another post before the flood.. of assignments

Results for Exercise Physiology 1 last week: Just made it through for the HD!
Gotta admit I'm not that confident this time but it's imperative that I score this. Hey, it's physiology after all... I like that subject and if I get any lower, what about part 2 next sem?
I was almost 100% sure my Exercise Nutrition will be the first module to get just a Credit. Damn. Got too slack during the exam week last term. The 2 rushed-out-like hell (cos of Thailand trip) nutrition assignments coupled with the killer essay question in the exam totally knocked me out.
Took the looongest breath of relief today when I saw the results. I have yet to attain a Credit ...YET!

SMa cocked up again.. their staff came late and students were locked outside the lobby on the second day of lecture. Ended up Barry had to use another room at lvl 7 and the air con was not even on until an hour later.
FINALLY SMa returned the Australian Sports Trainer lvl 1 and Sports first aider certs to us.. turned out that they have been holding on to it since last Oct!! WTF!!! Half the class have been asking SMa in person and written tons of email ever since we completed the paper around June 09!!!! They really is no limit to their sky high incompetence. Only after the 2 Quans (Quan Li and me!) took the opportunity to ask Barry to look into the matter personality did they finally give face and took some effort to look for our certs. Can't SMa do anything right without us having to resort to approach a head of sch?

Over CNY, tried out a new brand of film by the name of: efiniti UXi super 100. Sounds kinda dinky huh? Well it is a consumer grade film.... but what made it stand out is the super low cost. And results comparable to Fujifilm's Superia.
All shot taken using: Nikon FM2 with 50mm & 85mm primes.









What better time than to try it out during the festive period in the temple? Ppl are too busy praying for 4D numbers and the likes to really care about me snapping away. The crowd during that time also makes for an interesting situation.





Mom and Dad....Have not really taken pics of them on film before so....





First time praying at this temple but not the first time visiting it. That would last year during the hungry ghost fest when Cat brought me ge-tai hunting.

Since 2 yrs back, all temples are hiring more bangladesh workers to clear the joss sticks. With the new levy coming up, I wonder if the temples will still find it economical to use them to "pick up sticks"

The place is still saturated with all the red lanterns.





The 12 Chinese zodiac signs and the prediction board for 2010.



And what's a CNY without Lion-dances?









Comparing this pic and the next....

.....it looks like as though the lion just replicated itself!


7th Day of CNY:
A final outing with Colin and the poly mates for some time to come.
2 reasons for org this outing: Colin's flying off and I already promised 同乡Karen I'm initiating this gathering for her bdae this year.
Appetizer at Xing Wang followed by lau yu-sheng session (since it was 人日） at Sakae Sushi with Colin, Brian, Karen and Apryl. I managed to trick Brian into coming early (first time since knowing him) by telling him to meet 1 hour in advanced of our actual meeting time. Calculating by default he was actually still 50 minutes late. But the difference is that we did not have to wait for him so I wun complain! Hahah.
Laughed till cannot eat while making fun of Brian's "oil-bunkering" job/capacity. Heheh.... Paul and the soon to be lau-po Una joined us much later for dessert.

Brian, Paul, Una, Colin, me, Karen and Apryl @ Gelare Suntec City 20th Feb 2010. People that made my poly days worthwhile.

Colin flew off to Qatar on the 1st of March to help clear the middle eastern shitwater for the next 3 years. Now who's gonna listen to my whining and cheer me up when I'm down? Gonna miss that fella. Bon voyage! Maybe we'll really meet again at Everest base camp in 2011 as proposed by Joe?

Right now I wonder when will be the next chance to take such a group pic together again.
I ain't holding my breath.

4 Elements revisited

“左青龙，右白虎，前朱雀，后玄武”
On seeing such words, the first thing that one would think of is the recent film 14 Blades. Not for me.

The first thing I thought about when I read the movie synopsis was the days when the 4 Elements roamed the streets. Days of comradeship and freedom.



十一年后,
2010人日节(农历正月初七), 青龙和朱雀在次握手. 但今日和往日情况大大不同.

Tree survey and CNY

Got jio-ed by Hang Chong and volunteered in a tree survey over at sentosa end of last month. Just in time for the entrance price increase. But heng everything including the exorbitant $7 parking fee was covered by nature society and lunch at Subway was all on sentosa's expense. There were quite a few plant experts including Dr Shawn Lum himself. It's quite impressive how they can identify and name (scientific latin names too!) each of the trees in the forest in a pinch.
Lotsa interesting "aunties and uncles" volunteering for this survey including the karate black belt Catherine whom I still owe the cicada moulds. There's also Moira who slipped from a tree she was climbing and next thing I know she was hanging upside down beside me! Lucky some of the vine was able to hold her weight. The next day as I was returning her cashcard, I found out that Cat's former IMCB building is now called Brenner Centre for Molecular Medicine.

Right after the survey, Hang Chong and I continued on with the outdoor activities even though it was quite a humid afternoon. Went home, grabbed my camera and headed into the forested section of Mt Faber. It's been 3 yrs since I vowed to return and find the Japanese tomb. Did not manage to find it that day. Lots of changes in the vegetation and even construction work changed all the familiar sights. I'll be back another time. But hopefully the tomb have not been removed by then.

It's not an all loss trip. at least I get to see what's inside during the day. the previous trip was during the night. Tons of my "fav" termites in the forest made the trip quite an exciting one. Gotta get over my fear of them someday. Meanwhile took a few pics:

A common nephila masculata sucking up to a unfortunate cicada. It was still alive and struggling when this happened.

Another that was more lucky. Both Sentosa and Mt Faber seems to be filled with cicadas that day.

A common garden skink was spying on me while I was taking pics of the cicada. Prob the same species that freaked Baby out at KE.

Just as we were about to leave the place, Hang Chong was educating me about this tree and it's naturally peeling bark and why it was a good fire protectant characteristic. Somehow I just got this feeling that something was hiding behind one section of it's bark, so I just went and peel away that piece. My feelings are always spot on.

Hiding underneath was a small little scorpion.

This should be the third species of scorpions that I managed to spot in the wild. And a first during a bright sunny day.

The big block holiday season of Christmas/new yr/CNY came and went just like that. Did not get much ang baos but that's expected since we dun visit relatives anymore since a couple of years back. Which can be very good. I needed those 4.5 days of me time. Those free days also gave me time to keep in line with my plan to workout before term starts again.

So what did I do during CNY? Actually did not do much... took the time to nuah at home and catch up on alot of sleep. Continued resistance training as well as cardio (cycled to night safari again). On the way to night safari, I noticed that there are tons of things to shoot with my LCA. Definitely will try this type of lomography again. I also managed to spot a small abandoned hut along the way.. heheh...

Edited more pictures and portraits, blogged and visited lotsa temples to pray and shoot. Slowly starting to appreciate manual focusing. It ain't as bad as I first thought it to be. Just needs good lighting and subjects that ain't in a rush to go anywhere. Had a fun time with my FM2..... maybe I should go splurge on a Leica M7 already....... like real.... I hope my guessitmate on the exposures are correct and this new consumer film rolling inside the FM2 dun disappoint me.

The only ang baos I get this yr comes from my parents, mom's god sis's family (pic below!), Weixin's parents (on eve of CNY!) and Joyce's mom and grandma. That's all!

Brief and simple. No visit to relative's place or did any other Chinese cultural stuff except to go temple and bai tai sui....and maybe lau yu sheng with the Lim family! Hahahah... kinda unexpected...They are nice people and had a good chat with Joyce's mother who happens to be a Rat just like my mom. Here's a big thank you to Joyce and her 2 bros who entertained Weixin and me with all the card games (not to mention the unforgetable/unbreakable China Jenga blocks). They can rival settlers cafe with the variety of games at their place.

And 10q for the pillow! The illustration is just perfect! A voodoo ninja with a graduation cap.... It's just what this accursed ninja is looking towards.... my graduation! In the mean time, this pillow will be useful for many a sleepless nights searching for journals.....

It's a second time someone gave me a ninja voodoo doll... the first is from Ah Cat from one of her Thailand trips. Hah!

More pics later when I get back another 2 rolls of film....

NOT a complain.

Just because I am commenting on some life issues does NOT mean I am complaining. Do NOT perceive that I am always the whiny type. I will NOT complain to anyone that does not have the direct power to change the said situation. Even if I was complaining, it does not mean I do not know what the practical situation out there is, why I am in this spot or how to improve my situation. I am in my current situation today is by MY free will and my own choice and decision. I act childish by CHOICE. Whether I regret it or not is another matter. I admit I do have a fiery temper and can be stubborn as hell and I do apologize to anyone who has been on the receiving end of it in the past. But do know that these traits are only activated through very unique circumstances when you pressed the very precise wrong buttons so you better watch it on your end too. Ironically I only become stubborn to those that I care about. Only because it matters to me that you know what I think and feel. I can’t give a damn to show my extreme side to those acquaintances I don’t see as friends. It is at the same time very frustrating and somehow pathetic that the advices I get from ppl are usually what I already learnt like more than a decade ago (I am not exaggerating). You just got to sit down there and listen while they put up a sagely face and hand down their pearls of wisdom. How many sessions of those must one put up with?

Backlogged misc pics!

Exams are over for yet another term. Totally crashed out on my nutrition paper but the really sad part was that I could have done better if I was more hard working. I actually predicted correctly which questions for the MCQ and even part of the essay question but did not act on it. Where got so heng guess so zun? Haiz.... Guess the large gap between the last tutorial and the exams made me complacent. I was also partly using those study weeks as a holiday to make up for the super short one I am enjoying right now. It's actually not such a big difference before and after exams as I was already slacking then. No use lamenting but use this as a reminder for the upcoming concluding laps. 2 more (intense) SEMS to go!

Ok random pics time:
Think I used Edmund's hp to take this pic of Jeremy sleeping during the short breaks of lecture 2 sems ago. 16 hrs of straight lect per module spread over a weekend is no joke. Will be going through it again 2 weeks from now.... 3 weekends in a row! Am not looking forward to Sports Psycho.. even though I heard Barry's lecture is good.

Moses can split the red sea, my colleague Jane does this on a smaller scale on her hokkien mee. I've seen people pick out green peas from fried rice or bean sprouts from char kway teow but that was the first time I actually see someone pick out the white from the yellow noodles(which she dislikes).


2 books which is on my to-buy list, after seeing them at the airport TIMES just before flying to Bangkok last year.


This is definitely one of the most crowded appeal for witness sign I seen in awhile! Imagine the scene! I pity the one on the bicycle.

My lowepro bag. The lowepro logo was camoflauged by me using blu-tack but while on the trip, it attracted some stalks of grass and they became the new brand symbol of my bag....

Keychain for relieve of the weary (female) traveller? Was handled this when Cat and I checked into one of the guesthouse in Nan City (Thailand). Straight away we grinned and tried to control our laughter in front of the guesthouse owner... Who can blame us?

A Tri-baby pic taken during Zuming's(PUGlist) wedding. Placing the diamond-like sourvenir tableweight in front of my hp camera lens.

Another shot at Infrared photography. So this will be the view I see every morning when I wake up if my vision was limited to IR wavelength.

Jogging with the juniors. I have started my super procrastinated return to exercise. Intense training for the next 2 weeks. There is never a good time. It's always too packed. More so when the term reopens. Hopefully I wun be buried in assignments and stop my physical training totally. It will drop me back to square one yet again. Yesterday went for a run on my usual route at the southern ridges. Pushed myself abit hard towards the end that I'm still feeling the fatigue now. Took almost exactly an hour to complete the route. I intend to improve this by at least 5 mintues by early March. Not alot, but I'm abit comprehensive about overtraining nowadays esp that time when I kanna hamstring strain through these hill work.

Speaking of procrastination, I am also working on the photos taken during the portrait shoot tryout almost a yr ago. It's actually not all procrastination that took me so long. Things have been nutz since study started. Hope to complete most of them these couple of weeks too.

I totally have no doubt when Ilyana said she was from some drama club....

another sample alternative edit- really like the effect on the eyes...

Marc is back from Canada for CNY! Night cycling/exploration on the 19th. Will also be meeting up Derrick and the just ORD-ed Chris. It's gonna be fun like old times! Followed by Karen's bdae celebration (which I promised to org) cum Colin's farewell on the 20th and Photo shoot with Andy (and his Nikon D3s) at Ubin on the 21st! I said it before... this is a short but packed holiday.

Deja vu

Whoa.. Deja vu.
Faced the same situation as something that happened around 8-9 years ago outside the Irish pub Muddy Murphy's. I was not brave or decisive then. Handled the situation badly. Close to a decade later, I still froze in my pants. Wasn't prep cos I never thought a similar situation would arise again. Shows that I have not grown much since then. Still as helpless. Only this time I was helped by the situation.
The competition has reared it's head. Was that a deliberate challenge? It's David vs Goliath yet again.

But overall I was happy even though it was only short termed. I hate this spike and trough. Gotta love this interesting life.