Those of you who know me personally know that I have two beloved doggies, Snoopy & Dino, whom I have kept since they were three weeks old. I know there aren’t that many friends and zero family members who even know of my blog. Still, a month ago, I wrote a post dedicated to Snoopy and it’s high time I write a post dedicated to Dino too. They are brothers and I love them both equally so I have to be fair.

But how does Dino look like? I don’t think I will ever publish their real photos online and I am going to protect them like I protect my own photos

Last evening, I was at a place that was selling plants and decorations for Chinese New Year and I saw this dog that looks exactly like Dino when Dino was younger and slimmer.

If only my Dino would sit still for a moment and pose like this!

If you don’t already know, Snoopy and Dino were born in early November, 1994 and that means they are already into their fourteenth year. Last year, when Snoopy was ill and had to undergo some medical tests, one of his medical reports stated his age as 108. That is simply freaky. If he was 108 a year ago, I wonder how old he is now. And Dino would be the same age as well.

If you are wondering why I always mention “Snoopy & Dino” and never “Dino & Snoopy”, it is because Snoopy is older by minutes

I went to Kinta City for shopping on Saturday and stumbled upon a Chinese Cultural show as a prelude to Chinese New Year where they have dough sculptures on display, making of dough sculptures of shoppers, Chinese painting and artwork, candy blowing and Chinese instrumental performance [on Saturday] and a Chinese drum performance [on Sunday], the same one which put up a performance during Chinese New Year last year.

When I was there on Saturday [5th Jan], I took the chance to take photos of these dough sculptures with my iPhone BUT they did not turn out sharp enough. So, I went there on Sunday [6th Jan] again with my [friend's] Olympus specifically to take these photos. That’s the advantage of living in Ipoh. You can go anywhere every day and not feel like wasting half your life on the road!

Six-Girl Band

I am totally amazed with the fine craftsmanship showcased here. I believe that I have seen documentary shows on TV about dough sculpture too but I am not sure if these are the same people. Yes, the people here are from China too.

Entertainment

In the following two photos, you can see maidens entertaining His and Her Majesties. Right click on all these photos for full resolution pictures.

Entertaining the Court

More entertainment in the court

The “Third Prince” (I think) with Green dragon

Monkey God and Dragon

It’s too bad that the dragon here is white in colour. It would be more eye-catching if there is more colour here. Or maybe the dragon IS white in the Chinese legend?

Old-style “wet”

This is the ancient way of “wetting” in China. Let’s drink and be merry!

More old-style “wet”

This is a shot at the other side of the court. Be amazed by the little details that are applied on the dough people!

Streets of China

These two shots [above & below] are of the streets of China where you can see people selling produces and there is a textile shop, a dentist, someone carrying water and people walking about. On the other side (not in picture) we could even see a barber doing business.

Streets of China complete with trees!

Entertaining the Minister

This is the ancient style of entertaining the Minister or a high ranking official.

Wrestling for Minster - close up shot

All the above photos were taken though a plastic enclosure. Yes, these dough sculptures are so delicate they are all placed inside plastic casing. It makes shipping and handling easier too because I believe they travel and exhibit their skills all over the world.

Child Porn

Last year week, I was at my regular veterinary clinic to buy food for Snoopy. Snoopy is a high maintenance dog and his food can only be found at veterinary clinics because it’s prescription diet. BAH, it’s darn expensive but I still love him anyway.

I love to keep fishes but I hate the task of cleaning the aquarium up. I wonder why other people’s aquariums are so clean while mine was so dirty and stinky and I had to wash it at least once a week. What am I not doing right? I even had a black creepy sea creature that supposedly eats moss but all it did was get stuck onto the inside wall of the aquarium and not do its job right.

Now I have gotten rid of my aquarium since I could hardly spare the time to maintain it so what I do is just admire the aquariums of others!

That day, when I was there, I only had my Nokia E61i with me so I took the chance to shoot these photos while waiting to be served.

I would not say that I am disappointed with the quality of the photos since I have come to NOT expect anything from the camera of my mobile device. All I can say is that these photos are only good enough for web publishing but there’s still room for improvement. The full resolution shots are awful! Somebody, please tell me it is USER problem! The camera CAN’T be THAT bad?? Or am I expecting too much?