Remember one day walking on the flowing river in one village with water-resistant boot in the quite-remote area in one province far there. I was equipped with a set of standard geological mapping tools: Brunton Compass, hammer (I was holding for igneous, for sedimentary was at my friend's, a map (manual, not in handheldcomputer), a pencil (HB), a ruler, an xxx, and a clipbard onto which the map are put when inputting data by pencil, and a field book.
I still remember starting from the plotting, sitting for a while with tens of questions: what is this? why is this in here? and so on and so on....
It was a walk to find a good spot to a river traverse back there. No GPS, and only counted on the manual navigation with a map and a compass. Some inaccuracies of course occured at the plotting of the location. Later, it was reported as inacuracies due to the plotting of the data with manual navigation. I am sure even with GPS, some inaccuracies would have been found.
There is no chit-chat at the camp before booking the data in a good and clean map and a clean and good field book. The map was then with symbols and colors based on some classes that had been predefined before, in the stage of field preparation.

It had gone two weeks, one month and we felt like not willing to leave the job that travels us. No internet (indeed, we were not really well-connected back then and there!), and was screaming when seeing one bar of signal strenghth indicator on the display of my Siemens C-35, my first mobile phone). Then, it was like we were very far from the the life and telling friends was something precious: WE ARE AT THE EDGE OF SOMETHING....

All the memories had been ended in a big applause after the presentation with maps hung all around the wall in a small room on top of the new building, back there and then!

Move forward to millions of seconds ahead after the big applause, I found myself with a sun glasses, short and an army-styled shirt in the Agri River Basin in Basilicata, at the border of Sant Archangelo and San Brancato.
I was equipped with a set of standard International (?) mapping tools. I put the handheld computer in which I could see the recent satellite images that had been georeferenced (UTM is the only thing I remember) and the orthophoto that can be overlaid each other. It was just like turning it on and wait for some signals and then I didnt need a pencil and a map to plot the things observed there. The maps were all linked into a table that worked in just twice clicking it, save and close the display.
It was under the 30 degree but I felt like having the good tense of working. Not only that, also to be recorded by photograph while taking data. So narcist. (I got comment on one pic put in my workstation: you were so xxxxxx (thanks my darling!)).
After a big and two-hour long (even sometimes more) dinner, the squared plastic box (Naldini, 2004) was turned on. I was so lazily syncronizing and inputting the data taken under the sun after the dinner that I thought can strengthen the relationship in one family. I will do that!
Chit chat and my long-haired friend sometimes asked me to a smoke at the back of the hotel. It was totally different as I used to spend time after transferring data by waiting for DURIAN to fall and to hunt for it under the dark with a small light with Energizer inside.
And the morning before leaving, we were so concentrating under the mirror stereoscope and discussion about the route to travel to be back doing routine after the field. It was the italian dinner that is still playing in here (above the eyebrow)

Those things broght me to a think about San Diego (to show that it's not difficult to get a US VISA under a strange name like mine) from a route from Bonn, San Diego, Khartoun and back to Bonn again to start the real journey of life afterwards.

I am sorry lady, that is not for me and I am not for you, at this time!

Bornsesteeg 10C-10, 11:15 AM