Marbles

I have a life long attraction to marbles - I love the variety of colours and designs.  This painting at Overland Park Convention Centre reminded me of the bowl of marbles that I have back home, a gift from my beloved.

Water therapy

For the next 38 days, I will be plying up and down this pool as my sole means of exercising.  The pool was blissfully quiet after all the weekend guests have gone - no mums and dads on their cell phones, no children splashing in the pool, and no smokers leaving the terrace door ajar unaware of the cigarette smoke wafting into the pool area.

Art at Overland Park

A surprising find!  The art gallery at the Overland Park Convention Centre hosts a diverse range of art, from landscapes on oil, modern sculptures, to modern art.  Some were hidden behind huge screens that had been put up by exhibitors of veterinary service providers and golf shows.

Inner city despair, a powerful depiction of a crushed soul

Landcapes on oil, evoking imagery of

vastness, openess, and the changing of seasons

Modern objects, provoking thoughts and interpretations

Mustard seeds of faith?

Wandering into the prayer room set up by a church congress, I saw a paraphenalia of religious objects to stimulate the faithful praying for change.  Religion aside, the set up was full of artistic promise.  Perhaps not the intention of the prayer room, but for an atheist, the serenity invited a certain degree of spirituality.

Space and Light at Overland Park

The Campus, covered in snow, seen from the hotel window

Chandelier sculpture at the Overland Park Convention Centre

One of the foyers at the Overland Park Convention Centre

Corridor at the Sheraton Hotel Overland Park

For a girl brought up in the confines of Hong Kong and used to living in the suburbs in southern England, the open views from and spaciousness within buildings in Kansas help me understand the romantic notion that some people hold of space in the country side.

Winter Colours

The colours of the sky looking west are as vivid as ever.  Amazingly, seen through the eyes of a painter, the colours are even more dramatic.

From the hotel window

 A painting at the gallery at the Convention Centre at Overland Park

To escape the snow yesterday, I visited the Convention Centre at Overland Park and admired some of the art there.  Here are my favourite pieces.

A winter scene commonly seen in Kansas in the winter of 2010

Green fields and blue skies that I hope to see come Spring time

The hotel was buzzing with people attending various events - bar mitzvahs, church of the Nazarene conference, dinner dances.  Immaculately coiffed and elegantly clad ladies were seen accompanied by men in tuxedos, a change from the jeans and loud music environment that used to pervade at the "boutique" hotel that I last stayed in.  One distinct benefit of this hotel is that I no longer have to be a passive smoker when passing a bank of smokers taking their fresh air break at the hotel entrance.

A new stint, a new view

Dawn breaking at Overland Park, Kansas

For the next 42 days, this will be the view from hotel window.   The elevation at 19th floor affords a sense of spaciousness and openess, rather liberating.  The snow is still lying, and temperature stays stubbornly below freezing. 

Memories of a cold distant past

Overland Park Arboretum, relatively relieved of snow

Home Sweet Home

Sweet roses to welcome home a weary traveller.

The travails of travel

Parts of the USA were gripped by another snow storm on the date I made my long-awaited trip home to UK, February 5.  On the way to Kansas City International airport, I battled with limited visibility, large flurries of snow, and a small bunch of butterflies in the stomach.  The airport was functioning normally until news from Chicago O'Hare airport came.  The flight was delayed for 2.5 hours due to snow at Chicago. 

On arrival at Chicago O'Hare, hardly any snow was detected, but the plane sat for an hour before given a gate.  Originally the flight was due to arrive at Chicago at 17:05, but with the alleged snow and the gate delay, the disembarkation happened at 20:00.  There was a strong whiff of missing the BA flight when my fellow passenger, a college football player, checked the BA website on his cell phone and told me that the BA flight will leave ON TIME, i.e. 20:25. 

By the time I made my way from Terminal 3 via the transit system, to Terminal 5, going through odious security and making a dash for the depature gate, I watched with utter dismay, at 20:30, that the BA flight had been pulled away from the jetty and was being de-iced.  The BA staff at the gate was winding down as it was the end of their shift.  So they sent me back to Terminal 3 to take the 21:55 flight with American Airlines.

The BA departure desk had scribbled the flight details on the back of my self-printed BA boarding pass, which was not accepted at Terminal 3 security.  That necessitated joining the queue at the American Airlines desk to be issued with a "ticket".  Then it was back to security check and the long walk to the departure gate.  I just about made it, and was the last passenger to board the flight. 

This time, my end to end journey lasted 20 hours. 

Needless to say, my luggage did not arrive with the flight and I had to file a lost luggage claim.  Two losses out of four trips, that's an unfortunate record.

Footprints in the snow

A long, ardurous journey home

Wintry blues from Kansas

Dissolved in your loving embrace.

Legends

Legends is a vast outdoor shopping centre with factory outlets on the I435/I70 junction, Kansas City.  According to its offical website, this open-air shopping centre occupies 1.2 million square foot, which can pose a challenge to motorists trying to find their car....

Numerous sculptures dotted around the shopping centre, but the statement piece went to the 150-ft tall Smokestack Tower.  My favourites were humble pavement plagues in memory of scientists who through their research had advanced our understanding of the universe.