Blog delayed >> 04

> click on image to see my collection of AA06<

Goodbye AA06

I'll have snap shots to remember you by

(:

Blog delayed >> 03

Foreign Talents

Inside Out, Backstage and a little bit of an Upside Down affair. Setting up an exhibition is not easy we even had to drill holes into the ceiling of our gallery space. (contrary to what most of us thought- but it was FUN)

dot this is for you, so that you can laugh at us from over there (:

Darren : how many photographers does it take to put up a print? Alvin : depends on which country you are referring too!

so for those of you who haven't heard,

InsideOut is a six-month project involving 30 workers from Indonesia, Thailand and the Philippines.

They learn the basics of photography and, guided by volunteer photographers and photojournalists, are encouraged to take photos of their daily lives in Singapore.

Through their photographs, we hope to learn from their perspectives and experiences.

The sharing of their stories may spark more interaction between host and migrant communities, strengthening links that already exist and building bridges where there are none.

Works can be seen at the gallery space at Objectifs

no. 12a Liang Seah Street

or online at ThePhotoessay website

I urge you to attend, as it is a very enriching and humbling experience.

Blog delayed >> 02

.Too much inbreeding can result in violent reactions.

My Cat got bored one afternoon and brought home a fiend, oops! friend i mean

This is what i have to put up with every once in a while.

If i'm lucky i get rat tails too.

(no animals were hurt in the process - trust me, i was hiding behind the door so you can tell who's the real scardy cat!)

Blog delayed >> 01

Seng turned 2# years old on Feb. 19, 2006 Congratulations to you!

The older, the fatter.

That is what i've concluded.

So on that note, I strongly recommend : SISTINA

Located at no. 44 Jalan Merah Sage, #01-58 Chip Bee Gardens

The sirllion steak that i had, melted in my mouth. And yes, it even had a little tree on top of it!

I know there is no such word as this but, it was Mar-ver-llicious.

AWOL

The past week was packed and i am knackered.

We had the Asian Aerospace 06 to cover that took up most of my time.

Actually wait. It took up ALL my time.

And I found myself suffering from -insufficient-blogging-symptoms. Don't bother asking me what the scientific term for that is, cause i don't know.

By the time i was home each day, i was too weather-beaten to turn on the computer just to pen down my thoughts.

Almost starting to feel like a prune of some sorts.

A week seems like such a short period of time but when i sat down and reflected, i realised that so much has happened.

> a birthday was celebrated

> the aerospace 06 opened

> an Exhibition was set up

> a football match was won

> a haircut

> the Exhibition opened

> church

> wedding gown fittings were done (not mine by the way.. some of you were asking)

> an accident involving two cars (one of which was mine) happened

> the aerospace 06 closed

But I think we handled it pretty well. Things were executed with results that were slightly better than basics. The Grace of God reigns.

So all those who are starting out their week, take heart and press on!

One Month

*** HAPPY BIRTHDAY BLOG!***

yeah.. it's been a month already and we're still going strong.

this has been a rather theraputic session and i think everyone should get one too

(:

The planes come out to play

>>click on image to see more<<

the planes have come out to play!

WwhhhhEEeee!

ahhh...

Joy.

Truth be told:

this would be the kind of fridge you'd find at a real photographers' hang out.

(stocking up at Objectifs)

X-tra large please!

I figured what it is that i like so much about Asian Aerospace.

everything is just so excessive

(it throws you off your visual habit)

the skies are so vast

the sun is extra bright

its extra hot

its extra far

the font size on walls of exhibition halls are like 5million points

but i feel extra happy when i'm there

(:

and planes;

i love planes and helos too.

you feel almost as if you're running around in a giant lego techtronic set or soemthing.

i can't wait.

>> click on the image to see more<<

Helloo D!

Everyone meet D. He's a great buddy and a Class A* photographer just so you know.

D. meet everyone.

So he finally started a blog.. Let's show our support and we're looking forward to your wonderful pictures. Good Luck!

>> check out his blog here

Slowness

This is dedicated to all my biker friends out there!

Now i kinda understand why when you guys are stressed,

that same line " i think i need to go for a ride" crosses my path.

I found this really succint verse in Milan Kundera's book entitled "Slowness"

the man hunched over his motorcycle can focus only on the present instant of his flight;

he is caught in a fragment of time cut off from both the past and the future;

he is wrenched from the continuity of time;

he is outside time;

in other words, he is in a state of ecstasy.

In that state he is unaware of his age, his wife, his children, his worries,

and so he has no fear,

because the source of fear is in the future,

and a person freed of the future has nothing to fear.

Glove compartment

I was looking for my softball glove.

Guess what i found in it!

Magic Hour II

Sunday Evening

driving home from Church, I noticed how beautiful the skies were

I had to take a picture

but kept my hand on the wheel

(:

How many sunsets can one take in his/her lifetime?

My answer is still: one. But in a few different ways.

Self-belief = American Idol wannabes?

I've been watching the American Idol on television lately and was amazed at the whole dynamics and varieties of persons involved.

A lot of people sound truly terrible but the thing is, they really really think they can sing.

Americans have an amazingly huge amount of self-belief.

Apparently times have changed and we have more than a handful of people here at home who think they can do it too. To those who camped overnight, and waited it out? Congratulations, i think you are very free but you are more patient than me! Good Luck. ( i hope you really can sing). Those who still want to take part, they are moving auditions to the heartlands.

Somehow, I think all of us secretly want to take part in Singapore Idol. Just to see how we fair. Not so much for the fame and glory of it all but more of: How bad we can be and to see if we have the guts to do it in the first place. Unfortunately what i think has been created as an avenue for talents to shine has instead turned into a little bit of a stigma to be associated with.

Me and Bryan were at mediacorp sometime 2004, to do a radio interview on a SARS project we shot, and at the reception, found this huge billboard.

We couldn't help ourselves. Just for the sake and fun of it.

But yes, it took more than a year for this to be shown in public (shy/stigma). And no we didn't take part.

So to all Singapore Idol Hopefuls out there?

We Salute you!!

Pillion's point of view

I'm not a biker (yet..hopefully soon) but i've been a professional pillion for a while now. And if there is one other universal language apart from the many others like music, expressions, singlish (so we think) and army talk; it would be biker talk.

Saturday afternoon, Terence and I were sitting at a dingy no-one-ever-comes-here-unless-they-need-something-very-specific-and-its-not-money coffeeshop in Little India when an Aprilia Caponord pulled up right beside Terence's bike, which is, yes you've guess it, the same bike. Excitement filled the air.... It was almost drama. I know.

So What?

Well, apparently these bikes are like the only 2 or 3 existing ones in Singapore and maybe South East Asia. And the chances of running into each other is rare. According to Jack, who owns the bike on the left, (see pic above) he's owned this bike for a year and a half but has not met other similar bike owners. No friend. Lonely. then, drama.

Terence, who owns bike on the right, has seen Jack's bike at a certain building in town for months now but never met Jack. It was like long lost relatives meeting for the first time. Finally.

Immediate Ice-breaker i say. Meeting for the first time. Notes on the bike made to themselves from before were shared, and teh was ordered. Invitations were made to join long distance rides, coffeshop biker gathering sessions invites were thrown out into the open and they even sat on each other's bikes ( got trust already man). Almost an hour of sharing their sanctuaries with a complete stranger goes to show that there is something that bikers experience within themselves that allows them to bond almost immediately.

I know, cause i get to watch everyting from the backseat. And its a pretty nice view from over there.

Orange Squash-ed

Back to this whole thing about mandarin organges..

I think they have it pretty bad.

I was walking at a HDB carpark and noticed this random site.

anyways

I didn't do it!

Another S & M conversation

Another one of those things you can't help but laugh at when you disect , analyse and then re-digest. A conversation over lunch: S: I know why i don't like the Toyota Altis. M: ...raises eyebrows... S: It's too round. M: ...nods head, and checks out an Altis parked on her left. S: It has no definition... pause.... Just like my ass. M: ...expressionless and in shock.... How do you even reply to that kind of remark!?!

Magic Hour

the view can be pretty from my office window when it wants too.

(:

another moment

Alarm cock

End last year, I chanced upon a copy of the Epoch Times, a free english version newspaper distributed at a coffee shop in Geylang. Apparently it caters to Mainland China's chinese community here in Singapore, featuring news back home and around the region with China as its main focus.

A report on Singapore's own Jurong Bird Park using Sentinel Chickens (chickens bred with no immunity) to detect the presence of the Bird Flu virus, was published. I think they just brought the term "free press" to another level, in more ways than one. Let me quote you word for word, a line I read in that story...

".................... When the Chickens get infected with any diseases, their red cock will turn bluish. Blood test is performed....."

(is it just me or is there something very wrong with this sentence?)

So ladies and gentlemen, please don't forget to check that your cock is not bluish. It could infect the whole community and if i remember past reports, it may even result in death.

some of you didn't believe it..

so here it is >> i think it's brilliant these petty trivias of human life.. adds a little more humour.

One sunny day.

First there were 4, and then there were 6, a few minutes later, we became 8...

Stayed at 8 for a while (since its an auspiscious number), but no, we had to grow.

Up to a point, i stopped keeping count.

*this was how bored i got during an assignment when Indian President came to visit our desalination plant, to learn about how we gather water from the straits of melacca and then purify it. Ironically the sky was prolly the most exciting thing that happened.*

Na..No. iactually do love it

Thank you.

ilove it and you, ido.

The Great Exchange

Ever wonder where your mandarin oranges end up?

I do.

For the benefit of those who do not know what this exchange is about:

During Chinese New Year, it is a tradition to present the host (who's home you are visiting) with a pair of mandarin oranges. These two oranges represent health, prosperity and a lot of other good stuff. In exchange, and it being polite, the host would usually receiprocate and hand you back a pair.

The thing is. These oranges arrive at a home, gets put into a basket along with all the other oranges, and then gets picked up again for another exchange. Wonder what the odds of seeing that same orange are. Especially when there is a lot of visiting among immediate relatives. I was tempted to mark my oranges, just for the fun of it. But I never got down to doing it. Guess there were too many exchange of ideas, i got lost in the process instead.... padumpum

A few different views

yes. it's dis-orientating seeing excavators on the top of a building..

apparently bryan felt the same way too (:

New Year, Old Memories

New Year came coupled with a flashback.

Ironic but it suddenly felt like a blast from the past, for like maybe, 20 years.

First scenario:

You know the first thing relatives say to you when they see you during the annual Chinese New Year visit, is " Waah so big already." My grandmother, whilst handing me an ang pow, asked if i was doing well in school. When i told her i was done in school, she asked me about my university...was feeling a little confused. should i be flattered or worried that she's having some serious memory troubles ...

I had decided not to try too hard to understand but i think i might have found some form of reconciliation from cousin's room wall..

On the wall i found, pictures of me, my brother and her, from left to right in that order, 20 years ago (see pic above). This is how we do not look like now!??!!?. But i guess it's what granny sees everyday. Perhaps perhaps perhaps.

********

Second scenario:

At an assignment to shoot the River Hong Bao.

It was, i learnt, not just a celebration where you will find giant God of Fortunes and Animals from the Lunar Calendar, Fireworks, lots of Red, lights, lights in trees,Tiger Balm products, children, old people, food, foot massages, random chinese acrobats flying in the air, indian, eurasian, malay, ang-mohs, and a few plain clothed policemen.....but your hairdresser from 20 years ago!

Meet Jiong Tai. (never thought i'd see her again.)

Responsible for 3 generations of hairstyling in my mom's family lineage.

It was 20yrs since i last saw her and she hasn't changed a bit. scary.

Can you celebrate the new year with old memories?

yes. i just did.