broylim / catalog

Making microwave popcorn~

Did y’all see the moon yesterday?! It was huge!!

Like this huge!! Okay~ This is a bad picture because hey~ My lens cannot zoom that far okay~ And on top of that, I didn’t bring my tripod so I should be forgiven for taking such a bad photo of the beautiful celestial stone. But… When you zoom in…

Zoomed at 100%, this is still a pretty decent photo of the moon, no? At least you can still see the shadowy parts of the moon.

They said that this phenomenon called the… what’s the term again? Vera called it “lunar moon”. Leon called it “sailor moon”. But the internet calls it the “super moon”. Whatever~ I’ll just call it the “big, beautiful moon”.

Anyway, yesterday night, we had nothing to do so we watched a Pokemon movie! YES!! What’s wrong with being 20 years old and still watching Pokemon? Pokemon are made by adults okay~ And I still play Pokemon~

Who cares if I’m childish? I’m happy and that’s what matters to me!!

What’s a movie without POPCORN! Actually, you can still watch movie without those high calorie snacks but because we saw this packet of microwave popcorn for less than $3 at the supermarket, we bought it just to try out.

It’s called the “Poppin Microwave Popcorn Butter Flavor”. The color scheme reminds me of Kraft but I don’t think it’s by Kraft though. One whole pack of this movie treats is a near 500 calories! Best if you share it with a friend or two to spread out the fatness.

It’s actually really easy to make your instant popcorn. All you have to do is to tear open the plastic packaging, pop this paper bag thingie into the microwave for 3 minutes and wait for the magic to pop.

Read the instructions carefully though because if you put this inside the microwave for too long, the whole bag might explode and there goes your equipment. I have no idea what difference it makes if you “Heat This Side Down” though. Probably have something to do with the expansion of the bag during cooking.

Microwaving the popcorn. How I wish I have a simple microwave like this at home. Oh yes~ Just so you know, this is not my house. :P

Realize I changed my camera angle? The bag was expanding SO QUICKLY I was really afraid to stand close to the microwave. You know, in case it explodes… I don’t want to be covered in popcorn and metal debris. But yes~ The bag will expand! So if you think that one packet is not enough, think again!!

How the bag looks like… From a thin sheet of cardboard looking thing to this big bag of fatty bom bom-ness. Magic!!

Ta da!! Ready for popcorn?

Erm… I think we left the popcorn in the oven for 30 seconds too long and a lot of the popcorn is burnt. Sad~!! But those which are not burnt are actually quite nice~ Not that extremely salty ones you find at the cinema but the mild, buttery taste. The burnt one just tastes burnt.

So I watched the first few minutes of the movie eating these burnt popcorn but it was thrown away even before I can eat like 10% of the packet due to “health hazards”. Sad!! But at least I had Doritos as compensation. The bliss!! :P

I’m definitely going to try these popcorn again next time and I will try not to burn it again. :P

Anyway~

Image taken from: http://www.lipstickjungleeden.com/2011/02/britney-spears-announces-femme-fatale.html

I have pre-ordered my copy of Britney Spears’ FEMME FATALE - Premium Fan Edition. Have you? :D

K-box with DGDD fatties!!

Second post of the weekend! Shows that I’m really maximizing every single second of these precious 2 days of freedom and human rights.

Yesterday, I went out to sing with my DGDD classmates, who I affectionately call them “fatties” even though they are not corpulent because it’s just funny. Not that I have anything against bigger sized people but it’s just for the fun so please don’t be offended. :)

Sadly, I wasn’t exactly inspired to take lots of photos because the room was extremely dark. In fact, it was so dark that even flash did not manage to help me much. But oh well~ 

So we were meant to meet at 2pm outside Marina Square’s K-box but many of them were late. Good thing I knew that the K-box would definitely be extremely packed due to the 6 dollars promotion so in the morning, I called to reserve a slot from 2pm - 4pm. Only managed to start at 2:30pm because that was when majority of them arrived…

And because we had 8 people singing together, 2 hours was definitely not enough! We asked if we could extend but the staff there were rather unhelpful by answering that their bookings are quite “full” and cannot extend for us. Oh well!!

But we ain’t stupid!! I got Rini to make a reservation while we were INSIDE K-box for a slot from 4:30pm - 6:30pm, just in case they didn’t allow us to extend. And yes!! They didn’t!! 

Furthermore, they cut short our timing because they apparently start charging from the time you RESERVED the room, not the time you ENTER the room. Sucks no? So we basically threw half an hour away for nothing.

WELL, IN YOUR FACES BITCHES!
We still managed to get another slot because we’re oh-so-clever to book another slot. So much for “full” booking…

*P.S. These rants have nothing to do with the pictures, I know. :)

The only thing emitting light was these decorations. Well~ There were the room lights of course but I was too lazy to turn them on for photos. Besides, lights in a K-box room spoils the atmosphere.

Rini brought her Sony super-zoom camera and it’s so LIGHT!! Well, as compared to my 550D of course. Got her to pose with her camera for this photo. Almost look like an ad~

Clarence, Ben Lim and Rini with her camera. I believe she took a picture of me taking a picture of them…

This was taken at the second room. Did I mention that while we were in our first room, they totally forgotten to give us those snacks, leaving a few of us hungry? Evil them!! Well~ It’s 6 dollars so you can’t expect much but if you’re the management of K-box and you read this statement, 6 dollars doesn’t mean you provide lousy service, get? I’ve been to K-box so many times and this is probably the worst service I’ve gotten. Slightly disappointed.

Anyway~ The gang that went singing includes (left to right) Jia Yi, Clarence, Daryl, Jum, myself, Peiquan, Ben Lim and Rini.

Jum, Rini, Clarence and I had to leave earlier because we were meant to meet Wayne and Ben Ang at Yew Tee for dinner and we rushed like hell because we thought we would be extremely late but good thing we weren’t.

This dinner “date” was planned weeks before and I guess I didn’t have an excuse not to go since I was informed so early. We had Astons Express at a food court near the Yew Tee MRT station. Snapped a few candid portraits of them while waiting for our food~ Here’s Jum’s…

Here’s Ben Ang and I can see his chin!! He’s slimmed down SO MUCH!! I’m so amazed!!

Wayne was sitting right next beside me and with my 50mm lens, it was pretty difficult to get a proper shot but I did manage to get a profile though, not before he terrorized me by sticking his face extremely close to my camera.

And Shun Ding made a special appearance! It’s been awhile since I saw him~ I think the last time I saw him was back at school and that was like a year ago? His nonsense and outburst of randomness still tickles me.

Clarence, the police inspector~

Let’s talk ‘bout food~ I didn’t manage to get proper photos of everyone else’s food so I just took mine. Partially because I was too lazy and was really hungry so I couldn’t be bothered but anyway~ I had this grilled fish with herbs (because it’s less fattening than chicken, or so I believe) and have it paired with a garden salad and baked potato. Honestly, I would prefer broccolis but these veggies are just fine.

The huge slice of fish topped with tartar sauce. YUMMY!! One thing I don’t really like about eating dory fish is that it is pretty difficult to poke the fork at it because it will break into smaller pieces, making it slightly more challenging to eat. But it’s tasty so it’s worth that little trouble.

After dinner, I went off while the rest of them went to Wayne’s house to play board games. Reason why I didn’t want to go? Because I want to sleep!! But I didn’t go home though…

Oh yes!! I did say I would take a photo of Pokemon Black right?

Here it is and it’s not mine!! :P

I’m still charging my DS after I drained it from playing Pokemon for the whole of yesterday night so I have pretty much nothing to do right now. Booking in tomorrow morning but that’s fine considering that I can play Pokemon in camp~ :P

Shall end here! 

04, 05, 06

It’s my second attempt trying to blog this entry because an hour ago, tumblr went amok and refused to let me post my entry and because of that, all my hard work of writing and inserting pictures went to waste!!

Shame on you, tumblr!!

But upon receiving news from my friend who also uses tumblr, she said that posting is back to normal and I did a dummy post just now. Yeap. It’s working alright.

Dear tumblr… Please make an auto-save/auto-draft thingie please~~ So when I do long entries, my things don’t go missing…

Oh well~ Enough of my whining. I shall re-write the entire entry.

Well, due to lack of time, I was unable to blog every single day. Okay… The real reason is because I’m too lazy to even edit the photos but hey~ I’m making an effort now okay~ So I shall compress all 3 days into 1 single entry. Makes reading easier also.

Let’s start of with…

04 MARCH

Before I continue, Maomao wants to say “HELLO!!”

My naughty boy has been really picky with his food. In fact, he gives me headaches sometimes because I seriously have no idea what to feed him. Feed him dried food he’ll only eat a little… Feed him canned food (used to feed fully canned last time) but he won’t even touch it… I tried fresh chicken meat but he won’t even bother~ Picky picky!! Hopefully he doesn’t lose weight because I want him to grow bigger!!

Back to my life. I came out early on Friday. In fact, I reached home at around 12pm~ The past week was just like the previous weeks of doing practically nothing. Well, at least I learnt how to indent transportations; been doing that for the whole week. Wonder what other “nonsense” I will be doing for the next.

On Friday, we had dinner at NEX’s (guess where~~) Fish & Co.!! And it was a treat!!

THANK YOU!! :D

Don’t you envy CitiBank cardholders? They always get discounts at restaurants. One day, when my bank is not at a miserable $50 mark, I shall go apply for that card! Took this picture while waiting for our food; I do this all the time, no?

We got a set which comes with a drink, this passion fruit soda, and a soup. 

Soup of the day: Fish Chowder. Just so you know, the black specks are grounded peppers I sprinkled on the soup so don’t be afraid. I think the soup was mediocre as compared to the Clam Chowder I had at Heeren’s branch the other time. I remember going gaga over the Clam Chowder but the Fish one was just okay. Not as tasty but is good enough.

Clam > Fish perhaps…

We had the Seafood Platter! Apparently, it’s one of Fish & Co.’s signature dishes. This platter is really huge~ Comes with a huge piece of dory fish laid on chips and rice, squids, mussels topped with a special sauce and the buttered prawns. Really sinful and hearty dish.

Close up of the buttered prawns. I think the prawns are so-so though. Probably because of the way the prawns are served; dissected into half along the length. Makes the prawn less chewy? I can’t really taste the butter too. Slightly disappointed by the prawns.

These mussels, on the other hand, are good! They are not tough and rubbery like some overcooked ones outside but soft and juicy. I like the sauce too~ The serving is generous too.

See those round thingies? I guess they are bloated raisins. Really sweet stuff!! The rice is fine but I think with the chips, it’s too much carbs! Sinful sinful!!

Unfortunately, I don’t think I want to go back to NEX’s Fish & Co. in the near future because I was rather unpleased with their poor service. But on the other hand, I can’t really blame them. Here’s what happened…

So we were eating innocently at the table when a couple sat down at the table beside us. They were constantly trying to get the attention of one of the staff after deciding what to eat but to no avail. There were only 3 staff on the floor and one of them was busy preparing the drinks and soups.

I was slightly irritated by the couple because they were trying so desperately but it never occurred to them for anyone of them to just stand up and go tell the waitress. They just sat there~ So I went ahead and told the staff at the drinks/soup counter that they want to make an order. The couple thanked me.

But~~ No staff came!! So the couple got so fed up, they stormed out of the restaurant. Oh well~ I tried to help~~

Furthermore, trying to pay for the food was a hassle too because the manager was so tied up with other customers. Before us was a group who paid using cash. We paid using card. The manager settled the cash payment and gave us the change and we were like “????” I think the manager himself was in confusion.

I mean~ If you know you’re going to get a full house (happened that evening), why not get more helpers? You are making lots of people frustrated. I sympathize with them but again, if they worked smartly, then perhaps things won’t be that bad.

Maybe they should try playing Diner Dash… -_-“

After dinner, I went home. Vera and Aik Hin just came back from their Malacca “honeymoon” trip and I’m so jealous after looking through the photos (some of which stunning, some of which *ahem*) they took using my Lumix FX 48 (advertised by ayu!!). I want to go there too!! 

Oh yes~ Did I mention that we met Rena and her friend while we were having dinner at NEX? So after dinner, we walked around NEX for awhile, and I asked her whether she wants to play Mahjong (no money involved, of course) at my place and she said okay. So we took the bus but she changed her mind and said she wanted to go home and bathe first instead.

Okay. So I went home and waited. And waited. And waited. And we started the game first without Rena since she took so long. Even Maomao got tired of waiting. Eventually, she came (like around 2am?) and we were already so tired so we ended our game and she didn’t get to play. 

Sorry Rena~ But you took too long!! 

05 MARCH

HAPPY BIRTHDAY KENVIN!!

Kenvin’s my BMT platoon mate and I was honored to be invited to his birthday party held at Costa Sands Pasir Ris. Honestly, I had never ever been to the Pasir Ris Costa Sands before because all along, I went to the one where you have to pay a dollar entrance fee. Apparently, Sentosa has one too~ Gosh~ I had no idea!!

Before heading to the chalet, I met up with Moon at City Hall so we could go do some last minute shopping for Kenvin’s birthday present. We were clueless on what to buy but eventually, we settled for a really cool mug and Show Luo’s limited edition album (yes, suggested by me).

After that, we made our way to the chalet which, thank goodness, wasn’t hard to find. Larry and Yijing came shortly after and we caught up with each another’s army lives.

ちょっとまって。。。 They caught up on their army lives while I listened because to me, there’s no life in the army!!

Broy’s vocabulary = Army = No life.

Unfortunately, we had to leave early because we had something on. Like what Larry said, weekends are precious. But before we left, we took group photos!! From left to right; Larry, Kenvin (guarding against Larry’s non-stop pinches), Moon and Yijing.

Another shot. You can tell that Kenvin’s obviously guarding against something. :)

One of Kenvin’s friends was kind enough to help us take this shot. I can see my chin!!

06 MARCH

Now for something more recent (today!!). I went to Woodlands to meet up with Alvin and gang for lunch and movie. After getting the tickets to “I am Number Four”, we went to Breeks to have lunch! Apparently, Breeks marked up their prices. THAT AIN’T COOL!! Good thing there’s this daily special where 2 of the dishes are on promotion and I picked the Cajun Blackened Fish because it costs $12.90 before taxes on Sundays.

One of those “I’m bored waiting for my food” photos. I love the lights and the photos on the wall.

Considering that Breeks showed us no love by marking up their prices, we gave the drinks a pass and went for plain water instead. Cheap and healthy.

Food now!! This is the Maryland something chicken cutlet thingie served in a basket. Alvin had to get a separate plate in order to eat this because it was a challenge to try cut the piece into pieces when the chicken is firstly so huge and secondly, in a basket. But eventually, Alvin got tired of cutting it and went on the barbaric by just poking the chicken with a fork and sending it straight into his mouth. The true way of enjoying this dish.

The fries look tasty!!

Chong Yee and Yin Zhi had the Fish and Chips. The fish is HUGE; spanning across the diameter of the entire plate itself! Did I feature this fish before on my blog? I don’t remember!! I feature so many photos of food now and then that I lose track~ Recently, I’m really interested in food photography and I’m aiming to improve because taking photos of food is yummy!!

I think that the dish that’s the most worthwhile was Yahya’s pizza. It costs $12.90 before taxes and serves 2!! But she had this all by herself~ No, she did not finish everything in one sitting because that would be insane but if you were to share it, it’s actually one of the most cost-efficient food in the menu. Plus, the pineapple chucks are so big that I’m so envious~

Regrettably, I didn’t manage to capture Hazel’s pasta because she was sitting too far away. :(

Well now for my *scrolls up to check the name* Cajun Blackened Fish! The fish is not black though; it’s a huge piece of soft and silky fish topped with the sauce that makes the dish “black”. Comes with pasta and crunchy veggies. Overall, it’s really worth it because of the promotion!!

Close up on the pasta. I love this shot!!

After a tasty lunch, we had some time left to walk around so we walked over to Civics Plaza to get ourselves some McDonald’s ice-cream! The Milo McFlurry is back!! We sat at this area opposite the reflective glass panels of the building and I took this group shot of ourselves. Cool, no?

Then I went around snapping photos of the building. I’ve walked through this building so many times but have totally ignored the marvelous design and architecture of this place. Even though it’s cloudy, the windows still managed to reflect blue beautifully.

The blue is so pretty!! This photo may look distorted but actually, the building curves so you get what I mean.

Sitting around… I hate the waiting time before a movie because there’s hardly anything for you to do.

Eating ice-cream…

Group shot. :)

One of the horrors of eating ice cream is when the ice cream starts to drip all over and Hazel had her ice cream drip on her thigh and of course, as the Master of Unglam photos, I just had to take a photo of this. :P

Dripping dripping~~

Well anyway, in case you want to know how I feel about the movie “I am Number Four”. I think it’s worth the 5 dollars that we all paid for it. Apparently, M1 users get a promotion where they get 2 tickets at the price of 1~ Since Yin Zhi, Chong Yee and Yahya uses M1, the rest of us enjoyed a cheaper movie ticket!

Back to the movie. It’s basically about this guy being an alien with superpowers; almost like X-Men just that his guy has so many powers you kinda lose track at times. Super parkour speed? Telekinesis? Shining light from hands? Shooting beams from hands? There’s a reason why X-Men commonly have a single power or two and not a whole arsenal.

Furthermore, the storyline is a little predictable. The characters are also predictable (e.g. you know who will die, you know that a female kickass character will appear and save the day for awhile, etc). The characters also lack vulnerability for me to feel anything for them.

From the ending of the movie, I suppose there’s going to be a sequel so I hope they develop the characters a little bit more and give them more depth. Verdict: I think there are better movies these weeks than this one so give this a pass unless you want to look at pretty and handsome people.

That concludes these 3 days of my weekend. I hope tomorrow, I will have “nights” out so I can go down to Orchard to collect my Pokemon game(s). :P Pokemon Black and White is out, y’all!! Go get them so we can catch ‘em all!!

I pray that this week will be shorter than the past 2 weeks too. :P Staying in camp doing nothing but getting fat (I certainly hope not!!) is boring!!

And that’s why I had this for dinner today because I’ve been stuffing my face with all the good food. Guilty~ :P

誕生日おめでとう、Rini~~

To show y’all people who can’t read Japanese, the title says “HAPPY BIRTHDAY, Rini~~” YES!! You learnt something new didn’t you? :)

Yesterday, I was honored to be the photographer of Rini’s birthday party held at SAFRA Mt Faber’s K-box~ I think that SAFRA is a little difficult to access though because it’s stuck somewhere in an isolated area that even in daytime, you don’t really see many cars driving by. Odd~

But anyway~

Before heading over to meet Rini, Jia Yi, Chjia Mean and *sigh*, I met up with Daryl, Wei Guang, Pei Quan and Chanel at VivoCity to do our extremely last minute shopping. Don’t be blaming us, Rini~ Because we seriously had no clue what to get for you for your birthday.

Had dinner at Carl’s Jr (omygod all the calories :(~) and I went to PageOne to grab a deck of tarot cards for Rini’s birthday present. Hopefully she likes it and will do a reading for me one day…

After which, we went over to SAFRA. Let’s start the film rollin’~

The K-box at SAFRA is modeled after a train cabin or something. Nowadays, each K-box has their own themes. If I didn’t remember wrongly, Jurong’s SAFRA is modeled after a Chinatown-ish feel which I don’t really like. Some rooms have windows and during daytime, it’s extremely annoying. Anyway, looks like K-box made their menu so much prettier!

The host of the event, Rini!! In case you don’t know who she is, she’s been my classmate since Poly Year 1 and she is an amazing artist! Oh yes~ I forgot to mention that she brought her game designer friend, Matthew, along too. Good thing we didn’t talk about game designing because I’m so through with that!

Pei Quan singing~ Just to add, we actually videoed down each of us singing a particular song. Meant to be a present for Rini; kinda like a song-video tribute. Will be uploading them on Facebook once I have the time~ It was really fun because it’s my first time videoing so much using my 550D and it’s the first time it showed me an overheat icon! Not that I’m happy it overheated but there’s always a first.

I didn’t tell Chjia Mean I took this picture but luckily for him and unluckily for me, this picture ain’t unglam. :(

We bought this Japanese Strawberry Cheesecake cake at VivoCity’s Bakerzin. They have really pretty cakes! We were meant to get a huge 8” tart at the Japanese tart store but then they said we had to pre-order first and we were apparently too late so we went for this instead. Nevertheless, it was good though!

Rini was obviously very surprised when she saw the cake because…

Chanel and her boyfriend were the ones who walked in to surprise her! Chanel wasn’t meant to join us for the K-session because she left after we met her at Vivo but she held onto the cake. When some of the guys suddenly disappeared and came in with the cake along with the 2 new guests, Rini was surprised. Was a pity Chanel and her boyfriend didn’t stay throughout.

Group shot yeah!!

Singing the birthday song…

Blowing out the candles… Sigh~ I really should have bought the external flash because a lot of my photos yesterday night were mediocre. Slightly disappointed…

Cutting the cake. Did I mention that we were meant to get 21 small candles for this cake? But considering that the cake is way too small to hold so many candles, we dropped that idea. Should have gotten relightable candles~ Rini, you’re spared for this year.

Wei Guang and Jia Yi. Jia Yi told me he’s gained a lot of weight since he went into the army. Must be all the muscle mass~ Too bad mine’s all *sigh~* More cereals for breakfast and dinner…

Next time you go to K, try their Mango Yogurt if you haven’t! It’s really good and refreshing and makes a good photo!

The cake is served~ Looks like a strawberry shortcake, no?

Failed group shot because firstly, I’m out of focus and secondly, my head’s too big!

Enjoying the tiny cake filled with best wishes for the birthday girl… This is what you get when your shutter speed’s too slow; ghostly images~

Matthew singing a Beatles song. Took this picture because just look at them!! Don’t you find that Matthew look just like one of the singers on TV?!

Second drink; Lemon Honey!!

I kinda like this shot because it’s not posed and it’s a genuine, happy smile. :)

Photo of me and Rini~ I have no idea why my eyes look so small in so many photos yesterday night.

Well just so you know, I didn’t get him to pose like this!! He wanted to do this hoochie pose himself and of course, I’ll be glad to photograph it!

Epic mess on the table! I love the stirrers because they seem to “glow” in the dark! Really pretty~

Talk about scandalous… :P

This is how the photos will turn out like without flash! Extremely blue and ghostly, like Daryl over here!!

And the last photo of the day is used to compare how short Rini is compared to her friend who’s like 1 and a half heads taller than her. Well, not to say that I’m tall too but you know, we’re all short people and I love it anyway~

That basically marks the end of MY night because after K, the rest of them went clubbing. Considering that I’m not a club kinda person plus I was conveniently inappropriate dressed (like the usual fashion disaster I am with shorts and sandals), I went home on my own and good thing there were transportations back home! Save money!!

Shall end this post here. Happy birthday Rini, again!! Stay happy and continue to do what you believe is right~ Hope you enjoy your night and remember to master the tarot cards soon so you can do a reading for me~ :) 

03. Visiting at my House + Marina ~Lunar New Year~

While waiting for my video to be converted, I shall blog on the third day of the Lunar New Year and fingers crossed… I hope my laptop doesn’t overheat like just now and go amok again.

Normally by Day 3, the students would have returned to school, the working adults will start their mundane orders again but this year, Day 3 is on a Saturday and that means, we get to celebrate a lot more!

This year, my friends came over to my house to celebrate the new year and I took lots of pictures. Surprisingly, this post will contain more shots than Day 1. Probably because there are more interesting shots on Day 3.

Well, enjoy~~

My bestest friends, Chua Ying Ying and Alvin came over to visit me and we took pictures with the Space Aliens! Jessica was kind enough to help us take this shot~ :)

Miss Jessica Peh, Catwoman, and me with Maomao~ Maomao looks so fat, no? :P And the table behind us is in an epic mess, as usual.

Well, to entertain my guests, we played Mahjong. Yes, you didn’t read this wrongly. WE played Mahjong.

If you know me on a personal level, you know that I have a hatred for gambling (well, it’s apparent in the previous blog entry) because I find giving away my money through luck is just plain stupid because you get nothing in return. Cheap thrills don’t satisfy me through gambling. 

But for the first time the few of us played Mahjong, we played with no cash; in other words, there was no gambling. I mean, you don’t have to play with money to enjoy a game, yes? I had lots of fun playing with Alvin and Ying Ying though; because we were all new to the game and we made lots of stupid mistakes. :P

When evening fell, we headed to Sheena’s house for dinner. Normally, we rarely visit their house during Lunar New Year (I don’t know why. Rena, care to share? :P) but last year and this year, we did~ Took this picture downstairs while we were heading towards the car park and edited in Lightroom to give it a toy-camera effect.

Took pictures of Nick, Vera, Jessica and Ying Ying (Fine!! I’ll call you Raven in this post because Ying Ying is so difficult to type again and again~) while waiting for my father to drive his van down.

Did you know that it was Raven’s first time in a van in her entire life when I took this picture? According to her blog, she enjoyed the bumpy ride and I find that crazy. We never liked sitting at the back of the van because it’s hot and stuffy and sometimes dangerous because often, we get thrown from the back to the front and back again due to gravity. Raven asked for this photo to commemorate her first time at the back of a van. 

Raven blinded by the camera’s flash.

Arrived at Sheena’s house shortly and we had home-cooked dinner round this table. My aunt is an excellent cook because she used to work at a store at some coffee shop and her food is delicious! In fact, it’s been awhile since I had such tasty home-cooked fares.

My favorite broccoli, mushrooms… veggies in general! The soup was good too! I didn’t have a lot of rice because I was trying to control my intake of carbos though but I ate lots of those yummy mushrooms!

Close up of the mushroom dish. This dish consists of various kinds of mushrooms dressed on top of the vegetables. And guess who’s the artist of this dish…

Bimbotic she may be but she’s damn good and patient at laying out the veggies at the base of the plate so that the wonderful mushrooms have a nest to rest in. I really applaud her patience though because for me, I will just chuck everything together. Kudos to my aunt for this marvelous dish!! I want more!!

After dinner, I went around taking pictures of random things as usual and Rena gave me this really disgusting smile. Children, this is what you look like when you smile/talk with your mouth food. Not nice and very ugly.

My aunts, grandparents and cousins watching the show where half the time, the characters are either yelling in each another’s faces, fighting or being sarcastic to each another; LOVE (爱). COME ON!! Where’s the love when the characters are fighting with each another constantly?! And the show ran for over 500 episodes and I yearn for the day it will finally end because the Hokkein song is so annoying!

How can I miss out the little dog, Qiqi? Qiqi’s so LIGHT!! Do you know that Maomao is so much heavier and to me horror, BIGGER than this dog? I would expect dogs to be beefier and larger but no~ My cat wins Qiqi in these aspects. This shows that Maomao is really becoming Garfield. Alvin was playing with Qiqi and I was trying to get a portrait of them but Qiqi kept moving.

I love this shot!! Qiqi’s so adorable!

Xander drinking tea from a packet.

Taking photos at Sheena’s house made me kicked my own butt a little because I should have gotten the external flash! The lighting in her house was horrible and extremely challenging to take photos and honestly, I was getting impatient. Good thing my models are more patient, like Alvin.

Raven’s always very busy with work and it’s a rare opportunity that she gets to come over to Sheena’s house, or even my house for that matter, to celebrate the New Year so a photo is definitely worthy. Portrait of Raven and Whela Lim.

One of the most challenging people in my family to photograph is Sheena because she is often uncooperative and she gives the weirdest faces all the time, as shown above. There’s a better photo of Raven and Sheena on facebook if you want to see but this one is definitely more blog-worthy. :P

Vera and Jessica. Even though life had separated them, they still keep in contact with each another and I find that admirable. My father likes to play Blackjack with Jessica because she gives funny reactions. Typical her.

Oh well… Gambling again…

The cards that they used. My father work with Carlsberg so he gets these merchandises all the time. In fact, the whole storeroom is filled with random Carlsberg stuff!

Yong Xiang and Laura; the love birds.

My aunt was watching the annoying show when she suddenly turned and look at me when I was taking a photo of her. Her expression is reaction then was priceless~ Tip to taking unglam photos: Strike when they don’t realize you are taking a photo of them. Best: Take the moment they go crazy that they realized you had taken an unglam moment of them.

Is this unglam or…? I think it’s very RENA. “Rena” should be an adjective.

And this is very Sheena.

Back to the gambling den which attracted more people…

And now… For the more interesting part of this blog entry; MARINA!! 

After dinner at Sheena’s, Alvin, Raven and I rushed over to meet Daniel and the rest at Marina and we were horribly late. We were supposed to meet them at around dinner time but we only arrived there at almost 9pm. Rushy rushy!!

The night scene at Marina was GORGEOUS and I did not regret bringing my tripod and remote to capture these wonderful scenes.

Thank you Daniel for organizing this outing~ 

I love this shot of Raven because it looks so catalog! Used her as a test subject for our group shot and she looks really amazing in this photo! You should set this as your display picture, Chua Ying Ying!! 

Erm… Her face here is a bit… -_-“

Ain and Yahya joined us too~ Fun-loving lot.

The people walking behind us created an interesting background for my shot with Raven and Alvin.

This is not the best group shot but we were against time and rules because this security guard came over and told us “No stands”, meaning I cannot use my tripod. Well, I ignored him and went on using the tripod because it was the only way to get a reasonable shot. Anyway, throughout the thing, I continued to use my tripod because I’m such a rule breaker~ :P

We proceeded to the floating platform and instead of smelly people wearing green, it was flooded with people visiting the beautiful displays on the floating piece of land. The mock grass was covered up with this plastic shutter-like thingie and on top of the platform is the God of Fortune; a symbol that the Chinese are money-minded people.

These colorful lanterns lit up the edges of the floating platform. Almost felt like the Lantern Festival that night.

On the floating platform were 12 huge coins, each featuring an animal from the zodiac. The horses, like myself, took a picture with our coin and I’m blurred. :( Probably because I ran into the shot and Raven snapped the picture too quickly.

The snakes~

They had this dragon/bird looking thing too. Weird design though…

This is definitely a dragon.

Even though the Youth Olympic is over, they still have things relating to this event on the platform. Probably because the Youth Olympic Park is just a stone throw away from the Floating Platform. Ain and Yahya wanted to take a photo using this backdrop.

And Yin Zhi wanted to pose like the torch bearer using a water bottle.

Red lanterns!!

Besides coins, there were oversize stamps on display as well, featuring the zodiacs again. I believe these stamps were on sale but I’m not a stamp collector so I’m not really interested.

To be honest, there weren’t much to see on the floating platform. I think it’s due to the weight limitations that they have to limit the number of exhibits. If not, everything will sink into the Singapore River and that ain’t cool. Once we were done, we returned back to the solid ground.

There was a fun fair nearby and we all went gaga~ Too bad the queue was too long and the rides look too scary so we didn’t go on any. Raven wanted to go for this spinning top ride but decided not to because the queue was way too long. Now~ For slow shutter speed fun~~

Weeeeeeee~~~ I wonder if anyone actually vomited on these rides before and what happened after that.

The lights are so pretty…

If you think the spinning carousel thingie is scary, you haven’t seen this Inverter. It spins you round and round in this capsule at great heights. Just watching it is scary enough.

The Fullerton Hotel at night. If you’re sharp enough, you can spot the Merlion in this photo too. :)

Another photo of Marina Bay Sands in the night. What is that roundish white structure in front of the MBS? Anyone knows??

While watching the rides, I took this photo of Raven who was incidentally leaning against the railings and I liked the lighting~ So, I decided to take a portrait of everyone~~

But before that, COTTON CANDY! I don’t really like cotton candy because it’s too sweet and it makes my mouth really dry but it’s fun to watch people eat it.

Alvin looks so charming in this photo!!

Yin Zhi looks good too~ I think I’ll go for another shoot at the Singapore River at night when I get the chance and when there are lesser people walking around. Though it’s challenging, it’s really fun!

Yahya in a modelish pose.

Daniel HAH~

While shooting, this old man came into the frame shamelessly and STOOD there! What the hell~ He is either blind or he is asking to be photographed so I took a picture of him anyway. Of his butt at least…

Since the old man refused to budge, I shifted my camera so Ain gets a new backdrop.

And I was forced to take this photo… -_-” NECK!! :)

After shooting, we decided to go home because it was getting really late. Raven saw this stand selling snacks and went over to get something.

And she treated me to cup corn!! My favorite!!

On the way to the MRT station, I saw this lantern emitting light and got Yin Zhi to pose for me by it, just to borrow the light. :P Light is so fun to play with at night~

We took the route via the Esplanade to City Hall station where I returned back to Sheena’s house again to meet up with the rest. On the way, I saw this piece of art lying on the steps within the Esplanade. It’s made of thread that looks like blood vessels. Actually, you have to look closely to marvel at it’s beauty because this shot just makes it look like a huge pile of red spider web.

Well, that’s the last photo of this post, and probably the second last post of this Lunar New Year edition. I can’t believe it but I have yet to edit Day 4’s photos! Normally, I would edit all the film the moment I go home but these few days, I lack of time so I’ll be working on them later.

Until then~~

I missed out this photo of Raven but here it is~~ :P Taken before we headed towards the multi-storey car park. 

2. 小姑’s house ~Lunar New Year~

And yes! I’m home again on a Wednesday! Good thing I get offs now and then so I can continue to maintain this blog… Otherwise, it would be collecting dust already.

I did promise that I will blog the rest of the Lunar New Year when I get the time and I’m doing so right now, even though I have a whole day worth of pictures left untouched but that’s tomorrow’s problem. Not in the mood to edit the film now anyway.

So, as the time goes by, my memories of the Lunar New Year will start to fade away so I will do my best to entertain the few readers (hi y’all!!) with the rest of the posts. I just want to get them done soon so I can keep them as accurate as possible.

The Lunar New Year is not over yet, as of today. Today’s everyone’s birthday, apparently; the 7th day of the new year. HAPPY BIRTHDAY EVERYONE!! :)

And a side note, the visitors for today…
#01 - 31.82% from US
#02 - 22.73% from UK
#03 - 18.18% from Canada
#04 - 13.64% from Singapore
Rest of them are just a couple of percents…

LOOK SINGAPORE PEOPLE!! SHAME ON YOU!! :P

Moving on…

On the second day of the Lunar New Year, my family would normally visit my 小姑’s house (aunt’s house) and just stay there for half, if not the whole, day. Most of them would be playing cards and gambling their money away while I would normally just sit in a corner (literally sometimes) and entertain myself.

Or, take pictures…

But this year, before heading over to my aunt’s house, we went to visit my mom’s friends whom we haven’t seen for quite some time. We call one of them godma and the other one “Aunty White”, simply because when we were young, she used to wear white a lot.

Well, we visited them in a Chinese Astrology store in People’s Park Complex at Chinatown. Yes, they are into the astrology business and they were open for a short while on the second day of the new year to do some feng shui reading for a Caucasian couple who were in desperate need for divination. This is how creepy the old shopping mall that normally smells like bad Chinese herb looks like when all the shops were closed.

To make it even freakier, I made Leon and his girlfriend walk down the corridor and made this shot ghostly; almost Silent Hill-ish. Yeap. So while waiting for the Caucasians to be done with their astrology reading, we took random photos. While waiting, I heard some of the divination, saying that this year is the year of the METAL RABBIT; whatever that means…

And we finally went in!! My apologies for not taking pictures of these awesome people (godma and Aunty White) because we were too busy chatting. They were really humorous; in fact, I don’t even remember that they had such a good sense of humor! Every statement they made made me grin or laugh because it’s so funny. Anyway, I had this bandung (rose syrup) drink.

The 8 treasure box thingie filled with preserved fruits. Tell me, who actually eats these during Lunar New Year? I know very well that when people offers me these, I will kindly reject them because they look ugh! But the preserved mango was really good though!

After visiting creepy building of Chinatown, we headed over to my aunt’s house for lunch and all (the usual new year drill) and I took quite a number of photos of random things because I was THAT bored. Caught my cousin, Xander, on candid camera when he was preparing to launch an attack on my father’s butt.

While we had curry rice/noodles for lunch, Sheena’s mom had strings. She found this piece of elastic-band-looking piece of string in the noodle she ate. She was commenting that the noodle refused to break no matter how hard she chewed and when she took it out, she realized that she was chewing on string. Well, my grandma accidentally threw that in apparently.

I don’t really fancy the yellow noodles so I had rice with curry instead. The curry was YUMMY!! Made by my grandma and thank goodness there were no nasty surprises in the curry.

While I was having lunch, my other aunt was peeling the pomelo. Do you remember that I mentioned the pomelo in my previous post? Yeap, this is how you peel a pomelo and how the flesh looks like, in case you haven’t seen one before. I didn’t have any though; wasn’t in the mood for that.

When I go to my aunt’s house for visiting, I will DEFINITELY attack her new year goodies because they are so good! Especially the cookies and pineapple tarts that she makes. They are marvelous and sometimes even better than commercial ones simply because she uses the best ingredients!

Her mouth-watering pineapple tarts made from scratch! I don’t know whether she bought ready-made pineapples or made them from scratch as well but the pastry is good! She used good butter and therefore, the pastry is flavorful and really tasty. The pineapple is chewy too and unlike the normal ones sold outside, she packed each tart with a generous amount of pineapple. I crave for more even as I type this entry.

So much for food. Now let’s talk about people and everything else that cannot be placed in your mouth. This is Leon and his girlfriend, Yihui. Say hello!!

After lunch, my uncle gathered everyone on the floor and they started to play Blackjack. I think the term “gambling” seemed more appropriate though. In my family, it’s legal to gamble even though you’re like 5 - 6 years old. Odd, no? What lessons are the parents trying to teach? I myself do not gamble at all. I rather save my money for something else.

And so, while they are gambling their money away, I went around the house to look for things to photograph. Found Serene-bear-bear (this classic Pooh that my cousin named Serene, after his mom) on the study table and took this shot. The colors were manipulated in Lightroom but the sunlight was genuine. Love this photo of the lonely bear.

For once, Xander didn’t shun away from my camera. He was really sporting that day and allowed me to take lots of photos of him! It’s too bad his eyes appear quite small on photos but his smile is so cute!!

The chrysanthemum flowers were part of the decorations of the living room and they were gorgeous! I was really tempted to pluck at the petals but I didn’t because I didn’t want the younger children to follow suit and I will get the blame for dirtying the floor.

WOOOOO~ I forgot to resize this image but marvel at nature’s patterns! I was bored of staying indoors so I went out into the corridor and went shutter-happy; snapping pictures of plants and whatever nonsense I can point my camera at. Found the sunlight shining through the leaves really cool and took a close up of one of the leaves. This is enlarged digitally so yeap… But it still displays the veins which are really interesting.

Xander, being way too young to gamble (or maybe because he doesn’t know how to play the game in the first place), followed me to the corridor and snapped photos with me using his sister’s Samsung Galaxy S. Well, I’m not very fond of phones’ cameras but this camera is fun to use because of its sweeping panorama function. 

Another willing shot. If you look closely at the phone, you’ll see the photo of me taking a photo of him taking a photo of me. Confusing much? :)

This was really cute!! Normally when I want to take photos at a lower angle, I will high-kneel on the ground to get the angle and that day, I wanted to take a lower shot of Xander and this is what he did; he copied my pose! Looks like I’m grooming a future photographer! :P

When I found it too warm outside, I went indoors and saw my father being obscene. The photo explains all.

My grandma did not play Blackjack (OF COURSE) because she was watching TV. If I didn’t remember wrongly, it was the show where senior citizens sing on TV. I admire their courage because… well, you get what I mean don’t you?

If you think babies and children are hard to photograph, you had not tried my grandmother. Half the time when you take pictures of her, her eyes are either closed or she looks away even though you told her to look at the camera. I had to take a lot of shots before I get this slightly more successful one of her and Rena. Maybe I should jiggle some toys in front of the camera next time to grab her attention… :P

Apparently, Rena got bored of losing money and became my model to shoot. That’s her new phone, a Sony Ericsson Xperia. I’m not a big fan of Sony Ericsson phones but this phone is neat~ I love the big screen and the color. Rena got this phone just so she can tweet non-stop and flood my inbox with her complaints. :P

HAVE YOU TRIED THESE? If you haven’t, then you probably have no childhood!! I remember having these when I was young; “ice-cream”!! Basically, it’s just a tube of cream that looks like ice-cream when you squeeze it into these mini cones. They are really sweet (which candies ain’t?), adorable but not cold… Unless you leave the tube in the fridge. Really interesting candy. Pei En is squeezing out the cream into the cone in the above shot.

Rena about to devour the cone of calories. I refused to have any because I believed I ate too much that day and didn’t really need that extra sugar.

Another 8 treasure box!! Just that this one has lesser compartments but still filled with weird things I dare not put into my mouth. I only had those chewy candies and the plums (orangey ones at the bottom of the frame) because they looked less yucky. I was too lazy to have those 瓜子 (I forgot what they are called in English… Sunflower-seed-looking-nuts-things??).

OOO!!! My grandma made another huge boo-boo that day! Well earlier in this post, I mentioned that she cooked strings with noodles? Well, around the time when I took this photo, she made coffee using 7-UP!! She mistaken 7-UP for plain water and added that into the coffee and everyone went crazy~ I had a good time laughing though. 7-UP with coffee!! That’s a first. I wonder how it tastes like but I’m not very keen on finding out.

My aunt trying to annoy Pei En, who was watching TV.

Xander’s elder brother, Xavier. He had this weird white stuff on the left eye. Probably some ointment or sort. Everyone was asking if he peeped at someone bathe and that’s why he needs to put ointment on his eyes. Did your parents say that to you to discourage you from peeping at people?

Aik Hin fell asleep, just like I did when I was too bored.

But being bored is actually good because you will look at things that you never noticed before and take pictures of it. The sunlight was shining through the patterned glass window and I took a picture of it to capture the texture and the patterns. Applied a preset in Lightroom and ta da~ Got this shot!!

The final shot of the day. Rena sat on the floor and the light was hitting her really nicely so I took this shot. Well, it seems like I’m giving reasons for why I take photos but actually, sometimes I just feel inspired so I want to take a photo. Sometimes, I’m just too bored. That day, I was really bored out of my skull so might as well use that energy to do something productive. Anyway, Rena looks good in this photo, less the pimple on her face though.

All in all, the second day was a bore because I did nothing but eat, sleep, take photos and repeat. Nothing much to it. 

Stay tuned for Day 3 (hopefully I will finish Day 3 by tomorrow) to find out what else I did. It will be really beautiful, I promise~ :D

1. Visiting on DAY 1 ~Lunar New Year~

Weeee~ I have the whole afternoon to stay at home and blog as much as possible before I meet up with my family in the evening for dinner to celebrate my grandpa’s birthday. 

Actually, I doubt that it’s really his real birthday but we’ll still have dinner anyway.

Back to the topic…

Every year on the first day of Lunar New Year, my family would go visiting. It’s almost like “Trick-o-Treat”ing except that we don’t play tricks or wear outrageous costumes (though that would be so cool!!) or visit strangers’ homes. We visit homes of relatives to clear their homes of goodies!! :P

For this year, we woke up at like 12pm?? Sleep is important y’all know~

Had steamboat (again) for lunch. This time, the fare was much simpler because we were basically having leftovers from the previous night’s dinner. Furthermore, there were no guests so who cares?

After lunch, we dressed up (not in costumes, like I said, but in new clothes) and went out to visit. Ain’t my shoes cool? I think I’ve gotten one size too small because it’s slightly tight at the front and I don’t really feel comfortable in them. Oh well~ That’s what happens when you don’t buy shoes frequently; you don’t even know your own shoe size.

Rena came along to go visiting with us too!!

Busy woman still on the phone; probably calling Laura to ask where the hell she was.

There she is~ I love what she was wearing, by the way. But I know of another pair of shoes that Sheena has that matches the look even more. Laura just came back from visiting Yong Xiang’s family and was just in time to go for her second round with us. This photo was taken from the top of the multi-storey car park to “celebrate” her arrival.

Off we go on my father’s van to the first location~

The roads were pretty packed on Day 1, probably because everyone’s out visiting relatives and friends. I think that a Lunar New Year without visiting is meaningless and no fun because I’ve been doing that since my very first new year when I was just a baby and it means a lot to me.

And we reached our first location; my grandma’s house along Marymount road. This terrace is really old (I think since my mom’s times). This whole pile of literally trash is collected by my grandfather, much to everyone’s dismay. The entire house is filled with trash and random stuff which my grandfather refuse to throw away. He has a bad habit of collecting nonsense just for the sake of keeping them. Weird hobby much?

We were pretty late… But oh well~ We had been late for the past few years because we are such sleepyheads. And no, that clock was not picked up from some garbage dump, much to popular belief.

The back of my grandfather and my adorable grandma… I think they were discussing how much money to put inside the ang pao or something in our presence. Not very subtle right?

You know what’s really cool about my grandparents’ house? They have a jackfruit tree that they had planted many years ago (probably decades) in front of their terrace and it actually bears fruits! Vera is enjoying one of them. Apparently, the tree plays an important role in my mom’s childhood because they used to play around it or throw things at it (so they said…).

You’re on candid camera!!

When my grandma is seriously watching TV…

If I’m not mistaken, I did blog about Lunar New Year on this blog last year, did I not? Or was it on another blog? Oh heck~ Anyway… Every year when we visit our grandparents’ terrace, we will be praying that it doesn’t rain because we will always go for our annual photo shoot at the playground. This is the re-interpretation of one of Leon’s older photos.

And Rena re-interpreted one of Vera’s older shots with a more cheeky face. :P Well, this is one of the 5 (I think 5…) interpretations that Rena did. The rest of them are on facebook (restricted to friends only :D), if you want to see. 

See-saw made of metal. I still remember the days when see-saws were just made of a single plank of wood in a sand pit.

A few years back, we managed to squeeze like 6 of us inside that hut but now, squeezing 4 adult-sized teenagers into this hut meant for kids proved to be a challenge.

Vera’s look for Day 1. Somehow, it looks nicer on photo than seeing the look in person. I don’t get the top and the “Ali-baba” pants because the overall shape is all over the place.

Leon and Vera. Just to claim some credit, I helped Leon with his sleeves~

Nick has been offering his butt for photos these few days and I think it deserves a good kick. :P

There’s this big web structure at the playground where kids get to weave through it and climb up high. Nick did that and didn’t get stuck (surprisingly). For the more arty-farty version of this creative, visit: http://broylim.wordpress.com/2011/02/06/webbed/ (Yes~ I’m shamelessly promoting nega+ive all over the place)

Despite breaking his arm, being hospitalized and being temporary disabled once, Leon still went ahead to do this “flag” thing. I’m not staying in the hospital to accompany him if he ever breaks anything else again. >:)

Well, here’s me and probably the only me you’ll see in this post. I think photographers are more interested in taking photos of others than themselves. Anyway, this year, I chose to wear shorts because they are so much cooler and they are more ME. I hate wearing jeans because they are uncomfortable and their pockets are too small. :P

LOVE THE LIGHT!! Laura’s look consists of this “dress”, accessorized with a belt and heels. If you remove the belt, the whole dress looks like an oversized denim shirt.

Something like this.

Laura and Rena.

Cool eyes no? In case you didn’t noticed, Laura has a weird issue with her eyes because one of her eye has a double eyelid while the other is single. That makes the shape of her eyes slightly different. But she sure can smile with them anyway~

Time for group shots!! When Chua Ying Ying was looking through the photos on facebook, she said I managed to steal the limelight in most of the group shots. HAHAHAHA~ Must be because of the outrageous poses. Anyway, my Kaka helped to take the photos using a tripod and remote.

Ain’t my legs slim? :P

Another one…

That’s the advantage of wearing shorts; your legs won’t get restricted and they draw more attention to yourself!

More shameless legs…

The only group shot where I didn’t manage to steal the limelight because there were no legs. :P

And how could we be so mean to leave my Kaka out? Took this picture despite my father constantly calling me to go back to my grandma’s house because we were about to leave for our next location.

After cam-whoring, we went back to my grandma’s house and before we left, we went upstairs to my uncle’s bedroom (which is on the third storey) to say goodbye. We are well-mannered people, no? While walking down the stairs to the ground floor, I took this photo. Did you know that even my mom is afraid of this staircase because it’s so narrow, dark and steep? And it’s also filled with trash, just like the rest of the house.

Off we went to the second location of the day. Aik Hin went with us for the first time and he drove, which was convenient for my sister. They didn’t know the directions to the next location so they followed behind my father’s van. Managed to take this photo of my sister from the back of the van.

I don’t really know where the second location is but it’s one of my mom’s aunt’s house (or so I believe). Laura gave this diva-ish pose with the bag of tangerines and her face is funny.

Rena loved my mom’s aunt’s house simply because she can clear the stock of the Ferrero Rocher there and she wasn’t shy to announce it to us when she said “YES! 有Ferrero Rocher吃了!” And the few of us cleared almost the full box of Ferrero Rocher!

And every year, my cousins, aunt, uncle and nephews will visit this household too. Somehow, we are always able to meet up with each another here and it’s one of those rare moments where we actually meet them. Few years ago, they were all single but not available but now, they are all married and that means more ang paos! :P This photo is my cousin-in-law and cousin with my youngest nephew, Javen. :)

Vera did her hair in a messy bun. Well, it’s beats letting her monstrous hair down.

The aunt knows that we love our Ferrero Rocher and brought refills! :P So kind of her~ *pops one into my mouth while typing this sentence*

This is one of my favorite shots of the day! Blissful mom and baby who has no clue what the hell is going on.

BAAAAAABBBBBBBYYYYYYY~~~~

In case you think I’m showing favoritism to the youngest nephew, I’m not because the elder boy was playing with his father downstairs when I went shutter-happy. Managed to get a splendid shot of grown up Javier and his father just before we left for our third location.

While waiting for my father to drive his vehicle down to pick us up, Laura was first like this…

Then she went like this… Evil look~

While I was on the van, lying down on the freshly spread cardboard and cushions, I managed to take a very blurry yet ghostly photo of Rena and using Lightroom, I made her inner monster shine~ I told her to set this as her display picture or something as deterrent.

And we arrived at our third location; my father’s uncle’s home at Ang Mo Kio, just across the road to my old house (which is now gone). I LOVE THIS POSE by the way~ The angles, the legs~~

This looks like some shoe advertisement. The photo is not posed because She was really trying to get her shoes on. Just look at the feet that’s on the ground; the shoe’s undone.

I don’t think I showed off Rena’s look for Day 1 yet right? She wore this white dress with heels that were chucked in the darkest corners of her house and had finally gotten to see daylight for once. 

Happy people.

This looks like an ad for some casual boutique~ Again, Laura’s workin’ it!!

Queen of Unglam meets Explorer of under arms.

This is a little Rated R, don’t you think? :P

There are times when you suddenly feel like there’s nothing to photograph of and that’s exactly what happened at my father’s uncke’s (which is also my uncle, what am I talking about~) house. Sometimes, I get discouraged by bad lighting… But this little bunny cheered me up a little.

We didn’t stay long at this uncle’s house because there were nothing much to do. So basically caught up a little, sat down and entertained ourselves a little and eventually left for our next location which was just a couple of blocks away. Took this photo from the reflection of the ceiling of the elevator and realized that I was using the wrong lens so only I got caught in the frame. :P

More Ferrero Rocher!! Visited a distant relative house and just sat there and stuffed our faces some more. Lunar New Year can be translated to “You can’t help it but get fat”.

My father complained that I’ve been snapping pictures of everything but him so this photo is to make him happy a little bit, using Vera as a prop. :P

If you followed me on twitter (shame on you if you didn’t!!), you would have known that I took family portraits of people I barely know. Heck~ I never even talk to them at all!! But my father went around telling everyone that I can take family portraits so okay, here’s one!! And I actually like it because of the energy and radiance from every single one of them despite them not knowing who’s photographing them.

But~ I do know that they are SOMEHOW related to me but you know, family connections are complicated so I rather not learn about it. Some of them are uncles that I’ve seen before while some (especially those cool looking teenagers), I’ve never encountered. Well, if you’re one of them in the photo, don’t be a stranger! Tag in my tagboard and tell me!! :)

And the last location of every Lunar New Year; my aunt’s/grandparents’/little monstrous cousins with their matured sister’s home. That’s where I had white hair noodles called mee sua for dinner. Honestly, I think Kaka makes better mee sua because there’s more veggies in it. :P

How the mee sua looks like with the soup, minced meat, mushrooms and sausages. It’s not bad but where are my veggies?!

Basket of tangerines by a pomelo. If you don’t know what a pomelo is, google “Lime Cat”. The pop culture internet meme has a pomelo on its head and it’s so ADORABLE!!

We didn’t stay long at my 小姑’s house because we were all tired and stuff and besides, we normally reserve the whole of Day 2 (Stay tuned! I’m still rushing the post out!!) just to chill and nap at her house. So, we left shortly after dinner to retire back at home. Well, my family retired while I was rushing out photos until 3am in the morning…

Before ending, I shall show off the amount of red packets I got on the first day which amounts to around 2 ayumi hamasaki Love songs limited edition. :P Not much as compared to those rich ass-es out there who receive over a thousand bucks annually but good enough for me. :)

And when I knew that my finances are good, I hit pre-order for ayumi hamasaki’s ayu-mi-x 7 LIMITED COMPLETE BOX SET, set to be released on the 30th of March. So excited!!

Well, shall end here and take a break before I continue on to Day 2~~ Must finish everything before I book in tomorrow morning… Not looking forward to it… :(

0. reunion ~Lunar New Year~

Sometimes, I wonder why I blog because chances are, not many people will actually read it. But~ I do know that there are strangers who drop by just to take a look or two and HEY THERE!! WELCOME!! :D

Especially you guys from US~ You guys are the ones who rank second in terms of number of visitors here (first being Singapore because well, that’s where all the people I love are, YES?! :D)

Well, to entertain the few of y’all who still visits my humble blog, enjoy your stay!!

Enough of the emo-talk; I’ll save it for later.

Chinese New Year’s here again! And this year, I’ve taken over 400 shots so far and I’m lovin’ it! That’s not to say that all my shots are stunning but at least I’m pretty pleased with some of them. Unfortunately, due to my inexperience with my new lens and manual focusing, some pictures might seem a little blurry.

But anyway, here’s the first post of my Chinese New Year “tour”!

DISCLAIMER: Imma show off lots of pictures so are you ready?

For starters, Maomao would like to open the post. He’s been such a good boy; entertaining the guests and all during Day 0 (the day where we all have our reunion dinner). This year, reunion dinner is held at my place again.

And the guests arrived in the evening. I had no clue why they want to pick the smallest house of all to hold the reunion dinner though but I won’t complain because it means I can save effort on travelling. :P And I get to use my laptop and stuff. And Leon gets to annoy Rena in his own territory.

Okay tell me. Who here doesn’t have steamboat for their reunion dinner for Lunar New Year? I’ve seen people who did pizzas but I think steamboats are the most common ones, no? Tell me if you didn’t have steamboat!! :)

Well, the food this year is so much better because we get lots of new stuff. For instance…

Mussels!! I wonder where my father got these though but THEY ARE GOOD!! Ain’t the color appetizing already? Would prefer it with cheese though but steamboat’s just fine~

My uncle and grandpa enjoying dinner. I bet some of y’all might recognize my grandpa if you frequent a provision truck that’s located around Seletar years ago until my grandparents decided to retire. Hardworking lot they were…

My cousins, siblings and the rest~ Good thing the couch is big enough for everyone’s butts.

The night sky in front of my block. I was emo-ing at the corridor with my tripod and remote control while I took this shot because the house was simply too noisy and crowded. I don’t really like crowds but oh well~ And considering that the clouds were big and fluffy, I thought it would make a good picture.

The epic mess of shoes outside my house. If we were in Japan, this would be a big NO-NO because the Japanese are particular about tidiness when it comes to arranging your shoes. And because of this, I couldn’t find my slippers and I ended up wearing…

These… Pretty much? I wonder whose slippers are these though…

While I was taking photos of the night scape and entertaining my bored and lonely self, Sheena arrived and I snapped her face and Yuan Biao’s in the process. The wonders of flash~

The adults stuffing their faces. Normally, at our family, we have this unspoken rule where the adults will eat first before the younger generation (myself and gang) will eat. Well, old people are not as patient as we are even though we are equally hungry. Another reason is because we want to have the whole table all to ourselves!! :P

For a model, she is not giving a very glam face… Right Laura? :P

And it’s finally our turn to have dinner! Steamboat consists of all the goodies like fish balls, veggies (only I find veggies good apparently), crabsticks, mushrooms, etc. But these few days, I have been having steamboat for meals and honestly, I’m getting sick of it already. I rather just eat food that’s already cooked for me than to cook my own because I’m just pure lazy.

What I don’t like about steamboat is that the table is forever crammed with bowls and plates and stuff and it’s very troublesome to help yourself. And~ There’s the tendency where people throw food into your bowl unknowingly with the evil intention of making you fat!

Om nom nom nom…

Sheena’s nail art… Just a random shot because she popped her hand into the frame while I was trying to take a photo of my dessert.

Ta da~ Longan and rambutan and almond jelly and syrup and ice in ayumi hamasaki’s Rock ‘n’ Roll Circus mug! Are you jealous? :P

And the last photo of this reunion dinner post; my very first ang pao. For my US readers (if there are any~ :P), these red packets (literally ang pao) contains some cash (YES!! MONEY!!) and they are given by seniors who are typically married or too old to get married. Kinda like a blessing thingie and teenagers like myself LOVE getting these because it means MORE CDs!! Ain’t being a Chinese fantastic? :P

Anyway, this was given by my grandpa~ :D 

Okay. Shall stop here now and go bring the lost Chua Ying Ying up to my house because she wants to play with Maomao. Speaking of that, this is the very first time she’s coming to my house!

Stay tuned for the later parts of the Lunar New Year posts, yes? Photos are still being taken as I speak so I wonder when I will finish documenting everything~

Tour of FOOD!!

I wonder how much was my calorie intake yesterday because all I could remember was that I had been eating, eating and eating.

I can’t help it though because they were my meals (lunch, dinner and dessert??) but they were just better food as compared to the normal rice and veggies you eat everyday. Can’t blame me right? :P

And besides, I spent less than 30 dollars on food yesterday, you know? Well, it’s actually a little difficult to believe because… You’ll see… :)

I had lunch at Astons Express which is located somewhere near Marsiling MRT station; 5 minutes walk, 3 minutes run. In case you don’t know, Astons is actually a restaurant that specializes in western food and this express is something like a dumb-down version of the restaurant located in a coffee shop. BUT!! It’s so much cheaper!!

I’m serious about the cheapness! This receipt should be big enough for you to see… 2 mains for just $11.80! The chicken dishes range from around $5.90 - $6.90 and so are the fishes. The steaks are slightly more costly, around 10 bucks but that’s still cheaper as compared to the restaurant. Quality wise……..

NOT BAD RIGHT? This is what I had, Crispy Fried Chicken with broccoli and potato salad. The chicken is really really crispy and succulent~ The potato salad is not bad but it feels more like a baked potato spread with mayonnaise. The broccoli is extremely disappointing because it’s too soft. But for $5.90, it’s actually not bad~

Anyway, at Astons, you get to pick your sides and I was unlucky enough to pick the yucky broccoli so if you don’t want those, you can pick something else.

I actually wanted to have this, the Lemon Lime Chicken thingie. It’s basically grilled chicken with this sweet lime (irony?) sauce. Instead of the greens, this came with onion rings which are good!! Too bad fries ran out yesterday… Otherwise I would have gotten those.

What I like about Astons Express is that you don’t have to get drinks from them! Okay, that’s because they don’t offer drinks but at the restaurant, you’ll have to pay more for the beverages. At the coffee shop version, you get to pick your favorites like lemon tea and iced Milo!

Iced Milo on a rainy day… Crazy but OOOOOOOHHHHHHH!!!

After lunch, we had a break and walked back home. Saw lots of birds around, probably feasting on the worms who got disturbed by the endless rain. This is the best shot of a bird I’ve ever taken in my entire life!! Thanks to the 50mm lens~ Does wonders~ And the marvel of cropping photos digitally…

Walked to Causeway Point after resting at home and took this pretty shot of the sunset. Well, I edited the picture SLIGHTLY but not much~ If you want to take shots like this, try underexposing your photo in Photoshop or something if your camera doesn’t allow that. The results are pretty stunning. :)

Round 2!! Dinner at Pastamania~

Met up with Yahya and the gang for dinner. Actually, the Pastamania idea was quite a last minute one because we were actually planning for something better (You’ll see!! :D).

For some reason, I had the feel to have these Penne pasta. Probably because I saw a really nice photo of it in a magazine the other day.

Garlic bread. Apparently, it’s not very nice although I’ve never tasted it.

My pasta; Alfredo!! Creamy chicken goodness with my favorite green peas! People who don’t like green peas are just plain weird, no?

Creamy chicken topped with LOTS OF CHEESE and LOTS OF CHILLI FLAKES! Slightly perverted, no? I may love cheese but I won’t use the cheese till this extent~

Now now~ Are you ready for the best part of the day? I believe this order form will give away some hints… :)

GELARE!! My virgin trip to this ice-cream parlor! I had always wanted to try the waffles because so many people had told me that it rocks. The main purpose of us meeting up is to prove what others said true~ Plus, on Tuesdays, the waffles are half-priced!! The ice-cream topped on it is not though so… :(

The fantastic people I dined with… Ice cream makes people smile.

Alvin had this fruity, almost yoghurt-like ice-cream that looks terribly sweet to me. I can feel my face feeling cramp from the imagined sweetness. But it sure looks colorful though…

And the waffles arrived! Look at how thick the waffles are!!

Disclaimer though… I would highly recommend people to share the waffle, especially if you had dinner earlier because it’s so FILLING! I was struggling to finish this waffle topped with peaches, whipped cream, strawberries and chocolate ice cream all by myself~ It costs slightly under $10 for a single scoop for the waffle with fruits and ice-cream. Love the color combination!

Another photo to make you go gaga for ice-cream. :) The waffle is thick and warm when served and I think it’s heavenly when you spread the ice-cream over the waffle and deliver it to your mouth. Yummmmmmmmmy~~~ Thinking of it makes me yearn for more! Bring a friend or lover next time to share. It’s worth it~

And all these cost me less than $30!! Isn’t that amazing? Nobody said good food comes at hefty prices right? :) So find one day and go tour around Woodlands to satisfy your taste buds!!

Now~ For the Chinese New Year “war”… :)

“SEVEN DAYS WAR 戦うよ～”