under the bridge

quite different from when you were walking under a railway bridge in say, London, it doesn't smell of ammonia... have to readjust my attitude towards Berlin completely.

here is the sidewalk right below the U-bahn train to the Savignyplatz station. a handful of small shops, cafe, and restaurants lined the side streets and tucked inside nicely underneath the bridge.

Ku-Damm (Kufurstendamm) !

where do i begin? the flight took altogether 14 hours to reach Berlin, and by the time we checked into the hotel, it's still in the morning. so after dumping the bags, went out immediately to grab some food and have a quick tour around the area.

Kufurstendamm is the main street in the area and apparently it housed some of the most fashionable stores and retails outlets in Berlin.
yes...nice cars parked on the sidewalks and even saw a Ferrari Enzo speeding past! too fast to take a photo!

was told by a friend before the trip that Berlin is a city rich in art & culture, but the streets sometimes tend to be a bit dirt filled, just like many other major cities... sorry, this wasn't my impression at all, the city was very neat and tidy, not a single piece of litter was in sight (well, not quite true, there's a piece of litter just captured by the photo above, but that's all, really.) was it because of the district i was in? or was it because that Germany was the host to the biggest event on Earth - the WORLDCUP 2006? many questions crossed my mind...

my image of Berlin before the trip was somewhat different: torn walls, littered streets, Neo-Nazis demonstrating, military uniform, barbed wires, remnants of the cold war, grey colour everywhere.... wake up!!! most of those images were of the 80s, this is the 21 st Century!!!

pavements were wide, the trees lined up both sides of Ku-Damm, and people sitting out on those fashionable sidewalk cafe, sipping down iced-coffee with scoop of chocolate ice cream, or downing 0.5l of Berliner Pilsner while bicyles were drifting past under the shaded trees...

taking a break

we took a flight from Hong Kong to Berlin via Paris on the 16th June 2006. for some rest & relaxation, the city, the architecture, and YES! the WorldCup 2006!!!!

a shot i took on the morning flight departing from Charles de Gaulle airport.

a serene landscape filled with what looks like fluffy cotton.
what was on the mind of the person who took the first flight, escaping that 9.8m/s2 pull from earth, shooting above the clouds, and seeing the unending azure land for the first time...

Gundam - the war continues...

RX-178 Gundam Mk. II in the Z-Gundam series

"Amuro, ikimasu!"
the sound of such would undoubtedly bring back familiar scenes of Gundam with Amuro Ray, seated inside Mobile Suit Gundam, code named RX-78, prepared to be sent into battle in the epic war between the Earth Federation and the Zeon Repulic.

after more than 25 years, when you step inside a hobby shops today, you will see some of the most popular merchandise are still, yes, Gundam! or designs from its sequels, side stories, spin offs...etc

personally, i like the story as well as the mecha design very much, though i still fail to understand why these mobile suits need to have 5 fingers on each hand? what i found worth exploring also is how can a series developed almost over 3 decades ago can still conjure up such magic? and why is there no replacement all these years? we saw the Patlabor, Neon Genesis Evangelion, Macross, and each were good in their respect, but never quite reach the same status as the Gundam fever...

what would Bandai do without Gundam?


MSZ-006 Z-Gundam, 1st fully transformable Gundam first appeared in the Z-Gundam series.

the gate

light is something that is all around us, yet to capture it is something easier said than done. we see lines radiating from the source of light, yet these lines are visible only through the translation of the lens of a camera.

so, do these lines really exist?

picture taken from the lens of Motorola A1200 2Megapixel PDA phone at the former Central Police Station.