winterson.com

boooooooooooooooom....

2008-07-20T23:45:00.003+08:00

the first sample video from my new casio ex-f1 camera...

this is a slow-motion capture (600fps) of a coastal gun firing at pendennis castle in cornwall, england. the video was then slowed down further to 25% of that speed using ulead videostudio.

the movement at the end is me flinching when the shockwave hit. i knew when the gun was going to fire but it was much louder than expected!

the yangyuan huating commerce hotel no.8

2008-06-29T23:40:00.002+08:00

the week before last i flew with a couple of work colleagues to visit a factory in yangyuan, close to the border of hebei and shanxi provinces. the closest airport was at datong, about a three hour drive away. we flew into busy datong airport (click on the thumbnail above) and headed to yangyuan.

at yangyuan we checked into the 'huating commerce hotel no.8' where i was given what supposedly was the presidential suite. the picture above is the view after entering the front door. the small table in front is for playing mahjong and was plugged in and making a loud refridgerator-like humming noise when i walked in.

the presidential bathroom overlooked the factory next door and was large but missing a few things such as... a mirror. presumably mr. president would have someone preening him in the morning and wouldn't have use for a mirror.

to the left in the bathroom there was a small sauna and jacuzzi. unfortunately there was no shower-head except for a small handheld one with about a foot of slack. i suppose mr. president doesn't worry about having to wash his own hair. the toilet was missing a toilet-paper holder, but i suppose mr. president also doesn't... never mind.

the telephones in the room were a bizarre gaudy combination of what you'd perhaps find in an early 20th-century mansion except made from plastic with a digital display.

another grotesque example next to the bed. i felt like picking it up and shouting, 'mr. watson, come here, i want you!'

the view from the bedroom. you'll notice the bed doesn't have covers on it. i thought perhaps there would be a 'turn down' service later in the evening but when i returned back to the room after dinner it still didn't have any covers on it. after hunting around for a while i asked for help and learned that the covers were stored in that small chest next to the television. yes, that made perfect sense.

this was by far the most bizarre aspect of the room. the second toilet was located right in the center of the room, surrounded by a hannibal lecter style glass room. no curtains, no screen, nothing. making matters worse is the front door to the right had about a quarter inch gap between the door and doorframe, so using the throne is not only a show to whoever is in the room but also whoever is walking down the hall. i really wonder what the purpose of this room is. perhaps some things are better left unknown....

a panoramic view of yangyuan as seen from the glass toilet cage room.

mac attack

2008-06-29T20:37:00.003+08:00

in computer news i've finally made the switch over to using a mac, at least for work anyway. i'm running a program called parallels which lets me use both the mac operating system (on the laptop on the right) and windows xp (on the screen on the left) at the same time. it took me a while to get used to the mac but now that i've been using it for a while i like it a lot. the downside is there are a number of programs, like outlook, which are better in their xp version so it looks like i'll be using parallels a lot.

macs are famous for their reliability, being far more stable than your typical windows pc. unfortunately, as you can see by the above picture, i've had a few crashes lately. of course i have to give full disclosure and say that all of the crashes happened while using windows xp inside parallels so it's not entire apple's fault.

and fitting with the theme of buggy microsoft product, my xbox 360 recently died after a strenuous period of being rarely used. here it is showing the infamous three 'red rings of death' signifying terminal hardware failure.

the flying condo

2008-06-29T19:13:00.004+08:00

the other week i was working in vietnam for a few days. over the past couple of months monsoon season has hit in full force in asia and the day i was due to fly back to hong kong was no exception. my flight was delayed by a couple of hours, though fortunately they kept us out of the airplane so we could walk around. the poor guys in the photo above kept trying to find a dry place to stand- finally they made a sprint for the underside of the airplane.

when i boarded the plane i was surprised to find that i had been upgraded to first class. even better, the plane was only a couple of weeks old and was fitted with the brand new cathay first class cabins.

the seat was at least 50% wider than normal and everything else was oversized too, including a 17" lcd screen that could be swiveled around on an arm. luxury!

the audio/video system was brand new and offered the usual array of on-demand music and movies.

the six first class suites shared a bathroom that was decked out in chrome and lots of shiny black surfaces that i'm sure are a real pain to keep clean.

the video i took above shows how large the cabin is- perfect for a long-haul flight. unfortunately i have about 13 hours in an economy seat to look forward to tomorrow. here's hoping and praying for another upgrade!

the met construction

2008-06-29T18:20:00.002+08:00

of the many new condos rising up in the bangkok skyline, probably the most distinctive is the met. i checked out their showroom a couple of weeks ago and took this photo of the construction update. the lower floors have an irregular pattern to the balconies, each of which comes with its own tree. probably not a good thing for me to move in there given my (dis)ability when it comes to taking care of plants.

around chiang mai

2008-06-29T17:13:00.004+08:00

a few months back i flew over to chiang mai for a long weekend. i've always liked chiang mai as it has a very different flavor to the rest of thailand- more of a relaxed atmosphere and the locals tend to be even more laid back than their bangkok colleagues. i rented a car and drove into the mountains- above is a road very close to the highest point in thailand, doi inthanon.

back closer to chiang mai is doi suthep, a mountain that overlooks the city and has a number of interesting places to visit including the temple wat phrathat doi suthep. on the steps leading up the temple sat two young kids in akha clothing eating shrimp crackers.

to reach the temple one has to climb 309 steps or for the less agile there's now a tram ride that takes one to the top.

this scary-looking fellow is a n?ga, a multi-headed temple guardian whose body extends the length of the steps leading to the temple.

inside the temple, standing buddhas with a temple viharn in the background.

offerings of candles, incense, and flowers.

an elderly monk gives out blessings in the form of strings tied to one's wrist. it's supposed to be good luck to wear the strings but i've never been told exactly how long to keep them on- some say removal after three days is ok and others say they should be worn until they fall off (!) which, considering that it is usually fairly sturdy string, could take quite some time.

a monk helps a tourist by taking a photo of her with her camera.

some flowers in front of a flag showing the royal emblem of celebration marking the king's 80th birthday.

a very large tree in the royal garden of phuping palace (pronouced 'boo-ping', not how you'd expect).

a rose in the royal garden.

a monk taking a photo of a group of monks in the garden.

Dawn Over San Francisco

2008-04-26T16:32:00.001+08:00

30,000 feet over tibet

2008-04-19T18:23:00.007+08:00

a few hours into a recent flight to portugal the captain announced that we were flying into a high pressure area, the air was unusually clear and he recommended we take a look. i opened the window shade to find an absolutely stunning view. the next several hours were spent staring out the window, camera in hand, neck aching but eyed glued as the scenery unfolded before me.

when the captain made the announcement we were on the edge of sichuan flying into tibet. we would then pass into qinghai and finally xinjiang before nightfall. click on the pictures for a much larger and clearer view.

below the aircraft i couldn't at first see any sign of human presence. we flew over ragged mountains and frozen lakes like the one above.

the above mountains in the distance stood out as the highest peaks by far. the tallest mountain is gongga shan, the third-highest peak outside of the himalayas. a satellite view of the mountain is here. we were about 50-60 miles east when i took the photo.

these hills stood out as they were topped not by snow but by a crumbling light grey material.

hidden in a valley here was one of the few signs of civilization. you can't see anything in this photo, but...

zooming in closer you can see a village built along both banks of a small river.

zooming in even closer you can clearly see the houses and a single building with a blue roof.

mile after mile of rolling hills cut by streams.

more signs of civilization hidden between the hills.

a small village with a rather unusual landmark...

i've tried searching on the internet but can't find what this is. from a distance it looked to be a runway but looking more closely one can a multi-story tower with about a kilometer length of clearing with something laid out on the surface. as you'll see below i saw another one later on.

as we flew further north the hills were dusted with snow, blown into streaks by the wind.

for the most part the valleys were deserted but every so often there'd be a single house or small community.

the square in the center is a small house surrounded by a walled area, possibly for livestock.

what at first again looked to be a small runway is another one of those strange towers.

zoomed all the way in one can see the tower on top and a length of clearing in front.

one of the larger villages that we flew over.

as we flew further north the snow became less and less on the hills, looking here more like powdered sugar.

finally as we flew into xinjiang the snow rather quickly disappeared. in this area some of the peaks were covered by of dark material not visible on the other hills.

here are the final mountains before the taklamakan desert, one of the largest sandy deserts in the world. the name of the desert means, 'those who go in do not come out'.

it was hard to get a good photo while over the desert as the wind-blown sand gave the area a dark brown haze. looking through to the ground all one could see for mile after mile were dunes and and the flat basin.

in the middle of the desert i found what looked to be a small camp of two cars and some temporary buildings.

at the north end of the desert lies the flaming mountains, the hottest place in china. above is one of the passes through the mountains, clearly visible here from satellite.

a road climbs up from the basin to a plateau, seen here from satellite.

we continued over the tien shan mountain range and onwards into the sunset.

above is a video i made from some short clips that i took on the flight. unfortunately it doesn't show much detail due to youtube's compression routine.

sign, sign, everywhere a sign...

2008-03-09T12:05:00.003+08:00

although china has done a good job of translating signs into english in advance of the upcoming 2008 olympics, sometimes the meaning of the sign can get a bit jumbled in translation and in many cases it's obvious that no one is checking to see if the translations make any sense.

the above sign is at the entrance to the ticket counter of a ferry from shanghai to chongming island. looks like it was translated by machine, but even then it's hard to understand what it's trying to say.

and this sign is over the entrance of the ferry itself. i wonder how much danger it has warded off.

this one dates back from an older trip to ningbo. if you're going to slip, make sure you do it carefully.

mr. foam

2008-03-09T11:34:00.002+08:00

a cyclist on chongming island carrying a little bit of styrofoam. good thing it wasn't too windy that day!

moto madness

2008-02-23T11:53:00.003+08:00

in vietnam the growing economy has created a new class of consumers, especially in urban centers like ho chi minh city. although one still sees folks riding around on bicycles, they have been largely replaced these days by scooters and small motorbikes.

at intersections like the one above there are swarms of bikes waiting for the light to change. in a car or van one is completely surrounded and when traffic is heavy the bikes thread and weave their way around, making forward progress as one sits there stuck.

unfortunately i missed taking pics of some of the more interesting things we saw- like one fellow carrying a refrigerator on the back of his motorbike and families of 4 or even 5 all squeezed together on one bike.

the next upgrade from motorbikes is to a small car. with traffic as bad as it is now in vietnam i can't imagine what it'll be like when that happens. it could even rival the worst of the worst... bangkok traffic!

how to spend a million in ninety minutes

2008-02-23T11:40:00.002+08:00

lunch for four at a hotel in ho chi minh city - 1.44 million dong!

a inunda��o grande

2008-02-19T01:45:00.004+08:00

this morning's drive began at 7:30am with the idea being to leave lisbon early, beating the traffic, and arrive in alcoba�a at around 8:30am to get a nice early start to the day.

well last night was like monsoon season in bangkok- pouring rain and lightning so bright i could see it behind closed curtains and closed eyelids. this morning it was still bucketing down and after an hour of driving in heavy traffic we still were not out of lisbon.

we found a road closed so we took a detour to the highway and were faced with the above- the road was turned into a brown river which no cars dared to brave. another hour later and we were finally leaving lisbon.

total elapsed time, three and a half hours. all was not lost, however, as i exercised my thumbs with the blackberry and irradiated my brain with mobile phone calls to get a lot of work done on the way. the miracles of modern technology!

a rainy day in lisbon

2008-02-18T04:57:00.003+08:00

with a free day in lisbon i thought i'd venture out and explore the city rather than holing up in my hotel room. a tour of the city was booked for the afternoon so i started by a lunch in the hotel restaurant. pictured above is one of the extra-strength portugese coffees that are more like triple espressos. one of those and i'm ready to start the day- or maybe run around the block twenty times!

first stop was the castle of saint george and wandering the small nearby streets. unfortunately of all the days i've been in lisbon it decided to rain on my one free day. the good news was there weren't many tourists around the outside destinations and some of the streets, like this one, looked almost abandoned.

a canon looks down towards the city. although by the architecture of the city one might think it to be extremely old, most of it in fact dates back to only the second half of the 18th century as a massive earthquake and tsunami destroyed around 80% of the buildings in the city in 1755, killing a third of the population.

the national museum of azulejo was the next stop- an interesting historical tour of the world of portugese ceramic painted tiles.

the museum is located in a beautiful restored convent and also showcases some modern art pieces.

these tiles are from the middle of the 18th century and depict three saints. i'm not sure who the one on top is but she looks a bit unhappy, perhaps not surprising as she has seven swords sticking out of her.

the weather started to clear towards the end of the afternoon so i took a stroll outside, followed by a visit to the impressive jer�nimos monastery which contains the tomb of vasco da gama among others. with the enormous ceilings and impressive architecture, it boggles my mind to consider that the original monastery in this photo was built 500 years ago.

in all a great day out in lisbon, even if i did see only a fraction of what the city has to offer.

cam�es square

2008-02-17T00:06:00.003+08:00

i've been in portugal for the past week enjoying far too much local cuisine between ceramics factory visits. my return to hong kong has been postponed so i'm having a quiet weekend in lisbon at the bairro alto hotel.

the hotel is located in the upper part of the old city district of bairro alto which is on the edge of a restaurant and nightlife district. so far i haven't seen much as we managed to work late enough last night to have an 11:30pm dinner nearby. tonight i'll venture out and explore the area.

click on the above thumbnail to see a panorama taken from my room's balcony on the first floor of the hotel. last night the area around the statue was packed with drunken revelers until the wee hours so i slept using the old college 'one pillow under and one pillow over the head' routine.

tonight's plan will be to sample the local port wine, so i don't think the extra pillow will be needed.

sa�de!

a statue of mom

2008-02-03T23:54:00.000+08:00

i found this creature in a temple in chiang mai thailand:

maybe it was the sculptor's mother-in-law?

irrational exhuberance

2007-10-18T23:25:00.000+08:00

i bet you didn't know that the epicenter of exhuberance is somewhere off the highway in guangdong province in china.

not exactly sure what this place is but i bet folks in there are happy.

cough, cough, sputter

2007-09-15T14:53:00.000+08:00

i woke up this morning with the good intention of going out for a jog. one look out the window quickly changed my my mind, however, as i figure i'm healthier surfing the internet than sucking down this air:

compare this with a clear day a few weeks ago and you can easily see the difference:

the hong kong epd website shows that it isn't just an innocent low-flying cloud. there are a lot of nasties in that haze:

respirable suspended particulates- yum!

pollution is a very big issue here in hong kong, the source of the grime being the factories and power plants located in nearby southern china. over the past couple of months we've been lucky and had a lot of clear days, but it takes one like this to remind everyone how bad the problem can be.

here's hoping that the wind will shift and tomorrow it'll be clear. otherwise the most exercise i'm going to get this weekend is going to be extreme internet surfing and dvd watching.

here and there

2007-09-09T17:35:00.001+08:00

because i've been traveling so much lately i've had little time for updates. below are some highlights from the past couple of months:

a hong kong airlines boeing 737 waits to depart from hong kong international airport.

up up and away!

an older thai airways boeing 747 in front of suvarnabhumi airport.

sunrise in thailand.

my temporary home for 12 and a half hours.

i never get tired of seeing sunsets and sunrises from the air.

a window seat affords some great views.

a view of downtown chicago shortly after taking off from o'hare.

the gotham-like jin mao tower next to the shanghai world financial center. at 92 stories of its planned 101 stories it's already one of the tallest buildings in the world. must be an amazing view from the chair of one of those crane operators

a panorama of shanghai taken from my hotel room on the 54th floor of tomorrow square. click for a larger version.

lightning above a nearby apartment complex here in hong kong.

nelson, my dad's bernese mountain dog in cornwall, england.

sunrise at 35,000 feet

2007-08-18T21:52:00.000+08:00

skirting the storm

2007-08-11T11:16:00.000+08:00

while flying from hong kong to shanghai a couple of months ago i was treated to an sunset light show, courtesy of a large tropical storm that we flew past. the above pic is a still frame from the video i took below.

culinary delights

2007-08-11T11:07:00.000+08:00

the lunch menu at cosmo restaurant in fenggang, donguan, china.

nessun dorma

2007-06-12T22:23:00.000+08:00

this is absolutely brilliant...

riders on the storm

2007-05-27T20:38:00.000+08:00

a 300x time compression of today's afternoon storm.

wide and fast

2007-05-26T12:48:00.000+08:00

i've now been in hong kong for almost two weeks and as i finished most of my errands last weekend i've had some time this weekend to play around with various gadgets and doodads.

i downloaded the free panorama software autostitch a while ago and have recently become addicted to it. it puts together photos incredibly well, bending them and changing the brightness and whatnot so the panorama appears almost seamless. best part is there's almost nothing to do except select the pics and wait for it to churn out the result.

above are two panoramas i took from my computer room window, looking out towards kowloon and the new territories. taking the night photos was a bit tricky as i had to stick my arm out the window to take the shots, so the longer exposure made things quite blurry. click on the thumbnail for a larger image.

playing around with my video camera and videostudio i put together the above time lapse video. i compressed the various shots 10x (the maximum vs allows) then did it again to get the images you see in the video.

not bad, eh!