Thursday, 15 September 2011
Day 2 in Krakow. The time in Poland reached the midway as quickly as the end. Krakow city centre took about two days to explore with some time to spare. During that time, we had an epic sh*t head battle which I lost pretty heavily in what was essentially a game of chance. Personally my favourite travelling game is Carcassone where I learnt that in Nepal. Sh*t head is a close second because it is an easy game to teach. The book of choice for this trip was “Alice in QuantumLand”. It was good to read about quantum physics because it challenged what conventional physics or logic which broadens my horizons, kicked back, sitting on the dock of the bay, wasting time. Little to know the wheel of fortune was about to turn later at night.
Sometimes how a single moment of intervention could define an outcome. Jesse and I waited for the train. However it turned out to be a train that was never going to arrive on the platform. Jesse was leading the trip in Poland. I asked him to checked the information. He said “I have it covered”. He disappeared for almost 10 minutes and returned with a grin of his face as if he misbehaved like a school child. I asked, “Are you sure we are in the right platform?” “I THINK so.” Jesse replied. The confidence rapidly deteriorated as the time was running out and our way out of Poland was nowhere to be seen. We sprinted to the information board realised that T4 did not mean platform 4 (We were in Platform 2). The actual platform number was 9. Needless to say, we ran.
I was less than impressed. I calmly explained that the importance of taking the right train. How you need to know where the train will take you. He interrupted with a quiet Jesse voice, “I bought you some chocolate”. It turned out that Jesse saw the information board, took a picture on his mobile phone and queued for some chocolate. That was his “had it covered” in the ideal Jesse world. Predictably, I again calmly explained that chocolate would only satisfy needs that were not real. Reality was to catch the right train. I had to snap him out of his inception of his emotional needs which only desired for chocolate, to remind him why we were in a train station and to catch the train that will take us to the right place.
Eventually, “Thank you for the chocolate, Jesse.”
We were waiting for a train to Bohemia, I thought that place only existed in fairy-tales.
I like taking pictures at night because the ambience is difference. The longer shutter time improves the panning effect. Panning is a technique where the camera moves to track the movement of an object. The low light made the pictures less clear. I like that. I like trams too as shown by the picture. I was actually devising a new panning technique with the zoom. It is quite simple really, first stand in front of the moving tram, zoom in from the start of the pan and as the tram move closer to you, zoom out during the shutter opening while trying to keep a spot focused, then jump out the way of the tram. The concept is sound but execution could be a bit risky. Please don’t try this innovative pan, it could be dangerous, with moving trams or trains etc.
Vienna train station, not much to say here, as we were waiting for the train to Munchen. Perhaps we should have added Wien into the itinerary as it looked really interesting. It will be a destination for the future.
Adventures of Delboy 