cheung chau

taipei, taiwan

taiwan was amazing, it made me realise how rude people in customer service are here in hong kong. (except for today at marks and spencer. they said merry christmas and smiled and i thought i had just mistakenly paid them 1000 instead of 100). unfortunately, i didn't take my camera on my trip (oh speaking of trips i slipped and fell down a flight of stairs in central today, it was pretty embarrassing so after i was helped up i went and stood facing a wall for about ten minutes until my body stopped aching), but taiwan! the fun times shall burn in my occipital lobe forever! everyone was so kind, strangers were lovely, it made me want to be a better person haha. i could feel my cheeks swell up wanting to smile at everyone i saw and everywhere i passed.

but a trip in asia isn't a trip in asia without some tiny scam! we call him 'squid guy'. he sells grilled squids and told me it was 120 each after he had made them. i laughed and asked, 'uncle, are you scamming us? everyone else sells them for a fraction of that!'

squid guy: no! my squids are better than everyone else's, they are not frozen.

me: but behind you is a huge cube of squids defrosting in that face washing pan!

squid guy: that's um... for something else. my squids are fresh.

me: i can get 6 for that price though.

squid guy: i've already made them for you, be a samaritan, 220 for the two.

he actually said be a samaritan.

see what happens when you travel in asia with someone with blonde hair and green eyes? *eyes sofia sitting next to me right now*

peak-a-boo

jono

gansu

feather in a baseball cap

marta

sleeping under different stars

ring me up!

so it turns out i'm not so good at jewellery making and the image looks way better than the real thing. haha but after giving majority of the rocks away i still have a rectangular purple amethyst and blue granite one to share with my readers! (i only made 7 all up). it is literally just a band with a ring attached. the first few i put too much effort with the bottom coatings and it just looked stoopid so the later ones are super simple. band + rock = ring. i did some of the rock shaping on the gravel road outside so excuse the roughness.

if you want one of the two just write your name and email in comments. i will draw 2 names out of a pensieve on the 16th, and whoever is whoever i will send you the rings! (you'll have to give me a week to send them out as i am going somewhere on the tuesday), but in short for those of you who hate reading:

comment

name

email

rock (amethyst or granite)

pretty much it, i also did a photoshoot yesterday so expect photographs in the next few days, yay/sorry! much love, aimee x.

update 16.11.10

names drawn are... miyu and gladys! i will send it out by the end of the month, thank you everyone for commenting and being apart of it. i had way too much fun writing the names on little pieces of paper.

weekends

marta

mandarin lake

yesterday i saw an old lady with a back so terribly hunched her head was touching her knees. she could only follow the gravel as she walked. i wondered how long since she last gazed at the sky. maybe that would be the least of her worries, with aches like that. sadness lumped in my throat, i felt embarrassed to witness the scene without lending help. she was enfeebled yet still hauling a huge cart of cardboard, presumably to sell. i wanted to be of use, but old people with cardboard in hong kong are gravely protective of their belongings.

having spent childhood walking from home to anywhere seeing poverty. children begging, mothers with babies begging, old people with their heads kowtowed to the ground begging. i use to wonder what spot i'd pick in the city if i had to beg for survival suddenly. while normally seeing these incidents would throw me into heartache, yesterday it kind of left me with a bittersweet feel. she had been doing something i didn't expect anyone of her physic to do. which made me realise, maybe i judged too early, maybe what i saw wasn't tragic, but another paradigm for encouragement, grit, courage, life. what's that line again... (and forgive me for quoting him):

because I am bigger than my body gives me credit for.

hong kong

every morning i wake up to the sound of heat stinging the windows. people always say they can't hear it but it sounds just like honeycombs crackling in a distant fire; the annoying adherence of my skin to my bed sheets, and the air conditioner so quietly whispering ‘enough… seriously’.

summer in hong kong feels wonderful. everyday the warmth of this air would wake me up before the sun got too high. i'd eat an icy pole every morning, the sugar would trickle down my hands and i'd have to lick it before it got sticky. i don't like it when it runs down to my elbows.

i have this map i've been keeping with me, it doesn't have streets but it does show all the islands. i have folded it a few too many times so some of the names are lost in the creases, but nonetheless it is still very helpful for a traveller. i don't like the giant maps that block paths from other people. the ones you see the adults in the family hold. they always try to match the street names, but it is silly because they often miss what's just around them.

today i realised: it wasn't summer anymore.

i have been calling my time ‘summer’ for almost two months after the beginning of autumn. time is amazing don't you think? sometimes they become our enemies, like when you are young and think the rain will never pass. you listen to your teacher in class, only to wonder whether the whole world has stopped moving, or if she is just really, really boring. other times they help us grow, to become better people, bigger dreamers, accomplished believers.

maybe i have been lost in time, if not completely. my time is counted by days. i think people keep track by banding them into weeks or months, but days are the best of times — so much can happen if you let it. so little can amount if you leave it. i have been whole-heartedly embracing each new sunrise. i envelop it no matter what light is being presented. i am not waking up to dreams coming true. in fact i feel like i am handed a blank canvas. every. single. day.

i don't want to receive a blank canvas everyday for the rest of my life, but i like the fact that right now, i can still take it hold it, and make what i will. maybe one day i will have enough colours to paint a van gogh. but right now i appreciate the few paint colours i do have. if i can't fix something the day before the next day i am given a new chance, and being able to step back and realise this has been so good for me. time passes differently for everyone.

i hope to get more paints for november though. maybe i can save a few canvases and make something prettier in the days and sunrises coming.