Happy Deepavali!

It is time to celebrate Deepavali in Singapore. This is a Hindu holiday to celebrate the victory of light over darkness. Gardens by the Bay held a few performances for the holiday and I went to take some photos. Enjoy!

The NUS Harmonica Orchestra. 

A meadow for a picnic. Can't really see the stage from here but you can hear the music. 

Dancers and a new band (seated on stage to the left). 

Hard to shoot this. It was getting dark, started just before sunset. I had to move around a crowd so no tripod and the dancers are dancing - moving - so I had to adjust the shutter speed and ISO. I thought I did a really good job but then I saw some photos a friend of mine took of the same performance. I will keep practising! Mine are not bad but she is a professional and hers are excellent!

The facial expressions are part of the dance.

Love her jewelry!

Notice the hands, very pretty.

Liked the photographer peeking out from behind the dancer :)

Better shot of the band.

Happy Friday!!!

Canned Bads!

Yes, you read that right, canned bads not canned goods. You'll see :)

Who knew there could be so many different flavors of canned tuna? I still just buy tuna in spring water, so boring, I know. 

I never did like magic.

What does it mean to "corn" something? Don't answer that, I don't want to know. I do know that I named this blog correctly!

Canned squid. I like squid when it's fresh but this is not OK. 

Mock duck meat. Usually vegetarian food sounds good to me but this is such a turn off. I read the label, it's mostly made from gluten, maybe that means glutinous rice? I promise NOT to try it and let you know how it is. 

Canned pork leg with mushrooms. A picture is worth a thousand words and the photo on the can says it all.

Pork luncheon meat with your choice of cheese or black pepper. If I had to choose....I'd go for the black pepper. 

So many different types of Spam here. 

Why? I love plums. This is so sad. I have ordered a drink at a restaurant that had a super sour plum in it and it was pretty good but I think this is different. 

I really like the Aloe Vera. It can be found in yogurt and some drinks. Still need to try the other two. 

Happy Friday!!!

Perth, Western Australia

We booked a trip to Hong Kong a few months ago and we were really looking forward to it. Hong Kong is one of the places I have always wanted to visit. Unfortunately the timing didn't work out for us. So...last minute change of plans...Perth! 

We have never been to Australia before so we didn't really know what to expect. What a nice surprise! Beautiful city, perfect weather, clean fresh air, good food, nice people and miles and miles of jogging/bike paths and loads of parks. 

Down the street from our hotel, walking to the shopping streets.

Here is Government House. Gorgeous old brick building with beautiful gardens. Blue skies and clean fresh air is so nice. 

A bit further down the street you see a mix of old buildings and new modern high rises. Really made for a beautiful city. 

Plenty of outdoor space for everyone, saw a few picnics here. This park is very close to the downtown area.

A few shots of the shopping area. 

Shopping street closed to traffic for pedestrian use only.

We could see this from our hotel room. It is The Bell Tower at Barrack Square. The oldest bell in Australia dating to 1550 is located here and you can participate in interactive demonstrations. I did not participate :) Instead walked along the water enjoying the weather. 

These birds were sunning themselves along the banks of the Swan River. I saw a ton of these guys, they are so pretty and big! They are calm and let you get much closer than I thought they would.

These cockatoos were flying around the park. They are white-ish with a grey-blue ring around the eyes, little bit of pink on their chest. We found a bunch of them in a tree so I was able to take a few photos. There were also bright green parrots flying around the parks, way to fast for my camera though. I've only seen these birds in cages or in zoos, never flying freely. Very cool!

Pretty bird. Another interesting bird fact is the giant sized crows they have, they are huge and they make the strangest noises, almost like a sheep...baaaah. LOL wish I had a good photo of them to share.

I wonder if this is a Great-billed Heron? Maybe some sort of egret? Beautiful bird. Wish he would let me get closer. I really appreciate that he picked such a nice background for the photo. Smart bird.

Egret on the other side of the water from the Heron. Tons of birds and plants and parks and space to roam for animals and people.

This giant space was right in front of our hotel along the Swan River. People would come out and play with their kids or do yoga or just lay out and enjoy the weather.

Family trying to feed this black swan. I always thought swans were not the nicest birds out there. Maybe I am wrong but I still wouldn't try to feed one.

Run kids!!!

No kangaroos or koalas on this trip but we had an excellent vacation. I love Perth! Reminded us very much of California. Funny how much we missed the food in Singapore though :)

Happy Friday!!!

Street Photography

Its been a little hazy lately so I didn't have too many chances to get out this week. Hope it clears up soon! Here are my best photos.

This is the original photo with no editing. Birds on a branch. I do not like birds! These pidgeons like to fly right up in your face, rude! Not crazy about this photo either. I'll do some editing to see what I can get out of it.

I like this photo after I manipulated it a bit, desaturated colors and added noise (static). Good for Halloween.

This wasn't too bad either, just making it a black and white photo made it more interesting. The lines from the branches going across the photo are nice with the main subject, birds, off center. 

These guys are sitting back to back, probably waiting for their wives to finish up shopping.

No shoes in the temple! What is that towel hanging for? Take my shoes off? OK. Community towel, no thanks... :(

I liked the sign in Mandarin (I'm guessing Mandarin) and the small pop of yellow at the top of the Fortune Center building and the pretty blue sky.

Same here, liked the signs on the buildings and the green trees and the red and white HDB in the background.

I want to come back and get a better shot of the South East Asia sign. Maybe with a gritty background or a bird on it. This is the same photo as the one above just cropped differently. I couldn't decided which I liked better. 

The National Library. This is outside the building, looking up and in, mostly catching the reflection in the glass. Loved the lines, prettier in person I guess.

The courtyard of the National Library. Huge area, breezy, shaded and much cooler here than out on the street. The kids and the colorful flags caught my eye. 

Odd batch of photos this week, but I sort of like them. 

Happy Friday!!!