Sunday 30 August 2009

About public transport in the UK (9) [Despre transportul în comun în UK]

I don’t think there’s any train station in the UK (or any train station in the world!) where a photoholic like me wouldn’t be tempted to take some pictures.

Far from being a passionate trainspotter, I simply can’t help finding things worth being photographed (and subsequently shared to the world, as I am doing on this blog) in such places. Stations are true goldmines for photoholics!

Out of my initial 6,800 photos in the UK (2008) – to which I could add another 700-800 (2009) – at least some couple of hundred pics (more maybe?!) were taken in or around trains stations...

...or while I was on a train, and therefore more than once annoying people. It’s somehow risky, but as a foreigner you can always afford to be a bit rude, and not bother for being deemed a weirdo.

Does anyone want to make a truly broad image of the Brits (or any other nation for that matter)? Well, go and watch them commuting, eavesdrop on their conversations, take a glimpse at what they are reading, smell their lunch, and scrutinize their clothes!

There’s no better research tool for this type of cultural studies than gazing around at people in train and bus stations, public toilets (not through holes in walls in this case!), caught in traffic as pedestrians or motorists, shopping in supermarkets etc.

But in today’s Orwellian Britan, obsessed with security and the threat of terrorism, it seems that what my photoholic habits could have gotten me an ‘interview’ with the police.

Click here to see what happened to a guy who loved taking pictures in the wrong places. Today’s Britain is gettig a less and less friendly place for photoholics :-(

[For all the episodes of this series, and all the posts on this blog go to/Pentru toate episoadele din această serie şi toate postările de pe acest blog mergi la: Contents/Cuprins]

Wednesday 26 August 2009

Chestii d-astea, numai la britanici (21) [Things like these, only at the Brits]

Ca pieton, poate că ţi s-o părea complet neromantic să te trezeşti că, prin City of London, nici să vrei cu dinadinsul, şi tot nu ai cum să te pierzi. Mai mult, pierzi şansa să opreşti din drum vreo fată drăguţă şi să-i ceri ajutorul.

Parcă – oare nu intenţionat, nu-i aşa?! – indicatoarele acestea sunt puse îngroapă prematur o conversaţie. Nu trebuie decât ca fata să-şi rotească privirea în căutarea unui stâlpi precum cel de mai sus şi să ţi-l indice. Cu sau fără o strâmbătură din nas.

Asemenea panouri ordonate ar putea fi încă o dovadă că Statul Dădacă îşi face datoria şi nu lasă nimic să-i scape intenţiilor sale regulatoare – ar zice cârcotaşii…

Sau este o dovadă de civilizaţie, curtoazie, bun-simţ (British civility) – zic eu care, miop fiind, adesea de-abia mă descurc să văd numele străduţelor din Bucureşti, scrise pe tăbliţe prea mici, ori decolorate, ori obturate de vegetaţie.

Ca şofer care n-am condus în UK :-(, nu ştiu dacă faptul că (uneori şi la fiecare 10-20 de metri!) ţi se scrie pe drum încotro să o iei ori la ce să fii atent te ajută sau nu, dar eu cred că este o bună măsură de siguranţă rutieră. Vrei, nu vrei, eşti ţinut cu ochii aţintiţi la carosabil.

Apoi, şi dacă te-ai uita pe marginea drumului, adesea te poate zăpăci de-a binelea puzderia de indicatoare, luminiţe, panouri, exagerat de multe semafoare… Probabil că viteza de reacţie în trafic ţi-ar fi diminuată.

O problemă ar putea fi cuvintele în engleză, dar, cu puţină răbdare, oricine le poate pricepe. Până la urmă, şoferia are propriul ei limbaj, indiferent de limba maternă.
.
Doar şi eu întrebam prin SUA dacă XING (scris pe carosabilul autostrăzilor şi/sau pe panouri) o fi ceva pentru… imigranţii din China. Aveam să aflu că vine de la eXit crossING (ieşire din drumul principal).

Oricum, la cât de surori vitrege sunt engleza britanică şi cea americană, poate că unui şofer nevorbitor de engleză i-ar fi mai simplu decât unuia care din SUA sau UK care, chipurile, după ce s-a învăţat cu anumite denumiri/sensuri, ar avea nevoie de un astfel de dicţionar de trafic.

[Pentru toate episoadele din această serie şi toate postările de pe acest blog mergi la/For all the episodes of this series, and all the posts on this blog go to: Contents/Cuprins]

Monday 17 August 2009

[EN] Not worth trying in the UK / [RO] Nu merită încercat în UK (9)

[EN] It may be no secret for any European that public and personal hygiene is not one aspect which Romanians could be pleased with. [RO] S-ar putea să nu fie un secret pentru niciun european că igiena publică şi personală nu este un aspect de care românii să poată fi încântaţi.

[EN] But it would be silly to think that the Brits are a ‘superclean nation’. As I said before (here or here), public cleaning in the UK fares better than that of Romania. Yet the people are not very much better at keeping clean. [RO] Dar ar fi o prostie să se creadă că britanicii sunt o ‘naţiune supercurată’. După cum am spus (aici sau aici), curăţenia publică în UK este mult mai bună decât în România. Dar oamenii nu sunt cu foarte mult mai buni la a păstra curăţenia.

[EN] Therefore, it’s categorically not worth risking one’s health by sitting on a toilet seat on a train British train! [RO] Aşadar, categoric nu merită să-ţi rişti sănătatea aşezându-te pe un colac de toaletă dintr-un tren britanic!

[EN] Not that it wouldn’t be equally risky (or at least unpleasant) anywhere in the world… Is it better in Singapore, Japan (foreigners face other risks there! :-)… or where? [RO] Nu că n-ar fi la fel de riscant (sau cel puţin neplăcut) oriunde în lume... Este mai bine în Singapore, în Japonia (străinii înfruntă alte riscuri acolo! :-)... sau unde?

[For all the episodes of this series, and all the posts on this blog go to/Pentru toate episoadele din această serie şi toate postările de pe acest blog mergi la: Contents/Cuprins]

Thursday 6 August 2009

A crossroads of the Orthodox World (4) [O răscruce a Lumii Ortodoxe]

As another summer is steadily coming to its end, and we are awaiting the Dormition of the Theotokos, today’s Great Feast – the Transfiguration of our Lord Jesus Christ – gives me the chance to send my good thoughts to dear people around the world by offering them another picture of an icon that remained in my heart.

Again, the image I’m sharing with the world is that of a paper icon taken from the Patriarchal Stavropegic Monastery of St John The Baptist in Essex. I’ve already given this icon (carried many miles throughout Europe before it got from Tolleshunt Knights to Romania) to someone dear to me, but not before taking some pictures of it.

Of all the riches of meanings that the Orthodox faith brings into our life – especially in a world so full of deceptive choices, elusive opportunities, omnipresent illusions – today is one of the most fascinating for me.

I assume I’m not wrong to call the Transfiguration one of the least understood moments in Christ’s life, while actually being one of the most important. Even many Orthodox believers couldn’t tell what that moment really meant.

For the unbeliever, this may be nothing more than one of the weirdest biblical tales. But for those of us who, in spite of our unworthiness, have been blessed to know WHO is the TRUTH, and MEANING of everything, today’s Feast brings one of the most categorical evidence about the divinity of our Saviour.

It’s amazing how St Peter, and the other two Apostles were so irresistibly attracted to the glory of Christ. All of us would, if we ever got so close understanding His true nature of God-Man. In order to ever do that, it is us the ones who need to be transfigured, so that we’d be able to percieve Him in His Glory.

If everything that happened to the Apostles after the Ressurection offered a proof that Christ is the only One worth dying for, in my humble view, St Peter’s reaction facing the Transfiguration proves that He is also the only One worth living with.

People around us couldn’t ever be truly loved unless we knew Him, and unless He (often throught His Saints) weren’t showing us what love is. Without Him, absolutely nothing would make sense, and we'd be completely purposeless without Him.

Without knowing Him, all the ‘inertial motivations’ of being alive (things done just because others of my ‘species’ did them every day) drove me crazy… Why sleep, eat, learn, work, dream, yearn, speak & listen, like & dislike, love & hate, and then… just die… WHY???

Living like most of the religiously indifferent people around me, and like the absolute majority of Brits do, I was thinking of suicide at least 20 times a day. Nothing – neither joy, nor suffering – made any sense to me.

So many things got on my nerves without Him, and it seemed that life was but a neverneding bad dream, with no beginning and no end. What was it to me if it lasted a day, a century or forever?

The bad dream stopped only when I was blessed with discovering the true purpose of human life, which is Theosis, that is personal communion with God ‘face to face’.

With Him, I’ve got the certitude that everything happens for a reason. If I were to remember how I was on the Day of Transfiguration ten years ago, all I can say now is that I am a completely different person.

I am not shouting that I am sinless, nor could I claim that spared of suffering, and – to my utmost disappontment – I can’t say I am a better person. But I am definitely – albeit in an unseen way – transfigured. Instead of being trapped in a meaningless existence, I have a destination, and Christ’s presence in my life is as crystal clear as gravitation to me.

I’m not sure whether the Earth circles around the Sun and not viceversa, I’m not sure whether the Americans really set foot on the Moon… Actually, I’m not sure of anything deemed right, correct or desirable ever since secularism took hold of history, as I mistrust the logic, reason and moral intuition that secular ethics is based upon.

I’m not sure of countless other prefabricated truths forced down our throat by the humanist society we’re living in, while I’m 100% certain that some of these truths are satanic deceits like global warming hysteria, overpopulation, inborn homosexuality etc.

Nevertheless, what I am surest of in this world is that everything about or Lord Jesus Christ is just as He told us, and His only One Church keeps telling us. How I wish that more and more of the certainly unhappy people around me wouldn’t refuse refuse their curiosity about Christ, the only One worth being curious about!

There’s no doubt for me that, one day, we shall all see the One Who the Apostles saw on Mount Tabor almost 2,000 years ago. May we, for the prayers of the Most Holy Theotokos, share the enchantment of St Peter, therefore have the proper wedding garment on us, and not be clad in the darkness brought upon us by having led a meanigless life away from Him!

[For all the episodes of this series, and all the posts on this blog go to/Pentru toate episoadele din această serie şi toate postările de pe acest blog mergi la: Contents/Cuprins]

Monday 3 August 2009

[EN] Worth trying in the UK / [RO] Merită încercat în UK (9)

[EN] Really bad news for fanatical Scottish nationalists… It seems that the Scottish national dish (haggis) was created by the English :-) [RO] Veşti cu adevărat proaste pentru naţionaliştii scoţieni fanatici… Se pare că mâncarea naţională scoţiană (haggis) a fost creată de către englezi :-)

[EN] I don’t care about its origin, as the purpose of this series is to make recommendations about what’s worth tasting in the UK. [RO] Nu-mi pasă de originea ei, căci scopul acestui serial este să fac recomandări despre ceea ce merită gustat în UK.

[EN] Although I’m not a meat lover, and I should have avoided this post during the Dormition Fast, I must say that I liked haggis. [RO] Deşi nu-s un iubitor de carne şi ar fi trebuit să evit această postare în timpul Postului Adormirii Maicii Domnului, trebuie să spun că mi-a plăcut haggis-ul.

[EN] Food puritans may start disliking it after simply reading the main ingredients – minced sheep heart, liver and lungs boiled for three hours in a sheep’s stomach – but I honestly think it has a good taste. [RO] Puritanilor mâncării ar putea să înceapă să nu le placă doar după citirea principalelor ingrediente – inimă, ficat şi plămâni de oaie tocate şi fierte într-un stomac de oaie pentru trei ore – dar eu sincer cred că are un gust bun.

[EN] It goes well with beer, I found out. I didn’t try it with whisky, as it is customary. Nor did I dare tasting the whisky sauce. [RO] Merge bine cu bere, am descoperit eu. N-am încercat cu whisky cum se obişnuişte. Nici n-am cutezat să încerc sosul de whisky.

[EN] All in all, irrespective of the chosen drink, for anyone ever visiting Scotland, I can only say this: try at least a little portion the first picture shows! [RO] Una peste alta, indiferent de băutura aleasă, pot spune doar aceasta: încercaţi măcar o porţie mică precum arată prima poză!

[For all the episodes of this series, and all the posts on this blog go to/Pentru toate episoadele din această serie şi toate postările de pe acest blog mergi la: Contents/Cuprins]