Day 36: Wisdom and Lactic Acid

I went to take a walk out to cover central Lantau Island today... in particular, the walk started from Shek Mun Kap village and ended at Ngong Ping, home of the Po Lin Monastery and the Tian Tan - or Big - Buddha (route map here). The walk was listed in my book as being moderately strenuous and sure there were some very steep climbs along the way, but the weather was so perfect today that in general it was a very pleasant hike! Heck, it was even really chilly by the time it was all over!

Along the way, there was a lot to see as always including views of Chek Lap Kok airport, some secluded monasteries, rock pools and streams, HK's longest standing bamboo grove (yikes, snakes!) and of course spectacular views of the Big Buddha and the Wisdom Path (pictured) at sunset!

My only disappointment was that most of the path was paved as I honestly prefer walking on unpaved paths, even if they're beaten down trails. I've come to realise though that most of the public trails in Hong Kong - and China from what I hear - are paved! Why? I don't know. But anyway, it was a great walk and the pictures have been added to the backlog, which is getting smaller as we speak thankfully! But just for the heck of it, I've posted a list of the upcoming photo sets in order on the side-bar of the blog! Check it out!

Today's Flickr Uploads: Mist on Dragon's Back

Unfortunately I went to Dragon's Back on a day when the mist decided it would be a good idea to sit on top of Shek-O, so these are the only pictures that I thought were good enough to post. Hopefully I'll go back to this trail in a few weeks to get better shots, but obviously with the backlog I have at the moment, I don't think taking new photos is a priority!

Day 35: School Days

Today was my first day at the new job. I was extremely scared at the start of the day wondering if I would be good enough or if I would find the students annoying, etc but my god, as soon as I got there, I switched into this strange teacher-mode that I did not know existed in me and started working...calmly! It was amazing!

I was really happy with how my classes turned out in the end as well. Two of them are extremely active (though in a good way) and one of them is very quiet, but only because they're shy...not because they've been conditioned to sit and listen all the time... I was also really impressed by their command of the English language coming from a Chinese Medium of Instruction (CMI) school...The discussions we had in class were hilarious... One of the things I was trying to do with them was to ask them to imagine their ideal school environment including the types of teachers, facilities, transport to-and-from, subjects, etc and they came up with things like wanting boxing arenas and a section of HK Disneyland in their schools as well as wanting to go to school on spaceships and including Supernatural Studies as part of their core curriculum. It was all too cute!

All in all, good day! The photo to the right is the school building... I think I had the colour temperature setting adjusted to tungsten, hence the bluish tinge under sunlight, which I thought was interesting. Below are also a couple of photos of the smallest of my three classes (hyper!):



Today's Flickr Uploads: Hamlet at Peng Chau

Day 34: The End of Another Road

Having been in Hong Kong, I always have liked to think that I am immune to the pain one feels when someone close to them moves away. After all, people come and go so often here that it's almost impossible to live here and make friends unless you build up that emotional barrier... the only thing is that over the past year or so, I've felt my barrier slowly fall apart as people I have been very close to have moved away one by one...from the best of my friends to my family... It's really not a nice feeling.

Unfortunately today, I had to say goodbye to one of my dearest friends as she is moving out of the country... I've only known her for two years, but as with most of my close friends, it feels like I have known her for an age or more already and though I wish her all the best, I know that I'm going to miss her a lot!

And hopefully soon it will be my turn to say goodbye to Hong Kong...

Tips, Tricks and Turn-Outs

I found this a very useful website with tips and tricks to maintain a Project 365 blog. The writer is very strict with his rules, but they are definitely helpful I think. For example, I don't always take a-photo-a-day (like yesterday) because I don't always feel inspired and when that happens, I look for a cop-out (as he suggests), which in my case involves taking an older photo and editing it to suit the general mood of the day. Since my photos most often depend quite heavily on post-processing, I feel like I have made just as much an effort as I would just to take a cop-out photo and so that is how I justify it, although I am trying to keep it to a maximum of 3 times a month.

Also, while searching for random 365 groups on Flickr, I came across Project 365; looking into a few of their discussion topics, this particular topic where people post their first and 365th photo caught my attention because I found it amazing to see how much improvement has been made in the posters' photographic skills. That is exactly what I am hoping to do with this project, so I feel even more motivated now!

Day 33: Something's Missing?

Ever get the feeling that you have to do something extremely important but you just don't know what? Or even that you know what it is, but you just cannot get round to doing it no matter how important it is? Well I'm somewhere in the middle of those at the moment because I feel like I know what it is that is so important, but I can't quite place my hand on it. Awkwardness.

Today has been fairly uneventful except for the fact that I went for a staff meeting at the office they gave me a billion pieces of paper to look through for a class that I am supposed to be teaching on Saturday. I wish they would give me a little bit of training before throwing me into that environment, but what can you do...can't complain because at least I have a job, right?! Besides, next week I'll start my training and permanent position for the rest of the semester (and hopefully next one) at two schools in Narnia...i.e. middle of absolutely fuck all no where near the Chinese border. The good thing, though, is that I'll be teaching folk themes based around the topic of Christmas and seeing as that's my favourite holiday ever, hurrah!

I'm scared shitless, though!

After the meeting, I went and hung around at the Academy and talked to my design assistant from last year. She's a tiny little girl with an extremely charming and positive personality. It's always good speaking with her, but I'm upset that she's not being treated right by her current head-designer, who unfortunately coincidentally was my assistant in my second year at university. I had thought that she would be a competent assistant, but she was so incredibly negative and demanding and pushed me off the edge so many times during the performance that I simply began to loathe her. We stopped talking to each other after the performance, but from what I understand, it's a common thing for her, so at least I know that it was not my fault! Heck, my ex-assistant and I get along just fine and had an absolute blast working together. But anyway, I'm looking forward to seeing what she has to do since she's going to design her own performance this year! I don't know what it is, but it feels amazing to realise that she's grown so much since I first mentored her in her first performance at the Academy. It's nice to know that I have been a part of her learning, and that's one of the strongest reasons why I want to lecture...

Anyway, I finally got home and have done nothing except wonder what it is that's important that I am forgetting to do. I also played with my pets and gave Pogo all the attention he's been missing because of me feeling sick for the past few days. I realised that he is very difficult to photograph though because of his shiny coat! Oh well! He's adorable! I love my pets!

Today's Flickr Uploads: Peng Chau Foliage

Day 32: Boredom and Surprises

Today has been quite dull. I did some work, got bored, stayed bored and eventually became so bored that I started watching Stylista. After watching two consecutive episodes, I asked myself the same question that I did in yesterday's entry: "why do I do this to myself?" It must be some form of masochism whereby I like to have my brain fried.

Other than that, the day has been fairly dull. I was called in to go to work today, but had to reschedule the appointment for tomorrow instead as I'm feeling severely ill. Unfortunately, it's taking a toll on my pets as well...in particular Pogo, whose feeling extremely neglected. Poor thing just wants attention and I can't seem to give him any without hacking all over his face, which is why I'm trying to stay away from him.

I also had a rush of sudden panic go through me earlier in regards to my graduate applications, but thankfully that subsided and I was able to complete most of my application materials. I'm hoping for the process to be over by the end of the week so that I can concentrate on other things. Surprisingly though, I also realised today how full my schedule has started to look lately; I signed up to the igoogle service (similar to My Yahoo page, only better) and tried to fill in my schedule and it seems like the rest of the week is packed for me, mainly because of work, but I don't know how my schedule's taken a complete 180 after having absolutely jack all to do! I don't even remember making these appointments and even more surprisingly, I somehow have managed not to double-book time slots in my schedule as is quite common with me considering that I never look at my diary and have quite a shit memory.

Anyway, the picture of the day is (quite obviously) just some wooden pegs that I saw in Macau yesterday. I haven't taken any photos today seeing as all I have done is stare at the computer screen all day. And since the image suits the general theme of boredom, I decided, why not!?

Today's Flickr Uploads: Upside-down at Peng Chau

And that concludes my dried seafood set!

Day 31: Tuesday at Fernando's

I went to Macau today and just like every time when I come back from there, I have to say that I love it! No... LOVE it! I love the people there, the colours in the streets, the food (oh god, the food!), the compact cars, the scooters (yay!) and just everything really...well okay, almost everything. I hate the pollution driving down from Zhuhai, but even the moon isn't perfect right?

Well the trip started with the usual hour long ferry ride that can drive even the most sane people bananas (which it did). After that it was just a lot of wandering around the city for the sake of wandering around the city really, though this time I didn't stick around the main tourist spots (except St. Paul's, but then that's a given). Instead, I walked around the backstreets of the peninsula and got some very nice shots, which of course have been added to a backlog of 8 billion and 2 photos now. Why do I do this to myself?

After wandering around for a good few hours, it was time to eat and what better place to eat in Macau than the extremely popular Fernando's. For those who haven't been...picture this: Portuguese restaurant in a very big cozy wooden cabin next to a breezy beach with a beautiful sunset, steak and a glass of sangria. In other words, it was perfect!

And then came that ferry ride again that made me go all coo coo!

The picture to the right was taken at a small temple in the streets behind St. Paul's. Looking at this photo as well as many others that I took today (including the one posted for "yesterday's" entry), I noticed that I had a very simple, but linear concept in my head today for some reason...perhaps those were the only things that inspired me? I would post more photos, but they'll eventually get covered in the "Today's Flickr Uploads" section anyway, so there is no point repeating. Speaking of which though...

Today's Flickr Uploads: Dried Stench at Peng Chau

If I didn't like dried squid so much, I'd throw up.

Day 30: Faux-Monday Reflections

Well, like I mentioned, I accidentally deleted the photos I took for Monday, and so the image above is actually from Tuesday! Why the heck not! It was an awesome brushed steel door that I saw at Macau...I loved the reflections.

The First

I know I have not posted Monday's photo yet. Truth is, I accidentally deleted my photos from the camera today (doh!), though there really wasn't anything interesting in them anyway. So I'll take a few photos tomorrow and post up two and we can pretend one of them is for Monday. Till then, I thought I should dedicate an entry to something I just read about a few minutes ago: the world's first digital camera! Without it, I would not be faux-photo-blogging (mostly because I would've been too lazy to scan my film photos)!

In December 1975, Kodak engineer Steve Sasson invented something that would, decades later, revolutionize photography: the world’s first digital camera. It was the size of a toaster, and captured black and white images at a resolution of 100×100 - or 0.01 megapixels in today’s marketing terminology. The images were stored on cassette tape, taking 23 seconds to write. The camera uses an ADC from Motorola, a bog-standard (for the 1970s) lens from a Kodak movie camera, and a CCD chip from Fairchild Semiconductor - the same technology that digital cameras still use today. To playback the images, a special computer and tape reader setup (pictured below) was built, outputting the grainy images on a standard TV. It took a further 23 seconds to read each image from tape.

Day 29: Spirituality and Sickness

I went on another heritage walk today, covering the temples and heritage parks in the Wong Tai Sin District.

I have, for many years, claimed that Kowloon is the dark side of Hong Kong, but the more I explore it, the more I realise how many hidden treasures there are in the peninsula and I was glad to have seen some of those today. The first place I went to was the Nan Lian Garden, which is a Tang dynasty garden in Diamond Hill with classical structures, water ponds, rocks, etc that are all designed and arranged to imitate nature and the elements as per Chinese customs and Feng-Shui. The garden was in one word, gorgeous! The structures were colourful, the flowers still in bloom, the bonsai trees standing beautifully and what not...!

The next stop was the Chi Lin Nunnery, which stands next to the Nan Lian Garden. The buildings at the nunnery are also built using the architecture style of the Tang dynasty (i.e. without using any nails, etc) and are the only buildings in Hong Kong to be built with wooden roofs. There's some huge statues of the Buddha in the nunnery which are just as beautiful as the architecture. Loved it! Mind you, I love most monasteries and nunneries I've visited...there's a certain calm there that just relaxes you completely...

Next was the Wong Tai Sin Temple. Unfortunately I didn't take that many photos there because it was all a little too cramped and the light was a little horrible to get a decent shot. Any way, this temple is one of the largest temples in Hong Kong as it caters to three of the most popular Chinese religions in Hong Kong: Taoism, Confucianism, and Buddhism. There were some gorgeous buildings here as well and maybe if I have time (and patience) during the Wong Tai Sin Festival next year, I'll go and take some proper photos.

Lastly, I went to the Kowloon Walled City Park, which sits over the remains of the village by the same name. It was apparently the only settlement in the Hong Kong territory that remained out of British jurisdiction during the colonial rule. It's also the last place of refuge that the emperor from the Song Dynasty took during the attack from the Mongols before drowning himself. The Japanese destroyed most of the city during the second world war to provide materials for the Kai Tak Airport though and eventually it was agreed by the PRC and British authorities to completely demolish the village and build a park over the location...this park wasn't really as impressive as the Lan Nian Garden, but it was amazing to see some of the architecture that still stood from ages back! Don't get me wrong, it was a beautiful park, but the wear on some of the remaining structures do make it a sad sight, especially with the history connected.

Overall, I had a really good time walking around all these places. I'm always surprised at how little of Hong Kong I've seen despite living here for so many years! And each time I do see something new, I'm always impressed by it! Hopefully I'll have seen most of it by the time I leave.

Oh and after my trip, I got sick. Flu season! Huzzah! But anyway, here are a few more unedited images from the walk. Left to right: Entrance to the Nan Lian Garden, Golden Pagoda at the Garden, Oriental Carp, Chi Lin Nunnery



Today's Flickr Uploads: Peng Chau's Harvest n' Rubbish

Day 28: Criss-Crossed Mentalness

I feel like I have a lot to say, but not much that I'm actually going to because it's just going to come out as crude sarcasm and/or cynicism and I don't really want to litter my blog with unnecessary bickerings. Anyway, it can be summarised by one single line: some people are just thankless gits. We knew that already though, right?

Shame that I refuse to rant though, because I don't have anything else to say today haha. I haven't really done anything exciting besides watching a little TV, working on my university applications and sleeping when I shouldn't have. No regrets though...I felt like I needed the rest. I'll be working on the applications again tonight and reading before hopefully clonking off to sleep again!

So why this picture? I know it's not particularly pretty, but I've always loved the criss-crossing patterns of the tram line outside my apartment building and so I thought I'd take a shot! Unfortunately, it was dark and cloudy by the time I got there, but oh well!

Today's Flickr Uploads: Peng Chau Colours

Finally moved on to the Peng Chau set after the last pictures from Cheung Chau were uploaded yesterday...took a while, but then I'm known to take 50 billion photos a day leading to my backlog of 80 trillion photos.

Day 27: Stable Contracts

I have finally managed to secure a stable job; I'll be teaching language and folk-theatre to little kiddies, which honestly is not something I would want to do in the ideal world, but I'm happy enough that I've managed to get the job considering the current economic situation for theatre companies. The job comes with a fair amount of perks, as well as a shiny and a fancy office in the building pictured here. Plus, it's good for my resume!

Besides that, I'm still doing freelance work for a Colombian magazine that printed my photos a few months ago and possibly have a chance to work with Nathan Welton (photojournalist) when he comes to Hong Kong.

Today's Flickr Uploads: Dead Food at Cheung Chau

Day 26: At Camp!

Today, I went to set up camp in Lantau. The weather was quite perfect for the hike that started the day, but it did get very cold by the end of the night, but still it was a very good day that involved us getting lost for the entirety of the hike, ending up at a gorgeous beach where there was a noose hanging on a tree, being attacked by adorable dogs that wouldn't stop following me and sitting on my feet, having a huge meal, getting lost in the dark on our way back to the campsite, trying to burn the campsite down by making a makeshift fire, burning my finger in the process, more eating, talking to random outdoor activity coordinators, speculating whether the king cobras in the region would be in our tents, running around like we were in the Blair Witch Project and eventually knocking off to sleep until we woke up to cook nasty noodles and hiking back to the pier where we ate McDonald's instead!

Here's a couple random photos including (from left to right) the gorgeous sunset at the beach, me with one of the cuddly dogs, tents (after destroying one of them), and our Blair Witch fire.