Category: Uncategorized

Xmas 2024

Ingredients before

And product after, an old favourite, Harissa lamb on eggplants, tomatoes, and red onoins, then with added coriander, pistachios, and pomegranate.

And for myself I finally managed to get the ABS controller coded on my Audi. My mechanic friend left me with the programming device.

What you are seeing there is no error indications.

I managed to get the aircon fan working again too.

Merry Xmas and Happy New Year.

China

Hi I think I have updated this enough now.

China was great, quite a different thing indeed.

11-12 hours in the Airbus to Shanghai PVG

Then not long at all in the Magnetic Levitation train from the airport. 301kmh

First area to visit the French Concession, french flavour from the early 1900s, I think we could have spent a lot of time in this area.

Good public transport, sometimes crowded, QR code on phone for ticket

Underground corridors

Security, bags always x-rayed going in, they want to see any liquid is drinkable.

And old and new buildings about the place.

Some artistic food I did not try

And the well known Shanghai skyline from the Bund.

Heading for 1933 the old slaughter house

Getting there. This is across the road.

And this is it.

Those would have been cattle races I guess.

Looking back across the road.

And at what has been built from the top level.

Awesome brutalism.

Now it is filled with web designers, landscape architects, designers etc, and still being developed.

Old style Shanghai is getting replaced.

Yuyuan Garden in Shanghai, the dragon wall, and then more.

Roads

That Shanghai skyline from another direction.

Longhua temple.

The Shanghai Chinese Expo Pavilion

The arrival of Richard Nixon and Henry Kissinger.

Leader Deng having a smoke.

Back to the river and heading along it to the center

That’s a lot of apartments.

The Museum in Guangzhou.

Traffic

The Chen Clan Academy

Alleyways

Could remind me of work!

Old Guangzhou

Date and Yam seller with dozing driver

Fresh dates

More alleyways and street scenes, I really like the alleyways.

Then to the stuff I don’t know what it is, what part of an animal, dried, or plant or fungus.

Sending money to dead relatives

Shamain island in Guangzhou

I asked this guy what the thing was (with pointing and scratching my head). He indicated it was for shoving people, crowd control.

They were outside a Primary school that was closing for the day. I don’t know what the threat is but they look to take it fairly seriously

Not far along the kids are just kids though.

Travel in China needs a phone, Alipay, a VPN to get to real internet for Alipay to talk to the bank, powerbanksto keep the phone going, Cameras to charge…

I improved the solution while I was there

And there are these rental powerbanks all over the place

Off to see the five rams, or goats or sheep that brought prosperity to Guangzhou, first a park.

A classy dragon

Reminders of the excesses of the Japanese in an architecture exhibition.

The beasts

Back to the commercial world

And a Bhuddist temple in Guangzhou

Street scenes

A boat trip on the Pearl River, quite the light show they run there

Then a 2 and a half hour bus trip to Shenzhen, to see Leader Deng’s portrait…

A pillow in the Shenzhen Museum.

Rule 3.d keeps the methanol and petrol out.

Then to Window on the World, a n Exhibition, a fun park …

There was going to be a drone show, instead of fireworks that night, but we were too tired to stay for it

Under the pyramids they had quite a fun Indiana Jones odyssey, moving statues, thing swinging in front of you, a mirror maze and puff of air in your face

NY with towers

Back to the street in Shenzhen

And the subway again.

Up to the border at Chung Ying street, where on one side of the rd it is Hong Kong, and the other China, I was not allowed there but hey… Hope the kids liked it, they look suspicious of me, I did find myself to be scary to little Chinese girls.

Then to Dameisha Beach

Lunch at Dameisha Beach was nice, there were prawns too.

Then back to check out a big mall.

Then off again to check out the electronics markets of Shenzhen.

And the museum celebrating the Chinese progress in electronics.

I know what these are with the riot shields now!

Bus back to Guangzhou

And the next day the best coffee I had in China, with good music to match.

Picked up stuff at Jian huas cousins place then back into the pipeline home.

Fly back to Shanghai, Metro all the way across town to Shanghai PVG airport, then 11-12 Hours back to Auckland.

Quite an eye opener really the whole thing.

Scooters, hologram displays …

Easy choice for me!

Fiordland Sept 24

The weather forecast was bad, but we were all booked to go. flew to Queenstown then drove to Te Anau.

Looking at Lake Wakatipu on the way.

Then to Milford sound, I had cancelled the boat trip there because getting there was so uncertain with the weather conditions.

Driving out from Te Anau

And we made it to Milford Sound

And then back again through the Homer Tunnel.

A trip to Doubtful Sound was logistically easier so off we went the next day to do that

First across Lake Manapouri

Then out on Doubtful Sound, into a wet world.

Big landscape out there.

Then to Wanaka, caught up with Ross Nicholson from High School, and to the Cardrona Hotel for the night.

Our little Toyota made it back across the Crown Range and into Queenstown for the trip back.

We missed some hailstorms in Auckland, and got many dramatic waterfalls in Fiordland.

Photography thoughts

Street Photography
I went to a “Street Photography 101” presentation this week.
Someone suggested that maybe I was not 101 appropriate, and maybe should be tutoring.
The first part I agree with but, not the second so much.
It did make me start thinking about photography a bit though.
Why do I do it?
What do I get from it?
What do others get from it?

One of the things that stands out for me, is that other people need to see the photos for it to feel worthwhile for me.
In this blog I am not aiming for photographic excellence, but really communicating to people I know, some of what I am up to, what I think …

Sometimes I surprise myself with a photo that I think is great.

It doesn’t need to be a people photo, it can be a, this is interesting photo, or you should see this photo.
Even just atmospheric.

Here are some from a wander on the beach at Mangawhai

It was a windswept winters day!

Then back to Auckland, and these from along the road from Fayes’s laundry

Who knew there were shops dedicated to this? I didn’t before then.

And there are Kauri tree walkways in Northcote now

Then today a wander around Newton, where I once lived.

So this is capturing a place in time, and maybe giving some thoughts about what I think about things.

Things that maybe remind me/inspire me.

Also I like things like “If nightmares can come true so can dreams”. Someone made the effort to write that there.

To make it worthwhile it has to go further than into my camera, and on to my computer. It needs to be more widely visible.

I see my friend Myriam manages this too at https://hugueny.de/blog/ in a more structured way perhaps.

Seeing something, and it also being seen by others.

Maybe these things have meaning only for me though, or maybe completely different meanings for others.

Still, the challenge to try to capture it perfectly, or even imperfectly, but in the way of documentation, keeps me doing it.

I may have more to say here later.