Weekly Photo Challenge: Together

Forever is a long time, since we are now living in an increasingly cynical world where the Holy Matrimony is deemed to be just a piece of paper contract between two individuals (and they don’t even need to be an Adam and an Eve nowadays, if you get what I mean).  Some people use this to get themselves married and dismarried several times, while other use this to remain unmarried.  To each his own.  But within my limited ability, I would like to honour my marriage vows as long as I could.  In this respect, the photograph that I chose today to depict Together is one that illustrates togetherness in maintaining a marriage.  Kind of.

We fell in love with Italy when we first toured the 4 representative cities any first-timers to the charming country (i.e. Rome, Florence, Milan and Venice) should step foot on as part of our honeymoon tour.  A vow to return only materialised 4 years later, where we decided to do an extensive 18-day trip of the northern part of the country.  Included this time in the itinerary is the gorgeous UNESCO Heritage Site of Cinque Terre where  it has since been declared a protected marine area and national park.  Naturally, we must hike the trail that links the five villages.  With our physical abilities (or lack of) in mind, we decided to challenge the Sentiero Azzuro (otherwise known as the ‘Blue Trail).  Don’t read too much into the colours; the trail is denoted in blue colour in maps therefore the name.

The easiest part of the trail is between the first 2 villages of Riomaggiore and Manarola.  It’s mostly flattish, and very manageable to walk.  This stretch of the trail is known as the Via dell’Amore (or ‘Pathway of Love’).  Apparently there is a bit of history behind the name, so if you are interested, click here to read more about it.

So, towards the end of this particular stretch of path, we sighted a fence decorated with some padlocks.  We figured the authorities must have recently removed the old padlocks put on by lovers.  Either that, or the fence is new. We didn’t have any padlock to spare, but the hubby was quick-witted enough to use a strip of the velcro I cut to tidy the straps on our backpacks.  And between the two of us, one of us is bound to have a pen in the bag.

After some effort in writing on the velcro, we stuck what must have been the strangest padlock-substitute onto the fence.  There is a Chinese saying that goes ‘A family that eats together, stays together’.  And mine?  I would say ‘A couple that travels together, stays together’.

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Weekly Photo Challenge: Sun

I haven’t been participating in the Weekly Photo Challenge much because I switched off the email alerts from the blog (since I am not on a daily challenge) and thus have not been remembering to check out the blog regularly.  Just so happened that I thought of the challenge over the weekend and found out the theme for the week is Sun!  Oh I was elated, because I thought I took some very pretty pictures with the sun as the theme during the last Europe trip.  Winter suns are somewhat different, if you get what I mean.

This cheery morning sun shone brightly upon us on a weekend morning on our second day at Rothenburg ob der Tauber.  It was still early in the morning and we were pottering along the relatively empty streets after our interesting climb of the medieval town’s walls.  I was basking in the sun, happy for the pleasant warmth and short respite from the snowy cold.  And then I turned my back and saw this wonderful scene.  Without further hesitation, I took a shot.

I’ve always emphasized that I prefer the cold weather to warm tropical.  The sun has stopped being interesting since technically speaking, I see it for almost 12 hours every single day, year on year, provided that I do not travel.  You could also say that I have kind of stopped appreciating the existence of the sun.  But that winter trip reminded me once again why the sun existed, and why we needed it.  When it’s cold and gloomy, all we really need is a peek from the sun to feel all warm and fuzzy again.

Ah, my love-hate relationship with the sun…

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Weekly Photo Challenge: Indulge

Indulge is this week’s photo challenge.  My ultimate indulgence – my favourite macarons from my favourite Paris pâtisserie.  I could also get his macarons from Tokyo, but it’s just different stepping into his pâtisserie in Paris itself.  It’s like a pilgrimmage every macaron baker and eater must make.

I was a little overwhelmed when I first stepped into the pâtisserie because unlike its Tokyo counterparts, the interior decor of the original shop is rather dark and narrow.  Before I could take a closer look at the pastries on display, I was hurried into a queue.  The counter staff looked very harrassed (possibly from working nonstop since the store opened for the day) and since I didn’t speak much French, I chose the easiest way out – by picking one pre-packed tin of macarons.

This is the tin of a dozen macarons that endured the 14-hour flight back from Paris.  Didn’t survive very well, if you scrutinise them.  If I had a choice, I would have handpicked all the flavours that I liked and not bought this pre-packed tin.  As a general rule, I prefer ganache or buttercream filling to fruit jam filling because the latter tends to be a lot more cloyingly sweet.  And I prefer shells made with hazelnut mill rather than almond mill for the same reason.  But I love PH’s Ispahan macarons; it is easily his opus magnum, I feel. His Plaisir Sucré comes in a very, very close second.

I finished all 12 macarons by myself and the hubby was very mad with me when he came home and found none of PH’s macarons left for him.  Kekeke…  that’s why it fits ‘Indulge’!

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Pondering

This picture was initially shortlisted to be featured together with the rest of the shortlisted pictures on my post about Český Krumlov, but the more I looked at this picture, the more I thought it deserved a post of its own.  Furthermore, it just didn’t quite fit in the theme of the post it was initially meant for.

Something about this picture just gets to me.  The dark clouds gathering above the top of the crucifix with a tinge of blue peeking through, the lone man that was captured seemingly to be in deep thought, the overall ambience of the shot… just gave me pause when I was about to discard it from the folder of shortlisted pictures.  What was the man thinking about at that point in time?

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Weekly Photo Challenge: Winter

Winter to me, is about snow, the awesome blue sky, Christmas, family gatherings, and about peace, love and joy.  Where I come from, there is no such thing as winter, only sunny and rainy days.  Fortunately, I happen to be vacationing at the moment, experiencing winter in the Northern Hemisphere.  And I’m loving every moment of it!

This was an ‘accidental’ shot.  We missed the train back to Munchen (because the bus driver took his own sweet time and that caused us that precious 5 minutes to get on the train) and had to wait at Oberammergau for an hour before the next train would arrive.  As a result, I was given the green light by the hubby to explore the surroundings.  And saw how lonely this bench by the stream looked.  But, if the bench is empty, it bodes well – that during the joyous season of loving and giving, no one will be left out.

Have a great year ahead, folks!

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Weekly Photo Challenge: Self Portrait

Self Portrait.  I took this shot at one of the Christmas shops in Rothenburg ob der Tauber just hours before I checked the internet and learnt that the photo challenge for this week is ‘Self Portrait’.  I was inspired at the right moment!

I like this shot a lot because it encompasses a couple of my favourite things in life – one, I don’t take self portraits and this is a rather creative take; two, it’s the Christmas season and three, I was travelling during my favourite season – winter.

I might just crop this picture a little tighter and use it for my FB avatar.  But that has to wait till I get home and have access to Photoshop.  Whatever stock programme on my Macbook isn’t really sophisticated enough for me to play around with.

Weekly Photo Challenge: Celebration

This week’s photo challenge is Celebration.  The biggest celebratory festival for Chinese must be the Lunar New Year, and we Chinese celebrate it in a big way.  It starts on the eve of Lunar New Year where families gather for the Reunion Dinner.

And the Reunion Dinner is all about food.  My family usually has steamboat for the Reunion Dinner because it’s the easiest to fix.  It’s nothing fancy, but there is something very ‘family’ and cosy about having a steamboat feast.

This year on the eve, my cousin moved house and the tables in the house couldn’t accommodate the whole family hence the kids (not so young ‘kids’ because I’m referring to my generation) were relegated to a second table while our parents sat at the main table.  I wish I had a photo of the family tucking in for dinner to share, but nothing, I mean nothing, comes between my Aunt’s steamboat and I.  And as always, my closest cousin and I were the last ones to leave the table.

Yup, this is my interpretation of celebration – bonding with my family, over food.

Weekly Photo Challenge: Waiting

Waiting for this week.  I’m sure nobody likes to wait, no matter how patient one could be.  I, for one, loathe to wait, and depending who I’m going to meet, I actually choose to be late for some appointments because I know the person I’m meeting will be late.  I’m usually not wrong.

What if your job is all about waiting for something to happen, like the guards at the Ataturk Museum in Ankara, capital city of Turkey?  I don’t know how it’s like to be say, a fireman at the airport, for example.  While controlling aircraft at the control tower, I have a good vantage view of the people working at the airport emergency services and more than 3/4 of their time is either spent on ensuring they are fit enough for any emergencies, or practising fire drills to ensure their preparedness.

I say it’s a tough job knowing that people would rather they’d never use your services.

Weekly Photo Challenge: Family

This week’s challenge – Family.  I knew the exact picture I wanted to find to represent ‘Family’ but I just couldn’t locate it.  Might have lost it when my PC last crashed in 2008.

Found the next best picture.  Some explanation is in order – this was taken in Jan 2006 when Sugar was 1.5 years old and Paris was barely 3 months old.  The moment Paris came home with us, she identified Sugar as her mother figure – she followed her surrogate mummy everywhere and mimicked everything she did.  What happened here was, Sugar had been naughty, so she was being punished to ‘Down’ and ‘Stay’.  The puppy Paris was free to roam the house yet she chose to lie down beside Sugar.  And being a puppy, she couldn’t keep her eyes open for long.  This shot was taken when she fell asleep while accompanying Sugar in her punishment.

It was a super cute moment.  Hilariously funny too.  But I chose this picture because it sufficiently embodies the essence of a family, that is, going through thick and thin together.

Weekly Photo Challenge: Wonder

The topic for this week – Wonder.

I’m particularly fascinated with the most basic wonders of nature, including sunrises, sunsets, tides and the ocean.  I’m acutely aware that I have not exactly been exemplary in my conduct as a Christian, but I believe firmly that there is a God.  And if anyone needs evidence, just look at how intricately the universe was created.  He thought of everything.

And here’s my interpretation.

This full moon was taken some moons ago at the window of my bedroom.  It was a beautiful night, and the moon shone so brightly it could even be mistakenly as the sun.