Life's Moments

01-01-2012 Day of Reckoning

2011-12-31T19:00:00.000-08:00

2011: Again, another flash!

Notable concerts

Melvyn Tan: Mozart Piano Sonata in C in January, I'm still playing it during the rare occasions I sit down at the piano.

The Cranberries: Another to-do before I die list ticked in August.

Jay Chou: Not too impressed :P

Chris Botti: December, master of the Trumpet

Notable events

General election, Nicole Seah, Tin Pei Ling, 4-Tans at the Presidential election

Mesmerising Leica M9P with Noctilux 50mm f/0.95 lens à A ‘to-own’ before I die?

Trips:

Beijing, April: Good peking duck, nothing much else.
Bali, May – Wedding of Shawn and Joanne, a perfect wedding!
Sepang, June – Super GT! Japanese Racequeens!
Hong Kong/Shenzhen, November: Wedding of Carla, fantastic food!

Wines: Had the pleasure of tasting Lafite, Latour, Musigny and several excellent montrachets. Look forwards to more whites next year!

Chris Botti - Master of the Trumpet

2011-12-15T06:29:00.000-08:00

The trumpet is a notoriously difficult instrument to tame. Being 'loud', 'rash', 'in your face' is probably what most think about the trumpet. Fanfares to welcome royalty, cheers to commemorate victories and more feature the trumpet as the leading instrument. In the Jazz/pop arena, the trumpet is hardly a key. Miles Davis come to mind as one of the virtuosos of the instrument. And now, we have Chris Botti, whom perfects the brass instrument like no other. He hits the high notes with ease, and with smooth effortless delivery. Ballads sound great too under the maestro's handling. With a world class backing band, with an amazing vocalist (can't remember the name here).

Botti would talk about the story behind each song, with witty humour adding to each story (Which I feel relates well with the audience and the music!)

2011 Marathon: A slice of good weather

2011-12-04T01:50:00.000-08:00

Torture, insanity, challenge, adrenaline, life long dream. The many words one uses to describe endurance racing. For me this year, it was all of the above. Having completed the full marathon in 2009, the half marathon which Wenhui signed me up for felt much less daunting back in may or July . Training, if any, could be limited to maybe 8 or 10 km, and one can complete the half marathon with relative ease. Training went upwards to 12km on occasion, starting from my house along the canal all the way to the formula 1 pit building and back.

Challenges: 3 weeks before the race, I was away feasting roast goose in Hong Kong followed by a week of 16 hr days at Sitex. A bout a fever, body ache ensured and it was the "week of rain" , endless precipitation lasting days in a stretch, limiting my only 6km run just a day before the marathon . Everything didn't quite fall into place but it was GO time! Race start at 630am at Sentosa. Packed MRT which ran all night helped to move hoards of people around. Fueling on bananas and water, it was race go with Wenhui and good pal Loke Yuen at the start line. Run keeper checked and it was go! Roads were cramped and got into a bottleneck at the dolphin lagoon, the organisers are sure to get a ton of complains! Pace dropped dramatically here and I was all wet by the 5th click, hydration was an issue and I could not keep water down and felt congested. It was a long run through Sentosa, with the final leg through literally through the entire Universal Studios Singapre and the icons were out in force to cheer the runners! Definitely a highlight of the race. By the time we got out of Sentosa, my runkeeper clocked 12km at 1:15, but the road marker was at only 10km!! Was I zig zagging too much ?? And this was also when the run keeper stopped, unknowingly I might have stopped it. It was a struggle from then on, getting water into the system and a half powergel to keep hunger pangs away. Slopes up keppel viaduct and Ayer rajah expressway didn't help . The right inner hip starts to hurt, many runners had pitstops along the sides for deep heat treatment. I didn't see such need for deep heat as my limiting factors were the lungs and water intake. The trodding began ernest at the top of the benjamin sheares bridge, as I ran up the 500m slope, and was left within nothing in tank for the final 3km push. Time for mind over body ? Not so when the body wants to protest against the constant pounding and it was an ungainly stupor to the finish. Adding insult to a beaten mind and body, the kids dash started in tandem with my final click and they looked like thorough-breds fresh out of the gates! The finish was unpleasant with a ton of mud and a million other smelly runners. Wenhui took another hour to make to home, while making a visit to the medical tent due to dehydration. The medical tent was a luxury, with free flow of drinks, fans and widely spaced chairs!

Overall a pleasant experience. Will I sign up next year for the half or full marathon? I need a good shower, lunch and forty thousand winks before any thoughts of 2012 come in!

Yeah, I packed a poncho, from one of the NDP gift packs!!

The MRT crowd before the race, can't imagine the smell if it's after!

And the 5 lights go out!

Damn I missed the Transformers mascot!!!

Glad to be out of Sentosa, and faced with endless stretches of expressways, long slopes up viaducts.

Hordes...

Kids running faster than the bulk of the Marathoner's pack.

Not really a welcome sight, with a mass of smelly runners, muddy paths. Nevertheless, a shower, lunch, and the Z monster were comfortingly close!

Hong Kong 2011 - Part 1

2011-11-29T06:51:00.000-08:00

Hong Kong! The land of perfectly roasted goose, soft century eggs, yummilicious egg tarts and 8 million people in a tiny Island! Here we took the airport transfer to Hong Kong, costing ~HKD120 for 2 pax.

One way out!
Started off the photography earnest with the subway,

With the mobile-self-centered nation also prevalent in Hong Kong, with most commuters busy texting away....

We stayed at Newton Hotel Hong Kong http://www.newtonhk.com/, with compliments from the Buffer Club. The hotel was located right next to the Fortress Hill MTR station. Here's a stair master right next to the junction behind Hotel Newton!

We had wanted to go for the 'Bouncing' meat balls, and we found this Lok Yuen place instead. Fantastic Fish balls! The meatballs are good too. Noodles with the meat balls were great.

Another street shot, at one of the biggest interchanges anywhere around, the Hong Kong / Central interchange!

The busy streets of Mong Kok. Bargains aplenty anything from Iphone covers, Angry birds motifs, fake watches!

A lovely Audi showroom in the middle of Kowloon.

The Mercedes showroom at Lee Gardens, photography wasn't allowed: I'm like. WTF?! I continued snapping anyway! Who can turn away from the silvered mean beasts!?

The SLS AMG 6.3L with winged doors, carbon fibre side view mirrors and a hosts of tech enough to make any car-nut cum in their pants. Cost a cool HKD3,700,000. (Only ~SGD$600,000).

Excellent fish balls from the Lok Yuen place.
Crown wine cellars

Lovely Carla, the lady of the moment

Halifax Ad Lib 2008, pretty good.
13.5% alcohol, 84% Grenache 16% Shiraz. Sweet fruits, chocolate after taste. It grows on one! A nice Grenache from Mclaren vale!

Lanson NV, house pour champagne. Quite decent. Prefer the Rose version anytime!

Sutherlands Creek, Geelong 1st White 2007: Saugvinon blanc, Semillon and Viognier blend. Citrus nose, balance palette, apples, ton of sunshine. Very enjoyable.

One of the most fulfilling meals, at Kam Dau Kee. Kam Dau Kee Seafood Restaurant, Shop A3 & 1/F, Block 2 & 3, The Zenith, No.3 Wan Chai Road, Wan Chai, Hong Kong

Excellent roast goose, suckling pig, and this lovely thick pork liver broth with a 'jiu3' vegetables. Really memorable!

At a flea market, big fresh Sun Flowers, who can resist a smile?

There's a saying: the unbeaten path is the best, and if a restaurant doesn't have a menu in English, it'd done a 'good job', not to sell-out to the masses. This is one of them, just 'another' coffeshop we went in a morning. Soya bean hot froth tasted sweet and pretty different from what we have in Singapore. Wenhui loves it but I won't be having another bowl of this at this restaurant.

Another sweet street shot!

It was my first time on a Tram, and I loved it! Trams are classic, feels great to have the wind in your hair (in late autumn...good times compared to squeezing in the MTR), and they're bloody cheap! Cost HKD2.30 per ride regardless of distance! And trams exists only in Hong Kong Island!

A non-HK meal, as all the HK restaurants were booked solid over and waiting lists were long. This was on the final day in HK and we settled for a Jap restaurant.

Agnes B cafe, some expensive ~HKD60 slide of cake @ Lee Gardens. A worthy pit-stop, lack of crowd, and comfortable seats and environment!

While the girls can troll the streets for other hunts, this was my heaven. A wine shop! Berry Brothers and Rudd! Lovely selection all around, had the pleasure to taste some good whisky with Kat. ;)

Honolulu Cafe / Tahn Doh, Hennessey Rd #176-178. Get out Wanchai MTR station, exit A4.
Perfectly cooked egg tarts. DO NOT ORDER fried rice and bee hoon here. Those taste like CRAP! Just order the egg tarts, bo luo bao, and a drink!

Angry birds on a sling! What a great way to whack your friend when you're bored in a classroom.

I was guested by friends in Shenzhen for a couple of days. Rice wine was the topic of the day and I was burping it through the night! haha

Great street food, BBQ fish! A little salty though.

A game of chance, of drinking!

Traveling and rushing from A to B to C is really tiring and causes the body to heat up. Here's a visit to an empty desert shop, serving a pretty famous Quilingao. It tasted neither herbalish nor smooth. The texture was rough and wasn't pleasant at all. However, my body felt cool after this! Hence it does work!

iphone 4S - succumbing to white and black

2011-11-12T19:46:00.000-08:00

You know an era has truly changed, when your friends leave you out of a group chat because you don't have whatsapp. This brings back memories of the instant chat messenger ICQ of 1999/2000, where it practically dominated the entire IM market. It could leave offline messages, and a function can let one turn one 'live' chat, meaning as you're typing, the receiving party can see what you're typing, including the backspaces. Then came Microsoft Messenger, MSN, with it's cute emoticons and alone with that, friends uprooted from ICQ en masse and left for MSN, leaving ICQ extinct. And you're right, I had to leave, reluctantly. Now MSN is the default, with group chats, offline messages, history all in place and more.

In 1997/1998. SMS was a very new concept in Singapore, phones were seriously expensive and SMS rocked, leaving the alphanumeric days of the Motorola Jazz behind, and an industry circling SMS was born. Now, apps, mobile messaging, threatens the existence of SMS. whatsapp, mobile msn, skype, recently imessage, and 'compilers' of IM such as ebuddy with a super new XMS function, (XMS can send free SMS from any desktop computer (or mobile one that is), the SMS market is looking bleak!

Telcos who have been charging by the minute/second/sms, has to rethink seriously now, as voice/sms are all simply data over the precious GSM networks, while the previously unheard 12Gigabytes of bandwidth per month for surfing needs over the 3G networks could be holding the GSM networks by the throats. I'm still unsure why 3G is still 'behind' GSM, it's slow in terms of speed/coverage/bandwidth throttle? (eg: voice over skype or any of your favourite IMs are usually poorer than voice over GSM networks).

The end of an era. I've the HTC Rose S740 for ~3 years. Back in 2008, there was the iphone, but it wasn't as superb as it is now, and I never had the need for such a 'smart' phone nor the saw the feasibility of a touch screen device, preferring the feel and feedback of real keys. The S740 also had a QWERTY keyboard which one can slide out. The plan was to go online with Wireless@SG if required to do some surfing and emails on the go. Wireless@SG has turned out to be pathetic! The only saviour I had was the S740 was run on a windows platform (ok..Andriod and iOs trumps all now, but then Windows Mobile was not relatively good), and the SMSes were 'threaded', and it was profoundly useful. Also, it had 'quick texts', allowing short cut keys to reply chunks of text (such as addresses, emails etc). Overall the Rose worked really well for 3 years bearing an initial 1-2weeks of nightmare service from M1/HTC.

The moving out of the old, in for the new....the 'home page' of the HTC, clean, with simple icons, and showing upcoming appointments, any SMSes unread etc. (compared to the million updates from FB/Twitter/BBM/whatsapp/emails from a few accounts that I'm handling partly with the BlackBerry Bold).

Wenhui's 4S, previously she was using a HTC wave : A rubbish, half-baked brick, a s(tupid)phone. It was one of the first foray of HTC-Android phones, with promises of seamless integration with Google products. The HTC Wave was slow, surfing of the net was worse than the 56k modem century.

Now, the time has come that I need a truly smartphone, as work requires the update/speed that we need to push information out, and gather information as well. And I feel the Apple has worked this out well with the 3GS and especially the Iphone 4. And now with the dual core A5 of the Iphone 4S, the smartphone in it's 5th generation, is finally becoming of age and worthy of all the accolades poured onto Job's Apple.

Only 1 day old into the Iphone (yes, I'm a very old virgin), I've become a teenage school boy you see on the MRT, hogging the toy all day, grinning to myself, and not having much conversation with my mom nor anyone around me.

I've woken up today (day 2), to the Iphone's alarm, and downloaded 'RunKeeper app (whilst still in bed), and let out a 'woot'! with a big grin akin to unwrapping kryptonite on Christmas morning. The app went superbly went in the 6.2km run, with GPS, location systems, all locking on, without lag, and a dozen buzzing updates in the background.

I love it!

Thank you, Steve.
@}-;------

A day of sports

2011-08-29T09:09:00.000-07:00

A great day of F1, Formula 1 Belgian Grand Prix at SPA, the best GP on the circuit. It wasn't without base as I was literally glued to the telly from the gun with multiple overtaking, assisted with the super high speeds through the best 'corner' in F1, Eau Rouge, leading up camel straight with 23.5seconds of full throttle. Yes, 23.5 seconds of putting pedal to the metal in a 800bhp 600kg car. Imagine that!! A switching on of DRS and burst of KERS and one can overtake relatively easily. The glue to the TV came off suddenly on the 15th' minute mark as Steve Slater (Star Sports, ESPN commentator) announced that it was time for a break. I literally shouted at the TV a bit 'OUI!!!!'. F1 is one of the sillier sports which has commercials during a 'live' coverage! Imagine that during a BPL match. During the late 90s, F1 was shown on 'Sports City' and the televised F1 was WITHOUT commercials and at the end of the race, the interviews of the drivers were show immediately! (not like now where one needs to wait ~15mins). Enough of ramblings, it was a great race, one where tyre preservation, timing of pit stops and general strategy were important. There're rumours where in future, the Belgian and French GP would alternate like that the Japanese GP is alternating between Suzuka and Fuji speedway. Economics and money getting in the way of great racing action!!

SPA ROCKS!!! *mission to self: To go to SPA one day and watch F1 at the Eau Rouge corner!

The saturday was made memorable with a superb trashing of Arsenal by arch-rivals Manchester United. I'm not a BPL fan but Man U vs Arsenal usually turns up great matches. And watching it on FULL HD via Mio Stadium and a 42" telly was really really soothing on the eyes. Man U had great showing by Rooney and Ashley Young (whom between turn curled in 5 beautiful goals behind the hapless Arsenal defense). Wait, there was no defense, where one is called if the back line was cohesive. Arsenal's 7 non-usual starters look out of sorts and were seen without ideas. Van persie and Walcott had no fire in their eyes and looked plain 'sian' to even play. It was a simply a slaughter house in the Theater of Dreams, the worst showing of Arsenal in it's 115 years with a 2-8 trashing by Man U.

What a memorable day of sports!

Birthday wines!!

2011-08-13T21:25:00.001-07:00

It was one of the great dinners, and I had the chance to celebrate with Willy whose birthday was just 10 days apart. Everything worked out nicely, with great wines, company and fantastic food from Imperial Treasure. Cake was from Laurent Bernard, nice blackforest but not the authentic ones which remains elusive! More of the wines commentary on my wine blog at http://whoisdionysus.blogspot.com. And not one who likes to be in front of the camera, I'd prefer to post images with friends at my facebook.

The Cranberries - fulfilment to the MAX

2011-08-02T07:44:00.000-07:00

It was a dream come true. I've 'grown up' listening to The Cranberries, learning many of the songs I've grown to play on the guitar back in Junior College days. Songs such as Zombie, Ode to my family, Linger were absolute classics. The chords were simple enough for beginners to pickup, melody was simple and yet not the conventional American pop. The Cranberries had records to the tune of the struggles of the Irish against persecution. I continued playing hits from Cranberries during National Service (At MDC) and our Sab-0 (zero) band during my University days.

In 2003, I did an student exchange in Belfast, and The Cranberries had a concert there but I missed it!! (Due to lack of funds, and non of the Singaporean mates wanted to watch), In July 2011, there was a TV ad which promoted The Cranberries, LIVE in Singapore on the 1st August. So this time, 8 years later, I just HAD to attend the concert. The missed concert of 2003 has been lingering in my mind, as they would have been at their prime and the venue was of that a small hall with possibly no seating (Imagine how it would have rocked!!!).

So when the lights dimmed at 830pm, and the band pumped out a string of his like "Hollywood, I can't be with you, Dreaming my dreams", it was a 'moment' that took my breath away, literally a life time of 'anticipation' and 'fulfilment' was felt. Now I understand why some fans (especially young nubile teens) will fall flat over their idols. I've realised that The Cranberries has touched me no other band has!

The rocking went on, Dolores showed signs of aging though her voice was a strong and crystal clear as any of their 5 albums so far. The 'du-du-du' of several songs including Ode to my family was airy and pitch perfect.

The hits kept on coming, Zombie, When you're Gone, I practically knew every single song which they performed!! The fastest song they played was Salvation, though I'd like to hear them play Forever Yellow Skies 'live' (A practically 2-chord song!! with slamming drums...great for moshing). After a short break with Zombie, The Cranberries came back with another slew of hits Free to decide, Promises and finally one of their biggest hits, Dreams as a fitting Finale!

Thank you The Cranberries for the music!!!

M9P: A10pointer!

2011-07-25T06:54:00.000-07:00

Having had my first DSLR in 2004 and tried several brands/models, it was 'another day at the office' for me when I picked up the Leica M9P last week. Leica is known for having excellent sharpness, top grade materials, precise German engineering, and the camera system for any serious photography to own one. I've never liked the 'non-mainstream', ie: Lomography, rangefinders, medium-format cameras, preferring to use tried and tested Japanese brands and the power of photoshop to tweak my images the way I see fit.

I've tried a M8 or M8.2 with a 21mm (either a f/1.4 or f/2.5) a few years back, and the handling nor images didn't impress me. It could have been my lack of skill!

This time, I had the luxury and honour of really 'powering' the M9P and one of the most sort-after lenses in production - the Noctilux 50mm f/0.95. Coupled with the full frame sensor of the M9P, the HUGE aperture of 0.95 is massive!

The M9P comes with a CCD sensor, which is known for rich colours but poor noise performance. Hence a fast lens is good. With the Noctilux, nothing is too dark to shoot! Street lamp provides ample illumination for subjects.

Subject-background separation never felt so smooth.

At f/0.95, focusing is practically paper thin, a mis-step or too heavy a breath, the focus plane is off. An 'arty' image can be made this way, with emphasis placed on shapes, composition, colour rather than on how sharp an image is.

Oh yeah, street-shooting with Fireworks !!!

I really love how the colours turn out, this shot without any editing at all, panning in practically the dead of the night with only the street lamps watching above.

An addicted man, this is, now....

General Election 2011 - Personal thoughts

2011-05-07T20:36:00.001-07:00

Here're my personal thoughts on this GE.

Right to vote:
For the first time, I'm able to vote, and I'm in the Marine Parade GRC. It has helmed by Senior Minister Goh Chok Tong and it was considered suicidal for any opposition party to go against the PAP. Due to heightened political awareness, most of the seats (82 out of 87) were contested and the majority of Singaporeans are able to vote. (2.2million eligible voters!)

Nicole Seah versus Tin Pei Ling
Tin 'Kate Spade' Pei Ling is perhaps the most famous topic in this election other than Workers' Party win in Aljunied GRC. I don't subscribe to slamming her like many netizens did. Standing out as a candidate takes courage, even if it's tagging onto SM / PAP, or 'connected husband', or a dangling $15k/mth paycheck. It's a lesson for everyone (including Pei Ling) and quitting now or over the next 5 years will be a mistake on her part. If she does fail in the duties, I'm sure PAP will drop her anyway. In the 'pink' corner, we have a 24 year old Nicole Seah of the NSP, who speaks and presents herself well and has won over the hearts of many netizens. Overall I'd say TPL's appearance is a good overall event for Singapore in general, as it brings out what a percentage of the public wants to hear, and PAP as well as everyone else will learn a lot from this, that a politician's background needs to be squeaky clean (one can't been seen with branded products). TPL in government is a good thing, to see if the young can lead, and this will further make PAP thing deeper and create better policies in future. Nicole is the example of what other Singaporeans can do, that we do need people (especially the young) to step forward to take the lead, instead of simply venting off online. Nicole is a fine example Charisma, (Lacking in Pei Ling). This point is not brought up, but rather her string of materialistic persona which was constantly under attack. Charisma, heart to lead, squeaky clean backgrounds are the key factors in to be a successful politician. Ivy league certs, generals from Government and a ton of PSC scholars might not guarantee the Singapore's future

Future of Singapore
Can Singapore take a two-party/coalition government like the US/UK? Can people seriously imagine that the WP wins say 20 seats in 2016? Will Singapore be seriously a 'better' place? Personally I doubt it. I do agree that the many policies (such as liberal immigration policies especially to attract foreigners to take up tertiary education) are over-zealous and needs to be re-looked. Change is happening too fast and I doubt that Singaporeans can adapt fast enough in terms of to the policies on the ground as well as the changes in government. Hence the verdict is out, that Singaporeans want a slower rate of growth with feet more firmly planted to the ground.

Majulah Singapore!

Ramen, Bendict, Leek & Tomato

2011-04-16T21:01:00.001-07:00

Breakfast with dishes as before, with the added boil min-asparagus tips and runny eggs. Simple to cook. Healthy!

First attempt at Ramen.

Target: 4 servings

Broth or 'Dashi':
Shiitake (China) fresh mushrooms: 1 pack, $1.95, wash soak 10mins water, dump in ~1L boiling water for 1hr (way too long, suggest 10mins next time). Limpy mushrooms were added before final stock onto the noodles
Honshimeiji, dried Sardines, 1 small pack $3.90. Added to boil for continuously heated broth. 1 Teaspoon of Miso. Tasted excellent, till I realised the broth wasn't enough for 4 pax. (<1L already). Added more water, slightly miso, but turned too plain. Should have added some shoyu directly at the end.

Shogayaki , pork slices from Canada, 7 slices for $8.95. Marinated with 2 part Shuyo, 1 part sake,1 part mirin, drain of marinate, put in plastic bag, refrigerated for 2hours, pan fried, absolutely yummy though it doesn't look like the regular japanese 'char siew' though it is the 'correct' cut.

Eggs, Meidi-ya Fresh Eggs 350G, 6 for $4.60 (super ex!!!), Seng Choon farm fresh eggs 360G,6 for $1.80. (Just as good!). As a fan of eggs, I wanted a side experiement to see/taste if 'branded' eggs are different from 'regular ones'. Seng Choon had markings on the eggs and Medi-ya's didn't and I thought that should do. Upon boiling, all the markets were gone and I couldn't tell what from what! Recipe: Try to get eggs to room temperature as much as possible. Put eggs into water, heat water to boil, time 4 mins, take out eggs and dunk into ice cold water. Peel shells carefully (eggs are fragile!). Prepare small amount of (shoyu, sake, mirin,2:1:1), heat it and pour into a plastic bag, put eggs into plastic bag, store in fridge. Dice eggs into half before serving.

Spinach, China. $2.0 for ~6 bunches. Cut away root, cut into two as my pot was small. Put veg into boiling water, ~2-3mins (should have put longer), take out veg and dunk into ice water (yes..u know...ice water bucket is aways good). (Added crunch to the veg,...which my dad wasn't a fan)

Ramen: Ryushobo fresh frozen ramen. $2.75 (Serving for 4). Didn't expect a touch time dealing with this! Boil water (simple enough!), throw Ramen in, (big mistake: dumped 4 packs in), pot was big, but the whole noodle/boiling water got into a big tangle, the smell of 'gee1', (the yellow colouring chemical on noodles), was overpowering and causing a yellow froth to float around. Noodles were sticking to each other and were getting soft after ~3mins and emergency solution solution was to take all out, flush tap water, mixed with ice to stablise the noodles and rid the 'gee1' smell. Noodles were pretty much salvaged in the end, an unforgettable battle well worth fighting to taste fresh ramen.

Leek (China) $4.50 for a pair. Dump ~2cm of the lowest portion, cut the next lowest 3cm, use the outermost 2-3 layers, cut into strips longitudinally. Soak in water for 1hr before serving. This is for a garnish purpose. I think spring onions will do too, as leek is very expensive! (Side note, the rest of the leek were cut/chopped with 4 small potatoes, boiled in water for ~30mins, drained of water, blended with ~300ml of milk, added grated Parmesan, salt, pepper to taste for a very vegetal, fresh, thick leek/potatoe soup!)

Absolutely the most pretty tomatoes, from Thailand, $5.65 for 8 crunchy, so-good-you-must-eat-on-its-own-only tomatoes! Superb as appetizer.

Emerging city

2011-04-15T06:41:00.000-07:00

During a four-year course of graduate studies, countless samples of wafers, glass and other types of substrates are used for experiments. Here is a glimpse of a portion of author’s ‘stash’ for four years. Dealing with organic materials, a portion of the work was dealt with luminescent polymers. Towers of light rise against the ‘pit’ of other substrates, creating the ‘emerging city’, from the old-world lit in red and blue. - Perq Jon CHIA, NUS 2000-2009

Breakfast!

2011-04-14T07:21:00.001-07:00

It was a sudden surge of interest, that got me going to prepare this breakfast. Having tried to do 'Ramen' eggs previously, a friend of mine got me interested to cook potatoes (another one of my favourite 'comfort' food). Here it is, my official first full set of breakfast (other than instant noodles).

items and brief description

Small baked potatoes, boiled for ~10mins, stabbed 5-6 times, olive oil+salt, in a pre-heated 210C oven, bake for 45mins. Crush potato with a smooth, butter, pepper to taste.
Small hasselback potatoes, boiled for ~10mins, cut into 3-4mm thicknesses, olive oil, in a pre-heated 210C oven, bake for 45mins. Pepper to taste.
Tomato, slice into 2, shredded Parmesan cheese onto it, bake in pre-heated 210C oven, 15mins.
Egg, prepare hot water, put in egg, fully submerge, heat to boil, take egg out by 4-5th minute. Cool eg in room temperature water. Pepper to taste.
Bread: Brandless wholemeal

Reference: http://www.seasaltwithfood.com/2010/05/crash-hot-potatoes.html

Next attempt: Asparagus, Benedict, ref: http://kitchen-parade-veggieventure.blogspot.com/2007/05/asparagus-eggs-benedict.html

Valentines day no. 11

2011-02-14T06:26:00.000-08:00

Valentine's day no. 11: Sushi Tei (East Coast at former big splash) missed out on our business as they don't have reservations. We changed venue to this Ramen eatery Yoshimaru, with very decent Ramen. Great noodles, not-too-salty broth and fantastic pork, this was fantastic value for money!

Present from wifey, a potted plant without the need for sunlight nor water ( it feeds on ice!! )

The old and new and a present (or two?)

three grandmothers during chinese lunar new year 2011

2011-02-05T08:26:00.000-08:00

It is the time of the year for those who celebrate the Chinese (or Lunar) New year. The exchange of mandarin oranges is the custom of Chinese. The oranges stand for 'gold', and is exchange with greetings of abundance, good fortune, health and prosperity. It is the only time the year perhaps for many of us to visit our relatives. And this post serves to freeze the moment in time, for my three 'grandmothers', as I only visit them once a year.

This is my maternal grand mother. Visibly aged, she has shrunk a lot in the previous years, and has great difficulty in walking. My maternal grand father has passed away more than twenty years ago and my grand mother has soldiered on with seven children and sixteen grand children. Barely able to converse in my limited command of Hokkien, she gamely smiled at me when I whipped out my camera and took a few snaps. This is the first year that she wasn't able to attend the yearly family gathering as she is practically wheelchair bound and has no lift access in her flat.

This is my paternal grand mother, with six children, eleven grand children and three great grand children. My paternal grand father just passed away three years ago. I can barely speak Teochew and could not really converse with her. She hardly smiles, and this shot was blur due to hand shake but her smile was captured.

This is my 'ah um', my babysitter when I was a baby. When I could remember at five years old, I was visiting her and staying with her periodically. I've always looked forward to stay with her as she would bring me to playground at void decks and I could have as much fun and time without any curfews from my parents. I would remember that my feet were completely black after each session at the sand-filled play grounds in the 1980s! I would also remember that she cooked the best pig kidney's soup, with generous amounts of ginger and kidney. It was a delicacy and pricey item before the health chants on good and bad cholesterol. Now, she's at a nursing home, and this is my first visit in two years and she has almost could not recognise me. She still hasl good mobility and amazing lungs (the entire floor of twenty plus occupants can hear her speak!).

As time goes back to normal on Monday, we will be busy with our lives, it'll be fast-forward another year before we visit these important figures in our lives. Cherish your loved ones!

Melvyn Tan plays Mozart Piano Sonata in C

2011-01-20T04:56:00.000-08:00

What a night, Melvyn Tan played Schumann, Debussy and Chopin. This was his first concert in Singapore in around 30 years? Due to his 'exile' as he was deemed to have 'escaped' national service, he didn't have the opportunity to visit the place he was born.

Anyhow, the playing was great, though I fell asleep thru the entire first piece. I was somehow exhausted, perhaps due to the great meal at Tomo Izakaya (fantastic Sashimi!!) I was awoken to rapturous applause.

The second half was great, through Chopin's Polonaise and Sonata. But as someone who is not 'hardcore' about classical music, my favourite section in recitals is always the encore. The first was a Chopin's Etude, and the 3rd and last piece was also another Etude (The 'Revolutionary', a decent way to end the night. But to me, the show stopper was when he played Mozart's Sonata in C, 2nd movement. And it was the only time Melvyn spoke during the show, that he last played this piece when he was eight years old at the Victoria theater. What strikes me in the simplistic music of Mozart Sonata is in the masterful playing by Melvyn of this ''children's piece.

Simplicity is sometimes best in our ever chaotic world, and with a maestro helming the Steinway & Sons concert grand, Mozart's music was ringing again, from the about-to-be-refurbished Victoria hall, through the 21st century Esplanade Concert Hall. What a generation!

01-01-11 Reckoning of 2010

2011-01-01T07:08:00.001-08:00

Another yr has flashed past. Glancing briefly at my year end post of 2009, it's another year gone!! 2010 is over...just like that! This blog hasn't been updated often enough, as the world has gone hyper pace with IT, and blogspot is so '2009', and 2010 is all about Facebook.
I'll still like to reflect on 2010 over at this post.
Back in March, Wenhui and I went to Sepang for the 3rd or 4th time, with some waning in interest.
Year of wines:
I've been lucky enough to have a great team of wine comrades, meeting occasionally to enjoy the tippings from grape juice, climaxing this year with a 1982 DRC Richebourg Magnum bottle during christmas eve.
Roadshows, I've been part of all the major roadshows + some misc shows this year, 6 of them!

Trip of the year, Germany!! It was a list of 'things to do before I die', not quite, but you get the picture with things like driving 220kmh in BMW on the Autobahn, drinking beer from 1L mugs at Oktober Fest, going to roman-type spa at Baden-Baden, visiting Mercedes and Porsche museums in Stuttgart and visiting the largest photography fair in the world, Photokina, was simply unforgettable.
YOG, the opening fell on my birthday, 14th August, and Wenhui got a room at MBS, and the bay view from the 'top of Singapore' was simply spectacular!!

Sushi Jiro - Yummy

2010-09-10T09:27:00.000-07:00

It was wifey's birthday and we went to this little joint at Siglap (near cheescake cafe), called Sushi jiro. Superbly fresh sashimi, here's the medium set, with seabream, fat yellowtail (it's...dripping with fat), flounder (damn sweet tasting!), deep red tuna (never seen such red fish before), and one more I can't recall now! One will never even go near the soya source as the fish is so heavenly good and the freshly grated wasabi is delicious on it's own!

The impeccably made Sushi Moriwase.

The famous Yellow tail cheek, grilled. Wasn't to my liking on this day.

Had the Hananomai Chyo Karakuchi, dry and sweet.

Some mucus-like egg + Yam which the wife loves...

Aromatic, balanced, and a perfect way to end a dinner, the soup in a teapot!

Marina Bay Sands, 'on top of the world'!

2010-08-16T04:03:00.000-07:00

A memorable weekend. 5hour wait to get the room. A huge relief. Great dinner at Imperial Treasure with friends and relatives. Perfect view of the Youth Olympic Games event. Fireworks right at your eyeball level. Good wine. Great companionship. Swimming at the top of the Singapore.

Happy birthday to me. ;)

Steak - Degree of rareness

2010-05-10T08:32:00.001-07:00

2010-04-03 Formula 1 Sepang

2010-04-11T01:35:00.000-07:00

It was getting a bit more boring each year it seems. With the no-refuelling rule during a race, it really gets much less interesting than before. The only thing that is keeping the 2010 season alive has been rain so far, and the reliability issues faced by many teams. This year, the wifey and I trooped up to Sepang once again. We saw heavy rain during qualifying, Nick Heifeld in person, a large Petronas presence in their home turf, and personally, waning interest in visiting Sepang. It's almost to a point of seeing that and done that.

The year of 2009

2009-12-31T19:49:00.000-08:00

During 31st Dec 2009, somehow a sense of longing came over me. I wasn't prepared to say goodby to 2009. Time is simply passing of minutes/hours/days/months..and years, but the gregorian calendar which we all use have been set upon us, that it is infact significant on many levels that the year is going to increase numerically.(+1). I met up with a long time friend, Evelyn from Victoria Junior College (VJC), and several other mates of the same school at Lunar, Clarke Quay. The same gang did have a countdown together exactly 10yrs ago, (countdown to 2000), the BIGGEST bash possible). And this countdown to 2010 was a 10yr calebration of that. *Goosebumps*. Having watched or shot fireworks (more of the latter), over the last 9 yrs during the countdown, this was a refreshing change. I still love fireworks very much (Especially so when I was editing some footage with YouTube video here. And this post serves to be a think back of the year of 2009 for me.

The biggest single event was the commencement, the graduation from my Phd studies at National University of Singapore (NUS). Having completed 4 great years of Phd and a year as a post-doctoral researcher, I also left NUS.

I"m also taking another direction in photography, I'm still shooting weddings mostly, with slightly more emphasis on travel this year and this was part of an exhibition at The Old School, while we were packing up!

Other noted highlights include travels to Hong Kong in june, Hokkaido, in October (more in my posts under 2009), and truly amazing Bali in November (with the immaculate sunset pubs such as Kudeta and Mire, which makes Singapore's KM8, Cafe del Mar look inferior). Hope to post some images of that later.

I'm also starting into wines, with a blog at http://whoisdionysus.blogspot.com, beginning a long journey to learn about this fruit from god.

I"m also a continued F1 fan, with visits to the Sepang and Singapore GP! Still hope to go Belgium GP one day!! At the Eau Rouge corner!

Lastly, I did complete my first ever marathon at a respectable? time of 6.12. With minimal training due to an injured ankle in september which refused to heal for several weeks. After the Japan trip in October, training was left to 6 weeks and injury /time management was of the essence. Taking care of hydration, over-exertion, and calorie intake, I manage a few exhilarating runs up to the F1 pit building, training up to ~18km. The marathon itself was fun and eventful, with Wenhui taking part in the half-marathon, and fellow mates Loke Yuen/Jing Mei and Guan Hui who joined the full marathon with me. There was plenty of pain, but not a single moment of giving up. The same can be said to life, as the cliche goes, life's a marathon, and 2010 will be just another click, let's ROCK ON, 2010!

Hokkaido Day 2: Furano to Abashiri

2009-10-22T08:47:00.001-07:00

Day 2 of the trip! After a tiring first day of a midnight flight, + driving in the dark/rain/winding roads to Furano, it was a clear skies on the next day!

Chu totoro gets packing and ready to go! Outside, autumn colours!!

One of many japanese vending machines, this one dispenses TV cards to watch pay-TV in the hotel

One of the most amazing milk ever at the hotel breakfast. This small bottle would have cost ~160yen in the shops, >SGD2.

Wenhui all decked up in boots and ready to roll! Prince Furano hotel in beautiful temperate light!

Our first stop Furano Ice Milk factory, producing cheeses of local milk! Here Wenhui corresponding with the milk producer.

Yummy cheese samples for tasting! The black ones on the left are blended with squid ink! Oooh!!

The 2nd stop was the Furano Wine factory. Here an expansive shot of the entrance, aptly named Chateau Furano!! I guess the French influence on wine is everywhere!

Too used to Australian Chardonnays, blancs, some German Rieslings and some French whites, the description of this 'Ciel' wasn't in any sort of book which we have comed across! Nevertheless, we felt that this was great and we bought a couple of bottles! Ciel means 'sky' in Japanese,...I stand corrected!

The next stop was Shikisai no Oka, with cultivated flowers of a myraid array of colours! The sunflower season seems to have ended reently with dead beds of sunflowers. Here a classic view of blue skies, and rows of colours! With a white house to boot!!

Still at Shikisai no Oka, another shot which I like.

Japanese accessories/sourvenoirs are impeccably made and packaged. Here's an exmple of plastic encased flowers, in backlit situation.

Our next stop is at the Otokoyama Sake brewery. This was a great day, with cheese, wine, and now sake!! Here's 男山, one of the most famous sake from Japanese. And this is the highest grade of them all! Tasting remarkably different from regular sake, I couldn't decide if I like it! This has hints of Moutai to it rather than the usual sake signatures.

Wenhui putting on a 男山 costume, ready to make her own sake!!

Light was falling fast, we spent too much time on cheese, wine and sake, and this was enroute to Abashiri at Ryusei & Ginga falls. It was really windy and conditions were very cold. I didn't bring any ND filters nor tripod and can't pull anything more than 1.3 seconds on the shutter and this was the best I achieved with limited gear.

With light fading fast, the skies changed and we stopped to snap when we felt like it. Here Wenhui's dad capturing the last light of the day.

Trees beginning to be barren in the autumn.

My usual practice, start stripping shoes etc and take a shot of the hotel, here at hotel Abashirikoso with a traditional tatami seating area.

The gigantic portions of the dinner, what you see is not the complete set for ONE person,YET!! Hurray!!! We tried our first Onsen (common bath/hot spring) tonight and I didn't really enjoy....seeing naked men all around...sigh.

A long and satisfying day of cheese, wine, sake, great lunch (not shown here), cold afternoon, nice sunset, fantastic dinner!

Hokkaido, Nagoya 2009! Part 1

2009-10-20T08:47:00.000-07:00

A wonderful trip, in several chapters, between 10th October to 19th October 2009. A fly-and-drive trip, with Wenhui and her parents, have us set off on the 10th October onboard an SQ flight at 1am. I had thought they would serve food on board, and I was starting to be damn hungry, and a leading stewardess said, oh..we only have biscuits. I'm like.. WTF...trying to pull crap? And she instructed another stewardess to pass the biscuits to me. And the biscuits were crap, similar or worse than Toh Guan stuff. But I had to eat, and chomping I went. After I almost finish my plate of biscuits, the leading stewardess came back and asked if I wanted instant noodles. Not a newbie SQ flights, this is terribly disappointing to have them offer this at a late stage. I wasn't full, but I wasn't hungry..and I let it go. The rest of the trip was tough, a 1am flight is never fun and we reached the transit at Osaka ~6am local time.... and the rest of the magical journey begins!!

A beatifully lit Osaka terminal greets us as we left the aerobridge.

In search of better food than SQ crap, we started fumbling at orders. Here's the REAL deal!! Everything in Japanese!!!

A plate of 8 Tako (Octopus) balls constitutes a meal for them. This is extremely starchy, and after the 3rd or 4th..it gets really quite tough to continue...hee

One of the many Japanese wonders, a solution analyser to ensure that your water bottle is safe to be brought onto the domestic flight..to Hokkaido!!!!

More beautiful light on the ANA plane. Very nice interior and great service!! The stewardesses greated every single one, and sincere and wide smiles throughout!

A hand at a 'grabber' before the flight..hee. Arcade games are terribly expensive at >100Yen and above (Exchange rate ~100yen to SGD1.60)

After meeting our tour leader and collecting our car, it was straight to the first place of interest, the setting sun of a temperate country is... wow..here backlit lavender? flowers.

A field of crops again backligt in the setting sun.

It was bloody cold...(~12C? with howling winds), I was in a dry fit tee and the thinest wind breaker but enjoying the hell of the time!! It's like enlightment to be faced with the fresh cold air and light from heaven. Here's Wenhui burrring in the cold..hee.

A quaint little house of Gelato magic.

Amazingly flavourful, not too sweet with the right body, this was my favourite gelato for the entire trip!

A super long and ardous journey across dozens of winding roads in RAINING and PITCH DARK conditions brought us to our first accommodation in Prince Hotel at Furano. One of the most luxurious meals (~4000-6000yen) awaited and this was...*slurp*..an unforgetable meal!

Till the next day....

Formula 1 Grand Prix Singapore 2009!!

2009-09-28T19:02:00.000-07:00

Some of my shots taken over the F1 weekend. It'll be a 'car-only' post instead of a general write-up of the whole event.

Here fisichella passes the finishing line in the midst of a practice session in the twilight with the Singapore Flying in the backgrond. One can also see the podium where champagne will pop!

A Brawn GP car carving out a nice line. A white/green car riding a white/green line.

Another shot of a Brawn GP car taken using slow shutter and panning technique.

City view, again in twilight.

Coming out of one of the most famous bridges (Anderson bridge) in Singapore, another panning shot taken here.

Another panning shot, here I like the trail of colours above the force India car matching the livery of the car itself!

Here's a panning shot in portrait mode, to show the retarding green/white stripes.

Over all I'm happy with the shots given the limited views and various fenced up area. If any has offers to Paddock Club/Pit passes/Photography vests, do let me know ok!!

Diane Reeves: Mosaci Festival 12/9/2009

2009-09-13T20:00:00.000-07:00

http://www.diannereeves.com/, amazing vocal range, spanning 3 octaves easily. Incredible diction and clarity, with wit, humour, conversation in melody, this was...the best concert ever!!

Toy convention 2009

2009-08-16T00:50:00.000-07:00

Many thanks to Weichang & Yiru from www.myotakuhouse.com for the invitation to cover their showcase at the Toy convention 2009! Here're some snaps from the convention!

Not a great toy fan myself, I couldn't get my eyes away from this impressive display of Transformers! The number of Optimus Prime alone was mind-blogging and I might start to understand why some fanatics have their houses converted to a collector's haven/museum!

Here's a snap of Otaku house! Covering many cosplay items plus collectibles. Check out the Qee selection!! www.myotakuhouse.com!

An example of the absolutely gorgeous and exquisite showcase of Blythe doors. The booth was swarmed with admirers all wanting a piece of this beautiful colleciton of dolls!

Here two men trying to look cool infront of the Blythe showcase.....but hiding a doll each behind them... ;)

One of my favourite stations was the Wii counters, there were easily 10+ stations set up for people to play all sorts of Wii games! This is the new floor pad...and remember to wear the correct coloured socks!! I also had the chance to go on stage to try the Wii guitar!! More images of that to follow...

Joining the 30yo club

2009-08-14T08:36:00.000-07:00

Finally, the 'dreaded' day is here. It seem so far away in the horizon for so many years, and never thought how it would feel to finally reach here. And 'poof', it's here faster than anything I've seen.

Some say what achievements have gone through the past 30yrs?? I'm happily married to the love of my life, I'm enjoying my wisest and perhaps the most productive years to date. My 'raw speed' of thought hasn't match up to when I was 18 years old, neither has my 'pure' physical fitness now compared to when I was a teenager. BUTT!! I'm enjoying fine wines up to vintage of 1982 (that's a tad off my birth year!! 1979, which isn't known to be a great wine vintage). I've my own ride and I've taken part in biatholons and triathlons and I've just signed up for my first marathon!!! (standard chartered 2009). I've also been conferred a Phd recently. I've been fortunate enough to witness great cities and national parks of the world, and been blessed with a camera to capture many of these great sites. All in all a great 30 years!

For the next 10 years, many of the '30 club' have said that it's the best years of one's life. I look forward to be successful in my career, to carve out a path worthy to guide others on theirs, to taste the best food and wine around the world, to savour the fruits of labour with my family.

More thoughts to follow....*written after a tank of Sake!!!*..

OUT!

*part 2 of story....Here's one of my best meals I have could have imagined, great Japanese fare (courtesy of TK's arrangements & Thomas culinary skills @ Tomo, Marina square), private room, and XL bottle of Sake, 6 pax, fluid conversation and exchange of ideas = a meal close to perfection. The sake when warmed turned out to be extremely fragrant, switching on the 'right' taste buds at the right time. Here's a composite shot of the gang. From the top left, Cheng Wee, Me! and Yaozhong, buddies from Victoria School, top right, Hoe Soon and myself, trenders! and yes, that's the bottle of sake which we finished. Bottom left, wifey and I tucking in mouth-watering prawns! Bottom right, a trio with Loke Yuen grining with excessive sake blowing red on his face!

Part 3 to follow...

And it was back home for a traditional cake cutting with my parents and wifey. Damn 3 big candles!!!

This was about a week prior to the actual day, celebrating with my research group, Organic Nano Device Lab @ National University of Singapore. It's a tradition to get a cake for the 'babies' for each month. And since August was going to be my last month and it was my big THREE-O, I had to decide to get a 'good cake', and share it with the group! I chose passion meringue from The Patissier , it cost...a BOMB!! Think $XXX, but from everyone's reaction, this cake was worth it..hee.

More to follow? I think so!! watch out!

We, the citizens of Singapore...

2009-08-10T07:33:00.001-07:00

I was very fortunate to be able to catch the NDP, albeit it was NE2, but it was the BEST NDP ever which I've watched. The creative direction by Ivan Heng and music direction by Sydney Tan was simply ..WOW.. I absolutely love the 7X8 'cubicles' and it was such a great idea! My favourite segment was the 'chapter 4', where by Singapore was in a 'Fast forward' regime with music from various generation from the 60s all the way through the 90s. The mixing of Shout- Tears for Fears, Spice girls - Wannabe, Madonna - Music and other songs were simply 'pumping'!!! Watching the parade from the Telly on NDP itself was just... so different compared to 'live'!!

New blog - Grape Juice! http://whoisdionysus.blogspot.com

2009-05-10T00:37:00.000-07:00

In the flurry of wine-events which I've attended lately, it seems more appropriate to create a wine blog for that. And 'Who is Dionysus?' is born! Please submit answers to the question and the winner will receive a mystery gift!

Jacob's Creek, cabernet sauvignon 2007

2009-05-04T08:49:00.000-07:00

I tried the Vintage 2007 at one of the most popular hotels in Singapore, Marina Mandarin! The nose is really pleasant, with medium acidity and decent length. Can a structure of a wine improve over time?

Penfold's Rawson Retreat Shiraz Cabernet 2006 & Laborie Cabernet Sauvignon 2001

2009-05-04T08:24:00.000-07:00

I brought these two to Alfred's place. Thanks to TK for the wine glasses! This Cabernet Sauvignon is from the 2001 vintage. The cork had almost dis-integrated! The wine has matured into a dark ebony. The nose is unlike any other wines. I'm unfamiliar with South African wine, and this has been a refreshing nose. The wine has interesting structure, with well-mannered tannins, slightly sharp, and an unfamiliar length.
We also had the 2006 Vintage of Rawson's Retreat, Shiraz Cabernet. The nose is excellent, wonderful floral/fruity bouquet, with well-balanced tannis/palette/length. It's really a good value-for-money wine! I wonder how well it'll mature in 5-10years?

Chateau Corbin 2000 & Blason L'Evangile 2005

2009-04-27T07:29:00.000-07:00

We had the pleasure to taste the Chateau Corbin Grand Cru Classe St Emilion 2000 & Blason L'Evangile 2005 at TK's place. The Corbin was a 2000. It was decanted for already an hour before Wenhui and I arrived. And fresh from the memory of the Loeville Poyferre's masterclass a week earlier, everything of the Corbin was 'benched-marked' against the Poyferre. It was indeed tough to match the classic vintages of the Poyferre but the Corbin had strong tobacco scent, (not my favourite), and hints of aged fruits (can't tell what). Overall it's decent Bordeaux wine. The Blason L'Evangile 2005 was a surprisingly youthful wine which doesn't need any decanting and had bountiful fruity nose and very approable for such a young wine. All it needs now is a few years in the cellar and it will blossom beautifully!!

2009-04-05 Malaysia Formula 1 Grand Prix!

2009-04-25T00:42:00.001-07:00

Formula 1 Grand Prix, 2009! Having last been there in 2006, we finally decided to to there again, this time on K1 Platinum grandstands! We went with http://www.wheelsforfun.com.sg/ again. Here's an expansive view of turn 1 at 17mm focal length.

Drivers' parade!!

I opted for a slightly different angle for the turn1 this time. Instead of a full 'frontal' shot of the main straight, I chose to take the cars turning into turn 1. Here we have Nico Rosberg leading Jensen Button into turn 1!

A panning shot of Jensen Button of Brawn GP. Ross Brawn has proven to be a legend in Formula 1 with his tactics and technical skills with various teams over the years (Benetton, Ferrari, and Honda, which was bought over and now it's Brawn GP team!)

A nice lady amongst the green green seats of the grandstand. The amount of shelter provided by these grandstands were no match to the rain and wind which were to bombard the circuit on race day.

Kimi Raikonnen leading fellow Finlander Hekki Kovalainen.

The wifey and I.

Fellow Kimi fan!

We couldn't see/find any Brawn GP mechandise, and this was the only fan I saw who had the Jensen Button apparel!

Nelson Piquet.

Impending wet conditions saw the photo and video crew wiping out rain gear for their equipment.

It was a real treat to be in Turn 1, with a large screen TV in a corner and I had audio commentary as well via noise-shielding ear-buds, I could hear that Kimi was going to overtake Fernando Alonso, and from the screen, Kimi overtook Fernando at the final turn, and we could see and cheer him as he comes back around turn 1. This was the most enjoyable F1 ever in terms of enjoyment of the race. Kimi was to finish disappointingly as Ferrari decided to put him on full wet tyres even before rain fell hard.

Nakajima fans.

Mark Webber of Red Bull Racing makes a classic passing move on Fernando Alonso by slip-streaming the Renault on the start-finish straight and plunging down the inside of Fernando. The Renault late-braking cause the inner wheel to lock-up and alas it was too late and Mark had the corner covered!

It was ~6pm, it was dark, it was raining. The safety car almost came to a standstill to collect the leading car (Jensen Button), while almost the entire field was skating around on the wet wet track. We could feel the rain on us as the wind blew the rain into the sheltered grandstands. I love this shot, the race was in disarray, Felipe Massa kicking up a spray in the very dark conditions, with the safety car scrambling to make sense of the field.

The race was red-flagged a within another lap or so, this was 6:10pm, all cars were back onto the start-finish grid. Usually, the stewards will wait for the situation to improve to re-start the race. Fans were already booing at this stage, as >20laps of the race were left and it looked impossible for a re-start given the rapid loss of light in the rain-soaked evening. Audio commentary and video footages at this point kept the 'race' going for us as we had video and audio interviews from several drivers and team bosses regarding the handling of the situation.

It was 6:52pm, 8 minutes more to the end of the 2 hour limit of each race, when reached, will render the winner of the race as the highest placed driver when the race was stopped. Here a dramatic shot of Jensen Button being told of the conclusion that the race had been cancelled good and he was declared the winner. The dark surroundings with many fans leaving in the background shows the plight of this grand prix. The FIA and Malaysian F1 authorities will probably agree to never have a race start at 5pm local time ever. If this is so, then we have just witnessed live, one of the most dramatic races in Formula 1 history!

I love F1!

Chateau Léoville-Poyferré Wine masterclass!

2009-04-23T09:00:00.000-07:00

A long anticipated wine master class!! Thanks to recommendation from Wenhui's brother, Tiong Kiat . We went for this wine master class, of Chateau Léoville-Poyferré. The wine owner, Didier Cuvelier, was here himself to showcase his wonderful selection of grand vin, Chateau Léoville-Poyferré. Second wine Chateau Moulin Riche is also made by vineyard.

And off we went to St Regis, an impeccable hotel with a Ferrari F430 with several Bentleys lining the porch. We were to taste 8 vintages, the very first time I was doing such detailed wine tasting, and through EIGHT vintages! We started with the 2006 and went all the way to 1982. I shall attempt at writing notes per vintage. Wine experts, please correct me!

Chateau Léoville-Poyferré 2006:

A red-purplish wine with a smooth nose with a hint of fruit (can't figure out which fruit). Mild acidity with trace of tannins. Decent length. 6% Petit Verdot (PV), 21% Merlot (M), %73 Carbenet Sauvignon (CS).

Chateau Léoville-Poyferré 2004:

A pretty 'weak' nose, with chocolate? notes. With mild-medium tannins, sharp on the palette. OK length. My least favourite.

Chateau Léoville-Poyferré 2002:

Interesting smooth nose of hints of Sulphur. Sharp and crisp, medium to strong acidity. Complex, dry and long length. Didier suggested 15 to 20 years of aging!

Chateau Léoville-Poyferré 2001:

Fruity nose of plum and mocha!! Smelled 'woody' too, smooth, mildly-sharp, very dry, long length.

Chateau Léoville-Poyferré 1998:

The first of the 'mid vintages'. Dark chocolatly nose. SUPER nose, I can nose it all day! Extremely well balanced, tannins/acidity/length go hand-in-hand all the way! My favourite!!

40% M, 58% CS (2% PV?)

Chateau Léoville-Poyferré 1995:

Floral notes, pleasant on the palette, smooth with aged tannins. Acceptable length.

Chateau Léoville-Poyferré 1989:

A 'true' vintage! Very dark brown red colour. Fantastic nose (which fruit??). Another vintage which I can nose it forever. A bouquet of roses! Nothing to nitpick, acidity/length/tannins are balanced.

Chateau Léoville-Poyferré 1982:

A 'out-of-this-world' feeling. Doesn't look, nose like that I'm used to. Fruity, smooth nose. Strong on the palette, mild length with complex tannins. A true gem of ripen age.

2009-02-20 Olivia Ong & S.H.E. at Yoga's Lin concert

2009-02-28T06:17:00.000-08:00

Thanks Edward for the tickets! We were seated in block T2, from the North entracne. We had a great time watching Olivia Ong & S.H.E live!!! Ella is really good.

Only snapped a few shots and videos with the Sony Ericson W810, and probably are crappy to be uploaded. We'll see!

Vday 2009!

2009-02-16T07:05:00.000-08:00

Valentine's Day 2009! The last Vday to fall on a saturday back in 2004, where we went to Rasa Sentosa for a wonderful weekend. This time, we tried out Amara santuary on the other side of the Island. Here's the expansive lobby, the transparent ceiling on the top left is under a roof of water...pretty nice at night!

The birthday bear with his flowers in the hotel room. (210).

Flowers galore around the place!!

Us having a fun time at the jacuzzi next to the Sky Pool. (there's another 2 pools in the vincinity).
We had the Glass Pavillion to ourselves for ~30mins for the wonderful dinner by Shutters restaurant.

Interesting first course with Soba, topped with Abalone and roe!

Awesome Foie Gras, with cold? tomato soup. Interesting courses were to follow..

Went walking around the place on the next morning after breakfast...

Wenhui went Peacock spotting! (or Peeking!)

It turned out that they're a pair of PeaHens, with a gorgeous white Peahen, seen here making a quick exit from our sights as they must have grown tired of the relentless stalking!

***** Love 4ever *****

Cinderella - The Musical!

2009-01-15T07:31:00.000-08:00

Lea Salonga was absolutely fantasitc as Cinderella! I didn't thought much about the show, I mean, it's the classic story..but was blown away!! The sets were life-like, the carriage was simply awesome!!! Add the perfectly-pitched voice of Lea....

2009/01/01 - Looking back @ 2008....

2008-12-31T18:03:00.001-08:00

what a year it has been!! I've been married, tasted wonderful wines in Alsace, France, watched Singapore Formula 1 GP live, witnessed Ferrari losing the Formula 1 world title by the most un-expected fashion, started Red Dot Photo, covered >20 weddings.

2008 October - Smells like teen spirit

2008-10-26T08:54:00.000-07:00

Kudos to Edward and quartet, Leo and Bride.

Formula 1 Singapore Grand Prix!

2008-09-30T22:45:00.000-07:00

Finally, it's here! The formula 1 Grand Prix,....in Singapore!!

Many do not know that there are 2 Singaporean drivers in the Porsche Carrera cup (a supporting race to the Formula 1 race). Here one of the very few places without the fence!

Kimi Raikkonen!! Difficult conditions with high fences and poor lighting!

Jarno Trulli's Toyota racing pass the Padang straight in front of the old Supreme court.

Kangaroo TV, an amazing application which allows one to tune in to 8 channels of live video!
Here with favourite driver, Kimi Raikkonen and the Ferrari colours.

Nico Rosberg trying to get pass Jarno Trulli @ Turn 7. Nico managed to get past Jarno on the next lap.

A wider view of turn 7. See the crowd of people lining the fence and all the way up the slopes for the free-standing platform. People must have started camping ~3hours before the race start!!

A fantastic weekend on the whole, though disappointment with Ferrari finishing out of the points.

2008-08-22 Singapore Fireworks Festival 2008

2008-08-26T08:53:00.001-07:00

Singapore Fireworks Festival 2008 at the Marina Bay floating platform. Truly spectacular! Just great to be SOOO near and get blasted by the choreography of lights/sound/fireworks!

Taken using 5D with 17-40mm on the 17mm side. Bulb mode, Aperture ~F13-F22. ISO100

2008-08-26 Formula 1 tickets - Collected!

2008-08-26T08:26:00.000-07:00

Ahh...finally....laid my hands on the F1 tickets! The world's first night race! Actually, I don't have much anticipation of a night race...well.

2008-08-01 Gudung Ledang, Malaysia

2008-08-09T21:42:00.000-07:00

Went for an orientation camp ~200km north of SG. Laid my hands on a Nikon D60 with 18-200mm VR ED by Zhang Fei during one of the games and waiting for the perfect moment, BAM!!!! should I get a Gold medal for this? :P

2008-07-12 NDP NE2 2008

2008-07-13T07:54:00.000-07:00

Thanks for Wifey, I went to the NDP National Education show part 2 with my parents!

Here twirling like mad......

Ushers and cheerleaders...

all shots were taken with my butt planted to my seat in the orange sector

Excited audience using caps and flags to peer on the dots in the sky as

~9 paratroopers descended down marina bay.

Dudes watching the show (what concentration!)

Majula Singapura!!!

"When I grow up, I want to be a Black Knight!"

They had 'live' conversation for a few stunts they did, well done!!

The finale, with the usual medley of 'We are Singapore, Count on me Singapore' meted out in perfection with the fireworks!!! Really love this part!!

Alas, already kept the tripod after the 1st series of bursts...and scrabble to get this final shot!

Onward, Singapore!!!

2008-05 Honeymoon

2008-06-09T20:39:00.001-07:00

Spent a few days in Paris before a week in Strasbourg and the Alsace wine region.

Another couple of days in JungFrau region in the Swiss alps.

More images are http://picasaweb.google.com/perqjon

Streets of Strasbourg

Notre Dame, Paris

Sacré-Coeur (Sacred Heart), Paris

More at http://picasaweb.google.com/perqjon

Mr. Marshmallow's Rainbow Halo!

2008-03-24T09:06:00.000-07:00

14th March 2008...what a sight! And the amazing capabilities of the Sony Ericsson k750i. Took this at -1.3 stops to preserve the whites. And I've already tried to reduce the noise. (ISO100 still a bit noisy). Anyone with better algorithms please share!

Oakley: Speechless!

2008-03-22T09:41:00.000-07:00

Gotten a new pair of Shades! Used to have the A-wire, 5s, Splice,
then got ~$10/pair shades..now back to the O! Oakleys!!!
Found that all the models on the shelves are foreign to me....oooh....now I'm Speechless!

The birth of Lampo Bianco! The battle of the whites!

2008-03-06T06:43:00.000-08:00

Created a new blog today, after getting the keys to my new ride! A Suzuki Swift Sports! More news at the new blog at http://lampobianco.blogger.com/! Cheers!

The new, the old, and the old.

NUS Biathlon 2008!!

2008-02-17T06:26:00.000-08:00

Be One.

It was the most ill-prepared of my 3 consecutive NUS biathlons (2007)(all in the sprint event 750m swim, 5km run). The quality of the field seemed to have improved as I was overtaken like a stationary ragdoll, whacked and tossed around in the filty seas of the east coast of Singapore.
(hindsight: while re-reading the program, the next wave was for Tertiary Invitational!, no wonder I was swurmed (swum+swarmed) by dozens of dudes/gals in the water! Its a valid excuse, I must say!!)

My time was about the same as previous years, hence the field must have improved! Excuses put aside, I did enjoy the race, the swim was in clockwise fashion, so I could view the line at all times though Wenhui still pointed that I was like snake rather than a fish in the sea..). The middle section of the swim was really tough battling pretty strong currents and countless overtakers! The run was more or less uneventful as I knew what to expect. It was still a tough 5km after battling the seas!

Triathlon, NEXT!

Images to follow.....in fact..only one image, and yes, you won't get to see me topless!!

Here's a derilious junkie sashaying at the finishing line with a clueless gal trying to do up a caricature!?

Vday 2008!

2008-02-14T07:40:00.000-08:00

3 bouquet of roses

a single stalk of red rose

a single stalk of African daisy.

Different car,

different year,

Same place,

same date,

same dinosaur,

same everlasting love.

Beef Carpaccio,

Mee Sua in truffles,

Chocolate Lava!

Ok, my poor attempt at 'poetry',

here're the images, (which I should be better...?)

Pancake's Rose blossoming a even a few days after the birthday

The lucky gal!

One guy in a flower shirt,
2 snails on one hand,
Sauvignon Blanc on the other...!?

The surprise package in the car, 'repeat' of Vday 2000!

Ahh, finally...Hotel 81!

Boston + NYC. Part Deux!

2008-01-03T05:56:00.000-08:00

Ah..another part of the trip.... from Niagara Falls, we spent a day driving to Boston for 4 nights and back to New York City for 3 more nights.

Our first meal at Boston, the very best Boston Lobster + clams...ever!

Look at the size of the claws! Totally different from those you get from home. The clams were all still warm from the cooking and taste simply heaven without any of the sauces!

How do you know you're in Boston?

When the Sox, Bruins & Celtics are local heros. The Boston Red Sox just won the world series, by the way... (Baseball lah)

One of many delightful treats found in their 'food court'. Cookies embedded with M&Ms!

The reason for the trip, studying music at Berklee college.

(You did believe for a moment yeah? :P)

We went for 2 recitals by their student groups. This Japanese group was great, especially the pianist! (can't rem her name though).

The next band by Gjiergji Theka was even better, flawless arrangements fit for recordings!

Quincy Market on a winter night. Sort of their 'town hall' or 'main square'.

We went for bus tour the following afternoon and 'hopped off' at the Boston Commons (city park).

The light was simply fantastic!

Would be great to shoot weddings here!

Caught a glimpse of the 'Green monster' of Fenway park, home of the Boston Red Sox (Baseball team)

Managed to rush to 50th storey of Prudential tower to catch the skyline before dark. Here a very detail audio tour at every direction that we face.

Twilight in Boston. Fenway park can be clearly seen, you can almost here the fans cheering! (This is the off-season...though)

And we're off to New York City! Here Wenhui controlled a slow shutter to perfection while I was behind the wheel.

Inter-city/states drives will always bring up great sceneries. Here a beautiful cloud formation just before sunset.

Manhattan traffic was terrible on a Friday evening. After checking into Hotel 17, we went around for dinner and some sight-seeing, and where else to go at night but Time Square? My lens wasn't as wide as I'd like it to be, hence the scale of the square is not captured. Electronic billboard displays can go several storeys high! It's a must-see!

The first morning. The big breakfast looking as lovely as Wenhui. I had the heaviest breakfast ever, (can't remember the name), it was to the tune of sausages cooked in soft eggs with a delicious serving of 'rosti'.

Wenhui had the best of Bagels!

The original Kiehl's shop since 1851!! Wenhui a fan of the products and they're great..and expensive!

A short subway right lead us to the city of skyscrapers. Tall buildings line the grid-like roads, straining one's neck as you try to grapple as much visual information as possible! Empire state building in the background! Again, no lens is wide enough...

A pilgrimage to the holiest camera shop known - BHphoto store! A 2-storey super store selling everything a photobug can ever dream off! Almost bought a new set up......and thanks to the 8% state tax, they

ain't getting the business from me..sigh...

New York City is also know for its art galleries, we dropped by a few. Many were too abstract to grapple..... I was hopping for more galleries on photography though.

Trump tower! Didn't see any apprentice on the inside nor the main man himself.

Again, rushed the sunset to capture the Empire State building and the New York City skyline in the best light. This was at the top fo the Rockefella building and the wind was freezing!

For this trip, we also tried to attend a few Jazz giggs as New York is famous for that! Here we attending a Sax battle at Dizzy's club, a club dedicated to the great Trombone player - Dizzy Gillespie.

Rockefella ice skating rink + the Xmas tree = The most touristy place in NYC! It'll be great to skate there if time permits! The tree is ugly though..:P

The New York Subway. A square crop with focal points on diagonal portions of the image, not sure if it'll work!?

We also went to NBC & Radio City for a tour. Here its snowing!!

Inside Radio City, a huge hall where they used to host movie premieres and now mostly award shows, plays etc. Here its the x'mas specials.

A x'mas tree made from Swarovski crystals! In the Radio City foyer.

Knowing that a few inches of snow has fallen, we headed to Central park!
This time on another side, the Strawberry fields - fans of Beatles, hold on!

Imagine there's no Heaven

It's easy if you try

No hell below us

Above us only sky

Imagine all the people

Living for today
-John Lennon

Love the angle of this, with my favourite Wenhui and Pancakes!

Ice rink in Central park! Again, we were not prepared to skate...

We spent the last hours in NYC simply walking the streets. Here the first & last look at Crysler building, we didn't manage to catch a close glimpse of it all trip! Then it was back to the hotel and airport for a late flight back to summer in Singapura...

New York City! 21st Nov - 3rd Dec 2007!

2008-01-02T06:42:00.000-08:00

2007-11-21. A trip to New York City, followed by Woodbury Commons, Nigara Falls, Nigara by the lake, Boston, back to New York City. Wenhui busy at the airport getting the roaming going. Note the x'mas decorations, pretty well done but still lacking the x'mas feel...

Totally enjoyed the SQ21 flight! It was less than half full and so I had full privilage to run left/right to capture any nice views. Here's Orion!! It was a full moon and hence you can see the clouds 'glowing' white....

I like this shot better than the previous one though it doesn't have any constellations in it. One can see the curvature of the Earth! I'm like.wow..this is how Space feels like! The moon was really bright and we were really lucky to have flown when the moon was high and bright!

Waking up to a carebear's land....

Macy's parade! Blowing up the balloons is one of the great things to see, or was it? Traffic was so bad that we didn't get down the car to take a look. Anyway, a sneak of Shrek from here is good enough.

Ahh, a one key ingredient of getting to NYC is to have some of our pre-wedding photographs taken! Here's a perfect autumn day at Central Park!

Wenhui looking lovely in a Kai's gown in muted autum colours!

Pretending to wave to people arriving from Statue of Liberty tour

Stopping traffic in the middle of downtown, Manhattan!

After midnight shopping at Woodbury, one of many inns/lodges we stayed in, will put pictures of woodbury soon.

Finally got to Niagara Falls from Buffalo after picking up Diana. We were late for the fireworks..sigh, this is what I could pull off with frozen fingertips! Panicked a little at first as the battery just dieded, then quick thinking got me to take out the battery to warm it, and viola, another several moments missed, but overall an OK fireworks.

Morning from our hotel, (not our room though). Stayed at The Oakes. Really cloudy, and didn't expect much photographically.

The only touristy thing we did at the Falls, the journey behind the falls!

Didn't really get wet though.

The grandeur of the Falls. Wasn't that awed anyway. It's not as 'big' nor 'tall' as I anticipated it to be. The weather was also too cold to see the Falls in good view, the air was below freezing and hence the mist would hang in the air for too long a period plus cloudy weather = poor images.

On the way to Niagara on the lake! This part of the trip was in fact more enjoyable! Here an impression from a frozen canadian imaple leaf!

Brought my old Converse and wanted to dump it there, but didn't get to buy any new shoes from Woodbury commons and was perpectually fighting cold feet! Brrrr!!

Wenhui & Winne. Went around different Vinyards, and Inniskillin was one of them! We also tried Icewine from Trius and it was.....Fantastic! We bought a bottle...and..have not opened it!! *I can smell the 'lychee' aroma already!

Swa-koo, never see Icicles this long before! Only in Canada and no more on the trip did we see anything like this.

Inniskillin grapes. Electric fences warning intruders to stay away from the precious frozen grapes! (one grape only produces one drop!).

Shoo!

Here's part 2 of the trip!

Women's 10K

2007-10-22T08:19:00.000-07:00

Went to support my dearest in her first ever 10K run!
A slideshow tribute to the girls.... of cos photography by me..*wink*

Women's 10K run. 21st October 2007

Kimi is the F1 WORLD CHAMPION!!!!!

2007-10-22T06:18:00.000-07:00

OMG, Speechless, goosebumps....

Been a supporter of F1 since 2000....and last night was the defining moment of my life as FANatic...

Kimi Raikkonen, who just turned 28 on Wednesday 24/10, won the Formula1 World Driver's Championship by ONE POINT!!

Lewis Hamilton has been leading the points for almost the entire season with Fernando Alonso and Kimi lagging far behind at points of the season.

Kimi needed to win the final race in Brazil with Alonso taking 3rd or lower and Hamilton 6th or lower to claim his first driver's title.

And win he did! Starting in 3rd behind Masa and Hamilton, the Ferrari duo made the perfect start into Senna S and kept Hamilton behind. This allowed Alonso to be wheel-to-wheel to Hamilton by turn 2 and Alonso managed to pass Hamilton and forcing Hamilton to make a mistake a turn 4. Hamilton's Mclaren had a technical glitch where it went into Neutral gear for 40sec, dropping him back of the field.

THE DREAM had begun!!!!!! Though the positions looked right for a Kimi win, it was too early to dismiss Hamilton as he 'only' needed to fight his way back up the field to get into 5th place to win the crown. This is entirely within his grasp as he made good progress until Mclaern brought him into the pits for his first pit stops. The opted for soft tyres and the stop last only ~6s!!!!! This meant that they were gambling on catching up the field with a light car BUT with THREE pitstops!!!! (Compare to the likely 2 pitstops by Ferrari). By the 2nd Hamilton pitstop, it was definite that they were going for the 3rd stop after!!! With most of the field just heading for 2 stops, KIMI was on his way.....

Kimi was lagging behind Massa until the 2nd round of pitstops, where Ferrari strategy + Kimi's awesome pace saw Ferrari pull off a 'textbook-overtaking' manuvoure of switching place with the Massa for the lead!! It was nail-bitting to the finish as Hamilton MUST not reach the 5th position. Hamilton did claw up to 7th place with ~10laps remaining. It seems difficult for him to catch the next driver as there was a 16sec gap. But cars can easily retire in a F1 race. So it was holding-of-breath for the final leg of the race!!

And with one lap remainig, I had my big big (~2mX1m) Ferrari flag waving in my room! Yes, it was mad..as I said...the defining moment in 7 yrs.... as Kimi crosses the line.....*WOOT*!!! But it wasn't over yet, one needs all the cars until Hamilton (lying 7th) to cross the chequered flag, else Hamilton could will steal the crown...and when Kubica and Heidfeld crossed the line in 5th/6th place...it was ALL OVER!!!!!

KIMI WINS!!!!! WOOT WOOT!!

I've been a fan of his for a few years, especially during 2005 when he had a shot at the title and showed true talent in his Mclaren then. The defining race that year was at Suzuka: Starting last, he fought his way up the field......and with 5-6laps remaining..he was 2nd with Fisi leading the race with several seconds...and...the unlikelyhood of Kimi catching up....man....he did!! And overtook Fisi in style on the OUTSIDE line on the penultimate lap on the start-finish straight.... That poster is still on my wall.....

WOOT!!!

The Alley Cat

2007-08-26T08:40:00.000-07:00

3 new kittens at a neighbour's house. Fell in love with one of 'em...named Ally for now.

28 Candles

2007-08-26T08:34:00.000-07:00

Long overdue post for my 28th Birthday on the 14th of August. Went to Kuriya@ Raffles City with Wenhui, shared a King Crab meal, excellent sake, an expensive Treelin Grunt (some fish), and my first taste of Fresh Wasabi! Shiok!

Butts Hunting: More Macro

2007-05-29T07:24:00.000-07:00

Finally took my macro lens (EF100mm) out to shoot what I meant it to shoot: Butterflies!! Took more than half a year to make this trip to Alexander hospital butterfly trial. Went along with bro Loke Yuen and spend couple of hours around bushes....

Some pros mentioned that different butts have different habits of activities/diet at different hours. We didn't know and we didn't care! It was really difficult to catch any butt landing...and in the right angle...and doesn't fly off in 1sec when you make the slightest advancement!
You can't see me!

One sleeping butt on the underside of a long leaf. wind blowing the background leaves make for a dramatic background!

Macro madnes!

2007-05-21T09:00:00.000-07:00

I've got a Macro lens (100mm F2.8) and I hardly ever use it. Some experiments done at home, with a tripod, and some H2O. All colours are real and have negligible photoshopping. Enjoy!

Some read pearls...

Droplets getting jiggy

Pink terminator!

Kiki

2007-05-14T07:59:00.000-07:00

Was trying to resize some images of one of my cats to store in my mobile...and somehow made into a montage to send Wenhui....then I've decided to name her Kiki!
Here's the montage to share.....She's soo cute during the earlier months!!! OMG...

Mother's Days: A tale of 2 Japanese Restaurants

2007-05-13T08:00:00.000-07:00

Went to Kaisan for my family's celebration and Ikukan for Wenhui's family. Fantastic Sashimi at Kaisan (Raffles hotel, #01-21, tel: 63394929). And interesting Tofu variations of the Macribiotic set meal at Ikukan. Here's trying out my new 35mm lens at F1.4..sweet!

Yo-sem-it-tee, April 2007

2007-04-30T06:58:00.000-07:00

New web links of gallery uplodated at San Francisco/Yosemite and
Death Valley/Las Vegas/Grand Canyon

Yosemite, pronouced yo-sem-it-teeeee, my favourite national park for the trip! Took a rented car, and drove ~350miles from San Francisco to Yosemite! I'm adding in some snaps in addition to the photographs that shown. I'll separate out the photographs into a pure html photography link later...cheerios

One of the main attractions of Yosemite. This is the upper falls, which we trekked all the way to the top on the 2nd day!

Our budget lodging, in a tent. ~S$100/night. It was unbearably cold on the first night, rain, 2 layers of clothing, 3 layers of blanket, and it was still freeeezing cold! Every turn of the body felt the chill!! (Temp unknown, but my breath condenses inside the tent, hence cold enough!)

Some miles up the Yosemite Falls, the remains of winter melts ...

The Half Dome, one of the greatest monolith granite rocks... It looks nothing impressive here..but during the hike up Falls trail, I quaked in my shoes after staring at the half dome for a while... a more impressive half dome picture will be feature in the photography link.

Decently marked trail allowed little effort in navigation.

Went rock climbing the following day. On this particular surface, the upper body is not really required. Quite different from the rock-climbing that I've done (Gym, artificial walls & limestone), this granite is smooth!. 'All feet!' - as the old-school instructor Jo points out again. One really needs to trust the tinest dish and cranny to surface such surfaces! Here a fellow climber bravely takes on the...El Capitan?? Another shot of myself in the photography link.

After rock climbing, Siva and I went up Tenaya creek to try to capture half dome's reflection in Mirror lake. We were on the wrong side of the river, and we traversed the icy-cold (my feet went numb immediately) stream. On the reverse trip I stopped onto a rock and took this photograph. Siva fell into the river shortly after and I pulled him up in a jiff!

An attempt to shoot star trails, left the tripod directly outside our tent and went for a 15min exposure. Not long enough to get nice trails, but heck...was good enough for another cold night!

The final morning at Grand Canyon, we woke up very early to catch the sunrise. Here, Siva took a snap of yours truly gearing up for the 'moment'....

San Francisco 8th to 13th April

2007-04-27T22:52:00.000-07:00

Thanks to bosses in school, I got to go to San Francisco, California for a conference. What follows was a tour of a lifetime across 3 states, 3 national parks and 2 cities. Here I'd like to share some snaps with you guys!

Here's me right after my presentation. Was nerve-racking at times the few days before the talk. However, once it started, all was well! Cheerios! Thanks to Siva for the snap.

All set to conquer USA (one small part lah)

Cruises on the San Francisco Bay area. Here Alcatraz in the background.

One of the many golden gate bridges that you're going to see in this post!

A cyclist hurtling down one of the world famous streets, the 'Crookedest' at Lombard Street. No motion blur added to the shot.

Evening view from the top of the Marriott, San Francisco.

One of the steepest roads in hilly San Francisco. And we cycled up there...(except the final part, which was at least 50degrees in slope!)

Another shot of the bridge. Here 'silky' foreground of the waters controlled by slow shutter. Used a ND4 filter to cut down the exposure.

Market Street, ala 'Orchard Road', where retail giants show their presence.

The final picture of the bridge, here at 1024x768 in case anyone wants a wallpaper (shameless here. :P)

Hope you've enjoyed this series, more to come!

Embrace it! NUS Biathlon 2007

2007-03-03T22:07:00.000-08:00

Last year's was held at Sentosa. This yr's at East Coast park. Signed up for the sprint event (750m swim, 5km run) at almost the last minute, got myself the last no. tag (6047). As usual, preparations were minimal! Had butterflies in thie morning and had to visit the loo a few times to get the flies out! When the swim starts...all were well....till I began zig-zagging through the murky-oil polluted waters. Now I realise by looking up every -5-6strokes are not enough.....every strong current/wave will simply make me veer off-course again!

The run was more straightfoward. Starting from the transistion zone at carkpark F2, the turning point as at the chalet. Finished in a time of 58mins..yeah....last yr's was 59mins. Well, all in all a great morning!

Here's the jog just before entering the water. Shot by reknowned photographer Wenhui!

Cheers!

Kitty

2007-02-11T08:40:00.000-08:00

Here's the new kitten! Brought in by my bro in-law from some carpark as the poor kitten was meowing to no sight of its mommy. And Wenhui and I turn to become foster parents.

No idea how the sex yet on the ~1month old kitten..hence no name for it!

One of the first moments which Tommy meets kitten. Tommy was sniffing around at the kitten while the kitten was desperately trying to suckle!!! This was the best shot that I could gather,...it was difficult to get both of them in proper perspective as the size difference..is...HUGE!

Here one of my fav pix...Love both of them.. *mucks*

And there were two...

2007-02-10T07:06:00.000-08:00

After Mocha passed away at the end of 2005, Tommy was all alone in the line of Feline dynasty. Then we took in Junior, one of Tommy's son. The two was never best mates, Tommy has always been aloof, and cats are never good fathers. Junior would want attention from Tommy, but he'll get little or none of it. All was well for an entire year, we brought Junior for checkup, vaccination and microchipping. Then the worst disaster happened.

Junior went missing on (friday) 26th January 2007. The cats would go missing at times for a day or two, but never for more than a few days. A search through the streets two days later came up short. When I reach home on the following Tuesday night, I went to search again. I went to look under the drains of neighbour's driveways. And I saw a cat's silhouette in the torch's shadows. I went to the other end of the drain...and when I saw the rear end of the cat...I knew immediately it was Junior. My heart sank as I called him several times..and he didn't flinch a bit. I was on the phone with Wenhui through all these...and I raced to fetch her from her home. I took a long stick and went into the drain...and sigh....Junior was motionless. The night proved difficult to pass as Junior was a 2.5 yo healthy male...and thoughts of him going without any warning was extremely difficult.

And now...there's a new 'apprentice' to the 'master'...stay tuned!

The year of 2006

2007-01-02T08:23:00.000-08:00

2006......the year of blogging! I finally got started on a blog, more of a reminder to myself the events that I'd been part of thru the year. The first post...1st march...of my passing of the written qualifying exam was one of the big days. Coupled with the oral test in August, this exam allowed me to be a full fledged Phd student and concentrate more on research.

Other highlights of the year include the concerts that I've been to: Pat Metheny, Paquito, Hiromi, George Benson etc. Best concert of the year, Paquito!

Travels include Schumacher race live in an F1 car...for the final time...and the rough trip to the roof of the world...Tibet!

2006 has also been a year of photographing weddings and fireworks. Do visit www.perqjon.com for weddings. For fireworks, I was a huge fanatic through 2004/05 and also 2006. I'm pretty numb to ordinary fireworks, and I hope to be thrilled with bigger/better/nastier ones in 2007!

2007: Looking ahead. Put together a gallery of fireworks, venture to other photographic fields such as macro and food. Put more brain&heart into research. Love my cats and my meowmeow more. et cetera.....

Tibet June 2006....

2006-12-29T20:16:00.000-08:00

This post serves to be a completion of the other pictures that I've not posted for the June2006 trip to Tibet. Friends have been asking for pictures! And here are a collection!

Seen here the infamous prayer flags of the Tibetian region. Basically the wind will carry your prayers whenever the wind blows. More Here

By writing names of your loved ones, your prayers shall be delivered everytime the wind blows!

More of the blue skies, Minor tweaking done here. Ascending to ~5000m above sealevel to Namtso Lake - One of 3 holy lakes in Tibet. We were suffering from altitude sickness....headaches/breathlessness. etc.

Along the roads to any touristy sites, tourist-attractions aglore! Locals egging tourist to pose with their wares, even taking pictures with the locals. Tips are a must, and they'll get rude if you try to bargain! Here we have Wenhui with a baby lamb! Would that make a nice dinner? hmm..

This was shot at the edge of the Namtso lake itself, and again, plenty of horses and yaks for tourists to pose/ride with...for a fee of cos!

This was shot on the way to Namtso, quite number of site prayer sites littering across the vastlands.

Toilet with a to-die-for view!! "dry-cleaning" services included!! Free of charge!!

A series on Tibet would not be complete without monks and temples, here we have monks just outside Tashilunpo monastary/temple.

A building within Tashilunpo. The broad building contrast with a lone tourist at the corner.

Vast buildings with white walls are common features in Tibetian architecture. Black framing of the windows are to reflect away evils and bad luck.

Coca-cola or Pepsi-cola?

Along country roads, hawkers would set up stores selling fruits/drinks/tidbits. Here we have a family selling watermelon. We gave their kids candy and one can see the joy on the girl's face...but boy looked suspicious as he chunks down a Snickers

Back to Lhasa. Pasar Malam style stores selling every imaginable items. Here a shop selling soley horseshoes!

The final meal in Tibet before heading back to the equator. Han/Tibetian cuisine ain't exactly palatable..hence we tried their version of KFC!

Gold Class!!

2006-12-26T06:27:00.000-08:00

Planned the first outing to the most exclusive movie screening in SG! Gold glass @ Vivocity! Booked central seats for Wenhui, Huiqin, Winnie and I for Curse of the Golden Flower.

The seats were truly luxurious!! Better than 1st class airline seats! We were pretty on the dot, hence had little time to enjoy the lounge. We appeared quite mountain turtle as we didn't know food was served right insite the theatre!.

The perennial rain + the air-conditioning brought out tightest snugs of the gold class blankets. The blankets were lovely! HQ wanted to 'stunt' one home leh..hehe.

The show was alright, shan't post any spoilers here.

Next went shopping around, haircut at Team, followed by Spa at Wellness Village and wonderful portobellos at Spaggadies!

26 Degrees

2006-12-20T07:39:00.000-08:00

Its a yearly event, consecutive days of rain in december. Wooooo....other than the traffic jams, i'm loving every minute of it. One gets to play in the rain, jumping into puddles, driving and splashing onto the kerbs, skidding (safely) on tiled floorings.

More interestingly, the temperature in my room dropped to below what I see when I turn on the air-conditioning!

~19th December 2006

Fwahhh!!! Gwahh!!!!

2006-12-20T07:16:00.000-08:00

Went to Kazu, Cuppage shopping center last Saturday to celebrate the birthday of Wenuhui's Mom.

Kazu is a Jap restaurant specialising in yakitori (japanese 'satay').

Man..we tried almost every exotic stuff... one of the first dish was a gooie looking white stuff like mini intestines of some kind. I was told put it in my mouth without breaking the 'satchet', and when it melts in my mouth....heaven! Was told by Tiong Kiat (Wenhui's bro), that it was some sperm of some seasonal fish...hmm..fish sperm!?!

Wenhui has turned to non-meat dishes for reasons attributed to disgestive well-being. She could only watch the rest of us chunk down the ox-tongue, pork belly, chicken heart etc while she chew on her ...fish.....

How boring normal fish looks next to the other yummy animal 'parts'. Take a good look at the next picture and guess its origin before scrolling down!

I thought that this was like chicken satay......I put it in my mouth...and *bling!* : I reached the 7th stage of heaven. Man, I never knew chicken tasted that good! Or was it chicken? I asked Tiong Kiat who ordered all the dishes...this was...one of the most 'cruel' food.. --> Foi Grois (I think the pronouciation is 'Fwah Gwah'). And rightly so....u just wanna go Fwah!!! Gwah!! after eating it. Yum yum. This picture was the second stick that we ordered.....

The 3rd dish worth mentioning was Horse Sashimi...yes..HORSE..马!
Never tried, and tasted one piece totally raw and cold...almost tasteless and forgettable. Then I was told to mix it with sesame oil and some radish/ginger garnishs etc....then 2nd piece was.....you guess it...Nth stage of heaven! More of these and I'll be lost and never be able to get back to Earth....

Thanks Tiong Kiat for the marvelous treat!

JazzyJeff - ZoukOut 2006: Were you there?

2006-12-14T05:22:00.000-08:00

What a Night!

Bought the cheapest tix possible $28 at Zouk some moons back with LokeYuen and Roland. Didn't prepare much for the day as I was having a photoshoot at SP guild house in the morning and covered June's solemnisation in the afternoon. Picked up LY and RG + a couple of his friends (Aragon? and Sophie) at the entry to Sentosa and headed to Beach carpark. Taxis were streaming in and out, and cars were everywhere! And it was only 8:30pm!

Beach Carpark - Ministry of Sound:
Found a lot easily (heard that by 11pm, no more lots!). Groups of party-goers were having mini discos out of their car boots with booze lying everywhere. Lugged a bottle of JD and Jose Cuervo to the entrance of Siliso beach and check in first with LY and RG while Sophie waited outside with Aragon.

Jacks, Jose & Eon:
After circling a round within the ZoukOut compounds, we went out to start the boozing. Eon, a friend of LY, was there to join us. After a few card games and the fav "clap for every '3'", everyone was 'getting there'. As feared, ice was running low and we still had some hard liquor left. Ice had ran out@7E too! Alas, I initiated pouring Jose down out throats directly...*evil*. Only Eon and later Aragon was on about it.

没有酒量，只有酒旦 - EonWhat a 'profound statement'. Man, what a character! We rocked into the compounds of ZoukOut. Electronica/live band/Mambo sets were all amazing. I sprined my left elbow in the midst of it...yikes. Then Jazzy Jeff came on at 2am. Having heard him in ZoukOUt 2004, I knew that he is the most interactive DJ of all. This time with an Emcee rapping ocassional to Jeff's beats, it was a lethal combination. Jeff was scratching while mixing every sort of beats imaginable. From Retro numbers to house anthems and down to a medley of Michael Jackson 80's hits, Jeff's mixes never went more than 2mins per track, this kept the crowd on their toes throughout!

The Z monster
By 3am, we were getting tired, wandered deep into the main arena as Ferry Corsten had just came out. Though the numbers were good, they were sort of predictable, the usual progressive house music, similar to each of the 'main attraction' of the past ZoukOuts. By 330pm, we were staggering out the compound and heading off to our vehicles..

My friend called Jack

2006-11-14T07:55:00.000-08:00

Played with my Canon 100mm macro and some water. ! Water turned into a soothing sour mash....
Way to go, Jack!

*Edit - This is a closeup shot of a droplet of water, with a Jack Daniel (Whiskey) bottle in the background. The label can be seen as off-focus in the background. The bottle can be seen within the droplet itself, click on it to enlarge! This edit was posted as many couldn't figure out the message behind this post*

Singapore Motorshow 2006

2006-11-14T07:48:00.000-08:00

Not as keen to attend motorshow as 2000... but still made the 'pilgrimage' to Suntec City on Sunday. Brave the crowds and took only 1 minute to find a parking lot!! How lucky, no traffic jam outside as well. Strange.

The convention halls were busy, but not packed. Russ Swift is here again to do stunt demonstrations. The tickets ran out very quickly. Well, we've watched it in 2004, shldn't have been much of a difference.

Well, pictures are at www.perqjon.com/motorshow2006.html

It doesn't have to be Oysters and Sashimi - Cafe Brio's

2006-08-14T09:57:00.000-07:00

*Picture to follow*

Happy birthday, to me!

Went to Cafe Brio's @ Grand Copthorne. 1 for 1 deal using UOB cards. Of course, as an Oyster / Sashimi fan, the first plate is full of raw stuff! But then, disappointment....failed to tickle my palate. It was the next round of MEAT that blew me away. MEAT that doesn't need to be CUT, and to be able to be chewed off easily..and thats goooood stuff! There was also supremely delicious Cheeses that Wenhui was yumming all the way through.

*burP*

NUS Triathlon 13th Aug 2006

2006-08-14T09:40:00.000-07:00

My first Triathlon. Signed for 500m swim, 25km cycle, 5km run. Cost $54! + $5 'admin' fee for the champion chip (chip where times are logged during the race).

Seen here at -2EV using A80 shot by wenhui. Racer on the left is Terence. Race delayed due to reasons unknown... butterflies stirring!

Thanks to Terence for loan of Helmet and anti-fog (for goggles)

Had some struggle during the swim at 200m, had to force myself to relax, pace the strokes to finish it. Getting on the bike never felt so good, the breeze on the salt-laden water on my skin felt good. It was still only 830am (I think), sun was gentle. And time to push the bike!! Getting into rhythm, but still got 'qie4' by at least 100 riders.(99% were using road racers). Enroute towards esplanade, a good friend Mr Sehsuan got up early to prep himself on the road shoulder and snap this pin-sharp shot at the right moment. Thanks bro!

At the halfway mark of the ride, I managed to start pulling back on some of the earlier riders, counted at least a couple of mountain bikers and 1 or 2 on road racers! Many complains on the race by the veterans as the roads weren't completely blocked, leaving top riders dreading the occassional red light.

Finally, I managed to push the bike back at around 1hr and a few minutes. Was happy with my time. But there's still a 5km run!!! OMG...my legs weren't jelly, but there was nothing left in them, nor in my lungs! Was literally throdding along, forcing myself not to stop and walk, and finally made it back in ** mins. Shot taken by my beloved Wenhui as I was near the finishing point.

Overall a great experience, but it seems to be one of the worst organised race in recent memory for those veterans!

Finally, after shower, it was lunch at the East Coast lagoon, and Terence and I shared a bday cake as it was to be our bday on the following day...14th aug 2006. :)

Utmost thanks and love to Wenhui for being the cheerleader, supporter cum photographer. :)

Tibet Day 2: The Bears whom lack sleep

2006-06-22T08:35:00.000-07:00

We wanted to go to Wolong Nature reserve, where pandas roam free. Due to rain, we went to a nearby research centers to get a close up on the huge bears instead. Here seen a Giant adult panda in his enclosure

A pair of pandas feasting, oblivious to strangers. Pandas seem to be grouped in pairs, their names are in pairs as well, with 双双 and 美美 etc.

Shhhh....Keep Quilt! Pandas are resting!

Panda having a good time after a meal. There's a video on this, went on for Minutes! HOHOHO

Sneaking up onto a Panda

One of the most endearing 30mins, watching 3 young cubs playing either each other, with 2 of them virtually wrestling each other and going for each others' throats!

This is the smaller specie of panda, looks very cute as well. Possible to pose with to have a picture taken, no such luck on our visit.

Parting shot ending with the the pair of playful pandas having a drink in the middle of their wrestling match. One of Wenhui's Goals fulfilled, to meet Pandas!!

Tibet trip....8th - 17th June 2006 (Day1)!

2006-06-19T08:58:00.000-07:00

Took a package tour with 人人 tour agency. Pictures here shall be amateurish story telling with some 'arty shots... :)

Hereby presenting you day 1, first ever landing to Chengdu, China!

Armed with a Map, guidebook and hungry stomachs, Wenhui and I trot the streets of Chengdu for their famous 小吃 for lunch, not knowing what exactly to expect, we hopped into a cab and went straight to the location at Zhong Fu Jie. Here we have a setlunch of 20 dishes. Half are immersed with Hot Spicy chilli Oil!! OMG...my lips were sizzling with the acids... but...other than the fire and ocassional saltiness, the food was fantastic! Hygiene could do better, as a lady spitting right where she was sitting (wake up call!!)

Travelling was via cab all the way, couldn't bother with trying to take the bus, traffic rules were non-existant! U-turn ANYwhere you like! Here our cab stops to 加气。Not sure what it meant, but I'd be terribly pissed if I were in the Amazing Race. Nevertheless, fares are cheap, staring at Y5 (~SGD$1), fares climb at Y1.4/km.

Went looking around for one day tours for the following day (wanted to see the giant blacked-eye bears up north....) and also went to look for softwares..*ahem*, tired legs and parched throats led us to the popular activity of lazing around in the afternoon, sipping chinese tea, at 10-25Y a pop.

After a Nap at 金满堂hotel and a short trip to Carrefour (yes they have it), we went trotting down to a two-storey restaurant Kong Liang for the hottest steamboat on Earth! With enough firepower to ignite most stomachs, our oil laden innards would heave everytime some of the chillis trickle down our throats. Take off, anytime soon!

Burn the Floor!

2006-04-22T08:39:00.000-07:00

Had free tickets after buying K750i (thanks to M1 and Sony Ericsson!). Burn the Floor, cabaret style dance event showcasing World champions of Ballroom dancing. Had real crappy seats at first, can't believe any show will take the breath of all 601-603 halls of Suntec, and expect people from the extreme side to see anything at all! Moved to the centre column as many seats were unfilled. And hence I've got the better view (as above).
Overall quite a good show, reminscent of MDC days, where entertainment/dance/singing was other of the day. Burn the floor ain't the usual musical. I'd have preferred a Live Band accompanying the dancers. A theme akin to musicals such as Fame might add another dimension to the show. But a poor storyline might render it Cheessy...

Mixing Blood with Water

2006-04-20T08:35:00.000-07:00

*xxxx_xxxxxxxx*

Nongsa Village@Batam 15th-16th April 2006

2006-04-16T06:57:00.000-07:00

Kudos to Maureen and Beng Hwee for invitation to their lovely villa at Nonga Village (Batam Island). Stress-free and laid back with furnishing akin to a Dempsey road showroom, this is truly paradise. One needs to take 10 steps from the back door to meet this inviting sunrise over the endless horizon.

Shot taken using K750i again. F2.8, 1/800 ISO 100. Doesn't look very clean when blown to full 2megapixel.

Pink River

2006-04-14T08:59:00.000-07:00

Heavy downpour, pink river spotted near my house (yeah its REAL)...Shot using new K750i.....slight post-processing needed as picture was a bit soft at inifitnity with some chromatic abberations.

Earth, Moon, Sun

2006-04-06T08:09:00.000-07:00

Shot using reverse macro. 350D, 80mm reversed, fixed at F5.6.

Thunder @ Sepang! 17th to 19th March 2006

2006-03-23T07:28:00.000-08:00

Waited ~4 yrs..or 7 yrs to do this trip. To a F1 Grand Prix with a Good View. Finally...plonked down the dough to get K1 Gold tickets, and spend hell of a weekend with My Loved One up north! This thread will be more of a photo blog entry... Welcome to Sepang! Colourful weekend awaits you while track officials checks on quality of the track

Swarmed by Ferrari Fans..well...what to do.....

Wenhui here seen butchered by the exhorbitant pricing of food! If its GOOD food, I wouldn't mind forking out, but charge me HIGH price for food you can hardly swallow? OMG....

Some family member of Villeneuve

Some pro getting break, look closely and you'll find 2G CF cardSssss. + >S$10K worth of Glass...

Getting ready just before the 5 lights! at the edge of the pit straight!!

Fisichella leads the pack into 1st corner cleanly. Man, was firing away, no idea who was leading...this the dilemma between shooting an event you love to WATCH.

Kimi!! My fav driver! Alas, crashed out during the first lap by Nick Heifeld...grrrr This pic taken during qualifying...or was it free practice... well, panning at 300mm was really difficult without IS nor monopod nor experience. (enough excuses yeah?)

Multiple burst mode of one of the key points of the race, schu makes his way up the field, seen here bullying past trulli.

Anxious fan looks on as the red cars were nowhere near the podium towards the end of the race.

Young renault fan awaits anxiously for the first 1-2 by Renault team since joining F1 in 1982.

Fisichella wins his second career Grand Prix by leading from start to finish! Following closely behind is his team mate Fernando Alonso. Gratz for the French team and Fans.

I don't smoke, but doesn't mean my eyes can't 'smoke candy'

Till Sepang 2007! Jumpa Lagi! (See you again!)

Two vids can be found @
Massa Leading Schu
Some audible commentary
(commentary can be heard....but cars are way too loud to hear properly, ear plugs were compulsory!)

Pat Metheny Trrioooo

2006-03-23T07:09:00.000-08:00

Christian McBride and Antonio Sanchez joined forces with 7-time grammy award winning Path Metheny to bring Jazz to Sunny Singapore. Mann....are they great of what! $110 for central DD34 seats right behind the mixer. Pat played to expectations...the usual melodious lines with fast paced licks lace. Christian, one of most wanted bassists in the world, played effortlessly. It was Antonio that blew me away. I've seen many drummers, dishing up solos of great energy, mixing high-level technical rolls, double taps, 'out' rhythms to their repertoire. Antonio didn't even seem to try very hard. This is what I like and admire, playing with minimal effort, yet measured and controlled beats, never attempting to overplay. Only gripe was the sound crew upped Pat's guitar so high that the bass and drums got buried on many ocassions, shall email Benson about that...

till the next Mosaic Fest, Adioss!

Sax from Ipanema: Paquito and New York Voices

2006-03-13T07:23:00.000-08:00

Mosaic Festival Back in Singapore!

First paid concert went was Paquito and New York Voices, NYV are great 4-some jazz acapella. Captivated by their 'Desafinado.mp3', plonked down the dough to get row D seats! Man are they amazing!

Opening set by Vocaluptuous, 1F4M group, pretty good arrangements etc

Next, DA MAN from Ipanema! seen Clarinet (Paquito) and Trombone (Didn't catch his name) played in such a way!!

Wld have prefered NYV to have more fast numbers ala Manhattan Transfer etc. but well, they did a magnificent job. Ending/Standing ovation/Encore were all great!

Butterflies - A day of

2006-03-01T05:04:00.000-08:00

2006 march 1st.

Butterflies crashing into knots,
Results to Qualifying Exam for PhD to released
Fear reached levels unmatched since 5th Jan 06
Simple show of matric card exchange for a small brown envelope
A4 letter in 3-folds, a gentle pull....
......passed.....written right in the middle
Butterflies break loose, fly to a place far, far away......