Posts by Chris Waugh
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hmmm.... gulls flying in formation.... a squadron of gulls lining up for take off.... These gulls seem to be taking on quite a military demeanour. Should we be worried? Or is this the RNZAF's response to its miserly budget?
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Capture: Roamin' Holiday, in reply to Steve Barnes,
The seem to be quite deliberately putting on an aerobatics display.
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Capture: Roamin' Holiday, in reply to Chris Waugh,
I include the Chinese because I never thought there was a difference between 艺术 and 美术 and the dictionaries don’t help, except that 美术 may refer specifically to painting.
I meant to add: So please, people, if you want your documents translated well, write them properly. That is not the only example of an utterly pointless and unnecessary ambiguity I've come across and they are exceedingly frustrating when you're trying to translate. Not sure if any of you are ever in need of a translator, but bear that in mind just in case....
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Capture: Roamin' Holiday, in reply to Sofie Bribiesca,
Sounds like you are enjoying Fatherhood Chris :)
Well, it certainly has its perks. But we had a bit of trouble getting that carseat into the car, what with short seatbelts and staff at a carparts market laughing in my wife's face when she asked for stuff that should easily available, and I was just really happy to have her both safe and comfortable.
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Capture: Roamin' Holiday, in reply to Russell Brown,
Didn't get much chance for a look around. When we arrived we had to find our studio, the map very conveniently didn't have names on it, and they couldn't seem to think to tell us which number their studio was, but did think to jump on a bike and ride down to the gate to meet us. Then afterwards the wee one was rather exhausted. And besides, it's cold, damp, grey, and heavily polluted (I mean, by Beijing standards, in which what the rest of the world calls heavy pollution is the default setting), so not really taking the baby for a walk kinda weather. I did see a few other photography studios, there was the rather Bacchanalianly named place I mentioned, but I couldn't see anything to tell me whether that was a bar, a liquor store, or both. Otherwise it looked like the usual mix of studios, galleries, bars, cafes, general arty trendiness, just like out at the more famous 798, but much more compact.
Oh, and silly me, in this modern world we have things like Google. Their website says "是传媒、广告、艺术、美术、动漫、影视等行业的聚集地" - it's a base for industries such as media, advertising, art, animation, film and television. I include the Chinese because I never thought there was a difference between 艺术 and 美术 and the dictionaries don't help, except that 美术 may refer specifically to painting. What I did get close enough to identify was either Bacchanalian or photographic in nature.
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Success! The poor wee one no longer has to endure the squishy Japanese carseat that was supposed to last her till she's 3, but whose straps are already too short, now she can enjoy her big, comfy German seat. And after two hours of modelling, she fell fast asleep as soon as the car started moving.
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Capture: Roamin' Holiday, in reply to Sofie Bribiesca,
Nice one. Given the current gloomy weather in these parts and the propensity for the air pollution to stain the moon apocalyptically red, seeing a moon like that, with or without the sun, would be a huge buzz.
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Today's roaming. In classic Beijing style, an old industrial estate all gussied up and turned all arty farty. We were going to a photographer's studio for the start of my daughter's modelling career. Across the lane was a place calling itself 醉美会 - literally: drunk beautiful club. "Literally" - each of those characters could be interpreted differently, of course, especially the third, but that seems the best "literal" interpretation. I was driving, so no, I didn't check it out. There's dozens of these little art districts scattered around Beijing these days. This one was called 718 - perhaps after the terminus of the 718 bus route right next door.
Two hours of modelling is exhausting for a 9 month old, but she handled it well, and got the nickname "IT baby" thanks to her fascination with computers and banging on and pulling keys off keyboards.
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Capture: Roamin' Holiday, in reply to JacksonP,
Would that be Mount Maunganui? Been a long time since I was in that part of the world.
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Capture: Roamin' Holiday, in reply to Joe Wylie,
I don't have any similar book memories. Probably my earliest really vivid book memory was in Te Awamutu and my mum coming home from the public library with a picture dictionary each of French and German, and it wasn't the pictures, it was these words, these magic, strange, foreign, exotic words for things I knew about in English. I remember the pictures, but I don't think I really noticed them so much as they were just explanations for these words. And the words! Wow! They just opened up whole new worlds for me, sent my mind spinning out to worlds beyond our small archipelago!
In the photo of my daughter with her book, it was the words that told me the book was upside down. Seriously, I looked over and saw her with a book and noticed that she was looking at the words (Chinese characters or hànyǔpīnyīn romanisation of the characters) upside down. I didn't notice the pictures were upside down (although that was obviously true) until I posted the photo.
I do often catch myself glancing over an illustration and focussing entirely on the caption beneath it (like when reading the Tintin comics I posted a photo of above).
But I don't care how my daughter comes to enjoy her books, or whether she becomes a voracious T-Rex reader like her paternal grandma, a slow food reader like me, or an occasional reader like her mummy, or what kinds of books she comes to like (she's already showing preferences!), so long as she does understand the sheer joy and adventure to be found within their pages.
