Breakfast

I consider myself having a rather broad and adventurous palate (up to a point). But even after 27 years of living here, I still cannot stomach the Asian breakfast.

Filipinos typically start their day with a plate of tapsilog: meat/fish with garlic rice and a fried egg. Favorite meats include tapa (cured beef), corned beef, spam, longganisa or chorizo sausage, and tocino (bacon). Fried marinated bangus (milkfish) is popular,too.

Manila, 2012

This restaurant - Big Plate - is currently offering a special: a standard range of tapsilog versions with a cup of coffee for just over US$2 - all day. I wonder whether the brewed coffee is the native grown kape barako.

They make it look appetizing. But no meat or fried before noon for me! I'll stick to my organic cereal or oatmeal with fruit. And of course, coffee!

How do you break your fast?

Linking with Signs, Signs.

Court in Session!

Dapitan, 2008

One of my pet peeves about living in Asia is the incessant and often futile use of horns. Motorcycles, cars, buses, trucks; one louder than the other. The noise pollution can sometimes get under my skin.
 
Mostly to no avail, I've seen prohibitions against using one's horn around schools, hospitals, even just residential areas. So perhaps I'd be forgiven if I thought this sign told me I couldn't honk near a court house.

How fun to learn that the only court on the block was a tennis court!

This is for Lesley's Signs, Signs.

Smoker's Area

It seems to me that in most developed countries, smoking cigarettes has to a large extent lost its appeal. Not only is there now strong social pressure against it, prohibitive taxes and legal proscriptions have made the habit inconvenient.

In Asia, many people still smoke. While bans on public smoking are increasingly being introduced, in general nonsmokers remain quietly tolerant of the smoker. The culture values group harmony over personal rights.

And yet, perhaps it's just a matter of time... Here's a fun mixed message I saw at our humble tennis club this week (more fun enlarged):

 Manila, 2012

Earlier this week I saw this advertisement to encourage smokers to quit. Pretty effective, don't you agree?

This joins other fun, creative and interesting signs over at Signs, Signs.

In Search of Beauty

Some business signs inspire confidence. Others, well... not so much.

Cebu, 2011

Yet this beauty parlor in Cebu had a line-up of eager customers.

And how could you resist patronizing a parlor that promises, "You don't have to go anywhere, because with our service you will be... too gorgeous"!

Manila, 2011

Linking with seekers of Signs, Signs. Have some fun and check out other informative, humorous and creative signs from around the globe.

Lucky Entrance

I've shown before on this blog that in the southern Guangdong town of Kaiping you can still find old time Chinese charm and culture, even if you have to hunt for it, like for a treasure in a flea market. And you're more likely to stumble across charm, even if it's faded charm, in the older villages that are simply surrounded by modern urban sprawl (as you can see in my previous post).

It is in one such village that I found these pretty hand-painted ceramic tiles of plants and nature scenes (better viewed enlarged).

 Kaiping, 2012

Since the painting is not done directly on the wall, I hope I'm not stretching the definition of mural too much by offering these tiles to the community at Monday Murals. (Do click the link and go check out other amazing wall paintings from around the globe.)

If these tiles please you, you may also like others I've posted.

The paintings decorate the main entrance to an early 20th century gray-brick home quite typical in the region. The old wood door may be of interest to the folks at Monday Doorways. (If you like doors, head on over.)

Since we were in Kaiping over this past Lunar New Year (a multi-day celebration, much like Christmas in the West), the traditional chunlian - a couplet with an auspicious message for the new year - flanked the entrance. Reading first the right poster from top to bottom, the text on this couplet says:

Coming in and out safely with everything accomplished
Pursuing wealth without obstacles with profit arriving from all directions

Over the door, the large character (fook) means blessing or good fortune.

These new year posters are offered to seekers of signs at Signs, Signs. (You know the drill, right?)

You may also notice the fresh tangerine orange and lettuce hanging on the hook. Such bundles of fruit and/or vegetables too are customary for Cantonese speakers; the food may either have a symbolic meaning, or the spoken character for the food is close to an auspicious word. Here the character for tangerine (gut) is pronounced the same as the character for luck/propitious (gut), and lettuce (sanchoi) sounds like giving birth (in other words, bearing offspring).

Since I was behind The Great Firewall of China late January, I take this moment to wish you a comfortable ride on the tail of the dragon to good health and good fortune this Year of the Dragon!

Y is for Year

We are a few days into 2012 and this post is a brief peek into how Filipinos celebrate the arrival of the New Year. Two words might suffice, really: deafening and dangerous.

Firecrackers, fireworks and other noisemakers are key to bringing the new year in with a bang. For days before the midnight transition from old year to new and for a day or two after still, the eardrum bursting sounds of snap, crackle, pop, whizz, fizz and BANG! permeate the air, along with lung-busting (and airplane diverting) smoke.

A traditional belief I suspect was adopted from the Chinese holds that the cacophony drives off evil spirits, thereby ensuring a bountiful and blessed new year.

Despite legally banning the larger explosives and annual attempts to forewarn the public of the dangers of fireworks through information campaigns, each year many hundreds of casualties and a few deaths are reported throughout the nation. Many would like to see a total ban on all fireworks, but there is still a massive resistance again such a move.

My photos were taken last week in Dumaguete, where vendors in makeshift stalls along the street saw a brisk business for their fiery wares.

Dumaguete, 2011

I am linking to ABC Wednesday where the letter is Y and to Signs, Signs.

Monday Mural I

 New York, 2008

Many months ago sister blogger at Oakland Daily Photo started posting awesome murals she finds all over her city every Monday. I've been following them with great pleasure. More recently, others have followed suit in posting all kinds of wall art (click here and here on Mondays).

Murals appeal to me on a number of levels. Wall art comes in many forms: it can be a divine fresco in an old church, a fun depiction of a historical story, or even just an attractive way to decorate a commercial establishment. In any event, they bring color and stories into our lives. Like all public art, murals bring art to the people; they are accessible. Unlike graffiti, wall art is invited, it is not an intrusion, a defacement of public or private property. And as with all mediums and levels of art, I definitely like some more than others.

Today's animal glass mosaic mural above is worth enlarging to see the detail. I snapped it walking into the Fifth Avenue subway in New York City a few years ago. It is part of a collection of murals at that station called Urban Oasis created by artist Ann Schaumburger in collaboration with Miotto Mosaics in 1997.

I think the tiled sign for the subway was pretty cool too and will link it with Signs, Signs (on Wednesday).

I don't see enough murals to post one every week, but this is a first of what I hope will be an occasional series.

If you too like wall art, click on the keyword mural on my sidebar to see a few I have posted before and go check out some of the fabulous ones posted by the other photo bloggers. And come check this spot on Mondays.

Or better yet, post your own mural and let us know!

Look the Right Way

Crossing the streets in Hong Kong can be a hazardous venture if you don't look the right way! The signs on all the streets make it a no-brainer... if you remember to look down first!

Hong Kong, 2011

Joining seekers of interesting Signs, Signs.

Note: I'll be going behind The Great Firewall of China shortly and will catch up with fellow sign bloggers and other commenters when I get back out.

X is for Xiao

This is the Chinese character for small or little. In pinyin - the spelled sound and official phonetic system - it is xiao.

To my ears, the X is pronounced in between the English S and the SH. Xiao, then, is pronounced: shiao... or she-ow (and you can thank me for not getting into tones).

You can remember this character by visualizing the arms down, legs together... in contrast to the character for big or large, da - 大, which has the arms up, legs apart.

In China, xiao as a preface makes a common term of endearment. You often hear a waitress called xiao mei (little sister). Among friends, xiao is put before the personal name. For instance, my Chinese name is Fu Lian, so, if I were younger, people close to me and in the same generation could call me Xiao Fu.

The most famous xiao is Deng Xiaoping, 鄧小平, the diminutive paramount leader of China from 1978 to 1992 who made a big impact by raising millions out of poverty. Perhaps the most famous line attributed to him is: To get rich is glorious!

Shenzhen, 2010

Propaganda posters, and these days billboards, are evident throughout China. This one, featuring Deng Xiaoping, says: Continue the party's basic direction without hesitation for 100 years. 

The modern city of Shenzhen you see behind Mr Deng was little more than a fishing village when I first entered China in 1985. Today it is a thriving metropolis of 14 million people. That's no xiao feat.

X is the letter at Alphabe-Thursday and I'm also linking to Signs, Signs. 

I is for Irony

No time for a long post today, so I'm just sharing a little irony... 

 Manila, 2010

You'd think they'd use a bit of that magic rustguard on their premises.

For ABC Wednesday, where the letter is I, and for Signs, Signs.

S is for School

When times are tough, the first things we go without are those we deem non-basics or luxuries. This goes for government budgets, too. Yet I find it incomprehensible and sad that we consider art and cultural programs, including art and music education for our youth in schools, among the dispensable, especially while the war machines are kept humming at full tilt. This value system does not speak well of us as civilized humans.

I am guessing that this once-handsome music school in Bucharest too had its funding slashed.

 Bucharest, 2011

The signs posted in front of the school show there is still a lively interest in a range of music in the city.

Posting for S at Alphabe-Thursday and Signs, Signs.

Decisions, Decisions

Joining Lesley's Signs, Signs.

O is for Outhouse

Should you have visited my blog before, you know I do more than a modicum of travel. And my treks occasionally take me to what is ostensibly the outer limits of our orb where the comforts of home are sparse.

For Jenny's Alphabe-Thursday, the letter of the week is O, and I want to offer you an outhouse in the most out-of-the-way location I have even been: the far western province of Hovd in Mongolia.

First let me show you our whereabouts on this occasion.

Hovd, Mongolia, 2007

On to the prettiest privy I've ever observed.

And to add a little more humor to this story, I offer this STOP sign in the middle of this no man's land right by this outstanding outhouse for Lesley's Signs, Signs.

I was told that the officials of the provincial government had the onerous objective of making this a tourist destination. It didn't quite work out that way. Or at least not yet.

N is for Notice

Today I share with you merely three of countless poorly translated notices and signs I've come across over the last decades of traveling throughout China. They are from my archives, from a time when digital photo quality did not match today's.

Hebei, 2004

Guangdong, 2005

Hunan, 2005

You get the gist, right?

My purpose is not to make fun, just have a little fun. Consider this: Being the third or fourth largest nation on earth in size (tied with the USA, depending on how areas are measured), with the largest population (over 20%), and not using the Roman alphabet, it's not really too surprising that China is a rich source for such bloopers. Yet I've seen them everywhere, even, and thus more reproachfully, in English-speaking countries.

There are entire websites devoted to these kind of funny notices. These three of mine join Jenny's Alphabe-Thursday where the letter of the week is N and Lesley's Signs, Signs.

A note to my blogger friends in Ontario: There are a slew of free or near-free fun ethnic events happening in the Toronto area this week. Check out what's on at the Toronto Multicultural Calendar Blog. And tell Ruth I sent you.

M is for Metal Memorial

There are many roadside memorials in the Balkan region. I spotted this metal cross on a meander in Bucharest, but I found more of them in the countryside than in urban centers.

Bucharest, 2011

This is a mournful memorial for a mother (31) and child (6) who I'd surmise met a mortal motor car mishap together on this spot on November 20, 2005. 

Memorials like this make me pause and reflect how fragile and unpredictable life is. And reminds me to carpe diem. 

I've seen them in other regions of the world, too. Do you see any in your neighborhood? 

In recent years, these kinds of public shrines are meeting a measure of opposition and have sparked mainstream media debates. Want to share your musing on this matter?

M is the letter at Alphabe-Thursday. Many more M mentions may be found there.

They are also placed as a warning sign for drivers to stay alert and drive carefully. So I join Signs, Signs, too.

Add Some Color, Please

Bucharest, 2011

In our life there is a single color, as on an artist's palette, which provides the meaning of life and art. It is the color of love.

   ~ Marc Chagall

We are like chameleons, we take our hue and the color of our moral character, from those who are around us.
   ~ John Locke

The soul becomes dyed with the color of its thoughts.
   ~ Marcus Aurelius

Sit in reverie and watch the changing color of the waves that break upon the idle seashore of the mind.
   ~ Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

I found I could say things with color and shapes that I couldn't say any other way - things I had no words for.
   ~ Georgia O'Keeffe

There is not one blade of grass, there is no color in this world that is not intended to make us rejoice.
   ~ John Calvin

Today I join Signs, Signs.

I is for Illicit or Illegal?

Was it illicit or illegal to photograph this sign?

Romania, 2011

Observation: there seems to be a growing paranoia about the public use of cameras right at a time when every Tom, Dick and Annabelle roams the streets with a camera in their cellphone. What is the use of promulgating rules and regulations that cannot be systematically and fairly enforced? Just asking.

Linking to Alphabe-Thursday and Signs, Signs.

Is This Your Sausage?

Austria, 2011

Saw these signs everywhere I went in Austria. For Signs, Signs.

PS. After reading all the comments I realize the purpose of this sign is not so obvious. Andy got it right: it's a poop and scoop message. The website he links is also in German and says roughly: The famous Jack Russell Terrier can be seen again all around Vienna. A total of 18,000 of these dog signs have been distributed across Vienna's green spaces to remind people once again to pick up their dog mess or get fined Euro 36.

T is for Tattoo

Every city I've ever been to has its rundown section. Bucharest is no exception. This area we walked through looked like it was dying... one rundown or abandoned building after another. Perhaps to make way for new development? I don't know.

I was surprised, then, to see this tattoo shop with its provocative large sign. Who would go here?

Bucharest, 2011

Linking with Jenny's Alphabe-Thursday and Lesley's Signs, Signs.

Over the Top

 Bucharest, 2011

Can you tell I'm not fond of in-your-face advertising? Piata Romana is made none the more attractive for it. 

This post links with Signs, Signs.