Sapporo

Our first day in the city and a Sunday.  It was a peoples day, from the sartorial guy in a white suit and bowler hat at the entrance to the Metro

to the gentleman and his cute dog on the University Campus.

Dr. Clarke the American who founded the University at the end of the 19c.

Resting,

before a selfie at the clock tower.

and perhaps the most bizarre of all, the body builders showing off at the Sunday street fair.

Book - Home is a Roof over a Pig

An American family's experience living in rural China.  The title refers to the components that make up the Chinese character for 'home,

 

This is your starter for ten. What is the component for 'wood'?

Gek's Renoir Miniatures

 A Study of Lise,  Water Colour on Paper - 5ins x 3ins

La Parisian, Water Colour on Paper - 5ins x 3ins

Aren't these lovely?  So now we have our own collection of Renoir, Dega, Monet and Turner.  Go to 

http://www.gekart.net/Miniatures/Miniatures.html 

To see more of Gek's miniature paintings.  This is turning into a joint venture, the painter and the frame maker.

Sunrise over Kedah

Up early, couldn't sleep.  Eagle on the left, Firefly on the right.

Worth it I think

Book - George Orwell

I read my first novel at 18, George Orwell's 1984.  When I had finished it I thought, "That explains a lot!!!"  I had to read all his other works after the first to see if they all so insightful and I wasn't disappointed.  This book explains how he could write the way he did about what bothered him,  portraying George as an outsider in every aspect of his life, seeming always to be an observer and not a participant in it.    

Book - The entity

500 years of Vatican intrigue and murder, starting with the Pope of the day trying to do away with our Queen Elizabeth 1 and replace her on the throne of England with Mary, Queen of the Scots. Things seem to have gotten out of hand after that with the Entity going after anyone who stood in the way of the Vatican's agenda, not its religious more its commercial agenda.

Book - Adventures Of A British Master Spy: The Memoirs of Sidney Reilly

If you ever though that the James Bond story lines were a bit far fetched,  then you should read this book. Kiki says " Much of what is thought to be known about him could be false, as Reilly was a master of deception, and most of his life is shrouded in legend". Even if half of it is a true account of what Sidney got up to for British Intelligence, it is still almost unbelievable.  Mind you, James bond was not cast as a Russian Jew.

Dem Clouds Look Real Heavy

 This afternoon's rain clouds looked so laden with water that they could have crashed to earth.

Very dramatic.

Gallery Spot Lights

New spot lights for the wall hung paintings, using LED's powered by batteries.  I's very pleased with the results.  I think that was a humblebrag.

Gallery lights

New lights for the gallery installed together with 30 new paintings done by Gek over our six week stay in Singapore.  Turner and Monet look a likes.  Very good they are too.  I need now to make the 30 frames each made up of 8 machined parts.  That should keep me busy!!!

Toby and Amp in Singapore

Toby and Amp came to stay over night Saturday on their flying visit to Singapore.  Great to see him  again especially as he brought me a bottle of Sapphire Gin!!  Thanks Toby.

Film - Mordecai

Well, Depp at his worst or funniest best, depending on your take on American comedies that involve a lot of gratuitous violence.  Why do they keep doing that?  Violence is not funny.  Slapstick is funny but shoot e'm up violence is not funny.  When will the film makers learn to be just a little more subtle?  Shame to say I did laugh, though.   So much stereotyping of the English, no wonder Americans have a weird view of the English.  Sorry, only 2 on the door for this one, much as it pains me so to do.  We gang of four were the only audience on the day of our cinema visit, and the place was bitterly cold, had us all shivering.

Cameron Highlands - Travel Buddies

Just to the north of Tanah Rata a cafe run by a South American lady married to a Malaysian of Chinese origins who serves a very nice Malay cuisine.  Their son, David, clearly has his own favourites from his mum's menu.

One very happy Chris with his first Carlsberg in 3 days.

Our motley crew at the Smoke House, for afternoon tea.  A really enjoyable 3 days away, with 30 year old memories revisited.

Cameron Highlands - Landies

There are reputed to be 7,000 old Land Rovers in the Cameron Highlands district.  There could be more, nobody knows for sure the true number.  First brought here by the British Army during the Emergency, and imported in numbers since, they are the farmers work horse.  Local's  say they are the only vehicle that can stand the strain of the highlands terrain, a testament to the over engineered early Land Rover design.  No urban softy this one!!  .

The farmers only pay 10% road tax on the Rovers as long as the vehicle is not driven off the Highlands, hence the identifying CH painted on the doors.

It is amazing to drive through the towns up here and pass aging disgracefully, Land Rover after Land Rover, all looking bashed and battered.

But all good things come to an end as they must.  After the final act of cannibalism to keep his mates alive, what remains of the carcass is left by the wayside to become part of nature again.  Ashes to ashes, rust to dust etc.

Cameron Highlands - Ye Olde Smoke House

Built in 1937, the Smoke House  would not look out of place in a Dorset village.  Come to think of it, it doesn't look out of place here, 4,000 feet up in the Malaysian mountains.  Lots of buildings are of the Tudor style around here.

 Around the side, past the rather rust pitted cannon,

to the front, which isn't the front because you enter the building at the back.

And inside a posh restaurant and hotel.

Nice fireplace in the lounge.  This one not used but the bar's log fire of last night could still be smelt.

Cameron Highlands - Houses

 A hill top house on the edge of Brinchang.

Mock Tudor, and black & white decoration to  houses and hotels, is something of a theme in the Cameron architecture. And yes, those chimney are real,  real chimneys at the base of which are real fireplaces.  The annual mean temperature here is 18 deg C and the evenings are cold, down to 8 deg.

Jim Thompson's Cottage. Jim Thompson (Born March 1906 - disappeared March 1967) was an American businessman who helped revitalise the Thai silk industry in the 1950s and 1960s. At the time of his disappearance he was one of the most famous Americans in SE Asia. He was staying at this, the Moonlight bungalow, and it is from here that he took off on his last evening walk never to return.

Seen from the upper BOH Tea plantation tea house veranda.  I think it is an hotel, a sort of  Mock Tutor meets Victorian Queen Anne style San Francisco meets Swiss Cottage Chocolate Box style house. A house with an identity problem. Interesting.

Cameron Highlands - The Scenery

Not having a four wheeled drive vehicle or an ancient Land Rover,  practically every scene photographed in the High Lands has to clip a tea plant or a polythene tented market garden.

 But anyway, here are the best I could do.

 Even with the veg factories, the views are beautiful.

This shot was taken from as high as we could get in our hired Hyundai Matrix, every vehicle we passed had the occupants looking down at us.

Ruth

Ruth

Today is the day of Ruth's funeral in London.  Ruth, the bestist of friends for the past 50 years. The most appropriate tribute to Ruth, I feel, has to do with travel, Ruth's abiding passion.

Ruth and Jennifer a top The Duomo, Florence (2001)

Ruth and Jenny, my first wife, were undergrad roommates in Wydrington Hall, University of Birmingham (1965), rooming for two years, which I think set an all time  record for a blind pairing of freshers. Birmingham Uni. is where Ruth and I first met, life long friends after that.  Apart from visits to each other's homes in the UK, we also took off on something like 11 holidays together.  Here are a few photos from our latest trips together.

On the Mongolian Steppes (2007)

Mongolia, a wild place where you can hear birds fly, with hardly a fence to be climbed in all of its 1.5 million square kilometers.  Ruth and husband Richard spent a week in the capital, Ulaanbaatar , with Gek and I just after winter's end.

Tiananmen Square, Beijing (2007)

From Mongolia we all flew to Beijing, at the time the city was preparing for the 2008 Olympics.  Getting a lot of TLC it was.

The Forbidden City, Beijing (2007)

Love this photo of Ruth, consulting her travel guide in the Forbidden City.  Travel guides take up a large part of Ruth's bookcases.

Singapore City from Mount Faber (2009)

Singapore with son Toby.  Matching t-shirt a complete accident.

Chinese/Vietnam Border (2009)

Our Vietnam holiday took in Hanoi, Halong Bay and here to north, Sapa.  Very strange border this, almost entirely deserted with no cross-border traffic on the bridge.  Guess they are not the best of neighbours then?

Lake Kenyir, Malaysia (2010)

A driving trip around the north of Malaysia.  Here at Lake Kenyir's lake-side bungalows where monkeys scamper over the roofs, monitor lizards prowel the grounds and hornbills eye you from the tree tops. Fabulous location which we had almost entirely to ourselves.  A very relaxed Ruth here.

East Coast Malaysia (2010)

The beaches along Peninsular Malaysia's east coast  and the South China Sea.  Deserted.  Shame about the hats.

E & O Hotel Esplanade, Penang (2012)

The E & O Hotel, Penang's Raffles, for a bit of style.  Lots of the good and famous have stayed here over the years, including Noel Coward, Douglas Fairbanks, Herrmann Hesse, Rudyard Kipling, Somerset Maugham, Sun Yat Sen, among others.

Suffolk House, Penang (2012)

Suffolk House for afternoon tea is a must do for any Brit visiting the Pearl.  Marvelously restored very early 1800's Georgian style home to the British colonial governors of Penang, built on the site of Francis Light's nutmeg plantation.  Raffles was here in 1818, you know.

Sutton House, Hackney, London (2013)

Our last picture together from Gek and mine's last visit to the UK.  Ruth and Richard's place is always has first and last bed for the night on our UK visits.  Rest in Peace Ruth.