Dance dance dance

Bonjour, »Mr Murakami at the National Museum.

Reflection

They all tampered with the laws that lay down who should be loved and how. And how much. The laws that make grandmothers grandmothers, uncles uncles, mothers mothers, cousins cousins, jam jam, and jelly jelly. - "God of Small Things"

子曰：「君君，臣臣，父父，子子。」 - 《论语·颜渊》

Luminosity II

Luminosity, 2002

昨夜，我想起了许久前的探戈

久违的»唐四重奏。

皮亚佐拉的»Soledad。

年华，流逝了。




后记：听完音乐会的几天后，我无意间才发现原来那次是中提琴手Lionel与唐四重奏公演的最后一天。Lionel因为手臂肌肉过度磨损而被迫长时间推出。年华，真的流逝了。

Motorcycle diaries

I finally got round to requesting for the hi-res photos of my Harley bike rides and the good folks from »Wild Rides Sydney sent a CD over recently. It occurred to me that I was becoming a biker gal on my travels. Just the year before, I was in Paris and was zipped around in Mr C's vespa. For the record, let me declare here that the most exhilarating way to see Paris is to vroom by Place de la Concorde and Champs Elysees, on an ultra-blue autumn day in a bike.

It was in part because of the memorable Parisien experience that I decided to go for a Harley in Sydney. I was right: spectacular cities are born to be seen on a bike. Particularly bridges. Going through the Harbour Bridge made you feel dimunitive.

Sydney marked the second time Ms L and I have been on a bike ride together. The first time was in Phnom Penh, where we asked our restaurant to help us hail a cab to go to the Russian market. In a classic case of lost in translation, we found two grinning bikers waiting for us at the doorstep instead. After two moments of hesitation, we decided not to be lembeh city gals and hopped on. Some eyes wide shut was required.

Mexico, however, is the country with the honour of my virgin bike ride. At a heady age of 22, with a good friend ill in the hotel and only one day left in Mexico, I decided that it was of utmost urgency that I see a real »cenote before I left (not a Mickey Mouse touristy version). So I asked the young security guard at the entrance of Tulum how I could see one. To my surprise, his answer was, "I can take you there". "How?" I asked. "On my motorcyle," he replied, matter of fact.

Again, two moments of hesitation, and I said yes. On hindsight, this was probably foolhardily dangerous. I spoke roughly five words of Spanish, had told no one - this was the early days of cellphone, let alone roaming - and was riding pillion at 60 km/h with some random guy on some random Mexican highway. Thankfully, the young man did not rape, rob or kill me and leave me by the side of the road. Instead, I got to see a very local cenote in the middle of a jungle (incredibly clear water) and rode back home on the dusty highway with just my bikini, sun shining, wind blowing.

No photographs unfortunately, of this splendid scene of youth.

A dizzying zorb

That's the romanticized picture. In practice, it is more like 10 rounds of 360-degree roller coaster turns!

More explanatory pictures »here.

Arresting a decline into the vinegar of crabbed egoism

In between the dizzying zorbs of Ms L's birthday celebrations, I have been reading a great deal today. I cherish those Saturday mornings where I have the luxury of 9-10 hours of sleep and reading online for a couple of hours.

By way of a few fortuitous clicks, I came across a private interview with the feisty David Marshall in 1994. It was my first modern-day encounter with David Marshall*. Uncannily, his sharp words sum up what I have been mulling over for the past month or so:

I am frankly terrified by this massive control of the mass media, the press, the radio, television, antennae, [and] public meetings. You can’t write a letter to the Straits Times; if there is a shadow of criticism, it’s not published. And the Chinese press follows suit. It’s a very dangerous position because experience proves that no one group of human beings has got all the wisdom in the world.

We have lost sight of the joy and excitement of public service, helping our fellow men. The joy and excitement of seeking and understanding of the joy of the miracle of the living the duty and the grandeur. We have lost taste for heroic action in the service of our people. We have become good bourgeois seeking comfort, security. It’s like seeking a crystal coffin and being fed by intravenous injections through pipes in the crystal coffin; crystal coffins stuck with certificates of your pragmatic abilities.

I take off my hat to the pragmatic ability of our government but there is no soul in our conduct. It is a difficult thing to speak of because it is difficult to put in a computer, and the youth of Singapore is accustomed to computer fault. There is no longer the intellectual ferment, the passionate argument for a better civilisation. The emphasis on the rice bowl!

Tell me I’m wrong, come on.

All youths no matter what race, no matter what country, goodwill flows from their hearts. They want to help the world, but by the time you reach 30, your goodwill like good wine turns to vinegar – the vinegar of crabbed egoism.

... In my time, I tried to educate our people in an understanding of the dignity of human life and their right as fellow human beings, and youth was not only interested but excited about what I consider things that matter. Things of the spirit; the development of a human being to his true potential in accordance with his own personal genius in the context of equal rights of others.

... What matters most in life is the right of human beings to live fully in the context of their own genius. In one word, perhaps, to fight for human justice. I once said humanity’s cry for human justice reverberates down the corridors of the centuries, and it is still crying for human justice.

It has often troubled me that in 12 years of social studies and civic and moral education in school, I was never taught my constitutional rights as a citizen, its intersection with criminal law, and how ISA sits among all of these.

Comfort and stability are important, but only up till a certain point. Beyond that, diminishing marginal returns rapidly and numbingly set in. It is a decline I would like to make some decisions to arrest in the coming months.

I highly recommend »reading the full interview for David Marshall's unabashed views on capital punishment and Asian values.





*My history syllabus in school curiously ended at the point once Singapore has gained independence, so my image of David Marshall is a black and white photo of him as Chief Minister in the 1950s.

Not quite curled

Gotcha. (This morning.)

I guess that makes you not quite a good cat by my father's standards. (But we'll cut you some slack for the hot weather.)

Camera-phone series #11.

Perfectly curled

According to my father, good cats are those who are considerate enough to curl their tails around them when they sleep.

Camera-phone series #10.

People who live in glass houses shouldn't throw stones

There is some truth to most of »your article, but to conclude with “only losers kill themselves” was highly presumptuous. You and I, through a looking glass, have no way of knowing the intensity of one’s desolation, and therefore what brings one over the edge of the cliff.

Besides, in life, there is some room for 宁为玉碎，不为瓦全。

Camera-phone series #9.

Floating leaf

Camera-phone series #8.

Stamford House

Puff the Magic Dragon

On Friday night at a shisha bar, we found ourselves staring admiringly at Puff the Magic Dragon.

Puff was a magnificent Middle Eastern man who could emit billowy clouds of white smoke. (As opposed to our best-effort, but straggly little streams.) In fact, he is so impressive that we thought he should be hired at weddings in place of the unromantic dry ice machine.

* * *

This is the version of Puff the Magic Dragon that I read with my niece many years ago (we are only seven years apart). I think we picked it up from an abandoned bag of stuff at the lift lobby. Update: Cousin Ms T told me that this was a prize that she won in kindergarten! It was pretty much in the same condition that you see below - weathered with weakened spine. Sadly, it got lost over years of growing up and spring cleaning.

When Mr S tried to suggest a few weeks ago that my childhood book was "the same" as »the popular song by Peter, Paul and Mary, I protested loudly. My book is the 1965 edition by Paul Newman and Tony Tallerico and he is not the same Paul of the song ok?

After some research, I now reluctantly concede that my book is probably inspired by the song.

I love them both, but they are still not the same.




Note: I believe my Newman version is already out-of-print. In modern versions of Puff the Magic Dragon, Peter Yarrow from the trio and »Lenny Lipton - who wrote the poem which later becames the song's lyrics - both have a stake.

「海角七號」

やっと三ヶ月前の»「海角七號」を見た。

日本語。その懐かしい詩情と音。

夕方、日本海に出た。
……
台湾で冬を越す雷魚の群れを見たよ。
僕はこの思いを一匹に託そう。
漁師をしている君の父親が、捕まえてくれることを願って。
友子、悲しい味がしても食べておくれ。
君には分かるはず。
君を捨てたのではなく、泣く泣く手放したということを。
皆が寝ている甲板で、低く何度も繰り返す：
捨てたのではなく、泣く泣く手放したんだと。


黄昏，我们進入了日本海
……
遇見了要往台灣避冬的雷魚群
我把對你的相思寄放在其中一隻
希望你的漁人父親能捕獲到
友子，儘管它氣味辛酸
你也一定要嚐一口
你會明白
我不是拋棄你，我是哭泣地离开你**
我在眾人熟睡的甲板上反覆低喃：
我不是拋棄你，我是哭泣地离开你

**注：电影的字母把这句译成 “我不是抛弃你，我是捨不得你”。虽然听上去很有押韵，但语义有点说不通（不舍得似乎在为抛弃自圆其说），更重要的是没有正确地表达 “泣く泣く手放したということ” 中的哭泣与放手。

Blue rose and the twin birds

This day, Princess Amina holds the exquisite blue rose and asks of the twin birds:

"Go forth, and bring this healing rose to Karim. Take a picture of each passing cloud in Thailand, and pin them to the tree of memory."

Enamoured with the Museum

I was back at the National Museum again for coffee yesterday. Despite its sometimes tardy service, it has become one of my favourite places.

For me, »it's all about skylight.

Camera-phone series #7.

Chingay in my 'hood

I thought it was very considerate of them to route 8 to 10 Chingay floats to my Ang Mo Kio suburb after the party in town. My street was all lined with old folks, kids, adults and notably, wheelchairs. Very kampong, for that hour or so. I like!

As the Gini coefficient of Singapore gears upward, as we pepper our talk with HNWIs and F1s, such gestures to make them comprehensible to the masses will be important in keeping everyone together.

Camera-phone series #6.

继承

除夕前夕时去看姨妈时，碰上表姐与表姐夫。姨妈说：大家来得正好，我在姨丈裤袋里找到钱，大家各分一点放在红包里 heng heng （“兴兴”）。于是，我继承了姨丈的两张五元与两个五角。

除夕吃火锅闲聊时，牛爸爸说：你要跟你牛妈妈学着怎样做菜，以后自己才会做。我说：我会的，我这几年都在继承妈妈的煮法*。

在上海时，我碰过一个名叫继承的人。当初听到他名字时，我吓了一跳：怎么给孩子取个负担那么重的名字？

虽然仍不赞成给下一代这般的压力，但我也开始体会到：继承是无常中的一种延续。





*是煮法而非食谱，因为妈不看也不写食谱。

Sometimes, spring is like autumn

Happy Pongal

Pongal falls on the first day of the Tamil month Thai (January 14 — 15). Also known as Sarkarai Pongal or Veetu Pongal, it is celebrated by boiling fresh milk in new pots early in the morning and allowing it to boil over the vessel. This tradition gives Pongal its name. The moment the milk boils over and bubbles out of the vessel, the tradition is to shout "Pongalo Pongal!" and blowing the sangu (a conch), a custom practiced during the festival to announce it was going to be a year blessed with good tidings. It is considered a good sign to watch it boil over, since it means that good luck and prosperity is forthcoming.

The next evening

Yesterday last week, I thought to myself that I should shave him again over the weekend. His whiskers were growing out, I noticed, and they had brought the shaver home.

While I am at it I should also clip his nails, I made a mental note.

That night, I packed the nail clipper and decided I would visit him the next evening instead waiting till the weekend. I texted my niece to bring the shaver.

Unfortunately, even the next evening was not good enough.

我的姨丈 — 陈绳祠（1934 - 2009）

我的姨丈，祖籍福建省南安市，享年七十五，是位看着我长大、令人怀念的姨丈。

谢谢表哥今天让我一起夹姨丈的骨灰。

Maits Rest Rainforest

Merry Christmas!

A close-up of »our Aussie Santa in shorts.

Bondi

无敌海景

故人的无敌海景：

流浪汉的无敌海景（见灰色帐篷）：

（我还在等待我的无敌海景...谢谢支持。）

Dixit's ode to Krugman

[Dixit] once told young economists that a good place to have ideas was in front of the shaving mirror. Krugman has a beard. Imagine, quipped Dixit, how much he could have achieved if he shaved!

via »Tim Hartford

Yes, Dixit as in the Dixit-Stiglitz model. And »here's how beardy Krugman is.

Purvis Street

Falling prey to wannabe restaurants and furniture stores. Camera-phone series #5.

Gracious defeat

Today, I was a candidate for the highest office in the country I love so much. And tonight, I remain her servant.

Congrats, Missy X for being proven wrong. And kudos, McCain for the elegance of your words.

»McCain's full concession speech

"Thank you for coming here on this beautiful Arizona evening. My friends, we have come to the end of a long journey. The American people have spoken, and they have spoken clearly."

"A little while ago, I had the honor of calling Senator Barack Obama to congratulate him. To congratulate him on being elected the next president of the country that we both love. In a contest as long and difficult as this campaign has been, his success alone commands my respect for his ability and perseverance. But that he managed to do so by inspiring the hopes of so many millions of Americans who had once wrongly believed that they had little at stake or little influence in the election of an American president is something I deeply admire and commend him for achieving. This is an historic election, and I recognize the special significance it has for African-Americans and for the special pride that must be theirs tonight."

"I've always believed that America offers opportunities to all who have the industry and will to seize it. Senator Obama believes that, too. But we both recognize that, though we have come a long way from the old injustices that once stained our nation's reputation and denied some Americans the full blessings of American citizenship, the memory of them still had the power to wound."

"A century ago, President Theodore Roosevelt's invitation of Booker T. Washington to dine at the White House was taken as an outrage in many quarters. America today is a world away from the cruel and frightful bigotry of that time. There is no better evidence of this than the election of an African-American to the presidency of the United States."

"Let there be no reason now for any American to fail to cherish their citizenship in this, the greatest nation on Earth. Senator Obama has achieved a great thing for himself and for his country. I applaud him for it, and offer him my sincere sympathy that his beloved grandmother did not live to see this day. Though our faith assures us she is at rest in the presence of her creator and so very proud of the good man she helped raise."

"Senator Obama and I have had and argued our differences, and he has prevailed. No doubt many of those differences remain. These are difficult times for our country. And I pledge to him tonight to do all in my power to help him lead us through the many challenges we face. I urge all Americans who supported me to join me in not just congratulating him, but offering our next president our good will and earnest effort to find ways to come together to find the necessary compromises to bridge our differences and help restore our prosperity, defend our security in a dangerous world, and leave our children and grandchildren a stronger, better country than we inherited."

"Whatever our differences, we are fellow Americans. And please believe me when I say no association has ever meant more to me than that. It's natural, tonight, to feel some disappointment. But tomorrow, we must move beyond it and work together to get our country moving again. We fought - we fought as hard as we could. And though we fell short, the failure is mine, not yours."

"I am so deeply grateful to all of you for the great honor of your support and for all you have done for me. I wish the outcome had been different, my friends. The road was a difficult one from the outset, but your support and friendship never wavered. I cannot adequately express how deeply indebted I am to you."

"I'm especially grateful to my wife, Cindy, my children, my dear mother and all my family, and to the many old and dear friends who have stood by my side through the many ups and downs of this long campaign. I have always been a fortunate man, and never more so for the love and encouragement you have given me. You know, campaigns are often harder on a candidate's family than on the candidate, and that's been true in this campaign. All I can offer in compensation is my love and gratitude and the promise of more peaceful years ahead."

"I am also, of course, very thankful to Governor Sarah Palin, one of the best campaigners I have ever seen, and an impressive new voice in our party for reform and the principles that have always been our greatest strength... her husband Todd and their five beautiful children... for their tireless dedication to our cause, and the courage and grace they showed in the rough and tumble of a presidential campaign. We can all look forward with great interest to her future service to Alaska, the Republican Party and our country."

"To all my campaign comrades, from Rick Davis and Steve Schmidt and Mark Salter, to every last volunteer who fought so hard and valiantly, month after month, in what at times seemed to be the most challenged campaign in modern times, thank you so much. A lost election will never mean more to me than the privilege of your faith and friendship."

"I don't know what more we could have done to try to win this election. I'll leave that to others to determine. Every candidate makes mistakes, and I'm sure I made my share of them. But I won't spend a moment of the future regretting what might have been."

"This campaign was and will remain the great honor of my life, and my heart is filled with nothing but gratitude for the experience and to the American people for giving me a fair hearing before deciding that Senator Obama and my old friend Senator Joe Biden should have the honor of leading us for the next four years."

"I would not be an American worthy of the name should I regret a fate that has allowed me the extraordinary privilege of serving this country for a half a century. Today, I was a candidate for the highest office in the country I love so much. And tonight, I remain her servant. That is blessing enough for anyone, and I thank the people of Arizona for it."

"Tonight, more than any night, I hold in my heart nothing but love for this country and for all its citizens, whether they supported me or Senator Obama - I wish Godspeed to the man who was my former opponent and will be my president. And I call on all Americans, as I have often in this campaign, to not despair of our present difficulties, but to believe, always, in the promise and greatness of America, because nothing is inevitable here."

"Americans never quit. We never surrender. We never hide from history. We make history. Thank you, and God bless you, and God bless America. Thank you all very much."

Election Night

The first lesson I learnt while campaigning is also the saddest: that racism is well and alive in this country.

- Missy X in Ohio, Obama campaigner on TV

Afternote: After the defeat of Gore and the incredible re-election of Bush, I had become quite distrusting of the American electorate. I am glad my worries were unfounded this time.

Henderson Waves

Camera-phone series #4. A happy and healthy offsite on the Southern Ridges trail this afternoon.

Another Sarah Backlund

Wishing upon a winter

Found »Sandra Backlund in a book of contemporary fabrics. Oooo ooo ooo.

Emirati lamps

___

对比

今天
跨国企业向我投诉
水电费很高。

过后
我与同事抱怨
水电费很高。

刚才
卖牙刷的残疾人士对我说
帮我买吧
水电费很高。

Mikaela turns one

[Embedded slideshow - go to original post to view if you don't see anything.]

Only Mars astronauts and the rich need apply

Architecturally speaking, Abu Dhabi is fantastic. I say this after a mere 30-hour stay, and significantly, without having had the chance to step into the magnificent Sheik Zayed Mosque.

But I cannot live here. This is a land of only-the-rich-need-apply and they are unapologetic about it.

Other than being unable to find a decent hotel under 100 euros for Mr A who was coming from Dubai for a night, the nail that drove it into the coffin for me was the taxi.

The problem is this: taxi-drivers do not stop for you if they are not happy, and that is 95% of the time if you are not a local or a white foreigner. By the way, the taxi is practically the only form of public transport since there are about four bus services that run.

When I texted Mr A yesterday that I was sorry I was late and that I was trying to get a taxi to meet him at the hotel lobby, he texted back the following advice, sic:

Often the only way for UAE taxi is: take a private hotel taxi; promise driver big tip; jump into a busy taxi let the first person be dropped and continue; scream loud "airport!!!" so they stop.

One was not possible as I was outside our embassy and could see no hotel around; two and three I considered acrobatic acts since I did not know how, especially with a laptop and in a skirt suit, to get a taxi driving at 50 km/h to slow down sufficiently so that I can promise or jump in; four, aka random shouting on the streets, was something entirely out of my character and I had no ink marker with which I could have executed a written and more demure alternative.

The combined result of them all was that after 40 minutes of frantic waving, cursing under my breath and heating up under the bloody suit jacket, I hung my head in defeat and walked back to the embassy to beg for a ride back to the hotel.

Which happens to be a luxury that thousands of Pakistani and Iranian labourers, and Mr A who is Spanish and apparently looks like an Iranian, do not have. So whenever they need to go anywhere, they:
(1) walk, in 45 degrees heat if applicable;
(2) pay through the nose for a private taxi - e.g. 40 euros roundtrip for each of Mr A's tango class; or
(3) take turns to wave frantically while the rest sit on the curb and hope inshallah.

Mr A thinks he is now mentally strong enough to apply to NASA to be a Mars astronaut. I believe him!

Lock and key

Hundred bars of solitude

At the South Beach site of the Biennale.

Mirage

Contemplating, in 33 degrees celsius, on the impossibility of a Singapore snow.

Moody Sky

Installation of prisoners' slippers at the Shigeru Ban site of the Singapore Biennale.

Hiroshima Mon Amour

In a few years, when I have forgotten you,
and other adventures like this one will happen to me from sheer force of habit,
I'll remember you as the symbol of love's forgetfulness.
I'll think of this story as of the horror of forgetting.

Je ne t'oublie pas.

On your mark

The Ferrari mechanics who are going to get so much crap

Lesson in life: Never, never underestimate the dark Spanish horse.

My name is speed

Tonight at Noon by Adrian Henri

»Stumbled upon when searching for Damien Hirst's butterflies.

Tonight at noon
Supermarkets will advertise threepence extra on everything
Tonight at noon
Children from happy families will be sent to live in a home
Elephants will tell each other human jokes
America will declare peace on Russia
World War I generals will sell poppies on the street on November 11th
The first daffodils of autumn will appear
When the leaves fall upwards to the trees

Tonight at noon
Pigeons will hunt cats through city backyards
Hitler will tell us to fight on the beaches and on the landing fields
A tunnel full of water will be built under Liverpool
Pigs will be sighted flying in formation over Woolton
And Nelson will not only get his eye back but his arm as well
White Americans will demonstrate for equal rights
In front of the Black house
And the monster has just created Dr. Frankenstein

Girls in bikinis are moonbathing
Folksongs are being sung by real folk
Art galleries are closed to people over 21
Poets get their poems in the Top 20
There're jobs for everybody and nobody wants them
In back alleys everywhere teenage lovers are kissing in broad daylight
In forgotten graveyards everywhere the dead will quietly bury the living
and
You will tell me you love me
Tonight at noon.

Devastating.

But (and?) such a beauty.

Hands

I am fascinated by her hands.

And she is fascinated by my camera, which can immediately playback her hands.

Oh, and that charming rosary.

Recalling crepuscular Venice

In some prologue, I remembering writing the phrase "crystal and crepuscular Venice". Twilight and Venice are for me practically synonymous words. Twilight for us has lost its light and is fearful of nighfall, while the twilight of of Venice is delicate and eternal, without a before or an after.

-Jorge Louis Borges, "Atlas"

The riddles are three, life is one

In the dark night flies a many-hued phantom.
It soars and spreads its wings
above the gloomy human crowd.
The whole world calls to it,
the whole world implores it.
At dawn the phantom vanishes
to be reborn in every heart.
And every night it is born anew
and every day it dies!

»Riddles of Turandot

Rainy Kim Yam Road

Camera-phone series #3: en route to say hello to grandmas, grandpas and uncle before the seventh month ends.

It has been raining non-stop for two days.

Happy families are all alike and every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way

A scribbled thought from Brunei some weeks ago -

If happiness is already so elusive for one person, why do we express surprise when families are not happy?



If indeed happy families are all alike and every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way, then there is only way that a family can be happy: it simply means that they have found their coinciding pocket of happiness, and it is very large for them. And for the unhappy families? They roam around the vastnesss of their individual happiness, guilty at not being able to find their miniscule, collective pocket.

* * *

This is not suggest that we should give up looking for the pocket; on the contrary, this is one of those things where »the answer lies in the attempt. Like allegiance to a country, allegiance to a family has little to do with love, utility and happiness. We owe allegiance by virtue of the fact that this family has done its best (even when its best is not good enough) to make me into a relatively productive person, not wielding a knife in the streets, not screwing my siblings, children or father. Meaning: in a world where so many things go crazy, where no one owes you a living, it is a miracle that a couple of strangers who happen to go by the names of 'mum', 'dad', 'bro', 'cousin' bother to put in effort for someone who got plonked into their midst by a random choice of fate.

And for that, we owe this motley crew of people some allegiance.

* * *

There is not a cloud in the sky. It is blindingly bright.

The sea is infinitely wide.

I need a swim to clear my head.

Only child

Daddy daddy, don't be angry
Mommy mommy, I'm hungry!


(My first time back in the zoo in probably 10 years)

Irreversible mistakes

This past week, NYT has been doing an exposé on the plight of sick illegal immigrants in the US. The consequences of government mismanagement »in this case was so horrible that I could not bear to finish reading it.

Time and again, it seems to me that policy makers and implementers around the world do not understand enough that (1) they are dealing with people's lives; and (2) their split-second decision ("You're faking ill; I'm not sending for the doctor") can have irreversible consequences on people's lives.

I attribute this to the fact that no time is spent on discussing the art and ethics of decision-making when one first becomes a public servant.* Add on the ohh-so-fashionable imposition of KPIs, and you get people averse to erring on the side of humanity**. Alarmingly, I am not even sure if law enforcement and social services officers are given a rule of thumb such as, "When you are unsure and 'no' has severe, irreversible consequences, say 'yes (i'm sending for the doctor)'."

For a broader discussion on the difficult ethical issues surrounding healthcare for illegal immigrants, see »the story of Mr Jimenéz.




* Certainly not in my case.
** See also »this article. I used to say 'on the side of caution' »here, but 'caution' is too broad. The point is to prevent lethal mistakes.

Tidying up Magritte's Golconde

Ms T does know me best :D
Via Ms T and the »BBC.

The Hat Party!

Dolphins diving into the belly of the green whale

Cake and coffee

The night before hatchday - I went back to my hotel room after nearly 12 hours of meeting and found a cake waiting, courtesy of »the hotel:



Hatchday morning - I sat out on my partially-sea-facing balcony in my bathrobe to have the last portion of the cake and instant black coffee for 20 queenly minutes... Mmm.