CHRISTOPHER ONG

Wednesday, September 23, 2009

Beautiful Living - Fall

Autumn is here!

Blyhollow Road.
Rensselaer County, NY.

"Autumn begins with a subtle change in the light,

with skies a deeper blue,

and nights that become suddenly clear and chilled.

The season comes full with the first frost,

the disappearance of migrant birds,

and the harvesting of the season's last crops."

~Glenn Wolff and Jerry Dennis~

Tuesday, September 22, 2009

From the airport to the hotel at Old Quarter, I was thinking of the movies "IndoChine", "The Lover" and "The Quiet American". Along the highway to the city, I saw wave and wave of dust. As we approached the city, immediately I saw the old exotic of the past era blends with the dynamic forces of new Vietnam.

click on image to enlarge

~ Ho Hoan Kiem or Lake of the Returned Sword ~

I was very pleased to stay at the hotel in old quarter, hoping to catch a glimpse of the old era of Hanoi. It was a 5 floors walk-up hotel, respectable clean, the polite porter carried luggage to the guest room on 3rd floor. Flat screen TV, computer, clean sheets, hot and cold water in the bathroom, the towels were not lush but I was warned and so I brought my own. I wished I had packed my white linen suit and straw hat ...

click on image to enlarge

A mass of motorbikes swarms through the streets in the Old Quarter
... at the end of the day, my face was powdered with dust.

sound of motorbikes and continuous honking
forming an irritable melody of this city ...

Hanoi street scenes

Hanoi Street scenes

Old Vietnamese Vs French era architectures...

Ngoc Son shrine

Ho Chi Minh’s Official Residence

Ho Chi Minh’s Mausoleum

Cafe and people around the lake ...

sidewalk vendors selling foods and vegetables ...

Chua Mot Cot or the One Pillar Pagoda
has become the symbol of Vietnamese rich culture and history.
The pagoda was built in the reign of king Ly Thai Tong (1028-1054).

Coming up soon
Ha Long Bay, Vietnam.

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Monday, September 21, 2009

Elements oF Style: Four-poster Bed

~ Luxury Four-poster Bed ~

Four-poster bed is luxury.
It can create a focal point in the bed room.
It captures some of the beauty from the old world.
I like some of these 4-poster beds.

In the old days, bed curtains were hanged around the bed to keep out draughts. Today with the modern insulation, bed curtains are purely decorative. In the tropical countries, mosquito netting is hanged surround the bed to keep out of mosquitoes and bugs and this is still used today in some countries.

This is a 4-poster mahogany bed from Jamaica.
English colonial Caribbean style.
Nicely carved, captured the old colonial era.
It has luxurious appeal.

A modern interpretation of the four-poster bed from Ralph Lauren

is a cast in steel with a black industrial finish.

Safari 4-poster bed from Ralph Lauren.
Captured the old world of the early explorers in Africa

These are from John Reeve.
It comes in Black, White and Red.
These are whimsical and elegant.
This makes four-poster bed young again!

Tips on dressing a four-poster bed:

Keep the sheets and blankets all tuck in. A nice duvet can leave out as above.
A four-poster bed is dramatic enough without adding a lot of frills. Stay simple.
No bed skirt or dust ruffles. Can consider to drape feather weight gauzy fabric around to create some drama effects.

Saturday, September 19, 2009

Beautiful Living: Fall Floral arrangement

A morning in NYC flower market ....

Flower market is one of my favorite places in the city. One can see all kinds of flowers from all over the world at this one block in NYC! These are all flower wholesalers, they started in the morning around 4.00 AM, and this area used to become a dead zone after 1 PM. The city began to change the business zone here a few years ago, and now there is a hotel right in the middle of this block. Rumors that city might move flower market out of Manhattan island, I can't imagine when that day comes, it would be a disaster for many!

I was in flower market with Lady Amy, the wife of the Malaysian Ambassador to The United Nations. She requested me to do a floral arrangement for her husband's office in the Missions. I opposed silk flowers and so I suggested to do a fall foliage that would last for a while. We visited some of the suppliers I know in the market.

In the office there are two huge paintings in the reception area, I extracted the colors out from the painting, mainly green, orange and various shades of brown.

I am very fond of Chinese lantern, the orange color is so vibrant and the color remains even when it is dried. Magnolia leaves is another fondness of mine, one side is green and the reversed side is the rich cinnamon brown. I wanted to add some height to the arrangement, I used some rich brown stained skinny bamboo since pussy willow is not in season until October. The urn we used was glazed in copper brown.

This arrangement can last for months.
The trick is no water.

Voila!

click on image to enlarge

Photographer: Steven Speliotis

speliotisphoto@yahoo.com

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Thursday, September 17, 2009

Beautiful Living - "Kissing Bench"

The Seductive Kiss

I newly discovered this "Kissing Bench" from a young furniture designer, John Reeves. I instantly fall in love with this bench. It is an art form, and it would be a conversation piece and encourage two individuals in a seductive way and ultimately bring two lips gently together!

This Kissing Bench can be used at a verandah, hall way or making a not-so-popular corner in a house or apartment comes lively! Material used: Zinc. Though it is a raw industrial material, yet the finished product is charming and beautiful, and the "patinated zinc finish will take on more of their own character over time, aging gracefully."

There are many more fun pieces that I love from this furniture designer, I promise to introduce more from him!

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Wednesday, September 16, 2009

Pride & Prejudice

Reminiscence

" I've struggled in vain and I can bear it no longer. These past months have been a torment ..."

"Pride & Prejudice" was showing on TV and I could not resist but watching it all the way to the end. Once again, the movie unlocked the memory box of that summer in England ...

That was the summer of 2005, ... I visited Stourhead Garden at Wiltshire, the garden took my breath away. The architectures, gardens, the house ... it was so much like the description in Jane Austen's novels. Upon returned to London, it happened that "Pride & Prejudice" just opened, I went to see the movie. In the cinema, my company and I were utterly shocked to find out that one of the most dramatic scenes in the movie was filmed at Stourhead Garden! The movie came to NYC that year on Thanksgiving, I couldn't help but went to see the movie again.