Strange Days

So I woke up this morning rather late for me. 7:15 am. I rolled around in bed for a while debating what I should do. The sun was shinning in my window. I reached over to my desk and grabbed "A Long Way Gone" by Ishmael Beah. It's a book that I picked up a while back and just didn't begin.

Well I started on page one. Next thing I knew, it was 1:30 pm, the book was finished and I was in disbelief and amazement at what he went through. It is basically a biography of Ishmael's life as a child soldier in Sierra Leone. He is about the same age as me and when I think that while I was hopping curbs on my BMX, he was strung out of cocaine and killing people, it makes my head hurt.

Also, tonight I was walking home from the park and happened upon a funny scene. A man who had obviously had too many beers was exiting a bar. He looked agitated. He grabbed a chair that was outside a restaurant, lifted it over his head and threw it into the window of he restaurant. Surprisingly the window didn't break. Due to what I think was Chinese quality control deficiency, the CHAIR broke into about 50 pieces as it hit the window. An old lady of about 60 years of age came out and started to shove the man who looked to be about 40. I thought about intervening but what could I really do but get deported or something along those lines. Things settled and I left.

InTime Fashion Show

Being the only foreigner photographer has it's advantages. First, I am taller than the Asians, so I often just shoot over their heads. Second, being a tall foreigner, the models gaze is naturally attracted to me as I stand out. Hence, my ratio of "models eyes looking into the camera" is really high.

These shots are from the InTime Wedding Show. As the weather is finally nice again (i.e. not 35' C) the wedding season is going to start going nuts.

Unrelated note, why do the Chinese have this fear of planning holidays in advance? In Canada I KNOW when National Day (Canada Day) is. It is the same day every year, and the stat holiday is planned a year in advance. Here, no one can plan more than a week in advance. Drives me nuts some days...

!!!!!!

I just had a eureka moment. Yesterday I was in Hangzhou, I was walking to the bus station, I walked past a group of a few hundred office workers all outside a tall office building looking up. I assumed a fire alarm hence the evacuation.

NOW I realize that it was the earthquake.

I now know where I was when the ground was shaking. I was walking down Jiefang road with my new National Geographic.