Hi all,

I hope you’re all gonna enjoy this sunny weekend! I’ve cleaned my flat and now I’m preparing my camera and my iPod, then I’ll go out to see some friends and take photos! And why not treat myself with some good food & shopping? It never killed anyone!

I’ve had the chance to try my Contax III which return from repairs about two weeks ago (after 2 years of standing on the waiting list of a talented repairman). I’ve uploaded some photos on flickr (see a couple here below)

Now for more “modern” fun (considering the camera is from 1936…) I’ve treated myself with a nifty iPod touch, I like the little thing very much, in fact I’m using my computer less and less since I have it

To end this post with a more personal touch, I’ve had my hair cut by my friend Christophe Scarfogliero who is among the best french haircutters in Prague. Here’s the result :

I look a bit stupid but I do like the haircut, it’s a welcome change, good bye dull days!

And bye to you too, folks!

Risotto ai Gamberi
(shrimp risotto, 4 persons)

Ingredients
For the rice:
250g Arborio rice (round italian rice)
1 Bio lemon (not treated chemically)
2 Shallots
half spoon of rosemary (cut in tiny bits)
1x beef or chicken bouillon cube (Maggi or Knorr will do)
50gr grated parmesan cheese
50gr butter
1 spoon of olive oil
Pepper

For the shrimps:
At least 400g of frozen tiger shrimps (count from 3 to 5 shrimps / person)
Curcuma powder
Ginger powder
Salt

1. Prepare the shrimps
Unfreeze the shrimps and remove their skin
Put aside
Get a pan, but in there 3 tea spoons of olive oil + one small quarter of garlic which has been thinly sliced
fry the shrimps without burning them, add a pinch of salt, a pinch of curcuma powder and a pinch of ginger powder while cooking them
Once they are cooked, cover them and put aside

2. Prepare the rice
Fill a stewpan with 1 liter of water, add the bouillon cube and put it on the fire until it boils
Extract the lemon skin, cut it in thin slices and put it aside
press the lemon and extract 3 tablespoons of its juice
peel the shallots and slice them
Get another stewpan, put the sliced shallots with half of the butter and the olive oil for about 2 minutes on medium fire
add the rice and mix for 2 minutes
get a laddle, fill it with the bouillon cube juice obtained and pour it on the rice
turn the rice often and pour juice on it regularly
after about 18 minutes the risotto will be ready
Remove the stewpan from the fire
Add the lemon skins, the juice, the rosemary, the remaining butter and the parmesan (counting one tea spoon of parmesan per person)
add pepper and cover the stewpan so that the risotto rests about 2 minutes

3. serve the dish
Serve the rice on 4 deep dishes, add the shrimps and pour on them a tablespoon of their juice.
Serve and enjoy, bon appétit!

Thanks mom for the recipe!

I had the pleasant surprised to be contacted on monday by euro|topics – the online magazine of the german Federal Agency for Political Education (Bundeszentrale für politische Bildung/bpb). Two of my photos of the famous czech photographer Josef Koudelka drew the attention of euro|topics and are published on this page. One is Koudelka signing, the second one is Koudelka signing for a cute little girl.

Josef Koudelka signing for a little girl - published on euro|topics

I wish they would be of better quality, but the negatives are in France, as well as the scanner!

Check out my playlist on Deezer! Don’t you want to dance till dawn now ?

Creamfields 2008

Although I like german car designs (the Audi R8 being for me the ultimate at the moment), I can’t help to lean towards italian design and classic beauty. Once I’ll get my driver license, I might consider going for the new Lancia Delta, who knows… after, of course, having driven another car to get used to driving The Maserati here is just for drooling purposes

Maserati Granturismo S

Lancia Delta

What a messy week it has been! I’ve been feeling sick & tired since Creamfields. It had started so nicely …. After getting totally drenched by this memorable storm we found refuge in one of the techno stages (Red Zone) where we stayed until nearly 3am. I was soaked and had enough of it, so we tried to hire a taxi, which was quite a challenging experience. Breclav taxi drivers care about your health, so they’d rather have you walk instead of picking you up. After a good kilometer of walking we finally caught one who brought us back to our pension. I was in pretty bad shape on sunday, and I had to stay home three days to recover a bit. Damn season changes!

Wednesday evening was the good occasion to clean my flat, I invited some friends for a tea and we had lots of fun, then the week’s been pretty quiet, except lots of work (as usual!) but I like my job, so I don’t really complain about it! I’m just looking forward to leave for holidays… one week to go and I’ll be flying to Nice, France, to see my family. I think I deserve those holidays!

… such as spending a beautiful sunday with a wonderful friend, Stania! We really, really had a nice time together and being the photographers we are, we honored our cameras by killing her EOS 30D’s battery (and memory card), shortly followed by flattening out my tiny Samsung NV10 battery. It’s been a very long time since I had such great moments of pure good mood & fun!

Here are two photos for starters, until we decide where to send them. Enjoy!

Stania

yep, that's me

I had some errands to do this morning, and some free time ahead of me well before the office I had to visit would open, so I took a walk by the seaside from the Casino of Menton to the Cap Martin.

Here are some snapshots taken with my cellphone (a Nokia N72) integrated digital camera.