photo marathon

my first time and i didn’t really know what to expect.

woke up early just to rush to suntec city by 7:30 am. there was already a large crowd queueing to register for the marathon. feeling rather intimidated by all the other contestants since almost all were carrying digital slrs and even tripods!

it was a rather humbling experience since even the contestants in the youth category [under 18s] were brandishing slrs. :P

reminded myself that i’m just there for the fun and experience.

the many places that i went to for the 3 assignments include kallang river, raffles city, clarke quay, vivo city and sentosa.

it’s a totally different ball game when you’ve to shoot a picture within the 3 hour time frame that captures the theme vividly. and truth be told, my mind was quite blank when the first 2 themes were announced.

anyhow i just went out to shoot whatever i can.

theme 1: passion

this was shot at kallang river. a pity that didn’t have a more powerful optical zoom that can capture the facial expressions on the dragon-boaters, ’cos that would have been more “passionate”.

theme 2: challenge

another “scratch-my-head” assignment. i decided to go and shoot the people taking the reverse bungy ride at clarke quay. unfortunately, nobody was taking it under the hot sun at 2:00 pm. wasted precious time and had to abandon the idea.

went to vivo city next, hoping to catch some kids doing challenging stuff at the playground. but no such luck, and the pictures that i managed to get were kind of cluttered. so i settled for this challenging picture in which i had to wade knee-deep into the waters to take.

theme: 3 play time

was deciding between sentosa and botanic gardens for this assignment. decided on sentosa since i thought there will be more opportunities for “play” there and hopefully less contestants taking the same pictures.

took some pictures of some teenagers burying their friend in the sand, families by the beach and even a girl on the trapeze… but somehow didn’t feel that the pictures convey enough fun for play time. and so i settled on this.

i think i need a better camera if i want to compete seriously next year. :)

you can check out the winning photos here.

pulau dayang

it has been almost 1 year since our last dive trip, after much to-ing and fro-ing, we managed to settle on a date which all 4 of us can make it. and much to everyone's surprise, gordon's coming along too!

for this trip, i got my wet suit and marine case for my lumix. had great fun 'trying' to take pictures underwater. boy, it wasn't easy to keep still in the waters. guess my bouyancy control is not quite there yet.

ky helped us to refresh all our diving skills and drills.

as usual, heavy medication saved me from embrassment and feeding the fishes. there weren't many divers this time round. maybe because it's nearing the end of the season? or there was a long weekend just the week before?

to our amazement, gordon said he enjoyed the break on pulau dayang even without all the 5-star luxuries. the guys and doris also enjoyed themselves 'torturing' this small school of baby fishes by the beach. :)

glad we made time to go diving! yeah!

poetry

my friend, ky wrote this... seems that he was inspired by the beaches at pangkor island. umm... he didn't name it though, so i shall take the liberty to christen it "by the sea". :)

By The Sea
Watch the waves,
see how it rushes towards the beach,
lifting the little drifts of leaves, dead plants
leaving gems that you could collect.

See how the waves,
splashes about as it impact the sands,
seasoning the air with its delightful brine,
you taste the sweat of its toil.

Listen to the waves,
it beats around the crests,
rhythematically complains to you
the harshes of life and its boredom of its chores.

Feel the waves,
it comes comforting towards you,
caressing you with warm touches in the day,
at night it gives you the coolest respite.

hong kong café revisited

doris wanted to meet up with mx and kl because she has not seen terry ever [except for my photos that is]. a whole 4 months had flew by with mx already back to work. that’s how busy we can be…

terry is just so chubby!

and he’s the same weight as my cousin’s baby boy, sean at 7 kg although terry is 2 months younger. however, mx said that terry’s weight is only the 50th percentile and is not over-weight. i guess babies are becoming heftier nowadays. :P

more pictures here.

janet and family joined us for dinner too. cayden seems to like terry a lot and even agreed to bring terry home. how sweet…

he seems to enjoy getting to know other kids and wanting to play with them from what i heard from janet.

so janet and jason, when is cayden getting a baby brother or sister? ;)

new addition

there’s a new addition to my extended family and he turned exactly 1 month-old today.

matthew [业澄] is my cousin’s edaline and sebastian new-born baby. he is really adorable with thick, long hair and an angelic face.

many of my friends who saw his photos commented that he’s too pretty to be a boy. haha… :P

check out the photos that i’ve taken here.

make a difference

april's fool! is this for real or just a joke?!

had coffee with doris, thomas and eric last night at tcc and the topic came around to my long neglected blog.

both doris and eric expressed disappointment with my lack of updates. eric even jested that he visits here everyday in the hopes of seeing a new entry! :) let's see when he reads this! :P

i retorted that i will start writing again when i can get paid subscriptions to my blog! haha...

the truth is that i've been pretty much busier with work [and life] since last june. and i thought it would be better spending whatever little time that i have living it rather than writing about it, right?

then again, i'm touched by friends who had commented that they enjoy reading my blog entries, regardless of how mundane some of them can be. many thanks to them for the encouragement!

i love to write here because it affords me an outlet and free rein to whatever that's occupying my mind right now. a window to my soul, so to speak.

and also when you put pen to paper [well, in this case it's fingers to the keyboard], i find that i actually give much deeper thought to what i'm writing about. a chance to ruminate on what's happening in my life. and a permanent record of my existence in this world! haha...

so what prompted this entry? did what doris and eric say last night make a difference?

maybe it helped but it was this clip that i saw this morning that touched me somehow...

i hope i've made a difference to my family and friends.

lunch @ peach garden

this lunch is sort of replacement for the mothers’ day dinner that we usually have since i probably be back late from malaysia on sunday.

also i had wanted to try the dianxin at peach garden.

i invited aunt phyllis and uncle teck since they’re free that afternoon. just happened that my uncle tony is off duty that morning too. so we had a table of 7 including my parents and sister.

ordered their specialty dishes like the crispy roast pork, wasabi prawns and the black pepper fried udon. also tried the roast chicken with plum sauce and several of the items of the limited dianxin menu.

only my aunt who doesn’t take wasabi gave the thumbs-down to the prawns. otherwise the dishes were far better choices, evident from the fact that most of the customers there for lunch today didn’t order the dianxin.

the steamed dianxin were below standard. the xiajiao was overcooked, with the skin soggy and separated from the prawns. what could be worse? my mum ate one with sour filling. eeks!

the deep-fried and stir-fried items fared better. the fupijuan wasn’t oily at all and the combination of carrot cake with xo sauce actually worked well.

because of the sour xiajiao, we were served complimentary custard buns. the custard filling were melted and gooey. an interesting take on the western dessert of warm chocolate cake.

we also ordered other desserts. i had the mango with pomelo which i didn’t find it to be any special. my parents were okay with the soya beancurd in almond cream. my aunt phyllis had the black glutinous rice with ice-cream served in a whole coconut which she enjoyed very much.

i think the restaurant strength lies in their specialty dishes and the small dianxin menu was just an afterthought which wasn’t well executed at all.

spring court restaurant

one of few restaurants in singapore that boast such a long history that my aunties can reminisce about how much their signature dish “buddha jump over the wall” used to cost years ago.

in case you’re wondering, the dish is now priced at close to $900 for 10 persons. reservation of 2 days in advance is required.

spring court restaurant is now situated in a quaint 4-storey shophouse across the road from chinatown point, having moved back from the east coast area since 2 years ago.

we ordered the $298 set menu which comes with a free peking duck. the cold cut platter had a rather “dated” feel to it. like one which you’ll find when you attended a wedding dinner in the 90s complete with the shark’s fins in egg omelette and salad prawns. quite “retro” i would say.

they didn’t present the peking duck properly by slicing up the skin in front of us. also, the sprigs of spring onions and pieces of cucumber looked terribly dismal in their small white plates. more effort should have gone into the presentation to do greater justice to the dish.

the shark’s fin soup was nondescript. can’t really taste much fins, lots of crabmeat though. the roast chicken was flavoursome with crispy skin. the fish was deep-fried, thai-styled with a most appetising sauce and sliced onion rings.

the “live” prawns were fresh and cooked just right while the broccoli and mushrooms were served in a traditional gravy of crabmeat and egg white.

however, the noodles were a tad too dry for my aunties’ liking and the honeydew sago with coconut milk was below average. i could hardly taste the coconut milk at all.

somehow i’m not inclined to return for another meal there unless someone is buying me the “buddha jump over the wall”. :P hehe…