A couple of mates went to a place called 'lavender cottage' the other day and on the way home stopped off for a swim in this perfect pool. Here's Janine.

My friend Rob S on his scooter, a few hours before the typhoon hit. The clouds are flying by, hence the blur.

Post-typhoon-Haitang damage.

Shees. Some people will do anything to stand out from the crowd... including covering an otherwise-attractive scooter in leopard print fur.

Taichung street art #5. I really like this one.

Taichung street art #6. This face looks kind of familiar... Any ideas, anyone?

Taichung street art #4. The third side.

Taichung street art #3. Another side of the road

Taichung street art #2. This the first image on the first pillar of a 4 sided bridge, near the computer mall NOVA (if that means anything to anyone reading this)

Taichung street art #1.

Long time no post, I know, sorry! I've been computer-less for a few weeks hence the silence. Yes, about the post... I'm really not that into flowers but these water lillies blooming in my apartment's pond are pretty impressinve.

My New Blog!

I have a new blog, for those interested. It's http://mypracticeart.blogspot.com and I've put all my semi decent bits of graphic design that I've created over the years on there. Take a visit and leave a comment!!

My apartment complex has a really great garden when one considers the lack of gardens in Taichung. Here's a cropped close up of a simple but elegant flower. Feel free to post the name if you know it.

This looks almost European, except that it's really not. I liked the colors and contrasts of this scene. The coloured billboards are advertising a new apartment complex that will be built on the foreground. The name of the complex is typical 'image English' (ie only to show how cool and 'Western' it is): 'The largest Cortille in North Taichung'. Anyone ever heard of a 'Cortille' before?

Degrees Celcius. And that's at 11pm. This country is HOT!

Here's a typical example of Taiwanese entrepreneurship: a food truck. Find a corner, park your vehicle and you have a business!

Beautiful clouds on my way to work yesterday.

Star Trek Episode 37. I'm the non-comformist on the right. The diving/snorkelling was fantastic. The variety of coral and sea life in the water around the island is spectactular. If you've never been snorkelling/scuba diving, I highly recommend it - it's a totally new world under the surface. Next purchase: a waterproof housing for my camera!

Here's a great pic of one of the most photogenic people I've ever met - Tracy Sparrow. Taken in front of an old fishing boat on Green Island.

So a bunch of mates and I visited Green Island which is South East of Taiwan, about an hour's ferry ride from Taidung. It's a former penal colony that has been open to tourists for quite a few years now. It's home to some very beautiful scenery like the shot above and has some of the best coral reefs I've ever seen. A good place to visit if you have the time.

I visited the science museum and they had this interesting display about population growth. This pic doesn't look half as eerie as the real display does.

Another classic mistranslation on the side of a scooter.

I also visited Taipei's national palace museum. This is probably the most amazing piece of carving I've ever seen. It's made from a single piece of ivory and inside the outer spere are another 17 concentric speres, all perfectly fitting inside each other. How they were carved I have no idea, but it's an incredible piece of art.

This is a 66000kg steel ball that slowly swings to counteract the swing produced by high winds on 101's 508 meter structure.

So I took a trip to Taipei and went up to the 89th floor of the (ex)tallest building in the world, Taipei 101. It's a great experience and you'll see the whole of Taipei if it's not cloudy like it was when I was there. It's amazing that you're actaully above the low clouds on the 89th floor.

The bread loaf from outer space. Na, just fiddling with my cheap and infinitely playable laser pointer. Wow, those things are interesting! Try shining one through some crumpled cellophane at night and see what happens...

Advertisers never fail to amaze me with their ingenuity. This is a semi opaque advert applied directly to a building. Presumably the occupants can still see out of their windows.

I was at a beach about 30 mins outside of Taichung the other day and encoutered these amazing symetrical patterns that the local crabs make around their holes. Not quite sure why they go to all the effort of rolling perfect little sand balls and arranging them so well. Any enlightening comments would be appreciated :)

Sorry to post a pic such as this, I guess it's not all roses here in Taiwan. Some taiwanese people don't seem to know how to take care of their animals and many have no concept of respect for non-human life. This was outside a pet shop, in the heat of the day. Appalling :(

Did you know that good cake and cafe needs no bush? I must say, this is news to me.