Warning Explicit Beauty
It was very hot in the sun, 27 plus, but lovely in the shade, with an uplifting sea breeze. After breakfast at the hotel we navigated transit (not without difficulty), taking the tram to the tourist zone of Sultanahmet. Here…
East is East
Why are we flying Montréal Istanbul, a five hour flight and a nine hour flight with a four hour layover? The cryptic rules concerning how additional costs are levied. The sweetest part is that two biz class tickets on points…
Weekend in Banff, June 2015
On the afternoon we arrived in Banff there wasn’t a lot of time until dinner so we climbed Tunnel Mountain, a sort of local “Grouse grind” in the late day heat; 4.8 kms but only 260 meters. Gorgeous views and…
Words Fail Jake Gyllenhaal
Or so says the NYT. We found he handled them quite well. As for the four day weekend, I could get used to this. In 1927 the entire cast (all 57) of the Mae West production The Pleasure Man was…
A Delicate Balance on The Twentieth Century
Happy Valentine’s Day! Pier-ing across to Jersey We scheduled four sessions of sitting for today so first thing we headed out to the High Line, the re-purposed elevated spur of an old railway, now a 2.5 km park, for…
A Helluva Town
Helluva, used on Broadway, was changed to “wonderful” for the movie as Comden and Green’s lyric was too racy for Hollywood. New York is many spectacular and awe-inspiring things, but, truthfully, wonderful “honk honk” isn’t one of them. Still, where…
Ingenious Imitation of Nature by Man
I have no idea what that title means but it’s the title of a garden SS went to this morning. Although it was our most beautiful day in Hong Kong, mostly blue sky, warm but not too hot, no humidity,…
The Cause is in the Way
Don’t let the pictures below fool you: It was gorgeous today. A fair bit of cloud, and only intermittent blue sky, but 24 degrees, a light breeze, zero humidity. It always gives me a thrill to be somewhere outside…
Sheung Wan is the Bomb!!!
Our hotel is in Sheung Wan, the end of a subway line, a transitional mix of massage parlors with cutting edge galleries, cool shops and cafes and old school market stalls with remnants of a colonial past. It’s a wild…
Go Eat and Drink and Feast Go East
Except we’re old men. (If you remember the Elvis song.) Most boring blog ever. Wake me up when there’s a Kalli Wag in site. At any rate, early rise on Friday, out of the hotel at seven, wheeled our baggage…