Weekly Photo Challenge: Simple

Back to be part of the Weekly Photo Challenge. This week’s topic is Simple.  It isn’t the simplest of all topics but a picture stood out when I browsing through my database.

This is known as a Double-Neck Violins.  If you think it resembles some sort of medieval torture instrument, you are quite right because I saw this at the Medieval Crime Museum in Rothenburg ob der Tauber.  Apparently they used to chain two women (who have quarrels with each other) together by the neck, and they were made to do everything together till they stopped quarrelling.  It was an effective instrument which was in use for quite a while.

Why did I choose this to represent ‘Simple’?  Simply because all differences and quarrels, I believe, stem from a lack of communication and understanding.  And what we need is really a very simple solution – making the parties involved communicate.  They need not see eye to eye, but they could learn to respect each other’s views.

27/250

Praha, the City of Mosts

Prague has 3 most-used titles – Hundred-Spired Prague, the Mother of Cities, and Magical Prague.  I would like to call it the City of Bridges.  There are no less than one hundred bridges over Vltava River, of which 17 are situated in Praha. I feel this is even more characteristic of Prague than the other titles.

Visiting Prague had been my burning desire in the last 5 years because I heard from so many friends that Prague is even more romantic than Paris or Venice.  How could this be possible, I asked myself?  Even more romantic than Venice, my all-time favourite city in the whole wide world?  I must see this city for myself.  And I couldn’t wait, so in spite of it being a highly illogical manoeuvre (out-of-the-way and disrupts the flow), I added Prague into the itinerary, to the dismay of my travelling companion the hubby.

Like myself, thousands of other tourists made Prague their 2012 New Year countdown destination.  In the few days leading up to 31 Dec 2011, Prague was crowded and infested with tourists and locals alike.  Our immediate task was finding the best spot to view the fireworks following the countdown activity.  The natural thing to do was to turn to our hospitable guide for some insider information when he came by the restaurant where breakfast was served.  He told us it would really be squeezy and rowdy, and advised us to be careful but failed to tell us where we could stand for the best view.  In our interaction with him, I thought that was the only blemish – otherwise he was the perfect epitome of a good host.

I was so wrong to jump to conclusions.  The next day, when we returned to the apartment after a long day exploring the historic centre of Prague, we found a post-it on our door, with instructions telling us exactly where we should position ourselves prior to the New Year Countdown.  After the non-committal answer given at breakfast, he promptly went to check it out and got back to us once he found the information.  I was duly impressed.

The historic centre of Prague is not very huge, and mostly reachable on foot.  On one side of the Vltava River you could find the Stare Mesto (Old Town Square, where we stayed at), Nove Mesto (New Town Square) and Josefov (the Jewish Quarter).  On the other side of the river would be Lesser Town (Mala Strana) and Hradcany (Castle District, including the Prague Castle).  Old Town Square is the most ‘touristy’ district, and the one district I hate to love, and love to hate.

I chose to live nearby Old Town Square because the Christmas Market was conveniently located at the square (and it runs from the Advent Weekend well into January the following year, every year).  Instead of calling it a Christmas Market, I would rather call it a holiday carnival because comparatively, Prague’s Christmas Market sells very little Christmas-related merchandise.  Instead they sell a lot of food and drinks.

And what would a trip to Prague be without visiting Karluv most (Charles Bridge in English)?  Incomplete, I would say.  Up till 1841, Charles Bridge was the only means of crossing Vltava River, connecting the Castle District and the Lesser Quarter to the other side of the river.  Visiting Charles Bridge at difference times of the day presents different visages of this bridge adorned with 30 statues and statuaries.  We crossed Charles Bridge at four different times: once in the evening shortly after sunset, once early in the morning just after sunrise, once at noon and once during the New Year countdown.  All four times presented very different atmospheres.

Charles Bridge is protected by 3 Bridge Towers – 1 at the side of the Old Town and the other 2 at the side of the Lesser Quarter – and are its best-kept secret.  At the top of the bridge tower, you could catch a panoramic view of Prague, including the bridge.  Not many people know that the bridge tower could be scaled, lest to mention what a sight awaits them.

Later that night, we were back on the bridge for the New Year countdown.  It was swarmed with people of all nationalities, sizes and shapes.  Many people had already started imbibing beers, liquors and what-have-yous.  And some youngsters were forming lines running from one end to the other end of the bridge, happily squeezing the merry-making crowd to the sides of the bridge.  We were both squashed left, right and centre but it was quite fun.  I just wish I’m not so petite – everyone was towering over me and I couldn’t even see the fireworks properly.

You could say that expectations were running feverishly high, and I badly wanted to love Prague.  As it always goes when expectations are too high, Prague did not live up to what I expected it to be. Granted, we received probably the best personalised service from the folks who rented us the humongous apartment – it was so huge we probably only used 1/3 of the whole apartment the 5 days we were in Prague.  Yet, many other factors come into play before I endorse a city with my stamp of approval.  Despite the warm hospitality, I just didn’t connect with Prague.

My cousin immediately asked me a question when I told her Prague was one of our destinations on the trip.  Who wants to guess what the question was?

26/250

Faith

I have noticed even people

who claim everything is

predestined, and that we can do

nothing to change it, look before they

cross the road.

-  Stephen Hawking

Oh my, this is so true.  I had a really good laugh when I came across this quote.  The next time I feel down, and cannot see how my little efforts will change the injustices in the world, I shall remember this quote.  And you should, too!  Never give in to fate.

25/250

Why Do I Blog?

Every few months, I find myself asking this question because obviously, I’m not a great blogger judging from the hits and I am not benefiting financially from blogging.  Someone I know once said she thought only 2 kinds of persons blog – attention whores, or people who are very, very open.  This may not be her exact words, but this is what I infer.

I beg to differ.  Not that she’s entirely wrong; she’s just extremely narrow in defining bloggers.  But, she’s entitled to her own opinion.  I respect that.

Blogging does not come naturally to me.  I still hesitate each time I’m about to hit the ‘Publish’ button.  And I re-read every post I publish, often going back several times to edit my spelling or grammatical errors.  I fear how every new post I publish reveals a little more about how inadequate or shallow a person I am.  I fear how friends lurking in the shadows – reading every single post – judge me without ever revealing that they have been following my blog.  I am exposing myself to the whole world yet I learn nothing of the non-bloggers who read my blog.  This is not how an attention whore or an open person behaves.

Despite all those fears and discomfort, I persist.  Why?

Because I blog for my soul.  I love this quote ‘The unexamined life is not worth living’ in part because I am trying very hard to find excuses to justify how I like scrutinising every single thing or event in my life.  I’m decidedly proficient in English and a rather prolific blogger, but I’m far from being a good or engaging writer.  I’m contented with the status quo because not many people I know possess equal proficiency in both English and Chinese.  But languages, like many other skills, turn ‘rusty’ from lack of practice.  Making sure that I will never forget how to write properly is one of the tasks I set out to achieve through blogging.

Writing soothes me, possibly more so than many other activities I equally enjoy doing.  It gives me immeasurable pleasure to write and it outweighs the fears and discomforts blogging brings me.  And writing helps me to focus.  I am a very visual person, an extremely one at that.  Seeing my thoughts visually helps me to concentrate a lot better including topics I wish to think more about.

And blogging helps me connect with important people in my life – my husband primarily.  The nature of our relationship is such that we hardly can hold a conversation without getting angry with each other.  This blog is one of the channels in which he gets to know me better.  I hope he has, after reading my blog posts in the past few years.

Yet, if you realise it, all these aims could be achieved through writing a physical diary.  I did keep diaries in my younger  days.  But I was becoming negative when I maintained a diary because I was venting my frustrations and anger in my entries.  In comparison, I self-censor on the blog by choice.  This blog chronicles my life, and I don’t want to become unhappy by reading past entries.  This strategy has worked so far because I actually find it quite fun reading back.

It makes me happy to blog.  I don’t dig the hedonism school of thought but there’s no harm in pursuing the intrinsic good from time to time.

24/250

Kindred

I have several nieces and nephews because I’m right smack in the middle of my generation – both dad and mum’s sides.  In particular, I adore the children of my two closest cousins that I grew up with.  Four of them, to be exact, with the eldest being 10 and the youngest 3.

Firecrackers are banned in Singapore since many years back.  Children often amuse themselves with sparklers instead.  It has been this way as long as I could remember because even during my childhood days, we only had sparklers.  The only difference is how much more protective of the young children we have become.  During my time, none of the adults were around when my cousins and I played with the sparklers.  And most definitely no one was around to warn us of how hot the used up sparklers could be – we learnt it by accidentally burning ourselves.

A couple of days ago, more adults than children were present when the 4 of them played the sparklers.  We kept reminding them to be careful, to wear their shoes and not to touch the used up sparklers.  Children nowadays are more precious than children in the 80s.  Decidedly less street-smart too.  My cousin would say that’s because people nowadays give birth to lesser children but I don’t understand – two was the norm then, and is still the norm now.

I’m just not sure doing everything for them and treating them like flowers in a greenhouse is the way to go.

23/250

Pandora Bracelet v1.2

I mentioned in the previous post about my Pandora charm bracelet (to commemorate my travels) that I might look for something in Seoul to add-on to it. Fact is, I couldn’t find the time to search for a counter selling the charms, hence the idea was shelved. Learning from this previous experience, I made it a point to note down the location of all outlets (in the cities we were visiting) selling the Pandora charms prior to embarking on our most recent trip. In Munich, we found one of the outlets nearby the Christmas Market close by our accommodation.

Prior to the trip, I had a rather sketchy idea of getting a Christmas-themed charm to commemorate the trip. And this was exactly how I communicated with the sales staff – that I was looking for something associated with Christmas. He took out a Christmas tree and a Santa Claus charm respectively but I was not totally satisfied with the recommendations. So, I tried approaching it from another angle – something that represents Munich. The sales staff immediately started looking for a particular charm while explaining that he was looking for an edelweiss silver charm because it is the national flower of Bavaria. (If you don’t already know, Munich is the capital of the state of Bavaria). Although not entirely apt as representation of the whole trip, I was willing to go along with it because out of the 7 cities we were visiting, 4 of them are closely associated with the edelweiss.

I made a mental note to visit another Pandora outlet in Berlin or Paris, thinking to find another charm to collectively represent Prague, Berlin and Paris. We never found the time to do so. Guess I shall have to settle with just the edelweiss charm.

This is how the bracelet now looks like. The overall appearance of the bracelet is a little monotonous, I know. It’s high time I add some colour beads to the bracelet. After the next addition, I will.

22/250

The Art of Giving Red Packets

Today signifies the first day of the Lunar New Year. To be exact, it’s the year of the Dragon, the only animal in the whole Chinese Zodiac that is legendary. It’s a very special year because both my mum and I were born in the year of the Dragon, 24 years apart.

But back to red packets. If you aren’t a Chinese, or Asian, you might not know of this traditional custom about giving out red packets during the Lunar New Year celebration. In essence, red packets are really just red envelopes to put new money notes into. It has several names, depending on which part of Asia you hail from – the most traditional name is called 压岁钱 (literally ‘suppress age money’ or money warding off evil spirits), the Cantonese call it ‘Lai See’, Chinese call it 红包 (literally ‘red packet’). Singaporeans are quite literal, so we have ended up calling them red packets.

Depending on your family tradition (which in turn, is dependent on your dialect group), working adults will give out red packets to children and younger cousins who are still not financially independent. My family only requires married couples to give out red packets – husband and wife share in giving one. I came across another rather interesting tradition from the hubby’s Hainanese family – the husband and wife each gives out their own red packets, but you could expect the amount in each red packet to be slightly smaller.

I don’t know how it works in the other countries, but the banks in Singapore are exceptionally busy near the Lunar New Year because everyone would be queueing to get new banknotes – it is also part of tradition to put brand new banknotes into the red packets. If you think about it, it doesn’t make much sense: after the New Year, parents of children will help deposit the money (with new banknotes) into the children’s bank accounts. Kind of pointless, it seems, to go through the hassle of printing new banknotes. But, I guess it’s one way of ensuring that new banknotes are always in circulation to replace the torn and tattered ones.

It is definitely true to say that the Lunar New Year is for the children because apart from having new clothes to wear, they could play with their cousins and also receive red packets. In Singapore, we get two days off to celebrate the occasion, but I heard that in China, they get the full 15 days off from work and school. Envious!

As always since I ‘qualified’ to distribute them 8 years ago, I prepared the red packets yesterday, on the Eve of the Lunar New Year. I differentiate the red packets for different groups in bundles tied up with rubber bands because obviously, our closest family members are going to get bigger red packets than the old neighbour’s children that I get to see only once a year. In total, we prepared about 100 red packets this year, a number that is somewhat constant over the years, with small incremental numbers for the new babies to the family. You could say it’s an hefty amount we have to fork out every year for the red packets, but unlike many of my childless peers who think it as a ‘loss’, I actually enjoy distributing red packets to the children and our younger unmarried cousins. Well, maybe not as much as I enjoyed receiving them as a child, but it’s definitely good karma to invoke happiness.

天增岁月人增寿，春满乾坤福满门。欲祝龙年吉祥万事顺，财运亨通喜满年！

21/250

Project 250+

It’s almost a month into 2012, and I’ve finally decided on the project I wish to embark on for this blog.  I will admit, the thought of taking up a daily challenge again did cross my mind, but I know it will be mortally impossible since I would be returning to the work force very soon (hopefully sooner than later – finances are kind of running dry).  And still I refused to act on it, till I missed 2 days of blogging and knew for a fact that my daily blogging project would have a blemish if I ever embarked on one.  This sealed the fate of the blog for 2012.  And for this year,I will be embarking on Project 250+.

250 is not as random a number as it seems.  I intended to blog at least 3/4 of the whole year, and that adds up to 270 days.  And then I thought about how adjusting to a new job is going to take a toll on me… so I adjusted downwards just a teeny-weeny bit.  Hence the number 250.  You will be seeing xx/250 at the end of every post posted in 2012 – that’s just to make counting easier, not some code.

I am likely to embark on another project for this blog, but this should be transparent to the readers, unless you like to read old posts instead of new.  I am thinking of merging all my previous blogs onto this.  That’s a lot of work to do, and I’m not even sure if I can locate some of the pictures anymore.  Because it’s almost 6 years’ worth of blog posts, I think I shall just concentrate on migrating posts from my very first 2 blogs.

What about you, my friend?  Have you decided on a 2012 project for your blog?

20/250

Balance

Sooner or later in life

Everyone discovers that perfect happiness

is unrealisable,

But there are few who pause

to consider the antithesis:

that perfect unhappiness

is equally unattainable.

- Primo Levi

19/250

Scenic Salzburg

Salzburg (or literally ‘Salt Castle’) is a tourist favourite for several reasons, two of which are its close association with Mozart and the von Trapp family.  I love both, and therefore a visit to Salzburg was completely and irrevocably unavoidable.  In fact, I chose the location of our hotel based on its close proximity to Mozart Residence and Mirabell Palace and Gardens; both landmarks are within 5 minutes’ walk away.

We were blessed with good weather on the day we decided to visit Mirabell Gardens.  The sky was in the most beautiful shade of blue and the much-welcomed sun was shining brightly upon us.  As it was winter, the baroque gardens looked nothing like what was featured on ‘Sound of Music’ when the von Trapp children frolicked around the horse fountain with Maria.  Despite this, the garden presented a unique sort of austere beauty.

I took full advantage of the awesome weather – planted myself on the bridge and took all facades of Salzburg along Salzach River.  But I could only withstand the wind that long.  It was really cold standing out in the open, with the howling winds blowing.  Salzburg was the coldest city we had encountered, yet.  But I was in for a rude shock in Prague.  It was much, much colder on Karluv Most.

18/250