1274. Travel Stories: Efes, Turkey

Dec 21, 2013

I visited the of the Virgin Mary and saw this squirrel who was being hand-fed a piece of bread by a person familiar to him. As a young tourist girl from Singapore walked towards him within 0.3 metre  foot, he grabbed the bread and scootered up the tree for safety.

Location plays a great part in getting customers. This stall is located next to the zebra crossing where the tourists, after visiting "Seven Sleepers" site in Efes (Ephesus) will walk to, to wait for their coach. So this stall gets all the business of my tour group buying pomengranate juice while the other 2 competitors on the left are quiet.  

Once in a while, I get a picture I appreciate. The sunlight is good. The modern Japanese or Korean woman faces the same way as the ancient woman or goddess.  Much has changed for the better for women in many countries.

My Turkish tour guide was quite frustrated with the Singaporean tourists who are more interested in taking pictures of the approved 180 street cats than listening to the wonderful history of the old days.  This feline distraction is common with other Asian tourists esp. the young ladies as in this photo of a Japanese or Korean girl eyeing the cat. Usually these cats have their left ear edge snipped or tipped to indicate they are "sterilized".  The cats add colour to dead archeological monuments. I doubt 5% of the Asian tourists are interested in the Ottoman or Roman imperial history.  

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Pictures with explanation. My favourite is the one with "sunlight in her hairs"

Travel Stories: The man with the blue lips

Dec 22, 2103
Hotel Dinler, Room 447, Urgup, Turkey

This morning, I joined a couple from our packaged tour for breakfast at Hotel Dinler. I noticed that the 63-year-old man's lips are blackish as compared to every person's in the dimly lit dining room. I had talked to Mr Ci and another 63-year-old Mr On 2 days ago and discovered we three men were of the same age. Yet I did not notice Mr Ci's cyanotic lips at all.

"How about your conjunctiva?" I asked and he pulled down his lower eyelids. They were normal orange pink ones.

"Whenever I bring my grandchild to see the doctor for flu," he said. "The doctor would want to examine me first. At the hospital, all the doctors wanted to do is to use their stethoscope to listen to my heart. I was born a blue baby and many doctors had shaken their heads saying I would not live long!"

"Did you do National Service?" I asked as Singaporean men born after 1948 would need to enlist. He was born in 1950 and so was I.
"I was a blue baby," he said. "The Army did not want me!"
"Not even as a clerk?" I asked as Mr On worked as a signaller while I was an Infantry Officer.
"Not wanted at all!"
Now I could see clearly why. No one wants to take responsibility for his demise during military training.
"My mother brought me to the temple to pray as the doctor said I would not live long," he elaborated that the temple god adopted him.
"If I live past 16 years of age, I would survive."

So here he is, much alive. He is a very rare person with cyanotic lips due to an enzyme deficiency in his blood but does not know his medical term. For dogs, cyanotic lips are hard to see but a cyanotic gum is a great cause for medical concern. I wonder whether dogs have this medical condition or not.


We had a group photo on the last day and coincidentally I had an image of his blue lips. He is a very nice gentleman and I just can't believe his story of being born blue lips (with no hole in the heart or heart disease). All doctors will also not believe my story too. Just not medically possible to have no serious heart disease with blue lips! 

1272. Travel Stories: "Pretty Girl"

Dec 20, 2013
Hotel Tatlises, Kusadasi, Turkey
Room 1321. A bigger spacious room with balcony. Heating is good as the floors don't feel cold to the bare foot.

Yesterday, visited Troy which was built around 5000 years ago. Helen of Troy was the face that launched a thousand ships but Troy was a most important city economically, attracting conquerors.
My packaged tour group (flying by SIA) consisted of 38 people while the other group from the same travel agency (flying by Emirates) had 32 people and more younger people including good-looking girls. Hence, an aunty asked her 17-year-old nephew to tackle the "liang ray" (pretty girls in Cantonese) of his age in the other group.     

Good looks are much valued as in the days of Helen of Troy.  So are good photographs. Hundreds of images are taken by me, but only one shown below can be considered attractive.

What makes a very good travel photo?
1. The light is most important. Bright sunshine on a cold winter's day can be appreciated in this image.
2. The composition. Framed by trees, branches and leaves.
3. The people. A "pretty girl" who is well groomed and dressed on a winter's day never fail to attract viewing by most people.

I hope this image will inspire one of the young men who spent most of their spare time viewing movies and gaming learn how to take excellent images during travel.and for work to market themselves.

The original large images, not photoshopped is below:

The original image was snapped from afar using Auto focus. I find this camera lens mentioned below, good for videography at autofocus mode unlike my other lens which "clicked and whirled" to autofocus on various people, producing much more blurred video images. This image is best taken without video as this is only a few seconds before the travellers move to another spot.


Photoshopped images are below:

 

Compact cameras and handphones cannot improve one's imaging skills
The camera information I used for the above images are:

Canon EOS 700D
Canon EFS 18-135mm Macro Lens 0.39m/1.3ft
with image stabiliser
"P" program mode
"AF" autofocus


Many photographers prefer "MF" Manual focus, but with this image, the pretty girl would just disappear by the time one manually focus. So, I don't use MF! The lighting may change in seconds too.


COMPOSITION
This image is framed by the tree (right), branches (left), leaves (above), reading plaque (below). It manage to capture the intense seeking of knowledge by the man with the green iPad while the pretty girl has matching handphone cover, grey gloves and coat and sunshine from the 10am sun shines in her hair.


It is very difficult to capture good travel photos and this is a rare one out of thousands.
As to the pretty girl in this image, she flies Emirates while I took the SIA and so we never got acquainted. I doubt the aunty's advice to the nephew was taken seriously by her nephew too.

Message to all young men obsessed with gaming till 3 am daily and looking sleepy at work.
CREATE, NOT CONSUME. My advice to the young men in their late 20s. Make time to study digital photography and you will appreciate life and the world much more with digital photography skills. 







 

1271. Travel stories - Istanbul's kindness to stray dogs and cats: Let Sleeping Dogs Lie

http://youtu.be/HMe-SijdH3A


MVI 8003
Dec 19, 2013. 11.14am. Iris Otel Rm 209, Turkey.

Yesterday, visited Istanbul. Then by coach of over 4 hours to the Iris Otel which is located after the ferry crossed Gallipoli town river. Gallipoli is significant historically for ANZAC troops as many had died in battles there during the First World War.

This video shows that Istanbul is caring for stray cross-bred dogs although it is predominantly a Muslim city.

Outside the beautiful Blue Mosque where there were a few thousand international tourists on Dec 18, 2013, Bright sunshine and blue skies yesterday, unlike one week ago when there was fog and snow in Istanbul!

I saw  around 5 stray dogs with the left ear tagged. No barking. Some mingle with the tourists. They were friendly and don't mind being patted and would walk along with the tourists.

One veteran was seen sleeping at around lunch-time near the Sophia Museum. He reminds me of "Let Sleeping Dogs Lie" in my primary school English lessons, That was in 1962, a time when the English idioms and correct grammar were   seriously studied by Primary Six students in Singapore as we would be tested in the PSLE examinations to qualify for the top secondary schools.

Hence this video to "bring English idiom" alive to the viewer - "Let Sleeping Dogs Lie" .

There were around 2 stray cats outside the Blue Mosque and two at the Palace. They like to be petted by visitors and many visitors including Singaporean ladies have their photos taken. Many young Singaporeans nowadays care much for the disadvantaged stray cats and dogs unlike the baby boomer generation.

The stray cats looked in excellent health with the thick winter coat. It can be as cold as 5 deg C during daytime and freezing at night.  Their ears are NOT tipped unlike in Singapore and so it is not possible to see from afar whether they have been spayed or neutered
.
As for this Istanbul rusty-brown and white og, I let "sleeping dogs lie" and continued with my tour to see the racehorse track that existed around 500 years. It is presently a tiled rectangular area.

It will be a surprising change of mindset one day in the future if the Singapore Government & Tourism Board permits around 5 stray sterilized dogs to live around the Esplanade or Resort World area, enhancing the visiting experience of international tourists, many of whom do not have pets as they live a hectic city life, like many Singaporeans.

These strays are inexpensive to maintain and are not a danger to visitors. Certainly they add that contacting animal experience for the younger tourists living in urban jungles do not get and the make great photo opportunities.

If I remember correctly, I don't see such strays in famous historical sites in Paris or Rome. Singapore's stray dogs appear to be hiding during the daytime as the environment is apparently hostile towards them. There are also fewer stray cats seen in public places but one does encounter the rare ones.

A generation of urbanized Singaporeans has grown up without contact with animals as there was mass culling of strays using pest control companies at one period of time when town councils were all out to eliminate all stray dogs and cats. Now, there are "trappers" who bring them to vets for sterilization and the volunteers then feed them. Videos are still the best form of educating the young ones as compared to text and stories. The young just do not read much nowadays!  

1270. Video Husky eyelid tumour vet surgery

Video not made by previous intern owing to lack of time.
Pl get video created

D:\2013Pic_After_Sep13

D:\2013Pic_After_Sep13\20130920Husky_eyelid_tumour_video

MVI 1009, 1010, 1019, 1020, 1021, 1043

Title: Veterinary Surgery video; How a Husky's eyelid tumour is removed.

Date: September 2013 case study.

Breed, age, gender

1. Hook.  Irritating. Keeps rubbing right eye. Eye inflamed. Consult vet for advice.

Clara to draw an illustration of how the surgery is to be done. .

2. Anaesthesia gas by mask and sedation by injection IV. 

3. Cut 1 cm incision in the lateral canthus to enlarge operating area

4. Cut around upper eyelid tumour with electro-incision electrode.
    An inverted "V" skin incision is made to remove the tumour

5. Ensure as much of the tumour area is removed by cutting off irregular skin edges at the margins of the excised tumour area.

CONFLICT 1. Profuse bleeding. What to do?

6. Electro-coagulation electrode is used to seal off bleeding vessels

7. Undermine skin below eyelid to reduce skin tension and prevent stitch breakdown. 

The skin edges are stitched. Blunt edged scissors is used.

CONFLICT 2. 
8. Bleeding present again.  
9. Electro-coagulation takes longer time as bleeding is profuse. Increase coagulation power to No. 2 (vet's voice)

10. Swabs to clear operating area of blood for stitching

      Takes a long time to coagulate blood vessel as it is large. Continue electro-coagulation.

CONFLICT 3. Insufficient skin area to stitch eyelid area if a wider margin of the tumour is excised. A margin of 1 cm is advised in vet text books but this is not practical here as there will be no skin to stitch up.
.

11. Tumour excised. Check again for remnants of tumour. Trim edges to provide a straight regular skin edge to stitch up for proper healing.
.

12. Skin now stitched with 3/0 absorbable sutures. Two interrupted stitches.

13. The lateral canthus is stitched now with one stitch. isoflurane and O2 gas anaesthesis is switched off during the 2nd last stitch (vet's voice to switch off anaesthesia).

14. Dog recovery stage MVI 1043.  No complaints from owner for the past 3 months.

Operating surgeon; Dr Sing Kong Yuen
Assisting surgeon: Dr Daniel Sing

1269. The 17-year-old Shih Tzu vomited green stuff and had diarrhoea for 2 days

1267. Strands of caseous pus keep oozing out from the Pom's skin

Usually pus is liquid in a dog but cheesy in the rabbit as the latter is said not to have certain enzymes to liquefy the pus.

Below is a case of a caseous pus in a dog.