Caught on camera(s)

dare. passion. memories. learn. those who are wandering doesnt necessarily mean they are lost.

still like to capture interesting items....

love to capture the ambience and scenes that re-generate the feeling....

after losing the europe trips photos, you know you can always revisit the place but not necessarily able to have back the same companions who leave footprints in this trip....

and when you start to scroll through what was captured on the five different cameras....

we still managed to have many "ALL IN" photos as well, either from....

...enlisting the help from kind souls,....

,...self taken big head shots....

.....or using the timer of the camera when timing is important.....

Byoki no nezumi

K.O.-ed. Bug attack. Taking a longer time than I expected also. Tue afternoon, sudden change of voice - deep "sexy" voice. and one colleague had to tell me that I initiate conversation when i have bad voice. do i? u mean normally I was unfrenly? anyway i initiate cos of work leh, thot injected some rubbish probably..haha. ok maybe i am lazy to make small talks la..anti social ma....Wed Morning, sore throat. Wed Afternoon, shivering. Wed night, fever. Thurs, total loss of voice. Fri, croaky voice. Fri night fully hit by headache, cold and cough. Really tiring to cough. Avoided meeting anyone so that I can cough without covering my mouth, else holding it back jus tickles my throat more. and also prays hard that nobody in office catches the bug. else I really will become the culprit. now that with severe coughing, germs confirm spread, so will definitely be absent to be more socially responsible.

Stupid throat, everyone at the 3-hr mtg on thurs morning, thought it will recover on fri, we are all quite sure of it. Must be protesting cos I whispered too much on thurs despite loss of voice. "cant talk still want to talk," mocking me silently, "not gg to let u recover on fri". Knowing this, I really vowed not to talk on friday, alr pre-empt my colleague to be the voice. One, good trng for her, two, good trng for me to listen more too.

But i failed. Miserable. still tortured others' ears with the croaky voice now that I dont need to whisper. Seriously, can i not talk and just let things happen for once? cant stop the urge to point things out though, first by a meeting which alr exceeds its slot, worse, not even knowing its agenda at all at the start. Just got to share wat i already know instead of watching it, of cos hoping to end it soon so that will not be too late for the next mtg. Then to the next, really have requested my colleague to present and update all until I backside itchy went to raise an architectural issue which results in more discussion. just when my colleague told me in the morning, "good that you dont have voice, the meeting can end earlier". Sorry, i did it again.

So throat refuses to recover on Sat, giving me additional cold, cough and headache. Cough till the thot of "will i kenna pneumonia?" flashed across. must be getting back at me for the curry chicken. Germ-infested room. recalled that I read this comment: "brain is fried and the body is like swimming in a jelly-like liquid." was still wondering what kind of feeling is that? probably I will know when i experience it.
this time somewhere close perhaps.

Opening the windows to a beautiful view of  the pretty sky. such good weather today. really lifted up my mood. time for brute force cycling. time for a nice weekend.

V is for vacation @ Penang

Day 1 - nice quainty boutique hotel. Decor is great, simple. Homely. We got the entire 2nd level of the southern chinese shophouse to ourselves. haven seen a bigger bathroom. The rooms are really spacious too but the bathroom is more jaw dropping. super long walk to gurney drive. But caught beautiful sunset along the shore. Worth the walk. Fried kuay tiao n oyster egg arent fantastic.

Day 2 - kek lor si temple. Grand but one of the halls is ridiculously commercialised with things sold right in the middle of it. The others have separate shops from the halls. Assam laksa for lunch, really not a fan. Im like eating flowers. The taste of the ginger flower is overpowering. Not sour at all. Different taste liking. Next up the Penang hill by funicular. Other than its cooling temperature at the altitude of above 700m and its panaromic city view, there really isnt any other interesting stuff. To the tropical spice garden. Even with the citronella mozzie repellent, got bites from there. Would have gotten more without the repellent probably. Drank a poorly done concoction of lemon grass, ginger, lime honey. really only got the ginger taste. A day with ginger overdosed. watched marley n me at night. Nt the first time watching it. Still find it super nice, bringing the viewers thru happiness, frustration and sadness. the gals were like passing the tissue box around towards the end of the show. I rmbered i teared the first time too.

Day 3 - the blue cheong fatt tze mansion. The place where they filmed the little nonya sg drama series. Posh olden chinese decor with geomancy features and carvings on concaved porcelain n of cos wood. Top 10 unesco site, one of the best conservation project. Then walking trail around george town. Quiet town. Not many shops open even on a saturday! Hop on the free town shuttle which i am really sceptical of it being operated actually. Waited for abt 20min and luckily it came. To komtar, pranglin and 1st avenue, cluster of shopping centres. Nothing fun. Except that im really amazed at my frens' appetite with 3 scoops of baskin robbins icecream each after kenny rogers for dinner. Unbelievable. While it is pouring outside somemore. Really exhausted at the end of the day. Too much walking in flip flops the whole day makes the feet super sore. kenna symptoms of dehydration. Urgh. Concussed. Dear pals helped me do online chk in.

Day 4 - coming to the end of the trip. Woke up and lay on the bed. Felt much much better. Staring at the ceiling fan rotating in the cooling spacious guestroom for the last time. Amazed by their stomachs again. Ate hotel's bfast, went for dim sum, walk a street then went for chendol. I only managed a spoonful of each, while they can stuff those down their oesophagus.

Went back to the hotel to stone abit before the kind hotel staff drove us to the local 7-street hawker centre before heading to the airport. Tried local food like prawn mee, jawa mee, curry mee, kway tiao soup, popiah and some fish dish in malay which i cant rmb the name. Haha airport is like a fugitive restin stop. They went to hoard the entire airport with dust flying all over instead of phasing it. Sighz.

Really enjoyed the 5-pple grp trip cos can try abit of all the food. n the companionship is everything in this heritage town. Love the architecture but not new, jus few sizes bigger than our katong area and ann siang hill. Cab drivers allow us to board mostly by charging a pax more, so yes the bus is actually more comfy and cheaper. Only thing that im super gao wei is the wet toilets. Uber hot weather with cloudless sky. But this makes me appreciate a good bath with a super big shower head at the end of every day. And getting to slump right into the king sized bed with the soft pillows gives a sense of bliss. Hope i can rmb these senses and create them as and when i need them back home.

End of a eat. roam. sleep trip.

Reinventing or reminiscing the life chapter

Dinner@Table Manners. Cool place for the afterwork bunch, and yet avoiding the CBD crowd.

Congrats on the wedding for yh and zs! Zs really look like eurasian in her make up. Lunch at mandarin oriental is yummy! lava cake is superb as dessert. Honestly slightly, only slightly better than smoulders'. had gone to support frens' shop at telok ayer which sells lava cake the wk before, hired chef but they tend the shop themselves on wkends! Wish them flourishing business!
Amazing affinity for the newly weds from mpa though now both have left. Continuing and beginning a new chapter in their life. Good luck to them!

Maf 2012. Half the strength this yr. sparklers play remains the tradition, even with the whistling ones which attract enough attention. Once and it is completed, captured perfectly by the S100 this year. Thinking back times at the nus rooftop, we took hrs. The numbers would play a part in gettin less NGs.and the camera model too perhaps.


Other than the swarming mozzies and flies, not bad a platform built on stilts along the coast, beautified further by the evening sun in the sky and the swishing waves gently carrying the sand up and then backing away from the shore. Words are always inadequate in times of sadness as we come to realise and learn to accept profound loss. Depending on an individual's belief, it is one's perception and attitude towards the reality. How one carries oneself and pulls through such times. Grateful memories survive, the more you recall it, the more painful the images become, somehow the focus and emphasis of these memories differ during such times. If it helps, do accept tlc from those living and those who care without worrying. for some who shun support, I would probably just let them be. i personally value letting pple do what they like more. but u know it isnt always the correct method. thus fortunate to have pals of varying characters, their persistence in keeping company is at times more effectively in preventing others from excessive brooding. now i embrace diverse personalities and no clones anymore.

Taken2 is finally here. thought taken is quite a good show despite comments from critics. for awhile when we touched down at the airport, it was mentioned that we had better get the cab from the airport counter reminds me of the show, where the daughter and fren were taken by the gang who shared a cab with them from the airport. and then the story develops with the dad tracking down the traffickers.

Wkly attention seeking laughter from the little terrors in the park. even my bro was like trying to walk far away from them. but they were genuine and tat's why they are attractive. cutie pies, as long as no fights. read an article on "we smile when we are happy" so can we do it the other way round? "we are happy when we smile". when you are feeling agitated or sad, just stretch your facial muscles and smile and see if you feel happier after that.

 

 

Spa for the calcified structures

Not visiting the pretty therapist anymore. She is only available on mondays. Finally got to see the long heard abt dentist, my fren's sis. All dentists are always cheery, they probably have the onus to make their patients less stressed over having metal structures prying their mouths open.

Got an xray, really jus for fun. No expectation or anything, slight fear of killing some cells tho. But succumbed to the recommendation since i've never done it before. Results are good. And i finally got to know that i actually have one wisdom tooth! Can see from the film, sitting at the top right end, at an angle. So it will never appear unless i start to lose the molars when im old. So dentist said that will save me the trouble of having to get wisdom tooth plucked out. How lucky.

So she proceeded to apply some lip balm, then some numbing gel on the gum and then some metal gently touching the teeth. I shall opt out of numbing gel next time. Makes my lips feel super weird. After some cleaning and scrubbing, got a solution spray, salty! New procedures, not the same as my previous encounters. She wrapped up by showing me the before and after pics of my teeth. Thanks dentist.