Autumn Moon Festival

 

courtesy of Grace Teoh from Penang

 

Another excuse to overload on sugar by eating moon cakes, but now that my palate has matured from years of being married to a Cantonese woman, I turn my nose up at the local "tau sah" (sweet bean-paste) moon cakes, scoff at the trendy StarBucks mocha-latte-pandan flavours and eat only the finest "lin-yoong" (lotus-seed paste) moon cakes from KL (where else?). 

But when no one is looking..(Sam especially) I gorge on the local 'gu-chia-lin' (bullock cart wheels) large flat moon cakes bought from the Third Mile Bazaar

 Peggy's inaugural Kuching USk Sketch Crawl - in conjunction with the street celebrations on Carpenter Street
(drawn quickly with BIC Crystal 1.6 mm ballpoint pen because fish porridge from Lau Eya Keng is calling out to me)

Temppeliaukio Church, Helsinki

This is one of our favourite buildings in Helsinki; designed by two brothers - Timo and Tuomo Suomalainen whose design preserved the existing rock bed and sunk their church building into it. This Lutheran church was completed in 1969, it was often used as a concert hall because of its excellent acoustics.

The strong colours of the pew cushions contrast the natural colours of the church and its surroundings

When we visited it; we were in a group of about 40 people whose talking quietened and gradually ceased as we entered the church through a long rock tunnel.

After we emerged at the other side of the rock tunnel, the noise level rose slightly - this is time it was not talking but quiet murmurs of wonder and admiration. There are many things to be in awe of; the solid rock walls which enclose the church hall bathed in soft light; no doubt the source of many a metaphor of religion's grounding and solidity. The skylights that ring the entire roof allows entry of soft autumn light, reinforcing the feeling of a light and floating ceiling of concentric copper bands.

Getting around in Helsinki

Helsinki has a lovely Central Park.

At first glance, it is not obvious especially at street level. But after only a day and a half of tooting about on foot and the public transport system to realize that the city centre is the tip of a nature reserve  stretches northwards as a green spine for various types of public facilities; playgrounds, riding courses, sport halls, swimming pools, ski slopes and even pet cemeteries. 

It is not possible to explore all these facilities within the two days of our "stay-over" - but the southern most tip of Helsinki's Central Park where the Olympic Stadium is accessible by tram (stop  at Oopera). From there, one travels southwards on foot to reach Finlandia Park to visit Aalto's Finlandia Hall, Holl's KIASMA and the city centre.

take the Finnair bus from the Airport - 4 Euros gets you an orienteering course as well.

everyone second person is on a bicycle - this guy helped with direction while waiting for the lights to change

..and there are clear demarcations for pedestrians and bicycles,

...which everyone abides by.

this is not Minnie Driver...

it is legal to skate on the bike lane,

and on the nearby Suomenlinna Island, there are no cars.

so the 500 or so inhabitants, bike or walk

or Nordic Walk...

but this Finnish mode of locomotion takes the cake; it's a 'strolly' used by Finnair staff to get around in the Airport

A Strolly

Looking for Aalto

It was a good thing that our in-flight movie player failed to work in our 12 hour flight from Singapore to Helsinki because we each were given a 20 Euro voucher by Finnair, and we slept. This meant that when we arrived at 6:40 a.m. Helsinki time, we were fresh and well rested. 

Some people think that our first impression of a city depends on how and where you enter it from; on what you see at this first point of entry. But I feel that my first impression of a city depends also on the first contact we have with the locals - and within the first two hours, Helsinki came across as efficient and self confident (it is the World Design Capital of 2012) though a bit aloof. 

When the nice lady at the hotel let us check in at 10:30 in the morning, the meter went from aloof to possibly friendly but shy (or limited by lack of a common language between us). Our only word of Finnish (or more correctly, Suomi) was 'kitos' (kee-tosh) or thank you.

the Esplanade Park (Etelaesplanadi) that leads to the harbour

Sam had the foresight to order the Helsinki Card which enable us free access on an audio-guided tour of Helsinki and all forms of public transport, which included bus, trams and sea ferry. We were on the tour with an hour of check-in (the Finnish efficiency is contagious) - we were on the bus to see Helsinki's sights -  Finlandia Hall and the Sibelius Monument amongst them. The highlight for me was the Tempeliaukio Church or "the Rock Church" - carved out of and embedded in rock; by two brothers and local architects, Timo and Tuomo Suomolainen.

our breakfast room where guests are invited to pack and take away their lunch as well

streets of Art Deco buildings

The Importance of Details

These sketches describe the work carried out by NUS students under the tutelage of Kok Ming in a restored shop house in Malacca; other than the skill in the details - I also like how the series of small sketches explain the logic and craft behind each piece of work.

Scribbling on the wall

After completing the building - we realised that the mural that was promised would not be be forth coming, and that we are left to our own resources to provide 'art-work' for the space on the wall. Without much money left in the project budget, purchasing a piece of art was out of the question, as would leaving the space empty. It was then we came across the scrap metal in the client's yard; remnants of a recent plant machinery overhaul. The tangled mess of stainless steel tubing used to be part of a high pressure network supplying gases to one of the production processes no doubt. Now, it was to be sold by weight to the scrap dealer. 

one man's trash is another man's treasure

raw materials for 3-D graffiti

setting the stage for an intervention with Ah Hin and his argon-welder

making it up as we go...

three afternoons later...

the poem is "whose earth is this?

with all the components in place, it does not look half bad. :-)

I am often asked about the meaning of this piece - is it the crescent moon?, are they hands clasped in prayer or the map of Borneo; I simply smile and answer, 'yes'.

Chinese cough remedies

I was coughing badly for the past 4 weeks - the two doses of anti-biotics did not help so I decided to give Chinese herbal medicine a try. This meant going to Carpenter Street in the old part of town to visit Dr. Bong who comes highly recommended by my mom. He prescribed 24 doses of powdered herbs to be mixed in half a cup of warm water and taken three times a day. 

I read somewhere *that our memory of scent and taste is retained more deeply in our memory - often bringing on powerful recollections of past events related to a particular smell. The taste of the muddy mixture reminded me of my 'Ah-mah' (maternal grandmother) remedies administered in the first seven years of my life when I lived with her.

In them days, the powdered herbs were administered via a rolled piece of paper and 'blown' into your mouth (or the back of your throat if you have a cough or sore throat). You are not allowed to swallow for a time to allow the medicine to work and in those minutes, the gritty texture stuck to the back of your throat and lodged in your windpipe with each breath. 

from the bottom of the driveway

These are my 'drawings from memory' - of grandma s house at Jalan Tabuan. It is no longer there. It burned down one night in 1987, I was in Australia studying for my degree. When I was told the news over the phone; my mom mistook my stunned silence for a bad connection, perhaps not aware of how much the 'old house' and my memories there meant to me.

a continuous line of timber shutters provides protection from weather

Seven years of my life was spent there; new born till Primary One after which I stayed over on most weekends until I was ten - almost all my childhood memories had something to do with the rambling old house and its 4-acre jungle of a 'garden'. I remember the gravel driveway that wound up a small hill to the house - it was alright if you were in a car but most of the time we were on foot or on bikes which meant that you had to struggle against the gradient and the bumpy gravel.

the drive runs under the house where most of the time a small grey-blue Mazda is parked until Grandma goes for her card-games

Closer to the house, gravel turns to concrete and you catch sight of the house - a powdery blue timber structure with shutters on the first floor raised on brick piers one storey high.The formal living and dining rooms were on the ground floor while the bedrooms were upstairs, the kitchen with its wood-fire stove was in a separate single storey structure. The highlight of each week was lunch at Grandma's where she holds court with hot soups and an equally fiery temper.

the doorway on the right leads to the formal living room

the corridor, the stairs to bedrooms and the kitchen block