Counting down to my next Photography Lesson...

I’m so excited… counting down days to coming Wednesday for my 1st lesson in Black and White Film Photography.

Since young, I’ve always like photography. But it was really a year ago or so that I really decided to choose photography as a hobby and buy the most expensive thing I’ve ever own and buy – my baby DSLR Nikon D40X. I guess I’ve 2 people to thank for this choice. First and foremost, of course is babe who is one of my best friend (and still going to be 30 years later… hee) and partner for my basic photography class in PSS. Without her, I guess I will never take the first step to sign up for the course, or to buy my first DSLR.

The second person surprisingly is actually the scriptwriter for the show 《白袍之恋》.
This is because if he / she never arranged 安以轩 (饰 刘逸宁) in the show to be an avid photographer and takes beautiful black-and-white photos, I believe I’ll not fall head-over-heels with photography. Yes, my preferred is actually black-and-white film photography, instead of the normal colour digital photography.

Why? Because when it comes to taking people, black-and-white appears to withstand transience of time and further highlight their facial expressions.
Because I want to take photos that reflect what I see at that exact moment - photos that reflect my thoughts in that instant.
Because I’m stubborn as I prefer to do things my way?

我喜欢摄影因为我想拍下我生命里的幸福点滴。

Shifting Office

After 2 days of MC and sleeping, today I finally returned to work. Honestly, I've not really recovered. But I was not so keen to start unpacking boxes on 7th lunar month. Haha ok call me superstitious... or "puntang" =O

Yes, yesterday, my office shifted from a central location (near to canteen and building exit) to a much further location temporarily. And I miss the fun of wearing Polo T and jeans (which I've never done b4 during office hrs) or chicken pie (which I doubt with my current stomach flu condition I can actually eat that).

Initially I thought I will not like the new location since we sort of "downgraded" from nice system furniture to the older type. But I guess it still look ok today after we shift all the cupboards and tables into the place. From the "island" back in the old office, I shifted back to "civilisation" since I start to have neighbours again. It's getting noisy! haha...

My only regret was that I forgot to take a photo of my previous cubicle which displayed a lot of photos I've taken on my overseas trips. Amongst my collection is one with Leon Lai at Mdm Tussaud's in HK, and 8 out of 10 people actually asked me whether he's my boyfriend?!! haha... of course I wish to say yes. But the truth is... sigh... well now I wonder maybe I should stop putting that photo lest others get the wrong idea (on the "attached" issue)...! haha

Hmm anyway just to clarify, Leon Lai is not really my idol and actually there's only 1 idol I acknowledge to date. And I shan't go into who's my only idol since I think all the people who knew about him will "faint" when they realise my choice... hmm but I guess that's me... unique (or weird). haha...

Okies... it's getting late.. need my beauty sleep so as to recover faster. Desperately need to recover faster since I'm missing all my good food during my sickness... =(

PS: Can you imagine I'm having salted egg with plain porridge last night when my family had good food? haha... Oh ya.. Babe... you take care too and let's us strive together in our simple diet!

Presents from Japan...

27 Jul 2008, Sunny

Today is a happy day as I met up with G and Cool-san and we had an excellent lunch in Botanic Garden and dessert - tiramisu at Gastronomia da paolo. Not to mention that Cool-san also gave us our presents from Japan (my favourite country) and the cookies I asked him to buy! Of course I'll like any presents that Cool-san bought since it's the thought that counts. But it's even happier that I happen to like all the presents he bought! hee.. tks my dear friend, Cool-san!

1. Yoku Moku
(The brand of biscuits that my friend Chloe kept recommending and attested to its nice taste. Cool-san has kindly helped me to buy from Osaka. Although for the biscuits, I still prefer the Ishiya Chololates biscuits, internet reviews on rolled cigares seem to be rather good too.
The biscuits could be found in Narita Airport and major department stores in Osaka.)
http://www.yokumoku.co.jp/




2. Earrings
(Earrings are from my favourite shop in Kyoto. The earrings are made of Venetian glass and are supposed to change colours at different lightings)
http://www.kyoto-glass.com/pub/html/shouhin.html


My present from Cool-san (G also has a pair!)


My current collection from Kiyomizuzaka - earrings, hair band, hp chain

3. Chocolates
(Various flavours of KitKat that are not found in Singapore. I especially like the Strawberry KitKats!)



Once again, Cool-san thanks for the presents! =)
Remember to give O-san her presents too! hee...

Time Exposure

I went to Singapore Art Museum earlier and viewed 2 exhibitions - Xu Beihong in Nanyang and Alain Fleischer: Time Exposures. I especially liked the latter exhibition, that exhibited over 80 photographs by Alain Fleischer.

Alain Fleischer is one of France's leading contemporary photographer, filmmaker and writer. He founded the National Studio of Contemporary Arts - Le Fresnoy, of which he is the director since 1997. The selection of the artworks deals with the themes of photography and cinema in which the artist explores the notions of time and movement.

The photographs exhibited are very different from those I've seen before in other exhibitions. They fully displayed the photographer's creativity and imagination. You can see two different images in one photograph. For instance you can see a scenery of night as backdrop with a "hidden" face of woman in the foreground of the photo.





I'm glad I didn't view this exhibition at night since there are several photos that appear to be rather errie as you will see ghostly "faces" at scenes of night or female nudes re-photographed within an errie setting. More importantly, the figures in the foreground gives the impression she doesn’t want to be photographed, but nonetheless ‘captured’, taken, and possessed on paper.

Female nudes also seem to be an obsession with him for some of the photos. At times I wonder why, but it's true that all his female nudes models has a certain classic Western beauty look that makes the photos more distinctly different.

My favourite photograph displays a superimposed image of a couple at forefront and the city lights as backdrop, like a typical movie poster. Overall, I'm rather impressed with the technique used by the photographer and his creativity in the photographs.

Hopefully, there will be a time that I can also be creative and good in the photos taken.

What I want for my Funeral...

Few weeks ago, I was rather sick and feeling so terrible and sianz that I actually engaged in a discussion on funeral with s[l]ow. Of course being a kind soul and good friend, s[l]ow actually bothers to “entertain” me on this topic. Thanks s[l]ow! Oh and yes I’ll attend your funeral (if I’m still alive then) and remember that you want all white flowers and something green (how about ferns instead of grass) for your funeral! =P

In the past, I believe funeral might be considered a taboo topic. However, as I grow older and matured, or rather more open-minded with all the travels to countries like Cambodia and Vietnam, I realized that life is rather transient. Nobody knows what will happen in the next moment. Hence, should a day come for my funeral; I hope I will like to have a lot of flowers there with me. I rather like lilies and especially tulips (though they seldom last as long as roses).

Perhaps majority of the flowers could be white. But I will also like to have some yellow and maybe pink flowers too as I love yellow and pink. And a few more colours might make the funeral less somber. (Anyway I guess my request still pales in comparison to G’s request for guests wearing pink! =p )

So thanks my friends, please note the above when you all are attending my funeral. Also, I’m ok with karaoke singing there as long as the singing is not too lousy for my “hearing”. =)

Anyway, when I told G about the flowers I like for my funeral, I was rather enlightened by her reply then. She said that she loves white roses. However, aside from the funeral time, she hopes to receive the white roses now when she’s alive. In that instant I realized that since life is transient, if we are really interested in something now, we should not keep thinking that we could wait and do it in the future when we could actually do them now…

But I guess as usual there’s a problem since I’m still not exactly sure what I want. Sigh…

Anyway at least there’s one thing I know I want. Dear SJJJ members, please continue your tradition of flowers on my next birthday. Thanks girls!

Some flower language to note:
Lily (white) – purity
Lily of the Valley - Sweetness, Return to Happiness
Rose( white) - Eternal Love ; innocence;
Rose(Yellow) - Friendship
Rose(light pink) - Desire, passion, joy of life, youth, energy
Tulip(yellow) - There's Sunshine in Your Smile
Baby's Breath - Everlasting Love
Fern - Magic, Fascination, Confidence and Shelter

Up in the Skies

Ever watch the movie "Tempting Heart", whereby Takeshi Kanshiro will take photo of the sky whenever he thought of Gigi Leung? Behind each photo, he recorded the date and time he missed her and thought of her. It’s romantic yet sad at the same time as he missed Gigi but unable to convey his thoughts to her.

During the walk to Alexandra Arch last week, I also took some photos of the sky. The only difference was that instead of thinking of a person I missed during the photo-taking, I was thinking when a bird will fly past for me to capture the scene...

Again, being a day-dreamer, I pondered what I will do if I were to miss someone like Takeshi Kanshiro did in the movie. Will I do something to remind myself of the person?
Maybe… ? Must be?

Sister, Happy Birthday!

Today is my sister’s birthday. I’ll like to dedicate this blog to her and wish her a very happy birthday and may all her wishes come true!

My sister is older than me by 3 years, although in terms of appearance, she always seems to look younger than me due to dressing and height. Also many will say that we look alike and there will always be doctors or friends who cannot differentiate between the two of us in spite of our 10 cm height disparity. Believe me; it’s not that funny when people thought you are the elder sister when you are indeed younger. Haha...

In terms of personality, we could be considered as poles apart as she has always mentioned. She’s always that rational, practical and systematic and good in IT. (Let’s not mention her flaws since it’s her birthday today hee…) I guess it was quite lucky that we do share similarities like traveling, appreciation of art and history and food. Or else, I believe I will have one less good travel companion.

Although at times I will “complain” about her when she lectures me, I know in her heart how much she cares for me. I can still remember once when I was in hall rushing out a hall banner (many many years ago) and it was a weekend when she traveled all the way from our house (I think it was at Simei then) to NTU just to help me out with the banner as she knew that it was urgent and I needed her help (even though I didn’t beg her). If I didn't recall wrongly, at that time she was still an auditor and weekend would be her only precious time for resting. I knew then at that moment no matter what happens in the future, she will always be there for me, and family and kinship will always be the most important thing in my life.

My sister is always an idol of mine. Since young, I’ve wanted to go to the schools she studied and obtain the good results that she always has. I still remember that I was quite upset then when I didn’t manage to get into her secondary school. (Of course now I’m not so sore over this since I knew my buddies - the SJJJ Group we called ourselves- in secondary school) Even now, I admire her work capabilities, her dedication in work and her work EQ.

I guess I just want to say to her that – “Thank you for being my sister. I’m very proud to have a capable sister like you and I love you very much in spite of our squabbling and differences!”