Photo of the day!

Landscape from New Zealand, where the sheep's are growing.

Jo san, lei ho? Yat Cafe Latte 'ngoi!

It's around 8 in the morning. Everybody is heading from the car park or the gate entrance in the same direction; Towards the Cafe 1668 in the middle of the school yard.
In the morning you can meet nearly every body here, so if there is somebody you urgently need to speak to, but have tried to reach pr. e-mail without result, just go to the Cafe 1668 in the morning before classes starts, and you will for sure have a chance to grab this person.
I always have a Cafe Latte as the first thing in the morning, and then normally catch up with Graham, Craig and John about the latest football results -from the middle of night before-, before heading to the Red door office to answer e-mails for about an hour. Coffee helps through that early phase of the day.
Well on the photo the Cafe doesn't seem that busy, but I guess this photo is taken just shortly past 8 AM and everybody is at their computer reading the daily bulletin.

Who's that guy to the right?

Manila international airport on Saturday morning. Just arrived and confused. Where to get our luggage and wonder where to find Simon, who was going to pick us up. All these questions in a strange airport when visiting the first time.
In front of us a huge crowd slowly build up and surrounding one guy. Suddenly everybody started to get their photo taken with this guy, who seemed to enjoy the fame a bit. Bob and I looked at each other; "her must be famous".
"Is that a famous guy?" I asked a lady in the crowd.
Unable to speak because some kind of numbness had hit her as she couldn't believe her luck that morning, she just nodded.
"He's famous" - so we got in line for a photo with this -for us- unknown star.
"Where do you come from?" He asked Bob.
"I'm from Canada".
"Oh," the star said; "I'm going there on tour soon".
"Great."
And then it was my turn.
"Where do you come from?" Star asked ritually.
Please don't say that you're going there as well I thought to myself.
"Denmark"
"Oh, I going there soon, we're on a tour." Star said.
Right and my name is Jackson and I used to be white.
"Your kidding me, what a coincidence, but thank you for the photo!"
We got out of there and met Simon. He was kind of strange and he kept looking in a certain direction. I followed his eyes and saw that he also looked at the "Star" we've just met, as he was outside now as well.
Simon tried to get a picture of him with his mobile phone from the distance.
"Hi Simon do you want a Photo together with that guy, we've just done it, and then you should say that you come from Poland, and I bet you he'll say that he will go there soon on tour."
I was sure he was a fake and just said that to be friendly, or to seem more famous.
"But he is quite famous, he is the new lead singer from the American band Journey, and he is one of the biggest stars in the Philippines."


I've been looking on youTube to find out something about the Band Journey and then this guy, and look at this.

Yes, that's him, and how he became the lead singer for Journey, a young guy from the Philippines?
They saw him on youTube singing cover versions of their songs and hired him. More here!

Manila in two days!

No, you can't really do that, so my impressions from the visit is very limited. I admit not to know a lot about the Philippines and how life is there. After being in Manila for two days I know a bit more, and then not really anyway, because what we got to see isn't Manila or the Philippines. We saw the rich part -or one of them- somewhere in this mega million city.
The real thing, where the ordinary Philippine people live, we didn't see or experience. We got driven around by a driver and taken to the places where we could go without any danger, but into the streets of the neighborhoods for the ordinary people we never came, and I'm not sure that I would dare it anyway.
















We got a ride on a ferry on the Pasig river through a part of the city, and the most of the city we saw on that ride was slum and very poor settlements. The water was brown and filled with rubbish and plastic bottles, and once in a while a dead animal -dogs, pigs and what ever- was floating not far away from bathing children.
One thing I liked was the so called "Jeepneys", a fancy decorated vehicle used for public transport. These was old American army jeeps -or the leftovers from these- and then rebuild to a sort of mini bus, by it's owner, who then was the driver and serving one special route through the city. There was thousands of them always on the go and with people hopping on and of where it suited them the best. These trucks was a colourful part of the street life, even they couldn't live up to any of the new standarts of co 2 emission regulations.













Here is just two of the "Jeepneys", quite similar and yet so different. I spend some time just watching these auto mobiles pass on the street.

Radiohead; Street Spirits(fade out)

An absolute impressing video from an absolute impressing Band.
I used to used this video to explain the students was was meant with associative film making.

I was also once so lucky to experience Radiohead live, and that was in the late 90ies at the Roskilde Festival in Denmark. At that time they just released their ; "Ok Computer album".
Great concert as I remember it.

Dear diary -Halloo from Manila

I'm sitting somewhere in Manila at a Seattle Best coffee shop and we're having breakfast. It is really hot outside, like 30 something, and we're going on a boat trip on the river here before flying back to Hong Kong at 6 PM.
It was a short visit and of corse we had not enough time at all to see and get a real impression of how it is really like to live here in the Philippines.
We got told though, to come back and do some traveling in the country side and visit some of all the small islands. So that is something we will consider.
I'll upload some pictures later when back in Hongkers.
Enjoy your day.

Dear diary! -Manila FC.

It is finally Friday again and a long week has gone to an end. It has been a week with a lot of football going on in Europe; the Champions League.
When I lived back in Europe I was always very excited on those nights, and I nearly could not wait to the evening when I could watch those games with my friends. And to be honest, I saw nearly all matches that was broadcasted in TV.
Living here in Hong Kong I've seen none -because when they are on it is in the middle of the night- except last years final between Man. Utd and -Hmmm, Chelsea. But that was only because I wasn't working at that time, and they showed in our local pub because the owner is a Man U supporter, but normally he closes down at 2 PM. But to be honest again; I really miss those evenings. So thank god for the Internet, then at least I can see the results in the morning when I get up, and the games has just finished. Well I could talk a lot about this subject, but I wont. I will only say that I'm quite pleased that this years final isn't going to be between the same two teams as last year, and this year I will support FC. Barcelona.
Reflecting on other differences from our time in Europe. Well some times we drove for 4 hours to visit a friends birthday party in Meiningen or took a trip for two hours to Berlin or Prague. Now we fly for 1 hour and a half to visit a friends birthday party in Manila, Philippines. Tomorrow morning at 6 AM we're of for the airport and at 10 AM we arrive in Manila. So the next post could be another premiere; Traktor in Manila. I wonder if they have a good football team there, so I can buy myself a football shirt from Manila FC.

Last but not least; yesterday was the first performance night in the "new Sai Kung bamboo opera", and we went for a little quick look. And again I must say that I'm really impressed how they in one week can build a thing like that, mainly out of bamboo and rope.
The performances is for western people quite strange, and I guess I have to do a lot of research to try to understand what it is about. But it is colourful and I guess quite funny, because every five minutes the audience -could be a thousand- breaks out in laughter, and big discussions starts to run through the row's. It is very calm and not pretentious at all. People come and go as they are pleased and a good thing; it is for free, so you see families with children and gran ma and gran dad on a nice night out.

More music from my youth!

This is the German singer Nina Hagen and the song is from her debut album "Nina Hagen Band" from 1978.

She was in her own way part of the punk wave which took over the youth in the late 70ties. She was born in the DDR, but was allowed to leave the state and emigrate to West Germany in 1976, because she threatened to become the second Wolf Biermann in the DDR, if she wasn't allowed to visit her father in the west. Read more detailed about this here.

And here she is -some years older, but still a stunning voice- together with the Finish cello heavy band Apocalyptica, performing Rammsteins;"Seemann"

Dear diary! -Speechless in Sai Kung.

What a lovely long weekend it has been. The weather absolute fabulous, the only minus for this mini holiday has been that Catriona has been unable to talk as a result of a cold. In fact she hasn't been able to speak for a couple of days as she completely lost her voice, So we couldn't really go anywhere -traveling, I mean- , but what, when the weather is like this, Sai Kung is a nice place. Catriona stayed at the house and did some school work and I took my bike and went riding around Sai Kung and the country park to explore some of the parts i didn't know yet, and I went to see how the workers got along building the bamboo opera house in town.



























The floor of the opera house is finished and ready and the workers can have a little rest before the truck with all the chairs arrives, and they have to get up and mount all of them. Oh, there it is, poor guys, it wasn't a long rest, and where is the people who should put up those red lamps?

Leningrad Cowboys once again.

The Total Balalaika Show, performed by the Finnish rock band Leningrad Cowboys and the full 160-member Alexandrov Ensemble took place on 12 June 1993 on Senate Square in Helsinki, Finland.

Sai Kung gets an opera house -for a while.

Last year in May I wrote about this the first time. In one weeks time a group of workers build a complete opera house just out of bamboo.
The building covers half the basket court, blocks a street and a half parking lot.
It is for the"Queen of heaven" Chinese opera, and should ask the gods to give the right weather for the coming harvest; not too much rain and not too much sun.
Soon the performances will start and every night for about a week there will be a show. It is free and around the opera house there will be a load of small stalls, offering various things to eat. It is like a little festival.
The actors is very friendly and they allow you to go back stage and see them doing their make up in the dressing rooms, so for a lot of people this is a good photo opportunity.

My way home from work.

I guess a lot of people think of Hong Kong like just a huge crowded city. Well it is, or part of is, and then there is the rest, and the biggest part; the New Territories. Well that is where we live, outside the crowded city, on the countryside with the many hills, mountains, the jungle, the sea and the many small islands. We both work in on of the new cities in the Sha Tin district and build along the Shing Mun river channel. The area is called Ma On Shan, and is named after the second highest mountain in Hong Kong, and the settlement is build on the riverbank just at the foot of this mountain. I can't tell you how many people live in Ma On Shan or the other "towns", which is build in Sha Tin district along this river channel since the 60ties, but it could be close to 1 million. On my way home from work by bus I have this amazing experience to get on the bus, being surrounded by high rises and following an intensely busy 4 lane road along the overhead railway from Tai Wai to Wu Kai Sha.This railway ends here, at Wu Kai Sha, so does the city. From being squeezed in between mega housing structures, you suddenly finds yourself on a common country road entering an area with typical Chinese village houses before you get out on the country, driving through a subtropical jungle with a view to the sea through the trees on the left side. All this in only 10 to 15 minutes.And a bit later I'm home in Tai Wan Village.

Interview with PJ Harvey

Interesting artist, here she tells how and why.

Good cover songs.

I can get no; hey hey hey.

Fantastic song, fantastic women.

PJ Harvey - Artist in my playlist.

A golden birthday?

"Yes, it is my golden birthday". Jason looks like a winner.
According to Lesley, a golden birthday is when someone turns the same age as the date of the day they are born. In Jason's case this was on Monday the 27th of April, where he turned 27. Hmm, I've never heard of this thing; a golden birthday, and I think it is a little unfair for people over 31, because for them there will be no golden birthdays to celebrate. I'm born on Valentines day, so I've had my golden birthday many years ago, but without being aware that it was a golden one. When I start to think about this, then the next opportunity I've got for some kind of gold -silver -bronze or whatever birthday, could be when i turn 56, as it would be 14 X 4, and the previous one I've had, would have been when I turned 42 =14 X 3. Anyway, a golden birthday sounds like something to celebrate, but as the 27th was a Monday and therefor no good day for celebrating, the party was last Friday, and as good Americans, Lesley and Jason invited a bunch of friends and colleagues to the Dragon Bowling center in Kwun Tong.John tries his luck with a lot of dynamic.
Lesley, the inventor of; "Golden birthday" or maybe just an excuse for a party. Janice didn't mind, nor did the rest. Bowling is a nice sport, you can drink beer doing it.
No it isn't a pumpkin or a watermelon, Kelsey just lets her ball know who's the boss.

More memorable cover versions.

The Leningrad Cowboys and the red army choir from the fantastic "Total Balalaika" concerts in the late 90ties.
Here with Led Zeppelins; "Stairway to Heaven".

I promise to bring more from these fabulous boys later, they are worth it, just because of their haircut.