The LambCutlet Disorganisation

Been shuffling some stuff behind the scenes so if things look a bit broken, just hit Ctrl+F5 or Shift+F5, depending on your web browser to force a reload, flushing out cached files. The only visibly new addition to the site is the “Random Picture” block, which pulls a random image from the site’s gallery… A bit of extra eye candy never hurt now did it? :D

The 7th month of the Chinese lunisolar calendar is also called 鬼月 (Ghost Month) as this is the time when ghosts and spirits come out from the under world to visit earth, with the 15th day marking the halfway point of the month which brings us to 盂蘭節 (Festival of the liberation from suffering), also known as 中元節 (Festival of the fifteenth day of the seventh lunar month), often translated to English as the “Hungry Ghosts Festival”.

The festival is a Sinification, through 道教 (Daoism) in it’s culture and traditions, plus elements of 儒家 (Confucianism) such as ancestor worship, with the Buddhist festival of उल्लम्बन (Deliverance from suffering) and has it’s roots with the Buddhist story of a devote disciple of Buddha by the name of मौद्गल्यायन (maudgalyāyana), known in Chinese as 目連 (Mù Liǎn).

目連 (Mù Liǎn) had reached a high knowledge of Buddhist scriptures was able to behold his late mother’s agony in hell as she had led a miserly mortal life and was doomed to live eternity as a hungry ghost in the bowels of hell. Seeing his mother with a huge distended belly and very small mouth, unable to swallow any food and obviously in much distress, 目連 (Mù Liǎn) rushed to feed her some rice but it was instantaneously reduced to ashes on touching her mouth.

目連 (Mù Liǎn) begged for advice from Buddha in how to relieve his mother’s pain but Buddha said that the only way to balance the sins committed by her was to offer an assortment of fruits and vegetables in 盂蘭 (Yú Lán) bowls to the Buddhist monks.

Future generations continued this tradition providing offerings of fruits and vegetables to Buddhist monks and the festival turned into a time of rememberance of ancestors. For example, in 香港 (Hong Kong); aside from the offering of fruits and vegetables, there will also be the burning of jos sticks, jos paper and paper money in the form of “Hell bank notes” with fantastic denominations such as $500 000 000, printed just like regular bank notes but bear an image of the mythical 玉皇 (Jade Emperor). Modern life melds with tradition since it’s also common to see crêpe paper and balsa models of objects ranging from televisions, refridgerators, cars, houses and even private jets burnt along with other offerings for the deceased.

People may also release miniture paper boats and lotus lanterns lit with a candle down rivers and seas as these are believed to guidance for lost souls. The kins of drowning victims will follow the trails of the lanterns until they are out of sight to liberate their lost loved one’s soul.

To finish off with a little bit of trivia, Chinese ghosts don’t always take on real forms. More often than not, they’ll come and leave in a breeze, but sometimes they manifest as horrifying images of their death: hanged ghosts have protruding tongues, drowned ghosts leave water wherever they stay and young beautiful women make the most scary ghosts, with long hair covering their pale faces with blood trickling down. The ghosts aren’t invincible though, as 鍾馗 (Zhōng Kúi) is the mythical person reputed for subjugating demons!

Andrea made me do it…

Your Existing Situation

Readily participates in things affording excitement or stimulation. Wants to feel exhilarated.

Your Stress Sources

Resists any form of pressure from others and insists on his independence as an individual. Wants to make up his own mind without interference, to draw his own conclusions and arrive at his own decisions. Detests uniformity and mediocrity. As he wants to be regarded as one who gives authoritative opinions, he find it difficult to admit to being wrong, while at times he is reluctant to accept or understand another’s point of view.

Your Restrained Characteristics

An unadmitted lack of confidence makes him careful to avoid open conflict and he feels he must make the best of things as they are.

Your Desired Objective

Hopes that ties of affection and good-fellowship will bring release and contentment. His own need for approval makes him ready to be of help to others and in exchange he wants warmth and understanding. Open to new ideas and possibilities which he hopes will prove fruitful and interesting.

Your Actual Problem

Feels insufficiently valued in his existing situation, and is seeking different conditions in which he will have greater opportunity of demonstrating his worth.

Your Actual Problem #2

Feels restricted and prevented from progressing; seeking a solution which will remove these limitations.

Sounds more like the me from a year or two ago… then maybe nothings changed when I think they have?

The 19th February was the day of Thor, however he appeared to have left his thunder & lightning at home prefering to bring some rather chilly weather instead as upon waking and greeting Inese, I was told I’d be wise to make sure I appropiately dressed as the temperature outside was a rather brisk -15°C… Sleepy headedness had got the better of me though oversleeping a tad as Michael was due to come round soon so I promptly dived into the bathroom to get wash, changed and ready.

Michael arrived sometime after 10:30 a.m. looking very frozen, despite having been dressed for the weather with a thick coat, scarf, gloves and woolly hat. He joined us for breakfast today as he wanted to go through Inese’s photographs from the time they were studying in Denmark, so that he could pick out the ones he wanted for extra prints to be done. Quickly realised there would be a rather large number of photos wanting to be reprinted; he offered, as any gentleman would to cover the cost of the bill only for Inese to politely decline and that he’d only need pay for the number of photos he wished to have.

Over the next half an hour or so as we munched breakfast which Inese had made for all of us consisting of various sandwiches and those yummy apple, cream and cinnamon toasties, Michael managed to finalise all the photos he wanted reprinting and soon needed to brave the elements once again to meet up with Kristīne for engagements later on in their day. So as he left, Inese and I needed to make headway too if we were to visit the numerous places that had been penciled in, so with a little bit of tidying up and collecting things we needed, we headed out a little while later to catch the tram towards Vecrīga.

We alighted at 11. Novembra Krastmala going down through the subway that passes under it emerging out upon the Latviešu Strēlnieku Laukums, then from there headed towards the Latvijas Okupācijas Muzejs to confirm it’s opening times to make sure we had enough time to visit it after our first port of call of the day; Pēterbaznīca.

Pēterbaznīca’s tower is the tallest structure in Verīga and only recently bettered with the advent of skyscrapers which are only just starting to pop up in the Latvian capital. It certainly has a much richer history if only for the very fact it, the church, was first mentioned in 1209 as a Catholic place of worship and lasted until 1523, when it turned Lutheran.

The wooden tower, built in 1491 stood as the highest in Europe but ultimately collapsed in 1666 taking till 1677 to rebuild it. The builders did the customary thing of hurling a glass vessel from the top, as the more piece it broke into, the longer the tower shall stand. Alas, the vessel was cushioned by a bale of straw and Sod’s Law would have it, the tower burned down in the same year, 1677… In 1690 it was rebuilt again and the 64.5m high steeple was the highest wooden structure in the world.

Lightning got the better of the tower in 1721, destroying it for the third time and reportedly Tsar Peter the Great (Пётр Вели́кий), whom was in Rīga at the time, helped out in trying to put out the fire. The renewed tower stood until 1746… In 1941 as the World was in the vice like grip of WWII, the structure was destroyed yet again on June 29th, this time as a casualty of artillery fire. 1973 saw the birth of the tower’s sixth incarnation and the ritual with the glass vessel was repeated once again with quite literally smashing results!

Admission fee for the tower was a very palatable 1.60 Ls and as far as I gather, just 1.00 Ls for students making very good value since the view from a height of 72m is really rather special. Pēterbaznīca’s interior was of much interest to me as well as it reminded me greatly of works by Dennis Creffield, an artist whom I studied when I took Art for one of my A-Levels, where his fantastic works in charcoals and oils of various English catherdrals in capturing the impression of elements such as the vaulting and play of light and shadow. Also, the real Saint Roland’s statue lives within Pēterbaznīca protected from the elements unlike it’s replica on Rātslaukums which has to brave whatever Mother Nature throws at it. Do note that there is a small fee of 0.70 Ls for the privledge of taking photographs within the church!

Time was now around 1:30 p.m. and we head back to the big wide world having spent about one and a half hours at Pēterbaznīca and I took the opportunity to get a few more photographs of the area that is Vecrīga, which included a few of the building who’s exterior decor Arta rated as one of her favourites during our tour of Vecrīga from 3 days ago situated on the junction of Mazā Monētu Iela and Mazā Jaunavu Iela which not only keeps to Latvian leaning towards using of the word “mazā” which means “little”, but the fact the street names were pretty quirky with a little transliteration applied… “Little Coin Street” and “Little Virgin Street” respectively!

Our next place of visit was the Latvijas Okupācijas Muzejs and it’s entry fee is gratis, though donations are welcome but do remember that it is closed on Mondays! The building within which the museum is housed used to be the Latviešu Sarkano Strēlnieku Muzejs, which honoured the Latvian Red Riflemen and the square in front of the museum facing the Daugava River is still called Latviešu Strēlnieku Laukums. It’s now a fascinating, though very solemn museum dedicated to the Nazi and Soviet occupations of Latvia, opening it’s doors for the first time on the 1st of July, 1993… roughly two years after Latvia regained it’s independance with the collapsing of the Soviet Union.

The museum is deceptively small with many, many exhibits displaying the various atrocities commited against the Latvian people and systematic destruction of their nation’s sovereignty. Visitors can walk into a reconstructed gulag barracks and catch a glimpse of the extremely harsh living conditions within the Siberian labour camps. There are also actual artifacts such as clothing, utensils, personal letters and so on from people whom lived under both oppressive regimes, plus details of the infamous Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact otherwise known as the Hitler-Stalin Pact. Lastly, there is also a room dedicated to the struggle for independance from the Soviet Union, known as the “Third awakening” with Latvia declaring it’s de facto independance on the 21st of August, 1991 and concluding, with international recognition and end of hostilities from Soviet forces by September that very year.

It’s definately a must see though unfortunately I never got to take any photographs of the exhibits as I personally felt it would have been rather disrepectful to those for which this museum is dedicated in the rememberance of… but life, in it’s strange way may bring me back to it some time in the future.

Having spent a good two hours in the Latvijas Okupācijas Muzejs, the time was nearly 4:00 p.m. with just enough time to squeeze in a bit more sightseeing and getting some dinner before Inese had to head off for her evening lectures. So now it was time to sample some Art Nouveau Architecture by Russian architect Mikhail Eisenstein and his works grace Alberta Iela 2, 2a, 4, 6, 8, 13; Elizabetes Iela 10b; Strēlnieku Iela 4a and I have photographs to prove it too! :D

Heading back to the city centre to find some place to eat, we passed the Latvijas Valsts Mākslas Muzejs on Krišjāņa Valdemāra Iela and one of two Rīga 8th Centennial Sculptures with the Latvijas Republikas Ministru Kabinets building in the background on Brīvības Bulvāris. However, having been a bitterly cold day and dusk approaching meaning it’ll only get colder, I asked Inese if we could make a swift detour to a clothing shop so that I may purchase a woolly hat to keep my poor head warm and salvation came in the form of a store by the name of Cubus, located on Tērbatas Iela and then without much ado, soon procured an item of suitable woolly-hatted-ness for a nominal sum of 5.99 Ls which though cheaper than what I’d expect in Blighty, seemed quite pricey having gotten used to general Latvian prices… I suspect being right in amongst the touristy area doesn’t help!

Anyhow! With the detour out the way… now it was time to get back to getting some food! The establishment chosen this time is one of Inese’s and Arta’s favourite to eat at with decent food and good value so off myself and Inese headed on to Raiņa Bulvāris for Pizza Jazz arriving there sometime just after 5:30 p.m. and didn’t waste any time in getting our orders in with the waitress as Inese needed to be on her way to lectures in just over half an hour. Our dinner took a little longer than we would have liked with what I ordered not coming till Inese had practically finished hers, so I tried my best in scoffing down my meal when it finally arrived without burning my tongue as we want to do somethig silly like that now would we?

With the little ritual of feeding and watering out of the way, not to mention the settling of the bill, both of us headed back out with Inese advising that we’ll meet back up at Coffee Nation on Krišjāņa Barona Iela at 8:00 p.m. or there abouts, so with that off we parted our ways for now. Armed with my “In Your Pocket” guide for Rīga I looked at options for keeping myself entertained for the next two hours…

Never one for getting homesick, I still figured it’d be neat to go and visit some British sovereign soil in the shape of the British Embassy in Rīga which I recall being next to the Swedish one and on consulting my trusty pocket guide found that is was located on Alunāna Iela and not that far to walk. Have to say, I did feel rather nervous as I took this photograph of the British Embassy in Rīga as I was expecting any second for SAS men armed to the teeth burst out from nowhere demanding why I was acting suspiciously and taking photographs… eeek! Alas, such a confrontation didn’t occur and I didn’t need to some spare underwear anytime soon, though I do think the picture I took the building looks more like posh nightclub than embassy? :D

7:30 p.m. came and went with myself having got a good number of miles (kilometers?) under foot wondering around, I figured I had better get in the direction of the meet up place, Coffee Nation. Luckily, on the opposite side of the street on Krišjāņa Barona Iela was Jāņa Rozes, the bookstore from which I brought my “In Your Pocket” guide for Rīga and make a welcome break from the cold, cold night till 8:00 p.m. when I just need to hop across the road and meet back up with Inese.

Turned out that 8:00 p.m. was also turfing out time for the bookstore so I had little choice but to make my way out along with the other late night bookworms. With that, I crossed the road and waited outside Coffee Nation having not seen any sign of Inese and being in that position it’s far easier to spot her and if there was a sudden change of meeting place, I wouldn’t be stuck with having to finish off whatever I ordered, plus paying the bill and then needing to scarper off. Also, having been experienced in trying to meet up with groups of people at busy bar and nightclubs and spend literally hours looking for each other when in fact you’ve been separated by mere metres I still say my choice was wisest, even though rather cold, since there’s just the one door meaning it’d be imposible to miss them right?

20 minutes passed with an unreplied SMS I guessed Inese had probably been held up with her lectures, but just as I was about to write another message, Inese popped out from Coffee Nation looking rather disapprovingly, asking why I was waiting outside… blah! Once inside, I was greeted by Arta and Kristīne, then took the opportunity to ask if any of the three girls wanted anything as I went to the counter to get a much needed hot drink, though they politely declined as they had got what they wanted already.

Chit chat of our group’s various plans for the rest of the week and beyond were talked about and mulled over which very quickly took us to about 9:30 p.m. give or take a bit so yet again, it was time for each of us to head homewards for to get some rest in, ready for a new day in the morning so after gathering our belonging, we all headed back out on to the streets of Rīga. Inese, Arta and myself walked with Kristīne to the stop where she’d catch the tram from back to her house and the wait for it was not long at all with the public transportation system in Rīga working efficiently, even if a lot of the rolling stock is of Soviet vintage… At least it exists and it works, something which can’t be said about most of Blighty.

Once Kristīne was off on her way on the tram, the three of us went to board a different tram heading in more or less the opposite direction to take us back across the Daugava River, with Arta living a few stops further than Inese. We soon reached our first stop so myself and Inese said our goodbyes to Arta as we alighted from the tram and made the short walk back to Inese’s aunt’s flat.

Back inside, some tea was made and Inese asked if I was still wanting to go to Jurmala as the temperatures were forcasted to still be the nippy -15°C like today and the fact it’ll feel colder as one is on the exposed sea side. The lure of getting to see some sea ice got the better of me and just couldn’t turn down a chance like that now can we? Then, having decided the plan for tomorrow, we then resumed my Salsa lessons from Inese for tomorrow night and my limbs which were slightly bemused as to what I was asking of them to do earlier in the week was finally embedding itself into my muscles and was able to do the basics without too much effort, which is a good thing before you ask! The evening was rounded off with Inese going through some more albums of photos which I’d yet to see which of her extensive set of photographs of those fleeting instances of time of herself, her family and friends.

With a long day now over, it was time to turn out the lights and get some well deserve sleep ready for frolicking by the seaside in near Artic conditions when the daystar returns, banishing darkness once again…

The 7th day of the 7th month in the Chinese lunisolar calendar brings us 七姐誕 (Seventh Sister’s Birthday), also known as 乞巧節 (The Festival to Plead for Skills) or Chinese Valentine’s Day. Like all Chinese festivals, there’s a story behind it…

On Qǐ Qiǎo Jié eve in late summer the stars Altair and Vega are high in the night sky and the Chinese tell the following love story, of which there are many variations:

A young cowherd named Niú Làng (牛郎, the star Altair) happens across seven fairy sisters bathing in a lake. Encouraged by his mischievous companion the ox, he steals their clothes and waits to see what will happen next. The fairy sisters elect the youngest and most beautiful sister Zhī Nuǔ (織女, weaver girl, the star Vega) to retrieve their clothing. She does so, but since Niú Làng sees her naked she must agree to his request for marriage. She proves to be a wonderful wife, and Niú Làng a good husband, and they are very happy together. But the Goddess of Heaven (in some versions Zhī Nuǔ’s mother) finds out that a mere mortal has married one of the fairy girls and she’s furious. (In another version, the Goddess forced the weaver fairy back to her former duty of weaving colorful clouds in the sky because she could not do her job while married to the mortal.) Taking out her hairpin, the Goddess scratches a wide river in the sky to separate the two lovers forever (thus forming the Milky Way separating Altair and Vega).

Zhī Nuǔ must sit forever on one side of the river, sadly weaving on her loom, while Niú Làng watches her from afar and takes care of the two kids (his flanking stars Aquila -β and -γ).

But once a year all the magpies in the world take pity on them and fly up into heaven to form a bridge (Què Qiāo 鵲橋) over the star Deneb in the constellation Cygnus so the lovers may be together for a single night, the seventh night of the seventh moon. This is the night of Qǐ Qiǎo Jié!

Traditionally, the festival is for young ladies and they would make an offering of flowers, tea, wine, fruit and facial power to 織女 (Weaver Girl) and 牛郎 (Cowherd). After finishing the offering, half of the facial powder is thrown on the roof and the other half divided among the young women. In this way the women are bound in beauty with 織女 (Weaver Girl)! You’re also allowed to make a wish, be it to become prettier, more skillful, have a good marriage, have more sons or perhaps even wealth and longevity… But one wish only! On game includes threading 7 needles under the moonlight and whoever does well in the game is considered their wishes fulfilled.

Children also join in on this day and they’ll tie grains on to a thread and threw it to the roof top so that the magpies are well fed before they set off to make a bridge for the 織女 (Weaver Girl) and 牛郎 (Cowherd).

He’s now ready for ordering!

The bear necessities…

Which currency am I meant to pay in?

Residents of the UK should pay in Pounds Sterling (£). Residents within the other EU countries should pay in Euros (€). Residents of Asia, Americas and Rest of the World may pay in either Japanese Yen (¥) or American Dollars ($USD).

What size are they?

These bears are 28cm (11″) tall when seated and 42cm (16.5″) in full.

Do you ship to anywhere in the world?

Yes!

I can’t pay via PayPal… is there another way?

We’ve looked into the various options and the only viable option is payment via SWIFT. Please contact your bank for more details. It is a secure electronic direct fund transfer. If you wish to pay via this method, contact SHS` via PM directly to discuss further details. If you do pay via this method however, there are quite high transaction charges, and the charges for sending and clearance will need to be paid by you. Again, check with your bank to see how much these charges are.

SWIFT is too expensive! Is there any other way?

If you live in the UK and have access to Internet Banking, you’re in luck. Please contact SHS` via PM to discuss.

How much money is The phpBB Team making from this?

£0, $0, €0, 0¥… These bears have been custom made at cost.

May I pay a little bit extra as a donation?

Sorry, but no. If you really wish to make a donation, then please contact a charity whom you’d like to be a benefactor.

How long is my bear going to take to arrive?

We are not keeping too much inventory, so the bears may take as long as three weeks to come through the suppliers. However, once bears are available for sending out, they should arrive within the next day within the UK, within 3 days for the EU, and with seven days for the rest of the world.

Is there any other phpBB merchandise?

Of course! Visit our CafePress store.

I want to order more than one bear, but they want shipping to different addresses… How would I do that?

Just order the bears individually each with their own shipping address.

What safety approvals have these bears got?

The bears are “CE” marked and conforms to British Standards BS5665 and European Community EN71. The eyes are of the safety lock-in type. Due to natural pile loss, they are not recommended for children under 18 months.

“For those days when the latest phpBB snapshot isn’t quite cuddly enough.” ;)

First post of August and a good a time as any for a bit of a brain dump… Popped round to Nykky’s on Friday night to chat more about travelling plans and there was again plenty of dicscussion of places we could visit with the main idea to finalise plans for later this year, however it looks like we may have reach a bit of a disagreement over the finer details. We both know there has to be compromise and we’re both flexible people, probably too much so as my gut feeling now is that neither of us will really get what’d we want to out of this half a year out, possibly longer.

In Australia, I’d personally would head into the outback and in สยาม (Siam) visiting such areas as เชียงใหม (Chiang Mai) which is a little at odds to Nykky’s desire to be by the coast, getting a good dose of sun, sand & sea. We did agree that Hawai‘i would be a good place to visit though. Other places on my list included Peru, 日本 (Japan), 香港 (Hong Kong), 新疆 (Chinese Turkestan) and Türkiye. Also wouldn’t have minded another visit to somewhere in the Baltics, though there may well have to be a stop in Россия (Russia) at Санкт-Петербург (Saint Petersburg) if only for the Эрмитаж (Hermitage Museum) with it’s wealth of works by The Impressionists.

Maybe this is something that can be resolved, but perhaps may just be one of those things where we’d just have to go our own routes and being the head strong woman Nykky is, she’d have no problems should this be the case.

In other news, I’ve added a Photolog section to the gallery, where there’ll be occasional snapshots… currently sporting a photograph of your’s truly and a kick arse phpBB Plush Bear whom I got custom made for those that wanted one on The phpBB Team. :D