Red: Tourist in Your Own Town

Each month I pick a theme and ask you to post a photo of something from where you live to fit the challenge. As February begins so does 2014’s Chinese New Year and for many other parts of the world you may think of Valentines Day and love. What better idea than to show something RED? Maybe you want to show yourself or how other’s paint the town RED. Maybe there is a Valentine or Chinese New Year display where you live to show RED. However you decide post something RED, from wherre you live, before the end of the month.

Very RED tomatoes at the local wet market

The response to these photo challenges hasn’t been good. 😦 I have had lots of comments and ‘will come back later’ to post, but few have. Any suggestions how to make this a better challenge or how to get more interest would be greatly appreciated.

Traditional RED doors in Shanghai

The rules:

• post a photo of this month’s theme however you interpret it
• add a link in your post to this one here so others can join in
• put a link to your post in the comment section below, so we can find you
• add RED and Tourist in Your Own Town in your tags and title
• Snap away and have fun. Be sure to post before the end of February

The RED China Pavilion  -for the 2010 Shanghai Expo. Long after Expo this building remains to be used as a museum.

Thanks and stay tuned…

Companions: Weekly Photo Challenge

This week’s photo challenge set by word press is companionable. In our life we have many campanions, human and otherwise. Here are some (not a complete list as it is ever changing) examples of mine:

my travel companion… can’t leave home without it!

Just travelling half way around the globe I thought about my passport. Can’t go anywhere without it. My number one travel companion. If you forget anything else you can always pick up a replacement at your destination. My camera and passport are the 2 must haves for any trip… everything else is secondary.

need I say more?

In China I miss Tim Horton’s creamy coffee. Tea is the drink of choice in China hence the saying ‘all the tea in China’, so coffee, or good coffee is hard to come by. There is Starbucks and a few other chains, but one they are expensive (about $4-$4.50 a cup!) and not open until 7 and my bus picks me up at 7:03. Besides I find them too strong. It is hard to get a coffee maker and why bother since cream is even harder to find. Coffee and cream will also set you back a small fortune, so I must live on small instant nescafe packets. BLUCK… which are still expensive compared to home. I dream about real coffee and can’t wait to get the steamy, creamy cup into me when I get back on Canadian soil. Funny since I was a home-brew girl, but now it is Timmies! The Toronto airport has a few shops and one right by the departure gate, so I can take my last one right on the plane. Great companions: a double double and maple dip donut… need I say more?

Willow, my furry companion

Willow the newest addition to our family is a great companion. I didn’t think I could get another pet so soon after Holly, but this little fur monster warmed and purred her way into our hearts. She is very active and funny. Willow loves to play and is great company when John is away. She awaits my arrival each night and greets me at the door. Each night she likes to snuggle under the covers and plays fetch with me everyday. She certainly keeps us entertained with her silly antics.

my life long partner in crime and loving companion

My number one companion is my husband. It is hard when we are apart and frustrating when we only have the internet to interact. It is best when we are together.

Be sure to head over to WordPress to join in and see more example of companions.

So what is your companion you can’t live without?

Stay tuned….

Weekly Photo Challenge: Kiss

Kiss 😡

My nephews were getting their Valentine Cards ready and I told the youngest to put hugs and kisses on his card to his teacher. He is in Junior Kindergarten, so without a second thought he put the little X’s and O’s on the card.

He said “I want to make some more X’s”

I said “Oh more hugs?”

My brother and husband looked at me funny and said “What??? I thought X’s were kisses?”

I explained that I thought a hug was an X because you crossed your arms around someone… that looks like an X. An O then must be a kiss since your mouth makes an O shape when you kiss. They thought it was hysterical.

What do you think and X and O stand for? A hug or a kiss?

To my husband who is halfway around the world.

See more examples of KISS or join in the challenge over at Word Press 🙂

Stay tuned for more next week… or follow me at twitter @Rocse1.

 

 

Travel Theme: Gaudy

Due to travelling back to Canada for Chinese New Year I missed out on posting on the theme walls and unique. With my computer and external hard drive back in Shanghai I thought I would miss out on this theme too, but found a little treasure tucked away on a USB I happened to have with me.

We haven’t been able to travel much this year with John returning back to Canada in November. His step mom has found out she has stage 3 ovarian cancer and he came back to help out his family as much as he could. I have made the long trips back for Christmas and now Chinese New Year to be with family and John. However we did have a last-minute (short) trip to Seoul, South Korea for the recent October holiday.

When we were in Korea it was Korean Thanksgiving. People were off work, shops and banks were closed and special events like a night parade with outdoor concerts were part of the festivities. John and I went out to explore the night when we saw this fellow all dressed in a gaudy, shiny, white,  paten leather (or vinyl) suit. He was driving a motorcycle or electric scooter which was decked out in silver and white heart-shaped balloons. It was also spewing bubbles! I am not sure what he was advertising or doing, but with the heart shapes and bubbles we thought he was spreading joy and love. It made us laugh. It was certainly unique and gaudy, but made us happy. Events like these make great travelling stories and memories to last a life time.

The White Love Devil?

We saw him driving around and didn’t think we would get a photo. He drove by a few times too fast, or too far away. We happened luck out and snap this photo, which he happily posed for when his bubble machine got clogged up and he stopped at an intersection to fix it. We quickly ran over before he sped off into the night once again.

Looking at his horns and hearts I wonder… is this the White Love Devil? Just in time for Valentine’s Day. 🙂

Is this gaudy enough for you? If not check out Alisa’s page where you can find hundreds of other posts with examples.