Thursday, April 14, 2011

Chinese Magic

We are all familiar with Magic from the west and the form of magic from th likes of magicians (sometimes called illusionists) like Houdini, David Copperfield and many others. We often refer to magic as 'the hand is faster than the eye'. In reality the hand is not really faster than the eye. The skilled magician draws the audience attention to where he wants it at a specific instant. The success of magic lies in the ability to create illusions that have the appearance of reality.

Chinese magicians ares really a class of it's own. In this magic show performance which was part of the Lunar New Year Show 2011, you see this incredible feat of commanding gold fish in a tank to swim in formation. Later a painting of gold fish is transform to live ones. You watch before your very eyes the fishes swimming from the painting into a fish tank and come alive. This is done without the usual suspicious props. It's miraculous!

Saturday, April 02, 2011

Stranded tsunami dog rescued in Japan

Another story that will touch your heart. A canine survivor of the Japan Tsunami. A dog stranded at sea for three weeks being rescued by Japanese coast guard and American rescue team. The dog was found about a mile off shore among a huge pile of floating debris in the north of Japan, Katsunuma prefacture.

Tuesday, March 29, 2011

Rainbow

Yesterday evening as I was driving out of the Church of the Risen Christ in Toa Payoh after Sunday mass I witnessed a rainbow in the sky across the road. It's not everyday that one gets to see a rainbow and it's been awhile since I last saw one. I took out my nifty mobile phone, the Sony Vivaz which have a 8MP camera in it and took a picture, a rare capture. This is the first time I've ever taken a rainbow picture. Too bad I couldn't stop to take a better full arch one because I was in a queue of moving vehicle leaving the church. I noticed a number of parishioners too whipping out their mobile phone and snapping away with great excitement.

Picture taken by me.

I've heard it many times that seeing a rainbow is good luck or something good is coming your way so I did a little research. The rainbow symbolises good news, hope, redemption and the ending of gloom. The rainbow is a bridge between heaven and earth, between your earthly self and your higher enlightened self. The gypsies believe that to dream of a brightly coloured rainbow means a happy change is coming. Whatever it is I hope that there are some truth to it.

Picture Credit: Jerome Lim


This rainbow seemed quite a 'big' one so it came as little surprise to me that a number of people have also witnessed it. One of my friend said he saw it too. On Facebook Jerome Lim posted the above shot, beautifully taken. Jerome is the winner of the Best Individual Blog 2010 Runner-Up (2nd Runner-up) - Singapore Blog Awards 2010. His blogs are filled with gorgeous photos.
http://thelongnwindingroad.wordpress.com/ 
http://blog.omy.sg/hongkong/category/jerome/

Photo credit: Facebook group YourSingapore.

Another photo of the same rainbow posted on Facebook group YourSingapore.