[I originally posted this entry as early access for my Patreon patrons on 4 November 2022].
wrecked
[I originally posted this entry as early access for my Patreon patrons on 24 June 2021].
So, yesterday was a bit tiring but mostly good.
After a day consumed by client work, I was about to settle in for an evening of photo editing. Before I did, I took a moment to catch up on social and clicked on an Instagram story from a friend.
To be honest, I rarely click on the stories of friends or accounts I follow. Not because I'm not interested in what they're sharing. But because they've often shared it to their feed as well. Or it's content they're sharing from others, which may or may not interest me.
Also, I generally have to be in the right mood for stories or reels, even IG video. And then there are the soundtracks people choose to accompany them, but that's a discussion for another time...
So, I was in for a bit of a shock when clicking on her stories yesterday evening.
Her bruised and swollen face looked back at me, and my first thought was that someone had beaten the hell out of her.
I held my thumb on the story to stop it from moving forward and took in the text and hashtags on the post to register what I was looking at. I let the next story play, and then I messaged.
She had been in a terrible car accident and, if not for people coming to her rescue, she could have died. I'm so thankful she didn't.
We met about 2005 via MySpace and became fast friends. We've shared so much in the intervening 16 years - especially in the first few years of our friendship (nudge, nudge, wink, wink) - despite spending so many of those years miles apart.
She's been a muse to me. One of the most easygoing models I've worked with.
She's given me access to inspiring natural and manmade environments in which to take self-portraits almost every time I've been able to visit her. Both in Australia and the UK.
She also managed to get my photography (and my cleavage) on the telly for the first time a few years back.
We don't chat enough these days, but when we do - as with many of my best friends - it's like picking up a conversation from two weeks ago instead of two years (or more) ago.
Despite having to undergo facial surgery to repair her broken jaw (hopefully today, Australian time), she hasn't lost her dark sense of humour.
I don't have any photos from my D700 from the last day we met up in Coolangatta on the final full day of my visit to Australia in late 2019. All those I took with my iPhone have already been shared.
That's why I decided to edit and share this photo from earlier in the road trip from Melbourne to Brisbane. I thought it might appeal to her dark sense of humour at this time.
So I'm relieved but still catching my breath a little with this news right now. And sending my love and the gentlest hugs across the time zones to her.
045 beetle
Day forty-five of The 100 Day Project for 2021.
There are so many things wrong with yesterday's sketch. I don't know where to start...
No, that's not true.
Let's start with those tyres and wheel arches. Clearly, the proportion of the front and rear tyres should be reversed.
Despite sketching in landscape format - after acknowledging I wasn't going to manage it as a square sketch and erasing my first attempt - it still ended up squished.
Overall, it's not terrible, but there are many flaws in this drawing, despite the fact I worked on it for about an hour. I wasn't rushed as I started drawing earlier, though I'm posting it the next day.
Oh well.
Again, the original sketch was drawn with a 4H pencil. Then main outlines/lines were gone over with an HB and the secondary bits (e.g. lines seen through glass) in a heavier 4H.
I always wanted a VW Beetle (the old school style, like this) and/or a Mini Minor. However, my Mum rolled a Mini taking a corner in her younger days, so she was against that idea. And she wasn't keen on a car with the engine in the front.
I'm pretty sure she also had a Fiat of some description in her younger days, though I'm not sure it was a Fiat 500.
So, she had some of the cars I fancied and wasn't up for me having the same.
Maybe that contributed to me never actually getting my full license and buying a car...?