A Leisurely Central

Central is special to me. Been there tens of years. Yet I can never have enough of it. Always changes: buildings, window displays and people. But I never really had time to stop, to slow down and to actually look, until I took up photography. I took a leisurely photographic walk again in Central last week. Here's what I found.
 




Reflections and reality, side by side. How different! I like the steps at three levels each bigger
than the previous as we move down and the contrast between the two horizontal panels and
the reflection of reflection on the surface of the left window..

The tops and sides of different buildings "look" as if they were connected!

The outlines of the buildings seem all curved!

5 buildings in the same photo: four real and 4 images of buildings!

People appear to have become thinner and elongated like those figures by Giacometti. 

Buildings too take on strange shapes. You even find a bull on a window!

And reality and its images have become so mixed that it has become difficult to tell which is which.
They seem to blend into surprising patterns: pure forms. Glistening, silent, indifferent.

Unusual regular patterns are everywhere!

One of the sculptures of Juming!

Another one of Juming's Tai Chi sculptures.

When will the bull return? The bull is silent! Just a curious expression on his face!





Before the bull returns, a hovercraft carrying quicker dreams of another strike in the next town.
How many return with unbroken dreams?





Look, another one taking off! When will people ever wake up? They run day and night!





Here, at last, another boat doing something rather more realistic. But it's much smaller!

It's getting late. But the activities in Central show no sign of slowing down. The streets are still
full of cars and people.

Night comes. Lights from the nearby hotel and commercial buildings showering everything with
a layer of artificial gold.

It's 7.15 p.m. Most office workers have already left to prepare dinner, tend to their kids or have
already had their second or third drink in nearby pubs, exchanging jokes or telling tales of their
exploits or drowning their sorrows to the sound of glasses on the table tops. Those who are not
can afford to relax their paces a little now.

Windows seem to have taken on weird new colors and forms, quite different from those earlier
in the day.

Here're some other windows, in green, blue and red, not yellow!

Everywhere you go, you find huge electronic bill boards, even on the surface of windows.

They never seem to stop flashing and to change colors, to capture your attention, so eager were
they to transfer as much of your hard earned cash from your bank account into theirs,  if you'd
allow your momentary impulse to overwhelm your sense into buying things you don't really need,
waiting "patiently" for your vanity, your lust and your greed to continue the work they have started.
 

Across the daily narrowing stretch of sea between the two sides, the lights were on too. I really
do not understand why. They've got a real need to? Or just afraid to be forgotten? If so, why the
inordinate fear? What's wrong with disappearing for a while from others' eyes? Aren't you still
there whether others see them or not?

It's raining. Everything is turned into a blur.

The further they are, the more they become blurred. 

The rain doesn't seem able to stop the building, building, building. Sure, the economy's got to
grow! But the decisions were taken long ago. We have all become slaves of "numbers"!

Even during the night, people were still going to the site office, perhaps to assess the
progress of the day, perhaps to check on the work sheet of the day laborers, perhaps to
plan on who to call to work for the next day?

Across the pedestrian walkway, you can see people relaxing over a cup of coffee or fruit juice
or waiting for their friends.

On the other side of the pedestrian walkway, you again find all the lights were on, even at the
post office!

The rain is getting heavier. Better move inside. I don't want my camera to get all wet from
the drops of water flying through the air from the occasional gusts of wet wind.

And admire the colors and the intricate patterns formed by circles, squares, rectangles and
lines inside a nearby building.

And wander off to look at some flowers!  Certainly more pleasant.