Our Holiday in Cameron Highlands

It's been quite awhile since my last entry. From then till now, a number of things have happened.

First, I am currently working with a boutique company that provides training. My specified role is projects and marketing, but I do whatever I can to help out.

The people are great and the environment is truly an enjoyable place to work in. I cannot be happier professionally.

On top of that, I am slated to go back to teach in the Fine Arts department this coming January and will be committed to 6 hours of teaching at the institute. Perfect marriage of professional love and passion for the education industry. :-)

Over the festive season, sweetie treated me to a holiday in Cameron Highlands as a Christmas gift. The only other time I went there was as a kid, more than 20 years back, with my parents. Thus, I was truly looking forward to this trip.

The journey took a little over 1o hours to get there by coach. As it was a night coach, we slept almost throughout, arriving bright and early at around 8.30am to catch the crisp morning air of the highlands. Gotta say, the new Ipod Classic held up really well.

This was meant to be a relaxing trip and therefore, we didn't do much. However, we did go on a few land tours, namely the Boh Tea plantation tour and the most memorable of all, the Cameron Highlands morning sunrise tour. There're a ton of photographs but I'd like to show the most memorable ones I managed to take.


The first thing that really caught my camera's eye, the mist descending across the highlands


Our first stop of the land tour, where the guide gave us a very brief history of the Cameron Highlands itself and her tea plantations.


Worm's eye view of tea leaves.


The view when we got to Boh Tea Factory. The shades of green is just breathtaking!


Morning dew at the highest point in Cameron Highlands.


Caught this bee frolicking amonst the flowers.


Took this with the 50mm lens


Even in the afternoon, the mist is pretty heavy. This was taken around 3pm.


As it was raining and there were no cabs to town, we had an early night, but not before having a drink at the hotel bar. Sweetie had a martini while I took the Black Label. Just as well, since we did have to turn in early as we had to wake up at 5 the next day to catch a sunrise.

The following series of six photographs were of the sunrise we caught on the 2nd day. I shall let the pictures speak for itself. Suffice to say, it was well worth waking up for.












I have never seen a more mesmerising sequence of events than this. Just standing there, taking it all in is something I can never describe in words.


Malaysia's national flower, the Hibiscus.


Although Cameron Highlands is famous for strawberries, we never did find them to be appetising, being rather small and looking quite sad actually.

We checked with the hotel and realised that they do have shuttle services to Brinchang, the main town in Cameron Highlands. They have a night market there and we thought we'd check it out.

Not much to see, but there were some interesting opportunities for photography.


Shot of the moon taken with 300mm lens


Handheld shot of the "main" carpark for those visiting the night market. It's pretty darn packed for a small town, I must say.


I felt this photograph was a good way to end this entry, as the neon lights and colours of dusk helped portray what I felt, a somewhat strange reminiscing feel of a place I love. Would I go back there again? Definitely, but not so soon. I'd like to see how this place develops after say a few years.

Having Ethics, Respect and Courage

If you have less than noble designs, I suggest you grow some ethics. It's never too late.

If you are so afraid of offending someone even when you know there is no wrong in refusing, I suggest you grow some balls. That might be a little harder considering you probably never knew what balls and courage were.

Oh and while you lot are at it, realise this. Respect others and treat them the way YOU would like to be treated.

Ralph West Hall of Residence to be Redeveloped

I read with sadness that Ralph West Hall of Residence was to be redeveloped. How it happened (that I read about it) was through a sudden wave of nostalgia that got me Googling Ralph West Hall. This article came up. In any case, I thought I'd write a short bit about Ralph West Hall.

Ralph West Hall (or RWH) was my first place of residence when I arrived in London back in 1995 as a foundation student at the Chelsea College of Art & Design.

The decor was not fancy, and the rooms were certainly small, but adequete. The food was nothing to write home about, being pretty lame in fact, but hey, it was food that was still edible. Who can forget the Sundays where no food was served and we all had to troop over to the local grocers to buy food, in an attempt to cook. That was until someone had the bright idea of bringing over a rice cooker after the Christmas holidays, allowing us to heat up some food at least, besides cooking rice.

Oh, what about the only phone we had on every floor, and sometimes Christine would be on it for hours! We all got along, we made do, we made concessions for each other's eccentricities. Sometimes we had arguments, but we very quickly made up and forgot what we were fighting about. Never did we take things personal, because we all knew, we needed to get along. It was, afterall, a long year ahead for all of us and many of us will still see each other in our new BA programs.

I have made friends there that I still keep in touch with these years. Friends like Glen, Beth, Soko and Claire (my Northern Irish neighbour who walked to school with me some days). Some friends I fondly remember were Ali(stair), Philly(Phillipa), Laura, Christine, Sinead and Jung Ah. I wonder how they are now.

I remember summer particularly well for we would all troop down to Battersea Park to get abit of sun.

I certainly enjoyed my walks to college, across Battersea Bridge, through World's End that lead to Chelsea's foundation program campus.

Who can forget Fungus Mungus, the bar that served excellent mushrooms and reasonably priced beer.

And the absolutely stunning view of the setting sun in winter, with Mother Nature's multi-coloured skies providing a beautiful backdrop to the silhouettes of buildings and riverboat houses that peppered the Thames.

Or the fact that we used to pull out the light bulb covers that adorn Albert Bridge. :-P

Well, those were fun days indeed.

For posterity sake, I found a picture of Ralph West Hall, which showed the room where I used to stay for a whole academic year.

It's Been Awhile, Hasn't It?

It's been awhile since I blogged, reason being I have been tied up with several things, one of which is a job I took on in July.

I have since tendered my resignation as I felt I did not fit in to the company culture but I will not dwell on it. Suffice to say, it was for the best that I did something else altogether.

In any case, I am embarking on a new journey, with support from Sweetie I might add. It's a wonderful feeling, having someone give their support to you, even though the future is but a blur. It spurs you to keep trying and to remember that no matter how hard, all we need to do is hang on and never give up.

Obviously, hanging on blindly to a cause is not exactly a healthy thing but if one can evaluate the cause, take calculated risks and then go in with eyes wide open, learning and adjusting along the way, one can probably do great things.

I am all geared up for the long and hard road ahead, let's see how this all pans out.

This post is pretty much a warm up, I might add, as I have not been writing for quite awhile. Not for leisure anyway.

Beautiful Clouds & The Last Rays Of The Setting Sun

I was at Pasir Ris, Downtown East, when I saw some beautiful cloud formations amidst the last bits of available light from a fast setting sun.

Here're the pics





And just as I was heading towards Tampines, this caught my eye!

Chungking Express

I first watched Chungking Express on video back in 1996 when I was a student in London. The show left a deep impression on me as it was the first Wong Kar Wai movie I watched and recently, I decided to watch it again. The movie stars Brigette Lin (Lin Ching Hsia), Faye Wong, Tony Leung Chiu Wai & Takeshi Kaneshiro & is directed by Wong Kar Wai in 1994. It comprises two stories, shown back to back.

The first story sees Takeshi Kaneshiro playing an out-of-luck-in-love plainclothes cop who was dumped by his girlfriend on 1 April (April Fools' Day). He waits for a month to see if it was a joke she has played on him and decides that if after a month, she does not return, it is like the expiry date found on tinned food. He eats a tin of pineapples a day for a whole month, every tin being one that expires on 1 May, before he decides to move on. In the meantime, Takeshi goes to his regular snack joint, The Midnight Express, where the owner tries to get him to date one of his staff after learning that he (Takeshi) has been dumped. He meets a lady in a blond wig, played by Brigette Lin, in a bar called Bottoms Up, who is trying to survive in the seedy underworld of drug trafficking when a deal goes sour.

In the second story, which centres around The Midnight Express snack bar, Tony Leung plays a uniformed cop who goes to The Midnight Express and often orders the usual fish and chips for his girlfriend until one day he orders something completely different. When the owner of the snack bar asks him why, he claims it is because his girlfriend has already left him. Over time, the owner's assistant, played by Faye Wong, has fallen for him in secret and goes about doing things for him without his knowledge, such as cleaning his house when he is not in. She manages to do this as she stumbled upon a set of keys returned to him by his ex-girlfriend. When Leung realises that she has been the one who has entered his flat to clean it whenever he is not around, he has fallen for her. Before they can embark on anything, she stands him up on a date. One year later, she returns, as a flight attendant, to find that he (Leung) has bought over the snack bar and intends to turn it into a restaurant.

The stories are not interconnected but what struck me were the visuals, colours and cinematography. I was greatly impressed with how Wong Kar Wai weaves the mundane lifestyle of various Hong Kongers with realism, and stylish art direction. The significance of the visuals show a certain sensitivity to aesthetics, yet retain their contextual relevance.

Inconsiderate & Selfish Idiots

Wow, it's been more than a month since I've blogged, due to various ongoing projects that have taken up a fair amount of my time.

Well, it is still the Lunar New Year so, here's wishing everyone a successful, prosperous and happy 2009 ahead. Tough times do not last, but tough people do, so hang in there!

In any case, I witnessed something that I really want to blog about. Inconsiderate people! Yes, they irk me and cause no amount of irritation to those around them, but the worst ones are the ones who either pretend not to know the effect their irritation have on others or those who just cannot be bothered.

I was taking bus 48 to Parkway Parade this evening when a family boarded the bus somewhere near Mandarin Gardens. It was a family of four, two kids, the parents and they had a pram.

Get a load of what they did when they got on the bus after sitting down!


Like seriously, WTF! You leave your pram, UNFOLDED in between the aisle of a bus, JUST after the entrance, expecting others to have to side step and squeeze through a narrow path to get to a seat. Despite several people boarding the bus, and having to squeeze through their UNFOLDED pram to get to a seat, the parents did not give a damn and were oblivious to the inconvenience they have caused others.

This is bloody inconsiderate and you wonder what some people have for brains. Sheesh.

Last Sunset Of 2008

As 2008 draws to a close, let us reflect upon the last sunset of the year... it wasn't glorious, but it was not disappointing either. All in all, an OK sunset but it could have been better of course. Still, we cannot complain, when there are people who do not even get to enjoy a decent sunset.







There were of course, some wonderful moment, short and fleeting as they may be.



But as we rush about with our festivities, to many others that share this day, year and earth, it's business as usual.





For many, stomachs still need filling, the cycle goes on as per normal.



Yep. To some, it's another day of survival. No time for festivities, or to let down one's guard.

Happy 2009 everyone. May the year ahead be one filled with compassion, love, prosperity and health for all man and animals alike.

Really Sad Day

It's sad when people have no pride in their own work and think it's ok to buy other people's work, passing it off as their own.

I am referring to creatives, or creatives in training, who think it's alright to download images online, be it paid or stolen, and passing it off as their own.

Where is your sense of achievement, your pride and your honour?

Or have we become a society so in need of instant gratification, with minimal effort that people actually see this as not wrong? Have we become so lenient in this respect that we think this is a trivial matter? It's NOT ok to buy stock images from stock libraries and call it your own. It is NOT ok to take images from someone else's account and say it's your work.

Either way, it's a sad day when one trains in the creative field yet does not have any pride in creating their own results, instead relying on "vending machine instant results".

Honestly, get some backbone, some of you. You know who you are. Have some pride. Unlikely you're reading this but if you buggers are, it's time to have some pride and honour.

Shanghai4 TLR shots

Here are some shots taken with the recently acquired Shanghai4 Twin Lens Reflex camera.

Initially, I was worried that the few specks of dirt on the picture taking lens and even the mirror would affect the picture quality, but apparently not. Either way, I've since sent the camera in for servicing (overly tight shutter due to dried lubricant, uneven lens plate surface and usual stuff that occurs with vintage cameras) and re-leathering. Basically this would mean pasting back the same leather so it holds on for a few more years of handling, or at least 1 year I hope.

Other accessories added include 2 X 34mm UV filters and 1 X 34 to 35.5mm step up ring, plus a 35.5mm Hoya metal lens hood.

This camera does not have a built in exposure meter, so having no handheld meter on hand, I used the caveman method of argaration. Used my trusty Nikon F601 to meter, took note of the aperture and shutter speed settings, then adjusted on the Shanghai4 accordingly or as close as I could. This resulted in less than ideal exposure but did give me a rather wider latitude for error and made the bulk of my focus areas' exposure decent enough. I cannot wait for my Sekonic L308 handheld meter to arrive in January 2009. :saliva8zc:

Here're the pictures, taken with Kodak Tri-X 400 B/W film. This camera will predominantly be shooting B/W.













One thing to note, if you're not looking to do multiple exposures, you must remember to advance the film after each shot because if you don't, the shutter release STILL fires. So all you purely digital pundits who wanna go into something like this, better get used to the PROPER photography techniques or you'd end up like this....



Yep, even as a seasoned FM2 user, where I need to manually advance the film after each shot, this mistake was made at least twice on this roll of film. Considering there were only 12 exposures, that's a 17% error possibility per roll. Sheeesh. I do kindda like the effect of this particular screw up though. :lol:

No post processing was done other than to resize it to 800 pixels wide and add a watermark.