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My blog is not longer here!

2009-03-12T23:04:00.001+08:00

If you are seeing this (you shouldn't), click here to go to my new blog.

Amanda's Birthday

2009-02-11T01:58:00.003+08:00

Okay, i know if I don't post this now, I'll probably only be able to, in like 3 or so weeks time, so here it is:
Earlier today (well, yesterday, since its 2am now), I left school at around 7pm and walked 5 mins to Amanda's house's void deck...

yihui junwei

shi kai, me, weiting (annie was playing with my camera)

annie
We then went up to the staircase outside Amanda's house to prepare...

Trying to light up the cake without a lighter

the cake in question

then the pizza delivery guy came and dropped off the pizzas and drinks at the staircase

Junwei explaining his theory of about that Evian Bottle being 1/3 full and not 1/2 empty to MK...

Block the wind!

Surprise!

Happy birthday to you... yada... yada... (then she ran back to her room half way through the song)

before appearing again later to open to door for us

the food on the table

siting around...

peiyi and junwei pouring drinks for us

Winning shot!

IMO, Canadian Pizza wasn't up to the usual standards today...

Okay, the pizza really wasn't tasty at all...

Peiyi and Amanda
Okay, after we stuffed our faces full with pizzas... there were still 2 n a half of the 6 boxes of extra large pizza left uneaten. So we played concentration and the number guessing game with eating pizza slices as penalty, to clear the food...

Yihui was the first to lose...

then annie

then weiting

Leo and Peiyi's 'secret' hand gesture

I took this while eating my penalty...

washing the mashy pizzas down...

(then Finally) it was Leonards turn to eat!

The view outside Amanda's house...

Timer group shot behind AMK MRT station (it was pitched black!)

At AMK Mcd

Look at Peiyi!

Annie took this... (out of focus, but note the people in the background)

Annie...

Peiyi

I was shooting her taking a photo of me, when her flash suddenly fired, creating this cool lens flare effect!

o.0

Shi Kai's eyes...

Weiting and Amanda
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Oh did I mention, I got my online order delivered to me yesterday!

I got a mini LED light stick thing that cost like a dollar fifty including shipping! Damm cheap since shipping is usually the most expensive component when doing online purchases... Well, anw, this is just a 'test' buy to make sure that the site was legit and that I could receive my order without problems. So, I'll probably make a real order some time soon...
The website sells all sorts of cheap (and weird) stuff direct from China's factories, like a Plasma ball(you know the kind u see Witches or fortune tellers use on TV?) or Tritium (Ever wanted to say "Hey, I've got sometime radioactive and glowing in my pants!"?)... http://www.dealextreme.com let me know if you want anything so we can get them together...

Fly me to the moon..

2009-02-09T02:54:00.003+08:00

and let me play among the stars.
Let me see what spring is like on Jupiter and Mars...

Last Sunday, my dad decided to take my family on board the recently re-opened Singapore Flyer. Since we had to pre-book a timing, I picked 7pm, thinking the sun would have set, but the with the sky not too dark yet, great for photography. Unfortunately, I forgot that the sun has been setting later these days (on one day a few weeks ago, I remembered it set at 7.40pm!) and as it turned out 7pm to 7.30pm time slot was terrible for photo-taking, its neither day nor evening/night, dark but not dark enough for night/evening photography, yet still not bright enough for regular daytime shooting. Oh well, I didn't really have the time to process the photos, so the WB for most of the pictures are quite cold.

the giant wheel

One Capsule

A huge blow-up Cai Shen ye

the human one..

Lion Dance to mark the offical re-opening

the place around the Flyer is actually quite nice

Its actually a good place for couples...

You can see the Marina Barrage from here

and if you turn around, theres the SingaporeGP F1 Grand stand!

the wheel from an ortho point of view

Reflect me

Getting on the flyer...

There wasn't that many people, so we got the entire capsule to ourselves...

Looking up...

and down...

Tanjong Rhu

Taking a picture of my dad taking a picture of my mom and sis

Suntec/Marina Sq area of Hotels

Taken using my tripod

Almost at the highest point..

the Barrage

Marina Bay - This was where we had steamboats before they tore the place down last year :(

At the highest point!

Not bright enough for day shot, not dark enough for a nigh shot... sigh

It also happened that the Chingay Parade was held that day

Hmm... buildings please turn on your lights!

The Singapore Flyer has a pier. You get a free boat ride down the Singapore River from Clark Quey if you have a ticket...

The Singapore CBD

There was a mini model of the IRs that fit perfectly with the real background to where they will appear when completed.

After we got off the flyer

The lighting is perfect for night/evening shots! Argh! should have taken 7.30pm slot

We had dinner at this Chinese seafood restaurant in the flyer

We only ordered one dish but it was really filling and meant to serve 5-6people (did I mention it cost $150++!)

This is a chinese new year dish, (i forgot its name), its apparently more popular in Hong Kong then here.
---------------------
ANW! Fried Chicken - We should go to the Flyer some time soon! Oh and Rachel if you are reading this, Air Asia is having its $0 sale to everywhere tomorrow at midnight (Tuesday 12mm).

Oh well... thats all for now. I've got some other pictures about school in my handphone, but its 4am now, so that'll have to wait.

CNY Stuff + [I AM AMKSIAN]

2009-02-01T02:03:00.003+08:00

Unlike previous years, the Lunar New year this year has come at an unfavorable time for me; it is smacked in the middle of my year end written exams and projects(dubbed assignments)! Thankfully, at the time of writing, all my written papers (except for maths) and all my assignments (except for software engineering) are over, leaving the mentioned 2 and my End of Year 3 Weeks Studio Project. ~~I'm some what looking forward to it but my team members~~ This blog is not for ranting... Speaking of which, I have at for at least 8 times in the past month wanted to vent feverishly about school/'friends' ARGH! I hate the work place! *Breathe in.... Breathe out...* I am now calm. But have refrained myself from publishing anything lest my photo blog turn into my burn book...

At my grandparent's house..(shooting in direct sunlight)

Anw, moving on... CNY this year is well, like every other year. It consists of the mandatory awkward visiting of relatives, some of whom I've never seen in a whole year, others for at least 2 or 3, since they only appear every few New Years. Butt of course, the money I get from their ang pows always helps fatten my wallet. However, this year the financial downtown of 2009 has become evident, with most people downsizing the value of their ang pows, some to the 'bare minimum' of $4 and with many of my parent's colleagues/friends avoiding or pretending to not know that my siblings and I exist so as to not have to give their sacred ang pows out.

my mom and older sister...
----------------------------------
[I AM AMKSIAN]
I went back to amkss 2 weeks ago to attend my sister's Sec 1 Orientation Camp Camp Fire Night... (Gosh! I miss ANG MO KIO!)

Remember this place?

Mdm Tong giving a speech to the sec 1 kids

They are paying their full attention (I wonder for how long more :lol:) with the teachers in the back...

The fire lighter (from some unifrom group) with Mr Siva backfacing me

There was 'live music'... as usual, the music is really loud and you can barely hear the singing...

The buffet offered was pretty good...

My sister and her class 1/1 performing...
Remember we all had to perform something as a class? Even now, I still clearly remember Jun Wei leding the class to sing some song about the daffodils...

Some other class 'dancing'

Some kid break dancing! (while the rest of his class claps on...)
When I got bored with the class performances, I went to the back and found...

Mrs Hariul and Ms Low!

One last look before I leave...
Hope this post helps you reminisce the good old care-free secondary school days... =]

I am crazy+ Open House + Px Birthday

2009-01-14T14:10:00.005+08:00

Yihui and I spontaneously skated 52.04km on Friday night, well, because we felt like it...

At 10 pm, we started skating from Bishan Park 1 to Teacher's Estate to YCK to Hougang where we stopped for a drink at 7-11. Then we decided to move to the road just before Sengkang and then on to Punggol Park, there, I whipped out my GPS to look for skate-able roads. We continued moving down to Paya Lebar airport, then skating along the road around the airport before reaching the Tampines Ikea/Courts/Giant Warehouse Area and evntually, Pasir Ris Central - White Sands where we stopped for supper at Macdonalds. After that, we went on skating along the Park Connectors from Pasir Ris Park to Sun Plaza to Bedok Resevior to Bedok Central to Siglap to Marine Parade and then to East Coast Park. We stopped at ECP's 7-11/Mac for drinks (and to catch our breath!), at which point, Yihui tried to plot a route back home on his ipod with google maps. Moving off at 4am, we skated from ECP to Tanjong Katong to National Stadium to Kallang MRT to Bendemeer to Potong Pasir to Toa Payoh to Bishan MRT Depot to AMK Central at 5.30am!

It was really cool exploring our not so tiny country in the wee hours of the morning, (in fact for some parts of the route, we could only do at night due to traffic on the roads), we got to see people fishing at 2am in Pasir Ris, the relection of lights when a flooded cannel stops moving (REALLY NICE!), and some 'exotic' wild life, all while feeling the wind in my face! :)
-------------------------
And after barely a few hours of sleep, i had to report for duty for NYP's open house...

Saturday was quite a quiet day, so we got to play around and have some fun...

the power of blue/green/gray screen :)
-------------------------
After that, I rushed to City Hall to meet up with FC for Px's birthday...

PX Birthday @ NYNY at Citylink

the birthday girl is very busy!

the NYNY menu...

Diet Friendly Appetizer

Taking a photo of Rach taking a photo of her drink...

my Main course - Whole Chicken at only $15.90!

as compared to Tommy's pathetic Main course... Some Beef thing which sounded really good on the menu.. he got conned!

Rachel's Mains - Cheezy 1/2 Chicken

PX's Mains

KL

YH

YH later ordered FRIED MARS BARS! Really good! But very sinful...

Free Cotton Candy!

Doesn't that look like his (recently deceased) Rabit at home?

PJ and Carline came later... shocked :P

Group shot just before....

Happy Birthday to you...

with a whole choir of professional singers and waiters to celebrate with you! (they've sung well over tens times during the time that we were there! it almost seemed like they were hired specially to sing Happy Birthday!)

Her with the cake

we just dumped however much of the cake we couldnt eat, to Tommy!

We originally planned to open her amazing presents at the War Memorial Park.

But late moved to the esplanade waterfront... [ISO 3200!!! Reduced Exposure to lessen noise]

The eye! L-O-O-O-N-G eye lashes (while waiting for everyone to go to the toilet)

FREE! Next time go celebrate ur birthday at NYNY and you'll get a free bottle of wine and some membership thingys...

pouring for everyone

Cheers!

Her AMAZING presents...

[ISO 2400 talk about handheld night photography]

Opening persent no. 1...

Rachel and KL decided to open it for her...

And LOOK, she is SOOO happy with her present that will bring her happiness when she is sad.. :)

Yihui admiring her present no. 1.

Everyone is standing by their cameras for px to open her 2nd present...

which are 3 frogs, seen here being photographed by tommy

Px freaking out after kl kept taunting her with the frogs! XP

[20-25 Dec 2008] Bali Boleh!

2009-01-04T03:15:00.003+08:00

Day 1
Summary: Early morning flight to Bali, fried fish lunch, afternoon nap, super expensive dinner.
Click to show/hide pictures

I chose not to sleep at all since I would need to leave my house at an unearthly hour just to catch the 6.20am Lionair flight. (which means I must reach the airport around 4.20am!) And at around 3.30am (the time I normally go to sleep at), the rest of my family woke up after barely a few hours of sleep to get ready and my mom called a cab for 4am. The cab arrived on time and the driver got abit excited on learnt that we were heading to the airport.

Once the cabbie entered the CTE via AMK/Boundary Rd, he SPED like some fugitive running from the cops! Averaging 120km/h and being an old comfort cab with a heavy load, it BOUNCED everytime there was a minor bump in the road! The cabbie appeared to be some professional racer to me, changing gears so frequently and (dare I say) smoothly? I still can remember vividly the sound of the engine revving and wailing as he swerved in and out of lanes! (literally SWERVED!)

Our repeated attempts to slow him down by saying "We're not in a hurry!" were met with "Aiya, nvm, reach earlier also go mah!" And by some stroke of (I don't really know if you call it) luck, there weren't any red lights along the way to stop him! At one point (for maybe 5+ minutes) on the PIE, the speedometer actually exceeded the maximum speed display-able at 140km/h!!! I was gripping on the edges of the black leather car seats throughout the entire speed run. Even on the airport boulevard, he was still driving in excess of 100km/h, I mean come on, Thats not even the expressway anymore!

He only slammed on the breaks when we were on the slope up to the Departure Hall Drop off area and groaned "Wah.... Cannot make it already la, you see the wait 4hr+ leh!" as he pointed to the LED boards on the side of the road displaying "Taxi Queuing Times". I finally understood why he sped like his life depended on it; he wanted to make the early morning airport arrivals!

This is one thing that is unique to Singapore's Changi Airport: Taxis will queue for 4 hours to wait for passengers and not the other way around!

An almost iconic feature for Terminals 1& 2 - the majestic Flight Info Board which isnt present in T3...

A REALLY REALLY long queue! When I first started queueing, only two counters were open, and by the time it was my turn, 6 counters were open...

the Agent checking us in...

my boarding pass...

Lion Air 739ER

Munching on the bread talk my mum bought the night before...

my sisters on the seats beside me..

taking off...

Changi & Pasir Ris..

Pulau Ubin

Tekong - my home in two years+ time...

the morning sky...

Lionair, despite being a budget airline, servers free food and drinks...

the bread and weird piece of meat tasted erm... lets just say 'different'...

the plane was packed FULL!

mid-flight

my "Personal In-flight Entertainment System"! =D

landing...

the cockpit
After clearing immigration, we met our driver who drove us to our villa...

which has a nice pool :)

an outdoors bed (which we never used due to the large quantities of mosquitoes present)

Bedroom...

Bathroom with natural lighting...

the Villa was next to a padi field!

on the way to lunch, something caught my eye... SushiTei?!

Balinese in their traditional clothings

Wood wind chimes sold on small 'pasar-malam'-like roadside stalls

Lunch at a local food stall (famous among locals and really crowded)

Ikan Goreng with rice

(I forgot was this was called)

After lunch, we went to the supermarket to get some 'supplies'...

In Indonesia, they seem to love to stack endlessly, lots of the exact same product.

I mean LOTS!
After that, we went back to the villa to catch some shuteye in the afternoon.

We went to this upmarket touristy restaurant + bar + private beach thing...

the setting was really nice... (the price wasnt!)

watching the sunset near the beach...

like I said... nice place... lots of forigners...

by night...

food was good...

but at almost 40SGD per pax, it was REALLY overpriced!
Click to hide Day 1

Day 2
Summary: Batik Painting, Silver Refining, Kintamani Volcano Lunch, Money Forest, Former Royal Family's Palace, Markets, Kecak Dance, Roadside dinner.
Click to show/hide pictures

Having not done our homework, we didn't really know where to go, so we left our plans for the day to our driver who came up with a jamm-packed itinerary!

the roads of Bali (reminds me of Vietnam, of course vietnam's traffic is FAR worst)

before we got to anywhere, we ran a flat tire and had to have it changed...

The tire shop!
After a quick fix, we were on our way...

to a Batik Painting showcase/shop sponsored by the govt iirc so admission is free

sowing machine... (remember Home Econs?)

its hard work!
After that, we went to a Silver Processing Place... (again free admission)

Melting raw silver...

making jewellery...

typical Balinese architecture taken while on the road to our next destination...

some statue inside a temple

the temple wasn't a tourist hotstop, it was meant for locals..

typical Balinese offerings to their gods, these are usually placed outside their doors and changed 3 times a day.

kids feeding the fishes

to enter the main temple, you have to wear a sarong if your shorts/skirts don't cover your knees... (oh and a visit to the toilet cost 20cents here!)

I couldn't get a shot of people carrying offerings on their heads in the temple. But Balinese women often carry things on their heads like this...

a wild jackfruit growing on a tree outside the temple...

street vendor selling nuts! Onwards to our next destination...

Mount Kintamani Volcano!! (its still active btw!)

eating a buffet lunch (open air - it was pretty high up, so its quite cold) overlooking the Volcano!

Cool right? Oh and Balinese stay (above) uses a very thick stick and has a distinctly different taste from the normal satay that we're use to.

Of course, this being still Indonesia, flies and mosquitoes are everywhere!
So after a scrumptious meal, its time to move on to A small farm of sorts, It grows...

Cocco Beans

Pineapples

Chilies

Flowers... and many other types of fruits/plants...

What did I say about carrying things on their heads?

Also in the farm, were chickens

and ducks running around... as well as a racoon in a cage (will add video later)

I noticed this nice tree truck carving at the exit...
We later went to

The Monkey Forest! (Remember Batu Caves in KL?)

old~

cute!

playful

A mother and her baby monkey

my mom getting attacked by one...

entrance to the palace

Royal living room o.0

Cactus is the new paper! Evidence of tourists having been here.

some flower...

Market 1: Tourist Market...

Can you smell global warming? =P

TEXTiles

Colourful....

Drums...

My sister bought a bag there...

Market 2: Local/Indonesian Tourist Market (A dress costs like SGD1)

then something in this market caught my eye... hmmm...

A small (overpriced, tourist) shop with intricate carvings on its doors...
Moving on.... its 6pm and time for the Kecak Dance (Monkey Dance)...

yes... its aptly named...

right?
After watching the somewhat VERY boring show, we went to get dinner at a road side stall...

Babi Guling (Yes, that is PORK. Balinese are Hindu, not muslim, so there aren't any food taboos here.) Its REALLY REALLY good btw... Highly recommended!

The soup...
And that marks the end of a very tiring Day 2.
Click to hide Day 2

Day 3
Summary: Turtle Island, Scuba Diving!, shopping at Factory Outlets, Massage and Body scrubbing, Dinner at Jimbarang Beach!
Click to show/hide pictures

Arriving in the morning at the Water Sports Centre...

don't forget your sun block...

Boat to Turtle Island...

on the way, we passed by the wreckage of some sunken boats... not very comforting...

Holding turtles...

According to the keepers, that turtle is almost a hundred years old!

thats a BAT!@!

(I forgot what this is)

A snake... (snake skin actually isnt slimy at all)

An eagle...
After looking at the uncaged animals on the island, we went back to change into wet suits to prepare for scuba diving!

Jumping in! My sister in Scuba gear

Looking at the fishes (and feeding them!)
Okay, after diving, we went to shop at some factory outlets (i didnt buy much) and later went for a 2 hour massage and body scrubbing (you know, the one Tommy was talking about), where they scrub all your dead skin cells from head to toe...

And fastforward to dinner...

We had dinner at Jimbarang Beach (normally a sunset-dinner place, but the massage took quite a while)

the Seafood was GOOD! Even though this is a suppose to be a touristy place, the prices are reasonable and considering how delicious it was, very worth it!
Click to hide Day 3

Day 4
Summary: Tanah Lot Temple by the Sea, White water rafting!, Sunset at Kuta, Getting conned by money changer, Nasi Campur Dinner
Click to show/hide pictures

Taken on the way while the car was still moving... a woman selling satay...

main gate

one of the temples...

the waves were breaking beautifully (and this person happened to be doing that, so yeah, thought it would look nice..)

without the person

The realy Tanah Lot temple (you have you wade across the shallow sea to reach it) Oh and this is a HDR image... The sun was directly behind the temple island, so it was the only way to not get a blown out sky or overly dark temple...

My sister and huge rock by the sea... (also HDR by multi-exposure continuous shots)

As usual, more offerings...

An art house is located within the temple paid admission area...

Bali is home to some weird insects like this green one on a large leaf...

And this one that has a cross on its body... (Gosh, is it holy? lol :joking:)

Customizing miniature surfboard keychains with our names...

Some really nice padi fields on the way to our next destination...

more...

When we arrived at the White Water Rafting Centre, we saw a steady stream of elephants! Apparently that company does elephant tours too... (very Thailand-ish right?)

All Geared up and ready to go!

Loading up... (no pictures while we wear actually rafting)

A nice (natural) waterfall at the end of the river... (after finishing rafting)

Since we rafted down stream, we have to go back up again, so we sat on this (looks like something I'd be riding on in NS)
After that, we washed up and headed off to...

Kuta Beach...

the sand..

Look! Its a plane!

My parents...

As the sun was setting...

A mobile sales person peddling her wares...

Can you saw "Awww...."?

After the sun had set

Hardrock Cafe Bali

In large fonts outside the Hardrock entrance...

HardRock surfboard...

another surfboard....

woah! Surfboard Mania... Even Ronald Macdonald is in one...

Macdonalds

we had a Sundae (was cheap)
Okay, after this we decided to change some more money, so as our driver drove to us to the place we were going to have dinner at, we kept looking out the window for good exchange rates (money changers flood the streets of Bali), and found one that was too good to be true! So we went in to exchange our Singapore dollars for 4 million Rupiah, (oh did I mention they give it in 20,000Rupiah notes?), which means its a REALLY thick stack. Without going into the details, the money changer basically took some money (actually 2.8 million!) out of the stack AFTER we had counted it and we walked out without realising it.

As we walked and counted, something didn't seem right, and it was only after we reached the restaurant that we realised we only had 1million plus Rupiah instead of the 4 million we had counted earlier! Normally, we couldnt do anything anymore, since we had walked out of the shop already and the money changers could simply say they we kept the rest of the money and wrongly accused them.

But our driver, obviously very experienced with such scams, went back with my dad to the money changer and just stood outside the shop, staring at them. (He told my dad not to talk) One of the money changers later walked out and spoke to our driver in Bahasa, later apologising to my Dad, taking back the Rupiah on his hands in exchange for ALL the sing dollars we gave him earlier. =) In short, we got all our money back.

The place...

Nasi Campur! (or mixed rice)

this place has won A-L-O-T of awards!
Click to hide Day 4

Day 5
Summary: Bali Bombings Monument, Discovery Mall, Souvenir/Food shopping, DVDs and instant noodles at the villa
Click to show/hide pictures

Bali Bombings Monument (incidentally, it was the 6th year anniversary of the bombings, to the day!)

Our driver...

Discovery Mall... and inside was...

A&W!!!! C'mon! When was the last time you had A&W?

Curly Fries, Fried Chicken and Root Beer on a frozen glass cup! (How could you say no?)

Waffle Ice cream! (you dont see this at Mac or KFC, now do you?)

View from the food court

Lunch...

We went to this place to buy food and souvenirs...

and then I noticed something... BIG... note the person and motorbike to compare scale
We went back to the villa quite early so I decided to check out the farm next door...

and "Moo~!"

The sun setting...

night shots of the villa

the pool

This is the local Bali Beer, Bintang. It has halal and non-halal beer, or rather non-alcoholic malt and real alcoholic beer... The 'fake' one taste a bit like sparkling grape juice...
Click to hide Day 5

Day 6
Summary: Buying J.Co and flying home to Singapore!
Click to show/hide pictures

a really nice clock in the villa

another weird insect I found...

A really beat up wall in a back alley... (looks like some texture for 3D modeling)

J.Co! To buy doughnuts back to SG...

my sister felt like having the yogurt..

was taking photos until this guy stopped me...

Taking a photo with our driver at the airport entrance..

Queuing up...

Checking in...

The Singapore Airlines staff were giving free cookies for Christmas!

The airport...

My dad has some frequent flyer status or something like that and got us into the lounge...

the lounge

mini snacks buffet

free (slow) internet

the food... nothing great, but still...
Again, thanks to my dad's frequent flyer thing, we got to board before everyone else..

So here is an empty cabin since we were the only economy class passengers on board at that time...

taking off..

Watching movies...

looking out...

chow time!

my meal! (okay, its abit unfair to compare SQ to Lion Air)

I had the red wine...

my sister had a Singapore Sling...

and before you know it, 2 hours are over and we're back in Singapore!

I got to seat in Business class while waiting to enter to cockpit. (this is the first time I got to seat in Biz... like ever!)

the Captain was a very friendly guy...

he took this for me...

Okay, so thats all folks! Oh and actually the pictures have been processed and uploaded into photobucket for well over a week, I just couldnt find the time to type all this! =D
Click to hide Day 6

31st Dec: New Years Eve and a Happy 2009!

2009-01-01T23:36:00.002+08:00

Okay, its already the 2nd of January 2009 and school is still going on as usual, which means my assignments and what not will be due really soon... I will be posting about Bali only when I have the time, since the nearly 800 raw photos will take an impossibly long time to process. So here are the photos for the Marina Bay new years eve countdown...

met up with rach and px at Raffles MRT

we had Sakae at the OUB Centre (remeber its OUB and not UOB!)

as requested, the first picture with a person in it shall feature Weiliang eating!

Unagi Chawamushi!

Salmon Cold Dish

New weird tasting sushi

another new one...

new rubbery shell fish sushi

LOBSTER sushi!

rachel and my free red plate

rach + px

again...

everyone

there is an ulterior motive for taking the picture

rachel wanted a picture taken of her and her bag..

after a very full buffet dinner, we went to the empty plot of land near the IR to 'chop' a place to watch the fireworks...

someone else took this for me...
and fast forward 2 and a half hours... 3,2,1...

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

after the fireworks finished...

oh did I mention that there were hoards of bangladeshi workers surrounding us?

everyone leaving the place...

i mean EVERYONE...

we later walked from Marina Bay to Douby Ghuat/Fort Canning Park...

playing cards while waiting for yihui and Brian

we sat outside the OMSQ... o.0

attempted group shot at 2+am...

another... (why cant i get everyone to look up at the same time?!)

(kian lam is being so extra!)

5am...

half drunk

really tired...

peixuan!

Well, thats all folks! All the photos were unedited, so some of them didnt look too good, but I'm too lazy to photoshop them since doing so means you'll only get to see the pictures even later...
Okay... stay tuned for my Bali Trip update.. uh... soon... lol

18 Dec: Xmas in advance celebrations

2009-01-01T20:39:00.002+08:00

rach and yihui came over in the afternoon to bake cookies!

you see the blocks of butter and sugar and so on...

now its one mashy mixture

laying it out to prepare for baking

yihuis hands...

weird expression

putting it in the oven

ta dah!

'testing' the cookies

batch 2 and 3

note the very L-O-N-G cookie which YH later gave to his friend for his birthday

no explanation needed

Rachel photographing

the finished products on a large plate

we later rushed off the Newton Food Centre to dinner with px, wl, raffles, ben and tingyi

big business

sotong?

kang kong

hokkien mee

satay

sting ray

everyone at my place making a din

a BIG din...

ba jiew! playing indian poker

so we drank...

and drank...

and camwhored...

and became red-like-tomato-faced...

and got so drunk that we rode on stationary bikes!!

peek-ture time!

rachel phtotographing yihui drink a very concentrated mix (poured by himself!), resulting in him puking! TWICE!

i went up to the roof with px n rach!

it was a starry night! AND WE SAW A SHOOTING STAR!!!! that was the first time every that I saw one and it was moving REALLY fast! I was so stunned that I only remembered about making the wish after the star had disappeared...

i forgot to re-set my camera after photographing the stars, resulting in rach+px and the lights from the sin min HDB flats

and (much) later... KIAN LAM! What are you doing in your sleep! LOL...

Weiliang's birthday

2008-12-20T01:43:00.002+08:00

birthday boy eating his hand made potato salad courtesy of px!

THE potato salad in question

(you can see what we all ate)

tsk tsk... pui jun in action!

pui jun's attempt at taking a photo of us. needless to say it wasn't very good. =P its underexposed and i cant correct it since it wasnt taken in raw

pei xuan's attempt. (okay, she was just lucky that the settings were mostly correct)

weiliang and his special present. (dammit, i meant to post the picture of him acting as wilbur in sec1, but couldnt find the time)

TOMMY! LOOK! Church!

Rachel opening tommy's year old christmas card :LOL:

'Ariel' shot

based solely on Rachels expression, you can probably guess how good the salad tasted

hand models? haha
---------------
Okay, this will be the last thing that I write for now... until I get back from bali that is. Im still left with yesterday's end-of-year party thing, but I really havent got the time, so that'll have to wait. Its 3am now and in less than an hours time, i'll be leaving for the airport for an early morning 6am flight, so i'm gonna get ready and all now...
Oh and since I won't be back before Christmas, Heres wishing everyone a Merry Christmas! See you all soon!

Japan Media Festival + Extended Family Dinner

2008-12-18T13:31:00.002+08:00

SAM

on the way up

Entrance

!!!

exhibits

exit zone 1

2...

a view of this old church from the 3rd story...

junwei playing with one of the pieces in the 'interactive zone'.

final zone... lots of mangas, famous games like pokemon and echochrome on wii, ps2 and DS

on the way to yishun... evidence of how crowded our buses are becoming! i fail to see how a person in wheelchair can ever board such a bus that was designed specially for them!

at some chinese restuarant in yishun safra. (food sucked btw)

my uncle and his D80

family...

My Dad's Birthday

2008-12-18T01:20:00.002+08:00

My dad flew back on his birthday so we decided to celebrate it at the airport hotel's restaurant, which offers a dinner buffet at 45$ (but UOB had some promos). Okay, no more talking...

the place @ terminal 3

cutlery presentation

my appetizers

raw cold seafood (good, except for the oyster, which had lots of shell bits and tasted pretty bad. i threw it out)

its the chirstmas season, so I had turkey! (along with satay among other meats)

REALLY good drunken lobsters!

heres a better look at it! FRESH!

other main course dishes... average tasting...

cheese and crackers! one of the cheese offered was the one with lots of holes that you see on tom and jerry... lol

colorful deserts

more...

this green tea thingy tasted pretty good... but i got tired of it after eating just half of it...

one of the array of nonya kuehs on offer

happy birthday dad!

the dark chocolate cake was given free by the restaurant

taken by a waiter

in the hotel

nice decor!

Hello Mickey and Minnie!
--------------
Conclusion: variety is severly limited, staff were reasonably friendly and the place had a nice ambience but aside from the drunken prawns and fresh sashimi, the food was average at best. Overall not worth the money.
OT: i've been posting alot about food recently... :o

AutoDesk User Group Party

2008-12-17T23:36:00.003+08:00

i actually have alot to write about, but in the interest of time, heres a summary:
-i got paid 50 bucks for this :grinning from ear to ear:
-there was a free buffet but i was too busy working/eating to take pictures
-there was a free flow of drinks/cocktails but my lecturer didnt let us have any :(
-there are somemore pictures, but i cant edit them cos photoshop cs2 cant read d90 raw files

the 'talk'

the party place

the simulator all set up and ready to go!

clark quay's bar distric by day

look at the 'ice bar'! (blue lights inside)

my lecturers having a go

satisfied 'customers'

wow! stilts!

with lcl

nice huh?

here comes jaime

taken by xun

Miki and Jay

again...

We are on Clark Street!

look! Jay's levitating!

lcl and the in-charge guy talking about business...

look! tripod-less, hand held night photography with low noise @ high iso!

wei xun and his electronic piano score

MASSIVE UPDATES ++

2008-12-17T00:56:00.005+08:00

My holidays just started and is jamm packed with activites, that means i have ALOT to post about, but very little time to do it.
Here are some posts that I have/will be posting:
-10Dec: Autodesk User Group Event
-13Dec: My Dad's Birthday
-14Dec: Japan Media Festival @ Singapore Arts Museum
-14Dec: My Grandma's replacement birthday celebration
-16Dec: Weiliang's Birthday celebration

Theres also the mini year end celebrations on Thursday and my 5 day trip to Bali from Saturday. And after all the fun I had over the past few days, I suddenly remembered that I actually have quite a bit of homework to do (dammit!)
Note to self:
-ACPP Ass1 Snake
-Maths2 Ass1
-PPMan Game Pitch
I will do my homework... maybe later... or later... Oh well... =P

Fine dining at a fine place with a fine price!

2008-12-07T00:34:00.003+08:00

We spent the whole of last week trying to find a good place that was within budget, filling and that we've never eaten at before. And we found... Absolute Haven - a Restaurant that offers fine dining with authentic European cuisine and the best part? A 3 course meal costs only $9.90!! ($11.50 after gst)

Nice ambience...

Everyone deciding what to eat..

fookyu

And we spilled drinks all over the table even before ordering...

Mushroom Soup! This is very different from the usual cream of mushroom that you'd expect, its made with real chopped up mushrooms (hence the color) with some sort of gravy.

Pumpkin soup

Appetizer: Soft Shell Crab! Pretty damm good! It comes with a pink color garlic sauce that (looks like strawberry!) kinda goes well with the crab.

Appetizer 2: (SPICY) Buffalo Wings!! The wings are spicy enough that dipping it in the provided thai chili actually reduces the spicy-ness!

And heres the birthday boy sweating profusely after having one!

(Note the salt and pepper shakers) Oh and the glasses of water - Other restaurants usually serve lemon water, but no, this place serves them with strawberries! Real sliced strawberries that fill half the jug of water!

Main Course: Chicken (I don't remember the name of the dish, but it has champagne in the sauce) Even though its chicken breast, the meat isn't tough like kenny rodgers ones.

I didn't notice, but there was actually rice behind the salad =)

Kelgene ordered the minced beef pasta.

3 people ordered the Angel's Hair. (Looks like a fancier version of char siew noodles to me... lol)

And heres a very candid shot of Nick trying to eat his Angel's Hair =P

Ken ordered the steak!!! (looks damm good)

caption: "stop taking photos of me!"

Wei xun's Mocha

Fook yu's Earl Grey Tea! You actually get to filter the tea leaves as you pour the tea into your cup

My dessert: I don't know how you spell it (but its pronounced Cran-bru-leh) I've heard of this dish a million times in movies, books and what not, but this is the first time I've seem/tasted it.

Eric and his -insert name of dessert-

Fook yu comes out from the kitchen/toilet with the surprise birthday cake!

Lets all sing: "Happy bithday to you..." x3

Make a wish and blow 'em all out!

How old are you again?

My slice of the cake

Our unofficial accountant for the day busy punching in the numbers..

We ended sitting around for an extra hour while she counted again and again the amount that each of the 12 of us owed...

Still counting... writing on the table who paid what and owes how much and all... busy busy busy...

I took this as we (finally) left the place at 4+pm (we were there since 12.30!)

And our trademark standing-around-not-knowing-what-to-do move...

I JUST GOT MY D90!!! + Photos of the past week

2008-11-30T22:52:00.002+08:00

Okay, first off, I'm suppose to be studying and compiling notes for my ACPP tomorrow (I've been putting this off for a while now, and will probably not do it until 2am later...)

2nd of all, I JUST GOT MY D90!!!! Today afternoon I went to Sim Lim with Tommy to 'reki' for cameras, but since he has decided on a Fuijifilm S2000HD and to buy it today, i thought I'd get my D90 today too so we could get some discounts.
Tommy's cam original price $499 ---> $435
My cam's original price $1669 ---> $1655
(did I mention that sitex is selling at a conman's price of $1998!)

The box and camera bag (which belongs to my uncle, I'm borrowing it til I get my own)

The D90 with 18-105 lens

After de-boxing...

Test shot... high apeture focus on the 'ok' button

Test shot 2... at the TV... lol

Test shot 3
------------------------------
Okay, enough of my new camera, here are some photos (from my old lumix) of my week in review:

torturing Jay in class.. (feels so secondary school... lol)

bing and Edwin

Spider-flash-man

Since I had my camera with me, I thought i'd take a picture of the evening sky on the way home

the HDB flats at Sin Min Ave...

My attempt at (fake) panning...

Oh and regarding the photos, two posts down: "Yes, Tommy..."

"No Photoshop!" haha... I did this last sunday i think...
--------------
Oh well, thats it for this week. Until next time... =)

FC Dinner at Chomp Chomp

2008-11-22T16:01:00.002+08:00

I had brought my camera to school but left it with wei xun and forgot to take it from him before leaving, so all pictures are from my handphone, so bear with the quality...

(out of focus..)

sort of everyone..

look at the spread!

We had drinks at a nearby pub... and kinda got ripped off... this vodka with lime was like 99.9% lime+ice and 0% vodka!

Raffles joined us later... and we 'gambled' for a few rounds...

Px serving the Heiniken we ordered... We made sure it was 100% beer, asking for no ice...

Random Stuff

2008-11-17T22:07:00.001+08:00

Okay, I really have no life. My weekdays are spent in school, weekends at home - rotting. Not to mention, all my assignments and tests start this week! So here some random photos from my handphone...

Dao Bin's LONG finger nail. (He's a guy btw.)

And one by one, it gets cut off! (yes, my life is THIS boring)

Squeezing in KF, trying to push people on the edges off the bench.

I found this tortoise in the middle of the road!
------

Playing with long exposure (this photo has not been edited!)

60 sec... (thats an old photo from Sec 2, Annie at class chalet)

another (failed) attempt

Ok, I gave up after this shot... Does anyone know how to point yellow light? (you know like a laser, but yellow or white?)

Oh well, until next time...

Tagged for the millionth time

2008-11-10T22:33:00.002+08:00

The rules and regulations:
1. Each player of this game starts off with 10 weird things/habits/little known facts about yourself.
2. People tagged are required to post their own 10 weird things/habits/little known facts as well as state this rule clearly.
3. At the end, tag 10 other people!
4. No tag back !

1) My TV is left on every minute that I'm awake and at home.

2) I have a terrible sense of time.

3) Yet I've never been officially late for school (since primary school and even until now)

4) I've managed to lose every single hand phone earpiece that I've got.

5) I have a (bad) habit of eating supper.

6) I hate repetitive work. (of ANY sort)

7) I hate talking to Computerized Robots or humans in Indian or Chinese call centres. (Stop outsourcing god dammit!)

8) I somehow like the numbers 2 and 3.

9) I have no life.

10) I... dont know? I bathe twice a day everyday? lol

-------------------

Oh well, whoever who sees this, please tag yourself.

Nothing-ism

2008-10-30T11:18:00.002+08:00

Okay, its been 15 days since I last updated, but really, my weekday life now involves: waking up, going to school, eating, going home, eating and then sleeping. During weekends, it get a bit less monotonous, though I usually have no pictures of these days, so nothing to post about. So here's some random photos from my handphone...

Behold! The PS3 Lab in my school! 40 PS3s+Imbah Computer+20" Widescreen Monitor! The dream lab... and I was having a class in the classroom NEXT to it... It'll be a year before I have access to those PS3s...

When was the last time you ate a traditional Singaporean Atachee Ice-cream! (Okay, its been a while for me too; I have a sore throat and caught a slight fever last night)

Last week at my grandparent's place, I found a baby picture of... me!

When I opened my old 'piggy bank' of coins, I found a leaking AAA battery there which electrolyzed/electroplated my copper/silver coins of varying currencies. Remember the blue of copper? Argh...Chem labs in amkss....

Run-a-ton! When you are absolutely bored to tears and have an out of focus picture on hand, photoshopping provides some form of entertainment... (this was done almost a month ago... Soccer on Tingyi's birthday)
---------------
OT: Quite a few people have asked me about the railway pictures... FYI, the tracks actually run from Woodlands to Bukit Timah to Tanjong Pagar (and formerly Jurong, though I think the tracks to Jurong have been dismantled) The section of track where I took the pictures was at the old KTM Bukit Timah Station near King Alberts Park and Ngee Ann Poly... So yeah, bring your date/friends there, it feels very un-Singapore-like. Just don't get caught (its actually illegal) or get run down by the 6 daily trains that ply the tracks (one around 7+am, one in the afternoon and one at around 9+pm in both directions)

Shi Kai's Birthday

2008-10-29T23:58:00.002+08:00

Birthday boy with peiyi

Dinner at Breeks

Some noob waiter spilled a glass of water on Tingyi! (sounds familiar? like when Rachel got drenched at Pizza Hut last year before the Farewell Assembly thing)

Dunking Peiyi's new water-proof camera in a glass of water

Happy Birthday to you....

Blow out the candles

Group shot by the Bay overlooking the Marina Bay Sands (IR)
-------------
Okay, my camera was running out of batteries, so I could only take a few pictures...

Holland V + Bukit Timah Railway Station

2008-10-14T20:11:00.001+08:00

Despite having lived 17 years in Singapore, I've never visited Holland Village and it iconic Windmill. So on the last day of the holidays, Jay suggested a trip there...

The icon is abit smaller than i imagined it... (Oh and the M1 ad! argh..)

The super narrow, one way. one lane road and shophouses... very 'Hong kong-like'?

Ariel view of Holland V - alot smaller than I thought it was.. I somehow always thought it was at least at size of say Bishan? But its actually smaller than maybe even J8!

LOOK UP!

BLACK & WHITE + YELLOW =P

Ancient old lift come with ancient old buttons with a nice view..

ROOF-TOP

Frame

Slouch
--------------
After our very short tour around Holland V, we decided to head to the KTM rail tracks near King Albert Park, with its colonial train overhead pass that I used to see every other week in sec 4 when I had to go to SP for Aero Competition...

When we got there, we got more than be bargained for... apparently, we have an abandoned KTM Railway Station at Bukit Timah!

Diverge... [OMG when was the last time u got to step on train tracks?!]

Worn

Switch

Welcome to Bukit Timah Station... Next stop, Woodlands...

Rotten wood

(Basically, me on top of a pile of stones.. since I can't think of a clever title)

Anybody say.. Tandas?

Hey Cold storage! Did you loose a shopping cart? Apparently someone bought one for a dollar to put it beside the tracks..

Path

The rusted Steel Workshop for Aged train tracks...

Hide. We have company...

alive; despite being run over daily by trains...

Yes, this is Singapore...

Peer in... [There was a rusted cone of stone just lying there..]

The 'Cone'...

Criss-Cross

The aged colonial bridge...

STOP@!!!

Time to cross the bridge... to the OTHER side..

cruved train tacks!

Watching the Sunset while stepping on tracks..
-------
Btw, the train tracks ARE in use... with 3 trains crossing them everyday (6 if u count the return journey) So don't be there when the trains are!

Happy Birthday Tingyi!

2008-10-01T14:57:00.003+08:00

EDIT: Heres to missing group shot! (Sorry.. forgot!)

---------------------------
Okay, this post has been due a for more than a week now. Its a long story: first I lost by SD card reader, then when I found it Rachel's host suspended her account because I left a not so legal script in my subdomain that I forgot to delete. [Apologies to Rachel and those hosted under her!] It just got back online today, so yeah, here goes.
---------------------------

Resting...

x2

Soccer...

lol?

I tried getting everyone's headshot, but some people are perceptually blocked or back-facing me.

Taking turns to bathe at Leo's house

Train to Marina Sq

Oversized sunglasses..

Changing Appetites: Placing our orders..

The view of the F1 track while we eat...

The food...

Appetiser

Ice Lemon Tea... made of real lipton tea and sliced lemon...o.0

the main course..

close up...

desert...

jw

gigantic bowl of ice cream

make that 2...

me...

lol

cut cake!

Everyone had to cut!

Messy LONG table..

meshed up cake~!

The deafening noise : standing right next to the track thanks to the many loopholes.. thats a ferrari (dunno which one) with sparks!

Vantage point to watch F1 for free... escalator at One Raffles

playing at Bishan Central Playground...

I RAN!!

2008-09-25T18:40:00.002+08:00

Having done absolutely nothing at home for the past few days since the GCA, yesterday, I finally managed to convince myself to start running daily (or at least on a regular basis). Yup! After all the procrastination, I got my lazy lethargic ass out of that couch, turned off the T.V and laptop. (that are perceptually on, almost every second that I'm not asleep).

Okay, so yesterday, after having not ran in a long time, I decided to run a lap in Bishan Park 1 [Total 3.2km]. Unfortunately, I over-estimated my abilities, and only made it to just after then 2.2km mark. After which I terrible head ache prevented me from running any further, so I walked the remaining kilometer to the 'finish point'. A bit disappointing, but I had to be realistic, its been a while...

Today, I ran again, and thanks to two 'unofficial pacers' running ahead of me, I managed to complete the full 3.2km run without stopping or slowing down. I ran at a constant pace that was to my satisfaction (way better than yesterday!), but since I only had my mp3 player with me, the only way I could get my timing was by counting the time lapsed in the songs that were played, and this added up to about 21minutes... Way better than I expected!

Okay, so from now on, I shall run the 3.2km everyday that I intend to stay at home, and aim to increase that to the full Bishan Park 1 & 2 loop (almost 6+km?) each day by the end of the school holidays.

Games Convention Asia 2008

2008-09-22T05:08:00.003+08:00

Day 1:

Kelgene playing a game on the 360

Wow, it WCG... oh wait, no! Its WGT!

Imbah Gaming Machines

EA- The largest Exhibitor

PS3

Would you dare to advertise your game like this?

WALL-E

Tah-DAH! The NYP F1 Marina Bay Circuit Simulator!

SP's booth...

(I have no idea what this is..)

Not too many people on the first day

(Again, IDK what this is...)

How often do you get to see your teacher being interviewed!

Xun videoing it down..

The REAL camera man

Close up..

Our last 'customers' for the day...

Shut Down...
----------------------------
Day2:

The crowds grew larger.. so we introduced a numbered ticketing system..

Utt hosted the Rock Show Challenge thing... [NYP's booth was right next to the stage! XD]

The day was quite un-eventful and before i knew it, it was closing time..

Jay being annoying as we went down to escalator

After Day 2 ended, we walked to the Pan Pacific Hotel's Ballroom for Exhibitor's Night for A DINNER BUFFET!!!

The desert table... (I was so busy eating, I forgot to photograph the buffet selections!)

Eating and drinking

Doesn't that look so much like how Rachel will pose for every photo!

Deserts..

Miki sipping his glass of White Wine (Yes, there was a free flow of alcohol too!)

What we left behind...
-----------------------------
Day 3:

Early in the morning, before anyone was allowed in..

Turning on the simulator's computers...

Some of the other booths didn't even have anyone setting up yet...

DRIVE

'Testing' the simulator (more like playing!)

Mr Roberto filming us...

We had some (make that, alot) of time before opening, so we went down for breakfast...

Jay, despite knowing he has an acute lack of tolerance for anything spicy, decided to torture himself by ordering curry chicken noodles for breakfast.

After breakfast, we went to the 3rd floor to openGL for awhile, and saw a series of porshes...

and Team Singapore Hippo buses!

The last day was REALLY crowded...

People swarmed our booth! (you don't see that at the other school's booths!)

One of the myriad of cosplayers...

Before long, it was 7.45pm... Our final few 'customers' in the ticketing backlog

packing up...

Velcro anyone?

Dismantling...

15 minutes after closing, and most of the booths are beyond recognition!

Everyone...

Professional Movers bubble-wraping our $30,000 chairs...

Loading 'em up!

Just how many potted plants can you squeue in there!

We hitched a ride on the back of the movers truck!

Movie @ Dempsy Hill

2008-09-21T18:30:00.002+08:00

House @ Dempsy Hill organises free moview screenings at their premises every tuesday.

Dinner at B1 Far East with Jay, Miki & Ms Jamie

There was this English Take-Away place... filling, but not really to my liking.
----
After dinner, we paid $1.40 each for the free shuttle to Dempsy Hill. (Yeah..)

Nice Atmosphere!

Movie room

Free Curry Popcorn was given... I felt the curry powder was too strong though.

The seats..

We were looking for the toilets but could not find your usual toilet signs... They were 'creative', to say the least, in marking their loos...

Need i say more?

The ceiling..

The exterior of the building

A helium powered balloon with its 'logo'

BLK 8D DEMPSY RD

Look Ma! Tripod-less night photography with high ISO and low noise!

At the estate's entrance

GRID

A interesting looking church

Group shot at the bus stop!
-------------------
All photos were taken without tripods or flash (expect for group shot) in low lighting! XD