Cycling Canberra Autumn Trip '10...砍培拉首都单车秋行‘10...カンベラ自転車の秋旅..

I went to Canberra towards the end of May during Autumn time..this is my 3rd time to Canberra, and frankly, Canberra is my favourite city/town in Australia for a holiday destination.

Basically, there are places where I feel something special or a special emotional connection to as well as places which i like as a vacation destination. For instance, Melbourne, Tokyo, Taipei, and Penang are cities which I have a special emotional connection to, whilst places like Macau, Bangkok, and Canberra are vacation destinations which I enjoy.

I've been to Canberra once in Autumn, on my first trip actually, when I was there on a day trip to renew my then expiring passport at the Embassy as I was told it would take only a mere day to have it renewed whilst if I waited in Sydney, it'd take between 3 to 4 weeks before I'd get it back from the Sydney Consulate. I'd already notice the auburn red maple trees planted within the Australian Parliament House grounds then but it didn't really hit me until this trip, how gaspingly wonderful the autumn colours and maple trees of Canberra really are!:-) ( My previous visit, my 2nd time to Canberra, was during Spring in Oct'08 for the famous Canberra Floriade Tulip Festival of which I attended the Night Floriade as well as the Nara Festival which so happened then and which i was lucky enough to pass by.)

I would definitely recommend visiting Canberra during Autumn time just because of the wonderful and awe-inspiring Autumn foliage and colours around! It's really jaw-dropping, for lack of a better word, especially the areas around Lake Burley Griffith and the International Flag Display promenade lakeside...omg, the colours are something i've not seen in a loooong time, and difficult to find in a densely populated city such as Sydney. During spring, winter, and summer, you cannot find these awesome colours, as the trees either all turn green in colour or wilt away during winter.

The best way to travel around Canberra, taking in the sights is definitely via bike, which can be from Mr.Spokes Bike Hire near the Lake (google for details) and its currently $35 for a whole day with chain and lock as well as helmet. All the key attractions are reachable via bike and the views are simply amazing lakeside (especially with the autumn auburn colours in full display during autumn time). I took so many photos as I was so surprised that I could see and experience this beauty of Autumn in Canberra!! I hadn't expected the fantastic and beautiful scenery which I usually associate with tv dramas shot in autumn time Japan or South Korea. It seriously looks like one of those scenes from S. Korean romantic tv dramas with the maple trees in full bloom and the willows and autumn trees in full, swaying amongst the autumn breeze. The weather was fantastic too for cycling, cold, but not too cold, like winter.

Major attractions I visited are as follows: 1) Embassy District (where all the different national embassies residing in Australia mostly are situated) with the Chinese Embassy being the most prominent amongst tourists and residents alike for its unique archi and huge compounds, it has archway pavillions and even a tennis court inside. 2) International Flag Display promenade 3) Sculpture Garden, National Gallery, 4) National Portrait Gallery 5) High Court, passed by 6) National Archives of Australia 7) Old Parliament House Gardens 8) Parliament House 9) Canberra Glassworks 10) Old Bus Depot Market which was having a free concert performance as part of the Canberra International Music Festival 11) Doing the 'Bridge to Bridge' cycle across Lake Burley Griffith.

I didn't visit the famous War Memorial and National Gallery this time round given that I'd already visited the War Memorial twice and the National Gallery once on previous trips already.

Anyways, I also managed to squeeze in a quick walking tour of the Canberra City Centre and visited Canberra Centre again and had dinner at a Japanese Ramen place in the Canberra downtown area which was delicious after cycling for the entire day since the morning!

Great Canberra Autumn Cycling Trip it was, definitely highly recommended for residents and tourists alike in Australia, go during Autumn time!!:-)

Please go here to see more photos: http://hcpen1111-canberrainautumncyclingtrip2010.buzznet.com/user/photos/

My 5th Year Blog Anniversary...

Above: This is the Cheongsam-Style clothing I made recently. It's my first one made in Australia. I bought the exquisite cloth at a boutique named Bird Textiles Emporium located on Surry Hills, it's really expensive, even with the 50% discount, costing me AUD$80 for 2 metres. I found, with plenty of luck, a tailor whom had experience making cheongsams and aodais, cos she just immigrated to Australia from Vietnam recently! How cool was that...(the Vietnamese costume is called the Aodai and is virtually indistinguishable from the Chinese Cheongsam.) The tailor shop is even in the CBD! The tailoring costs matched my cloth costs. (I just love the light-weight transparent feel of the cloth and swallows pattern on it!!) The material is hand-printed in Australia, not machine printed...that's why its so expensive!


This month May 2010, marks the 5th Year Anniversary of my blog...I started this blog whilst on exchange in Tokyo, Japan back in 2005 as I felt living on student exchange in a foreign and exciting city like Tokyo would provide a cool experience for me to record down my time there as well as be part of the cool emerging trend of owning a blog as the blogging thing was only becoming more popular back in 2004 and 2005.

I first started out recording trivial stuff about my life in Tokyo and interesting things I encountered in daily life and later on included my takes on topics and social issues of interest to me such as women's rights and gay issues. I never spoke about personal issues on the blog but started doing so a year after my blog in 2006 and have continued to be as open as I feel comfortable in posting about my personal life. I also included a childhood picture once in one of my post as well as started annual posts e.g. WW2 Anniversary Posts as well as themed posts such as ones on HK Cinema and Women's rights or Gay Media.

I have also opened up opportunities to meet and have email contact with some readers of mine throughout the years. I would also like to take this opportunity, as I have done in past years, on my blog anniversary posts, to invite readers interested to please leave me their email address with a short comment on this post and I'll get in touch with you:)

As I have always revealed, e.g a photo of me during childhood, certain things about myself as the years have gone by, I thought it was time to reveal something else which I think many readers, old and new (of course, if you have contacted me before or have come from certain types of weblogs over to my blog via links or am just attune to 'those kind of stuff' through time, would have already realised) have sometimes misunderstood my identity....I am a male blogger.

Yes, I am a guy.

I understand with my frequent posts on women's issues and feminist rights which I am genuinely passionate about, many have come to have that kind of misunderstanding (what, with my passion for the cheongsam! haha...). I felt it was now the time to reveal that about myself, given it being my 5 year blog anniversary, and the general impression my blog has given about my gender. I however, have never expressly or purposely attempted to pretend to be female although certainly at times it had hindered how i expressed myself in terms of romantic descriptions. I think some readers should know what I am referring to given what I have written about in the past....

I hope I will have many years to come in my blogging life, as I realise many blogs I used to surf have shut down and many bloggers throughout my blogging life have stopped blogging altogether due to their own personal reasons. I may also stop one day but I hope that day won't be soon. Please continue to support me and my blog and do continue to leave your comments.



Thanks!

PS: I just found out in Chatswood, 'New Shanghai' serves delicious Chinese Rice Wine Glutinous Rice Ball Dessert called 酒酿圆子汤. I've always liked this dessert which was introduced to me in Taiwan. I've passed it several times but never tried and decided to give it a go this time.
You can have it with small tangyuen or sesame-paste tangyuen.

So Sydneysiders, do give it a try next time you're in Chatswood!

Sydney Biennale 2010...2010雪梨艺术双年展......2010シドニー美術バイアヌアル....

I went to the Sydney Biennale 2010 a few weeks ago, it occurs once every two years and is the premier Arts Festival in Australia. This year, it was held in various locations incl. Cockatoo Island again, an abandoned industrial island within Sydney Harbour. I saw an arts installation on the island and guess whom i saw...Maggie Cheung! I thought it was only clips from her previous movies but then slowly realised that it was from recently...and I went bck home to check as I was surprised she would be involved in an art installation given that she's seldom in any new productions nowadays, but was surprised she actually was in this installation movie and not only that, this art installation movie, running for over an hour, had its world premiere in Sydney for the Sydney Biennale! (It's going to be shown in UK and Shanghai too later). And I had gone to the Biennale on the first day, so I had in effect attended the premiere on an industrial island in Sydney Harbour! Wow!!:-)



Photos here:

China and Reevaluating the Yuan...中国与人民币 中国と人民元

This is another post from my 'Year of China' theme which is my blog theme for 2010, as mentioned earlier in the year, when i did the Nostalgic Chinese Cinema post series.

There has been much talk of late about China and the artificial rate that the RMB (China's official currency, called the Renminbi in full) has been controlled by the Chinese govt. The US govt especially has criticised China and accused it of currency manipulation.

I think its laughable really, for the US to point its finger at China and demand that it raise the RMB. I mean the Chinese govt is ultimately responsible to the Chinese people and if it were not for the current artificially low rate at which the RMB is, China and its export-driven economy would not have been able to grow at such a rapid rate and millions of Chinese would not have been able to pull themselves out of poverty. I mean, US and foreign companies are also responsible for the low rate of the RMB. The thousands of US and foreign investor companies in China go there precisely because of the low RMB value so that they can earn massive profits when exporting back to their own countries and the consumers in these rich countries ultimately benefit with being able to save and buy cheap consumer products. Furthermore, if the yuan were to be revalued upwards too swiftly, it'd lead to thousands of factories in China shutting down which would lead to massive unemployment and societal unrest as Chinese factories are already operating on extremely minor profit margins due to the pressure of US and foreign buyers/companies who refuse to raise buying costs by much and thus the Chinese govt cannot be expected to please and help the US and Western economies by raising the rmb value whilst at the same time jeopardising the Chinese economy by doing so. This is an unreasonable demand.

However, the most unreasonable and ridiculous statement coming out of some US politician's mouth is that the current World Economic Crisis is somehow China's fault due to it's low rmb. RUBBISH. Typical behaviour of some countries unwilling to take responsibility for the deformed financial and banking sectors of the US and Europe and trying to scapegoat China for their economic problems. What nonsense really.

And all the talk of 'imbalance in the world economy' as the cause of the current world economic crisis is similar bullshit. What imbalance? When the US and European economies and their people were spending more than they could afford and their banks were fudging the figures, who else could they blame? Their consumers wanted the cheap products and their businesses went overseas to get them. Blaming China and other Asian economies for not spending enough thus causing the 'so-called' imbalance of trade is like a person whom borrows irresponsibly from another person and then buys and buys from that exact same person and when he or she becomes bankrupt then goes on to chastise the other person for producing such cheap and useful products and not spending enough money themselves. Huh?

Typical of some to want to feel better about themselves in the mess that they've made themselves by blaming others, namely China. I never heard Asian economies complaining about the imbalance of trade and Western countries' faults back during the 1997 Asian Financial Crisis.
The US and Western world will just have to learn to accept their responsibility for creating the current financial crisis which they're just coming to recover from, quit complaining and pushing the blame to other countries and their currencies, and start reforming and restructuring their messed-up financial and banking sector as well as dodgy companies, such as Goldman Sachs, for one, just like Asian economies had to do back in 1997.

As a final note, it's ironic how some Western commentators and talking heads were talking about the impending 'collapse' of China's economy and their criticism of Chinese economic practices and corporate practices back before the 2008 Financial Collapse in the Western world when it was them whom fell with their face down..and fast. China has hardly been affected, and speeding ahead straight pass them and Western Companies such as Freddie Mae and Goldman Sachs have been found to have shoddy and unethical corporate practices.

There is the realisation now that it is the Western banking and financial sector which needed the reforms which the West was previously criticising China as needing all along.

Look who's Laughing now.

Greece and South Korea：A Comparison...双国故事：希腊与韩国....ギリシャと韓国：二つ国の物語

With the World Financial Crisis continuing to affect the US and Europe ever more pressingly even in 2010, its timely to compare Greece and South Korea, and in an even larger way, the Oriental way and the Western way.

In 1997, more than a decade before the 2008 World Financial Crisis speahearded by the collapse of the Lehman Bros in the US, Asia-Pacific was rocked by the Asian Financial Crisis. Back then, I still remember vividly reading in the newspaper of how Thailand's stock market had spiralled out of control, and how shortly, HK's stock market crashed subsequently as well. Thus, started a domino effect, with Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia, and Japan all becoming embroiled in the crisis. Of cos, the country affected the most by far, was South Korea. Til then, the economies of the Asia-Pacific had been going strong and growing by admirable figures. Then it all came crashing down with the expose of the failings and weaknesses of the Asian banking and financial sector. There was painful reforms which almost all the Asian economies had to go thru and this is why with the 2008 Financial Crisis, Asian economies were not affected as badly (although still very badly during the worst period in late 08-mid 09 with countries like Singapore and Malaysia slipping into recession) and now rebounding back at an amazingly rapid pace and growing with impressive figures-Singapore, for example, is forecast to grow by over 5% GDP this yr in 2010. Other Asian economies are forecast to have comparable GDP growth rates too.

South Korea back then crashed, and the government had to borrow from the IMF a bailout package as large chaebols (South Korean corporations) crashed and many South Korean companies shut down and became insolvent with the unemployment rate hitting the hundreds of thousands. As part of the IMF bailout terms, the government of South Korea had to bring in extremely painful austerity reforms/measures calculated to bring the South Korean economy back into shape and also restructured its banking and financial sector properly. What touched me then was how media and news reports reported that many South Koreans started donating gold to the government to help the country stand back on its feet. I rem vaguely seeing housewives and citizens donating out of their own free will personal gold jewellery and personal gifts on the tele and was amazed at their patriotism and sense of sacrifice.

Contrast this with the situation of Greece currently. The country has mounting debts in the billions of euros and the IMF has come up with a huge bailout plan. This has had to be paid for by its larger European neighbours such as Germany which have demanded strict austerity measures to be brought in to reign in the spiralling debt problem engulfing the Greek government and economy at large. However, instead of following South Korea's commendable example back in 1997, and one could term the 'Oriental way'by sacrificing, the Greeks have turned to large demonstrations and rallies, destroying and defacing public and commercial buildings and holding strikes protesting the much needed austerity measures needed to bring Greece back on its feet. This is what could be called the 'Western way', discussion of individual interests and rights and the unwillingness to sacrifice for the nation's and ultimately, everyone's long-term well-being. The Greeks have shown that they are unwilling to face the responsibility of their own doing by living the life and enjoying the benefits which were never sustainable in the first place. I saw on the news that the Greeks had been fudging the figures and reports to the EU annually and taking advantage of being in the Euro zone without responsibility. They employed 1 million unproductive civil servants out of a population of 11 million. Pensions and work benefits were numerous and unjustifiable. Now, with the country in a wreck, instead of facing up to all this and cutting back, they are acting like spoilt kids, used to enjoying unsustainable luxury, and steadfastly, unwilling to face the consequences of their spending. Instead of sacrifice which brought South Korea's economy back from ruins in 1997 and accelerating such that it now has the biggest GDP growth rate in the OECD developed nation's club for 2009/10 and has thriving big brand corporations such as Samsung and LG and Hyundai, when merely a decade or so ago, big corporations were closing down, the Greeks have chosen to make their national economy worse, with strikes and protests with would inevitably bring down the economy even more.

Maybe, these lessons show that Europeans, and Westerners have a thing or two to learn from Asia as well, in that, the Western way, or the emphasis on individualism or personal interests is not the only nor best approach all the time and that the Oriental way, with emphasis on collective responsibility (which the Greek people refuse to take for their economic mess currently) and collective sacrifice (which the Koreans did back in 1997) may be the better way ahead.

PS: I also heard that some Greeks were shocked and felt betrayed that the EU didn't act fast enough to approve the enormous bailout package to assist them. Well, since the bailout is being financed by other European economies which have barely pulled out and are still on the road to economic recovery, why should they have to help the Greeks so fast? And I think they're especially kind to help the Greeks especially with all the Greek protests/rallies/strikes going on showing their unwillingness to change their ways...(i know they have to help the Greeks given the need to sustain the Euro. Actually, this entire Greek crisis has shown the weaknesses of a common currency, the Euro.)

There's Never Been a Better Time to be Gay in Asia..in the media, that is..

Above: The Poster of 'Hello My Love' Korean movie, released late 2009.

These are just some links and updates on gays in the media in Asia...my usual 'gay news around Asia' update...been months since i posted anything 'gay'..haha..anyways, as the winds of change continue to blow in the Western world with gay marriage now legal in Mexico City and Washington DC, as well as more and more mainstream gay characters whom are diverse on tv such as 'Glee', Asia hasn't fallen behind.

In Taiwan, TV Shows continue to have regular segments dealing with the gay topic, for instance, in this following talk show on parents and their children, whereby all the children shown are mostly gays (Taiwanese have become accustomed to seeing openly gay ppl in the media since the early 2000s..not only celebrities, but many ordinary gay ppl go on talk shows without hiding themselves..), what was incredible about this talkshow was that the host, a respected middle-aged former News Broadcaster, was very fair and pro-gay rights..usually for various episodes of the show, he would try to be a neutral arbitrator on topics but in this episode on having gay children, he was incredibly pro-gay and even going so far as to literally persuade the parents to accept gay children....link in mandarin on youtube here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7o8k1mZPEHw

Another show discussed gays dealing with a disabled gay man and his partner whom is not disabled and how their families have come to accept their relationship including the elderly Taiwanese Ah-Ma (Grannie). As you can tell, Taiwanese are pretty progressive and the tv shows have expanded to include diverse topics even within the topic of gays such as disabled gays and their love lives.

Link in Mandarin here:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iDZvBXSEiiw

Korea and Gays in the Media:

Even conservative Korea, which is the most backwards when it comes to things like women's rights and gay rights as compared to China and Japan and Hong Kong, has improved markedly in recent yrs, in terms of media coverage and exposure..besides earlier gay Korean films which I have covered before on this blog, there have been more gay films just coming out in 2009 and 2010. I won't repeat previous well-known ones such as 'Antique Bakery' and 'Frozen Flower' which i have mentioned before but there's a small independent film called 'Just friends?' link here:

http://www.youtube.com/user/JustFriendsSubbed#p/a/u/2/SZi-45UQZuU

And another film which I just discovered online out of the blue and it was a surprising find..within the first 20 mins of the movie, i knew it was one of the best korean gay films i had seen..it came out in late 2009, however there were 3 major flaws towards the middle-end of the film which led it down but overall i really really like the aesthetic and overall feel of the movie. It was a movie which had parts and characters which I'd feel i would have expressed if I were ever to make a gay themed film but this film has done part of it for me (excluding the flawed bits). I love the actors and actress in it (they all look gorgeous and fit their roles perfectly) and the settings for many scenes such as the traditional korean house and making a wine restaurant in it was perfect as well as the beach scene...the twist and radio dj premise was also fantastic...the full movie WITH ENG SUBS (YEAAAHHH!!!) on youtube here:

Full Movie: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LHydgGwE60E

Trailer: http://www.youtube.com/user/hcpen#p/a/f/1/P6UMdbE9fPU

Now, for the flaws, SPOILERS AHEAD, Highlight to read:

1) I didn't like the fact that the female protagonist slept with her bf's boyfriend..i could understand why she did it, to destroy their relationship so she could have her bf bck cos ppl can be irrational when they're in love and in fear of losing their loved ones but the fact that the gay lover responded and they ended up having sex was ridiculous and doesn't make sense.

2) Why did the gay lover leave after the party incident? Also how did the French ex-lover of the gay lover know their house to show up? Big storyline mishap...

3) When her boyfriend leaves to find his gay lover in the end, why did they not end up together again?! It doesn't make sense, esp you see the gay lover with the French guy many yrs later hinting they got bck together in the end which again doesn't make sense given that earlier on at the party, it was shown that the gay lover didn't love his ex-French boyfriend anymore and wanted to break it off, so why did they end up together again?! Major spoil of the plotline..the very ending of the movie of the three of them on the beach was great though (the woman and her now ex-boyfriend with his now ex-boyfriend..haha) and the movie definitely has some great scenes and quirky lines/scenes...good gay korean-themed film overall..

Another milestone is that the first Korean drama to portray a main gay character started earlier this year called 'Life is Beautiful'. It is the first time in a Korean drama to portray a gay person as a main character and deal with their love life as well as feelings and challenges of being gay in Korea. Previous Tv shows have only hinted or put gay characters as cameos or at best in one or two dramas as a side character without a romantic storyline and basically no touching on the realities of being gay in Korea. This is the first time and written by a famous veteran female writer of Korean dramas known for her high-ratings in drama. The character is called Taesub and he is a kind man whom is also a doctor. He has been going out with some girls and always ends up breaking up with them. The drama starts with him finally coming to terms with his homosexuality and his new relationship with another gay man whom is divorced with a child after being outed after his marriage thru a mishap. Some links in Korean on youtube of their storyline (this is a 50 episode family drama and has multiple storylines, the gay one is merely one of them but apparently according to news reports, the online website attracts 80% plus comments on this gay storyline and the TV station broadcasting the show gets complaintsfrom viewers every day against the gay storyline, however, the writer has said she will continue to deal with the gay plotline in a positive and neutral manner and she was surprised the backlash wasn't as great as she thought it'd be) : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TZAVxTPZ1n0

Hong Kong:

Hong Kong has seen numerous gay independent films in recent yrs, none of which has attracted my attention, but just for ppl interested, these two came out last yr, out of 4-5 gay hk films, trailers here:

1)http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EL3hFo32Tr8

2)http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BNcRx2ScIPY (this is director scud's second gay trilogy, his films often have quite big budgets, despite being independent productions, showing that obviously there are production companies willing to invest in hong kong gay films and believe there is a market for it in recent years.)

And to end, i'd like to introduce something completely unrelated to this topic, being on straight love...i'm still on filipino fever, and here's a new movie i can't wait to see, it has a Malaysian theme, cos they keep saying 'Petronas Towers' and has JLC and Bea Alonzo..they look so cute together..trailer here:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Z3cz3W0YrY

haha, how did i start with a post on the topic of gay love and end with a link on straight love?! Hahaha...

Thailand's Le Majeste Laws and the Red/Yellow Conflict...泰国民政乱...タイ国の暴動...

The Thai Coup overthrowing Thaksin Shinawat, in 2006, was what triggered the series of unrest occuring in Thailand in the recent years. I never really paid attention then although i was alittle concerned given that I loved Thailand, its culture, and as a tourist destination.

However, recent years of unrest and especially what is occuring now has peaked my interest. Even the previous taking over of Bangkok's international airports only elicited a response at the craziness of the Thai protests but it didn't motivate me to read or investigate further into the causes or details of the protests, reasons as to why ppl were protesting or getting the color codes correct. However, the recent protest for the past weeks led me to want to understand what the Thais were all protesting about and why the protests seemed neverending.

This is what i found out and the following is my personal opinion of the whole issue (please note this is merely my own personal opinion, from a neighbouring countrie's citizen's perspective, so its going to be subjective, but at least its going to be more impartial given that I have nothing at stake or personal interests in the politics of thailand):

From what I gather, in a quick summary for those like me whom are confused as to the chain of events and the differing sides, here's a quick rundown:

In 2001 Thaksin got elected in democratic elections to become the Prime Minister of Thailand. He served out his term and was re-elected, the ONLY thai PM ever to have served out his full term and get re-elected again for a second term, indicating his immense popularity to the people of Thailand. However, in 2006, the military in a coup overthrew him and brought him into exile overseas. He is currently in Cambodia, serving as an executive policy adviser to the Cambodian govt and leads the opposition from there.

Thaksin was and is extremely popular with the rural poor of Thailand, especially in the populous but poor North-East region of Thailand called Isaan. In addition, he is also supported by a large margin by the urban poor and lower classes of Bangkok and other Thai cities as well.

He was however not very popular with the middle and upper classes of Bangkok residents as well as other middle-upper class elites of Thailand, whom accused him of gross corruption and mishandling and siphoning state funds and investment deals to benefit his and his relative's wealth. The current unrest started, CRUCIALLY, with the yellow-shirt protesters (hereafter 'yellows') whom started wearing yellow shirts and rallying to bring down Thaksin. In 2006, the army which has always had strong ties to the Thai monarchy and Bangkok upper class elites brought down Thaksin thru a coup. They then governed the country promising democratic elections later down the line. The Courts dissolved Thaksin's party, called the 'Thai Ruk Thai' party and banned over 100 politicians from Thaksin's camp from joining politics for 5 years. However, another new party was set up with former unbanned politicians and supporters of Thaksin to contest in the new elections to be held in late 2007. In the 2007 elections, Thaksin's new party won the elections once again by a significant margin, thus forming the new govt.

Importantly, this means that Thaksin's party had won democratic elections THREE times to become govt. As a side note, the military also unilaterally changed the 1997 Constitution of Thailand and came up with their own 2007 version, and with heavy propaganda and publicity, it was accepted in a referendum in 2007 as well. However, the yellows were obviously not satisfied with the democratic election results once again bringing Thaksin's camp back into power for the third time. So they protested once again sometime in 2008, even going as far as occupying government house, occupying Bangkok's two international airports, and demanding that the new govt be dissolved as well. Finally, a Constitutional Court ruling brought down the leader Samak, because of accepting fees for accepting a cooking show appearance. He was replaced by another person within the ruling party (which is pro-Thaksin just as a reminder). The Court once again brought him down on another apparent breach. This led the way for the second Thaksin party to be removed from power and for the current Thai party, the yellow Democrats Party, with Abhisek as Prime Minister, to come into power. This led to the rise of the red-shirt protesters (hereafter referred to as 'Reds) and they have been protesting ever since and currently are involved in anti-govt protests and want new elections called.

My Opinion & Analysis:

My first line would be to state where my position and sympathies lie with, despite not being Thai and having no vested interest in whom eventually governs the country.

I am a RED SUPPORTER. This means I support the current anti-govt protesters, whom are mainly the rural and urban lower to poor classes of Thailand. This is as the current Democratic Party, led by Abhisek is indeed undemocratic. My main contention is that the 2006 coup SHOULD NOT HAVE HAPPENED. Thailand has had many coups since 1932 and its laughable. I didn't know Thailand's democracy was such a weak one, and always looked up to them kinda when compared to Malaysia's democracy, but now after understanding Thailand's political history, I must say, Malaysia is much more stable, fair, and democratic when compared to Thailand (this is a comparison, Malaysia is nowhere near a 'real democracy', but in comparison to Thailand, at least there's been no military coups in Malaysia's history before and ppl don't get what they want just by rioting and toppling down govts).

Military coups occur so often in Thailand that one wonders why there are elections at all, it seems that whenever the military or Thailands' middle/upper class elites doesn't like somebody, they just need to get their 'well-connected' military in and topple the govt. This is what happened in 2006. Many analysts have said that Thaksin had become too popular by then. He was enormously popular with the Thai rural and urban poor population which, mind you, Thailand being still an overall third world country (despite its glitzy image of Bangkok, Pattaya, beach resorts,etc) means the majority of the population of Thailand. He enacted many populist and refreshing policies such as universal health care coverage for Thailands' millions of rural poor as well as economic benefits for Thai rural farmers. He poured in money into previously neglected areas of the rural provinces of Thailand which the elites (yellows) had not bothered to look into in decades past. Thaksin, also was said to be uncompromising and unwilling to follow the 'old elitist rules' whereby previous Prime Ministers had always been in close connection and deference to what the Thai Monarchy and Thai military wanted. He was seen as challenging the military/monarchy's status in Thai society given that no other Thai prime minister had been this popular as an individual previously and Thai's only had one idol, the Thai King and his monarchy.

By 2006, Thaksin was seen by many elite/military quarters as also challenging the status of the monarchy by becoming a Thai idol as well. Thus, he was removed undemocratically, and the military came up with its own draft Constitution which is ridiculous. They say its to curb previous corruption loopholes,etc which is PURE CRAP cos you cannot come into power undemocratically and now want to change the 'game rules'. Furthermore, it was the yellows whom started this chaos by bombarding the govt house back in 2008 and the airports and now, i hear that these very ppl are calling the reds (whom merely copied their tactics and even the very concept of color coded division started with the yellows!) terrorists and I saw in one interview, a yellow even said 'it was the first time in my life that 'i've seen this happen (refering to red taking over of Bkk's commercial district) and this is my first time being ashamed of Thailand on the world stage'. What the HELL?!!! These yellows are TRULY SHAMELESS, i tell you...the first time you're ashamed of Thailand and the first time this has happened?! I was feeling ashamed of Thailand and its ridiculous situation when the yellows were taking over the airports, clearly airports project to the world what a country represents, that would have put Thais to shame right? But nooooooo, the yellows say the current red actions are shaming the country. Then I'd like to ask these ppl the question, What about back in 2008, the yellow action of taking over the airports was not unprecedened? Was Not a shameful act at all??

Then there were even suggestions back in 2008 by some, not all, yellows that the current election system should be changed such that a good proportion of seats would not be elected thru elections but instead 'chosen' by 'a group of professions and sectors of society'..sounds to me to be what the currently undemocratic Hong Kong system is like. This is as the yellows, being mainly rich and middle-class elites residing in Bangkok and other main cities, know VERY WELL they cannot win an election fair and square in a country like Thailand, where the MAJORITY of Thais are still urban and rural poors despite the great economic strides made by Thailand in the past few decades, and thus by carving out a sizeable percentage of seats in parliament to be 'chosen by professions' it was clear they would be able to possibly win the elections given that the power connections meant that rural and urban poors would very unlikely be in most of these professions, presumably chosen from elitist backgrounds such as solicitors, judges, authors, businessmen, whom are all mainly yellow supporters. And the yellows claim to be the true guardians of 'democracy'....having used rallies and violent tactics and the military to topple 3 successive election results which elected Thaksin or pro-Thaksin parties to govt. It seems that the yellows just don't like election results when it doesn't go their way. One leader was even quoted in 2008 protests that 'they'll protest until the pro-Thaksin govt was toppled and they will not accept any further election results if it results in another pro-Thaksin govt in power'...wow, how democratic, that's like saying in the US, the Democrats have won power but get toppled by the Republican-backed military and Democrat party gets dissolved and all its members banned from politics and they regroup and form a new party called The New Democrats and once again win elections and Republican supporters rally and take over airports in New York and San Francisco demanding that the New Democrats come down and they won't accept any election results which put the Democrats, whatever form or shade, back into power..or in Australia, if one said we'll protest and accept any party except the Labour Party in govt'....sounds ridiculous right? Basically, the yellows don't respect elections, they just want to have it their way...and when they can't do it thru elections, they do it thru coups by the military or taking over international airports in thailand..remember, every time the pro-Thaksin party comes into power including the period when thaksin ruled was BY ELECTIONS.

Since the military coup, the yellows have only come into power with Abhisek BY COUPS AND COURT RULINGS. NOT ELECTIONS. It is clear that the majority of thais, whom also happen to be mainly urban/rural poor, are reds and support thaksin. That is what a democracy is. It is what the simple majority wants. And it is not what a sizeable urban powerful and socially and economically powerful elite want.

The biggest argument of the yellows is that Thaksin was corrupt and that currently, the yellow Democrat Party govt are giving the same benefits or even more benefits to the rural poor BUT HOLD ON for a sec. That's just like saying I am elected as Managing Director of a Corporation by the majority, then a group of elites topple me by force and unilaterally and replace me with their own MD and he COPIES or improves on the ideas and policies which I developed and say hey, whats the difference? Its NOT FAIR. You cannot simply come into power with military force (the yellows) and then COPY Thaksin's extremely popular policies and ideas and claim them as your own. Even the corruption charges at the root of anti-thaksin arguments is a poor argument for coups and banning pro-thaksin parties. Just recently, the independent Thailand Electoral Commission has ruled that the yellow Democrat party has also been corrupt in gaining campaigning funds and misuse of electoral funds... i mean hello! Every party and leader in Thailand has arguably been corrupt...but none of them, it seems, did more or cared more for the rural and urban poor or poured money into the rural provinces as much as Thaksin did.

So, basically, everyone was corrupt and did nothing for the rural poor, knowing that they can be ignored, but thaksin was alleged corrupt BUT he ALSO provided much for the previously neglected rural poor of Thailand, giving them a voice and economic benefits. So saying he/his party shouldn't be in power because of corruption is simply disingenious when all previous govt had also been corrupt to varying degrees AND neglected or ignored Thailand's vast rural population. The current Democrat Party has also been proven to be corrupt by the independent Elections Commission of Thailand and there is no guarantee it wouldn't become as corrupt as Thaksin allegedly was in the future.

So, my question is, how can you replace a democratically elected govt with an elitist-backed one whom simply copies Thaksin's policies and is corrupt itself?! Furthermore, the current party was the result of a military coup plus two court decisions, not a democratic election. They have no right to be there.

Le Majeste Laws of Thailand:

This is an even more sensitive topic which could possibly land me in jail were I in Thailand or entered Thailand. However, given that this is the web, with anonymity (my nickname bears no resemblance to my real name so there's no way they could possibly identify me via this blog, and furthermore, thai authorities wouldn't even know my current passport (cos my bckground is so varied) or even my gender to identify me.

This is the Le Majeste Laws of Thailand which prohibits anyone from writing or saying anything negative about the King or the Royal Family of Thailand. This means that there have been cases of ppl being thrown into jail for years for simply suggesting that the King has been ill-advised by his advisers or that his son, the apparent heir, is a playboy. (The apparent heir, has been divorced 2x and married 3 x with crown princesses ever younger in age. There was also a leaked video online of a birthday party held for his poodle whereby the prince's wife was topless parading around...not a pretty sight for the future queen with her breasts now exposed for all to see)
This also means that it is open to abuse for political means. The yellows associate themselves with being pro-Royals and paint the Reds as Anti-Royals. This is extremely dangerous as it is defaming reds as anti-loyal unpatriotic betrayers of Thailand and also can be used to arrest red supporters for any action/words deemed to be anti-royals. The position of the Thai-Monarchy is much higher than the British royalty or even the Japanese royalty in the public's eyes.

It reminds me of a time when the Japanese emperor was considered a living god and pro-militarist would accuse anti-war Japanese during WW2 of being anti-royals and traitors and jail them up. It reminds me of a time when Mao was considered a living god in China and red guards would accuse those whom did not show absolute worship of Mao during the Cultural Revolution of being anti-Mao, and traitors of their country. Different factions would also contest to prove who was the closest and real supporters of Mao and no one dared criticise Mao directly, instead placing the blame on his close advisers, The Gang of Four and Jiang Qing, placing Mao above any room for criticism. Food for thought, no?

PS: Make your own connections as I do not want to make assertions and assinuations on this very sensitive topic but if history is any lesson, the similarities are clear and apparent to anyone with their minds and eyes open.

PPS: There are now 'multi-coloured shirts' whom say they are not connected to the govt and they want the govt to clamp down on the protesters just to resume peace and order to their daily lives in Bangkok. Thats a pure joke, literally. The current govt, yellows, and multi-coloured are really all in the same pot, anti-Thaksin, and representing middle-class and elitist concerns when the majority of Thailand's people are lower-poor urban and rural residents. Its funny how they now want' peace' and no 'violence' now that their yellow govt is in power when back when the democratically-elected red govt was in power, they had no qualms about destroying Thailand's image with the exact same rallies, taking over of international airports,etc. And they're complaining of their lives being disrupted because they cannot do business and shop at the high-end shopping malls and eat at the upscale luxury hotels which the red masses have formed protest stations at?

Well, for their information, most of these red supporters have prob never even entered these shopping malls or ate at any of them before.....A case of hitting them where it hurts...haha...

PPPS: I think i'm always supporting parties which, on a socio-economic level, I never belong in..for instance, in Taiwan's politics, I've always supported the DPP instead of the KMT despite my family bckground and area where we live which all leans heavily towards the KMT and in the current case of Thailand, clearly I have less in common with the rural poor of Thailand than the middle and upper class elites of Bangkok, but I believe that goes even more to show which side is worth supporting more...

Cheating Men & The Women Beside Them...出轨与在他旁边的女人......浮気した男と彼のそばにいる女...

I am so sick and tired of cheating men and the women who stand besides them. Think John Edwards and Elizabeth Edwards in the political world, Tiger Woods and Elin in the sports world, Sandra Bullock and Jesse James in the entertainment world, and that's just the famous ones we all know about. God knows what happens in the lives of ordinary people as well which is not sniffed out and reported by media these days. And in case you think it's just America, guess again, cos there was a recent high-profile case of a Taiwanese legislator caught on camera cheating on his wife with another socialite at some high-class restaurant in Taipei and Singapore's most well-known director Jack Neo was also recently busted for having a 2 year affair with a model half his age as well as other victims whom have come out to say they were repeatedly offered roles in exchange for sex with the director or were constantly sexually harassed by the well-known director Jack Neo. It seems that there is no sphere or occupation where men won't cheat, and cheat with women many years younger than themselves or their wifes!

It's disheartening really. And i really CAN'T stand these women whom stand beside their men and say they're willing to forgive them. And I can't stand these women whom continue to publicly support their men even with all the humiliation they face. Why in the world would you still want the man? I mean, you often find that its the men whom are the most guilty but yet gets to choose whether THEY would like to continue the marriage with their wife after getting busted and not the other way round. So undignified. Many of the women then choose to forgive their husbands only to find out in the end that their husbands have fallen in love with the younger woman and still decides to continue the relationship even AFTER the bust up. Look at Elizabeth Edwards as an example. She forgave her husband and even continued to campaign for him during his presidential run despite knowing about his affair and AFTER the media relevations. It was not until it was determined that John Edwards had fathered a child with the other woman was she forced into a divorce.

And i also take issue with ppl whom blame the women. What total rubbish. Don't EVER SAY that an affair is two people's responsibility. WRONG. It is ALWAYS THE CHEATER'S FAULT. NEVER THE OTHER SPOUSE'S FAULT. I love all the 'excuses' people come up with when men cheat. Oh the wife is too strong. She always 'bosses' her husband around. She's also responsible. The wife didn't take care of her image,looks,etc (err, cos she's been busy cooking, cleaning, looking after the kids the last 15 yrs whilst the husband watches the telly and takes them out occasionally?) ..what nonsense. Men will cheat in all kinds of circumstances. Look at Elin, Tiger's wife. She looks the perfect wife in terms of Western conventional beauty image. She's not even in her 30s, merely 20s, blond long hair, good face and thin body, but YET Tiger Woods cheated, not one or two but with possibly over 10 women. Look in Asia, with Vivian Chow...she was barely just 40 when her husband had an affair with a university/college girl and she looks stunning not just for her age but actually passes for just 30. She is also well-known for her feminine good-girl personality and so obviously being beautiful and having a feminine personality doesn't stop your husband from cheating. And the reason why i say it's NEVER right or understandable or two people's fault when someone cheats is becos the action cannot be mitigated by the fault of one. Therefore, even if the wife is unreasonable, looks sloppy and ugly and unappealing, smelly, has turned into a hot-tempered woman whom also insults her husband in public at every chance, it's STILL NOT her fault when her man cheats. It is purely 100% his fault. I REPEAT THAT.

Bcos, the solution to the above is not to cheat but to talk it out, work on it, go for counselling,etc..that's what couples should do. Not cheat.

Cos Saying a man whom cheats on his wife whom has some faults too, and that's ok, is like saying its ok for Tim to beat up Adam because Adam insulted his mother or its ok for Jack to kill Rob because Rob always disrespects him or that its Jill's fault as well when Joe rapes her for her ill-temper or that Janet has to take responsiblity as well for Jim stealing all her money and burning down her house because she is always insulting him to his friends and ill treats him for many years. Get it? One is simply disproportionate to the other. If you have problems, work it out with your other spouse. If you haven't tried, or fail after many yrs, then get a separation. Get a divorce. Not cheat.

I have no issues when a man divorces or separates from his wife and finds another (younger woman--ok maybe i'd still be like shallow you..but at least i'd respect him alot more than cheating) after the separation. But just don't try to be selfish and still want your social status, image, and your family and kids AND the other woman all at the same time.

And the worse thing is when all these men cheat and go for the younger women, not just 2,3,4,5,6 years younger, but they go for at least 7 yrs and younger and often up to girls half their age (basically almost their daughter's age) and call it finding 'true love'. Yes, these women/girls haven't cooked and cleaned, and provided free sex for years to these men which their wives have done, and once they find a younger fresher girl, out goes the wife whom spent decades toiling with them when they were poorer and unsuccessful and just starting out.

I mean some men even cheat on their wives when they're having cancer (!) re: Elizabeth Edwards, Jack Neo's first wife apparently... seriously heartless bastards...and i cannot fathom how men like these can go all the way up and climb the social ladder to become potential Presidential Nominees of the USA, Singapore's most famous director,etc..it seems that some would argue, its not relevant whether a man cheats or how he treats his wife as long as professionally he does well in his job. I'd strongly disagree. When it comes to promotions and climbing up the social ladder, of cos, its HIGHLY RELEVANT. This kind of 'impartial assessment' of people is seriously ridiculous. It is what caused armies to rape with impunity in past wars cos 'its ok or not detrimental to his social/job standing if he rapes' as long as he performs well in battles. It's what has covertly tolerated all the rape/abuse scandals which Australian football leagues have come to be associated with in recent yrs as its kinda 'all good' as long as they continue to win scores and victories for the team. It only becomes seriously not ok when they start losing games.

All these high profile cheatings and their wive's ultimate forgiveness ( the list is long...Jackie Chan is another one which came up whilst i was typing this) makes a poor and disturbing role model for the wider populace that its kinda ok for men to cheat..or at least if u're rich, ....cos although you may suffer a backlash from your wife, ultimately, she'll forgive you and your marriage and career will both stay intact on the whole.

And although i know its purely 100% a personal decision on the part of these very public cheater's wives whether or not to forgive their husbands, I also know that their decisions ultimately will have some kind of subconscious effect on the minds of the wider society observing the ensuing scandal unfold. Therefore, although its their personal decision, its also a public responsibility and a women's dignity issue as well. It can be 'Well, so and so forgave their husbands so maybe i should too..he's o'nly done it once' or 'Look at so and so, she kicked her husband out and took half his money..that gives me the courage to uphold my own dignity too and give my husband the boot..'

And it is with this final statement in mind that I hope Sandra Bullock gives her husband the kick out and not follow in the footsteps of Hillary Clinton (another name that popped up!), Elizabeth Edwards, Vivian Chow, apparently Elin Woods as well, and the numerous other 'women besides them' whom have effectively provided a negative role model for women and men and said that their dignity and trust can be trampled upon and that their self-worth is not worth much and can be taken and thrown aside by a man at his whim.

The Amazing Race 14...

Victor and Tammy Jih won the Amazing Race Season 14, I only got to watch it early this yr on youtube..thank goodness for youtube. I was sooo happy! It's seriously one of the best seasons of TAR..there were a diversity of contestants which i really like, i liked the fact that the final few teams comprised of black sisters, a mute and deaf son and mother team, and an Asian-American sibling lawyer team. I am so glad Chinese-Americans won!! And they were smart too..both are Harvard educated lawyers..yes, BOTH...both lawyers now...and both pretty good-looking too..the season also had alot of gay contestants, another plus point for me....besides the openly gay ones which were 3 or 4 i think, Victor Jih is seriously under my 'gaydar' suspicion..just by his voice, his sensitivity, his love for crying (he cried and got emotional on so many occasions..too many for ur average straight male)..and yea, just his voice..and i really like him (or rather his voice) hahaha..and he's smart too...

btw, another reason i love the winners (besides being Chinese-American, prob wealthy, Harvard-educated solicitors,etc) is the fact that they're also Taiwanese-Americans! I knew it from the beginning, i just had this gut feeling they could be Taiwanese-American given that almost all the wealthy, well-educated, famous Chinese-Americans are inevitably from Taiwan originally (this is due to the history and politics of Taiwan/China and America. Until 1979, America only had diplomatic relations with Taiwan and not China and thus mainlanders couldn't immigrate to America until January 1979. On the other hand, Taiwan had 20,000 quotas allocated for it which is actually the quota allocated to China every yr and only wealthy and Taiwanese pursuing higher education like their masters/phd were moving to America 1950-1979 reflecting the status and education level of many Taiwanese-Americans in American society. Mainland Chinese came later on and were invariably poorer and thus had less resources and time to climb up the social ladder. You often hear stories of Taiwanese-Americans with parents whom came as computer engineers and lab scientists working in low-paid jobs,etc whereas mainlanders tended to come on relative reunion visas or less prestigious study purposes.) .

Bck to Victor and Tammy, so i had this gut feeling given that most well-educated well-to-do Chinese-Americans inevitably have roots from Taiwan and given the fact that they were speaking Mandarin most of the time (as opposed to Cantonese which would suggest roots from Hong Kong or immigration pre-1949) i googled, and i was right! They ARE Taiwanese-Americans!! Yeahh..another reason to celebrate their victory.

Just love The Amazing Race Season 14..hehe..

Tsubaki CM!...资生堂‘日本女性’广告!...資生堂つばきCM!...

I fell in love with the Shiseido 'Tsubaki' theme song and commercial for their hair products a long time ago but only recently rediscovered the cm on youtube. God, the Japanese models/actresses featured are sooo pretty...i was basically enamoured by their beauty, haha...

youtube 'shiseido tsubaki cm' links:

1)http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6W845U4cUDw
2)http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sfn1Eo7qrjw&feature=related
3)http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eOt2qalSAb8&feature=related
4)http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NFc6i3EwHJ0&feature=related
5)http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Js2wlN0OkUM&feature=related
6)http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yDu-PoFjTBQ&feature=related

7)http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gvRQ024ANeE&feature=related &
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EdrUJqaxP9E&feature=related
(I especially like this cm celebrating new years, with all the kimono clad ladies..captivating in a word!)

IWD Again...International Women's Day 2010...国际妇女节2010...国際女性の日２０１０年..

Today marks International Women's Day again....Oprah did a special show on Women's rights around the World sometime last yr...here's the link to the full show on youtube:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1teYeYl-ggc

I bought the book she recommended written by Nicholas Kristof and his wife Sheryl Wu-Dunn.

It's called 'Half the Sky' reporting about the plight of women/girls around the world now in the 21st Century and what we can do to assist them.

They say micro-financing projects target 90% plus women as women borrowers, time after time, multiple studies have shown use their money responsibly in investing in their children's education/food,etc and have an extremely high repayment rate whilst men tend to use the money borrowed irresponsibly and show off to their friends. Men also tend to be worse at repayment of loans. Furthermore, a study i read about last month showed that men have less ability to feel remorse and regret for what they do (confirming my long held belief from life experience that men have less compassion/empathy GENERALLY (not saying every single male species or even a majority but just comparatively as against women). The study in the paper showed that men tend to feel guilt only towards themselves (selfish!) as opposed to women whom tended to feel guilt and care about how their actions hurt other ppl's feelings. Men tend to feel guilty about how their actions hurt themselves, such as feeling guilty about not exercising enough, or feeling guilty about eating too much unhealthy food. Indeed i think this study corresponds to another study done in the UK on prostitution which showed that men who visit prostitutes most often than not know that the prostitutes are either traffick victims or feel disgusted by what they're doing but the remorse/guilt they feel means they still go ahead with the service. The only effective way of stopping them from visiting prostitutes wasn't one based on compassion/empathy but one based on the more selfish reason of being detrimental to themselves, basically, if the police launched a serious crackdown which involved them getting prosecuted, fined, names published on newspaper,etc. Basically, confirming the earlier study on men being generally less empathetic towards other's and more concerned about themselves.

Men are also more likely to be racist, homophobic, sexist, and less tolerant/more extreme, according to one study of Australian men many yrs ago which i read in Melbourne in 2005. This may be true given the general impression we have that most of the extremist/terrorist are men and most violent attacks/crimes based on racism and homophobia are also committed by men. Its not a Coincidence that Our Jails are filled with Men, especially those committing the most vile and violent crimes..

Anyways, here's to celebrating IWD 2010 with all the excitement and motivation one can have, and not forget the achievements and adversities women around the world still face in the 21st Century. :-)

Sydney Lesbian & Gay Mardi Gras Fest' 2010...雪梨同志节大游行2010...シドニーゲイとレスビアンパレード２０１０...

I attended 3 events of the Sydney annual Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras this year, being the most events which i've ever participated in ...i usually attend the annual Parade...it's apparently one of the largest, if not the largest, gay and lesbian festival/parade in the world.


I went to Fair Day, my first time, which is a community event held at a park with about 70,000 people in attendance which launches the Mardi Gras official season which lasts 2 weeks this year. What surprised me was the number of straight families there bringing along their children..i even saw a middle-aged chinese man bringing along 2 elderly chinese women into the fair!

How mainstream gay events have become in sydney..a sign of the changing times...


I also went to the Mardi Gras Parade and also was an official Mardi Gras volunteer for one of the events, the one which i most wanted to participate in given the rarity of the opportunity: Spencer Tunick's Mardi Gras commissioned 'The Base' art installation. (google him if u don't know what kind of art he does!)

Photos from the Mardi Gras Parade:

Above：Gay and Lesbians from the Armed Forces incl. airforce, army, and navy parading..it was eye opening to see gay soldiers..i even saw a gay couple holding hands..wow..it completely turns around the stereotype of gay ppl in the fashion, designing industry when u see regular-looking blokes whom are gay serving in the armed forces!

Photos Below from Before the Parade..most ppl arrived for front row seats 4-5 hours before the parade begins at 7 45pm at night.:-)

Photos from Fair Day:Above: Fair Day...

Above: So cool...for a coin donation, you get to hit once on the metal plate and if you hit spot on, the guy sitting there falls into the bucket of water... the view from the park of the Sydney CBD skyline was breathtakingly beautiful..i was amazed at the fantastic view and took plenty of pics.

Above: When i saw this 'bear flag', i knew i had to snap a photo of it..it's so cute isn't it?

Above and Below: Some safe-sex pamphlets and volunteers with '69' on their singlets..hehe..

Above: Fair Day...with rainbow flyers..

Above: Probably THE highlight of my Fair Day experience, buff men in tight spandex on the pole! I've prob never seen pole dancing in my entire life (except in movies, always female too) and to see men with spandex on poles..hehe..

Above n Below: Since it was still CNY on Fair Day, had yum cha @Marigold Restaurant with a gay friend of mine before heading to Fair Day in the afternoon...there were quite alot of gay men at yum cha (prob went/going to fair day too) on the day..haha..my friend met a gay acquaintance at yum cha too...later on we saw them at the fair day again...

Above n Below: CW bank motorbikes advertising CNY promotions....Mardi Gras Big Screen @ World Square..

Photos from my volunteer work at Spencer Tunick's 'The Base' installation @ Sydney Opera House: Spencer Tunick's Sydney installation was commissioned by the Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras and had the theme of tolerance/acceptance and all being equal amongst ppl regardless of sexual orientation. When i first heard of it, i knew i just HAD to attend, where else could i see thousands of ppl in their most frank form gathered at a famous public structure such as the Opera House in Sydney?! But i knew if i didn't participate, it'd be hard to go close up n take pics..then i realised they needed volunteers for Mardi Gras events..i volunteered for a couple of events but only got accepted (maybe i entered too late...) to this one which was the one which i wanted to do the most! Yesss!!! It turned out they needed the volunteers the most for this and in the end very little vol turned up as it was held at 3 30am on a weekday morning..since it was part of a gay festival, i expected some gay ppl to turn up, but omg, there were so many gay ppl there!ahahaha..like i'd say 1/3 (its called gaydar)..and they had to pose with the straight men and gay men and women,etc..i think the most awkward pose was when Tunick asked them to embrace the person standing next to them...omg, sooo awkward..and pretend to kiss!!! There was a 'threesome' straight consisting of 2 men and one woman pretending to kiss and in an embrace and standing RIGHT next to them was a 'threesome' gay male one of three gay men embracing and also pretending to kiss, what a sight, the threesome straight and gay right besides each other...Also saw an obviously straight pair of male teenage boys whom had come along together doing this 'manly arm wrestle pose' when doing this,(instead of the embrace) hahaha...so weird for them i'm sure...i noticed this two teenage boys bcos one of them had been swinging for like 5 secs his assets at the 2-3 helicopters flying overhead before, almost unbelievable for me to see this, almost like the gay/male version of 'girls gone wild'! haha! (cos the media were cordoned off to an area quite far off the actual site of photo shooting, many of the tv stations had helis flying overhead to get better footage!)

It was definitely a sight seeing many of the couples straight and gay, in their most 'ala natural' state, in embraces and kissing side by side!

I had expected it to be kinda erotic looking at it, but i realised when I was volunteering with the cold weather, it was just an amazing sight, nothing sexual at all, though i did see a couple of cute guys..hehe..incl an australian-chinese guy (u can tell by his physique and accent) but i was surprised i didn't let the shallow side of me take over and zoom in on certain ppl in their most frank form..but one thing, tan lines were very visible amongst australians! (something u could only ever know in events like this or maybe in the gym!) and westerners definitely had ahem, more 'well defined' assets...of cos, my attention were mainly with the men..hahaha...there were not only old ppl and liberal looking people, but i was surprised the no of ppl who looked totally normal rocking up..many good looking young men and women too, straight n gay...

and there were alot of asians willing to do this, i was surprised! i thought only caucasians would do something like this...it surprised me the no of ppl there willing to do something like this early in the morning! And despite it being autumn, the temperature was chilly, so u can imagine how cold it must be for the participants given the state they were in!

I had a great time there(even chatted with the female security guard, whom was from Canberra) and even got to see the installation inside of the theatres of the sydney opera house (there were altogether 4, 1 main group one forecourt of opera house, 1 smaller group inside, and 1male/female each only groups at the Royal Botanic Gardens..Definitely a Once in a Lifetime Experience:-)Above: Waiting @ Royal Botanic Gardens for the sun to come up for the shoot, March 1st 2010 sometime early morning..prob 5-6am...

Above: Media ppl interviewing after the installation...

Above: Shot of the art installation on the steps of Sydney Opera House from Royal Botanic Gardens, all the plastic bags are for the participants' belongings...

Above: Ending the day with breakfast of pancakes with maple syrup n cinnamon butter at Museum of Sydney Cafe, Circular Quay...;-)
PS: 我一知道有一个几千个人的大型的裸体人体艺术会在雪梨举办就很想去看看因为知道这一生人没有机会再看到几千个男女裸体集体在户外，更何况是在一个世界闻名的建筑前，雪梨歌剧院。。Spencer Tunick 是一个很有名的裸体人体艺术大师，拍过了无数的集体裸体户外照在世界各地。但是我知道我很难近距离看如果不参加的话，当我正烦恼如何进入观看而不显得突出（因为拍摄是在凌晨夕阳时，基本上是不会有人的，除非是参加者，我看到网路上登这活动是由雪梨同性恋节举办的，而活动招志愿者！基本上，我马上报名，因为只有当志愿者才能不但不起眼的近距离观看集体裸体还能有机会偷拍几张近距离照片！当天已经规定了所有参加者不能拍照，媒体也被割在远处观拍，但还是有参者偷拍，我当天的工作位址也都太天时地利人和，能够让我偷拍几张，哈哈。。我之所以用中文写这一段是因为，我把裸体照放在我的网上照片附，不想让太多人发现有志愿者当天拍下的照片（好像我是唯一一个拍了这么多张！）所以请到我的相谱连接吧！我当天看到好多同性恋和异性恋坦诚相见的站在一起还有同志情侣和异性情侣肩靠肩相拥真的是太难相信的景观了！还看到满多华人参加，真的是惊讶！还有几位满帅的哟，但是没看到他们的‘最真实的一面’因为太多人了，几千个，还有我也没特别眼部跟着他们。。当天还有两位男同志，一洋一中，在歌剧院景前，赤膊库子拉下至膝盖，拍个留念照，天啊，我就刚好看到，哈哈，真的是脑子灵活，这生人不会再有机会光天化日在剧院前拍如此裸照了！放在网上男同性恋交友网站肯定令人瞩目还会问怎么这么大胆而没被警察抓呢？！真的是个毕生难忘的经验。。Below: Rainbow Flag hoisted on Town Hall for the 1st time in history; marking Sydney LGBT Mardi Gras 2010 Season....Happy Mardi Gras! Looking towards Mardi Gras 2011!:-)

Chinese New Year in Sydney 2010.....农历新年虎年在雪梨2010年....

I celebrated the Lunar New Year here in Sydney this year by going to the Twilight CNY Parade as well as Dragon Boat Race at Darling Harbour. I've been to both events twice already, going there last yr too:-)

The Lunar New Year is celebrated in quite a big way here in Sydney and that's great for me given that CNY is one of my biggest festivals in the Chinese calendar.

Photos of both events below:
Above & Below: CNY Twilight Parade along George St (Sydney's main thoroughfare in the CBD).

Darling Harbour Dragon Boat Race 2010:

Above and Below: The scorching day @ CNY Dragon Boat Race Darling Harbour.

I was seriously sun-burnt on the uncovered areas of my skin (like last yr) at the Dragon Boat Race...my face, arms, and most seriously, knees, was seriously sun-burnt!...
Above n Below: Special Zodiac Illuminated Lanterns @ Customs House and Darling Harbour respectively..the lanterns were really really pretty!..I feel the Chinese New Year Festival in Sydney is better and bigger each year..actually, for the past 2 yrs, Chinese themes/festivals have been very dominant in Sydney...even the NYE Har Bridge Countdown Fireworks ended with the very Chinese/Oriental Ying and Yang Symbol!...

Above: May the Year of Tiger be a prosperous and fulfilling, smooth one for all:-) I copied the mark above from a Melbourne University Alumnae e-newsletter..