what a small world! bikeseeker just showed me this article, and i was wondering who the lady in red would be. turns out to be andrea! in the same article janice was referred as "mrs lee-fang" which makes her sound so... *cough* mature, and ee-lyn was dragged into it as well! wah biang, the world is so small!

poor bikeseeker, now i can say evelyn is mad and no one can fault me for it! *laughs*

p.s. in case you're wondering, they're all friends of mine, and i believe they know my brand of humour...

by the way, this useful fov calculator for dslrs came up on a post in clubsnap. will be handy for fellow photogs out there.

for the benefit of pals like choo and probably the rest of lgf who might be into chinese pop...


kaira's signature on the liner notes

just happened to read that she was formerly from my primary school as well! imagine if i asked her to follow my singing of the school song... that's be so hilariously silly!

by the way, andrea posted a set of crazily dressed dogs, which are the apparent reason why the dogs might want to conspire to kill their owners...

my little secret ops finally came to fruition!


photo credit: kaira's manager/assistant/stylist (which?)

a few weeks ago, i took a couple of general shots of the national stadium, those underexposed silhouette shots, of what i thought were landmarks of the stadium which wouldn't be around anymore next year, along with one photo of kaira at the mtv shoot in late may along the esplanade - i thought they would make decent gifts of some sort.

went out to purchase kaira's album on friday evening after some work at office up till seven in the evening; then headed to orchard and finally found it at hmv heeren, after drawing blank at that cd shop at pacific plaza. after some listening, it seems kaira's voice is somewhat husky for her petite frame, which is kind of unique.

why did i buy the album? well, for a few reasons. one, this is the last time that we'd ever see the national stadium, might as well build some relation with our fellow performers (don't ask me why i'm not doing so with the thousands of the rest of the performers); two, she doesn't exude the aloofness that some other singers have hanging off their auras; three, i haven't been tuning in to any local singers for a looooong time now.

so what did i do? i put the prints in one envelope, put one of my namecards in it, prepped the cd from the album along with the album liner in another, and slotted them into my thinktank speed changer. upon reaching the stadium, i decided to stake out the area where some of the performing artistes were all gathered, and took shots here and there, but she wasn't done with her makeup. now, it's a photographer's ethics issue of not taking photos of especially singers until they're done with makeup, so i didn't get to have a chance of passing her the items, nor take photos with her.

i essentially waited till the ndp preview was over, and waited until she was back in her dressing room, then i knocked on the door and basically asked to pass her the photos and get photos taken with her, as well as having something signed - on hindsight, i was probably asking a lot out of her! but the delightful thing was - she had absolutely no airs about her, and asked for my name after receiving the photos, and as she was signing on the album liner. i'm utterly impressed!

i'll probably post a photo of the signed liner she did tomorrow or later today... but one thing is - i'm bowled over! similarly, while i was taking some shots of vincent ng during his makeup session, he could actually recognize me! now, that was some memory power too! the last time i met him, was during the practice session for the aerial choreography for ndp 2004 back in my camp.

well, some friendships are forged during such events. though i'm not of position to say anything, i'm glad that i can have an impression on others' minds. till the big day!

met up with kommissar to attend the hour glass' event for glashuette original, and was glad to see april in person after such a long long time. finally put faces to the name for harrynkl and john clang, of whom watson mentioned to me last week and earlier on monday evening.

if i have to list down what i learnt that night...
1. tourbillons are beautiful!
2. what popular brands not to buy
3. understanding the potential investment possibility in fine timepieces
4. two glasses of white champagne (or was it wine?) can really make me woozy.

i was totally bowled over by the generally very friendly and chirpy students that i took photos of today. this is only my second time taking photos from a ladder, about 3 meters off the ground - though i must say taking the class photographs was something i only learnt i had to do when i arrived at the shoot location!

but i'm glad it generally turned out well. the only bugbear is... i have to deal with my RAW files one by one since the white balance may have varied a fair lot, plus focussing was a problem...

is it possible to get a workout via photography?

my answer - a resounding, YES!

running around, balancing, climbing, panting, sweating bucketloads... if it isn't called exercise, what is? like what some other friends said too, i don't think hikers will want to hike kent ridge park's trail, not when even walking is an ordeal! oooh... i feel so evil. no hikers, all bikers. hey wait. that's paradise!

i'll catch another dose of exercise this afternoon while i'm up north of the island. include other exercises like, problem solving, posing people, banging my head on the wall etc...

met up with watson and the other guys last night, did a peer review session of each others' photos from last saturday, picked some out, threw some out.

stayed back longer to have a chat with watson about his experience in the line of photography, i managed to learn a fair bit.

i'm glad the course is over now. time to do some actual work.

one thing i just dug out - for my three policies i have at the moment:

that means, should i die prematurely, my family will receive a total of s$172.5k. for tpd, i have a combined s$125k cover, and critical illness cover of s$105k.


from last night's meeting at togoparts' office...
a reviewed unit of a zerorh+ shades

over the last few days, i'm glad to have met three new pals - victor, sean and serena. incidentally, serena was a classmate of gillian aka shufen. small world!

this morning as i was getting off my butt to head towards the full-day class in tampines, i was fluctuating between feeling hot and cold. danged, another fever.

i was asking myself, should i persist and still go anyway? though this fever is getting the better of me, i still could think logically.

a flashback to my primary school days, one of those dreadful mornings when i was feeling ill, but my mother was insistent on me going to school anyway, ill or not. sometimes i barely survived the day at school, sometimes i would feel loads better pretty soon after, sometimes i felt like poop early into the schoolday.

then a thought about modern days flashed to me. do commandos actually take a break after being inserted for days in a warzone? how about deprived sleep? do they have time for it? no. fever, no fever, it's still fight on. that's called mission-focussed.

so i told myself, what the heck. just do it anyway, there's no death waiting at the end, unlike war. if i'm not in the physical condition to be a commando nor naval diver, i still have a fighting chance of having the mental fortitude to duke it out.

oh course, i found something that dr koh will probably want to kill me for - i just found 10 doxycillin capsules that weren't touched... so i'm taking a calculated gamble here; similar to how i gambled on taking antibiotics when i was feeling somewhat feverish during my 8+ day obs trip with the pess folks.

i think i'm breaking a record. i'm going down again with fever, for the third time in about 5 weeks.

starting to suspect a low grade fever haunting me.

i'll have to eradicate possible factors one by one, starting with the tuesday night ride at coastal. could be overexertion, i reckon.

great mysteries of the 21st century:

how can a person just eat plain "enriched" white bread without any condiments?

i don't know, i just achieved that over the past few days.

came back from the seng chu hin ride - finally xooey makes an appearance!

milestone for my sportsshooter page - 9999 hits in just over a year!

ok, minus probably 9998 hits from myself... not!

some things i learnt yesterday:

• the higher you go up in the air, the cooler and less moist the air is.


• the loudness of the dual rotors is really loud!


• walking to the chopper in the downwash is good exercise!


• getting the turbines' exhaust probably 10+ meters away is still pretty hot!


• seated further inside a chinook than other media gives you better shots of the red lions, but it sucks when you can't move to shoot when they're jumping off!


• the parachuters were a gleeful bunch, some cracking jokes (via handsigns, you can't hear each other lest you shout into each others' earplugged ears), some meditating. interesting group!

generally interesting experience. though i haven't flown by fixed-wing aircraft before, going in the air via a chinook ch-47 is a new experience, especially i can proudly say i haven't travelled up in the air all my life thus far.

i had probably the most romantic dream i could ever have. challenging each other to hold our breathes underwater, hugging each other, kissing away. with something between our lips, but you'd only know what that would be if you know me well. *wink*

somehow, i brought along my eos-1d, and wanted to take some shots while we were submerged. then i realized when i first took it down with me... hey! my 1d was with my 550ex flash that's not even weatherproof, and a 24-85 lens that is definitely not weather-sealed. oh shit! lifted it out of the water, and plunged it back into the water just to get a burst of three or four shots and then i just left it outside of the big tank we were in - and it was back to hugging.

but there was just one big problem.

since when did i have a girlfriend? last time i checked, it was early 2001 that i last had one. i'm thankful though, that i ended it partly because it wasn't a particularly healthy relationship.

we were hugging each other submerged, challenging both ourselves to hold our breaths for as long as possible, to savour the moment... when i woke up from the dream to realize i was only hugging my bolster. surprisingly, i didn't get much of a bittersweet feel when i understood that was all just a dream.

gee. how long does it take for a guy to have a nice romantic dream that doesn't end up with a bang? nice break, good dream for a while. though it was all just a dream, the feeling was good. now, until the day i can afford a private house with my own pool in it...

yesterday afternoon after i sent my second namecard for printing at print22, i met up with a long time friend around the area and had a complimentary health scan via this computer based meridian checkpoint checkup (it's a somewhat electronic-tcm hybrid, if you ask me) for the major organs in the body, according to traditional chinese medicine philosophy. the presentation was fine and all, but i was really puzzled by one thing. she asked me some similar to, "i've got a good stable job, why do you think i'm doing this?" exactly. i was wondering about why she'd do this. after the entire presentation, i was asked the same question again, almost the same exact words. but one thing didn't match up, from what i felt. the lack of eye contact with her after we left the premises; she was paying more attention to her mobile. something just didn't feel exactly right. was the mobile phone more important than me?

after we bade goodbye, i walked over to sia building where i made an order for a mocha frappucino, and started to ponder just that little bit. would it be a wise thing to listen to someone who once said she "only wanted to work" when i was trying to woo her years ago back in 1999, now saying that she wants to keep in touch with friends? and i reminded myself - whether should i partake in this entire thing or not, it will not be something that should progress into romantic links with her. on both a pragmatic, as well as professional reasons.

and of course, i noted to them about my work into insurance disallowing involvement in direct selling - call it network marketing or multilayer marketing - it's all the same to me because i did it years ago myself. personally speaking, finding out more is fine, but chances of myself getting involved remains highly unlikely. in fact, lingering thoughts about this meeting somewhat troubled me, and i couldn't sleep till really late at 3am or so this morning.

would you believe this?

met another primary school classmate, this time my primary 5 group leader - huijun! i was at caas' 25th anniversary dinner taking photos, since my contact (shan't name him, don't want complications here) needed a group of photographers to take table shots. certainly not the most exciting of assignments, but mm lee was there. somehow, i never caught a glimpse of him at all, because i was with other fellow photographers having a briefing in another room.

two straight days of bumping back into childhood primary school friends. now, that's something i hadn't had a streak before!

you know those times when you might want to kick your butt knowing if you should have done something or not? especially those times when you want to kick your own butt for not asking if a person was who you thought he/she was?

i had a similar experience tonight.

was rushing to the canongraphers gathering on sbs svc 133... when i saw this pretty and petite lady on the bus. was stealing glances at her, because i thought she was familiar. was asking questions to myself... could it be adeline, my primary 1 classmate? she was pretty petite (pretty AND petite, if you must know). but, i last saw her back in 1996! could this lady on the bus be her? what if i asked, and it wasn't her? would i end up making myself malu?

you know, the feeling of in-the-head kicking your own arse, asking "should i have asked?" when either you've got off the bus, or the other person got off? i gave that some thought, and decided to just go for it. i approached the girl and asked.

"excuse me, are you adeline?"

"yes!"

so it happens that it indeed was my old friend, and she said she too, found that i was a familiar face, but she couldn't place my name to my face. but she was actually thinking along the same lines! what a surprise!

we exchanged our contact numbers, as i had to drop off the bus earlier than her. but one thing i definitely learnt tonight was, just ask anyway! it doesn't matter whether it's the right person or not, just do it anyway! otherwise, kicking your own butt is not a nice feeling, i must say!

the canongraphers' meeting was quite cosy, and had a good time acquainting with a couple more canon shooters. oh well... long day tomorrow! osim tri!