And what a cracker it has been. Not a Christmas cracker of course but a new year one. Mrs. H, Lulu and yours truly on a three-hour stroll. Sometimes we carried Lulu – she is a bit nervous around big dogs and heavy traffic. I of course carried my camera and when I was also carrying the dog I was interested to see whether we she would try to press the shutter button so I could start a new line in Lulu-art. Rather she just sat atop the M9 and occasionally turned the focus ring with her paw. You may deduce from this that I am reasonably relaxed about the camera body but I did try to stop her licking the lens. I didn’t dare put a Summilulux on it, just the ‘crons. Between us Lulu and I took a few pics and here is a selection of the first images of 2012.
Joss sticks
It is not Chinese New Year for a few more weeks but it is always a good time to burn joss sticks.
I like doors and stairs. I don’t know why. This combines them.
Stairway to heaven?
And here are two for the price of one….
The home of Arthur "Two Stairs" Jackson?
Not everybody celebrates New Year. At one end of the happiness scale we have the maids, all of whom get a holiday:
The maids' day off.
and at the other end of the scale we get the pig, who doesn’t:
On the spit.
I always wander past the small cheung fun cafe. As usual there was a healthy turnover as people waited for their brunch. This cafe always offers good photo opportunities (unless it is closed).
Brunch time
And if your idea of fun isn’t cheung, then how about some salted duck eggs?
Sunny side up
At times, all this photography gets a bit tiring so the only answer is to retreat to the cafe and take a break. Mrs. H and Miss Lulu did just that.
Coffee break
Mrs. H. is the one in sunglasses.
After that we wended our way home. It took a while. Lulu has short legs and is constantly required to stop as people coo over her and say ‘isn’t she cute’. Happily they don’t do this with Mrs. H., at least not when I am around. Although I of course do think she’s cute 🙂
We are almost at the end of the first day of January 2012. It seems to have gone rather well. Maybe that is because I have seen neither hide nor hair of economist and politician. Nobody has told me in grave tones that the Euro is about to implode and I should retreat to my bunker to await the end of the world as we know it. Nobody has told me that China is about to have a hard landing, the USA needs to cut its deficit and absolutely nobody has told me that they are about to improve my life by tearing down a rainforest to build me a road I neither need nor want.
So maybe the best solution is the end of the world as we know it. Start afresh. Lulu will be the new world President and a fine job she will make of it too. She has my vote. I intend to submit her as a write-in in Iowa, just to get her going. Vote Lulu. You know it makes sense.
All downhill from here 
i also have a massive thing about doors -stairs are okay but doors oh my i have a huge collection of pictures of doors everything from old abandoned the more weather worn the better to intricately carved and beautiful ones i cannot resist each new picture i find of doors i have to have it ^_^ and lulu is just adorable! have a great day ^_^
Arthur “Two SHEDS” Jackson !
Yours Pedantically
Indeed. But as someone once said, “I see no sheds”.
I am enjoying your post immensely, and of course photography. It’s going on 4 yrs since I have journeyed to Asia, and I miss it. Hopefully you keep up the blog thus allowing me to at least see what I am missing.
Barry, thank you very much for your encouragement. The last few days have seen a veritable flood of visitors – over 40 already today – so perhaps I struck a chord somewhere. The blog-content veers about like a drunken driver at times but is somewhere between a photo-blog with text and a narrative-blog with photos. In other words, I make it up as I go along.
As always, I’m struck by how different and wonderfuly amusing the world you live in is. Makes my rather blase corner of the world seem absolutely… well, mundane. 🙂