Hale Conservation Park, South Australia

Today went to this bit of wodland in the Adelaide Hills towards Barossa Valley with Luan and Ganesh. They wanted to take a few photos.

I was quite happy as we got very good views of a rather uncommon bird, a Square-tailed Kite. Notice the shape of the tail, the russety underparts, the stripes in its 'fingers' and a pale 'face'. Photo courtesy of Luan.

This is also the season for many orchids in the southern parts of Australia to bloom. Orchids in this part of the world are rather diminutive and unostentatious compared with their showy tropical cousins. They are barely a few inches tall and are mostly ground dwellers too, compared to the tropical orchids (many grow on other plants).

The ones in the photos are the Dwarf Greenhood Pterostylis nana with the 'horns', the Nodding Greenhood Pterostylis nutans and what I believe are somewhat wilted Red Banded Greenhoods Pterostylis sanguinea. They are all rather alien-like.

The Huai Seng Principle

This is a little rule-of-thumb that I have named in honour of my old friend from secondary school, Dr Loh Huai Seng. It may sound rather trivial and contrived, inane, but hear me out.

Basically, folding a piece of paper once (or twice) can save it from being crumpled or creased. In school I oftened rolled my art paper or drawing paper to prevent it from being creased. And Huai Seng would fold his paper in half.

I didn't fold my piece of paper because I didn't want it creased. However the rolled up paper often got squashed by books etc. I ended up with a paper creased many times over instead of Huai Seng's piece which just had a single neat crease down the middle. (He's a great artist by the way).

At the simplest level it applies to paper, which I think of each time i carry pieces of paper around. A few days ago, buying some wrapping paper for a friend's present I was reminded of this again when I saw wrapping paper sold in large folded squares rather than rolls.

Casting wider, you may extrapolate or philosiphise about this to apply to life in general or different situations. I leave you to make your own interpretations.

And of course heartiest congratulations to him and his wife, Anne, for their newborn girl delivered last night!
:)

English food - Kedgeree

Kedgeree is English fish risotto. Hope no Italians are offended by this description but that is what it was like to me. Pretty tasty really despite my general dislike of mushy rice.

Said to have originated from Victorian colonial times. Indian influenced apparently. Hope no Indians take offense at this. Doesn't taste Indian at all though.

This one was served with salad and slices of boiled eggs.

English food - Scouse

t
This is a typical North-West English dish, specifically around the Liverpool area. A sort of lamb and potato stew topped with red pickled cabbage. Served with a thick piece of bread to mop up the gravy. It was actually quite tasty.

This dish actually gave rise to the nickname given to the Liverpudlians' dialect, "Scouse". Very sing-song and to me doesn't even sound like English. More like some Eastern European language, not that I actually know any Eastern European languages.

Liverpool football

Sometime last year, watched Liverpool FC thrash Bordeaux 3-0 at Anfield Stadium, the spiritual home of Liverpool fans. To complete things, a small fight among the players broke out towards the end.

Watching a game live certainly gives a different perspective as TV still can't adequately capture the mood and atmosphere of a game. There is still reason for people to go to the stadium. The team chants of English football was rather impressive. The choir at a cathedral of football (soccer that is).

Growing up in a TV culture I was rather surprised having no replays of every 'special moment'. "Oops, what was that? Can you just show it again?"

The seats in Anfield Stadium (perhaps all football stadiums) were packed very close to each other but helped to keep me warm! Just outside the stadium, there was also a shrine to 96 Liverpool fans that died in a crushing stampede at another stadium many years ago. Also called the Hillsborough disaster. A reminder of the potential dangers of these crowded squeezy stadiums.

My brother though is a big fan Manchester United, the arch-rival of the Liverpool Football Club, and is using the Liverpool scarf I gave him for unspeakable things.

Bollywood Wedding

A few evenings ago attended my friend's Bollywood wedding in Adelaide. Actually 'celebratory dinner' as they actually got married in India 6 months ago. They make a royal couple. Elegant prince and princess. She is of Indian heritage but grew up in Australia and her husband has only arrived in wintry Adelaide fairly recently. He's from near Bombay, Maharashtra state. He seems like a very nice guy and boy he can dance. However the women stole the show in their resplendent saris of every bejeweled hue.

Two of my favourite movies are ones by the very gifted Mira Nair. Monsoon Wedding and Namesake. Her movies are not actually typical of the Bollywood genre though.