Winged ones.....

Today I decided to go to Kowloon park once again and really try and focus on using my Macro lens. I now have
a new appreciation for those that have mastered macro and nature photography. This requires a steady hand and a lot
of patience. I started off with a tripod, but waiting for a bee to land on a particular flower is like watching grass grow! In the afternoon I went to Sol-wellness center. An establishment the offers from A to Z in physical and spiritual health. A very interesting place with many options on how to achieve the balance the body needs to be healthy. I am excited because Chan had an acupressure matt that I have been looking for. I will let you know if sleeping on plastic needles really works! Ken and I visited a gallery on the way home, that had interesting contemporary artists.
I think people in Hong Kong are hooked by the worst invention in modern history, a smart phone! These people have their noses buried in their phone 24/7! They walk playing, texting, reading and doing whatever they are doing and NEVER looking up to see where they are going! It is crazy, so I just say "look up" and then bump them in to reality! They have no idea what color the sky is or whom is passing them by because their phones are up their nose! Sickening! So you factoid for today is that there are between 30 to 40 thousand U.S. citizens living in Hong Kong.
Good morning. Maria to answer you question, the old man with the gold hair was just on the street, no dogs allowed at the bird park. p.s. if you look closely at the fifth photo, this bee has a tic or something like it on its nape! crazy stuff!

Walk in the park!

I will start with the first photo, if you remember yesterday I showed you the backside of this gentleman and today here he is in all his glory! Wow! A nice old man, with a cute dog, what more can I say. Ken went to work and I went to the park. Kowloon Park was officially opened on 24 June 1970 by the then Governor, Sir David Trench. In 1989, the park was redeveloped at a cost of $300 million, which was funded by the then Royal Hong Kong Jockey Club. The park has everything, sports facilities, swimming pool, sculpture gardens, aviaries and more. After my day at the park, I went to the grocery store and bought items for our first home made meal. I bought salad greens, tomatoes, mushrooms, fresh sour dough bread, butter and garlic. I made pasta, salad, and garlic bread. My first meal at home was pretty good! And now I am editing photos!

This could take all night, seeing that I shoot almost a thousand images a day! Hope your enjoying this blog, because this is hard work! Good morning to you all! I am counting the days for my first visitor!

The joy of sunshine is short lived!

Today before we venture out, I wanted to share one of Ken's first sketches in Hong Kong. To watch him sketch out in public is really funny, everyone stands around him to view the masterpiece in progress!
Brave soul that he is, I would be mortified! So I thought I would share a little bit of fun facts while we are here.
I will not get very deep, that is Ken's department! For those of you that don't know Kong Kong means fragrant harbor, I am sure at one time it was, when I am not sure. The other factoid, more Rolls Royce cars were sold in China last year than anywhere else! The immense amount of wealth that is seen here on a daily basis is crazy. And I am only seeing it by viewing how many people are being driven by chauffeurs in luxury cars and the amount of inventory that is taken in on a daily basis in stores such a Gucci, Prada, Louis on and on and on.....
We are off for the daily adventure to Kowloon. Have a great night!

We had another full day of being out and about despite the gloomy weather. We started on a familiar walk to the flower market and then to the bird garden. Now this is a place where one should go and just sit for a long while and observe. To watch these men (no women) go through the process of selecting a five dollar bird is mind boggling to me. They pick a cage up, look at the bird intently and look and then look and look again. This process my take fifteen to twenty minutes or more! They may have two, three or four bird cages in their hands at a time, and then sometimes after all that looking, the picking up, putting down the cages they may end up not even buying a bird!
Truly fascinating! Throughout the day the men come with their pretty cages to the park and try to one up each other. My bird is better than yours!

We were hungry and decided to find a place for lunch, we found the Federal Palace restaurant located on the third and fourth floor of a building on Nathan Road. Ken and I were the only white people there and I am sure the only
white people for a long time to come. Ken figured how to order and we had dim sum and some other gooey and mushy things to eat. I am not sure I can get used to the texture of a lot of these things. I will post an example of the chicken skin I had at Canteen's on Thursday. We walked some more, stop by the park across the Jockey club and watched the men play the odds on the horses.
Walked a bit more and came across the Kowloon Park, a lovely green space that I will make a regular visits to while Ken is working. They had all kinds of birds and people. Along the streets I could not help but shoot some people that caught my eye. One in particular, when I saw him from behind, I know it was a man by the way he was standing, but
I almost fell on my ass when I continued to walk to see him from the front. That photo I will show you tomorrow. All in all a fun day of people watching and observing this intriguing culture.

Hello Sunshine!

What a difference a day makes!
We had sunshine and lots of it, for the first time in 8 days! We took advantage of the weather and walked for approximately six hours! We went to  the Sheung Wan neighborhood which we thought was rather far away and it turns out it was just down the street from a neighborhood we have become very familiar with. Funky, artsy, cool streets scene. Today all of the expats we encountered had initially planned a year or two here and 18 to 25 years later they are all still here! Right now that seems like such a foreign idea to me, I cannot imagine how one could do that, I guess it takes a special kind of person. Todays photos are folks going about their business, the first lady Ken thought her jacket to be funny, but her shoes and purse did match. The others for one reason or another just caught my eye.
I am still trying to decide what I want to shoot during this time here, I love shooting people, but in what way should I shoot? Any suggestions? I would welcome any opinions on the photos you have seen so far and what you would like to see in the future. I hope you all have a wonderful weekend, I certainly enjoyed my day in the sun!

Resident card anyone?

Well today was a great day! Finally had FaceTime and Tango with the family! We went to the immigration building and applied for our resident cards. The immigration office is organized and efficient I have to say. They move you from place to place in a timely manner! The U.S. could learn a lesson or two on how to be efficient.

The photos from today are in Wan Chai on our way to the immigration office. The streets were much busier and the stores were all open due to the end of the New Year holiday. The weather is still gloomy, but a bit warmer. The last photo is the entrance to our apartment.