Stranger Tuesday

Wow.. what a day..

It started this morning, I was walking to where my colleague would pick me up to go to work, and this stranger that walked by me said something to me, I did not catch the first part, the latter part was "la mia amica" (my girlfriend/female friend) and then "buongiorno" (goodmorning/-day). So I mumbled a goodmorning while thinking how typical this was for Stranger Tuesday.

Then I went to work, nothing too strange there, but some good news is that I am about to buy a car from a colleague, just need to arrange the actual sale tomorrow. After I left work, I took a 'rental bike' (free if you use it for less than an hour) to the center of La Spezia, to go to my Italian lesson. I left work a bit early to be able to make photos of 'strangers'. I took some, but I wasn't completely happy with it yet, because I didn't ask anyone and thus did not get any good face shots. So when I got back home, after a quick cereal diner, I urged myself to go out again with my camera and into town to really give this Stranger Tuesday a try.. that's where I went wrong.

I was in such a hurried/occupied mental state, that I just grabbed a set of keys from the hall table and smashed the door shut behind me, nothing but my camera with me. But when I turned around to lock the door, I found I had grabbed the keys from my parents' house in the Netherlands and I did not have my own! I never gave anyone my spare keys, just because I didn't think about it.. something like this has never happened to me. So I stood there, door closed, nothing except a camera with me.. what to do?

So I called at my neighbour's door and begged him in confused and horrible Italian to help me.
He asked if anybody had my spare keys - no, inside.
He asked if I had my landlord's phone number - no, inside.
He asked if I had his address - no, inside.
Then he looked the phone number up in the local phone book, but nobody was answering. I remembered the landlord son's name, he called a friend who is friends with that son, and she called him. As it turned out, nobody seemed to have spare keys. So then the only remaining solution seemed to be to call the firefighters!

Yes.. the firefighters. They came after about 10 minutes and managed to open the door without breaking anything. It was a good thing it wasn't locked. They wrote down my name, and had the address of course.. now I wonder how much I'll have to pay for this 'rescue'..

So here I am, back into my house, and just finished a phone call with my mom - it helped to get a bit of the anxiety out of me. I am so grateful to my neighbours, who I barely knew before, who helped me when their diner was waiting for them.

My head is still racing like crazy.. I feel like I had ten times more sugar and caffeine today than one should have. What a day..

Yeah.. so I did not attempt to go out again for more photos. This shot of someone I sat next to, on a bench in La Spezia, will have to do. The firefighters were so quick, I did not think and had no chance to make a photo of them.

Update: this is definitely helping me calm down (thanks scatteredpolaroids)..

also: just breathe... :)


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Gimp:
curves, levels to 12-0.9-250