School

As i dropped nate off to school today, he told me he wanted to finish his breakfast.

He then went off to sit on the steps leading up the foyer and watched the world go by as he nibbled on his bread and jam. He knows how to enjoy life.

Cookouts #01

As often as we can, my Aunts will gather at my home on Sundays to cook. They are wonderful cooks and can put together cantonese dishes which will make you salivate pronto. After many sessions (where i've missed the process of food preparations) i've decided to make the effort to be home and document them.

This would probably be my only chance to pick up some culinary skills and appreciate cantonese cuisine more. Yes we can all put together an Aglio Olio or fry and Egg. Be a little more sophisticated and put together a good Salad and Thai dish. But there's nothing like a good home cooked cantonese dish.

the best way to measure amount of water for rice

The methods of cooking are different, the believes are different. I'm hoping to pick up these little traditional styles and keep some form of chinese tradition going on in my blood line. I think we're very westernized and there's absolutely nothing wrong with it. But i hunger (no punn intended) for deeper home-made cultural and traditional understanding to how things are done in a chinese household. I wanna go beyond the cheongsams and the red packet knowledge that's a little shallow for me at this point... So this week, we cooked Claypot Chinese Duck Liver Sausage Rice. Documented the process and learnt a thing or two from my Aunty Wong Yin Yin, who's worked in the restaurant line and been very successful all her life. I guess you can't go wrong with this Wong. Lap Mai Fan

Ingredients:

• White rice

• Chinese Sausage - preferably the one with duck liver

• Lap Yoke or Air Dried Pork

• Salted Fish

First, fry the salted fish in oil and leave aside, keeping the oil.

Cook the rice until it's started to absorb most of the water

Add in the Chinese Sausages whole, and Lap Yoke and salted fish as well.

Cover and complete the steaming of rice.

Done. It's that simple. The amazing thing is the rice absorbs all the aroma and colour from the ingredients there is no need to even add any black soy sauce. Stir and serve.

Juanna was inspired

and so am I...

This was what she wrote:

Voyeurism

Shot after shot,

clicks come

Behind the lens,

til its done

catching a shy smile

an occasional giggle

a flicker of emotion

revealing the child

photography is thus

documenting

capturing

unobstrusive moments

unguarded expressions

Resorts World Sentosa preview

Early this morning we got to witness the opening of the four hotels at Resorts World Sentosa, Singapore's first integrated resorts and casino. I love the people that work there but I found the place to look quite tacky (actually very tacky). It looked like something out of the early '90s and it gave me that feeling that I was in a place like Sunway Lagoon in Malaysia for those of you who are familiar with it.

Same developers.. so whaddaya know?! The hotel rooms were nothing to shout about and their room numbers were in typography which was hard to make out. 339 looked like the word "PEE" in mirror-image and 733 looked a lot like "LEE". The whole energy just didn't gel with me. It was part oriental part Egyptian and altogether confusing. I am amazed however, at the speed in which it was all built. Sentosa has a lot more space than we know and i'm sure it will be bustling with family holiday goers and not to mention gamblers. Still not so settled about how i feel about it but congratulations to the team for all their efforts.

Sex Education On The Job

Yes.. that's pretty much it.

My assignment yesterday entitled me to a free sex education. NO it's not what you think... shame on you for thinking dirty (: heh. It was however, an assignment where I got to witness a sexing procedure of Turacos for breeding purposes.

A Livingstone Turaco gets weighed

They were using scopes to examine the sexual organs of these birds at the bird park. It's a really cool profession, to be a veterinarian. Being able to get a handle of the little hearts, lungs, feathers, eyes, tongues and reproductive organs of animals and in this case, birds. At some point Dr. Melodiya (the resident vet) allowed me look through the scope to watch a beating heart! I even got to call the sex of a Livingstone Turaco.

ovarian follicles of a livingstone turaco

There were so many questions I had, like, where she knew to stick the probe in, where they would tattoo the birds after finding out if they were male or female and the old question of where eggs come from and how eggs form.. All these were answered and I felt so enlightened.

I admire her job but I love my job too. Ahhh just another day at the office. (:

Funnies i heard today

"She got her looks from her father... he's a plastic surgeon."

"The official who wanted to remain anonymous said he had no comment."

Annular Solar Eclipse

I dropped an assignment to shoot another. Tough choice but weighing one against another, the solar eclipse is rare and this particular one would occur a thousand years later i hear. I nearly dropped dead myself when I saw rain clouds covering the sky and the moment the peak of the eclipse was to happen, it rained. On the way to my car however, dragging my feet feeling all disappointed that after dropping a shoot, and ending up with no pictures from either assignment, i saw the light... literally. It was as though the sky parted and suddenly, the pac-man like solar eclipse happend. Life has a funny way of playing tricks on you but it rewards you when you put in some effort. Nice way to end my weekday. More work tomorrow. Have a good weekend. (:

Family

Finally, we did the unconventional this year over christmas. The family actually broke out from their tiny groups, switched off the television and took on the challenge of TABOO. Men against the women. Needless to say the women won - cause we do talk a lot more than men. It was a great way to get together for a change, it exposed characters and encouraged laughing. Funny how there were some moments when some of us were really talking nonsense but the rest of us understood what he/she was trying to say. Hey, we're family after all. I'm waiting for the next challenge.. Chinese New Year here we come.

More than a year ago

ok.. on hindsight. I think I really screwed up his first haircut ever. eeek. Lucky thing it grew back. His face says he knew it the minute i cut it off. haha

Same Same but Different

sisters.. i mean cousins...

Frozen lizards in Florida

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/34746400/ns/weather/

Caught on camera

see the photographer in the center of the frame? haha. make sure you don't start digging your nose because you'll never know when you're gonna get caught on TV.

One of the funniest things i've seen this year

On mel's t-shirt:

Haikus are easy

But sometimes they don't make sense

Refrigerator

hahahahhahah

Not for the prudish

A picture I took at the Singapore Tattoo Show earlier today...

Apparently this photo would be a little too obscene for the wire because the guy in the middle has his what sounds like CALLS exposed between his legs (: ha ha ha Anyway, it goes on at the Singapore Expo Hall 6B over the weekend if you wanna get inked. Also a Miss Tattoo Asia competition is in the program. And from the photographs of the contestants in the press release, it looks like this one's gotta be conducted in Hokkien. There's also a question and answer segment of the competition. How does one say "I wish for World Peace in Hokkien?"

Despite

Despite the harshness and ignorance, the elements or the lack of, I saw this little leave growing out of the crack in the wall of the carpark. So pretty and elegant, and yet it was only a leaf. We are a million times more complex in our make-up and supposed to be so intelligent as humans... and able to survive ANY if not most circumstances we're in; yet sometimes we complicate things for ourselves and end up weaker, hurt, and more fragile than we'd like to be.

Happy Mail

Oh look who arrived in my mail today... It totally made my day Dini... Thank you... I love you dharapak(s)!!! Happy New Year.. you got mail coming your way... Love, maye

4 years

HOLY COW has it been 4 years since i started this blog?

Apparently...

Apparently these keep you from hangovers? Tried and tested as well but I still can't bring myself to look at them while eating them.

Life is as straight as a U-Turn

Funny how I came to that conclusion while watching my darling nutritionist-by-training-now-professional cousin stick a spoon full of Chocolate Sundae into her mouth. Most times when you think life is straightforward, you're thrown a big punch in the face.. most often leaving you puzzled, sometimes hurt, but most times you don't end up dying - which makes you stronger.

Sometimes, you land in a new finishing point, one you never expected while other times, you take a big detour, ending up at the same point to where you started from. This darling cousin of mine spent most of her life as a student studying to be a nutritionist. Spent a year working as one, and ended up hating it. Took 2 years of her life flying the skies with Japan Airlines, serving people and looking very prim and taking on the aesthetics of the Japanese, to end up hating it and the lack of use of her very smart brains... to end up back as a nutritionist and now LOVING every moment of it.

Be it a week.

She says she feels good with the new challenges and mind boggling case studies that come her way. "I can use my brain and challenge myself this time!"

I say that sometimes, the detour makes you realise what you had in the first place and makes you appreciate life more. Funny how this works isn't it? I'm glad that she's come to a realisation and started me thinking about where I am as a person as well.

All the best hunny. I'm proud of you. Like I said, life is as straight as a u-turn. Just suck it in and ride the waves.

Laos Parting Shot

This is prolly my 3rd ever sunset photo in my 10 years of photography (i have this weird thing about shooting sunsets) but it was just outside the stadium as i was leaving a soccer match with my camera in hand.

Singapore Economy and my Dahon

Once again, Singapore GDP results are out and what better way to go about the city shooting some pictures to illustrate this than with my foldable reliable dahon... with a helmet this time round! Woot!

Belated Post-Assignment..

Does that title even make sense? Can a post-assignment entry be belated since it's already past? Anyways. I've always wanted to cover a sporting event for work. I've covered sports assignments but they were normally just individual sports. Covering a slightly more major event where you have multi-sports at an international level allows you to put your multi-tasking abilities to the test. So this past month, I was fortunate enough to cover the 25th Southeast Asian Games in Vientiane, Laos. "Nobody cares about the S.E.A. Games!" .. a phrase I would hear all the time. At first it can be a little disheartening but i've always had this mentality which is, to do your best in whatever situation you find yourself in. It can totally suck or you could suck it in and make the best of it. "Great! Then I can really try different things without risking too much!".. would be my reply instead. And it couldn't have been bad, especially when I found out I was working with one of the bests colleagues from Bangkok. He's a firecracker full of energy and TOTALLY FUNNY. Sakchai. Thank you for making this assignment so fun and dark. Also for insisting on speaking just THAI to me and nothing else so that I can improve on my language. I think I have because i could understand everything you said.. well almost (80percent) except when you broke into drunk folk songs on the way home to make our very serious civil servant driver laugh. And he did.

Shooting the SEA Games gave me the opportunity to shoot the sports I would otherwise have never gotten a chance too, here at home. We did a lot of Diving, which made pretty photos, Taekwando, Track and Field, Soccer, Sepak Takraw, Table Tennis andof course Swimming. I also chanced upon this Wushu sport called Sancho. I still have no idea what it's about but it gave nice action pictures.

One note worthy thing I have to mention (because I am very greatful to the canon team in singapore and thailand), I was also privileged enough to try out the Canon 7D. It's not brand new (watch out for the Canon Mark IV soon guys) but it's very very efficient. I would normally use one Canon Mark IIN and a Canon 5D Mark II body for work but with the Canon 7D, I literally left my Mark IIN as a spare and practically shot the whole S.E.A Games assignment on the 7D. The quality is wonderful, the colours are tolerant and accurate, plus it had this very sophisticated Auto Focussing tracking device which worked very well when I was shooting Soccer.

Many times, I would point the camera quickly towards the action and click almost instantaniously, and the action is captured. It was that quick. Don't mind if I go on about the technical bits in my blog but I don't normally get to play with good gear, so this really took away all stress from me when it came to equipment. I know they often talk about how the eye is the camera and the camera equipment are just tools. True but they do have limitations especially in some situations _ in this case, Sports. Another added advantage for me was that it was at a 1.6 magnification. So I had a lot of advantage on my 400mm lens. I got closer and sharper! The batteries were the same as my 5D Mark II so I didn't have to fuss about carrying too many different types of battery chargers.

Overall, I was very impressed that a camera, so simple and with the same make up as the Canon 5D Mark II could do so much more. It was so quick with its continuos shooting mode, I hardly missed a thing.. I could shoot 5 frames (because I don't believe in shooting more than that) a second and it was quick. Small but hot. That's what it is. The best part is, it cost less than half the price of the 5D Mark II... I had to give it back last week and feel a little separation anxiety but it gave me all these wonderful photos you see in the blog... So Laos.. Besides, i've never been to Vientiane and this was a great excuse.

"Don't expect anything! This is Laos!" Ya. Everything was shut early during the SEA Games period as there were curfews! I don't understand that concept but that left us with a lot of instant noodles dinners but we saved a lot of money.

"Lao PDR = Lao People Don't Rush" Turned out to be true as our driver would drive _ well actually all the drivers there would drive at an average speed of 50km/hr. And when we asked politely for him to speed up, the engine would rav slowly to a grand total of 60km/hr. Nice. Strangely, we were never late.

I guess in a way, Sakchai was right. "Don't expect anything." Though he was sarcastic at first, I think that was pretty much the right attitude to take along. When you manage your expectations, you feel less disappointment, and you are ready to put in whatever it takes to make whatever it is work.

I hope for another assignment like this soon. (:

JANUARY 1, 2010

TODAY IS THE FIRST DAY OF THE YEAR 2010. "TAKE CARE"

Congratulations Zacho...

This is Zach Ong, a picture i captured at the Laos Southeast Asian Games while on assignment.

He represented Singapore in the 200m backstroke men's finals to win the gold medal at the 25th Southeast Asian Games in Laos last month. I've had the privilege of seeing this boy grow (literally) the past couple of years from a waif (but fast) teenager to a tall and lean (and even faster) being in the water. Kudos to you darling. We are so proud. I was so excited I started shouting from the stands.. not forgetting to shoot at the same time though. Once again, Congratulations to you and your family. Training to a top level is not a one man feat and it takes so much discipline and energy in every sense. (: