a Photoblog: Tropical Pilipinas and the Kingdom of Cambodia

all photos by me, more on Flickr

Merry Christmas, etc

Music Monday: Home at last, right?

After a hectic week and a confusing travel day (arriving before I leave? Sure, I guess that's cool) I'm finally back in Victoria. I'm home. Or at least that's what it's supposed to feel like.

Yesterday night I caught myself referring to Singapore as home, as if my time in Vic is just a quick vacation before I head back to my dorm in the tropics. And it is just a quick vacation; in two weeks I'll be packed up and ready to move to Kelowna. Really, I'm not sure where "home" is right now. Part of the confusion of being in a in-between period, I guess.

There are plenty of other Kings of Convenience songs that I would feature before this one, but "Homesick" resonates with me at the moment. Listening to the Kings has been a part of my efforts to acquaint myself with autumn before arriving home. It didn't work. The fall weather, the short days, the Christmas saturation... it was all very overwhelming. But oh well.

I don't really have the time, or the frame of mind, to say much more, so here's a video of the boys performing live. It's a funny coincidence that the performance is from Singapore, eh? Anyway, enjoy! I promise to have some travel photos up before Christmas.

Travel Hiatus

I'm going travelling for the next few weeks, and then making the long journey back to Canada on the 17th. So, suffice to say I won't be blogging at all while I'm gone: not even a single scheduled Music Monday. Oh well.

So, until I return, here's a completely unrelated photo of two empty stools and a table in Turkey. Enjoy.

For slightly more relevant photos, I've been busy uploading some new ones the past few days. Gardens by the Bay, Orchard Road at Christmas, Jurong Bird Park, and some randoms, too. They're on my Flickr, as usual.

Signing off from Singapore for the last time!

photo by me, more on Flickr

Music Monday: a Bit of Bowie

alright, so by now most of you who follow my music monday posts should know that music plays an important part in my life. i have music for different seasons and moods. i have music for different writing styles. it's sort of a little bit impacting, eh?

lately i've been on a David Bowie kick. i tend to have these every now and again, but until recently i've indulged the sudden and unexplainable need for glam through my Best of Bowie collection CD, which has a bunch of the hits. between that, the soundtrack to Velvet Goldmine (no Bowie on that album, but it's all glam rock), and various songs that he's featured in, i manage to get by. not this time.

this time around i've picked up The Man Who Sold the World. and i love it. actually, that four letter word doesn't do enough to describe my feelings for this album. yah, it's from 1970, but what of it? i've also come to the realization that Velvet Goldmine is, in fact, this album. completely. the costumes. the songs. the story. it's all The Man Who Sold the World. no lies.

anyway, i've had a hard time choosing which song to feature. so you're getting two: "She Shook Me Cold" and "All the Madmen." the videos are posted below, so enjoy!





while i'm obsessing over about Bowie you might as well take a listen to "Running Gun Blues," "The Man Who Sold the World," and "Saviour Machine." heck, just listen to the whole bloody album.

a Little More Travel

i might have just come back from a week long trip to Macau and Hong Kong, but i'm already anxiously anticipating my next excursion. next week i live Singapore for good. on my way out i'll be spending just over a week in the Philippines, relaxing on a beach in a town called El Nido. i promise to think often about all you back home, suffering through winter. being in a tropical paradise in December makes me feel a little guilty. but only a liiiiiittle.

when i'm done in the Philippines i'll be off to Cambodia for a scant two days, just long enough to pop into Siem Reap and see Angkor Wat. this might be the one thing i am most excited for, even above lying on a beach and snorkelling with tropical fish. Angkor Wat is one thing that i wanted to do when i made my Singapore bucket list. of all my travel plans, Cambodia was the only country that was an absolute necessity. figures that i would be barely able to squeeze it in between the Philippines and Canada.

oh, and because i'm so keen on getting in as much as i can before heading home for the winter, i've somehow managed to include an eight hour layover in Kuala Lumpur. you read that right: eight hours. my plan is to ditch my bag in the airport and run frantically about the city with my camera before returning to the same airport to fly back to Singapore.

but wait, didn't i say i was done with Singapore after this week? pretty much, yes. i'll be back in the Lion City i've called home for just over 24 hours, most of which will likely be spent saying the remainder of my goodbyes to the friends who will still be here. then it's a 24 hour travel day before i arrive in Vancouver, only 8 hours after i leave. gotta love that time change, eh?

photos by nucksfan604, Strevo, and hdrapprentice

to Retire

those of you who follow me on twitter or have me as a friend on facebook might have noticed my recent computer woes. those of you who don't might have just noticed that nothing in the body of this post is capitalized. i know. there's a reason for that.

the keys running along the left column have decided to go to a better place, some lofty keyboard in the sky. so i no longer have use of the ctrl, shift, caps lock, tab, tilde, or escape keys. i can still use the ctrl and shift keys on the right, but have you ever tried? it's amazingly awkward when you also want to capitalize a letter with your right hand. it just doesn't work well. so i'm just foregoing the shift key altogether.

before there are cries of, 'why don't you send lappy for repairs?,' i'll have you know that this laptop has been serving me faithfully for almost five years. sure, i've had to replace the cd-drive, the hard-disk drive, and the ram, but those were easy fixes to do myself and, in the later two cases, were actually upgrades from the previous hardware.

anyway, suffice to say i'm now procrastinating [i'm supposed to be studying for exams. and circular brackets take too much awkward effort] by looking at laptops. currently i have my eyes on the recent dell xps 15z. it has the look of a macbook, but with windows 7 inside. of course, i'd be installing ubuntu as a dual boot, which is the part that has me worried. according to the dell and ubuntu forums, the graphics card in the 15z isn't well supported under ubuntu. apparently it works fine with 10.04, though, so i should be fine if i do choose to pick this one up.

i'm more than a little disappointed that it's my laptop that has chosen to start falling apart, 'cause i've already decided upon a replacement for my netbook when that decides to go the way of the dodo. for those interested, i'd love to have an asus eee transformer. i'm in love with it.

any other laptop suggestions? i've only really looked at dell and asus, since those are the two brands that i have used before. i know that sony usually has some good machines, and probably samsung as well. any advice would be great!

ultimately, i want a performance laptop, not a casual one. i need to be able to do photo editing, move around really large batches of files quickly, and run graphics intensive programs like google sketchup. a studio laptop won't cut it. i need me some power, 'aight?

update: the dell has all but taken the back seat to the toshiba satellite e305 and the asus u46e-bal5 (someone seriously needs to introduce them to product naming). they might not be as pretty as the dell, or quite as thin, but they both manage to pack in a tonne of features. i hate making decisions.

photo by bigpresh, acrugnola, and gillyberlin

the Noms in Macau and Hong Kong

This might not be the best place to start off a blog post devoted to what I ate on my last trip, but hey, this was the first thing I ate in Macau! And what just is it? If you guessed "crispy fried pigeon," you're correct! You don't win a prize.

Pigeon actually isn't that bad. It has extremely dark, tender meat, though not very much of it. From what I remember of duck and goose, it's more similar to those than to chicken. For once, something that doesn't taste like chicken!

One of the foods that Macau is known for is the Portuguese egg tart. Yes, Portuguese. Macau was a colony of Portugal until recently, and the European influence is plain there. Egg tarts are common in Asia, but the Portuguese take on the Asian staple is simply delicious. Flaky pastry, sweet egg custard, and a sprinkle of cinnamon. The tart is also subjected to flame like a crème brûlée. É maravilhoso!

On the pastry note, bakeries were extremely abundant in both Macau and Hong Kong, much to our delight. Many cakes were eaten, some familiar, such as the chocolate and hazelnut creme cake pictures, and some were a little more localized, like the purple yam and red bean cake I sampled in Hong Kong. It was gone before I could take a photo, but yes, it was in fact purple.

Due to some amazing stroke of luck, our one-day visit to Macau fell during the Macau Food Festival. Rad! Food prices were a little steep, but that was fine, it was a festival of food. A gluttony fair, if you will. We loaded up on meal coupons and sampled quite a few of the different stalls. I remember having some spinach gyoza, Portuguese sliced meats baked into a cheese roll, and samosa with three sauces. Some lemonade with sour plum was consumed as well.

The other two travelling with me had some dim sum among other things, and so our last mean in Macau was a super success.

The first meal in Hong Kong was significantly better than the first in Macau (the pigeon, if you remember). We hit up a fancy-looking deli and market for some sandwiches, which were actually quite inexpensive and very, very good. Mine was a smoked ham sandwich with mustard, tomatoes, lettuce, pickles, and apples. Mmmm. It was good to have real bread. I don't get sandwiches very often in Singapore, and when I do they're from Subway. Sad panda.

Also in the deli market was a bakery with pastries (of course), where more egg tarts were purchased. There was also a giant gingerbread house castle. Like, massive. I didn't eat any of it, but it deserves to be mentioned. It had towers. And spires. And icicles. And trees. And an old babushka (not sure why). I can't explain well, so here's a better photo. Amazing, eh?

Later on in the Hong Kong trip we ascended Victoria Peak via tram, one of the essential tourist activities in the Pearl of the Orient. At the top there are two malls (of course), one of which had a New York Fries. Which served poutine. I went into hysterics. The other guy travelling with me lives in Austria, and had never heard of poutine, so, like any self-respecting Canadian, I introduced him to the caloric goodness. For those of you who don't know, poutine in a Quebecois dish consisting of hot French fries, fresh cheese curds, and brown gravy. Best.

At this point, you might be noticing a lack in, how shall I say it, Asian food. I really did eat "Asian food" most of the time, but the delicious and momentous things just happened to be, well, not.

However, our second day in Hong Kong we jumped on the tram and rode it to the end of the line to see what we could see. We happened upon a dessert café that offered many typical Hong Kong deserts. Most of them involved mango, and most were a sort of pudding or soup. I had a mango-based dessert, which also had dragonfruit, pomelo, and sago. Sago is just a starch that, at least in Hong Kong, is usually found as an edible pearl similar to the black tapioca pearls in bubbletea. The dragonfruit was my favourite, but mango is starting to grow on me.

This last photo wasn't our last meal in Hong Kong, but it was the last food photo I took (aside from the Mickey Mouse waffle). It's also proof that we consumed Asian food, although this wasn't my plate. But this one looks more pretty than mine. Mine looked like a pile of brains. But it was more delicious than that. I think. Never had brains, so I can't compare.

Anywho, suffice to say that it was a delicious trip!

all photos by me, more of Flickr.

Music Monday: Miss Melody

I've still got jazz on the docket. I'm still trying to put myself into an autumn mood. It became a little easier in Hong Kong, where the temperatures actually dipped at night and required a sweater (gasp!). But now I'm back in Singapore, and despite the clouds and the rain it's still 30 degrees during the day, and a balmy 25 at night.

So the jazz continues!

Some of you might have watched that short clip I made of a rainstorm in Singapore. The backing track is sung by Melody Gardot, a jazz singer I've fallen head over heels for. Ergo it makes complete sense that she make an appearance on Music Monday!

I've selected one of the songs off of her most recent album, My One and Only Thrill, called "Your Heart is as Black as Night." While not my favourite from the album in terms of her vocals, it contains my favourite instrumental segment. This one has a saxophone solo. I've posted a live performance video below, and she (and the band) absolutely kills it. I love it.



Oh, and those sunglasses she's wearing in the near-darkness of the venue? Not just a fashion statement. A hit-and-run left her with nerve damage that makes her senses of hearing and sight super-sensitive, which is also why the musical accompaniment is so bare in her songs. The more you know, eh?

a Photoblog: Hong Kong, Pearl of the Orient

all photos by me, more on Flickr

a Photoblog: the Loyal City of Macau

all photos by me, more on Flickr

Back from Pandaland

I'm back from the China SARs! I have over 500 photos to comb through and exams to study for, so the forthcoming blog post will have to wait a bit. That, and I'm beat. This happy panda needs a nap, pronto.

Oh, and contrary to what this post implies, I saw no pandas in China. Only Disney characters and a really big Buddha.

photo by Christopher Allison Photography

Music Monday: Smells like Jazz

Today's post is pre-scheduled and posted by a robot, 'cause I'm either in Macau or Hong Kong. Or on a boat between the two. On a side note, that cover art sort of looks like a robot, no? Or at least a strange refrigerator with an ice dispenser. Call me crazy, whatever. Weigh in in the comments below!

Back to Music Monday. Today's pick that I made a few days ago is due to my rediscovered love of jazz. I blame Jamie Cullum, and possibly the Charlie Brown Christmas soundtrack (hey, it's November, which therefore allows me to listen to Christmas music without guilt). Anyway, I've been looking around for modern and contemporary jazz (please leave a comment if you have suggestions!), and in the process I came across the trio The Bad Plus. In addition to original compositions, they also cover pop and rock songs. The pick I have for you is their jazz interpretation of Nirvana's "Smells like Teen Spirit." I already like the original, and the jazz version is just as appealing.

As usual, the video is below. I know of a few download links, but they're somewhat less than legal, so I won't promote them here. That's all I've got, so enjoy the song! And remember to comment if you've got musical suggestions or a retort to my robot/fridge assertion.

the Rain in S'pore

video by me, music by Melody Gardot (c) Verve Records 2009

Airplanes

So many flights in the next six weeks. A few nights ago I went on a booking frenzy, adding something like five flights to my travel itinerary. It took me a long time to figure out where I would be going over the holiday, what with the flooding in Thailand making my original plans potentially infeasible. Eventually I narrowed down my options to either India or the Philippines. I chose the Philippines in the end, which means I'll be getting a beach vacation before I head back home (I hear it's been snowing in the Okanagan? Yay?). So, here's what my next six weeks look like:

• November 13th, fly to Macau
• November 14th, ferry to Hong Kong
• November 18th, fly to Singapore
• November 23rd, first exam
• November 24th, second exam
• November 30th, third and fourth exams
• December 4th, fly to Cebu
• December 5th, fly to Puerto Princesa, bus to El Nido
• December 12th, bus to Puerto Princesa, fly to Kuala Lumpur via Manila
• December 13th, fly to Siem Reap
• December 15th, fly to Kuala Lumpur, fly to Singapore
• December 17th, fly to Vancouver via Shanghai

AIEAH.


image by √oхέƒx™

Music Monday: for the Soldiers

Today isn't November 11th. In fact, Remembrance Day isn't until the end of the week. But that doesn't matter. We've set aside that day to remember our fallen, but our memories and silence are just as potent any other day of the week or year.

A brief introduction to the artist, Shawn Hlookoff. He's a rising British Columbian talent who came to international attention with the release of this song. I remember discovering him as an artist through the local newspaper, and then watching him perform on the Legislature lawn for BC Day celebrations.

It's strange not being in Canada right now, not only because of the seasonal lack I rambled about earlier, but because I have yet to see one of those ubiquitous red poppy pins. Those are another mark of the autumn season, one that, though welcome, is always bittersweet to see.

I don't really want to say much in this post, so I'll leave you with the video below. I hope everyone's celebrations this week go well, and that this song is made meaningful.