The light of the scan

 Light is, more often than not, what really makes a photograph. And one thing that makes the scanner such a fascinating and wondrous machine is its great line of light, making its way across the pane slowly like a monk marching steadily alongside a river. I don't know. It has a beauty to it. That slow crawl that's almost too slow for the eyes. The line that darts about when you look elsewhere. Just like those RGB projectors that show you all three colours in wiggles when you move your eyes. I love those.

 Anyway here I am. These scans are actually from, I think, November last year. And don't I look the same as ever? The scanner bed has a way of equalising the skin. I look older in person than I did thirteen years ago, but here it hardly looks different. Same flesh as always. Same hair, more sandy on the screen, maybe.

But I do have, here, my orange journal and the clear pink glasses that leave semi-permanent dents either side of my nose. How rude of them. 

Entering Deer World

 Okay so, number one: blogging is over - blogging is dead - blogging is over. We all collectively decided one day that blogging was not what we were going to do anymore. Sad.

 Number two: I can't remember what I did two days ago. If you were to ask me this question, many times I would say, 'uhhh....". Sad.

Number three: girl, the storage on my phone is always threatening me. It's always saying "hello my dear, I am only 15gb. I'm weak". Sad.

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So the obvious and righteous conclusion is that I have to do something here. I have to once again bravely blog. So here we are, and here I will begin.

 Today I went to Nara. I've been staying in Osaka for a solid and delicious three weeks, and finally it became my turn. To see all those deer.

It was a beautiful day - strangely humid - and rain only poured down ragefully for about ten seconds of it. An angelic sort of day, and so I made the forty-five minute trip over to Nara and immediately saw that they were serious about the branding. Deer type stuff, everywhere. After a small walk to a nearby Buddhist temple (inside which lives a massive golden Buddha with a dainty little moustache - you are not permitted to photograph him), I spotted a small pen of deer. Some people were feeding them crackers. It was a modest sight, but the deer did appear to be ravenously hungry.

Nearby, there was a beautiful little lake, and I searched for deer crackers (the crackers to serve up to the deer). After finding some at the local Daily Yamazaki, I was finally in business and could perform my duty as a deer-feeder. Humble. Important.

 But I hadn't even reached Nara Park yet. I saw a large torii gate and headed towards it. This was the entrance to the park, and it was pretty exciting. Here were an astonishing number of deer. 

 I began to feed a small group of male deer, and I realised that there were warnings about the male deer around the park for a reason. Some of them tried to eat my skirt. Some of them gently headbutted me. Rude. 

The ladies were much more respectful, and there were also some very mellowed out old geezer deer who I liked. There were also some more impressive temples to find, but most importantly: masses of deer shit. I tried my best to clean my shoes on the way home, but it was hard to avoid picking up a special little souvenir.

The day felt like a wonderful dream, just walking around in a haze, occasionally being nudged and bowed to by the creatures, pockets of sunlight slipping through the trees. 

 What a true delight it was.