The last time I wrote a poem was when I was 19 and in university, doing a BA in English literature. I hadn’t returned to it much in an academic way until just two days ago while helping my daughter with poetry annotation for her IB course. It struck me how much I had enjoyed every aspect of literature and how much I had missed it all these years. So this is a verse that came to me spontaneously – the first that  I have written in almost 30 years…just for fun.

“Today I return to my first love
Art for art’s sake, words for words’ sake.
The sound of words, clipped, flowing, leaping, swish-swashing
Onomatopoeia. Paints thought-coloured landscapes in my head.
What a luxury to have studied poetry in
Times of youth when all the world was far away yet
was the oyster, beckoning, inviting, plump with promise,
yet to be opened
Pried open by a gilded spoon.”

This is my country. I had taken this panorama of the city area overlooking Marina Bayfront in August last year when Singapore celebrated its 50th anniversary of independence. Even when I look at this picture now, I feel a great sense of pride. A little country with no resources, we took ourselves from third world to first world in half a century, and we are happily multiracial. Only thing is, it’s getting seriously expensive living here now, but we cope.

As you can see, it was a big party, and the fireworks had just been set off. There was a big parade at the Padang just to the right of this picture, which I didn’t capture in this frame.

As a family, we love the fireworks on National Day, but we’re not too enamoured with crowds. So we did a staycation at the Fairmont, to soak in the atmosphere, celebrate with the nation but in the comfort of our room. Chips, wine, beer, and nibbles, followed by dinner at a restaurant later.

As a freelance travel journalist, I sometimes like to capture candid shots of people on the streets to catch the local flavour. But I am aware that some people don’t like having their pictures taken by strangers, and in parts of Asia, the older folk in particular, can be a little superstitious about having their photo taken. To get round that, I sometimes hold my camera at waist level and shoot randomly in the hope of catching good shots. In the heap of bad pictures and duds, there would be a few that turn out well, especially if the lighting and the shutter speed is fast, and the moon and stars all align in my favour. This shot I took in Istanbul turned out particularly well!

The light outside today is not warm, but hot and glaring. So for today’s assignment, I felt it best to pick something out of my heap of holiday photos. I think warmth and light from the sun is nicely captured here, illuminating one of my favourite desserts, Baklava, perfectly paired with sweet tea Turkish style. This was taken a couple years ago when we visited Turkey, at a charming little eaterie called Kadin Girismciler Kooperatif Restaurant (Uğur Mumcu Caddesi) in the town of Avanos, in Cappadocia.

Kadin Girismciler is a women’s co-operative which aims to empower women by providing them with some financial independence and the experience of running their own business. Here, the ladies serve lovely, homemade fare at decent prices. They cook from a home kitchen at the back of the building, turning out simple dishes like eggplant stuffed with mince meat and rice, meatballs, dolman, and baklava. It was one of my most memorable meals.

Filed under: Food, Musings, Uncategorized ]]> https://therunawaypalate.com/2016/03/17/photo-101-warmth-light/feed/ 9 eewaun IMG_2163 https://therunawaypalate.com/2016/03/16/photo-101-natural-world-leading-lines/ https://therunawaypalate.com/2016/03/16/photo-101-natural-world-leading-lines/#comments Wed, 16 Mar 2016 03:07:35 +0000 http://therunawaypalate.com/?p=527 ]]> I pottered out into my garden just now to undertake today’s assignment, Natural World & Leading Lines, with my Canon SLR. My garden isn’t big, but it is lush with a wilderness of tropical leaves and where ants, bugs and a large mottled garden lizard live. While looking for shapes and lines, I thought it would be fun to explore how they would appear to my little menagerie of wild creatures. I put the camera really low on the ground to try to catch a small creature’s perspective, and snapped randomly.

Welcome to the lizard-eye view of my garden…

Haunting, mesmerising and simply gobsmacking. This is just a corner of Ta Prohm, one of the most famous temples in the vast Angkor Wat complex in Cambodia. Forgotten for centuries, this stone temple which was once an integral part of a powerful Hindu kingdom, had been literally swallowed up by the forest over time. Branches, roots and entire tree trunks have insidiously crawled into the crevices of the temple, and inched between individual bricks and stone until Nature and temple have entwined themselves into each other and become one. It is humbling to see that Nature is infinitely patient, but she will always have her way.

On a guided walk through historical Bukit Brown Cemetery not long ago, I snapped this shot of a stone lion, a traditional Chinese grave guardian who has stood faithful by its master’s grave for almost a century. The grass may have overgrown and the rain and sun may have beat down on its shoulders for generations, but this little lion still remains stoic and steadfast. If it could talk, I wonder what amazing tales it would tell. And at night when all falls still, will the ancient souls of the cemetery rise and mingle and chat like they used to in life? It would be a wonderful sight, as many buried there were rich merchants, community leaders, prominent people and war-heroes during the Japanese Occupation in WWII.

Day Three of Photo101, and the assignment is WATER. Ta-da! Not quite ‘water’ strictly, but a wonderfully made vesper martini would contain a good percentage of water somewhere in the making of the spirits I’m sure. Anyway, it looks like water, even if it is not. I shot this at Jin Sha restaurant at the Four Seasons Hotel Hangzhou, one of the most beautiful hotels I’ve ever stayed in, and in one of the most beautiful ancient cities I’ve visited. This one glass of ‘water’ is vividly etched in my mind because it was incredibly clear and always intertwined with my memories of a fabulous holiday.

Assignment #2 of my current Photo101 course, which I am enjoying tremendously, the theme is Street. Here is my chosen image. It is an image snapped on a recent holiday to PingYao, the only completely walled city left in China and listed as UNESCO World Heritage. It is a charming little walkable town, like a China version of York, with winding narrow streets and buildings that date back three or four hundred years — all still standing and occupied as homes, and shops and a few emerging boutique hotels. Pingyao is a fascinating dichotomy of the old and the new.

While in the morning, cars, electric bicycles and design forward tourist shops make up the liveliness of the town, the night hides the gaudiness of the day. What is left are the red lanterns which light up the main doors of almost every home, casting a haunting glow on the ancient walls of the town. At night, the past comes alive and even though a few people are walking the streets, you can imagine the ghosts and spirits of the past emerging and reliving the glory of Pingyao’s past.

(Incidentally, Pingyao was the inspiration for the setting of Kungfu Panda II, and the mansion that was used as the location for the movie ‘Raise the Red Lantern’ is not far away.)