Floral Parade

Aloha, Friend!
Welcome to the
Kamehameha Day Floral Parade


click on the parade!

Pau Rider


"No child but must remember laying his head in the grass,
staring into the infinitesimal forest
and seeing it grow populous with fairy armies."

Robert Louis Stevenson,
Essays in The Art of Writing

Ladies of a Royal Society



"The thing I was attracted to as a little girl
was Kirk, Bones and Spock, and their utter loyalty.
There's nothing more powerful than that."

Jolene Blalock


"When you eat fruit,
think of the person who planted the tree"

VIETNAMESE SAYING

It's a family thing.

"A hug is like a boomerang - you get it back right away."

Bil Keane, "Family Circus"




"Millions and millions of years
would still not give me half enough time
to describe that tiny instant of all eternity
when you put your arms around me
and I put my arms around you."

Jacques Prévert




"Everybody needs a hug.
It changes your metabolism."

Leo Buscaglia




"You can't wrap love in a box,
but you can wrap a person in a hug."

Author Unknown

Honolulu Police Department Motor Officer
wearing a maile lei.

Celebrating Kamehameha the Great,
the "Napoleon of the Pacific,"
the "Lonely One."
He united the islands into one kingdom
1810.

"Children make you want to start life over."
Muhammad Ali

Old & New:
Feathered Capes and Mobile Phones

"Face in the Crowd"




><>

Sure is Summer, isn't it?
Well, here in the northern it is.
Minds wander, and blog traffic dips.

But the desire to take pictures,
to reach out,
and to share with jolly friends
only blossoms.

We excuse each other
for the long days of reverie
far from the internet.

Love you guys;
That's ALOHA!
:) cloudia

Mrs. Cheng's Tofu

Aloha,
Summery FRIEND



remember to click on pics

Field Trip!


Tucked away in Honolulu's light industrial, residential,
catch-all neighborhood of Kalihi
you can find one of our little gems: Mrs. Cheng's Tofu Factory.

Our town has long imported and manufactured the ethnic foods
that our island population enjoys. There are other tofu factors in town.
We also produce Aloha Shoyu (soy sauce) Portuguese bread, halo-halo and adobo (Filipino treats).
We have several little and big noodle factories,
and even enjoyed our own local sake brewery. . . once upon a time.

Let's go inside to buy some fresh tofu, shall we?




"Have a mouth as sharp as a dagger,
but a heart as soft as tofu."

strange Chinese Proverb

All very basic but sanitary.



"Run, they're handing out tofu again!"
Panic scream of child trick-or treating on Halloween
'America's Food' by Harvey Blatt (2008)

Check out the Chinese instructions
on that super-special tofu machine!



"The method of making doufu dates back to Liu An (179-122B.C.), the Prince of Huainan.
It is made of soya beans,
either the black or the yellow variety."


Ancient Chinese work on medicinal herbs

Here is the prey we seek fresh from the oven:
Tofu Cheese, a baked specialty of Mrs. Cheng.




"Traditionally in the U.S., tofu was eaten by vegetarians as a protein substitute for meat. It was generally served plain, in large chunks completely devoid of flavor."

Brita Housez

Here it is packaged and at home, ready to eat!


" I like tofu cheese
and soy milk in my coffee and cereal."

~ Grace Slick quotes


Ah, Bertrand Russel was right:
"There is much pleasure to be gained
from useless information."


Thanks for visiting us here in Waikiki today!

Summer Memories

Aloha Friend!

"One of the greatest victories
you can gain over someone
is to beat him
at politeness."

Josh Billings

"Vision without execution
is hallucination."

Edison

This guy is a surf board shaper.
He must use a lightening-bolt motif on some of his boards.





"One of the greatest things
about the sport of surfing
is that you need only three things:
your body, a surf-board, and a wave."

NAIMA GREEN



><>



What a weekend!
I was invited
to carry the Hawaii flag
at the head of
Honolulu's PRIDE festival.


I always wanted to lead my own parade!


Then we attended the retirement party
of our friend Chuck
who served 30 years
in the US Army.




Years ago,
during the challenging times of my younger days,
I used to say to my dear friend, Labig:
"Some day things will be better."




"Cloudi,"
he'd say,
"These ARE the good old days."




My life is more settled now.
Somehow it all worked out for the best.



But thinking back on my dear friend,
gone these many years,
I remember long Summer days
at the ball park,
and dinners to which
he picked up the check
time and time again.


Once I told him that being with him
was just as relaxing as being alone.
And he understood just what I meant.



As I recall those days long ago
I realize that he was right;
Those were golden days indeed.

And though I miss him,
plus so many others gone,
I look back with gratitude
and much aloha.

I thought of them all
as I led the parade through Waikiki.
"This one's for you guys."



THESE are the good times too.


I understand that now.


Don't waste your time
dreaming of
"some day."


That's a fool's
or a child's
game.


Drink today all the way down!


It is the nectar.


Don't wait to look back
to realize it!


Fondly, cloudia

I Needed It Bad

ALOHA Dear Friend!

How did I live without it for so long?

I haven't had a functioning two-wheeled vehicle
for a while now.







My 1973 BMW R75/5
(the one that was built from the frame-out just for me
and painted a unique lilac colour)
had served me well:
I looked GREAT on it!

But it was getting taller, and heavier all the time.
I was like the curator of a precious antique,
and began to dream of something smaller...

I began dreaming about my old Honda Magna that had helped
me to found a women's motorcycle club...



About the beautiful, handmade, Italian Moto Morini


that he almost bought for me 25 years ago...



That day when my brother and I saw the other kids in the neighborhood
skateboarding with store-bought rides
and caught the same fever
riding every day after school till dark for months...




About that Rupp mini-bike that Joey B showed up with one day,
wowing all of us kids
who angled for "just one ride PLEASE"
and then the uncanny freedom
of flying through the Summer neighborhood,
smelling the cut grass, hearing the birds,
SOARING under the open skies
of childhood...




Then there was the life guard at the pool
who rode a Lambretta
and took me along for under-aged rides
that I never forgot;
There's just SOMETHING about a man on two wheels.


Biker culture
plays a key role in my Hawaii novel
'Aloha Where You Like Go?'
as it has in my life.
(scroll ALL the way down for a link to amazon :)
And I liked being the tough, sexy chick
on the amazing bike.


But now I just want to have fun.




So this week
for my birthday
I got a brand new
brand-name Japanese Scooter!





It's official, all my old biker friends:
I am now a wimp. (Scooter!)





It's light and fun and just right for me.
I'm outside instead of hunched over this keyboard
for hours a day.




Suddenly there are a million places to visit,
things to do,
and just the joy of being in the wind.




How did I live without it for SO long?




Funny how one thing
can make everything
NEW again!




I'm just having SO much fun.




This island is perfect for such a machine.
It is a licensed motor vehicle
and can handle the major highways.
But I can pull over anywhere
and snap a few photos easily
now that my camera lives in the
cup holder.




I'm not riding a moped!
That will come when I'm even older :)
right before the mobility scooter.
Beep! Beep!




So please forgive me
if I haven't commented at your place lately.




I'll be back,
I want to know what's happening with you.




Even though I know I'm having the most fun right now...




Vroom Vroom! Beep Beep!

I mean:
'ALOHA' cloudia

For Beth...and You

Aloha
to
YOU :)

"Breathless, we flung us on a windy hill,
Laughed in the sun,
and kissed the lovely grass."

Rupert Brooke

"One joy scatters a hundred griefs."

Chinese proverb

"A warrior must learn to make every act count,
since he is going to be here in this world for only a short while,
in fact, too short for witnessing all the marvels of it."

Carlos Castaneda


><>



"Spiritually powerful people
are not necessarily people who
do so much,
as they are people
around whom
things get done.

Gandhi caused the British to leave India,
but he wasn't a man who ran around a lot.

Powerful forces swirled around him."

Marianne Williamson


Aloha, Friend :)

cloudia

Seals on Waikiki Beach

Aloha to

YOU

enlarge pictures by clicking on them :)

Usually Hawaiian Monk Seals keep to pretty remote areas.

But when they do haul onto the beach, they have their own VIP area! No one may approach. You may admire them from a distance - at penalty of law!

So when they showed up in busy Waikiki

it was an event!

Contentment

Seals on Waikiki Beach (VIA Blogger Ian Lind HERE)

Waikiki resident Michael Peters was there early Saturday morning as two Hawaiian Monk Seals rested inside the breakwater on Kuhio Beach in Waikiki. It was between 7 and 7:15 a.m. Michael said one seal had an identifying number, N21. KITV reported the seals are known as Rocky and Buster. Later they moved on towards Ala Moana.

Photographs by Michael Peters

Hawaiian monk seals receive new legal protection from state

By Derrick DePledge

POSTED: 01:30 a.m. HST, Jun 09, 2010

Hawaiian monk seals received new legal protection yesterday when Lt. Gov. James "Duke" Aiona signed a bill into law making it a third-degree felony to intentionally harm or kill the endangered species.

The state law was prompted by the deaths of three monk seals last year, including a pregnant monk seal on the north shore of Kauai that was shot by an elderly man who wanted to scare the seal off the beach so he could go fishing.

Monk seals found dead on the west side of Kauai and on Molokai last year may also have been deliberately killed. The deaths are under investigation.

"This is a strong statement in regards to our value and our treasure of the monk seal," Aiona, the acting governor, said at a news conference at the state Capitol.

Under the new law, violators face five years in prison and a fine of up to $50,000.

The 78-year-old man on Kauai who shot the pregnant monk seal pleaded guilty and was sentenced to 90 days in the federal detention center in Honolulu. He also had to pay a $25 special assessment. The man was prosecuted under the federal Endangered Species Act. The maximum penalty under the federal law is one year in prison and a fine of up to $50,000.

There are about 1,100 Hawaiian monk seals. Most of the rare mammals live in the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands, with only about 100 in the main Hawaiian islands.

"It's an ancient species that has been here before man arrived," said Keiko Bonk, an environmental activist who pushed for the new state law. "And we depend on this species, and the whole ecosystem in Hawaii, to survive."

Laura H. Thielen, the director of the state Department of Land and Natural Resources, said the state is doing outreach with residents, tourists and fishermen about the importance of not disturbing monk seals if encountered on the beach or in the water.

"Native Hawaiian monk seals are our resources," Thielen said. "They are part of Hawaii. And we want them here for ourselves and for our children."

State Senate Majority Leader Gary Hooser, (D, Kauai-Niihau), who sponsored the bill, said the environmental community requested the new law after the monk seal deaths.

"Monk seals are part of our community. They are part of our history, part of our culture," Hooser said. "And when somebody hurts somebody in your community, there's got to be a price to pay."

Aiona is acting governor while Gov. Linda Lingle is on a two-week trade and tourism promotion trip to China and Japan.

Odds & Ends

Aloha, You :)

click amongst the clouds (pics)

"The only valuable thing

is intuition."

Einstein

"Things that are a little past their prime

can be fetching in the right light."

Mark Norseth

(In-joke. My birthday is this week :)

"I remember my parents sacrificing for us,

pouring everything they had into us,

being there for us,

encouraging us to reach for a life

they never knew."

Michelle Obama

(Hmmm, how will Fox/Faux News paint this in an ugly light?)

"In Hawaii we greet friends, loved ones,

or strangers

with Aloha,

which means with love...

try meeting or leaving people with

Aloha

and you will be surprised by their reactions.

I believe it,

and it is my creed.

Aloha to You."

Excerpt from the calling card of

Duke Kahanamoku

><>

Thanks and Aloha to

YOU;

Thanks for visiting!

Leave a comment/aloha, won't you?

cloudia