Another Old Letter

Raymond gets married today and we're invited to the Tau-ist

pre-ceremony which starts in minutes:

Raymond and Janet

and the Double Happiness!

Thus, today I'll post up another old letter; 

this one from 2005.

What a great morning, with a great many fascinations:

1) Last day of Chinese New Year celebrations going on down
in Southorn Park. We were entertained for an hour by a Chinese
Omp-pah-pah band playing Irish songs like "It's a long way to
Tipperary." What's the bet that this is NOT a centuries-old
custom.

2) Today's paper has lots on the International Precious Gem
and Jewellery Expo, where they're wondering if it should be
continued when theft is such a HUGE problem. US$16 million a day
is shoplifted on average, they say. But the interviews with
participants and exhibiters they all say "We would be insulted
if there WASN'T shoplifting. It means our wares are thought to
be substandard, which they're obviously NOT.

3) Solved the mystery of why we always hear Chinese couples
say "I love you" and "I want to be with you." to each other in
English. The Valentine Day's issue of SCMP has interviews with
lots of people who all say they have to speak love in English
because Cantonese has no equivilant words for any sort of
affection. Honestly, it's a wonder these people are able
to breed in such numbers, isn't it!



So that's it for today.

Except for a photo of Raymond and Janet's nuptuals:

And the beautiful Old Mrs Fung who proves you don't have to have
a word of any language in common to consider someone a friend.

Being a lovely soul shines 

through in any language.

Just boasting!

Heard from the Dalai Lama today. How cool am I, la?  Yes, I know it wasn't a personal letter but it was still a very great rush! And it's going immediately into my file of letters from famous folks; people like Amelia Talbot and Musuveni.  And if you're asking who the hell they are, Amelia Talbot is the niece of Amelia Earhart and Musuveni is the President of Uganda.

I also have in there a heap of very erudite letters about Art from David Bowie, but I must admit I got those third hand. I'd tell you the name of the artist friend of a friend he exchanges letters with, except ... well, he most likely would be very cross to know she passes them on, so let's keep that very secret.

But I have to say I am very impressed with David Bowie The Man because he's a most clever and insightful fellow and an absolute delight to read. 

And also in there is a letter from a fellow who signed himself as Salman Rushdie.  It was a private reply to something I'd placed on the Fiji Message Board shortly after the 2000 Speight coup, about Fijian land unquestionably belonging to the Fijians, and this was a very silly attempt to counter-argue that from an Indian perspective. Normally, I'd have questioned that signature except this letter-writer used the most bizarre sentence structures and had a very odd way of putting ideas together ... so I immediately raced out and bought "Midnight's Children" ... and it was exactly the same.  Decided that someone was either a laudable Rushdie imitator or Salman Rushdie was taking a very close interest in Fiji.

Then, shortly after, his novel Fury came out where he talks about a little island called Lilliput that had all the problems currently facing the world yet always came up with very elegant solutions.  And reading that, it was obviously Fiji.  Unquestionably, he was talking about Fiji ... so Rushdie indeed would have been taking a close interest in Fiji at that time and would very likely have been reading the message boards, and thus this letter, silly as it was, went into the Famous People's Letters file!

I also have in there a lot of handwritten poems by Noel Coward ... but that's a different story.

Guess who I just heard from?  It's so cool, you'd never imagine, so let me just tell you:

His Holiness would like to thank all of you for the kind greetings you have sent on his 75th birthday. He is touched that so many people made the effort to offer their friendly wishes and, while he is unable to acknowledge each one individually, he would like to take this opportunity to express his appreciation.

With His Holiness's prayers and good wishes.

CROSS!!!

Had to pay $1,800 for my new visa.  "Not happy, Jan!"  However, I won't risk a refusal by complaining in here, so I won't say a word.  ZZIIIPPP!!!

Thus instead of a rant about punative charges, I'll just post another random photo and hope it's something that cheers me up.

OK, that's interesting: a photo I meant but didn't - I forgot -  sorry! - to send Baby Jane; the gate to her pool with a dozen orbs hovering in the entrance.

It was taken several years ago in the dim cold pre-dawn light when we were off to catch a flight out of Cairns.  I took some amazing shots that morning, although this isn't one of them.

Baby Jane is into orbs.  Loves 'em.  Goes through everyones' latest photos and only looks for orbs. Personally, I always delete shots with orbs because I think the photo is ruined, but Jane disagrees.

I read her book on the subject when I was in Australia in April and ... well, decided the whole thing was very fanciful, especially the part about looking into the orbs to see what shapes were in there and, whatever the shape, that was the message the angels were sending you.

Very silly indeed, yes!

Hey, let's do this!

OK, I've blown it up to the largest it will go ... and there are wayyy more orbs than I realised ... but I'm still not seeing shapes inside.  I mean, I can see shapes but can't work out what they are.

But that is odd.  If you look, a couple of the orbs appear to be behind the bars of the pool fence.  Can you see that?

Let me go get a magnifying glass and check this again.

I'm being very fluffy here, but the larger of the two at the front? There's a definite gold ring around it and the image inside looks like a kangaroo sitting on a rock in front of Uluru gazing out at a rainbow.  Inside the smaller orb looks like the moon over the sea.  And the one behind looks like a hand holding a bright rising sun.  And the one at the very top looks like it contains a dolphin embryo.

OK, that's enough fluffy for one day.  I won't attempt to interpret what those images mean.

And now you think I'm enormously silly, although you must admit it's a lot more fun than ranting about the stupidity of certain nations and their childishness in punishing other nations with ridiculous punative new visa charges.

Fluffy trumps CROSS anyday, I reckon!

Random Photo AGAIN!

Busy day ahead, trying to get visas et al for our impending holiday, and so I'll just post a random photo again today.

If you don't already know, this is where I choose a photo from my program with my eyes shut and if it's interesting I talk about it, and if it isn't, I go off and do other stuff.

Here goes:

Giant Christmas balls at Pacific Place in Admiralty about four years ago.  Very pretty, yes, but not interesting enough to talk about.

See you later.