Overflown

The Museum of Fine Art is on the flightpath for Taipei's domestic airport, which means every couple of minutes another plane flies over. They must be rather proud of this, because in the entrance hall of the museum is an installation consisting of some very loud speakers that blare the sound of a plane flying overhead, while a shadow of a plane is projected across the ceiling. This is fun the first few times, but I imagine the museum staff could be quite aggravated.

Juming Museum, Taiwan

The Juming Museum is an enormous outdoor garden, filled with sculpture. There are dozens of monumental bronze statues of tai chi practicioners, soldiers and people in flight.

Apparently.

ArtScience!

It's eerily quiet in Chinatown now the non-stop Chinese New Year celebration has, well, stopped, so we headed over to the ArtScience Museum by the Marina Bay Sands.

EMP in Seattle

Today we drove to Seattle and visited the EMP, the Experience Music Project, near the Space Needle. It's a beautiful building, but the contents are a bit odd.

Singapore Art Museum

This evening we went to the Singapore Art Museum, to see an exhibition of Asian art. Because it's a Friday admission was free, and that was free as in "no charge for any part of the museum" instead of the British model of "charge for the really interesting part".

Weakened in Singapore

I think that when they have had problems thinking of names for things in Singapore, they left it up to a large border collie.

“What shall we call this hotel, Fido?”

“Raffles!”

“What shall we call this hospital, Fido?”

“Raffles!”

“What shall we call this shopping mall, Fido?”

“Raffles!”

“What shall we call this municipal toilet facility, Fido?”

“Raffles!”

The consequence of this is that giving directions to people is sometimes fraught with danger. Or at least misdirection. I plan on telling somebody, whenever we arrange to meet, to do it outside Raffles, and avoid specifying whether I mean the hotel, the sewage refinery or the baked goods emporium. It will be a bit like telling someone to pick up you in Hong Kong, outside the Starbucks that’s over the road from the Seven Eleven.

Oxford

Last night we drove to Oxford, and stayed in a strange hotel down towards Henley. It was odd in many ways; the photos on the website suggested it was a small building, when it turned out to be a maze of converted barns, joined together by a multiplicity of corridors. The exterior and the entrance way were incredibly grand, but the room (when we reached it, after trudging through an eternity of fire doors) was somehow basic and utilitarian. Yes, it had a bed, and a carpet, and a lovely view of the river, but it felt most suitable for a conference or a joyless affair conducted after work. Odd, that.

Somerset House

Today we had a few hours to kill before getting ready for our party, so we walked down from Fleet Street to the Strand, and visited Somerset House.

Slight return

They say you can never go back. You can, but it can get confusing...

Seattle Museum of Art

After not getting much sleep on the plane to Seattle, I managed to stick it out until midnight before going to sleep, and then woke up this morning feeling almost normal. I worked my way through a bowl of porridge and then went to get my beard trimmed. After that I was at a loss as to what to do next, so I strolled down the street, rain blowing in my face, cursing when I stopped by an awning and got dripped on the top of my head.

Not wanting to walk back to the hotel and sit around all day, and not feeling like spending my day in the shops, I walked round to the Seattle Art Museum. As I approached, I recognised the Hammering Man from Seoul outside. Or rather, I suppose when I went to Seoul and saw the Hammering Man statue there, I was actually looking at a copy of the statue outside the Seattle Art Museum. The one outside the museum has a number painted on one leg, apparently so the artist can track which one is which.

The number is at least 6 digits long, which suggests there's an awful lot of Hammering Men somewhere.

Breaking down

In sympathy with the Blackberries in Britain that are all fomenting rebellion, my own handset has also turned evil, although in this particular case it's just that the screen has turned black and the light has turned on, like a miniature eye of Sauron glaring angrily out at the world. That wouldn't be so bad if it hadn't stored several days of my most intellectual gibbering, news that the World Must Hear or somesuch.

Or at least, this means that I may have lost the record of my unbroken blogging streak - almost up to two years now, managing to type out a few words in between getting married and other events.

A few museums in New York

The rains that were threatened for today never materialised: instead, the skies were blue and clear. And at ground level and below, the air was thick and damp, cloying, even. I would say it isn't as polluted as Hong Kong but the fumes from all the trucks, construction sites, frozen yogurt shops, illegal DVD hawkers and dog walkers have to go somewhere.

Of boats and stuff

Today we went to some of the museums of Shelburne, including the Dory shop, where they continue to build dories, although not at the frenetic pace of the previous century.

Making an exhibition of yourself

I haven't written many new jokes this month - this is perhaps a flaw with spending my weekends hurling myself down hills or going to weddings.

(Actually, hurling suggests rather more commitment and determination - it's been more like hanging off the back of a bicycle trying not to die, but let's leave that aside for the moment.)

Singapore for a day

The wedding was beautiful, and not just in comparison to watching Anacondas: Blood Orchid. I haven't been to that many weddings in the last few years, but at each one I'm astounded by the attention to detail everyone seems to show. It's both humbling and inspiring, and vaguely worrying for me that perhaps I haven't put enough thought into our wedding this summer. Or perhaps that's something my dear fiancee has already sorted out.

Chicken, Chicken MUSEUM

More pictures of chickens here

We got up very early this morning and went to Anjuk, for a walk from the guidebook that promised to take us to the Owl Museum of Seoul. It had been a most unsatisfactory guidebook throughout our stay in Seoul, and it did not fail to disappoint once again.

Visiting Stanley

Today we struggled out of bed late, and took a taxi over to Stanley.

Stanley holds a quasi-mystical status for most Hong Kongers - it's this curious place on the other side of the island, sometimes thought of but infrequently visited.  Possibly because the journey there is something of an odyssey - an eighty dollar taxi ride from Happy Valley with most of it on a long winding road, stuck behind either a bus or a cement mixer, trundling slowly down the coast.

But when you arrive, there's a cornucopia of delights awaiting you.

Old stuff and confusingly named restaurants

Up early to head to the British Museum, to look at lots of old stuff. Saw one hermaphrodite statue (I think), had one baked potato, considered for about two minutes the merits of purchasing a replica Greek horse head for a grand, left the British Museum shop. Spent two hours in Forbidden Planet and Foop buying more unsuitable (ie heavy) books and some DVDs that I hope I'll watch, then over to Nusa Dua on Soho Square for some pan-Asian food.