Life in Color and BnW

Exams finally are over. Somehow this round of studying seems ultra protracted until I lost the will to piah for it during the final few days. Prob did badly for all 3 topics but a pass is confirmed.

Sports Nutrition: The tips the tutor gave, non came out so studied the wrong areas.

Ex Rehab: Paper too long, not enuf time. It is essentially a memorise and vomiting out answer type of paper. If David never provided us the "sample Question" tips, prob half of us would have died. Even so, most of us did not have time to do the essay question. By the time I reached that section, there's only like less than half hour left. How to design a rehab programme? Managed to draw out some stick figures but did not get to elaborate on them.

Ex Prog: supposedly the easiest of the 3. Was very tricky, which is the hallmark of Mike Newton's papers.

Finally got our student card from SMa. Was about to go off after collecting our tutorial papers back when the counter staff stopped me. "Hey you looked familiar, I think your student card is here". Sure enuf... my card was ready. It's kinda funny he "found me familiar"..... he was a new staff.. def never see me much at Springs before.... Made you wonder if the staff really was quite bored and went through our stack of student cards till he was familiar with our faces. Prob looking for chio bu in the sch......

To wrap up this sem, I would say it was the most relaxed one so far. Next one onwards and we are yr 2 students! The speed that time flies while I am studying/working is really scary. Yr 2 topics and exams wun be so easy anymore. Wonder if I'll still be able to take a dig at HD again?
Edmund's going for another yr of specialisation in Rehab at ECU when this degree is over. Tiffany prob is too. Right now I still am very undecided on my future field of specialisation. Biomechanics? Physiology? Rehab? But from what I can see, I prob will follow Edmund for that extra one more yr cos right now, the only solid employment option seems to be at C*H. Or SS*C/SM* to be exact. Hopefully there will be other options avail before I grad. While there are a string of reasons why I would and should jump at this opportunity, there are factors that will make me wanna avoid it altogether.
It's still a distance but I'm definitely en route outta the catacombs. Recent conversations have reminded me much and I definitely owe my thanks to some friends of mine. Someday I will be my true self once more. Well not really 100%, that would prob send me back in a loop again.

The long awaited holiday is here but just like last term, I'm even more packed with things than I would care to bother. I seriously should start exercising constantly again. My state of health is really disasterous. Can even feel symptoms that resembles that of myocardia infarction. Choi....

Ok time for more film test gallery. First Let's start with COLOUR!
Film: Kodak E100VS
Within the E100G line of film with characteristic of vivid and saturated colours (that's what the VS acronym is for).
Speaking in terms of positive slide films, it's line that is suppose to carry the heavy responsibility of appeasing an entire generation(or maybe can be as much 3?) that has been oogling at the beautiful retro images provided by the Kodachrome series since 74 yrs ago. Now Kodachrome has been discontinued and with film lovers the world over mourning it's loss with special tribute websites, reports on CNN and the works. Even I got curious and got on the kodachrome craze boat by hunting down and buying 3 rolls of the last batch. Damn the free market extortion-ism jacked-up prices. Damn those blood suckers on Ebay.
Seems to be a popular film with travel photographers therefore it'll definitely be with me on the trip to Thailand at yr end(can't wait!). I ain't no Steve McCurry, far from it, but hopefully out of the 36 exposures, I can at least get one special shot.

E100VS is in no way a replacement as the effect is totally different.
I notice the reds are esp glaring in the pics.....
Here are the E100VS samples........:

View of the Orchard MRT station entrance in front of Ion Orchard.
(upper) Shot from David's physio rehab office window all the way at the 20th storey of Liat Towers. Even at lens 300mm range coupled with dwindling evening light(not to mention my weak shaky holding technique), I was damn heng the len's VR still made things sharp.
(Lower) At the extreme opposite of a telephoto, shot from a wide angle lens at 15mm (around 23mm in full frame equiv).

More falconz eye view from Dav's office. Construction work is still proceeding at the roof area. Too bad the widest I had at that time was a 70mm.

Labrador park.
(Left) I like the way the 3 guys somehow unknowingly complements each other in their various poses.

Back to ION again.
(Left) The worker managed to spooked the lady in heels.
(Right) Which is the better poser?

While awaiting Dav's tutorial to start.... Took abit of Orchard street shots of the after office hour human traffic.


Managed to capture this little girl eating apple and stretching at the same time. Ok juniors at Njd now got a reference pic on stretching the gracilis(left) and the hamstring groups.

More pics while waiting for tutorial(SSC) but this time is at Kallang river.

My competitor! It dived into the water and actually caught a fish!! If zoomed in on the actual resolution image, you can see the fish held by the talons! Could not get a shot when it was diving due to the sluggish AF. Nonetheless, it was impressive watching it dive from such a great height. but i can do better......heh...

My fav raintree along depot rd.......

Very sporting of this skater to give the V sign for my shot. Thanks ya!

After all that vivid colours, take a walk through BnW....
Film: Ilford Delta 3200 (yes! ISO3200!)
Finally R*by Photos had this in stock in the 135 format after months of wait.
Since the ISO rating is so high, it's time to put it's sensitivity to the test.....
in Chinatown and Ann Siang Hill after sundown.
























Could not finish the roll at night so tested a few shots in daytime:




The Duck at the zoo watching pelicans.

Whale holding on the latest installment(at time of print) of the Hello Kitty Saboh.....

Baby likes to remind ppl that she's actually an m/o despite her looks.........heheh....

Annual UE with Winston

It was that time of the year again. Winston's annual trip back home for his summer holidays. Which also means it's yet another session of intensive urban exploration/photo archiving. It's an activity that is almost forsaken for the sake of studies and maybe in a bid to pry myself from activities that is deemed abnormal/childish/dangerous by most in the "sane" society in which I live in. My actions will never be seen as, proper, appropriate, practical or responsible. I abhor the norm, fatigued by the truth I face everyday but refuse to yield. I might someday but not in the foreseeable future. 

Last yr, Winston and I unsuccessfully tried to archive the 70's Singapore Zoo. No, not the one at Mandai but at Punggol. Do your own research. Unfortunately, the govt gotten there before us and cleared out the remnants inside the forest. It was a demoralising day(it was drizzling). We were cold, wet and filthy bashing through the undergrowth. Almost just gave the day up until I made a risky (considered unspeakable to the "sane" population) decision to break the day's monotony. Archived a location that will remain in my memory for years to come. Definitely will not be doing that again(probably). Of cos I cannot blog about it here. 

This yr, just before Winston flew back(timing so zhun), I manage to stumble upon 1 more interesting location. 1 might be a laughable amount a few years back but these days, being able to find historical/abandoned locations (esp with large compounds) is like finding duck's teeth. 

It's been so long..... but finally another one. There's not been a bigger discovery since the tomb of Tutankhamun... well not really but it is really significant for me. 

Before bringing Winston over, we made a pit stop to a few other locations. Here are pics of a couple of locations that I can blog about. The others... better not be known... hah...

Always wanted to take a look at this neighbourhood. Never had a chance since it was abandoned till now. Used to a blangalah hangout before it was used for it's current purpose. Quite scary to see dozens of black figures holding bottles in the darkness  sitting around the compound when u drive pass at night. 

Badly neglected standard issue HDB door and unit number plate from the SIT-HDB  transition era.

Weeds abound.... which I feel adds to the aesthethics of the area.

Here's another locale which I've been putting it off for a yr already. Luckily no one acquired the land yet. Nice architecture design even though I seriously doubt it has much historical significance.

Nice colors from the ceiling cobwebs that gives off a multicoloured tint when in direct sunlight.

The lighting and shadow in this room is really artistic in it's own way. Nice!

Typical kitchen furnishing in these type of house.

More light-leak artwork....

The house must have been abandoned for sometime already. The trees growing on the roof of the porch are already full sized!

Here's something new. I never see this type of design in a window yet. 

More plant on top.....

And finally ...... the location I was toking about. Some preview pics.

The rear entrance with the view of the student hostel which is directly facing a banana plantation. I guess the male students previously should have no lack of banana spirit stories to scare the girls.

The keys even though rusting badly, are still there. Which mean no chao ah beng have been here before or they sure will be either gone or strewned all over.

Another nice ceiling cobweb.

Yet another sign this place is temporary unknown to those bo liao bengs.... The ceiling glassware lighting are still intact! I hope this place will be preserved in it's original state as long as possible.

Flooring of the second level suffering badly from water damage and most of it has collapsed through.

The moment I stepped into the room, the floor got my attention. Kinda like a deja vu effect.... of cos....these are the exact same flooring material used at Tyersall Ave's Woodneuk! 

Room with a view...........of the first floor.

One of the things about visiting such places is that somethings u can find books, articles, etc from the past. This time we got lucky and manage to read a page of newspaper from Jan 92. The most prominent article is about the S-League! Anyone remember that? No? Who can blame ya? hah!

I believe I haven seen this style of window louvres since sec sch. Does anyone use the word louvres anymore for that matter.

How cute.. there's even a class timetable on the walls of one of the dorms. 

This is what the scribbling says:

WHILE I WAS HERE I experienced a lot of hardship and perils not only in my studies but in my social and private life. 

I now realized that this was part of growing up one had to endure throughout ones life. I missed a lot of friend who came and went in pursuit of their studies here. 

This place has really taught me a lot of things I really did not know or have or practice in my life before.

Thank you AKBS

sign

*cannot make out the name*

Anyone miss this brand of orange drink? I know I do! Fruit tree from F&N!

And finally a view from the 4th storey of one of the dorms.

This place is essentially a boarding sch. With assembly halls, offices, badminton courts, dormaitories, science laboratories. But somehow I din notice where the classrooms were.

The front portion was also the former Br**** Embassy. Photo archiving the place took a couple of hours but it was worth every minute. The place is also quite serene with the peace being broken by intermittent calls of various bird life in the area. I can id at least 7-10 species in the compound. One of them being the oriental pied hornbill, which is more commonly found over at Ubin and Changi side. Recently I also found a pair living up on a tree somewhere over at peirce. I'll be back to this place. Hope not too much have changed by then.

Back at ECU.....

Edmund's "House cooling" session:

A couple of weekends ago suppose to be going over to Edmund's new place at Sentosa. But since it was the starting of the 7th month so the house warming was postponed and we went over to his old place instead. This time round Edmund's relative recognised us from the previous bbq session. This time we even have an opportunity to see some "show" inside the tennis court.  

Just like a family photo is Jeremy's comment. 

All the more senior ones in the front row(myself, Damian, Edmund and Kester) and all the ginas(Eunice, Angeline, Irene, Ryan, Jeremy and Tiffany) at the back. Can't wait to see Edmund's new place at Sentosa next month.