Takoyaki Journals

Sunday I woke up and joined the other couple that was staying at the Bed and Breakfast for said Breakfast. He was from England, and she was from the Netherlands, and they both had their orange on for the world cup. We had a very nice chat over a fresh berry parfait, sausage, fritatta, toast, coffee and tea. They were the kind of sophisticated people that have been everywhere and done everything that I'm always envious of. It was a pretty good ego-stroke to be able to say 'Oh yes, I remember that when I went to China,' or 'Well, when I lived in Japan...' I don't think I will ever feel sophisticated so it's always a shock to hold my own in that sort of conversation.

After breakfast I decided to go to the Butterfly conservatory that I saw a sign for on my way into Canada. Because you know, all the cool kids (aphelion_orion) are doing it. I plugged 'butterfly' into the GPS and took off. Only to find that the 'Butterfly Learning Center' is a DAYCARE. Um. What I really wanted was the Wings of Paradise Butterfly Conservatory. Luckily it wasn't far from the Learning Center.

How cool!! There were so many beautiful butterflies. I tried to get pictures of each type, but I couldn't always manage it. There were some gigantic blue ones that were so fast you just couldn't get a shot. I had butterflies land on me...6 times I think. One of them landed on me 4 times, I could tell it was the same one because it's wing was a bit broken. I wanted to get a shot badly, but it always landed on my camera or camera hand.

I took lots of pictures, and I have to say that I really, really love my camera. It did a great job of getting good close shots. You can even see the compound eyes and loopy tongues in some of the pictures. Please take a look at them here.

Well, it's May now so I have another block of space from Flickr that I can upload photos with. So right now I've posted the rest of my Beijing photos and a few photos from Xi'an. Xi'an is where the whole thing fell apart and I spent most of my time in Xi'an either in a hospital, a doctor's office or my hotel room. I never got any pictures of Shanghai! I never saw the Terracotta Warriors! This means someday I MUST go back to China.

( Good weekend. I actually got a lot done for once! )

In other news I got a Flickr account, because I am entirely too lazy to fiddle with my pictures and load them to my webspace, but I still have a deep seated need to show everyone my cat. I have a lot more to upload, but right now I have pictures from my fantabulous Christmas in Oregon with exgentlemen & ideographer, and pictures of the cat. Sadly Roxy's pictures aren't my own. I have a hell of a time trying to get a decent picture with the lighting in my house. But I didn't think Mom would mind if I posted her pictures to my account.