Month: March 2005

Sucking the finger

For the last 6 days Maxim was cutting on the number of his feedings. He went from his usual 4 breakfasts, 2 lunches, and 2 dinners (8 meals) to a slightly easier 3 breakfasts 2 lunches and 2 dinners (7 meals). Probably he wasn’t eating any less, but just less often. His sucking powers increase from day to day.

Today though he was misbehaving throughout the day. There was probably too much gases accumulating in his guts, so he couldn’t sleep. He was crying and moving all the time which is one sure way to make him hunger. He went back to his 8 meals a day routine.

I was calming him down, when I remembered that I read somewhere that one can use the finger instead of the nipple to calm the baby down without feeding him. I was anxious. I washed my hands, checked my nails and put touch Maxim’s lips with my index finger. He immideately “ate” it and started sucking it. I was surprised about how much power a small baby like him can generate. He basically controlled my finger. There was nothing I could do. I couldn’t pull it out of his mouth. I couldn’t turn it. I couldn’t bend it. It wasn’t painful or scary though. It was weird. He lost interest in my finger in about 10 seconds and released me.

Crying continued…

Picture of the day

Biker on the benchOlga is still recovering, but today she felt strong enough for a little walk. It was the first time she got out of the house since I brought her back from the clinic two weeks ago. Today is a fine sunny day with a slow cool wind, so we went to Molos promenade which is close enough to our house and far enough from the road and traffic odours. Of course I made a few pictures.

It is interesting how I never saw a man laying on the bench in Cyprus. In Russia it is a pretty common sight, but I never saw one here. During the last couple of month I had this picture in my head – an old poor guy laying on the bench by the sea. The picture was supposed to be in black and white. There shouldn’t be anything else in it. Just the sea, the bench and the guy. It seems very simple. But it surely needs staging since one can’t just find it in this country. With all the baby rush I forgot about the idea, but today, when we went out, I was reminded. Someone is watching me…

Album location: /photos/2005/2005-03-15_POTD

Limassol Grand Carnival 2005

The mexican

Grand Carnival passed the Macariou Avenue of Limassol yet again. Plenty of people were having fun. Adults, teenagers, kids – everyone you can imagined put on costumes, wicks, clown noses and went outside to dance, listen to music, throw some confetti, and watch others.

I went out with my camera and took a whole lot of pictures. Originally I shot 376 frames, out of which I have selected 159 images to postprocess and upload for your enjoyment.

Try not to miss this next year…

Centralization of air conditioning sux!

6 degrees CelsiusOne of the things that I don’t like in our office is that air conditioners can be centrally controlled – switched on, switched off, temperature preset, etc. I understand the reasons behind this setup, but I still think it sux big time. As an example, consider my today’s night shift. I am alone in the office, noone from the maintenance department is here, and suddenly the temperature outside drops to 6 degree Celsius…

If you don’t get it, let me explain a couple of things to you. Firstly, such low temperatures are really unusual for Cyprus at this time of year. Middle of March is more often seen as a start of spring and general warmth. This year though we even hear rumors of snow falling down in Troodos mountains. Secondly, most of the buildings in Cyprus are not designed to maintain temperature. They get very hot in summer and very cold in winter. Our office is no exception. Fourthly, Cyprus is an island and our office stands right on the shore, which means we have very high humidity. Humidity makes temperatures feel worse than they are.

So, I am sitting in the office wearing all the clothes that I could find, drinking hot tea and coffee, and still freezing my butt. I have a whole bunch of A/C units around me, but I don’t have any means of controlling them. This sux!

In order not to freeze to death I am have no choice but lock myself in the car and warm up in there…