Questions

1. How could the 3000 year old gold sun disk from Guangzho, China, on the left be so similar to the 5000 year old Celtic symbol, on the right, seen on many stone engravings and which I saw many places in the Bay of Biscay, Brittany, France?

 

2.  Skunk Scares Snap Shooters
What would you do? Last week in Niagara on the Lake while Walking back from a delightful perfomance of Shaw’s “Candida” (the liberated lady of 100 years ago), I saw in the dark, in this garden, a skunk approaching – tail up. It would have made a great cell phone photo, but would have needed the flash.  Susan advised against it as we had 2 more plays to see and I only had one set of clothes. I’m told that if you hear a sharp click, it’s too late. Next day I did snap the empty scene, and added a sketch of what I remember:

 

3.  Go Bananas
Why would Dole have this lable on a banana I bought in Victoria barely a month or so after the Stanley Cup hockey riots which trashed the downtown Vancouver streets?

 

Shanghai, Oahu

Looking north from my hotel window last week there was a beautiful and ancient gilt wooden temple, with a thriving market and park on the ground floor.

In front of it, runs a busy east-west elevated expressway, with the iconic Pudong TV tower on its tripod legs is just visible in the distance.

Suddenly I saw the eastbound traffic stopped by one man stading in the middle of the 3 lane highway.  All I could think of was Tienenman Man who famously stood in front of the tanks with his shopping bags – and stopped them, years ago.

I looked away as I tried to get a better photo out the small opening of my window. Looking back – he was gone. Had I seen history repeat itself? No alas, zooming in on the picture above I could see the white cap and blue shirt of one extremely brave policeman who ‘manually’ stopped the traffic; probably to allow some vips to enter undisturbed by the adjacent on-ramp.

Return home via Oahu

The traffic of surfboards (about 70) and stand-up paddle boards (about 100) in Waikiki, on the free day magically created by crossing the dateline coming home eastward, was nearly as frantic, especially when the outrigger canoes with 2 giant Haiwaians and 6 tourists aboard catch a wave and hurtle through the mass of surfers. (no photos – sorry). Meanwhile, around the corner at Diamond Head it was 8 feet and curling. You can just see one of many surfers at the edge of a right breaking wave.