Picture-Perfect Memories

A picture diary is perhaps the best way to capture the sight (the sound will have to be self-generated in the mind as we have yet to invest in a videocam, talk about techno-phobia) bites of a road trip. The many frozen moments will help generate a memory-triggering trip in years to come, just when memory lapses will surely start to escalate.

Here then is another smargasbord of Nikon moments (wonder why it has always been the Kodak moments), documenting our trails to the Northeast, principally NYC, in recent months.

The Interior of the St. Patrick Cathedral, NYC, the pillar arrangement bestowing a profound sense of depth.

One of the many words of wisdom inscribed on plates affixed to the pavement surface somewhere in NYC. It pays to keep your head down and eyes on the road, literally. While taking the words to heart, don't be a smart alec, but rather a paragon of humility.

A disarmed torpedo on land, its size belying the tremendous destructive power packed into it while in service.

Turtle country, a great draw for environment-conscious tourists.

One of the many monuments conveying global messages that dot the landscape of the UN Plaza, NYC; this one with a twisted barrel symbolizing the call to cease wars.

Seen affixed to a lamp post along a street in NYC leading to the UN Plaza. I sought out this one that bears the Malaysian Flag.

Another monument (vertical tubes attached together at different heights) in the UN Plaza backed by trees with flat-top canopies.

A scene at Newark Airport as seen from a moving airtrain showing the Malaysian Airline System (MAS) logo behind that of a Virgin Airline with a line of crane gantries at Port Elizabeth (?) at the background.

The Macy Facade of rather intricate design seen in NYC.

The entrails of Grand Central Station. The view did not change much from a similar scene in the movie, The Curious Story of Benjamin Button (2008) starring Brad Pitt. Come to think of it, while the movie setting is the early and middle of the last century, it must have been shot in this century.

The Malaysian Flag fluttering in UN Plaza, NYC.

A sunny July 4th weekend in Washington DC, drawing a throng of visitors to the Reflection Pool and the Lincoln Memorial lying yonder.

Stacks of buildings surrounding Central Park, NYC, as seen atop the Empire State Building through Wify's camera lens, much like an oasis.

Two wash basins sharing the same drain pipe seen in a restroom at a rest stop along I-95.

Now, this is how you shoot from a moving airtrain, legs astride, body slightly prone, hand steady holding the zoom, no time even to put down the beg as the scene is fleeting.

Couple Portraits

A drawback, or rather inconvenience, of being the designated cameraman, that it being largely self-appointed notwithstanding, is that I'm almost always missing from the family album. So whenever there is a family outing involving more than the usual party of two, I always delegate, camera duty that is.

It's opportune that we have had a couple of outstation family trips in the last two months. And boy was I glad to be the "shooting target", with Wify sharing the center stage, for a change. Here then is a collection of such "rare" features, leaving traces of our sojourns in print.

At the base of the Washington Monument. Notice anything strange about the photo? The flags and my hair move in opposite directions. Perhaps our relative positions with respect to the Monument has something to do with that.

One of the portals at the outdoor garden of Vizcaya Museum, Miami after we had toured the interior of the Mansion built by John Deering in the mid 1910s. At the height of the construction of Mr. Deering's attempt to blend European architecture with the tropical foliage that Florida is famous for, the work crew (about 1000) accounted for about 10% of Miami's population of 10,000 then, at a hefty (even by today's standard) cost of 25 mil.

Posing in front of the array of the portraits of UN Secretary Generals, past to present, in the UN Building, NYC.

Posing beside the UN Emblem in the UN Building, NYC.

At the southern end of Miami Beach (1st St), right next to the famed South Beach, Miami. We walked twelve blocks along the Ocean Drive from the 12th Street where we had parked our car at 8.30am, thinking that we would be the early birds and hence get a headstart. The street is relatively quiet because all the action is either on the beach or in the businesses lining up both sides of the street.

Below the lion that guards the NYC Public Library, after we had rested our tired feet in its cool and expansive interior.

Just before our dinner at the Penang Restaurant, run by a lady from Road SS2/4, Petaling Jaya, literally a stone throw from our own abode back home. This is one of several in the family run restaurant chain located at Chapel Hill, NC, right in the heartland of the Tar Heels.

At a city park in mid-town Manhattan, on our way to the Malaysian Consulate at 42nd St, NYC.

Outside one of the many Marriot hotels that we stayed on our trips. This one could be at Durham, NC.

The very first Cuban restaurant that we patronized, not far from the SpringHill Suites south of Maimi International Airport that we stayed on our Miami trip. In fact, the hospitality and the food were so fabulous that we made a return visit the very next night, with Howie and his family.

When we arrived just before 10.30am at the Fo Guang Shan Temple in Miami, a buddhist ceremony was just about to start. Wify participated while I visited its library. We then stayed on for the vegetarian lunch and even interacted with a teacher of the Chinese Brush Painting class scheduled in the afternoon.

A rare surrounding of any hotel, a corn field. We just could not resist falling into an embrace, half expecting some bristling motion from within reminiscent of the happenings in M. Night Shyamalan's Signs.

At the Mangrove Trail fringing John Pennekamp Coral Reef State Park, Key Largo. We were planning to continue to Key West but the long line of traffic even at the 85th milestone changed our mind.

Outside the Malaysian Consulate Office in NYC, a rather nondescript office by size and appearance but we spotted it from afar because of the fluttering Malaysian Flag above. Later we found that it is located next to the office of the Malaysian Permanent Representative to the UN.


At the playground at Bayside, Miami. Howie's family is just behind us. We wanted to watch the July 4th fireworks from here, but were forced to vacate the premises by the stifling heat. Instead, we watched it from the hotel room of Howie located at the 7th floor and more importantly, on the right side.

At one of the many rest places that dot the interstate. This one could be in Georgia.

At the main entrance to the American Museum of Natural History. We entered from the subway exit undergound and almost missed this imposing entrance facade if not for us wanting to walk over to the Central Park located across the road. But then it began to rain ...

We thought we would end with one making it a foursome, in front of the NYC Public Library.

Some photograph to remember ...

With my camera that is, and sung to the tune of “... some dance to remember, some dance to forget ...” the inspiration having struck as The Eagles was belting out Hotel California from my car radio, courtesy of Magic 94.9, while I was part of the morning commute along I-275 on a drizzling morning.

The target: the seemingly timeless Times Square of NYC during our last trip to the Big Apple, in the company of two really nice folks from Upstate, John and Gloria. Hitherto, the only sight we have of Times Square is on TV, during the traditional New Year Countdown, the arrival of which is signified by the dropping of the sparkling Waterford Crystal Times Square New Year's Eve Ball (seriously, I did not know the name until I accessed here) at One Times Square, the air filled with the chorus of Auld Lang Syne, a collective farewell bidding to the year just past.

This time though, it is for real, captured in my Nikon Coolpix L100, a Father Day's gift from CY and Brian, as we navigated through the milling crowd, the square grid of streets, but safe on the wide pedestrian pavements that abut these busy streets.

Times Square, to me, is BillBoard City, the electronic and animated, but silent kind, a real feast for the eyes and a marvel of human ingenuity, portraying visual messages in its simplicity. Enjoy these moments, frozen for eternity, then again, perhaps not quite.

How did we know it's Times Square? Because it said so here.

And here's the Ball, just above 2009, presumably reinstated to its original position after the countdown.

The M-Kong, doing a chocolatey imitation of the King Kong.

The river seems to be about to cascade over the building.

Even Albert Einstein has to have a piece of the action.

Whatever it takes to have a vantage shot.

A vantage shot of the Flags of the Nations from the upstair floor of NBC News. The Malaysian Flag is somewhere in that.

Anybody can tell me which God is that according to Greek Mythology, seemingly presiding over the sea of knowledge? Poseidon? Tritan? Hermes? Athena?

I chanced upon the identity of this sculpture, Prometheus, while looking up the Internet for the one in the previous image.

A divine messge with earthly repercussions?

This message is more down to earth, from the World's local bank.