Chop.

Brilliant weekend despite the weather, feel really good and had a great chuckle with the Mother in Law. Got the old old macro lens on the D3100, set up my "Light box" and gave it heaps. I'm learning and relearning so much. I must get a download of Helicon-soft, to produce multi-layered in focus Macro shots, rather than just one tiny slice in focus.

Recently Zuma took a photo of Mong Kok railway station in Hong Kong. It's one of the busiest areas of the city. Tsim Sha Tsui is one of the busiest ferry terminals for outlying islands and Macao. I found a street hawker who specialised in making "Chops," the device which is used to sign your name on any document in the Far East; I first heard about them when reading Tai-Pan. I love mine to bits, it's part of me that I had created, an odd statement, but it's original and is me.

Years ago I worked in Shekou across the border near Shenzhen. We flew with a Chinese Co-Pilot and an interpreter as the Co could not speak English, so the three Captains learned basic Chinese, such as "we're doomed" at the rush. I still shout it in my sleep.
I persuaded one of our interpreters to write my name in Mandarin characters, then went off to find my man. He looked at (Robert Parry) and scratched his head, looked at me and said, "Loberta Pally," Close enough for government work! Basic Cantonese and hand signals arranged a pick up at 1000 one week later. I arrived, not sure what to expect and discovered to my intense joy the little man waiting with his stall and MY chop in his hand. $HK10 - £2-50. The really old ones are made of ivory, but times change, obviously this is plastic. The ink is vermillion and very thick. It has remained in use since 1985, long may it continue.

This is probably upside down, I could once write my name, but I've forgotten most of the characters now. Please don't tell me it says, "Long nosed round eye with big ears," because I have used it to sign documents and been surprised to discover the recipients recognised my name. :-)))