I'm Too Old For This...

It has been a pretty frustrating week...

I just took some time off to relax by keeping the computer turned off and then getting my hands to do some work.

What is the result of my hard "work" and fingers burning with pain due to the size of these blocks?

You'll have to wait for a while to find out more. :D

Yeah... Yeah.. Some folks may say that playing with such toys doesn't suit an old fart like me but hey, they made some of these toys for adults!

Shadows

I've been quite lazy to blog lately.

Looking at these photos isn't going to help either...

Universal Fun @ Lion City - Day 3

Finally.. I'm able to blog about my day at Universal Studio, Singapore.

It was a really really fun day.

Universal Fun @ Lion City - Day 1.5

After dumping our bags at the hotel, we decided to grab a quick bite before deciding our next destination.

We dropped by the Balestier Road Market which is just down the road from our hotel to grab a quick bite. I decided to order chicken rice and kway chap. I had kway chap when I was in Kuching previously and liked it.

Universal Fun @ Lion City - Day 1

I'm still editing my numerous photos.

Some of you have inquired about the size of the room I was staying while in S'pore. Anyway, I'm uploading a few pics here for you to have a look. It is quite hard to estimate the size in images but I will describe it in words. :P

Need a Break...

I can't wait for the weekend to come...

It's absolutely tiring to wait for the long weekend to come by. Rusty is tired of waiting too.

Anyway, before I forget; here's to wishing our Hindu friends a Happy Deepavali and Happy Holidays to everyone else! Don't go overboard on the muruku..

Tired

I'm just exhausted.

I can't understand why.

Perhaps this picture sums it up...

Here's to the mid-week... ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZzzzzzzzzzzzz

P/S: I'm probably exhausted from a pretty rough week, as well as battling back pains.. yet again!

PP/S: This picture was taken about a year ago... Funny how I didn't got around to post it up.

Weekend Brunch.... @ Dome

What I enjoy during the weekend, besides the pleasure of waking up an hour later, is scoffing down a delicious breakfast/brunch.

Some weeks back I accompanied EV to brunch at Dome. She had the desire of trying out the breakfast menu ever since we dropped by the place for coffee one day.

Sunset

Sunset at the beach was really a relaxing experience. The beach was quiet and empty.

R&R @ Damai Puri Resort

Damai Puri resort is a beach side resort just about 45-minutes drive out of Kuching.

It is a bit isolated but the beach is just amazing! I've been here previously but didn't manage to take photos of the beach then.

Cat City... Meow! Meow!

I finally got around to editing some of my holiday photos.

Somehow, I have this nagging feeling that I should have taken more photos than necessary. *sigh*... I'd guess I'm still quite "frugal" when it comes to my photography. Nevertheless, it was a good experience to learn what it is like to lug all my gear around.

Recharged and Rejuvenated...

Am back at work.

However, I can't help but feel physically tired but mentally recharged and rejuvenated now.

I miss the lovely views and the cool breeze...

Some R&R

Finally... I'm going to get some R&R. It has been a while since I went on a trip anywhere!

Oh well, I hope to be able to post something while I'm gone. :)

P/S: I hope to survive this trip as I'll be traveling with EV...

Fishing...

There are days when you wish you can get away to "fish". In other words, we wish to just take some time off to relax....

Anyway, Friday is fast approaching and I'd guess everyone is just waiting for the weekend to begin!

Hope that everyone will have a great weekend ahead... (^.^)

Photography Excursion @ Sekinchan Part 4

Merry Christmas & Happy Holidays!!

Well, hope that everyone had a great Christmas or still enjoying the Christmas break.

I was still working on all my photos during the Christmas break. It is a great pain to edit these photos as the damn perfectionist in me wants to get the photos perfect with the right effects done.

Anyway, aside from the lovely beach around Sekinchan, we managed to take photos of a small fishing villages nearby too. According to a friend, these villages are slowly disappearing as the land around gets converted into commercial property or housing for the locals. So, such picturesque scenery are getting fewer around Selangor.

We spotted this village on our way out to the beach and so, we decided that we would drop by before we left Sekinchan for Ijok.

I apologize for the saturation quality of the photos. I'd guess I took the photo using the wrong settings and didn't quite see it until I got back into the car. By then, it was too late...

This is probably my favourite shot in the series. Golden hour was fast approaching and standing in the shade, I pointed towards the horizon and just kept snapping.

It was still low tide and I was lucky to capture the scene where the boats were docked near the houses. It was quiet around the village as most of the fishermen were resting and waiting for the tide to come in so that they can go out to fish. It's a hard life...

We left Sekinchan to head out to Ijok for our dinner. The organizing team had booked a table at this Beggar's Chicken restaurant a few days in advance to make bookings for the beggar's chicken. You have to call a few days in advance to book for the Beggar's Chicken/Duck/Fish/Pork. We opted for the traditional chicken.

We also had seafood (again) and throwing cholesterol caution to the wind, we just indulged ourselves after a long day of "work".

The prawns were HUUUUGGGEEEE. We could only take 1 piece as we were stuffed with the glutinous rice, pork stomach soup, vegetables and fish. For dessert, we had chilled honey-sweet nangka. The nangka cost RM10 per kg but it was worth it. It was sweet and fragrant.

Sorry, no picture of the nangka as everyone quickly "sapu" (consumed) it all when it was put on the table.

Anyway, my apologies for not providing directions as I was a passenger and so, didn't have any directions with me. However, Googlemaps gave a good set of directions & I believe the drivers were using that as a guide to get to Sekinchan and Ijok.

*sigh*.. Now, I'm yearning for another photography excursion but I've yet to complete my other Christmas photos.. ARRGGGHHH!!!!

Photography Excursion @ Sekinchan Part 3

After a great lunch, we all had quite a number of hours to "kill" before we could head towards our final goal - to have a great dinner at Ijok. So, based on the directions of the restaurant captain, we set off to find a lovely beach nearby.

We drove on and finally heard the sound of waves hitting against the shore... We were near a beach!

It's a slice of photography heaven as the beach was quiet and the sky was clear of any clouds... We jumped out of our cars and happily snapped away.

My only regret is that I don't have a lens hood and so, some shots appeared to have quite a bit of lens flare. However, I managed to incorporate that effect nicely...

When we walked on the beach, we noticed that we were not walking on sand but on shells!! Shells were just scattered around the beach.

Most of the shells were intact and absolutely beautiful. For those who loves to collect shells, it was a great find. Luckily, I brought some additional plastic bags to pass around everyone who were collecting the shells as the photographers were busy with their work.

We also saw that there were a few fishermen by the shore. We're not sure if they were locals who just came to fish for pleasure but this kid sitting by the beach offered a great subject for a photo.

I converted the photo to black & white for more impact... Luckily, the boy and the fishermen were not bothered by us. They were busy with the business of catching fish.

As I walk along the shoreline, I noticed a great tree which became a perch for some sea eagles flying in the area. I wished that I had a superzoom to capture their majestic flight around the beach. They did not approach us and as I neared the tree, they hid in the mangrove plants nearby.

We spent close to about 2hrs around the beach before moving on. We had another location to shoot before we headed off to Ijok for our dinner.

Photography Excursion @ Sekinchan Part 2

A friend just commented about why I didn't post any good close-ups of the rice plants. So, here is the best shot I have so far...

We were really grateful for the wonderfully hot weather we experienced during our trip. It had been raining for quite a bit since it's the wet season.

The blue skies against the green/yellow paddy fields painted a beautiful picture. Too bad that I was only armed with my kit-lens & 50mm only. I would have loved to have a wide-angle or zoom lens to capture some details. Anyway, I'm shopping around for a reasonably good zoom lens with a reasonably good speed so that I can do some low-light photography too.

Nevertheless, I am grateful that I did bring my external flash to take photos of the people who posed amongst the fields. The itty-bitty in-built flash would not have been strong enough for such work.

We started our session a bit later than planned, so, lunch was around 2:30pm. We shopped around for a good place to eat, where we wanted to try some specialties like shark meat but the restaurant we wanted to go to had closed down. In the end, we opted for some simple seafood...

I won't bore you with the details of the type of vegetables we ordered. We opted for seafood since we're supposed to be near the sea... The size of the mantis prawns was just shocking! The meat was sweet encased in its seasoned shell. I just had to have a couple of those prawns despite the diet restrictions.. Kekeke...

We didn't really wanted crabs as we were expecting to have a bit of seafood later that night but after the captain's sales talk, we bought into ordering about 1.5kg of crab. It was very fresh and was not salty as I expected.

I enjoyed the steamed clams in Chinese cooking wine. The clams were succulent and not at all rubbery. The sauce went very well with the rice.

No meal is complete without another round of prawns. LOL!

Again, we did not want to order this but after seeing plates of large prawns being sent over, we just fell into the temptation of ordering it. It was the best decision made that afternoon! I took just one prawn for taste and it was heavenly. Except for the head, I gobbled up the entire prawn - shell and all. Yum.

Once we were well fed, we decided to head to the beach. We asked the restaurant captain about any nice beaches around and she pointed one out which was just down the road.

So... once we got our camera settings ready, we were off to our next photo shoot location!

Kickstart of a Photography Excursion

I needed a good cup of coffee just before we started the photography excursion last Saturday.

So, while waiting for a friend to pick me up, I had a cup of coffee from McDonald's.

I know.. I know.. In my condition, I should not be taking caffeine. But then, I was just too sleepy and also, a bit hungry while waiting for her. Besides that, I had to take a bit of medication and I can't take it on an empty stomach.

The excursion was fantastic and we had a great time. We were very lucky on all fronts as we managed to take some really great photos (timing was everything) and we all got home in one piece despite driving on some really dark roads that night.

The weather cooperated with us and we had a fantastic time.

Will post some photos up in the coming few days... When I'm done with my dark-room work.

Some "Me" Time

I've been longing for some "Me" time lately... Yes, spending some time alone to do my own stuff, contemplate life, bla bla...

Well, I wouldn't go THAT DEEP... LOL!!

Sometimes, I just want to have some "Me" time to do stuff which I like, i.e. go look at books or just sit around and look at people... i.e. LEPAK?

It's good to take a breather now and again - especially when you have a lot of daily stresses from a very very demanding project.

In one banking project a looong time ago, my PM used to say to us, "come, let's go minum" after we've had a very long (& absolutely stressful) day at the client's site. During that time, we would just sit, have a bit of tea; and just keep quiet. He would just sit quietly and study folks as they walk by the stall or sit nearby. Of course, he will "cuci mata" (oggle) but it was subtle, so much so that you can't notice it at all!! He was one cool dude, the epitome of grace under pressure.

That's probably one quality I find hard to master... Probably because I have a short fuse and am a perfectionist, I am my own nightmare at times.

So, I should take a lesson from Snoopy - just sit, relax and just stare out into space. Yeah, you might fall asleep in the process but then, taking naps is good for us!