Anybody Got A Match?

Today was a travel day. We have a lot of them - actually, if I could get back everyday that we've spent in airports, and then use them to take a nice long vacation, I wouldn't be working again until around the end of 2014. But, I digress...

This morning, as we were making our way through customs at Guangzhou Airport on our way to Shanghai, I threw caution to the wind and pulled out my cell phone to get this shot. Airport protocols be damned, I just couldn't let this one slip by!

But, first things first: I must thank Blip (and all you Blippers - especially Deb) for a sudden renewed awareness and appreciation of my immediate surroundings, surreal as they often may be. Getting started with Blip has forced my eyes to refocus on at least a few more of the everyday little things that are so easy to miss or take for granted, or which are apt to slip by, simply because they've become commonplace. Suddenly, just as the world is starting to focus on Spring, my powers of observation are beginning to spring into focus (s0rry, just couldn't resist...!)

The renowned and beloved theatre critic, Brooks Atkinson, penned it perfectly: "The virtue of the camera," she said, "is not the power it has to transform the photographer into an artist, but the impulse it gives him to keep on looking."

That's it! I'm "looking" again at all those small (and big) everyday things that had, over time, become invisible. And this small airport notification is one of them!

Next, let me say how thankful I am that this sign doesn't say "Puppies and Small Children Abandoned Bin" - that would be really alarming. Fortunately, we're only dealing with small flammable objects that can be easily replaced on the other end, but there's something so wistfully pathetic about the translation of "abandoned," don't you think? I couldn't help but feel a tug at my gut as I peered over the ledge and into "the bin." Sure enough, lots of abandoned lighters and matches. Thankfully, no puppies.

This sign is but one of many, many examples of what you see in public places throughout China. Outside of the fact that the Chinese love nothing more than labeling things, the people they hire to do their English translations should be sacked immediately and forced to return to school. (In the meantime, I'm updating my resume...)

Because a picture is worth a thousand words, there's nothing I can say here that the sign doesn't. Except to point out the green-capped item that's also been abandoned in this bin. Apparently, someone didn't see the big blue trash can with the large yellow sign proclaiming "Water Bottles Abandoned Bin" over in the corner. (Or maybe they just left the bottle here as a safety measure, we may never know.)

Anybody got a match?