Boston + NYC. Part Deux!

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!

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

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!!!!!

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

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

28 Candles

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

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!

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

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

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!