What are your jeans doing today?

[riff]

^yep! Always fun to be "nesting"!

Thanks for all the kind words & rep everyone! Much appreciated!

Annabelle - the cottage is actually well north of Mont Tremblant, so it's quite the trip to get up there!

The long weekend continued…

Saturday

Woke up to my version of paradise!

It's hard not to be overwhelmed with the beauty up here - especially after having been away for a while. Fall is special, too… I always thought it is the season most suited to the senses: the vivid colours, the spicy smell, the sound of leaves crunching underfoot…

First things were to check out the property… Stuff is pretty much in order, but there are a few downed trees & branches to be cleared.

Hello! Well, he doesn't seem to be inclined to invade the house, so I guess we'll maintain peaceful relations… for now.

Raft is still there, but will need a new coat of paint come spring…

Time to explore!

Bless the Brazilians - who else would put beer in a bottle shaped like a woman!

.... to be continued....

[ranonranonarat]

last picture is a still right out of a movie. excellent colour choice of red wings to put on for this trip. i love how they seem to fit right into your surroundings!

[-Z-]

^agreed on all counts.

[beatle]

fantastic pictures, Mr. Riff

[HoustonChris]

Good god, Riff, I hate you so much right now. Autumn is my favorite season and it just doesn't exist in this part of Texas. Your pictures nearly made me cry.

Looks like an amazing trip and I'm sure it was thoroughly relaxing.

[beatle]

[Guest I LOVE LFC]

Me and my jeans went to get more work on my tattoo. No pics yet as I'm not sure if I like how its turned out :-o

[chambo2008]

come on can't be that bad..

[Farhad]

Paul T, Beatle, Pomata good stuff.

riff- Man I wish i was there drinking a beer with you. really nice bro, thanks for the post. I love nature and a good beer

Z- Could only see half your pics and I wanted to rep but had to spread. let's see some film action from your new lens. I miss shooting film.

This from last night. Anyone into IPAs keep your eye out for fresh hop brews. Some great stuff being released this month.

[-Z-]

Z- Could only see half your pics and I wanted to rep but had to spread. let's see some film action from your new lens. I miss shooting film.

thanks for the heads up Farhad...Fixed my links if anybody wants to hop back and check those pics out.

messing around the house today...

TTL through that 135mm Vivitar with my 50mm

[FACE]

what cam Z? 10

[-Z-]

what cam Z? 10

The last 2 sets of B&W are all with my Canon 500D. I'm still shooting through my first roll of HP5 on the Pentax, hopefully I can get it developed / scanned by early next week?!

[riff]

Farhad & -Z-, lovely stuff! I'm really looking forward to seeing that roll developed!

Well... I hope you guys aren't sick to death of this...

The long weekend continued!

Sunday

Warning! Clichéd nature photos to follow!

We spent the morning hiking around and taking in the sights. The range of colours was astounding...

I cut down the fallen trees and branches - ready to be hauled away

Pups had fun too!

[riff]

Sunday was actually a bittersweet day for me…. It's been a few years since our parents passed away, and their final wish was to have their ashes scattered - together - up here at our cottage.

I couldn't bring myself to do this for a long time. I guess I just wasn't ready to let go.

But the time had come, and my lil sis - who was in Montreal for the long weekend - drove up to join us. We spent the afternoon reminiscing…

The two labs we grew up with:

My parents' art work:

Then we scattered their ashes - it was the perfect autumn day, and I know they would have loved it.

Not really sure how I felt. I guess it was a mix of sadness, and peacefulness, if that makes sense.

[beatle]

Riff - reading this makes me sad..letting go is never easy...sending a big hug ***

[ranonranonarat]

riff, that really tugged at my heartstrings. wrenching feeling but im sure they would've been happy that their wishes were fulfilled, in such a lovely place, where you and your sister did what they wanted you to do. they would have been so happy. take care riff and thanks for sharing such a special and private moment with us.

[JayFourEyes]

I wish I could rep riff and -Z-.

I also wish I had a good camera. Will be posting some fall pics soon.

[Max Power]

Sorry to hear that. Thanks for sharing and thanks for the pictures.

would have repped, if I could.

[JayFourEyes]

Finally the Eternal contest jeans arrived. Soaked them and played around.

Washed them after soak and dry and compaired to the lenght of my Fullcounts. Neither of them hemmed.

Quite hairy.

Took a walk in also newly arrived sneakers.

"-Higher! -HIGHER!!"

A neighbours cat.

Coffee, yes.

[Piddan]

^nice pics (and fullcounts!) where in sweden do you live ?

[lostinthesupermarket]

Riff-great pictures and a beautiful tribute to your folks.

Must spread.

[dkatz]

This from last night. Anyone into IPAs keep your eye out for fresh hop brews. Some great stuff being released this month.

Ah man you're making me excited to drink the shit out of as many IPAs I can get my hands on when I'm in New York next week!

Man I can't wait to buy your book...

This photo strikes me as particularly poignant given the context. A matched pair, complementary but not identical, accenting and being accented by the world they're surrounded by.

My heart goes out to you, buddy. I hope you are able to find peace in the peace you have granted your parents.

[dkatz]

I spent last week in Gulu, in northern Uganda. I was attending a partner organization's training, pretty much as a consultant on research methodology (bizarre that after only a year, I'm considered an expert in this shit...) and conducting some preliminary field research for a new project. Interesting stuff, but it's hard to appreciate when I'm stretched as thin as I am with work.

Gulu is a bizarre place. Along with Kitgum, it was pretty much the epicenter of terror during the twenty-ish year insurgency by Joseph Kony's Lord's Resistance Army. As such, Gulu is pretty much overrun by NGO and UN presence. Though a peace accord has never been signed, the war in northern Uganda is pretty well accepted to have ended about five years ago. As the area is rapidly rebuilding and recovering, and people are returning from the IDP camps, the district capital has developed a feel of a bustling frontier town - things are still very rough and rugged, but business and society are booming.

The bothersome aspect of Gulu to me is a lot of the NGO presence. There are apparently about 600 NGOs operating in Gulu and Kitgum - I wish I had gotten a couple pictures of streets JAMMED with NGO signs and white NGO vehicles! The problems I see are two-fold:

1. Though commonly perceived to be all-good organizations, NGOs are, at the end of the day, corporate entities with staff and resources and interests. As such, they have an incentive to ensure that their bankroll does not dissipate. Some NGOs (debating whether I feel like pointing fingers right now... okay: INVISIBLE CHILDREN) continue to trade on a situation that no longer exists, namely the LRA and on-going evils like child-soldiering. Though they may use the funds they get in this manner to do good, I find it deeply problematic and unethical to gather those funds under false pretenses.

2. Dependency Theory eat your heart out. Though they're predominantly wonderful, warm people, many people in Gulu - particularly young people of the generation who pretty much grew up in camps run by the UN and the like - have become completely accustomed to living on handouts. Rather than learning how to make their own ways in life, many people have instead become experts at subscribing to and portraying the stereotypes that bring in NGO funding, to their own ultimate detriment.

Right then, off the soap-box. How about some pictures?

The view from my hotel room, complete with a taste of local civil engineering

I found this skinny little building comically delightful

A chapati-wrapped banana from street vendors (chapati in the North are way fluffier and tastier than in Kampala!) and a cup of coffee at Cafe Larem - a bizarrely muzungu cafe in town

There's a bunch of construction going on in Gulu, which is a great sign for what it says about the region's stability and economic viability... except that most of the construction is hotels. I imagine the main target for these hotels must be the still-inflated NGO staff population, but if the situation and economy is stable enough to foster this magnitude of construction, then it's also about the time the NGOs will start pulling out!

NGO bubble, anybody?

Yet another attempt to counteract ranonaranonarat's ability to consistently make every reader of this thread hungry: Ugandan food!

Beans.

Oily fried bitter greens.

Rice.

Potatoes.

(I can not WAIT for my week and a half in the land of flavor, starting Tuesday!)

From the balcony of my hotel, on the edge of town

Into town

On the way back to Kampala, we had to stop in a little town because the visiting representative of the donor organization on one of my projects had had his license impounded for speeding on the way up. Pretty amusing situation that involved going to the police station, taking one cop to the home of the cop who'd impounded the license, then taking that cop to some ambiguous household/store to pick up the license, dropping them all off and continuing on our way back to Kampala

Outside the police station

[dkatz]

Quick WAIWT while waiting for some cop to do something

Hanes

Tanner Goods Cardholder-cum-belt-camera-case

Tissot

Tellason Strummer

Mount's Bay

And just some locals seeing that we got off safely!

[superbeveridge]

Spent the morning uncrating some new scooters. Sorry for the crappy Iphone pics. I forgot my comera at home.

Not Me

[annabelle1308]

lemme just say, all your lives are beautiful and thank you for sharing them! i especially love seeing your dogs and children...in a non creepy way of course!

here's part 3 and probably the last of my japan pics.

i'm a HUGE mma and fight fan and i love culture so i thought going to see a sumo match would be the perfect mix of both. we went extra early to get good seats cause later in the day, the seats fill out fast and can get pretty expensive.

it was pretty cool to see the matches live although i'm not gonna lie... i felt a lil strange watching big, almost naked guys throwing each other around lol

my japanese friend shunya who acted as our translator for two days. he took us to eat the yummiest soba ever!

waffles...so yum!

touring around asakusa. it was really packed here with tourists. we made our way to the temple too.

our last meal in japan. you can't get freshness like this in toronto!

hope you liked the pics...pics from seoul are coming soon!

[ThinFinn]

^nice post as well as the one from dkatz...!

fantastic pictures, Mr. Riff

...qft!

same here!

[JLizzy]

i'm a HUGE mma and fight fan and i love culture so i thought going to see a sumo match would be the perfect mix of both. we went extra early to get good seats cause later in the day, the seats fill out fast and can get pretty expensive.

This is my favorite thread on Sufu now that the Flat Head world tour one has slowly faded away (much like the jeans).

Annabelle -- I'm a huge gambler. Lesnar or Velasquez?

Man, I've gotta make a trip out to Japan one of these days.

[annabelle1308]

anything can happen in mma, but my odds are on lesnar.

[Farhad]

Z- good stuff

dkatz- Bummed I won't see you and drink a few with you. WHen you come back to cali we'll get on it fo sho. have fun in NYC

riff- very touching story. I'm glad that you were able to get closure.

I lost one of my best friends earlier this year. Otc. 6th was his B day and man, last week was tough One thing is for sure though, you're parents where ever they maybe, are proud to have such a great son.

2 things I've learned:

1- Never take anything or anyone for granted

2- Be thankful and enjoy every day of your life cuz you don't know how long you're gonna be around

Today I had Coffee with the GF before she went to work

Stocked up on beers

Soaked my Eternal Contest Jeans. I'm using 2 liquids that are essential to survival to hold down the jeans. Beer & Water

drying as we speak