unsorry

i'm sorry but sometimes i'm just not able to say i'm sorry. 

random thoughts of a sleepless mind

friday, pale sunny afternoon, I'm enjoying an unexpected free day after a ridicolous 4-hour sleep. 

I'll try to go for a walk to cure the bad taste left by the night shift. I'm leaving my job soon, heading for more exciting adventures that for once won't involve suit, fake smile and anaesthetic thoughts. or at least I hope so.

my drawings have their own life and, actually, have much more life than I do. they just keep popping up without lots of efforts from my side and this leaves me with mixed feelings. one day I hate them and the other day I deeply love them. sick. but wonderful.

looking for some inspiration on the world-wide web, I found something that made my day:

HE writes stories in 140 letters and HE draws them. THEY are certainly MORE than positive thoughts.

la pausa

un momento preciso di silenzio

Daysleeper, daysleeper, daysleeper

Good morning sir, it's your 5am wake up call. would you like to know the weather forecasts for today?

Uh? The what?

The weather forecasts sir...

Hell, no. thank you.

No problem. "my night is colored headache grey" and who cares about weather forecasts after all?

He will then take a taxi to whatever.
Two other hours for me to go.

midsummering

it has been raining for two days. probably more, but for the last two days it didn't stop at all, not even for a second.

eventually the rain ceased and on the street tonight the only sound I could hear was the creaking of my rusty bike. it was a wonderful autumnal night. in july.

“The pessimist complains about the wind, the optimist expects it to change, the realist adjusts the sails”

everything can tell a good story and with a good story one can go everywhere. 

only few months ago, a story (and a very good one indeed) brought us to Den Helder...not that far, I have to say, but potentially, it still could lead us and anyone else, much more far away.

berthed at Willemsoord - Den Helder, there was this gorgeous 32 meter schooner brigantine named “Tres Hombres”, the dream of a man who, at some point of his professional carreer, decided to devote himself to protect the environment and work around an idea that has kept him busy during the last ten years: develop a system of sustainable transport through the use of vessels. exactly. beautiful, old-fashioned and 100% sustainable vessels. 
 

as he himself told us: men forgot that the most powerful engine on earth is the wind. 

the brigantine seems to be sprung out a tale of pirates but it's just a prototype vessel in service since December 2009. she has solar panels, an engine -for security reasons- that has never been used so far, no heating at all and one oven (if we want to be fussy, that is the only "not sustainable" element on the ship).  

needless to say, the crew is crazy -as it has to be-  and they welcome volunteer and passengers onboard to sail with them. of course, it's required to work. and hard.

when we met Tres Hombres she was just back from her second trip to the Caribbean -a fascinating route between Europe, the islands in the Atlantic and America- and her stow was still packed with tons of the first 100%sustainable rum (which we had to try!). the air was fresh and the sun was still high in the sky. there was music -imagine something like "The Captain" by Leonard Cohen- and everybody was happily celebrating the arrival of the vessel. one of those situations in which, no matters who you are, we're all friends. sustainable friends indeed, and drunk of course.


we felt like in a dream while maarten introduced us to the crew. they all looked like people with lots of wind and waves in their eyes, people who have seen a lot and sailed a lot. they have seen Haiti right after the earthquake. Tres Hombres has been the first European vessel arriving in the island with first aid. 


they've been sailing in the North Sea with no heating in the ship. their hair were dry, their faces burnt by the sun, their hands were strong and harsh and they smelt like salt. it may not make any sense to you but, believe me, they did.
 

they had that kind of gaze that people only get when are somewhat crazy. a gaze that people only have when  they know that they have a good story to tell and that with their story they are making the difference.

'till I will feel like writing something new

this is something worth reading...

 http://laser314.blogspot.com/2011/07/my-journey-leads-to-you.html

I feel like saying good night now.