YOU LOOK, BUT DO YOU SEE?

Have surfaced from our day out in Little India with the boys (no don't get excited, we mean the Canon 30D and the EOS 300) completely inspired... Pete hit the nail on the head when he pointed out that there are experiences of a lifetime right on our doorstep that we don't stop long enough to really enjoy. As a Singaporean who has been in and out of Serangoon Road a countless number of times, I am quite embarassed at all the wonders on display that I never stopped long enough to really see fully appreciate (especially since I tend to avoid the place like the plague on Sundays). Either way, dragged there by the bossman, and forced by my new toy and the constraints of film photography, I have to say that I really saw a lot for the very first time.... Wonderful stalls, beautiful angles, a kaleidescope of colour, smells, sounds, tastes, love, friendship... Organised chaos. Disorganised order.... Lovely... The stuff from my black-and-white adventure with the 300 will be a while coming (in part because I still have 18 shots left on the film, and in part because we have no clue if any of the photographs I took will actually come out hahahahaha. Erm, am keeping my fingers crossed though.... Some of them were quite nice. Really!) but here's a taste of what the 30D captured (mostly by Pete) .... And believe me when I say that it is only but a taste... We hope this whets the appetite for a Sunday adventure in Little India.... Will not bog this down with rambling descriptions but will keep it to the bare minimum and let the pictures speak for themselves (note: we kicked off at Campbell Lane and then worked out way down through the back alleys and side streets)... Some of the best stuff to look out for, though - a coffeeshop serving up Kingfishers accompanied with piping hot plates of chana masala (chick peas in Indian spices) .... Very, very civilised. I will never crave beer nuts again).. And if you just keep going, you'll eventually find a little square somewhere in backlanes near Mustafa which is truly out of this planet... It was like walking straight into Bombay's Chowpatty beach... Street vendors armed with pails, chick pea mixtures, cucumber, fried stuff and a whole lot of arm power filling up cones of the most wonderful smelling bhel puri. And there were a whole bunch of workers on a day off battling it out on a carrom board that had been set up on the periphery (they were phenomenally good) .... Amazing stuff.... Got a wee weird for a while coz, not surprisingly, I was the only woman there (and I would not recommend a woman going there alone unless you're quite gung ho and not easily irked by strange looks and comments) and Pete was the only ang moh there, so they eventually started taking pictures of us with their camera phones... Fair enough trade off I guess, given the fact that they were the subject of our viewfinders.... Topped the day off with this find..... I guess everyone needs a handy distraction when they're in the middle of a long phone call..... Not too bad for a day out we reckon.... More to come... TW