One of these has to be Borough Market. Located in London Bridge, the food market runs Thursday through Saturday and offers a fantastic experience, both gastronomically and photographically:

May Day offered a special treat with various locals (and frequenters of the locals) dressing for the celebrations.

I’ll try to put together a complete photo album as-and-when I have time.

While there are a couple of albums still remaining to be sorted, perhaps these few will help shed some light on what I have been up to during the last 8 months:

Chinese Spring Festival

The Chinese Spring Festival, or New Year, falls towards the beginning of the Western year. Fortunately, for us, that was a week after the beginning of our assignment, giving us ample opportunity to take a look around:

• .Mac Gallery (Fast Computers)
• Flickr (Slow Computers)

The Great Wall

Visiting the Great Wall obviously forms part of the mandatory explorations in and around Beijing. If, however, you are foolish enough to go on a guided tour, you will be taken to Jade Factories, Cloisonne Factories and Chinese Medical Centres before finally reaching your intended destination:

• .Mac Gallery (Fast Computers)
• Flickr (Slow Computers)

Hong Kong

Not long after, visa woes mandated the first of many weekend trips to Hong Kong and other destinations:

• .Mac Gallery (Fast Computers)
• Flickr (Slow Computers)

Beijing Botanical Gardens

The Beijing Botanical Gardens are a fairly common destination for both foreigners and local tourists alike. If you manage to get through the crowds and traffic queues, they’re beautiful, especially in the blossoms of Spring:

• .Mac Gallery (Fast Computers)
• Flickr (Slow Computers)

Caves, Beijing

While I don’t remember the name of these caves, they provided for an amusing day out with members of our Chinese language school (BCLS) and some of their charges:

• .Mac Gallery (Fast Computers)
• Flickr (Slow Computers)

Hong Kong

Yet again. For yet more visa renewals. Yet still, an absolutely fantastic place, providing a wonderful combination of a true metropolis with small Chinese fishing islands:

• .Mac Gallery (Fast Computers)
• Flickr (Slow Computers)

All in all. A wonderful experience.

F*ing Ladies’ Fashion

The Last Supper

Cannibalism

Murderous Pooh

In keeping with this, the following photo was snapped while passing the Natural History Museum during a recent trip to London. Only a week before, I been enjoying turtle soup for my Friday lunch a few blocks from the office. One man’s wildlife is another man’s dinner…

As I slowly prepare myself for the next experience — perhaps a more Western one (in-so-much-as any Westerner can ever have a truly Eastern experience when exporting one’s own culture with such abandon) — I find myself amused by seeing the differences from the ‘other’ side.

China is no different. In fact, China offers more opportunities than many of the places I have experienced to-date. This seems to be the result of a strange historical and cultural combination whereby food is initially eaten through necessity and then continues to be eaten through that dogged Chinese determination that is ‘saving face‘.

It’s quite amazing what you can get ‘on a stick’ here:

I am reliably informed that all of the most expensive foods taste bad. Taste is — apparently — not the point.

It would be hard, in this new design, to miss the mirroring effect on all images. What started as a small personal challenge of adding Apple-style image reflections to my WordPress image rendering plugin [seemingly, it is] has become a significant feature of the new design. People say copying is one of the highest forms of flattery. I hope it can be viewed this way.

Another significant aspect is the header. This has formed an increasingly important role in my last few designs and, with version 3.0, hosted almost entirely my own photos. While, the feature has been very popular, I have omitted it in this latest design, hopeful that this gives greater focus to the main content of the page and allows for better presentation of a wider variety of media.

Of course, as always, I continue to maintain all of my previous designs, any of which can be selected from the ‘Themes’ drop-down box. I am also slowly trying to add to the collection various designs produced for friends. While other projects keep this task from progressing at high speed, expect a trickle of different styles to be added in the coming months.

With all of this, it’s only natural that friends and family should inquire about the pollution. Is it really all that bad?! To answer this, I took a photo out of my window a few days ago:

The photo is taken mid-morning and is of what I would describe as a ‘two block day’. Quite literally, one can only see two blocks down the street. ‘One block’ days are not uncommon.

In the meantime, here are a couple from my last months in Japan. The photos of Akihabara were requested by my father who, it seems, has developed quite a fondness for its gadget-strewn back alleys.

Two shining examples stand out thus far — captured on film for posterity:

The Osama Bin Lolly — for want of a better name — seems to be a wonderful example of the marketing techniques of a country which doesn’t quite understand international politics. That attitude which says, ‘if their photo is on the front of a newspaper then they just must be famous’. Somehow the good vs. bad argument just doesn’t enter into it; there just isn’t the comprehension. It is this same attitude which keeps much of Asia thinking that to be British means you must be personally aquainted with David Beckham, the Queen or — god forbid — both.

The second example is more of a multi-directional misunderstanding. Here in China Beijing, the city is gripped in Olympic fever. And by that, what I mean is, it is impossible to go anywhere without seeing the ugly mug of one of those mascots.

The Olympic slogan adopted by China reads “One World, One Dream”. A wonderful sentiment. Until, that is, it is borrowed and tweaked into something bound to upset any freedom-loving American:

Since encountering this, Junko has explained to me how it might not be quite as extreme as it first seems. Apparently, here in China, ‘red’ can mean popular, successful, etc, and might not — in fact — be referring to the ideals of Communism which first spring to mind. Either way, it gave me quite a chuckle.

Apologies to any readership located in China. Wikipedia links will be unaccessible as, for some reason, the government feels the need to block this wonderful resource…

Update: Mouse has pointed out an alternative take on the Olympic mascots.