New Hope

It worked!

2010-04-19T10:33:00.002+08:00

It worked!

After sharing with Mastermind this little video clip (introduced to it by a daddy-to-be), we decided to try it out on his niece.

And.. you know what! It worked!!! OMG!

Greetings from Chicago, Illinois

2009-06-24T10:41:00.003+08:00

Greetings from Chicago, Illinois

On the way back home, we took a day break to stay at one of the hotel situated within the O'Hare Airport. Where, we were fortunate to get a nice view of the O'Hare Airport!!!

Here are some nice views of the airport that we took hee.. enjoy!

The mystical downtown of Chicago

Next up, Hong Kong!

Greetings from Michigan, Traverse City

2009-06-22T17:05:00.006+08:00

Greetings from Michigan, Traverse City

Went on an eye opening trip to the states this June holidays and got ourselves a whole lot of photos to share! ^^

Here's to you from Traverse City, Michigan. A nice little place to go to for a cozy family outing... superb weather too!! Though we had both a tornado and an influenza scare over there! Phew! Thank goodness we were both alright!! Last day of self-quarantine!!! Woohoo!!!!

That was taken on the plane from Tokyo to Chicago... Super tiring flight I would say...

The fun thing on a road trip? Get your hubby to drive.. hee.. so that you know are always in safe hands and that you can take photos while on the road!

Photos below are taken at this wonderful natural reserve at Michigan with no post processing.

It tells a story of how a mother bear was forced to swim across the lake with her two young cubs due to a forest fire. In the midst of their swim, the cubs got lost and she searched frantically for them for days. As days go by, her strength deteriorates till the point where she had no choice but to swim ashore to this little part of the Michigan state. There she laid till this day, watching over the sea, awaiting for the return of her cubs...

While it was fun taking images of scenic places.. I got my first try at taking birds in flight... hee.. while the images are definitely not top quality images... I'm still pretty happy that I got some "ok" angles hee..

and dog on the run!

Had to over expose the image to show the details on the coat :p

That's the beach where we saw the sea gulls

and look what we found on the beach... a caterpillar! and a hairy one too!

Well, that's all for Michigan! Next up, Chicago!!!

Suspect X

2009-02-28T08:19:00.001+08:00

Physicx. LoVe. MathematicX

Took a night break with Mastermind for a late night movie at JP - to watch a show that was only introduced on 2 days ago. While Mastermind had been hearing about the movie on radio, I read it on a magazine which gave it 4 popcorns. What's the thing about it that captures our attention?

A simple story between a physicist and a mathematician.

Never would we expect to be in for a ride.

To not reveal too much of the story and hence spoilt the show for anyone reading this. Let's just say....

Is it more interesting to create an unsolvable question, or to be solving an unsolvable question?

To people like us who hasn't been stepping into the theatre ever since the pricing of movie tickets starts to soar... this was definitely a must watch movie! Good enough to leave us chatting about it all the way from the theatre into the car... to home... and to conduct mini experiments test out the concept shown in the movie at midnight.

What's that concept?

Conservation of MomEntUm.

A Simple yet interesting way of presenting how momentum could be observed using a simple track, a few metal spheres and a magnet.

and Who says watching movie was bad for students (of course depending on the choice of movie) ... in this show, you learn things like effect of magnetic fields, the four color theorm, what are p and np problems etc....

Wanna know more about it? Go have a look at the movie, definitely worth the tickets. Hee..

2009-01-29T14:35:00.001+08:00

Kiwi Trip 5

Through the rocky mountain road, we came to the edge of the retreating glacier where our nature loving tour guide actually went down to the glacier and brought up pieces of ice floating near the edge of the valley.. Here's a piece of them showing how small pieces of rocks were frozen in the ice as the glacier moved across the mountains...

This is another type of ice showing how the ices actually formed layer by layer.. it all started off with one layer.. and slowly over each winter.. the remaining snow get compressed and frozen at the end of each winter and thus formed one layer of the ice... if you look at the ice carefully.. you'll be able to tell how thick was the snow fall for each year based on the separation between each individual layer of ice... interestingly... the tour guide mentioned that there is a slight reduction in thickness of the ices in recent years... ie.. lesser snow fall... sniff*

Mt Cook.. Birth place of the glacier...

A very sentimental picture captured by mastermind... triggers off tons of imaginations and feelings....

2009-01-25T10:12:00.001+08:00

Kiwi Trip 4

Here's something different from mastermind's blog... so shan... don't complain about me borrowing his posts any more yap hee..

The following are images showing how vegetations were grown on rocks... these rocks were brought to where they were by the glacier as it moves across the land... years after it melts and retreat, rocks held frozen by the ice were released.... few thousands of years later... mosses starts to grow on the rocks...

Dirt and moist gather on the mosses starts to form soil... and from soil... small vegetations starts to grow...

And a few more thousands of years later... we see native vegetations growing on the mosses and rocks...

Thousands of years ago, what you see below were covered by ice and rocks... all it takes is time and patience for things to happen... even if it may be a long and tedious process, it always pay to be patient.. that's what nature has thought us... on this trip to the tallest mountain in Kiwi...

Official Sharing

2009-01-18T15:05:00.000+08:00

Sharing...

Hm... officially sharing the same point of view as my loved uncle over the choice of toys for kids..

Trip to Kiwi -3

2008-12-22T07:56:00.000+08:00

Kiwi Trip - 3

Day 3, great day today. If we can measure the amount of fun we have on each day by the number of photos we have taken that day, then day 3 will be more than 30% better than any other days.

First on the agenda for the morning was a personal guide to the actual filming location for what else but the Lord of the Rings movies. We visited Gondor, or where they film it. Gondor is a place featured mainly in the "Return of the King". Can't remember? Go watch the movie again. I have the whole collector's edition DVD with me, just bring some popcorn and soda.

Me doing the Witch King thing.

From the movie in the portable DVD player, you can see Gandalf riding in Gondor with the background exactly as what we see behind.

Real replica swords from the hero (and heroine?)

Paranomic view of Gondor.

Some interesting bits from the guide, who is a local at Twizel.
1.) That the population around the town is not enough for the director to complete his epic battle scene at Gondor, such that the director actually got the New Zealand army to act as Orcs in the movie
2.) That the horses of the riders of Rohan came from different background (some are pets, others are retired race horses) that it took them 3 days to figure out the personality of the horses. You can't break apart lovers or put rivals together in the scene. Plus those race horse are such a show off as they trained to gallop faster than any other horses
3.) That the filming crew strength was a few times greater than the population of Twizel
4.) That Gondor is made up of 3 different locations, Twizel, Mt Cook and Wellington (where they have the 'bigature' castle)
5.) Plus many more...

And this was just a start to a great day of adventure.

Kiwi Trip - 2

2008-12-20T09:48:00.001+08:00

Kiwi Trip - 2

Day 2 was a rainy day. With temperature going as low as 0 degrees celsius! No joke, I took a picture of the outdoor thermometer in Twizel using Sucre's handphone so I got proof. Just too lazy to get it out and share it here. Anyway... the rain spoiled most of the day as the scenic flight was cancelled. Was so looking forward to it especially after getting a taste of it from the flight to Christchurch. Not many good photos taken in the rain. Our basic day out was like snap a few shots, wipe our lens and snap a few more shots. Reminds me of another photoshoot in the neighbouring country. It's no joke taking pictures in this cold weather, though its the first time I tried the A700 with my gloves on and it is really easy to operate (except for pinching the lens cap off) due to the generous spacing between buttons on the camera.

On our way to Lake Tekapo, we saw this... black sheeps on the left and white ones on the right. (actually the black ones are cows)

The landmark church at Lake Tekapo. Will never know how beautiful it can be since it was cloudy, rainy and cold when we were there.

Lake Ohau was not part of the itinerary but since we have time to spare as the flight was canceled, we just drop by since we drove around the area.

Our brunch at Lake Tekapo. I really suspect the breakfast I ate caused the problems for me that night. Either that or I have yet to fully recover at that point of time.

Day 2 was the first real road trip. First time driving more than 300km, but luckily got Sucre to share the 'work' with me. The trip from Christchurch to Lake Tekapo and Twizel was quite an eye opener to the beautiful side of New Zealand. Little did we know that the experience will be surpassed by subsequent road trips. So much so that we agree that the best part of our trip was the driving as we relied on the GPS system to bring us from point A to B without knowing what to expect on our way there. And mind you the GPS system brought us to the various scenic route that we didn't knew of from the online driving trip planner.

Neverlost. Indeed, on our first day, it brought us to the Motel via some route that I would never have imagined had I relied on the map. Without the GPS system, I would have made a few extra detours/U-turns to find my way because 1.) the entrance to the Motel can be hidden by the many cars parked at roadside, 2.) there is no right turn into the Motel. With it, we are really Neverlost.

Trip to Kiwi - 1

2008-12-19T08:03:00.003+08:00

Kiwi Trip

Greetings!! Just got back from the long awaited trip to kiwi. Here's a post obtained from mastermind's blog hee...

Guess I can consider this to be a backpacking-like trip except that I stay in min 3 stars accommodation instead of bunk bed style hostel. Nice to have all the time under your control, you get like what time should we wake up next morning kind of stuff to think about which is pretty good on a holiday. Rather than being forced to wake up at certain timing for breakfast cause you gotta go to place X by time Y as a tour group. The trip took 13 hours in total with transit at Sydney, which is enough for me to fly to Charles De Gaulle direct but thank goodness the time zone difference is just 5 hours instead.

The flight to Christchurch had a breath-taking view of the southern Alps and here's some photos taken of the beautiful landscape there. Any artifacts you see in the photos are most likely to be due to the dirty plane windows. Plus these 3 shots were heavily photoshop to put back contrast and saturation.

Looks like stuff you see from painting. Really glad that the weather was good at least on arrival so I have a few shots to show. Really pity to miss the sight-seeing plane the next day due to poor weather, otherwise I will have loads more aerial shots of the landscapes there. Good thing I didn't get the 11-18mm SAL lens otherwise it would be sort of wasted.

Christchurch is a pretty small city. Like many places in Europe, the malls are closed on Sundays except for a few touristy shops operated by Japanese. A walk down the streets left us disappointed but at least we manage to find some 24hrs convenience shops (read 7-11) for us to top up some food supplies before we hit off for the road trip. The tall building you see in this picture is probably one of the tallest you can find around Christchurch. Don't expect to find any skyscrapers, perhaps due to the low population density.

Our rental car was a white Toyota Corolla hatchback version with a 1.8L engine and we opt for the GPS system too so there's one less thing to take care off on road trips. With that, we're off for our little adventure in this heavenly place.

Trip to The Zoo with two kids

2008-11-30T21:30:00.004+08:00

Trip to The Zoo

Hee.. Took a day off from work to bring mastermind's niece and my niece to the zoo. la la la.. through it's really tiring to bring two kids out at the same time, it was still pretty fun nonetheless... ^^

Warming up to one another after sometime

A pose that reminds me of my husband.. when he's in the holiday mood =p

Merry-Go-Round just in front of the kid's world entrance. Though the kids had fun.. Mastermind and I felt that the trip was too short...

First time playing at this kinda water-based playground for his niece so she definitely needed more time to get used to it..

What about our xiaobudian??

She's definitely enjoying herself!!!

Hubbie on Webbie

2008-11-14T23:40:00.002+08:00

I'm a Proud Wife Today lalala~!

My hubbie's face is on his school's webbie.. kindly google his school name to show your support!! hee..

感人的故事

2008-10-15T15:26:00.003+08:00

你可否听过那么一则感人的故事？

他是个哑巴，虽然能听懂别人的话，却说不出自己的感受

她是他的邻居，一个和外婆相依为命的女孩。

她一直喊他哥哥。他真象个哥哥，带她上学，伴她玩耍，含笑听她唧唧喳喳讲话。他只用手势和她交谈，可能她能读懂他的每一个眼神。从哥哥注视她的目光里，她知道他有多么喜欢自己。

他们从小一起玩耍，一起长大。

后来，她终于考上了大学，非常开心。

他便开始拼命挣钱，然后源源不断地寄给她。她从来没有拒绝。
终于，她毕业了，参加了工作。然后，她坚定地对他说：'哥哥，我要嫁给你！'

他象只受惊的兔子逃掉了，再也不肯见她，无论她怎样哀求。
她这样说：'你以为我同情你吗？想报答你吗？不是，我12岁我就爱上你了。'可是，她得不到他的回答。

一天，她突然住进了医院。他吓坏了，跑去看他。医生说，她喉咙里长了一个瘤，虽然切除了，却破坏了声带，可能再也讲不了话了。病床上，她泪眼婆娑的注视着他。

于是，他们结婚了。很多年，没有人听他们讲过一句话。他们用手，用笔，用眼神交谈，分享喜悦和悲伤。他们成了相恋男女羡慕的对象。人们说，那一对多么幸福的哑夫妻啊。

爱情阻挡不了死神的降临，他撇下她一个人先走了。人们怕她经受不住失去爱侣的打击来安慰她。

她收回注视他遗像的呆痴目光，突然开口说：'他还是走了。'谎言已揭穿了……

人们惊讶之余，都感叹不已，这是一份多么执着的、深厚的、像童话一样的爱呀！从此，她不再讲话，不久也离开了人世。

相恋中的男女仍会拿他们当作谈论的话题，他们常说，你听过那对哑夫妻的故事吗？默默爱你，直到永远……

Wedding Day Morning

2008-10-06T21:42:00.003+08:00

The Morning A Month Ago

Another three more hours and it'd be the one month anniversary of our wedding.. hee.. lalala.. I know it's a bit late but we only managed to get the photos from the photographer two days ago haha. so here are some of the photos taken during the wedding morning ^^

That's Mastermind and my cousin.. hee.. who was there to open the door for him..

The sisters guarding me and the brothers helping mastermind to go through all the obstacles ^^

The grumpy ladies... feeling sour over the 600 cambodian money..

Our darling niece with her cute little hair extensions hee...

"I was Here"

A beautiful sky on a beautiful day

The place "in general" where we met...

Where did we went for our outdoor shoot on that day?? The place that Mastermind proposed to me.. on that special day.. at that special place..

A day never to be forgotten ^^

F1 from Singapore Flyer

2008-10-02T07:40:00.003+08:00

The Track from the Flyer

Great thank you to the flyer for the great offering for all teachers! Otherwise we won't have gotten the chance to take a trip up the flyer hee..

Pictures below are kindly "borrowed" from mastermind hee..

What a race and what a sight! Was watching the action pack race with mastermind at home hee.. that's our first race and it was pretty fun!! ("<)

Our Wedding Banquet

2008-09-26T11:52:00.006+08:00

~ Our Wedding Banquet ~

Finally managed to get the images uploaded for blogging.. many thanks to all those who came to share our joy of starting a new chapter in life together.

Special thanks to the following brothers (Ken, Jin Song, Lee Hwee, Wilber, Ethan, Peiwen, Jing Hong, Jeremy and the two other student photographers) and sisters (Serena, Pei Shan, Cindy, Jeslyn, Shu Hua, Lixian) for making our wedding such a fun filled event!

Here's to you!

That's us before the start of the banquet.. though there was a slight delay in starting the banquet.. we were glad that everything ended early at ~1030. Why? So that the guests would be able to go home earlier and rest for the next day... which happened to be a school day and half of the guests were teachers.. ie.. had to wake up very early for school~~

That's my father-in-law.. happily entertaining guests at the entrance

Introducing my maid-of-the-day... hee.. my dear sister ^^

That's us waiting for our first march in.. anxious... haha.. no joke walking into a room full of guest with all attention on you ^^

Shower of flowers kindly prepared by the sisters.. hee.. it's always fun to involve the guests ^^ plus I think both our nieces had fun throwing the petals wahaha..

After the march in comes the cutting of the wedding cake.. which... we had some difficulty cutting it haha...

Our hosts for the night.. Shu Hua and Jing Hong ^^

Problem with attending your own banquet?? you really don't get to eat much haha.. thanks to all the advance warning from my friends, relatives, sisters, brothers etc... we made sure we ate before the banquet... why? cause we had to change right after the 1st dish... ie.. missing the soup... *awh~~~

That's us coming down for the 2nd march-in... word of advise to those getting married... bring your bride's maid along for your final gown fitting.. you'll need her to know how to tie up the gown with the ribbons ^^

Wonder what are they laughing about?? That's for you to find out hee.. *hint.. it has something to do with mastermind lalala~~

All set for the second time ^^

Party poppers!!!!!

Word of caution: do not touch the glass with the bottle or else.... goosh!

The old, fun Yam-Seng hee...

That's 小不点 with her pretty pink boots and pink hello kitty bag and mastermind's niece (who is now my niece too) in her pink princess dress and pink princess shoes.. wonder how come both like pink.. haha..

Photo taking session!!!

The Colloid and Nanomaterial Research Lab Family!

The NUS Physics Friends!

The Saints!

The old secondary school gang and SA Mentors! can you image it... we'ver known each other for more than 10 years!!! wah!!!!

Mastermind's Kiddo ^^

Problem with having space constrain? We didn't get to invite all our other friends.. but.. like what my sister said... if they're your friends, they'll understand ^^ and you know what.. they did! dododo~~!

The last part of the banquet - sniff...

Hope all guests enjoyed the food and drinks!! hee...

(More to come once i sorted out the morning pictures la la la... oh and in case anyone is wondering.. those are real hair and we sprayed dyed on them hee... )

Lunch at Marche

2008-09-19T16:03:00.002+08:00

Lab Outing @ Marche, Vivocity

Hee... congras to lena for her submission of her PhD thesis ^^ had a super filling lunch..and as a result... am feeling kinda sleepy now... die~!

Looking forward to the next lunch outing in celebration of Binni's PhD thesis submission do do do ~~~

TGIF!!!!!!!!

Preview

2008-09-19T11:21:00.003+08:00

A Little Preview

I finally got the photos... but... yet to look through them properly.. hee... so what I have here is just a tiny preview out of all the photos hee..

The Man of the Day hee.. ^^

The bouquet of roses which, I forgot to toss to my sisters ha ha.. ^^

Trying out an idea

2008-09-14T19:46:00.002+08:00

Time Off

Finally found some time to post two little photos taken a while ago before the big day ^^ This was an idea shared by one of my friend who is super into photography.. so thanks alot to you-know-who for sharing that piece of information ^^

Photos below are taken using Mastermind's A100... didn't really have time to edit the images. so what you see is what you get ^^

Can you name the car that you saw in the images? Have fun!!!

p.s: Special thanks to all those who'd help out during the big day and to all other friends who came for the dinner.. THANK YOU!!!!

Butterfly

2008-06-07T21:02:00.002+08:00

Ready... Get Set... Snap!!!

Took a moment off while sample is being pumped down to take this photo of a butterfly... hee.. hm... like Mastermind said... there's still some room for improvement. hee.. Jia you!!!

Pointless

2008-05-11T09:11:00.000+08:00

...... Pointless Sunday ......

Yanwu's Farewell

2008-05-06T12:05:00.002+08:00

Time to Say Good Bye

One year ago, at the same place, we held a farewell dinner for a superb senior and mentor. One year later, we bid farewell to yet another amazing guidance of the lab...

Like what my Boss once said... people come people go, in this world of research, there's never real good byes, for we'll always meet again in conferences around the world....

So true but still... it's sad to see people leave our homely lab.

sniff... anyway... here are some photos taken during the dinner

That's everyone in the lab

That's us having a super long dinning table

Let me introduce our multi-cultural/national lab mates hee...

That's Yilin (Singapore) with Ajay (India)

Minrui (China) and Binni (India)

Siew Kit (Malaysia) and Allan (Singapore)

Uncle Chang (Malaysia) and Zhi Han (Singapore)

Rakhi (India) and Ms Foo (Singapore)

Zhuo Bin (Singapore) and Wei Keong (Singapore)

Andrielle showing her plate of yummy desserts

Here's her plate of salad (borrowed from wei keong) ... trying not to feel so guilty after eating all the goodies

Oh how can we forget our boss and his wife + daughter, Belle

and ... Yanwu, the man of the night together with his wife + son. Hanming

So alike~!!!

Same colour shades!!!

What better gift from the honors year batch of students than Australia Finest Red Wine? haha...

and what about Yanwu?

Italian Finest!!!

May Yanwu and his family have a safe trip to US!!! It's great having you in the lab!!

Have fun and see you around!!!

Happy Birthday

2008-04-22T21:24:00.003+08:00

Happy Birthday!!

Recap

2008-03-30T22:22:00.002+08:00

Recap

Just saw my friend princess's blog online about people whom we get to meet in live... very interesting post that is totally mind-simulating..

Here's the question.. if you're being posted a question of whom you've met in your life, what's the name that first pop up in your head?

Mine? I have lots of them (nah.. won't be naming a single one of them in my blog, it's private wahaha) haha.. some met a long time ago in Primary school, some interesting people (both the nice ones and the 'evil' ones) in Secondary Sch, some in JC and Uni and of course outside school life ^^

The issue here is not how long a list you can come up with, rather, I guess it's more worth while to think about the parts they played in your life.. while some are there to offer a helping hand, there are also minority few that will create certain situation for you from which you'd mature from..

So no matter what kinda people whom you've met in life, be it good or bad, just think of it as a way for you to learn and to be exposed to people of different personalities. ^^

Xiao Bu Dian's 4th Birthday

2008-03-23T21:15:00.002+08:00

Xiao Bu Dian's 4th Birthday

Hee.. just took some time off from all the photo choosing and house renovation to attend my niece's birthday with Mastermind hee.. here are some photos taken by Mastermind during the special event hee..

That's her playing with a piece of leaf before the party begins...

Look at the amount of food her parents prepared for her party... hee.. hm.. we have salad, handroll, all her favorite types of sushi, the little beans (which I have no idea what's the name for it), kou rou bao etc... yummy!

That's her showing us her "tinny winny yellow pokka dot bikinni" song dance moves which she learnt during her sports day at nursery

Wonder what is she looking at? haha... scroll down and see hee..

That's her 1.5kg ocean theme birthday cake haha..

haha... I so loved this photo so must share haha... simply love the natural laughter coming from her ^^

Her loving dad and mum

and her grandparents hee...

Our little birthday girl blowing out all her candles and cutting her own birthday cake for the first time!!!!

since it's a birthday party, how can we forget... present time!!!

May my precious niece stay healthy and cheerful forever!!

I thought

2008-01-20T10:11:00.000+08:00

Wondering

I thought everything would be superb this year...

I thought everything would go on smoothly this year..

What I definitely didn't expect was the sudden down in luck at the start of this year..

was it luck or human doing?

was it fated?

I don't know...

If you're wondering what I'm going on about? Don't try to understand... cause even I have yet to figured it out...

Perhaps it's just a sudden change in mood that makes things looks so dull..

Perhaps it's just wishful thinking on my part...

Perhaps it's simply an over-reaction from my part...

Perhaps Perhaps..

I need a shooting star! To make a wish.. a wish...that everything would be as fine as last year...

An all Gal Outing

2007-12-29T09:06:00.000+08:00

Outing!!!

Phew! Took a break from work and got to meet up with some of my ex-classmates at The Central hee.. been quite a while since we last got to meet up and it turned out pretty well with some lastest gossip of who's attached to whom etc etc.. haha..

Thanks for organising the outing gals! here are some photos taken during the meet up session ^^

Food!!! hee.. lucky us, we were served a new set of menu that the chef just created ^^ not bad!

Nice presentation

Care to guess who ordered this dish?

That's mine haha..

Our birthday gals!!!Happy birthday!!! Welcome to the club haha...

When you need a break from studying

2007-12-20T21:23:00.000+08:00

Have a Break, Take a Walk in the Park...

Here are some of the photos taken during our day trip to the Singapore Botanical Gardens hee.. been wanting to upload these photos for quite sometime le... just didn't have the time to do so until today.. enjoy hee.. considering that I'm new to Mastermind's 1st mistress, the photos ain't really that fantastic haha.. so do bare with me yap... hee..

1st stop hee... nice little purple flower but background is too complex sigh..

ah... this look a bit more decent but definitely have lots of room to work on hee.. oh do you notice the hovering bug?! wahaha... what a catch hee..

Opps... distracted by the many couples taking wedding photos there hee..

Here's another couple.. I think they're the best couple of the day wahaha.. what do you think?

Ah~~~ my 2nd favourite photo of the day hee..

Pretty~!

If you're wondering if I know these couples, my answer to that is nope... hee.. I simply sneak up and take some snap shots of them smiling brilliantly into their photographer's camera.. which i guess explains why none of them seems to be looking out of the photos at you wahaha...

Love is in the air~~ dododo~~dododo~~ Love is in the air.. ^^

hee.. Mastermind!

Here's my favourite photo of the day hee.. a bit blur but no choice lah who ask him to move so fast... *grumble grumble

Coming up next... NUS gals gathering at The Central ^^

Oh Ladies

2007-12-16T15:56:00.000+08:00

Oh Ladies~!

There are two kinds of people who visit car exhibitions, namely

[1] Those super duper car lovers who simply adore cars like nobody's business or..
[2] Those who simply wanna take photos of the ladies that comes with the cars.. haha..

with the previous post talking about cars... it's thus natural to have a following post showing all the pretty show girls at the car exhibition..

here goes...

Here's one...

Here's another who simply love to pose for cameras...

And another

The one that Mastermind likes...

...can't think of any interesting captions to write haha...

Here another...

Here the one that zh like..

This is the one that I think looks nice..

Here's one that I think looks like my sec sch chem teacher..

Smile~!

oh and we spotted a cute kid taking picture with his favorite car..

cute?

haha.. coming up next is trip to botanical gardens with Mastermind...

Lightning MacQueen!

2007-12-09T12:05:00.000+08:00

Lightning MacQueen!

Took a mini trip down to the Expo some time ago and managed to psyco Mastermind to pay an entrance fee of S$20 to have a look at the car exhibition beside the book fair where Mastermind's kids were working part time.. hee... wanna know what we saw?

Just keep scrolling... scrolling... scrolling... ^^

Nice nice!!! Saw this car immediately at the entrance of the showroom ^^

Lotus Series... hee...

Hm.. as this is the first time I'm going to for a car exhibition, so I'm not very sure what to expect over there hee.. but here's what we saw.. (images kindly provided by dear Mastermind... who's grumpy about not bringing the right lens there... sigh... impromto one mah... )

Here are some nice car deco that we saw

hm.. Reminds me of a scene from the Phantom of the Opera..

Hey Piggy Piggy don't believe me?

Shiver.....~~~

My Favourite... hee.. so man~!

and how can we forget this?!!!!!

An overall view of the exhibition ^^

Coming up soon.... Oh Ladies~! Pretty ladies taken by Mastermind at the exhibition ("<)

"Borrowing" a post from Mastermind

2007-10-25T09:47:00.000+08:00

Welcome to Our Home-to-BE ^^
(Post borrowed from Mastermind with a tiny bit of editing ("<) )

Recently we took part in a balloting exercise for the first time and we were pretty lucky to be number 111 to select our flat. I didn't believe that I could get our dream top floor unit but we manage to get it (a day after our selection it was all gone).

Image of our home to be

Our new home will be next to MRT (ready by 2009), next to a sports stadium with other facilities such as indoor swimming pool and gym. It is 10 minutes walk from a shopping mall and a wet market, 3 minutes drive away from AYE and PIE, sold as a premium contract (more about it later) and it is cheap! Sure, it has its fair share of problems too but I realize that you can't find a house that fits all your criteria so I'm happy to find one that fits most. Most importantly, I get to be the first batch of home owners to enjoy the new CPF housing grant rule so I get even a better deal out of it.

The main bedroom is quite small and the attach bathroom needs some work to make it better.

The rooms may seem dark due to two reasons. A camera is not as good as human eyes in looking at high dynamic range scenes like these leading to an apparent dark room and the sample unit is located at 6th floor while mine is in the 18th floor. Plus, I get full height windows for my bedrooms too

The living/dining room is big and even though it does not come with a balcony like other 5 room flats, it does include full height windows for the living room. Plus I get a nice garden view and a sky view too.

The kitchen is tiny compared to the older flats like the one that I'm staying now but I guess Singaporeans will just have to resign to fate and accept these tiny kitchens since almost all HDB flats comes with micro kitchens. Maybe they are into nanoscales too.

That's it haha... Looking forward to the day we collect our keys and start the renovations wahaha ~~

So exciting~~

Bubbly Update

2007-10-02T16:19:00.000+08:00

Bubbly Update

Been really busy to do any real updating these few weeks.. haha.. what with that special event of my life to prepare plus all the term tests and projects to rush...hee... looking forward to our mini moon~~

Anyway here are some updates plus the long awaited photos for the viewing pleasure of everyone visiting my blog haha... in a super happy moon now as I am typing this post dodod~~~

Before I begin with all the photos haha.. here's something that I must say.. Thanks for everyone who came to help out with the preparation and the day itself program... the whole event won't be as nice as it turns out to be had it not been for the help of everyone!

Special Thanks to the following sisters and brothers (no special order of merits ^^ everyone is just as important)

SH, HK, SW, PS, Princess, Jes, CH, JH, TCT, both our families and everyone who turned up for the event! Thank you and hope you all had fun on that day despite that hot hot weather.. ><

Gift from Mastermind and his sister

My sis and niece

My sweet little niece who got too shy to back out of our plan haha... ^^

Sigh.... she look so sweet with the flowers lalala~~~

Beautiful picture from my dear friend/photographer hk

Thanks to sh and sw for helping to mix the drinks... hee.. plus rushing out to purchase some more when we ran out of it... so paisay~~~~

Cheeky sw... diao~~~

No cloud no nothing... a perfect sunset for a more than perfect day^^

hee.. two of my favourite photos wahaha...

That's all hee... Blissful... ~~~

Cousin's Wedding

2007-08-18T14:20:00.000+08:00

Congratulations to my Cousin... hee.. happy wedding!!!

Finally got a copy of the wedding photos taken during my cousin's wedding ... nice?

("<)

The Day We Graduate

2007-08-10T21:06:00.000+08:00

5th July 2007 - The Day We Graduate

This is a delayed-for-one-month-plus post about our graduation from NUS hee..

The MUST have photo upon graduation!

First the tossing then the frantic search for our hat begins ....

Next comes photos taken with friends...

What happen when we can't get enough photos for keepsake... we meet up on another evening in school and take some more photos...

Here's to us: Happy Graduation and Happy Birthday to All!

Final Post on China Trip..

2007-08-09T08:56:00.000+08:00

Final Post on China Trip..

Yap... been delaying on this post for a long long time..no choice lah busy with school work mah.. what to do~~ hee.. now that I'm down with flu/cough and puffy eyes... I'll finally have some time off to do some blogging on my pretty dead blog haha..

Here's the last installation for my china trip with my sister two months ago haha... knowing that I'll most prob be talking incoherently... I shall let the photos do the talking ("<) Visit to Gu Gong...

Old version with lots of feel~~

Newer version in preparation for Beijing 2008

The so woah place that my sister like

Years of Hardship...

Hot weather? Ice creams.... Green Tea flavour some more..

Jiao shuan!!!!

Before and After renovation... though it looks much nicer now then before... I still feel that some things are better left unchanged... more feeling lah...

yummy street food which my sis didn't get to try... lalalal...

Oh did I ever mention that the bird nest stadium for Olympics 2008 in Beijing was just beside the place where we stayed?

Still under construction

That's the end of our trip to Beijing hee...("<)

Oh before I forget... Here's a nice pic that I like but could have been nicer haha... what to do.. having a photographer bf definitely makes me more picky about photo quality wahaha...

2nd Day in Beijing

2007-07-10T10:01:00.000+08:00

Day Two in Beijing

Been pretty busy these few days, so much so that I didn't get the chance to carry on blogging about some of the photos taken in China one month ago wahaha... kinda slow... hee.. no choice lah very busy hee..

Here are some photos taken on the second evening in Beijing.. hee..

This is where we had our second dinner out alone on the street of Beijing Si Huan.

That's my sis clowning around while waiting for our dinner for the day

There's something strange about the waitresses in that dinning outlet.. see if you can notice it. (All waitresses in the photos are not the same)

According to my friend from China, you have to have the same style of dressing or else you won't be able to work in the shop... boy oh boy...

And what's after dinner? Shopping!!!! hee...

Some cute buses which my sis wants me to take hee..

They also have bus lanes in China ("<)

Windy but hazy evening out hee....

I'm Glad to be Home

2007-06-08T16:17:00.000+08:00

Glad to be Home

I'm back! Back from a 5 day 4 night trip to Beijing China. hee.. too tired to start all the lengthy descriptions about all the stuff that happened there hee.. so... here are some photos to share... what can I say, a picture speaks a thousand words ("<) Enjoy!

Before departuring from Singapore... sniff..

What's the fun thing about having a bf who so happens to be a teacher bringing students back from an oversea trip to Cambodia? Being above the clouds at the same time ("<) except.. that we're on different planes hee... him on little budget airline while I'm on Singapore's very own SIA! wahaha...

Looking through the tiny window of the plane..

That's yanwu hee.. our friend cum local guide there hee... looking through the menu of 鹿港小镇.

My crazy sis hee... ("<)

What's up for dinner on the first day in China? (S$1.00 : RMB$5.00)

[1] 三杯鸡 (Three-Cup Chicken) - RMB$ 45.00
[2] 鱼香茄子堡 (???) - RMB$ 36.00

[3] 台式炸豆腐 (Taiwanese Fried Bean Curd) - RMB$ 26.00

[4] 台式炒面 (Taiwanese Stir-Fried Noodles with Pork) - RMB$ 25.00
[5] 萝卜排骨汤 (Turnip and Spare-Rib Soup) - RMB$ 23.00

P.S - Photos of the last two items are too blur to be put up for viewing

To be honest, the food was pretty nice except that it's a bit oily ("<) so much so that my sis kindly noted the small puddle of oil on her plate resulted from the nice 三杯鸡 dododod~~

The Day We Graduated

2007-05-23T08:37:00.001+08:00

Final Presentation!

Here's a pretty outdated post hee.. photos were stolen from my dear friend sh hee... Thanx alot girl!

Here's the Class of Honours Year 06/07. Like sh said... it was really the first time that everyone was so well dressed.. hee.. normal days? We're mostly in T-shirts/Jeans/Shorts/Slippers etc

Here are the Profs... ("<)

This was how we felt after the presentations

Sick... so can't blog much... *Thanks to the weather ... grumble grumble...

Phantom Craze

2007-05-21T19:33:00.000+08:00

Phantom Craze

Yes Yes... I went to watch the Phantom of the opera again! WooHooo.. haha..

Nice nice mah.. so much watch again loh.. hee.. but this time we're having circle 3 seat so still considered affordable lah.. hee..

Here's my sis with the HUGE phantom poster in front of the theater.

Here's her again with another post.

Here's her "molesting" the phantom

Here's the full poster with us in it... so nice... har...

Given that she's in her new heels... it definitely took us some time to find our place high up in the theater

and when I say High... I really mean HIGH!!!! Arh... I am so not going back to that seat again haha.. not that the seats are that bad... it's more of the height and also the fact that the upper portion of the stage is being block and we can't really see that whole show properly.. If you ask me.. I'd definitely say the seatings that I got with Mastermind is the best.. hee... where? Stall Seat!

Just to prove that we were in there ("<) Ops.. a bit blur leh... think mastermind's gonna have something to say about it when he saw it *hide hide

Here's a pretty couple that we saw after the show... so nice the way they really dress up for such events.. unlike some Singaporeans who not only didn't dress well... they way they talk and yawn during the show was really bad.... to add some toppings... the phone was vibrating away... sigh.. think it's gonna be hard work for our dear government to add in the Art factor into our life.. jia you!

To sum up the show.. I just can't get enough of it... hee.. we even bought the Brad Little CD... sigh but I wasn't able to lay my hands on the phantom jacket.. if on'y i had bought it last time... *sniff...

Dinner Outing

2007-05-21T19:19:00.000+08:00

Bon Voyage Cheong

Our Boss took everyone out for dinner as a mini farewell meal for Cheong who's leaving for another journey in his life far far away in New York.

We made a tiny movie for him... showing everyone in the lab saying well wishes to him... many making use of the chance to remind him that it's time he find someone to settle down with.. ("<)

Here are some photos to remind us of him when he's on the plane to New York on 29 May 2007

Here's cheong having some fun having a proposal rehearsal before meal starts

That's the zhu family (TM)

Like father like son

He the one who take part in triathlon and with a huge appetite, thus making full use of the S$25 buffet

How can I forget my boss who goes "Nano Nano" to Yw's son who can't even walk on his own yet.. haha..

Here's the Colloid Family!

Bon Voyage Cheong! We'll Miss You!

A Little Foot Note on Yesterday's Event

2007-05-19T09:56:00.000+08:00

A Little Foot Note on Yesterday's Event

Companied my ex-classmate to support our ex-school team in the semi-final soccer match against MJC at CCAB. Very Interesting.

Hey hey, I may be a female but I do watch soccer matches. You know EPL, School team etc.. not that I'm a super crazy fan but it's kinda fun to watch them play ... despite having friends making comments like, "What's so interesting to watch what.. 22 or 24 guys chasing after a ball?!" Well each to their own preference, some may prefer basketball, gym, track and field over soccer, but no matter what they have to say, it still is one of my favourite sport.

While all the cheerings were memoriable... there were a little something that happened yesterday that made the event somewhat special. Remember when we were among the spectators screaming at the top of our voice... we thought then that competition was not only limited to those playing on the field but among respective supporters from the teams too... now... it seems that the competitiveness has extended to our dear teachers of the school who made some soft and tiny comments regarding the cheers used by our dear MJians.

Appearently, it seems that due to their shallow history, their cheers seems to coincide with some of our cheers... even when they put in a little bit of effort in trying to change some lyrics here and there... the cheers simply isn't original. Come on... think out of the box... be creative.. answer to the call of our dear government.... Nah we're not sore losers... we're just supporting the copy right law... dododo~~~

Oh and I forgot to mention... one of the kido whom I thought during my vacation period as a relief teacher was the striker of my ex-school team!! Isn't that cool... and oh.. aint I old....

Anyway just for those who may be interested in the score line.. we drew at full time and at extra time.. but we lost to pentalty.. 4-5. Same way that VJ was being defeated by RJ. Oh well... there's always another year, another chance.

Trip to Sentosa

2007-05-18T15:18:00.000+08:00

Wooohooo... Sentosa!

Took a break from work and went to sentosa for a day out in the sun (with lots and lots of sun block... what to do.. need to stay un-tan though I'd very much prefer a nice tan from the trip!

Here are some photos to share hee..

Out in the sun at 1300... tsk tsk... bad for skin le...

The guys trying to throw ah mao into the sea... between the red and yellow flag of course..

That's Ch trying to strip Wk so that we can get a nice image of Keong's figure...

*shy shy... Zip back zip back ...

Hey... in case you get the wrong idea that we're a bunch of crazy people... here's a photo to prove that we can be cool too!

That's Wk with his little wife... a 3k bike.. *phew!

Finally!

2007-05-18T09:46:00.000+08:00

Yeah! Finally get to blog from home... hee..

Just received news from dear Mastermind that his precious kidos had somehow managed to google this other half of our shared blog upon receiving information of my presence ("<) *finger pointing... dodododoooooo~~~

Just in case some of them really dropby... here's a little wave to them: Hi~! Hope you all enjoyed Mastermind's lesson in school! ("<)

Finally!

2007-05-14T16:06:00.000+08:00

Trip to St. James Power Station

Finally got to post some of the photos online... don't understand blogger.... always have some problems here and there.. arh!

Anyway, here are some lastest updates and photos hee...

Had a little class outing with my JC mates and got a chance to visit the 'famous' St. James Power Station jsut beside Vivo.. yes... I went in there feeling totally out of place. Why? Cause I was in polo tee + Shorts + flip-flops... what you do expect... sigh... wasn't expecting to find myself in that place though hee...

Here a photo of the enterance tickets at Bellini...

It certainly was an eye opener for me!

Just When I Though I Can Relax...

2007-05-07T11:55:00.000+08:00

My brain Is Cracking...

Sometimes I can't help but wonder how come people like my sister can seat down with a magazine and read from one end to the other? Don't they feel overwhelm with all the flashy photos and words going all over the place?

Took sometime off from my research work to look into some pretty interesting magazines at home and the next thing I know... things that I never thought could be done started jumping at me! haha.. while some ideas seems way out and may not be suitable for me to try them out, there were a few interesting ideas that seem pretty workable.. haha.. but perhaps my conscious mind might not think so... *grin

Here's a special note for Princess... you ok girl?

Sigh

2007-05-03T09:18:00.000+08:00

A Little Random Grumbling

Feeling a bit down in the morning after watching a little disappointing match in the morning..

Sigh! To think I woke up at 0245 to catch the Man U vs AC Milan and what a disappointment.. hai... nv mind loh... better luck next time ba...

The Day I am Really Free

2007-05-03T09:06:00.000+08:00

It's over!

And it certainly feels great to say it out loud that I've Graduated! Reached the final point of my education life that had received great amount of emphasis from teachers of mine at different stages of the past 12 years.

Hm.. but can't help feeling a tinny-winny bit of sadness as it's the point where we, my friends, takes on a different path in life.... while some may enter into the research field, others and most of them seek for better fortune in life where they would be able to play a part in moulding the future generations.

Good Luck and May the Future remains Bright and Joyous for Everyone!

It doesn't pay to play by the rules

2007-04-16T15:09:00.000+08:00

Lesson Learnt

One lesson learnt today - It doesn't pay to play by the rules, well... at least for what I've just experienced.

Random Thoughts

2007-04-15T07:44:00.000+08:00

Random Thoughts

After some unfortunate event happened yesterday, I decided that since I have some free time on my hand for a while, why not make a call to a friend whom I've not contacted for a long long time... hee.. and after pouring everything out to her, not only does it make me felt better, but.. it suddenly came across me that it has been a really long time since I've done that. haha..

(can't call all my friends cause most of them are either busy with work or rushing to complete their sch work... no choice lah will have to update them on what happened when we meet up during the holidays hee... )

Remember the old secondary school days when after school, either I'll call or my friends would call to "gossip" hee... and that was the time my home phone bill hit the roof.. *grin.. hm... but I do miss those times. Not for the gossip part but more of the chatting part. Now that we have blogs and msn, calling does not seem so necessary any more..

I wonder when we stopped doing that, is it when we left our secondary school or is it when we entered into uni and was overwhelmed by all the projects/reports/thesis blah blah blah? I don't know... While I was going through these random thoughts.. what my friend said suddenly seems quite true to me:-

You don't need to keep chatting to remain as close friends for those that are truely your friends, a meet up every now and then would be sufficient... friends need maintaince but not good friends cause they know and you know that you'd all be there for one another in times of need and to share your joys.

What do you think? I certainly know that due to busy schedules, me and my good old friends would certainly meet up during the holidays before/ after each semester to gossip and to share their lastest news... that's how we keep in touch hee....

Hm... talking about that.. now that sem is coming to an end, I'm looking forward to all the meet ups again wahaha...

Almost there

2007-04-14T08:47:00.000+08:00

Almost there!

That's it! I'm almost near the end of my education journey in NUS. Sigh..What an odd feeling to have. When one just enters into NUS, one can't help wanting to graduate fast and have a taste of the world, but now that I'm almost there.... I'm not so sure any more... not after seeing all the things that mastermind has been going through these few months... honestly, I've never seen him to stressed up/hardworking before... studying to him was never hard but look at him now, he even had to have a cup of coffee (which he never had one while studying) before going to watch The Phantom of The Opera with me yesteTrday.. poor thing..

Alright! Since I can't delay time, i might as well face the fact and talk about something more interesting than just my random grumbling about how the education system here is stretching the poor teachers to the limit...

Yesterday was definitely a day worth remembering, not because it was Friday the 13 but because that's the day all honors year physics majors completed that Honours Year Project! After a year long of hardship and endless grumbling, it certainly was a relieve when Thomas ended off the final presentation with a little sentence of, ' That's it!' woooohooooooo~

And to celebrate that day, Mastermind and I pop down for a long awaited performance of the Phantom of the Opera at the Esplanade! Been wanting to see the performance since my cousin first introduced to me my first phantom CD containing recordings of the original London cast starring Michael Crawford as the Phantom and Sarah Brightman as Christine Daae. hee.. more about the phantom show later....hee..

If you wanna know what Mastermind thinks of the show, go read his blog wahaha...

Shoal II

2007-04-09T08:13:00.000+08:00

Part 2 Continues...

Alright.. here's a continuation of the previous post regarding the off shore island...

That's Mastermind's niece joining us on the island... we also have xiao bu dian busy preparing for her first birthday party at the island hee..

That's the birthday card choose by xiao bu dian with the happy birthday candles... one candle for each letter... and she's THREE hee..

Nice Family Photo.... Ok.. if you're wondering why she ain't smiling in this photo or the next.. that's because she can't understand why we adults are asking her to take photos when she just wanna blow out the candles and cut the cake... bother... *can't adults understand kids?

That's the two kids sharing a birthday photo together...

I'll huff and puff and blow your house down.... *classic line from the big bad wolf of three little pigs hee...

haha.. can't help putting my sis's pick on line wahaha... that's her trying to prevent mastermind from taking a photo of her with creams on her mouth haha...

and....

before we left the island, xiao bu dian enjoys the sea view while... hm.. you see... hm...

With that.... I'll end off this part of my blog talking about the tript to the island... for more photos please visit mastermind's blog which you know where...

Tataz!!

Finally

2007-04-07T10:02:00.000+08:00

Phew!

Finally got the chance to take a break from all the reports submissions, viva, thesis... blah blah blah to blog about some of the lastest photos stolen from Mastermind's computer haha...

Took a deserving break in the midst of my thesis preparation for a fishing trip to an off shore island where not only did I get to write my thesis while watching sun rise from the sea (unique and unforgettable experience) ... I got to have my niece's company for that three short days wahaha...

Here are some pieces taken by Mastermind to share...

That's my niece who looks like a cute little japanese girl.. hee... my sis can't help but wonder... why is it that a Singaporean + Malaysian = Japanese

She loved it when she got a swing out of her aunts hee..

Sand Castle Time!

This is little lizzy my niece's new friend from the chalet whom she asked Mastermind to picked up for her to play with...

That's her in the morning... happily having her breakfast and .. *sneeze!

hee... Just love this pic hee...

That's all for today hee... Second episod coming right up hee..

Fixtures

2007-04-07T09:48:00.000+08:00

Soccer Fixtures

Here are the soccer fixtures for saints this session... Cindy, just in case you didn't see the fixture in your mail box again hee...

Shan, wanna go? Hope your FYP's over and done with hee...

Mon, 9th April vs IJC @ IJC 4.45pm
Thu, 12th April vs CJC @ IJC 3pm
Mon, 16th April vs AJC @ IJC 3pm
Thu, 19th April vs TJC @ VJC 3pm
Mon, 23rd April vs MI @ IJC 3pm
Thu, 26th April vs HCI @ VJC 4.45pm
Mon, 30th April vs VJC @ VJC 4.45pm

A Day Trip to Sentosa 200207

2007-02-24T08:35:00.000+08:00

A Day Trip to Sentosa 20/02/07

Phew! Been pretty busy recently, so much so that my blog seem to be pretty dead wahaha... now that it's the long awaited term break, I shall share some of the photos taken during a recent trip to sentosa with my lab people. cool! lab outing wahaha

No money for guessing who they are.. lalala

After a nice tan under the hot afternoon sun, it's time for some beach soccer wooohooo

This is zy, ch's girlfriend...

And we have zhu lao da with his wife and son

Cheong facing strong attacks from zy and mao

opps and we have some minor accident while playing... sh facing an attack from ch...

Resulting in...

four imprints of sh's teeth on ch's shoulder which till now is being used to threaten sh haha...

and...

broken lips on sh...

poor things....

oh and side dish hee... can't help putting this up to share.. haha.. photo taken during the flower festival at sentosa.. very pack....

with that... happy lunar new year to all!!!!

Steamboat Gathering !

2007-01-18T10:31:00.000+08:00

Steamboat Gathering !

Wahaha.. I sure am happy to be a member of my lab. haha.. what with all the lab movie outing and even steamboat gathering with all the affliates wahaha... what more can I ask for?

Here are some nice photos taken during the gathering session hee.. enjoy lalalala...

This is our lastest member - "lao da" (aka yanwu)'s son.. hee.. know as han ming hee.. being carried by andrielle hee.. so cute hor

Next up, han ming with his mummy...

Han Ming with daddy

Cheong + Lena + Han Ming

Han Ming + Lena

hm..wonder why am I having a feeling that han ming will be pretty attractive to girls in the future.. hm... I wonder haha..

Now for some individual shots

hee... I found a picture of Einstein with his tongue sticking out this way too hee...

Belle, My boss's eldest daughter

Close up shot

Wei Keong.. aka xiao qiang hee...

tsk tsk! don't ask me what are they doing haha.. you don't wanna know... (and you wonder how old are they...)

*diao!

Here are the affliates of the lab

Siew Kit + Girlfriend...

Choon Hoong + Zhenyue

Mong Chea + Siew Ling

Sheh Lit + Cheong + Andrielle

Boss + children (according to my boss.. his wife was taking food for the steam boat haha)

Boss with his youngest son... hee.. a talented chemist haha.. who knows what is O2, N2, H2O etc at the age of 3... stress.. haha..

And welcome to the Colloid Family!

Bintan Trip

2007-01-06T10:42:00.000+08:00

Holiday

Just went to nearby island for holiday with my family and mastmind... need a break before school term starts wahaha.. ("<)

Here are some of the interesting things to share dodod~~~

The first thing that we did after landing is to SHOP~

After looking around, we can't help asking a simple question - does anyone stays in those sweet shop houses? and the answer is... yes!

Some surprise findings we have there...

Poor little squirrel got caught in a trap while looking for nuts..

The thing about going to somewhere out of our home land is the chance to get really up close with nature.. don't believe... have a looking at what mastermind found just outside the place where we stayed..

Flower~

Monitor Lizard?!

Wild squirrel(s)

one of my favourite photo from the trip... nice nice

and what do you get when you have six people feeling bored while waiting for food..

*diet coke/soya bean/lime juice/honey dew juice/helo juice/sarsi

hope you like it ("<)

Raindow

2007-01-04T09:31:00.000+08:00

Raindow

Been a long long time since i last get to see raindow in the area that I live in... and that holds true till 1-1-07 when mastermind's dad spot the tail of a rainbow while we were having dinner... and off we went - mastermind with alpha and I carrying H1 along for an exciting photo taking trip..

First stop - the level where the lift stops.. some quick snap and then taking the lift downt o level one where not only did we took some nice raindow photos but also some photos of us with the raindow wahaha..without a tripod dododo~

Here are some photos to share.. enjoy ("<)

Raindow stretching across many blocks of HDB flats.. biggest raindow I've ever seen

Sad little lone bird..

Birds in Flight!

Little Garden_Festival

2007-01-01T12:16:00.000+08:00

Took a day off from work to visit the Garden Festival at Suntec sometime ago hee.. here are some pics to share wahaha..

Being a student has its advantages as we entered the exhibition on student price of S$3.00. Half the price of a working adult ticket. Don't believe me? Check out the pic below hee..

Somehow this picture reminds me of a story book that I read a long long time ago..

Ah... my dream house.. *dododod.. and according to my dad, this exhibition won the poeple's choice award, which, is of no surprise base ont eh number of people fighting to take photo of the exhibition on that day.. Thank goodness we went there pretty early in order to get a nice picture

hee.. i just love the sunflower near the door.. so homely..

oh and isn't this pic of the award winning exhibition from England nice?? so lovey dovey...

Mastermind's view of autum in the forest.. nice pic to make as my desktop pic lalala..

Hee.. comig up next year is the year of piggy!!!

then some years later.. sheep

and then we have elephant?!

Nice little christmas tree to deco the office ("<)

hee.. isn't this in one of the commercial for the festival?

hee.. and lastly... one of my favourite pic of the series..

simply love the shades of color in the pic haha..

New Year, New Look, New Hope

2007-01-01T11:36:00.000+08:00

Been quite a while since i last posted some news on my bloggie haha.. was pretty busy working on my HYP so do forgive me..

A new year marks a new look on my blog and also a new hope for the future ("<)

Hope everything will be fine for everyone this year and may everybody stay happy and healthy!

My First Catholic Wedding

2006-12-13T17:50:00.000+08:00

My First Catholic Wedding

Took a break from my HYP to attend the wedding ceremony of my fellow lab mate at the church near my school hee..

Here are some nice photos taken by Mastermind on that day..

This is the bride hee.. nice gown hee.. simple and nice..

Saying "I Do"

Exchange of rings.. dodododo~~~

Nice little ending to the wedding ceremony

Not forgetting the cake cutting session.. oh btw, it's a real cake woah...

Hee.. not forgetting the cute little ring bearer..except that he fell in love with the flowers and became the true "hua tong" instead haha.. so cute...

Over and Done with

2006-12-06T11:34:00.000+08:00

Over and Done with

Finally! Finished my last paper le wahaha.. to those still taking their papers, good luck! hee..

Now what's left is pray hard for my results that will be released on the day after christmas.. how depressing..

never mind.. hee. time to enjoy my fish and co wahaha..

("<) happy holiday!!!

My Love-Hate Relation

2006-11-21T22:28:00.000+08:00

My Love-Hate Relation

with.. physics haha.. serious.. it's something that when things go well, I'll love it like nuts.. but when you have to take modules like QM 3.. haha.. I sure wanna die from it haha.. no choice lah hee.. got to survive through it hee..

here are some photos taken recently hee.. shan.. don't complaint hat I nv blog le woah haha.. taking a break from my mugging just to blog le.. see I so *wei da haha..

This is my honors class haha.. with my QM 3 lecturer haha... he's a really superb lecturer!

oh hee.. and I've yet to introduce a tiny homely place I call my second home in school haha.. my labbie! wahaha..

This photo is taken after celebrating one of my lab mate's birthday haha.. she's the one with the huge pooh (*she's pretty much a die heart pooh fan as sh) hee..

And oh you know what.. hee.. We printed a lab jersey too! wahaha.. my boss is the one sitting right in the middle *grin

Ah... my favourite photo of the day hee..

It's a Happy Family! wahaha..

It's here!

2006-11-10T20:21:00.000+08:00

It's Here!

Finally! The show that I've been waiting for will be here in next year.. oh boy oh boy! can't wait to see it. wahaha... *finger pointing* dododo~~

what is it you ask? haha.. it's here!

The Phantom of the Opera!

Here's a little description about it (for those who totally have to idea what this show is all about)

Andrew Lloyd Webber's THE PHANTOM OF THE OPERA - the musical already seen by more than 80 million people throughout the world will open at the Esplanade Theatre on 23 March 2007 for a strictly limited season.

THE PHANTOM OF THE OPERA is the heart-wrenching story of the mysterious "Angel of Music" who lives beneath the Paris Opera House. The hideously disfigured Phantom falls in love with the young singer Christine, devoting himself to creating a new opera star while exercising a reign of terror over the Opera House's occupants.

With 130 cast, crew and orchestra members, spectacular sets and more than 230 costumes, THE PHANTOM OF THE OPERA contains some of Andrew Lloyd Webber's most famous and stirring music, including "The Phantom of the Opera" and "Music of the Night".

http://www.visitsingapore.com/publish/stbportal/en/home/apps/event_detail.html?pageName=EventDetail&buttom=detail&amp;eid=7566&eventType=1

Isn't it cool! Been looking forward to watching this ever since I heard the "Music of the Night" by Michael Crawford. Superb vocal. He sounded so dark in the song.. lalala~~~ and you know what.. hee.. I managed to find a little video clip on a short phantom of the opera performance by him and Sarah Brightman! Yap!

Sarah Brightman & Michael Crawford -The Phantom of the Opera

This is the clip from U-tube that I was talking about.

Hee. anyone interested? you can go to www.sistic.com to book the tickets!

Noble House Trip

2006-10-29T20:46:00.000+08:00

Its been quite a while since I last saw xiaobudian, and one of my new lens arrived 10 minutes before I left for the dim sum restaurant. Just in time for me to bring this fast portrait lens (that costs about S$125 including postage from USA) for an outing. Yippee... now my dry cabinet space is almost fully utilize...

Sugar posing for my camera while waiting for sucre's arrival... nice morning sun light on it.

More xiaobudian here... hee.. she just got into her "why?" phase...

She's so cute, she even gotten some free display dummy handphones for her to use to call "hello! I'm here, bye bye"

Her first helium balloon... fascinating...

Wee... holding onto daddy's car keys tied to the balloon...

When the balloon was floating up, xiaobudian scream for her dad to catch hold of it... lol... food was secondary that day... taking photos was my main motive... nice little lens...

All photos taken with Sony Alpha A100 with the Minolta AF 50mm f1.7 lens. Its a small fast and sharp lens that is great for portraits and indoor shots like these without using flash. Cool!

It's a happy happy day! haha! Yippie!

2006-10-21T20:31:00.000+08:00

It's a happy happy day! haha! Yippie!

Went to Metro sale today at Expo wahhaa... not bad leh.. haha... much much better than the library sale that I went before.

Hm.. it's definitely more airy, and they even have sale personal there to help you, plus the things there all arranged neatly as though it's a big shopping centre! Cool!

oh and they have many fitting rooms there so the ladies don't have to wait very long to have a turn.. in addition, we can bring in max 6 pieces instead of the usual 3 wahaha..

aiyo.. I'm sounding so aunty like.. sheepie.. ("<)

oh and if you're thinking of bringing your bf along? no problem! there're gadgets such as X-box, men shirt/shoes/socks/belt/wallets etc there to keep them entertained while you SHOP! what's more, if you wanna bring your kidos there? they also have a kid section with all the shoes, clothes toys! haha.. in all, it's a pretty family oriented sale.

("<)

Two Adults

2006-10-16T19:28:00.000+08:00

What do you get when 2 adults go to pizza hut?

They became childish!

(Adults need to entertain themselves while waiting for their food, right?)

Nothing much..

2006-09-26T21:51:00.000+08:00

Nothing much..

hee..

Nothing much to blog about hee.. just being happy and enjoying life...

("<)

The funniest Physics Test in NUS

2006-09-07T20:42:00.000+08:00

The Craziest Physics Test I've Ever Had

haha... Just realised that Shan has been complaining about my lack of updates haha.. here's something that happened today and I feel that I must definitely share it with you all.. haha.. to those who don't like physics.. hee.. tahan lah ok hee..

Ok here goes... I took this module called the Advance Analytical Technique - a physics modules that talks about some machines commonly used in Physics Research work. Can't say much about this module yet but it's in this module that I got to meet this funny lecturer, Prof H. haha.. My classmates and I have just been through a two weeks course on XRD with him and we took a five minutes test today. You know what, the first question from the test sent everyone the Urh Urh Look...

Why? Cause We, year four students of Physics are being asked to spell "Bragg" out of Bragg's Law... Come on haha.. spelling? In uni? Aiyo!!! haha.. While it seems pretty weird to see ten students sitting on the lab floor/chair/standing beside CPU spelling out "Bragg", we did had a great laugh out of it and I bet... We'll nv forget this experience. haha..

Phew!

2006-09-07T20:34:00.000+08:00

Phew! Just a little update

Been a really really long time since I've logged in to do some blogging unlike mastermind hee....

Sigh... can't help it. Been pretty busy trying to settle down since school started four weeks ago.. hee.. feeling kinda bad about not being able to make it for those SA gathering since my school term starts... I'll try to make it up to you gals ok! Sorry ("<)

Oh and hee.. some thing nice happened this week wahaha.. I've just made a tiny step towards a future that I'm definitely looking forward to hee.. lalala~~~

What is it? haha.. that's for you to find out and for me to know :p

National Day

2006-08-11T20:39:00.000+08:00

Tonight's fireworks was great! One of the better one I had seen so far. Though the finale was a bit too messy for my camera to react to... but great nonetheless... Here's some of the better shots that I had taken. Had uploaded more to flickr now.

The lake was divided into many sections...

Wham!

Bursting red

Is that pink?

Big and small

Slow falling fireworks seem to be popular nowadays

Colourful

The mess starts to build up

I like this team the most

Finale gore 1

Ouch my eyes hurt

Are you blind yet?

Singapore Fireworks Festival: Team Singapore (8 Aug 06)

2006-08-09T09:16:00.000+08:00

Good Morning! After a night of shoot and a some sleep, here I present to you some of my photos from the Fireworks festival for Team Singapore. This round of shoot wasn't totally smooth flowing as I wish it would be but overall I'm more satisfied with the photos than the last shoot for Team Italy. Again took another 45 minutes just to get out and go home.

Slow start for Team Singapore. Actually it includes more variety including some really slow falling fireworks which is not ideal for capturing in stills... you just get thick streaks of bright lines for those

The fireworks starts to come in after a while...

With more variety now

Buy 3 get 3 free

I just love the head on view, but my camera went out of battery at this very moment. Had to scramble for another but most of the shots were spoilt thereafter because of my misfocused (my fault) H1 shots. All except the following 2.

One of the last 2 good shots

Electra! The last good shot.

The fireworks lasted 11 minutes according to my friend, who video taped the fireworks. Look at the whole set of fireworks photos (including Team Italy) here!

Fireworks Festival: Team Italy (5 Aug 06)

2006-08-06T17:01:00.000+08:00

I took 45 minutes to find a parking lot at Marina Square, and another 45 minutes to get out at the end of the show. But is it worth it? Take a look...

After packing our dinner, we reach to "chop" our place at about 7 pm and took this first shot.

Lunch was weird with all the strangers and tripods setting up besides, behind and all around us...

After waiting for almost 2 hours, President Nathan reached to open the event. Final test shot before the shoot.

The first shot at 9:03 pm, 3 minutes behind schedule.

Golden fireworks

Close up on the fireworks

The last shot was fired at 9:15 pm and the display lasted for 12 minutes.

See more fireworks here.

teaser fireworks

2006-08-06T14:13:00.000+08:00

Teaser Fireworks

There's a great chance to work on fireworks shots this whole week. Got to try bulb exposure some time and see how's the effect. Here's some teaser shots. Doing post-processing of other images now... yawn... so slow...

Trip to Sen_to_ Sa with xiaobudian - 290706

2006-08-05T08:30:00.000+08:00

Trip to Sen_to_ Sa with xiaobudian - 290706

First stop: Carlsberg Sky Tower

According to the sentosa island guide, it is Asia's tallest observatoin tower at 135m above sea level.

Admission:Adult S$10/Child S$6 (Pretty ex to me haha.. especially since the ride only takes about 7 minutes)

A view of one of PSA's port. Special request by xiaobudian's mi mi.. ("<) And of course... we have... XIAO BU DIAN... Tada!!!

Sh's favourite...

Second Stop: Nature Trail

Hee... where xiaobudian cried "up up up!" as she climb the stairs...

Next stop: The Signapore Underwater World~~

Where we enter into the world of sharks, stingrays, eels and other sea creatures via a moving travellator through a 83m long tunnel...

Admission: Adult S$19.50/Child S$12.50 (3-12 years old)
Free for children below 3 years old (includes admission to Dolphin Lagoon)

Meet the spider crab from Japan.. (the origin of 'crab stick')

Oh and we also get to see the cute cute... jellyfish..

Last stop: Palawan Beach.. Xiao bu dian's favourite

While looking after the bags... I took out F11 and snap some photos hee..

My view of the Palawan Beach.. Poor mastermind had to go off half way during the trip to go back to sch for some CCA activity.. pity that he miss xiao bu dian in her tiny tankini.. pity pity

Saw this cute little girl girl walking along the beach... hee.. can't resist the temptation to take a snap shot of her hee.. so cute..

Lo and Behold.. hee.. xiaobudian in her little tankini hee.. *shy

With her grandpa who absolutely dote on her..

With grandma who's always there for her...

With her mi mi... hm.. they do look alike haha..

Hee.. that's all for the trip to sentosa wahaha..

15th July 2006

2006-07-19T13:20:00.000+08:00

15th July - A special day for Shu Hua and Lisar.. hee.. it's their birthday!!!

Went to celebrate Lisar's birthday with Lane, LP, YK, WL, YS and Nor at Copthorne King's Hotel along 403 Havelock Road (S)169632.

We wanna create a surprise birthday party for lisar so the whole lot of us (expect for Nor cause she need to work and collect the birthday cake) went to the hotel - Room 611 to start decorating the place.. and bought her a nice "little" sunflower for her...

and we (lane, lp plus mio) walked to Chinatown MRT to meet her.. along the way.. we were kinda lost and lucky us.. we brought along with us the map of singapore (took from the lobby of the hotel)... and the three HISTORY students start looking through the map at some road junction which i can't remember.. guess we must have looked rather lost.. cause there's this AUNTY that walked pass us and said in a pretty "softly" ... "don't know then ask people lah.. don't don't know then act like you know" may be not in the exact phrasing but the meaning is there though.... we were so shocked and PO that we vow to find the place WITHOUT asking anyone... boy and we did!!! wahaha... who says history student can't read map..

and after fetching lisar... i'll let the picture do the talking..

This is our bithday girl

WL

YK

Lane

Result of choosing teaching as your career? haha.. marking student's work on your friend's brithday celebration... :p

Below are some photos taken on the balcony of the hotel..

Feeling bored after dinner.. we decided to make a trip down to Clarke Quay

Along the way.. we saw luminous flying sausers imported from hong kong

and we managed to grab some seats at

and chill out...

Here's the carrot cake that Lp and I think it's pretty cute and according to Nor, It's NICE too!!! Specially made by the chef there..

Tatz!!! If you're wondering about shu hua's birthday.. just click on her link to visit her bloggie hee..

Adding on to xiaobudian

2006-07-19T13:11:00.000+08:00

Adding onto the blog abt Xiaobudian

Hee.. here are some other photos tt I think is pretty nice to share with you all hee..

This is cheeky xiaobudian struggling to get her artificial noddles out of her playdoo kit

Introducing xiaobudian's noodle making assistant - Mastermind!

Yeah! finally got noodles to play with le !!!

And what do you do after making the noodles? Cut them from the noodle making "machine" hee...

Xiaobudian Cuteness Ratings

2006-07-16T11:03:00.000+08:00

Xiaobudian Cuteness Ratings

Very Cute

Xiaobudian making noodles with playdoh... very cute

Sooooo... Cute

Xiaobudian saw a bright flying saucer flew up the roof top of the durian seller, sooooooo... cute

"Oh my god" Cute

Xiaobudian caught drinking our ice cold yeo's sugar cane packet drink in the camera trying to get herself out of trouble with this "oh my god" cuteness

All these cuteness just in one day, and these were the few caught in the camera. There's xiaobudian tasting every durian telling us which is nicer, xiaobudian exclaiming she is using a porcelain bowl instead of plastic bowl and that she had "grown" up stuff... and much more... No wonder she can melt sucre's heart everytime.

Mastermind's NIE Commencement 2006

2006-07-16T10:11:00.001+08:00

Mastermind's NIE Commencement 2006

As mentioned in the other bloggie hee.. Mastermind had his commencement on 13th July 2006.. hm.. overall.. the thing was pretty ok expect for the fact that we won't really allowed to go to the washrooms and perhaps.. the list is a bit long... 700+ names to go through before the whole event ended haha.. phew! Despite all these... the food is pretty nice (accidentally took some food from the table meant for the VIPs)...

The Banner ...

Pledge taken by the graduating teachers.. if only the students are able to understand the hopes that their teachers have upon graduating....

Entering all the VIPs..

The Guest of Honor..

The seat in front of me...

The little booklet given to us at the enterance of the LT

Something that caught my attention while waiting for the long list to end...
Einstein's Equation: E = m(c^2)

How the ceremony looks like... Pretty lady...

Two years down the road and I'll be in Mastermind's shoes haha.. together with my fellow classmates/teachers-to-be haha..

Introducing Mastermind's Niece - Bai Yuxin

2006-07-16T10:00:00.000+08:00

Introducing Mastermind's Niece - Bai Yuxin

Tada! hee.. Here are some nicer photos of Yuxin.. sheesh.. I have a very strong feeling that my blog is going to be filled with lots of xiaobudian and Yuxin's pictures haha...

Here goes..

Tiny Tooth?!

Happy Family

Mastermind playing with his little niece

Balloon hat made by Yuxin's grandpa

Having a break.... milk milk!!!

Take care everyone!!!!

2006-07-10T10:43:00.000+08:00

To those Graduating... *Sniff

Good Luck People!!! Take care!!!!

My friends who are graduating this sem... Will miss you guys!!!! Take Care!!!

Oh I love this picture!!!

Yes Sire!!!

Look at them... so nice!!!

Sigh~~

*OMG!!!

So cute! lalala~~~

Oh the soft toy looks so fluffy~~~~

Xiaobudian's trip to my house

2006-07-08T08:34:00.000+08:00

Hee.. been a long time since I last get to see xiaobudian.. so her mimi brought her to house and here are some photos of her enjoying home-made donuts haha..

Her preparing to bit into the donut

hm....

And when we ask her is it 'good' (ie: is the donut nice?)

Her reply was... GOOD!

Uniquely Singapore - Botanical Gardens (2)

2006-07-06T20:55:00.000+08:00

Uniquely Singapore - Botanical Gardens (2)

Besides swans and tortoises, there are other stuff much more exciting that we spotted there. Let's start with the biggest one.

Flightless bird alone

This bird looks unique to us. We don't think it's that common to find it in Singapore, and I guess it can't really fly. Why? Because I did an experiment on it, I chased the bird.

On the run after sensing human danger

Imagine a 26 year old hold a camera running around chasing a bird who, despite it's small build, manage to outrun an adult human. What a laugh we had. Our attempts to ambush the bird failed terribly as it ran perpendicular to the line between me and sucre.

Red dragonflies...

Next up is dragonflies, these little insects are action packed as they zip past us umpteen times before taking a short break for us to compose and shoot, before going about their business in air again. Any closer and I have to swim in the lake to take these shots

Here's a cropped keeper that's my wallpaper now.

Little ants moving off for battle...

Now for the smallest but never the least of them all, ants. We manage to spot these ants at the end of the tortoise shoot thanks to some graduates taking their gown photos blocking our way. There's more to come for there must be some stuff sweet that attracts these ants. Thankfully, they did not bite sucre as she is prone to be bullied by ants these days.

Target found - a burst opened fruit.

Now that's the sweet thing those ants were working for. With such a sight, out came my close-up lens and make not regrets this time. (Though I was a bit afraid to shift my camera to face the fruit head on which would entail me resting my camera and myself against the plant that is infested by all these ants. GROSS!)

And another keeper, this one is printed in A4 size instead. Gives sucre a shudder whenever she sees it. Causes xiaobudian to squash 'em when she sees them.

That's all, for now.

All photos are taken with the Sony H1 and the M3358 close up lens for the last 3 shots.

Sucre thinks I can start a sideline, do you think so too? LOL, just kidding.

singapore botanical garden nature dragonfly photoblog dsc h1

Gathering at Essential Brew Holland V

2006-07-06T20:37:00.000+08:00

Finally had the chance to meet up with my JC classmates wahaha.. so nice that seven out of eight of us managed to take some time off for the gathering... poor sylvia's in Australia now.. so she can't really meet us up.. nv mind lah can meet up another time when she's back from Australia. hee..

Hm.. personally, this is a pretty go place to have a gathering... hee..cosy and you definitely don't have to keep your volume down in that place hee.. oh and if you're interested to go there, try not to wear skirts cause you'll be sitting on the floor plus.. try to wear some easy to wear shoes and make sure they're not ex. Why? because you'll have to take off your shoes before you're allow to enter into the dinning area.. ("<) hee.. that's certainly the first place that I've been to that has this rule.. nonetheless, it was really fun and relaxing...

The plus point about that place? hm.. nice waiters and waitresses, nice toliets too plus they sell cakes at that place so it's a pretty convenient place for those of you who wannt celebrate birthdays for your friends..

Here are some pics taken during the gathering hee..

Tataz ("<)

Botanical Garden (1)

2006-07-02T21:46:00.000+08:00

Almost 2 years ago, we visited the Singapore Botanical Gardens to take some graduation photos. That was my first time (according to my poor memory) stepping foot there. Two years later, we revisit the place just to enjoy the garden. What an adventure there!

Lake at Bukit Timah core side, and the new banner as seen above.

More than a decade ago, its ancestor bullied sucre.

But it's the first interesting character we meet there

I think this swan must had been big compared to sucre when that happened

Now that sucre is big and the swan is small, of course it's the swan who would run away now.

Cuke Waterwalker applying surface tension here

We also met some sun lover getting their daily dose of sunlight there too

And the occasional swim

Scaly skin = reptiles

All photographs taken with the Sony H1 unless otherwise stated

To be continued...

singapore botanical garden photoblog dsc h1

Finally...

2006-06-29T19:31:00.000+08:00

Finally.. hee.. I managed to take some time off to go shopping with my dear old buddy... princess cindy hee..

Haven't had a chance to meet her for quite some time let alone shopping but I managed to accomplish both at the same time wahah.. though i have to admit.. the result of not shopping for a long time = "ka sour" after just a short shopping trip for 4 hours.. *hides... need more practice.. wonder who'll be my next shopping target wahah...

Anyway it was a fun trip and a nice little break from work... plus.. there's lots of gossip plus catching up to do woah.. oh and before i forget...

CONGRAS GIRL!!! for getting your dream jobbie at AH!!! Get more practice over there and I'll know who to look for when I'm old old and need some therapy ... for free?? *winkz

Oh sharks.. realised that I didn't bring F11 along to take photo with you.. grumble grumble..

Trip to Airport T2

2006-06-27T21:42:00.000+08:00

Mastermind's sister finally returns home last Sunday after leaving Singapore for two and a half years... what a long wait for her family...

Taken while waiting for her plane to land..

Belt 32... arriving time.. 7.17am..

Waiting and waiting...

Tada! Mastermind's little princess, yu xin from France... hm.. she's not smiling due to jet-lag... so pardon her...

Little Kola Bear...

Snap snap.. mastermind's getting good at taking baby's photo.. haha.. anyone looking for people to take photo for their kido?

Little princess with her mimi..

Little princess and her grandpa.. the first one to carry her wahaha...

Little princess + her old uncle... hm.. wonder how is she going to address him...

Tataz! That's all folks wahaha..

Snowing in Singapore?!

2006-06-27T21:38:00.000+08:00

Wondering how to kill time when one's at home...

This is what I do when I'm bored at home... taking F11 and take photo...

Snowing in Singapore?!

Nah.. it's just rain... just rain....

Time..

2006-06-21T09:55:00.000+08:00

Met up with my best buddy (know her since sec 1) for dinner yesterday.. hee... been a long long time since we last had the chance to meet up.. what with all the tests/exams/projects etc.. where to find time??

So now since we're both having holi.. we finally arrange a time to meet up wahah.. !!! sometimes it's a wonder how we can maintain such a close friendship despite the fact that we're only able to meet up once in a blue blue moon and yet have so much things to talk about.. of course the context of our conversation has definitely evolved from gossiping about our school teachers such as who's with who to topic such as life that we had, having and life we hope to have..

On the way home... i can't help wondering... if we are able to turn back the clock.. would things be as it is now or... would it be different.. It's just that some how.. we wonder give the same situation now.. would be have done the same thing as we had in the past.. especially the way we handled our past relationships.. perhaps things might turn up differently if we had handled them with a more matured mind...

Wonder wonder.. while you might be wondering why on earth are we wondering about all these things.. let's just put it this way.. sometimes it's just fun to wonder about the past hee.. it's just like taking a journey back through time with your buddy... someone whom you can share anything with.. your thoughts/feelings/troubles etc.. someone whom you know will always be there for you..

To those who know us.. rest assured, We're 100% satified with our life.. hee.. especially with our loving and understanding partners lalala~~

How to brighten up your girlfriend/wife's day

2006-06-16T18:03:00.000+08:00

Show up one evening to pick her up after work with a rose waiting for her AND it's not for any anniversary or special day. It's just for her.

The bouquet of a single stalk of rose.

Close up of the rose.

Another close up shot

Baby's breath.

Sucre's take of the rose with the F11

Money well spent.

All photos taken with the Sony H1 (and possibly with the M3358 close up lens) unless stated otherwise.

singapore rose photoblog dsc h1 fuji f11

Birdie (2)

2006-06-15T09:14:00.001+08:00

Greedy Pelicans
Time for feeding the pelicans next and we managed to catch the last few minutes of the show here. These birds disappear from the stage and returned to their lakes the moment when feeding time is over. Bird park makes a lot more money by 'selling' bird food for you to feed them at every show time. Or $10 per photography with the birds.

Trivial: Pelican's big mouth can hold 13 litres of water. Or more than 2 cartons of packet drinks!

This one doesn't seem to have such a big mouth.

Ruixuan was sleeping by then. It's after lunch and she got to sit on a comfortable pram...

Look at her drooling... must be sleeping very soundly

Where We Were Bombed - Waterfall Area
More feeding near the waterfall area. This time is smaller birds like bee-eaters that feeds on small insects. The feed - worms... This is also the place where the two of us got bombed by birds.

Queuing up for food.

Worms in a cup. Fighting for food

Not enough light, need to stop the action, gotta use flash now. Why it didn't occur to me on the spot to take the F11 from Sucre for these difficult shots.

The world's tallest man-made waterfall, stll?

There's another round of feeding when these birds attacked Sucre's uncle for food. What a messy eater!

Hawk, Eagles and Owls
This was the last big show for the day in the bird park and there's two playgrounds beside it for Ruixuan to have fun too. It started drizzle again and the birds were a bit reluctant to fly too. Reluctant birds, poor weather, H1 not suited for flying birds (EVF mah). Sigh...

This bird did something wrong and had to stand for the rest of the class.

The bald eagle was punished for sporting an unacceptable hair cut.

'Professor Dumbledore' was nearby to ensure that the punishment were meted out to the younglings.

Hawk Show
Many people were standing inside the shelter, watching the show from far, while some of those, like us, took the seats and brave the rain for a better view.

These birds are big

How does it feel to be a bird stand?

Who woke me up so early in the evening?! I'm all grumpy now!

Zipped! Wheww....

You can't catch me!

The sharpest photo taken of the flying birds were those when the birds left my field of view. Followed closely by this shot.

So the main complains for the bird shots - Hard to trace with EVF and the megazoom involved. The birds leave your view in a split second and you can't locate them in your EVF easily when in full telephoto. Plus I need higher shutter speed, and to a certain extent, faster AF and burst mode to improve the hit rate. Finally one thing that the H1 couldn't really do well in.

singapore birds jurong bird park photoblog dsc h1

Birdie (1)

2006-06-15T09:14:00.000+08:00

Penguins and all sorts of cool birds
We arrived at 10am and sort of missed the hawk show nearby, so we decided to join the penguin feeding show at 10:30 and went there instead. Didn't understand why so many tourists like to use flash in such an environment. There's one guy who had this flash unit on top of his compact too, but hope the glass reflections were not too harsh on his images.

Puffin @ the Penguin place. It was dark and we were behind a thick glass wall (otherwise we would had freeze or the penguins would had been fried).

And the glass is not exactly clean. Many shots wasted here due to poor low light performance of the H1. (F11 did not have enough zoom, sigh...)

Penguin posing, but you can see the white 'spots' as if it were some dust on the sensor but you know it's just water droplets on the glass.

All Birds Show
We were early and we got the best seat. Last of the centre of the centre block row where we get a good view and saved us the trouble to carrying all the stuff down. There's an "ang moh" beside me using a S2IS, I think, the Canon version of the H1 type camera. Wonder how his camera fared under these trying conditions. It was cloudy throughout and I need ISO200 just to get the minimum shutter speed (1/100) to use the full zoom. Had to resort to the EVF many times to increase stability too. Sigh...

Parrot racing on bicycles.

Landing on target - S$2 note.

Mission objective - Get S$2 note to buy mee siam for lunch.

Mission accomplished!

This shot is much harder to take. I tried to focus on the hoop and fire off a burst of shots, but unfortunately none of them were sharp. Focus or shutter speed issue? Maybe both. Gotta try this again another day with another camera perhaps, or a brighter day.

Malaysian hornbill bird. This is how it looks like in real life. Couldn't get the shot of it catching this piece of fruit it's eating. Just not fast enough.

Eating snake. The snake is fake, of course.

Introducing the leading actor/actress.

Lunch at the Flamingo Lake
Raining and the restaurant is just nearby. It stopped raining when we were in the restaurant for like 10 minutes. There's a bird watching balcony that gives you a bird's eye view of the birds below and above.

This pose reminds me of the 'shen diao' 神雕 in legend of the condor heros 神雕侠侣.

One of the few odd ball in the midst of a sea of pink birds

Now THAT's bird's eye view.

South East Asean Birds (One huge cage with large cages within)
Birds birds and more birds. After lunch we continued our journey in search for more birds.

Bali Myna.

I prefer my 5003rd shot over my 5000th one

I think 'cute' is the best word to describe this bird. Ugly but adorable.

Something tells me this bird ought to go on a diet or is going to be extincted in the wild.

Behind bars. I kinda like the reflection of it's eyes with the bars there. And that 'red' face gives it a good mood - let me out!

singapore birds jurong bird park photoblog dsc h1

Sneak Preview

2006-06-09T20:09:00.000+08:00

It was a terrible day, for me and photography, but a nice cool day for a comfortable stroll at the Jurong Bird Park, for xiaobudian. The whole day went something like that...

9am: ~~Go bird park.~~ It rained
10am: ~~Watch bird show~~ It stopped raining, go bird park
11am: Watch all bird show then it rained
12noon: Have lunch, rained stopped
1pm: Finish lunch, rain again
2pm: Watch more bird feeding, get hit by bird shit, on the forehead
3pm: Go playground, check photos realize it was bad. Rainy days are bad for photography
4pm: Watch bird show, it rained

Ah well, still sorting out my photos so here's some sneak previews of what could be coming soon.

Xiaobudian 'molested' her favourite aunt that day.

Rain non-stop, watching bird show also got umbrellas blocking view. So inconsiderate.

Weather was so cooling and enjoyable that the birds are sleeping!

"Let me outta here". Most birds are confined within cages. But at least they have a humongous cage compared to pet birds.

All photos you seen here are taken with the Sony H1. Perfect of stationary birds but fall short on those moving ones.

singapore birds jurong bird park photoblog dsc h1

all in a day..

2006-06-07T20:22:00.000+08:00

All done in one day! Yippie!

Trip No. 1 - Singapore Science Centre.. Haven't been there for a long time..

Look at her tongue sticking out hee.. so cute~~~

This is xiaobudian playing with the toy house in Science Centre.. you can find it under the "Discovery" section..

Trip No. 2 - Jurong Park.. Nv been there before.. hee..

It seems that everytime we ask her to look at the camera for photo taking.. she took on this pose.. wonder who taught her that.. hm..

This is her with grandpa and grandma at the jetty where some kids were fishing..

Fly fly fly.. little ae - ro - plane fly fly fly.. she's imagining herself being an aeroplane... and mastermind is going along with her imagination.. :p

Trip No. 3 - 1st June.... off to celebrate ah pa's birthday

happy birthday!!!

Xiaobudian with her beloved grandparents

Cutting cake.. wonder if she'll remember the love showered upon her by her grandpa in the future..

drooling... ~~~

Cheeky xiaobudian waiting to have a piece of birthday cake..

Woah! What a day! All trips completed in the same day...

Chalet - Playground

2006-06-05T09:37:00.000+08:00

Hee.. I know.. this is a super outdated post.. hee.. nonetheless.. here's what I promised to upload sometime ago.. xiaobudian having fun at the playground..

This is her preparing to slide down the mini slide..

Re-arranging her position before she's allowed to slide down the slide..

Slide No. 2 hee.. this one is longer.. look at her expression!!! so cute~~~

Her playing with mastermind..

Urm.. according to xiaobudian.. this is the tap tap dance that elmo like to dance on her elmo VCD.. Elmo~~~

That's all for the chalet series.. hee..