Light up! Push button.

Colleague Noemi patiently waited at the check-out queue for her family pasalubong, and I was letting my camwhore eyes survey more of this Bangkok mall's goodies. I would argue that there is simply no way that one could ignore this oddity cum novelty. My imaginative inner eye was debating whether potential fascination with turning this lamp on and off is playful innocence for the "patutuy," or something more serious (and illegal) like man-boy love. Of course, I could be totally mistaken for this oddity's body shape. (Was in Bangkok for a civil society UNGASS meeting.)

Technical information on original version: width=1632, height=1224, resolution=72dpi, taken with SE K810i, taken on 2008-05-04, filename=DSC01987.JPG

Dizzying hues of teddy bear parade

Maybe it's selective perception, or I'm seeing too much teddy bears in Bangkok's stores. As colleague Noemi shopped for some nifties for kids back home, after our Bangkok civil society meeting on UNGASS in May, I found myself loitering and "salivating" at rows of brightly colored teddy bears (and I wasn't even over yet from wanting a teddy bear from Jim Thompson's). Didn't have much shopping money, so the photo-op was the next best thing.

Technical information on original version: width=1632, height=1224, resolution=72dpi, taken with SE K810i, taken on 2008-05-04, filename=DSC01984.JPG

Thai teddy royalty

Early in May, got a chance to travel to Bangkok again. Colleague Noemi from HAIN and I attended a meeting of the region's civil society to report on the country's experience in preparing the UNGASS progress report. I've seen most of the city (though not the usual tourist fare) because of various regional meetings and conferences; Noemi, curiously, seemed to take the tourist shopping bug to the hilt. In a mall, we window-shopped a Jim Thompson's - window-shop was all we could do, everything was very expensive. Card-carrying BM member that I am, I couldn't resist stealing a shot of this royally luscious teddy bear; note the brass plate, it suggests "collector's item."

Technical information on original version: width=1224, height=1632, resolution=72dpi, taken with SE K810i, taken on 2008-05-04, filename=DSC01984.JPG

Sheltered by dark or leading towards light

Last April, on just one of those day trips to one of our project sites, Gumaca in Quezon (GFATM HIV and AIDS project). I was invited as resource person for the municipality's local AIDS council's "re-orientation." Had time to pay a short visit to the San Diego church with colleagues Ferdi and Marv. Image treatment here was an exercise of tweaking on Photoshop's oh-so-many functions; hands-on lecture care of my hunny.

Technical information on original version: width=1632, height=1224, resolution=72dpi, taken with SE K810i, taken on 2008-04-28, filename=DSC01935.JPG