Bought Any BOMB DETECTOR Lately??

This is such an incredible story that you might think it is an April Fool joke, but I assure you it is not; many innocent people have DIED because of this MOTHER OF ALL FIASCO!

The Story...

In a land far far away, businessman James McCormick found out that you can make millions in defense technology without any skill, scientific knowledge, all you need is the GIFT OF THE GAP ;)

© http://tech.yolobazinga.co

Pho In The City

Pho (/fʌ/; Vietnamese: phở pronounced [fəː˧˩˧] ( listen)) is a Vietnamese dish consisting of broth, noodles made from rice, a few herbs, and meat. It is a popular street dish, and the specialty of several restaurant chains.

The two main varieties are chicken pho and beef pho.  The word "pho" may be derived from French pot-au-feu (beef stew).   - Wikipedia

I love beef pho! The strength and beauty of a tasty pho is in the soup and believe you me, it is hard to find a Vietnamese cafe in Wellington that serves good pho!

They Doctored Gory News Pictures Too!

Gory... Covered or stained with gore; bloody.

The media zoos of the world are still transfix over the Boston Marathon Explosion, Google that phrase and you are returned with TWO point SIX Billion hits!

After the horrific event, every newspapers in the world tried their best to display the BEST news pictures depicting the horror on their front page; virtually all the front pages selection were gory, bloody.

The front page of the New York Daily News featured a gory decisive moment shot of the bloody aftermath, captured by Boston Globe photographer John Tlumacki.

 

I was a stunning and horrific news picture, except with the leg of the woman lying on the pavement, top left; WAS DOCTORED! Photoshopped!

Stealthy OM-D For Street Photography

During our recent visits of Sydney and Brisbane, my friend was wondering how I kill time when Le General was busy shopping! Would you believe I decided to try out my Olympus OM-D EM-5 as a stealthy street photography camera?

I did! But was the camera small enough to avoid suspicion? Was it fast enough to auto focus?  Take a look at the pictures below and decide yourself ;)

Most of the shots you see below was shot WITHOUT raising the OM-D to my eye, I depend on the raised rear LCD  screen for aiming and I shoot "continuous-low" at 3 frames per second.

The OM-D with the raised rear LCD was usually hung from my neck or sitting on my lap, there was time it is just sitting on a table for all the candid shots.

Chill Out and Déjà Vu With Good Friends In Brisbane :)

We arrived Brisbane domestic airport after our non-stop, 5 touristy days in Sydney.

We were a bit stunned by the SIZE of this domestic terminal! It must be 20 to 50 times larger than our Wellington terminal!

What we did not realise is that Brisbane Airport  is the sole passenger airport serving Brisbane, Queensland and is the third busiest airport in Australia after Sydney Airport and Melbourne Airport. Brisbane Airport has won many awards. Brisbane is currently served with 46 domestic destinations in all States and Territories and 32 international destinations. For the 12 months ending May 2011 total passengers were 20,056,416!

The reason we came to Brisbane was to catch up with our good friends from Karori, Boon and Jackie (B&J). They moved to Brisbane in 2005 and that was the last time we had a chill out with them, goodness; EIGHT years has vaporised!

Boon took a shot of me and LB near the South Bank, Brisbane in 2005.

Zǒu Mǎ Kàn Huā @ Sydney & Brisbane - day 4

Day 4, last day in Sydney; so we will try to see and do what we wanted! We will be flying off to Brisbane the next day:)

I know there is one shopping complex I do not want to miss, not for shopping but to eat the famous Japanese ramen I heard so much about! the complex we wanted to go is Westfield Sydney Shopping Centre.

Again, from where we stay; we are able to walk there!

Westfield claimed they have 3,000+ brands and 1 million + products!  So who is counting??

Zǒu Mǎ Kàn Huā @ Sydney & Brisbane - day 3

Day 3, we found out that from where we stayed; we can walk our way to Sydney's Chinatown in 20 minutes!

I have read that Sydney's Chinatown is the largest in Australia. It is located in Haymarket, between Central Station and Darling Harbour. Unlike the Chinatowns in some other countries, Sydney's Chinatown has been relatively free of crime and hygiene issues.

I reckoned you have not visit Chinatown if you do not enjoy a "Yum Char" in this Chinese business district!

Market City, the outer walls of the original vegetable market, built in 1909, were preserved and restored as an example of Edwardian architecture. They were part of the original city markets—designed by city architect C.Broderick—which were bounded by Hay Street, Quay Street and Thomas Street. They were built to replace the old Belmore Market, which had failed because it was too far from Darling Harbour.

Zǒu Mǎ Kàn Huā @ Sydney & Brisbane - day 2

Day 2 at Sydney... we took the train to Circular Quay which is the hub of Sydney Harbour, the quay is a vibrant, bustling place with ferries leaving every few minutes to different parts of the harbour, including Manly.

On the southern side of Circular Quay is a walkway that leads to the Sydney Opera House and Royal Botanical Gardens; while on the northern side, a short walk along lovely landscaped walkways takes you to the Harbour Bridge and The Rocks.

Zǒu Mǎ Kàn Huā @ Sydney & Brisbane - day 1

Zǒu Mǎ Kàn Huā  走马看花 [to gain a superficial understanding through cursory observation; given only a passing glance at things; giving a hurried and cursory glance]

I finally made up my mind to use up my accumulated Qantas Frequent Flyer points, after days of deliberations we decided to spend four nights in Sydney then hop over to Brisbane catching up with Boon and Jackie; the last time we stay with them in Brisbane was 8 years ago!

Somehow it seems a bit silly that even by using up my 72,000 points, each of us still have to fork out NZ$ 600.00 for the trip! "Severing" relationship with the flying kangaroos is not cheap ;)

So on the 22nd of March we were at the Wellington airport staring at Gollum chasing rainbow trouts :)