Waltz with Bashir_081123

http://waltzwithbashir.com/

Like many teenagers at his time, he joined the army when he was 17. What he fought for he did not understand. At the battlefields, he and his comrades shot aimlessly as self-defence in fear and confusion. At the moment when he pulled his first trigger, all the heroic fantasies he once had of himself shattered into fragments and reduced to a single wish to survive. With luck, he kept alive among the death of many others, from bloodsheds and countless innocent killings. Day after day, the war came to an end. After such a traumatic experience of his youth, in order to move on in life, he became selectively amnestic. Amnesia - a perfect self-defence mechanism. There was one particular memory that he and his surviving comrades tried to forget, and they did. But they couldn't totally escape from their forgotten memories. A recurring dream kept on reminding them of what had happened few years ago in Lebanon when he was 17. He began to get confused of what was real and what was not real. In the wake of amnesia, he pursued the quest to find out what the dream was all about.

What is war?

A vulnerable fantasy created by the authorities
For "meaningful" killings?
(Meaningful to one side but meaningless to the others)
or just
For an act of collective amnesia?

Sadly, fire has never been ceased.
Let's stop history of war to repeat again, again and again.

A Disappearing Number - 081101

A Disappearing Number, an award winning play written by Simon McBurney, presents an alternate view towards mathematics. It leads the audiences to imagine and to think beyond our conventional understanding of mathematics. It is not just about arithmetic, but also a philosophy of life. What is ? There is no gap in infinity, so as time. There is no gap between Past-Present-Future. Partition (in mathematical term) can be infinite. Past-Present-Future are interrelated and interwoven, to form a complex pattern of time and memories, which we tend to simplify it as a linear line.

Mathematics is something more than numbers.

A brilliant play.

Exhibition - 081101

For Immediate Release - Ai weiwei
@ albion gallery

16 October - 17 November, 2008
Mon. to Fri 9am-5:30pm
Sat. 10am - 3pm

Exhibition - 081026

This Is War! Robert Capa at Work
Gerda Taro
On the Subject of War

Barbican Art Gallery reflects on conflict and its visual representation.

17 October 2008 - 25 January 2009
Barbican Art Gallery

一種味道

沒有什麽比餐後一件甜點更容易令人感到滿足。

無意間在Islington Antique Market附近
找到Ottolenghi Pastries,

便帶回家：
Passion fruit meringue tart +
Raspberry cheesecake +
Caramelized fig and pear on sponge cake。

一口蛋糕裏，
有濃郁的雞蛋香和奶香
混在一起，
那一種味道，
留不住，
但吸引。

十月 。 朋友

(Photo Courtesy of HC)

同樣是，
你，我，他 跟 他 和 她，
一年後，
在倫敦相聚。
雖然地點已改變,
但當聚在一起，
時間便會倒流
到十多年前，
你，我，他 跟 他 和 她，
在校園無聊地說笑話。
那份無聊令人懷念。

因爲
今天再不容許
我們
無聊地過每一天。

九月 。 朋友

（Photo Courtesy of A+J）

London 是他們旅程的第一站。
昨天跟他們在這城市相聚數小時。
艱得的是, 雖然跟他們不經常見面，
但感覺相當舒服。下次見面不知道會是何時。

祝願他們沿途旅程愉快！

回家

熟悉的聲音,
熟悉的地方,
熟悉的味道,

回家的感覺真好。
一天的團聚足已令我

回味
一整個星期。

Mid-Autumn Feast

There was rare sunshine this morning. We decided to go to the Marylebone Farmer’s Market to pick some fresh ingredients for our “mid-autumn feast”: mixed French beans, Roman cauliflower, broccoli, carrots, new potatoes, tomatoes, red beets, sweet corns, free range chicken, free range eggs, squid, organic beef, just to name a few.

週日的下午

她: 為什麼不選擇1865年的拿玻里?
(他, 不作聲。)
她: 將來有一天, 她不是會被埋蓋在火山灰燼中嘛？
他: 對。
她: 這樣不是更有價值嘛？
他: 可能 。
她：那為什麼…
他: 不知道…可能是因為attachment。 (她, 不作聲。) 更何況，在這裡，沒有人比我們更有理由去擁有它。

A Day in the Jungfrau Region - Photos

Click here for our travel journey in Road to Caravanserai

A Day in the Jungfrau Region - Hiking Route from Gimmelwald to Stechelberg via Oberhoresee

Click on the image above for a full version of Our Hiking Route from Gimmelwald to Stechelberg via Oberhoresee, Switzerland. (Notes: The base map was taken from "Swiss National Map 1:25 000, no. 1248 Murren, Federal Office of Topography swisstopo, 2007." This is the map that we used for our journey.)

Swiss Chocolate

從瑞士帶來的巧克力, 剩餘最後的兩颗。因為不捨得，所以拍下照片。這是我嚐過最好的巧克力。也因為它曾經帶給我美好的回憶，這盒巧克力也是我最喜歡的。

Battersea Power Station

Real Estate Opportunities has recently invited architect Rafael Viñoly to draw a new plan for the redevelopment of Battersea Power Station and its surrounding area. A presentation suite was set up on the site and visitors were encouraged to take a self-guided walk/tour around this London icon.

White Cliff

Yesterday, we decided to go to the White Cliff walking along the scenic trail from the Seven Sisters to Eastbourne. It took us about an hour to get to Brighton from London Victoria by Southern Express train. At Brighton, we took bus 12 at Churchill Square to Exceat (about 45-minute ride), where the trail began.

We followed the sign, South Downs Way Trail, and walked uphill to the top of the Seven Sisters, which gave us spectacular views of the white cliff and the borderless sea. We then walked eastward on the undulating landscape and arrived at Birling Gap. There, we descended a wooden staircase to get to the foot of the cliff and rested on a stony beach. After a 30-minute break, we walked uphill again to our next destination, the Beachy Head - the highest chalk sea cliff in Britain. That’s also where the toughest part of our journey began. By the time I got to the Beachy Head, my energy level had been dropping low; but we had not reached our final destination, the Eastbourne Pier. That would be another 2 hours walk. Anyhow, we kept on walking; and I kept on reminding myself that I would get to taste the best fish and chips there. That was how I made it to the end.

To me, the 5-hour trail, going uphill and downhill, was physically demanding. It reminded me of the trail walk I had on the Great Wall from Jinshanling to Simatai; but this time the path was wider and had less crumbled stones. After the walk, my leg muscles were tight and aching. I had to take Tylenol to soothe the pain. Nonetheless, I still found the journey rewarding.

Here are some of the photos of the white cliff along the trail:

White Cliff - I

Seven Sisters

White Cliff - II

Birling Gap

White Cliff - III

Beachy Head

White Cliff - IV

From Beachy Head to Eastbourne Pier

Horniman Museum

Horniman Museum is a hidden gem in London. It has a unique collection of musical instruments, natural history and anthropological artefacts. I am especially impressed by the rare masks collection in the Centenary Gallery; and to my surprise, there is a very well maintained aquarium at the basement.

Psycho Buildings

Psycho Building: Artists Take on Architecture is an interactive-exhibition of space within space, both physical and perceptual, created by contemporary artists to explore our multiple relations with S P A C E.

“Here, we find architecture not in its functional guise but as a site of desire, memory and doubt, home to personal contingencies and collective histories, the clashing of cultures and coalescing of subjectivities. Refusing to address us as mere spectators, these works implicate us in the spaces they generate, engaging us in ways that are at once visceral and conceptual, and that call attention to what must be experienced rather than merely seen.”

– Ralph Rugoff, Psycho Buildings

LFA: The Urban Pavilions

六月 。 朋友

First Bloom

We woke up this morning and happily saw our Hibiscus having its first full bloom. Last night, it was just like an half open rose...

29 days ago, we bought it from the Kew Garden.

Brussels + Bruges, 2007 from Fungchiz on Vimeo.

Brussels, 2007

Last Christmas in 2007, we were in Brussels. Both of us were facing some milestones in life during that period of time. I remember, that quiet night, we were holding hands wandering through the streets aimlessly. When we passed by some interesting shop windows, we would stop in front of them. Each time, I would ask you the same old question: Which one would you pick? and waiting for the same answer.

We never followed the same path on the way back home. We enjoyed the moments of getting lost and finding our way out. That quiet Christmas night, under the simple light decorations of my liking, the streets became our playground. A maze. My lost paradise.

Bruges, 2007

It was not the perfect season to visit this picturesque town in Belgium. The air was chilly. The sky was grey. A satisfying seafood lunch of catch-0f-the-day definitely made a highlight of the trip. I am not a big fan of stew dishes; but the creamy waterzzoli of fish + Brugge Tripel were irresistible. The key lies in the freshness of the ingredients.


He always laught at my portraits of him; but not this time. I got my first recognized shot in Bruges. Not a standard pose, but a 1/150 second snap shot.

Massive Attack's Meltdown

St Albans