Apocalyp[s]ense

The colourful streets of Tanger, Morocco

Hello

Yosemite national park

Valley of Fire, Nevada

Valley of Fire, Nevada

Valley of Fire state park, Nevada

Long exposure experiment,  Praça do Comércio.

Obviously very glad I stayed up for this... Super blood moon, Rotterdam, 29/09/2015, 4.40 AM.

Autumn in Helsinki, 2011

Reflections in Prague

I wasn’t particularly talented but that never held me back from giving it my everything. Basketball was my most loyal friend, my drug, my therapy. There was nothing a good game couldn’t fix. And it fixed me up many, many times.  The breakup came suddenly. It wasn’t pretty - literally. My kneecap was in a place it shouldn’t be and I immediately knew it was final. The realisation came later than that, like ending a relationship and clinging on to the hope you might get back together.  In a way I’ve gone through the classic 5 stages of grief, although not necessarily in the right order. I remained only briefly in denial, lingered a lot on anger and revisited that phase a couple of times. I bargained, too. I coached for a year, trying to make the relationship work, but the effort wasn’t mutual. I’m currently going back and forth between depression and acceptance. I still refuse to believe that anything can make me feel the same, but I do feel I’m gradually moving on. “Of course I do”, I replied. We continued with some running exercises. I still can’t run properly or without pain, and my progress is slow. I stopped. “It hurts,” I explained.  “Where do you feel pain?” I pointed to the inside of my knee. “Here.”   And here too, I thought, while imagining pointing at my heart dramatically.  My physiotherapist told me I would probably experience less pain if I replaced my old basketball shoes with some real running shoes. So I bought running shoes today. How’s that for acceptance?

Happy birthday to me!