Just some Pics

Click on them to get a bigger pic, if u want the maximum pic size you cant get it lol unless u ask real nice.

Godma

My baptismal godmother/aunty and uncle came down to visit and as the pics will show a good time was had by all. My Aunty Henrietta and Uncle Wilson have been coming down yearly from england where they stay and we always try and get together and this time we had dinner at my mums place. I love hearing about stuff from before i was born, stories bout my father, grandmother and many other members of our extended family, she happens to be my dads youngest sister as well.
The best part of the whole thing is that they have been married for 48years!! can u imagine 48years and they still look like a teenage couple!

Return To Pongol Park...(click the pics..they grow)

UPDATE 071005 -Daylight flying moth is what the orange butterfly is called.
Spent my lunch time at pongol park today, something i havent done for some time. The sky was overcast, even after the clouds had dumped a ton of rain of sengkang they still looked like that had more to drop. The humidity was crazy, was sweatin like a hog i tell ya..anyway took lots of pics, pretty average for me i guess some of the shots i have posted are not very good at all esp the the green fly like insect but i just wanted to show you all what i saw today. This orange type insect is pretty common but for the life of me i couldnt tell ya what its called, so if anyone knows please drop me a message. had to drop to one knee for the pic and one pic is all i had of it.






I know, i know ...not another fly..but hey these guys are everywhere look at the design, this fella has break lights and all.
Not my fav insect but at lest this fella sat still while i fumbled around trying to take a shot..the ferrari of insects..

This guy is just stunning, the pic sucks its blurred at all the key points, but i just wanted yo uto see the clrs, looks like it was airbrushed.... and the wings. really beautiful....alas it has no name and for now shall be called the green fly....





Found a couple of apple snails at the edge of the pond, something i have never seen before, i love apple snails, i keep a couple of them as pets for some time..not the most exciting of pets though but beautiful to watch as they glide along the glass of a fish tank. I was rather tempted to keep take a couple and keep them as pets but....i think Pepper aka fatty would be jealous...
Just did a bit of research and found out what apple snail eggs look like! i saw tons of them, the next time i go i will take lots of pics!






With all the rain we have been having the water level in the pond has risen
almost 2 feet over the past week or so and i think the snails
are using this opportunity to feed in areas that they dont
normally wander around(can you see the little blob?)

Not far from the apple snails i came across the carapce of a turtle, actually it was more like the scutes of the carapace it was really thin. and it was lying really near the waters edge.



the inside of the carapace...looks like its just the scutes and not the whole top shell i found(some turtles do shed abit ..but nothing like this)




about 10feet away from the scutes i found the Plastron and it was totally cleaned out of any bits of turtle flesh, about 7 inches long, no idea how the turtle died..maybe old age...maybe a fish bit its head off or a bird pecked it to death....i dunno how it died but i do know what was feeding on it...


Varanus salvator- Commonly known as the malayan water monitor. This bugger was lying in in the shallows..hidden by the reeds Around where i found the turtle shell was an excellent place for this big reptile to take shelter and feed peacefully and should anyone come stumbling along it would would only need to turn around and it could disappear into the water. Great spot for it to sun itself as well, which it needs to do to help digest its food. I saw 3 monitors in the space of 100m and this was the biggest, around 1.5m(no where close to the giants i have seen at sungei buloh) and looked pretty fat. The other two i saw were smaller maybe 1m and pretty skinny. Male or female? i dunno, these guys are great scavangers but also know for being adept swimmers and tree climbers, i reckon they do get the odd fish or chick and bird eggs or even a turtle once in awhile....come to think of it i didnt see any live turtles.....hmmmm



Any typos and or spelling errors are in your imagination.
pics have been resized for posting purposes, if you click on them they get bigger but you still wont get the full sized pic.

Boyo's big day

Sunday the 2nd of OCT was Baba's First Communion, for those of you who dont know baba is my nephew. We had a lovely day first mass @ Holy Trinity..(where i had a coney dog) followed by a nice lunch at my mums place where we had naan...prob the last naan for sometime as the shop is closing down. As is our normal pattern after unch we went to pasir ris farmway to look at puppies! as always we each had our own favourites .
Anyway as i was saying BABA=PHILIP=BOYO and as is custom at the age of 9 he had to have his first holy communion, when asked how tasted he asnwered "it was nicer then the unblessed one we tried before"
The first pic is of the big fella himself and though i took many posed shots i found this one which was off the cuff to have captured his happy go lucky style.
I have also added some pics of the star with the family, nanny and me..the one with me reminds me of the game othello.
Also there was karen de souza and her little daughter, unfortunately they came after we took the pictures and i was too lazy to take anymore

Nanny made a lovely choc cake and karen brought a cake as well....Michael seemed to be the happiest and he went at his slice with gusto..leaving a trail of cake crumbs all over the place, he enjoyed his cake thats for sure!
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shadows in pink

i used to think that all a guy needed was a good smoke and a smile was all a guy needed..but having a great partner is all i need and i am lucky that we found each other.tloml

buffet of jimmy

turn your speakers on and see if you can hear the song i added to my blog...

The Birthday Weekend

Been a busy couple of days so far, friday was TLOML's birthday and we went to lagoon for dinner. A large variety of food, as always lagoon didnt let us down! The food was good. Tonight we had dinner at home and lucy made crab curry and pepper crabs, everyone brought something and dinner was great! You may wonder at how short and sharp this post is but i am tired today...getting old i guess...but i have been enjoying myself loads..

Happi Birthday

HAPPI BIRTHDAY
TLOML

Pizza in Fattyville

TLOML and i made a couple of pizzas for dinner tonight....cheese...olives.....salami...pineapple..ham...mushrooms.....yummy
The first one is mine...and the second one is TLOML..pretty brown eh

sick as ....

buggered man, couldnt sleep last night. Flu like symptons, running nose..sore throat....muscle ache..no fever that i could find. not feeling much better today..no fever but got the shakes.....i hate being sick

esplanade by night

Went with frodo to take some pics of the esplanade, many frustrating moments..drizzle...couldnt get a good clean shot of both domes, equipment issues..hunger..you name it, it happened. anyway took 80-100 shots and i am not really happy with the results....forgot to adjust my iso settings, left it on 400 so the pics are a bit grainy, you may not get the effect as i have resized them for my blog. I must get a good telephoto as there are many good locations to capture the full esplanade but the shot points are rather a long way off and my 18-55mm is just not enough....sigh..

Happy Birthday !!

Last night, i went to a great old friends birthday. Uncle Jerry and it was great we were talking about old times as we tend to do when we gather, ghost stories, memories from years ago you know the stuff. I have known Uncle Jerry and A.Bessie since I was 16 that is exactly 16yrs ago too. We met in the church and I was told that he was to be in charge of the sacristy and that we would have to work closely with him man oh man was I unhappy the fella never smiled and he seemed so strict but as they say you cant judge a book by its cover and I totally misjudged him. As friendships go this couple are it, they have been there for every batch of altar boys since day one, always there to keep an eye out for us and feed us..man do they feed us. Over the past 16yrs there have been periods where would not see each other for months but at the end of our sabbatical from each other it would always seem like time hadn’t passed and we were talking just yesterday. At "events" in my life they have always been there, when I was in the army and had my first parents visiting day aside from my family, there were these two U.Jerry and A.Bessie, the morning my dad passed away they were at my house minutes after the ambulance arrived and at my wedding Uncle Jerry helped make the mass even more beautiful by his efforts in the sacristy. As you know Family and friends are the most important t thing to me, and these guys are family no doubt about it. Anyway here’s to a very

HAPPY BIRTHDAY UNCLE JERRY

and the next time your family wants to me up for a drink tell me so I can hide!!!!lol


Below are the folks who there last night if I left you out ..sorry.

In search of definition

I am not sure if any of you have watched a show called "BIG FISH" it is a simple tale of a man and his life as told by himself to people around him. One of those people who is his son, the problem with the stories he told, to his son anyway they seemed to be tall tales that while entertaining were just plain lies. The son grows up and goes away only to return when told that his father is dying....the point is that in the end he finally understands that his father was telling the truht all along. The thing is when he was young he belived and trusted but as he ages the son felt that he had been living with rose tinted glasses all the while and upon removing these supposed glasses he finally saw the truth, but as we know the truth is not always what it seems. I write this because there is a line in the moving that i just cant get out of my head, it is really the line that brings the whole movie together and also in a nutshell defines alot of things,
"Men see things differently at different points in their lives". Say it out loud...think about it, makes sense doesnt it.

In my own existence i realise that the statement is true, when i was a child i belived that my father was the greatest in the world as i entered my teen and early adulthood i began to think differently i began to question and doubt things and thought well maybe this guy aint so perfect after all, last sunday was his birthday and though he celebrates in heaven he still remains strongly in my mind. I sat down to try and think "who was my father" to many people he was many different things, to his friends he was the best friend a man could have, if he had 2$ and you needed it he would go hungry and give you the money. He felt the need for everyone to have a good time and be happy, he wanted the best for his children and all his life he worked for that goal, he wanted to be a better husband and he and my mother worked hard for that too. A perfect marriage? there is no such thing from the outside looking in, but from their perspective it was perfect. Perfect father? like the movie said at different times men see things differently and these days i realize that he was the perfect father for me, he did the best he could with what he had and if one day i have children and they are able to say that of me how proud i would be.

What did my father teach me? or Should i say what did my father try to teach me cause i dont learn too well....l he always said "IF your going to do something do it well and dont do it halfway" He always said" if when you die you have had two good friends then count yourself lucky cause good friends are hard to find" He taught me from a young age to be excited by nature and wildlife, he taught me that while there is a time to be serious there is also a time to play and have fun(seems thats my focus all the time), he taught me that having a sense of humor is an important thing his friends always said he was a funny guy. My brother got all the good traits, drive, determination the ability to keep at it.knowing right from wrong .....i got a sense of humor(albeit a rather warped one) actually i dont think i didnt get any of those things its just that i dont use them..very much anyway. The most important lesson i feel he gave me is this "family and friends"(doesnt need anymore explaining does it)i wish i ws better at these two things more than anything in the world.

I know its a draggy an odd post but what the heck.

So my wish for all of you this late night or rather early morning is this, when you awake may your thoughts be of "family and friends"

Flock of SHIH TZU

Dinner was a lovely white sauce pasta at casa machado, we went to see the new puppy! unfortunately because of the as yet not permantly named dog Zorro showed no interest in playing with his sister PEPPER..poor thing she looked so sad. Anyhow the new pup has adjusted quite well to her surroundings and Zorro has taken a keen interest her.

At work i spent my day running around sorting out stuff that i didnt doo last week cause of the mid autum festival, also had to destroy a bunch of bees...didnt like doing it but i had no choice they were a declared as dangerous by my "expert" boss. will update soon!

this that and..........................

Phew what a busy past couple of days it has been, thursday night we went for dinner it was the doo's birthday (moo,dooTLOML and Pepper) to charlies had me a chili dog yum yum. Friday night went to changi beach with the boys, i met Aaron earlier and we had a great wantan mee dinner with a side order of rojak double yum yum, we hung out at the beach till around 12 (the main group left about 10) and it was a pretty quite night just chit chat about this that and the other. Saturday was hectic, i had to work as we had a mind autum festival and man oh man was it rough we set up all the decorations around lunch time but our very own "katrina" decided to destroy all our hardwork. so we had to start from scratch. My head office was supposed to send an MC but of course they sent me one that DIDNT want to do it cause she was shy, so i nthe end i was MC, Organizer, Camera Man and "jack of all trades for the night" tired? to say the least, pissed off? thats putting it mildly.After the even finished around 10 i guess i swung to the the moo doo mansion for the doo's birthday i arrived in the midst of HAPPY BIRTHDAY. IT was an enjoyable evening. Sunday woke up with a migrane, went for lunch at my mums place, sept 11 is my dads birthday and so we gather with the machados for lucnh, my mum made chicken rice, devil curry, fish curry, a popiah type dish but instead of popiah skin you use vegatables to wrap, and fried chicken oh ya and she tried her hand at thosai. Bloated? nah we were beyond that. Than we did somethign silly, The two philips and i went to pasri ris farmway to buy dog food....and MR machado bought another dog! a cute little brown bundle of fur named zoey! lol imagine Alisons reaction, 3 kids and 2 dogs lol enjoy.
Was that the end of the day nope cause we went home had a shower then went to Doo's place to watch KIMI win a lovely f1 race. thus my weekend was over.....now its back to work!

ps if you notice my may typos..keep it to yourself its a secret ssssssssshhhhhhhhhhh
no pics cause i am still tired..soon..soon.