I always seem to return with a sheet of stamps after a trip to the post office. These ‘Forever’ stamps are depicting the Cherry Blossom Centennial in Washington DC. The post I made on April 6 was about these same cherry blossoms. I just didn’t realize the trees in Washington DC actually came from Japan, a gift of 3,020 trees from the city of Tokyo .. which explains the Japanese woman and child in the corner of the stamp with their kimonos and sun umbrellas. The first two cherry trees were planted on March 27, 1912.
This Texas Longhorn looked down at me as I was exiting the security clearance into the departure area at Bush Intercontinental Airport’s C Terminal to make the 4½ hr flight back to Seattle. These cattle are known for their diverse coloring and despite the fearsome and long pointed horns, generally have a gentle disposition and intelligence. The longhorn is the official animal of Fort Worth, Texas, which is therefore nicknamed ‘Cowtown’.
I finally had some time before the sun set on Thursday to walk around downtown Houston and snap some pictures. At the courthouse a guard chided me, said I am not allowed to take pictures (because it’s a federal building). What a sad state of affairs, I thought – if citizens cannot even take pictures of their own city’s or country’s courthouses and buildings. But then one of my colleagues pointed me to a 2010 New York Times article http://lens.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/10/18/you-can-photograph-that-federal-building/ that says the guard was wrong. As a general rule – a photographer can stand in a public place and take pictures of federal buildings.
Wednesday morning had me in the office early to prepare some lessons for the day’s training. The slice of pumpkin bread from you-know-who (Starbucks) and a banana was breakfast.
I’m on the way to Houston for the week for work. What used to be a Continental flight is now United Airlines and there is no spare seat on the flight : that’s the way we fly these days, it seems. (And no, I’m not sitting up front in the big seats, but I did get an exit row seat, so I have a little extra leg room).
Is it OK to put gourmet* together with ‘noodle bowl’ and call your Asian restaurant the Gourmet Noodle Bowl? .. given that gourmet is (from Wikipedia) a cultural ideal associated with haute cuisine, which is characterized by elaborate preparations and presentations of large meals of small, often quite rich courses? No matter, they serve up great Chinese, Taiwanese and Indonese food there, and we ended the meal with ice cream servings of mango, green tea and durian flavors. There is a picture of durian – the king of fruit – on my post of Tue Mar 27.
Click on the link to explore the cosmos and the microcosmos. I will take a little time to load if your connection is slow. The pictures are from the web site.
My dinner was vindaloo, basmati rice and pita bread last night at The Elysian Pub here in Seattle. Vindaloo is an Indian curry dish popular in the region of Goa but also in many other parts of India. Goa is India’s smallest state by area and is south of Mumbai on the west coast.
I drove down to our state’s capital city Olympia at the southernmost end of Puget Sound today to meet a colleague from work for dinner, about an hour’s drive. On the way I stopped by the capitol building. The Olympia waterfront and downtown are are both a stone’s throw from the capitol building.
The RMS Titanic sank on Apr 15, 1912 on her maiden voyage. These commemorative pictures were in the South China Morning Post’s weekend edition at Hong Kong airport.
I don’t have a membership card for Seattle’s Costco store*, but I have friends that do, and I went with them to the store today. The store is no-frills and looks like a warehouse inside.
*A warehouse ‘club’ retail store selling a wide variety of merchandise, but only in large, wholesale quantities.
It’s still Saturday and I have arrived in a sunny and clear Seattle – same as Hong Kong was when we left it. It was the usual 3 1/2 hrs to Seoul with a connection time of an hour before we did the 9 hour trek east to the West coast of the USA. There was a diagram of the trajectory of the North Korean rocket in the Korean newspaper.
I am at Hong Kong International Airport, bags checked and all. I am always a little stunned when I am done packing to see how much stuff can be squished into a suitcase. (Many years ago when I used to pack the family car’s trunk for a road trip with everyone’s stuff and food, I had the same experience). I am stopping over in Seoul, and then on to Seattle for an arrival in the middle of the day.
I have packed my two bags and checked in on-line with Asiana Airlines. (And hey, nice to know the airspace is now clear of North Korean rockets. The rocket was launched this at 7.39am this morning but broke apart before leaving the atmosphere). I don’t have a scale to weigh my bags but I think I’m under the 70 lb mark.
Our project is rapidly nearing its end. I am leaving on Saturday, so I have to start packing up – and clear out the little food items I have squirreled away in the hotel room. These cute little cans of peas and mushrooms are from Japan and came complete with pull-top lids.
Here is an 8 am in the morning glimpse of the Da Peng town plaza as we drive by in the bus on the way to work. The pedestrian is listening to his music and the Tai Chi exercise group is at it in the background. I no longer read e-mails or news articles on my phone or iPad on the bus but just take the time to relax or even take a little nap if I can.
This ‘Big Pasture’ beef jerky brought back to us from a colleague that visited Mongolia is very good ! It’s dry and breaks up as you chew it, so it doesn’t stick between one’s teeth the way jerky sometimes do. The black 肉character right at the end means ‘meat’.