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My mom is part of an international women’s organization called Zonta which organized a big conference in Yokohama this summer. My mom was going as a delegate for her club in Sweden and my dad was going with her. Since they would be fairly close it seemed like a good opportunity for me and the wife to meet up with them for a few days, so we booked a couple of tickets to Yokohama.
Although Yokohama is a pretty big city it’s not particularly well known for anything. Renegade Wife however did her homework and found out that the city … Read the rest
For the last few months the city government have been redecorating (is that the correct word here?) one of the parks near my house. The have added some fancy looking street lights, made new walkways and put up new fences around the canal, all in all making it a nicer place to be. As part of this redecoration they have also put up little groups of tables and chairs where people can sit and chat. For some reason, I suspect it is a case of prioritizing design over function, their choice of chairs fell on dinky little backless stools – … Read the rest
The sun has just started to set, it's noticeably lower in the sky but still bright and warm, shining right at me. My hat shields my face from its rays but I can feel its warmth on my bare chest. It paints a broad streak of silver on the water's surface, like a glimmering road across the tops of the waves, from the ever shifting waterline on the wet sand all the way out to the horizon. I stand a few feet out in the water with the waves washing over my ankles, watching that strip of silver as if mesmerized by the way it sparkles, drawing in my eyes until I see nothing else. I feel the cool breeze one my back, I feel the sand being washed out from under my feet as I sink down into it, I hear the wooshing of the waves that, though not loud, drowns out the sounds from the people around me. It is a strange thing this, this urge that makes me kick off my shoes and go stand in the water, this instinctive need for meditation that only the ocean can fulfill.
A while ago I stumbled upon a video showing some people in Bangladesh who had invented a kind of passive air cooler made from scrap bottles that could help poor people keep cool in the summer, you can read more about it here. I think it’s a neat idea so I figured I would try to build one of my own. The version shown in the video fits in a window but I figured i could fasten it on the front of a fan for increased effect. This post is a build log detailing the process.
Materials:
As can be … Read the rest
Macau is most famous for its many casinos and I believe most visitors come here for a day or two to do a bit of gambling. Although the casinos are ever-present, the Cotai Strip defining Cotai island, and the Grand Lisboa looming over the old city like a benevolent golden giant, there is more to this city than just gambling.
Macau is a small country and you can check off the major tourist attractions within a day or two, so unless you plan on spending a lot of time gambling, it’s not really worth it to fly around the world … Read the rest
The sign at the door said no photo so I’m on the balcony trying to take it all in. Below me is the main floor of the casino, a large hall with plush red carpets, brown panels on the wall that look like leather and all around the room the fixtures and fittings are polished to a golden sheen. About 50 gambling tables, topped in green or red cloth depending on the game, are spread out in the room. At each one of them sits a dealer clad in dark green a jacket, buttoned all the way up, with golden … Read the rest
Everyone has seen it in some movie or other, the cast stand in front of that fountain in Las Vegas looking at the show in front of them. This is just like that, except it’s not a movie. In front of me is a large pond bordered on this side by the promenade and on the opposite, the Wynn Palace casion with the central building right in front and the wings set at an angle like open arms welcoming you in, it’s facade bathed in a warm golden orange. From the middle of the pond dozens of water jets, lit … Read the rest
I have wandered into the central square of a European city. Around me are old, European style buildings in pastel colors, their facades covered in the kind of decorations you might see in Italy or Spain, their lower floors fronted by arcades. The ground is covered in worn down, black and white stone tiles laid out in a zebra stripe mosaic. In the center is a fountain surrounded by tourists with their cameras. It’s quite astounding how European the place looks, the only thing indicating that I’m in fact thousands of kilometers from Europe are the Chinese characters on the … Read the rest