Salmon Salad

I'm loving this food selfie genre.  I prepared this meal today for myself while Rose was having lunch with her Bible Study Group.  I think it can be considered a DASH diet - DASH which stands for Dietary approaches to stop hypertension.  The meat in the middle is baked Salmon sprinkled with Dill herb.  Underneath is a bed of Spinach and Bell Peppers with Ranch dressing.  Very easy to make.  And very photogenic.  The colors remind me of the Irish Flag.  Sláinte!

Hope your day is going well.

Willkommen . . . while waiting for Halloween

Stephen King was inspired by her.  Tim Burton wants  her to star in his next movie. Johnny Depp wants to date her. But all she wants to do is dance, dance.  All she wants to do.  All she wants to do is dance. . .  And make romance.

Chilling Out with Red Wine at Sky Cafe

Nothing is real.  And there is nothing to get hung about.  A supply of Pinot Noir forever.

From Me in Budapest to You

So I told you that the River Danube is blue.  Well, it is also green at certain part of the day.  I don't think that any Classical Music Composer has ever written about the Danube being green.  Maybe because green is associated with water pollution.   And LSD was not yet discovered.

Budapest, Hungary’s capital, is bisected by the River Danube, which separates the flat Buda and the hilly Pest.  Or is it the other way around.  Doesn't matter.  This was shot at the top of Fisherman's Bastion.  Rose and I have been here a couple of times and it never disappoints.  The scenic image to me is truly the old-world.  

Hope your day is going well.

The Last Fat Meal

One final fat alert.

This was the last batch of slices of pork belly that I made.  Cooked in its own fat and garnished with Balela salad.  I believe those are Garbanzo beans.  Some herbs.  Red chili peppers.  Littah bit of dis and lil bit of dat.  Rose is coming home today.  Yay.  I miss her and her cooking.  No more unhealthy meal.

Tomato Soup 2.0

This was an utter failure.  The Asparagus and the Spinach did not go well with the Tomato Soup.  But it makes for a great photo op.

Hope your day is going well.

The Ghost of Bishop Jebb

The photo is a statue of Bishop John Jebb found in the church of St Mary's Cathedral in Limerick, Ireland.  Not sure if this is still a Protestant church.  It may well be.  Though I doubt it.  After the much hated Oliver Cromwell captured Limerick, the church became a stable for the parliamentary army.  The present state of the church is sad.  It needs a lot of repair work but money is scarce.  It is very depressing.  Even the church staff we talked to looked depressed.   I gave her some money for the church.  She was pleasantly surprised.  

As for Bishop Jebb, not much is written about him.  He was made bishop of Limerick in 1882.  I imagined that he probably liked to shoot pool.

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Window View of Vienna

I think the high tower is University Church in Old Town Vienna.  As I mentioned in my previous post, Vienna's architecture is eclectic.  Strip away the church from the view and this image would look just like any other metropolitan urban landscape.  Also the crane is out of place.  The tiled roofs do not match the ugly rectangular buildings in the background.

This was taken though a window of Sky Cafe in Vienna.  A nice classy restaurant on top of the mall in the city.  I say classy because the waitress asked if she could put away my coat.  I am not used to that.  I usually just hang my coat at the back of the chair whenever I'm in a restaurant.  I suppose they didn't want me to do that.  Might scare away the rich and famous customers.

I am not a Vegan

Mrs Elizabeth Bunny Rabbit is funny.  I had been sending her photos of my food selfies.  Based on what she was seeing, she thought I've converted to being a Vegan like her.  So just to prove to her that I wasn't I sent her a photo of my Fried Pork Belly cooked with Arugula and Carrots.

I realize that it is the Season of Lent, and so I hope this image will not offend those who practice abstinence.  Same for those whose diet prohibits eating pork.  My apologies. Selah.

Have a great day.

We have an App for that

Poster Kunst Historisches Museum

At the Kunst Historisches Museum in Vienna, one can download their App and use that to have a personal tour guide inside the museum.  It tells you mostly everything you need to know about the exhibits including dates and their history.  It even tells you how many people are in the toilet and how long is the waiting time.  No, just kidding.

The image reminds me of Twilight Zone.  It seems that the man in the image is warning people of an impeding event, or maybe he is trapped inside the smart phone and wants to get out.

I actually created this image using a composite of the poster and the statue of the man with raised arms.  Both images are from the museum.  Below are what were originally captured.

Hope your day is going well.

Asparagus and Spinach

Two weeks now since Rose left for the Philippines.  Lord willing, she will be back next Wednesday.  Today was an easy lunch.  Fried Spinach and Asparagus cooked on Olive Oil and Soy Sauce.  Easy Peasy.  I put Mayonnaise on the side (not pictured here).  The Olive Oil gives the vegetable some photogenic shine that I couldn't help but take a food selfie.

Taken with the iPhone 7 plus.  

St Teresa is Available

Statue of St Teresa of Jesus inside the Saint Peter’s Basilica in Vatican, Rome.  She is known to have founded the Order of Discalced Carmelites.  Born - 28 March 1515 in Avila, Spain.  Died - 15 October 1582 in Alba de Tormes, Spain.  Her feast day is the 15th of October.  Blah blah.

The little angel must be Cupid.  I'm almost positive of that.  As one can observed, St Teresa is checking the phone directory with the help of Cupid to see if she can find her soul mate.  Obviously she hasn’t heard of online dating.

Love  the one you're with.

Today's Lunch: Tomato Soup with Bell Peppers and Arugula

What is worse than being alone?  Eating alone.  Well, it's really the same thing.  But I think more specifically eating by oneself takes a lot of getting used to.  I used to do it when I was single.  I was too lazy to cook then so I would just fry eggs and hot dog.  Drank beer to kill whatever bacteria there was on the plate.  If there was a bag of potato chips that would be a plus.  That was 30 years ago.  Now I'm spoiled.  Rose cooks a lot of gourmet dishes.  Except now she's away.  The last few days, I have just been on mixed green salad diet.  Was starting to behave like a goat.  Meh-eh-eh!  To rectify this, I began cooking.  This was the latest I cooked today.  Tomato soup with Bell Peppers and Arugula.  Did you know you can add Arugula on anything?  Coupled with a 2015 Pinot Noir on a chilly winter day.  Life is good.  Bon appetit!

Hope your day is going well.

Shot with the iPhone 7 plus.

How the Romans Commute: Vintage Bentley

Travel photography should not be confined to landscape and architecture in several locations.  Sometimes one finds a gem that could exist on any other place in this planet.   Like this vintage Bentley.  I saw this while in Rome on the way to the Vatican.  For a couple of years now I have just been using my smart phone on travels.  People noticed this car while I was in my own world taking several pictures of it.  I noticed some people took a selfie with it as a background, and then quickly went away.  Someone mentioned to another that I must have been obsessed with the car.  I didn’t care.  

Have a nice day.

One More Rubens at the Kunst Historisches

Sometimes one can't just get enough of Rubens.  I'm intrigued by this painting.  It seems like the people in it are plotting something.  Maybe something mischievous.  Or maybe they are just gossiping.  The man on the side is probably the lesser character.  Notice how the light moves from left to right.  As your eyes pan to the right, the blonde woman becomes the main character.  She is obviously more lit than the others.  What about the young woman in the middle?  I think Rubens probably put her there as an afterthought.  A brilliant afterthought no doubt.  She could be a messenger.

Blondie:  Tell Ozzie to get me a new corset.  I just busted the old one from my work out.

Ozzie:  Tell Blondie to stop consuming my anabolic steroids.  Now fetch me a beer if you would while I try figure out how to get the square root of a negative number.


Hope your day is going well.

Shot with the iPhone 7 plus on a cold winter day in Vienna.


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Still Life in Hotel Room

I am an artist so I can't help but make art.  I think Rose must have been asleep when I shot this image back in our hotel in Vienna.  It's just a still life comprising of flyers I got at the hotel lobby and the wine glass and the bottle of Chianti I got earlier at a grocery store.  It is all there is.  But I think it's artsy.  And I like it.

Shot with the iPhone 7 plus on available light.

Modern Signs on Baroque Architecture

I love the architecture of Vienna.  This building caught my attention while strolling along the Pedestrian District.  It is eclectic as one can see.  A Baroque architecture with modern signs on it.  While this may seem like the urban planners wanted a postmodern style, it isn’t.  The building is not modern at all.  It dates back to the days of Franz Joseph, the presumptive heir to the Austria-Hungarian throne in the late 1800s.

Clearly, the city planners were looking to a robust capitalist future while hanging on the rich heritage from the past.

Taken with the iPhone 7 plus.  I dig it.

Sacher Cafe in Vienna

Ah, we were fortunate to find a nice table and drink coffee at the Cafe Sacher in Vienna.   The place is internationally famous for their Sacher Torte.  Dr Sigmund Freud is known to have hung out at this cafe for hours where he would order a cup of fine Viennese coffee, read his newspaper, and work out his dialectical thesis on the problem of bed wetting - all in that order.  It is also known that he would order just one cup of coffee, which would last him for as long as he was there.  The tradition is still honored at this cafe.  One can just order a cup of coffee, stay as long as one wanted, and not be bullied by the waiter into ordering  something else.  A cup of coffee and cake could run up to $15 US dollars.  Waiting time is about 20 minutes on a sunny day.  No waiting when it's raining.  This was the case for us.

Hope your day is going well.

One Evening in Budapest

Many moons ago, I thought I was going to make a career as a street photographer.  I've stopped shooting the streets for ethical reasons.  But once in a while I will do it just for whatever reason.  Mostly for my pleasure.

Rose and I went out that evening from the Astoria Hotel just to check out the night life.  I'm told that one needs to beware of pickpockets in certain parts of Budapest.  I didn't really feel unsafe for the most part.

So what is this image supposed to convey?  Not much different reality from any urban cities.  This could have been in New York.  Except for the language in the poster, which gives it away.  People just go about their own lives.  Nobody looks at anybody in the eyes.  Except for the smiling woman in the poster.  Who is she?  It says Olga on the poster, I know.  But as far as I'm concerned she is just a poster.  Fake.  Unlike the woman walking by.  You could tell that she is cold and uncaring.  At least to people she meets on the street.  At least that one evening.

Hope your day is going well.

Elouan Pinot Noir 2015

Going through my image files, and I saw this.  Shot on my birthday with the iPhone 7 plus at our favorite Italian restaurant.  I love the Pinot Noir.  The 2015 makes it special.  It's a good year for most wines.  Every time I see a 2015 I just buy it.  The 2010 is also a very good year.  Probably the best one.  There aren't that much around.  I was told that the 2017 is also good.  I have yet to try it.

Hope your day is going well.

The Bride

Our tour group was fortunate to have a private viewing of the Kunst Historisches Museum but then our tour got hijacked by a photo op of a bride at the main lobby.  So we did what normal tourists would do.  We took photos of the bride.  The organizer of the event hushed us out down the basement and were told to wait there until the photo op was over.

Alone Again and Ruminating

I'm mostly all lone again.  Well, Mimi is with me.  She is a creature of habit.  She still climbs upstairs to the bedroom every night at 2:30 p.m. and pounces on Rose's side of the bed even though Rose is away on a mission.  She also comes to me and automatically turns around so I would scratch her butt - as though it was my grand privilege to do so.  Well, I too am a creature of habit.  Even though Rose is away, I still make coffee for the two of us.  I end up finishing the coffee from the pot, which makes me very jittery.  I continue to do our morning walk.  I find that the walk is a bit longer going at it alone.  There are some things that I don't normally do.  One is to cook dinner.  Rose always does the cooking.  This morning I steamed some asparagus.  I realized that I should have thrown away the lower part of the stems.  They tasted bitter and a bit tough to eat.  I may have to run to the nearest Chinese Restaurant and order a take out.  Being alone could mean one thing.  Bad diet.

Hope your day is going well.

Our First Night on Our Second Visit to Prague

Jet lag couldn't drag us away.  Our first night on our second visit to Prague.  Rose and I wanted to test the weather.  It didn't seem too bad.  Little that we know that the next day would be so much different. 

The poster was close to our hotel.  It was propped up on the glass cage where people wait for their bus.  Sorry but I forgot what it's called.  I think it's called a bus stop?  There were a few convenient stores, beer pubs and a shopping mall in the area.  Nice.  Bought some necessities.  A bottle of wine and drinking water.  Very necessary.

I didn't know much about Emil Filla.  I googled him and found out that he was an early 20th century Czech painter.  A leader of the avant-garde in Prague.  He is considered one of the early cubists.  He idolized Vincent Van Gogh, Edvard Munch as well as Picasso.  Obviously, he had a great eye for fine works of art because I like these artists too.  Would have wanted to see his work but we only had a few days in Prague.

Rubens at the Kunst Historisches Museum, Vienna

At the center of Maria Theresa Plaza in Vienna is the Kunst Historisches Museum, which collects some of the most fascinating toys of medieval kings, Greek and Roman antiquities, Renaissance art, and a snobbish cafe where one has to wait in line just to get a table and drink a cup of coffee.

It is often referred to as the History of Fine Arts Museum. Although it houses some of the finest paintings of Raphael, Rubens and Peter the Elder to name a few, and perhaps serves fine Viennese coffee (I didn't get to taste it there), the translation should be National History Museum.

Hope your day is going well.