The Nottingham Goose Fair! It was my first ever visit to a fair (pasar malams do not count) and it was just like what I had imagined it would be like: Food! Crowd! Rides! Toys! Geese! And lots of fun :D
We made a day trip out but not before we stop by The Grind Cafe (in Sheffield) for breakfast. I love their Belgian Waffles with Fruits, Honey and Yoghurt I had it for two consecutive days.
It is like this: When you have work, you don't wish to work on them. When you got nothing to do, you start to feel bored.
This trip was a little bit of both. It really was just to lounge around doing nothing all day. I wanted to go to a place where there are no deadlines to meet, just before I have to meet 5 of them within the coming 4 weeks.
So the second day of my trip happened to coincide with the Double Ninth Festival (Chung Yung Festival). The Chinese calendar is usually a month slower than the Gregorian calendar, which means if you'd like to be there during the Double Ninth Festival, you'll have to be in Hong Kong in October. It is a public holiday, where visit the graves of their ancestors to pay their respects.
Oh, Hong Kong. A few of the people expressed with a little disbelief when I mentioned it was only my first time visiting, considering the city is one of the most frequent escape for Singaporeans alongside Taiwan.
Despite a few of the aforementioned people's enthused promise it would be fun, that was not the case. That though, should not be misunderstood for the city's shortcomings but rather my own travel preference.
With the impression that the housing and population situations in Hong Kong is very similar to Singapore's (or worse), I was anticipating my photos would be more influenced and inspired by its people but it turns out I was more overwhelmed by the even higher number of skyscrapers back home.
Here are some of the scenes I have captured with my phone and camera on the first day of my visit. I spent it walking around the neighbourhood on foot, taking in the streets and its people around me more often than taking photos.
In the Summer of 2012, I visited New York for the first time. I went without expectations, only with the curiosity of an explorer who has heard so much about the greatness of this one city. The first day I took the subway, rubbed shoulders with New Yorkers, saw the Statue of Liberty, crossed the Brooklyn Bridge and back on foot, blinded by the lights at Times Square, ate at a restaurant where Broadway wannabes sang on a platform in the middle as they waited on tables and passed by Dave Lettermen's studio.
Yet, I do not feel I have experienced and feel for myself the real magic of New York but it has only been one day. Maybe the city will grow on me.
The weather had continued to be kind, no rain big enough to halt exploring on any day so far. Here is the very neat looking Liverpool Lime Street station. I checked into my Airbnb space (which I was surprised to find offers a nice view of sunset) and just spent the rest of the evening settling down and firming up my plans for the next 2 days.
Ahoy! Definitely not a Merseyside slang at all, not sure why I started with that word but back in April, I was in Liverpool with the sole purpose of visiting my beloved Anfield.
While I was there I had to do other things, seeing as I cannot be a weirdo and spend all my days in Liverpool at Anfield. I chanced upon Walker Art Gallery and was delighted to see there is actually an exhibit that interests me.
'Only In England' is an exhibition of the works of British photographer Tony Ray-Jones. Ray-Jones enjoy taking photographs of ordinary English life that has a good mix of quirkiness, humour and melancholy.
Perfect. Only very recently did I find myself taking photos of people in the places I visited instead of stunning architectural shots. It wasn't a conscious decision to do that. One day as I was browsing through my travel photos, I just realised I ended up with photos of a lot of people on the streets, sometimes without any photo of the place I was at! The next few times, I began to notice my instinct and found that I was drawn to people.
So the 'Only In England' exhibit inspired me to continue to explore photographing people. In conjunction with the exhibit, Walker Art Gallery was also holding an Instagram contest to showcase the unique character of Merseyside.
I was walking through St John's Gardens on my way to the exhibit when I came across a man on the bench looking absolutely knackered. There were nobody about and I hesitated for a while, having an internal debate if I should whip my camera out and take a photo of him. I decided I really should, in conjunction of my new aforementioned self-discovery and decided to use that photo for the contest.
I didn't win the contest, I really wanted to but looking at the winner's photo it was certainly a more appropriate and funny image! Still, I'm glad to be featured on the gallery's website as a shortlist and my photo may be up on display at the exhibit resource area! Can't say I'm not excited about that for it will be the first time my photo is appearing in a gallery :D Just wish I get to be there to see it up!
I was told all my music posts have been drowning out my travel posts! You can browse everything quickly here.
Careful now, it is filled with photos!
It was the last leg of my trip. Mentally I felt great but physically, my shoulders ached from carrying my camera and backpack around. Worst of all was the state of my feet. It worked hard. I felt like during my entire trip, I've walked enough to cover the entire year. Every morning for the second half of my trip, the first step I took when I got off the bed hurts like a reminder from my body to slow the hell down a little thanksverymuch. Pity my mind tends to be more fiery than my body. Anyway, so after the warmer climate of England, Finland was cold and rainy and that pulled my level of enthusiasm down a little.
Good thing I foresaw that when I was planning and had deliberately put Finland as my last stop so that I can slowly ease back into regular life while staying at my friend's place. That was real nice of them to let me intrude on them for quite a few days by the way.
It was also on their suggestion that I visit Porvoo. So, mustering all the last shreds of energy I have left in me, I decided to make my way there on the last day of my trip.
Shuffling back and forth between proper sunny Spring day and light hail, when the weather decided to turn up on the former option we went out to Weston Park to meet the ducks!
You remember Sheffield. I mentioned it previously where the city celebrated Easter with a cool rubber duck race on a lovely Spring day.
I guess I picked the right day to go for a stroll down to the City Centre. Sun was out. Look at those cherry blossoms against that blue background. Lovely sight here at Peace Gardens. I swear I didn't make it any more blue than it really was. It really was a beautiful day. I am glad I was around to witness Spring arriving. Just a week or so ago everyday was cold and even hailed lightly on some evenings.
Oh, London, where the clouds never go away
I keep my coat on from September till May
When the tulips will bloom in the most unusual way.
Oh, London, I love you, but the clouds never go away.
Oh London. I've heard so much about you from books, songs, people.. Never would have put you down as bright, almost cheery..
But that was how I found it when I first arrived on Saturday. After a gloomy morning with drizzles, the weather cleared up after I checked in. Sun was out from behind the clouds. People milling about with their shades on. I decided to talk a short walk down to Tower Bridge.
Happy Easter Monday! Back home, Easter is a public holiday on a Friday but over here, the public holiday is on a Monday.
I was looking through Sheffield Culture Guide yesterday and came across The Great Sheffield Duck Race. Apparently it is an annual racing event. I had to witness it for myself! We arrived at Encliffe Park just before 2pm today and each spent £1 on a rubber duck. I didn't know how the race works and was expecting to be handed a duck and I can put it down Porter Brook myself but we were just told our duck numbers. We just settled at a spot near the finishing line and waited.
Thaipusam is a Hindu festival, celebrated by our Tamil community here. Over here, the ceremony starts in the early hours of the morning where devotees fulfill their vows with a 4.5 km walk from Sri Srinivasa Perumal Temple along Serangoon Road to Sri Thendayuthapani Temple on Tank Road.
Devotees carrying spiked Kavadis, which require elaborate preparations, leave the temple in the later part of the morning and continue till night. The devotees are usually accompanied by family members and friends supporting in the form of prayers and chants.
So that was where I was 2 days ago, at Tank Road to document down the moment as devotees entered the temple at Tank Road and then eventually arriving at a huge tent set up nearby, where the dismantling will take place.
It was my first time being on location looking at the celebration. It was indeed an eye-opener for me. I'm so glad and consider myself very lucky to grow up being surrounded by so many different cultures. It is not something I take for granted.
For this series, I decided to present it in a slideshow format in the event any one reading this may feel uncomfortable looking at some parts of the celebration.
Today, I was a tourist in my own city for 2.5 hours. Being restricted to a place for a longer period of time definitely forces me to look at the same things from different perspectives.
I have never really realised this, but an amazing number of people actually did the 'open-your-mouth-like-you're-drinking-the-water-from-Merlion' thing and I am absolutely amused by that.
I've been staying no more than 15 minutes away from this garden but have yet to explore it after more than a decade. Today I finally made my way there to do a little site recce for this Friday's shoot.
It's a nice place for a morning jog or afternoon walk. While exploring, I came by some fancy trees and a bridge that literally really only takes 3 step to cross (yes I actually tried)!
[0830] We set off from our resort in Tuban for a day in Ubud. The only plan today was to visit Ketut Liyer and to finally meet him! I was having butterflies in my stomach at the thought of it. With a little traffic, we arrived at his residence in an hour and half.
My second time in Bali -- this time purely for leisure. I didn't have anything planned at all, aside from visiting a friend I've made on the previous trip to have some fun with temporary tattoos and visit the medicine man, Ketut Liyer from Elizabeth Gilbert's book Eat Pray Love. I'm banking on the rest of the trip to be spontaneous and we did.
On our last night we met 2 locals on Kuta Beach, decided to hop on their motorcycles with them and they brought us to have dinner and had a long night drive along the new highway, streets of Kuta, Seminyak and around for hours! Somewhere along the night, one of them taught me how to drive the motorcycle and it turns out I was pretty good at it..!
