Gratitude Friday - a moment of peace

 

I wouldn't say I thrive on stress nor deliberately set out to have it, but I recognise that with my choice of job and its consequential lifestyle I certainly cause many stressful situations to occur in my life. For example, I started this year moving to a new country, away from friends and family, having to find my way in a new(ish) language & culture, as well as navigate trams & buses. I had a new job, new colleagues, and a lot of new materials & technology too. Now, despite fabulous people in Turin and great students, I cannot and will not put up with the working conditions the new company has and will be leaving soon. (I'm not alone as since I started, 2 people have already left & one other has handed in her notice). This means that the next few weeks will be full of changes and stress. Possibly the hardest part - more goodbyes. 

Therefore, in this chaos of my life, which is my choice, I was grateful to find a short respite of peace and beauty. I had a few hours before I needed to be at work so walking to the office I stopped at the Church of San Lorenzo is held; a magnificent building, but filled with school children on an outing. Walking on, I stopped at the imposing building of the church of San Francesco d'Assisi and entered. I am not particularly religious, rarely going to church or praying, although I do believe in God. There was something spiritually appealing in the beauty of the interior, combined with the silence in the huge church. I  sat in a pew a just Stopped. I stepping out of my life, the rushing around, the endless decision-making, and took this opportunity for a moment of peace. I am very thankful I found, and went in, this beautiful, quiet, old church.

Gratitude Friday - it's Friday!

I've just popped over to Diana's blog, and realised it is Gratitude Friday time... oops forgot again.

Today I am grateful that it's Friday, as it means tomorrow I am flying down to see some good friends in Calabria, who I can't wait to see and catch up on the gossip news. I will also check on my flat and do a few odds and ends there. The other reason that I'm grateful is that TOMORROW brings SketchCrawl #26 and it's the perfect motivation and chance to draw all day. On top of that, I love seeing all the results from around the world, which are posted afterwards. Also, my ego likes receiving comments from kind people who see my results too. Tomorrow will be my 3rd SketchCrawl and my least structured as I have to work around the travel I am doing, so I foretell pics of buses, planes, people & landscapes. Please pop over to my other blog later in the week to see what I did.

Finally, I am thankful today is a beautiful sunny day here in Turin, but a little sad in that the auction did not raise any money for Xmas Torch, although I think it raised some awareness of it, which must be good.

Gratitude Friday - 2 weeks of thanks

It was on Saturday afternoon that I realised I had missed Gratitude Friday, started by Diana at Creative Structures who you must check out, AGAIN! I was walking down the street with my new friend and colleague Sarah, so together we started taking count of things to be grateful for...

First for both of us was the fact that we had both started working for our company at the same time, and our friendship has made it easier to cope with the awful working conditions. Second, vicariously I'm thankful that she has got a new job in France, which is where she really wants to be, and I think she will be happier there. Although, I will miss her here, especially as we normally do something together on the weekend, if only to meet for a hot chocolate. Another thing to be grateful for is the lovely hot chocolate :D

I am also thankful for the cultural opportunities there are here. I continue to explore, although I didn't do anything last weekend, except visit the monthly antiques market in the sleet, snow &  rain, sometimes the weather was doing all three at the same time. I think I liked the table & chairs in the photo, but it was hard to tell. After the market I scuttled home and was definitely grateful for a warming cuppa. Monday was another concert, unfortunately apart from one, in which a poetry reading was part of the composition, I didn't really like the pieces they played. Still, I am very pleased and thankful for the opportunity to listen to more live music, and do some more sketching of the musicians. Finally, yesterday I went to a small private art collection and saw several, huge, magnificent Canalettos, TWO Picassos, Renoirs, and more WOW! It amazes me the way Canaletto captured light and I can always stand for ages just looking at his work. So I am very grateful this week for the chance to see some awesome art.

Lastly, sandwiched between the dreadful weather, the top photo was taken Thursday 11th February, and the torrential rain we've had today, Monday was lovely. I was fortunate in that I finished early and when I got off the first tram, I enjoyed returning home in daylight (I normally get home around 8/8.30) by walking the 4 or 5 blocks home. A very simple pleasure, but probably the most gratifying of the week.

Cultural catch-up

One of the reasons that I left Oman was my need for a bit more cultural stimulus. In the month that I have been in Turin I have certainly started rectifying that. So far, I have visited GAM (as I mentioned a few weeks ago). I have now visited the Antiquities museum, mainly because it was next to the Roman theatre and city gate, so I thought I'd pop in. Amazing Roman artefacts, as could be expected. On Saturday, a colleague and I visited Palazzo Madama, which is a real hotchpotch museum housed in a beautiful Savoy-era palace. Got a fabulous view from the tower over the city, but unfortunately it was reached by a glass elevator, which I hate.

Last night I went a concert billed as the "classical music of the future" at a venue near my flat. I find going to a concert alone a bit daunting, but as you can guess from the top picture I took along my sketchbook for company. After my pre-concert glass of red wine, I drew some of the instruments whilst waiting for the concert to start (above). I liked the double bass lying at the front of the stage, and was fascinated as he played. The second piece was played by four percussionists each with a xylophone plus drums, cymbals, whistles and other things. It was amazing! It was also it's première, so I wonder how it will do in the future... Will HM Qaboo's orchestra play it one day? After all he likes loud percussion pieces.

So that's 2 museums, an art gallery, and a concert so far In Italy, plus the ballet when I was home in UK. What next???

Gratitude Friday- attempt 2 RED

I'm still not overly inspired today, especially as I have to go out in the snow soon, and I know gratitude shouldn't be about things but...

I am grateful for the bottle of red wine a student gave me on Monday, which Sarah & I will open tomorrow.

Currently, I could not live with out my red kettle, (obviously combined with my Tetley's)...

nor the apartment's checked blanket.

I am also thankful for the glut of art that's in Turin. Below is an outside red sculpture I saw at GAM.

An emergency???!!!

 

Only in Italy...
Lunchtime today, the road & pavements were closed. The tram was stopped and 2 fire engines and a police car were on the scene... A fireman is dispatched up the ladder with...

a bucket & hammer????

There was plaster falling from the building & the performance was to knock down any more. ha ha

Gratitude Friday - On Sunday

I know I am a bit late, and in fact this is my first gratitude post of 2010, but I have a lot of excuses of which the number one is a lack of internet accessibility. Excuse over, so today I am grateful for..

... the opportunities and choices I have. They may not necessarily turn out to be right in the long term, but at least I have options.

This new year sees me back in Europe, in the northern Italian city of Turin.This is my 3rd weekend here and I think it is a great cultural place to be with hundreds of museums and galleries to visit. Also, fabulous buildings to explore, and it is a beautiful city. So far, I have visited the the Galleria Civica D'Arte Moderna e Contemporanea (GAM) and intend to see as many as possible over the coming weekends.

Now if only the sun would come out and allow me to take a few more pictures with blues skies, like the one above of the river Po, ... although below is one of my favourites this year... a tram in fog.