M(E; B)AKING

She tapped me on my shoulder from behind. I jumped. I was walking, almost running, in my own world. With music in my ears and late for work. I turned. I have never seen this woman before, but before I had a chance to turn off my Walkman, so I was able to hear what she was saying, she stuck the £5 note in my hand and walk passed me.

As I put the strawberries next to the bread, I had just taken out of the oven, I started to take pictures. From every angel. Bread first, strawberries first. I turned the breadboard. Removed things from the background, turned the light on and off. More pictures. I just couldn’t get it right. And at the same time my mind raising like mad trying to figure out the connection bread-strawberry and why this 21 year old story kept popping up in my head today. I knew I had to find the link, but how?

The first thing that popped into my mind, was to tell the story. The £5 note-story. Then eat the strawberries (not the bread – that’s for dinner tonight) and by then, I would probably have figured out, what the connection would be. But I didn’t get a chance to even start writing the story – the £5 note-story – before I understood the connection.

I was working in London. Although I had a job, money wasn’t big. But I got by. I didn’t have much money in my account and so I withdrew £5 from the ATM. That would probably buy me lunch later on my break. But I forgot the money in the ATM. I was in a hurry and didn’t want to be late for work. So I was walking fast, almost running, towards the Tube to catch a train to work. I loved taking the Tube. The life, the people, the stories you couldn’t help overhearing, the stories that maybe one day would be written – the stories never told. I felt a tap on my shoulder and saw a woman holding a £5 note in her hand while gesturing and pointing back at the ATM on the high street and then pointing at me. She said something, I couldn’t hear, and before I found the off button on my Walkman (sometimes I feel really old!), she had hurried on. I stood there. Thankful – £5 was a lot of money for me.

I have been baking for a while – about 10 years. Bread, cakes you name it. I love to be creative and rarely make the same things twice (except when it’s really tasty). I have been baking almost all our bread lately. I almost always have a big bowl of dough in the fridge, so I can bake (mainly rolls) everyday. But I have recently gotten a bit bored with it, so I have experimented with the recipe. I will use the same base and make not only rolls, but mini pizzas, sausage rolls and now this; a focaccia-kind-of-bread with olive oil, rosemary and tomatoes. And then I find myself photographing it to death – and next to strawberries (I can’t really see myself being the next Instagrammer showing only baked goods – from all sorts of angels. And with all sorts of things next to it, that doesn’t really go? Or?) ? What’s the connection, (intuition)?

Well first of all, there’s a logic perspective to this: strawberries and fresh bread baked with tasty tomatoes (which are almost none existing in my part of the world during the winter) is a summer-thing. You have put together two things, that somehow can be related, but it is also something, that normally wouldn’t go together. At least in a picture. So there you have it.

Today’s picture shows not only your natural way of putting things together, it also shows your creativity and way of thinking, which is different. In a good way, I hope? Naturally. It also speaks to your sense of making things out of very little. How you can stretch the budget – a £5 note, the dough to a lot of different things. All tasty. All a success. You need to start applying this way of thinking on to your work life. When looking for a job, maybe you should start by creating first and then contact the people, you need to. Be more specific on what you can create and preform rather than the limits (which by the way is not coming from me, that’s your ego talking).

I had never had my intuition talk to me in that way before. Not to be missed. Not to forget. Not to be mistaken. Upwards and onwards. Next thing is to ask it to be (even) more specific – stay tuned 🙂

Please feel free to leave me comment – it always makes my day.