because it contains a personal note.

Ha quel chemin difficile mais la finalité est belle.
A mon p’tit Didou,
Tendrement,
Valé

From these words, multiple stories may be invented.

...mais la finalité est belle

The dedication may be roughly translated by “Ha! Such a difficult journey but the destination is beautiful. To my lil’ Didou, Tenderly, Valé.” At the moment I have no idea if this sentence is related to the story narrated in the novel. But O wonder how a dedication ends up in a public library?

Did Didier (Didou) broke up with Valérie (Valé) and offered the book? Not very plausible… Lovers would not use these words. Perhaps they were friends and Didier moved abroad, his luggage loaded with more important souvenirs and thus gave the book to the library?

Pause à la page 25

The novel starts with a love story. At least for the 25 first pages, the narrative tone is of romantism.

Valérie perhaps could not express directly her feelings to Didier, and used a gift to voice them? Would Didier have understood? Perhaps no, perhaps yes and rejected the offer: and the book ended in the library?! Or again a jealous wife did not want this book on her shelves and dumped it?

Lecteurs

One thing is sure though: the book was printed in November 1996 and by July 1998, someone picked it up from the library’s shelves.

Books have stories printed in them. They make the imaginative reader dreaming of lives he could not have imagined, share passion(s) with characters he would never meet, or even adventure himself in whatever future centuries and alternate realities ; but yet, each books has it own, personal story, which is often not expectable and not ended.

We will never what is the story behind this book. Why was it bought and how it ended up so quickly in a library, 10′000 kilometers from where it was printed.

But I still wonder.

It has been years since I started bitching about my DSLR, the Canon Digital Rebel XT (350D). Released by Canon early 2005 and bought late 2006, I hate its tiny screen, the poor ISO performance, the inaccessibility of some functions, its built quality, etc., etc. 3 years old and a mere 10'000 pictures later, it was time to switch.

The 50D did not completely fulfill all my wishes, notably the Wireless flash triggering and the viewfinder. A year later, the solution finally appeared, and yesterday it arrived, under the form of a brand new Canon EOS 7D (thanks to my wife :))

Rather than going in details and prepare a full review (I do not have the expertise for it anyway), I simply list here what I love, like, dislike and hate about this new body.

Read further at http://alexhanders.wordpress.com/2009/10/31/of-my-new-toy-the-canon-eos-7d/

This is something I’d like to kick start for a while now: a photo project. I do not know which direction should it goes ; if it should be a motivational, experimental, challenging and long process. Or a blend of those directions, in any combination? So I came up with some ideas and now am trying to measure up the pros and the cons each option implies.

Little Introduction note : Our trip took started on August 24th and lasted for almost 4 weeks. Here are some of the pictures we took. As it makes a lot already, I added some links in the short texts to even more pictures... You can also find them all under this link.

Petite note d'introduction : Notre voyage a débuté le 24 Août et a duré pratiquement 4 semaines. On a pris un tas de photos et comme on va pas tout mettre ici, j'ai rajouter des liens dans le texte vers encore plus de photos. Alternativement, elle sont aussi toutes sur cette page.
Enfin, vous l'aurez deviné, les textes en français sont en italiques.

Petit Aperçu des bêbêtes vivant dans les parages : Kenzo, le vieux chien de garde plus très en forme ; des escargots par milliers et une énorme toile d'araignée. Enfin, on a pu trouvé toute une variété d'insectes en ramassant des mûres dans le lit de la rivière.

Experct pictures of a (sunny) day spent in the Méouge Gorges.

Toulouse - the Pink City

Toulouse: a sky-oriented city

Us at a very nice guesthouse

I guess you know what that is

After a few days with my parents, back to Paris for 3 days, downtown this time. We like Paris, we can cross a couple of "bizarre individuals" in the parks, buildings which belong somewhere else, kubrick-designed bicycles AND get good food from all around the country. Further, it was the european patrimony day for which we had a free entrance to the Pantheon with Chu Quy. 

Après quelques jours supplémentaires avec mes parents, retour à la case départ : Paris, et pour 3 jours. On aime bien Paris, ville hétéroclyte où l'on peut croiser des énergumènes rares, des gratte-ciels qui n'ont rien à faire là, des vélos sortis tout droit d'un film de science-fiction et enfin, de la bonne bouffe bien de chez nous ;) Enfin, c'était les journées européennes du patrimoine, nous avons visiter le Panthéon et ses impressionnantes colonnes avec Chu Quy.

Tout seul comme un grand, j'ai pris le métro jusqu'au Musée d'Orsay, que j'avais hâte de visiter :) J'ai été surpris par la taille de cette ancienne gare et par la richesse des collections. Le musée était très fréquenté et je m'interroge sur le pourquoi d'avoir installer les grands impressionistes dans la même gallerie... Du coup il faut jouer des coudes pour y voir quelque chose. J'étais quand même ravi de voir d'apercevoir les originaux de la Rue Montorgueil de Monet et des Raboteurs de Caillebotte

Paris by night or a last evening to shoot pictures. This year Paris surprised me a little. I had a different feeling about this city until and ô sacrilege, I might even enjoy it some day.

Dernière soirée en France et à Paris, dernières occasions de prendre des photos. Je dois avouer que ce voyage a imprimer dans ma mémoire un sentiment différent à propos de Paris. Qui sait, un jour je vais peut être même l'apprécier? 

Travelling at near light speed

25'000 kilometers and a broken wallet