on this day ....... two years ago - I was in Darwin. living in a hotel for 3 months. I took a lot of photos from my 6th floor balcony

I used to spend a lot of time on the balcony of my room on the 6th floor - most nights and early in the mornings I saw this pair of feet. A homeless man slept in this doorway every night. I got into the habit of checking if he was there every night before I went to bed. If I didn't spot those feet I worried about him, and would check again in the morning and generally he there.
I saw him awake a few times, he had a plastic shopping bag which I assume contained a couple of personal items, he'd slip on a pair of thongs (the footwear not underwear, also known as flip-flops/jandals/zori) and head out for the day.
On Christmas day I noted some kind person had a left a bedding roll for him. He left it there, it sat there for two days and then vanished. I later found out he had declined it as he didn't want to be weighed down with possessions and if he had 'things' he'd be anxious about losing them, so it was simpler for him to have nothing. We left him a new short and new pair of thongs, I think he kept them. He said he'd rather have beer.
Darwin is a warm climate all year round and seemed to have a lot of people living in the streets, sleeping rough, people would drift there from colder locations in more southerly parts of Australia (and most of the rest of Australia is south of Darwin).
I have been struggling to find my on this day photo for today. I went out to photograph the geminid meteor shower and was thrilled to realise I actually managed to capture one streaking across the starry sky. I posted it and immediately deleted it. It just didn't show up well on 365 - looked ok on my computer and not too bad on flickr, but just looked like a blank sky on 365, nd it was very starry. I even told a long story about being nervous in the dark alone, and of the large fox which seemed to grow huge in the dark.
Then I realised I bought my first ever SLR (film) on this day in 2001 (in Amsterdam where I stopped en route to Canada). In 2005 I was in Delhi for a work meeting and about to head to Egypt for my holidays. I couldn't find any pictures ready to post from those occasions (I am yet to scan the negatives). I have photos on about 8 different external hard drives, masses of cds and dvds and on my desktop and laptop computers. I have resolved that I will try to get them all organised on one big hard drive (and backed up on a second one) over the holidays.But I have said that previously and been overwhelmed by the task and distracted by other things to do.

[Anne ❀]

great narrative. i first started following you in those days! hope you get your backups done. i know the feeling of being distracted when it comes to things like that.

[Mick Porter]

Wow you've traveled to some places! I've never seen a fox while night shooting.

[Megan Richardson]

@pizzaboy in the dark the fox seemed bigger, when I shone my torch n him he just stood and stared at me then trotted calmly around my car, I started to wonder if it was not a fox but one of the mythical panthers that urban legends refer to, he was so bold

[Jennifer C]

poor man, it must be so uncomfortable sleeping on that concrete. You must have so much work ahead of you scanning all your negatives

[alia_801]

Interesting view. Good luck with your backup! (As someone who has personally had three hard drives fail, I can't stress how important it is!)

[michelle mcintyre]

You have certainly been around - l can understand this man's thinking about possessions ...good luck on the backing up, also on my list for these holidays!!