Bravo ITALIA Viva Singapore!!

Thats right its that time of the year again, national day and the fireworks festival kicked off with an italian bang today! One of the best if not the best i have experienced, i say experienced because we were so close to the launch site that it felt as if the fireworks were going to rain down on us. Great night! Moo, Doo picked me up and we met Mark there our cameras were firing like we knew what we were doing but i reckon the photography was just an excuse to get there and enjoy a great italian display! It only gets better from here with Singapore next in line to fire on tuesday, cant wait. The pics that came out are pretty poor, framing was all over the place and i do regret that the city buildings were not alight with the glow of a thousand office lamps like last year, but my settings? i am happy with those.
Pics have all been shrunk, dramatically.

Welcome to my world. Run while you have the chance.

As national day approaches i thought it would be nice to pay homage to the minority of singaporeans who live to a code best best explained by the term "selfish" They are the people that belive if you are at a buffet you must take everything first even if you are going to eat it all or not, the same people who use up four seats at a food court table when there are only two of them . The same people who will join a Q for something like a Hello Kitty Doll and come to blows if they dont get it. The first pic is dedicated to these people.

The second pic is dedicated to people who think that because they drive flashy cars and live i nthe right district they own other singaporeans, also to those people who think because i am the customer i have the right to shout and be abusive for every silly little thing. Mainly because they belive that they must eat the little fish so that they can show how powerfull they really are. the pic heading should have been "Can eat then eat"

Took one of the images i took on lazarus and played around with it using paint shop. Hope you like it.

Fishing at first light--idiots its not ME

I rather like these 3 pictures, and placed them i order of preference, my preference.

Lazarus Island

So i just got back for my little recce of Lazarus Island a couple of hours ago, and it was a very different camping trip to the ones i am used to. Law, Aaron and i hoped on a ferry to st johns and walked a long way in the hot sun lugging our gear as i couldnt get in touch with my contact on the island, but halfway through our little journey we met the "dude" of lazarus Mohd. this guy was like the manager of a grand hotel, firstly he refused to allow us to camp in the open for fear of rain and snakes(i scoffed and that one..) and provided us a nice air-conditioned room for our well being. There sre 3 workers of the island and they all are from bangladesh, mohd being the supervisor took us under his care, to the point of driving us round the island in a huge lorry to show us the sights and drop us off at our fishing point. They even wanted to cook dinner for us! to think they worked hard all day and late into the night watering the plants! i couldnt belive it when they finished up around 10pm. While they were having dinner, we watched law attemp to fish alas the fish were not taking the bait , and when we got back there was some excitement in the camp as they had just killed a mangrove snake, now if you know me you know i dont condone killing of any animals unless your going to eat it but i totally understood the guys fear of snakes especially considering the nature of their work. Still i was rather sad to hear that the snake had died and i asked to see the body, which was approx 10m from our sleeping area. When we got there lo and behold the snake was alive! very much alive but its head was horribly mangled with its skull cracked open, its jaw broken and an eye smashed(i will not post pics of the head.) I realised that the snake was in terrible pain and to put it out of its misery i cut its head off. This was a very very painful decision as the snake was not going to hurt anyone but its pain must have been crazy, i didnt have a choice or so i felt so i ended its misery. Its colours were so beautiful and it really looked healthy aside from the wounds. I buried it under a tree. Aaron said a few words after i buried it "rest in peace snake"
Aside from all that we also did a bit of mucking around the lagoon and attempted to net and or spear a huge sea bass i would say almost 2ft long, would have had a good dinner if we had caught it. All in all a very enjoyable night aside from some moments of drama all went well and everyone returned home safe and sound. I still cant belive the hospitality we were shown and will never forget the kind guys from lazarus island. oh yes....i will go back

Sidebar-typos? so clever you are ! spotted all 15 did ya? you win a prize!

and this post will get none.

This post will get lots of comments...

Its been hectic to say the least work has been on overdrive with lots of drama, and with important deadlines on the horizon its getting pretty hot down there in sengkang boys and girls. One nice thing that has been going on is that TLOML has been picking me up from work, with a little package of joy i nthe back seat and a little energetic ball of fur in the front, sometimes we just come home or like yesterday we took pepper and caitlin to the dog run in pasir ris, today we took caitlin to the beach for her very first brush with the sand and the surf. Mischa let da baby dip her tiny toes in the sand as well as the sea. She seemed to enjoy herself with the lovely sea breaze blowing in her face. Pepper too was excited to be running around pasir ris park off her leash, she was very responsive to our commands and all in all behaved like the wild african hunting dog that she thinks she is. These little after work outings really make my day! great thinking there honey!

What is is, what it was what it shall be.

Sometimes things go wrong, things take a wrong turn and while i say that as if we have nothing to do with it generally things go wrong because of us, people. I am speaking about friendships and the death and the slow agonizing way in which one can die. I am sure we all have friends, i have a few tried, tested and trust friends who will probably be with me till the end as i will with them but are such things written in stone?
We all have friends who when we call them we are all excited while the phone is ringing but the moment they pick up we know "this was a mistake" they rub us the wrong way or they say things that hurt or insult us or we realise that they never once not once ask how you are and how your family is doing, its all about them. Sometimes it takes years for us to realise that these are not friends they are users and even then though it may be heartbreaking you still to keep a thread of connection in order to maintain the friendship. I use the term friendship very loosley here. There are other friends who we see once a year or contact every couple of months but when we do it just clicks and things are like they always were but even these need some water and sunlight, i call them cactus friendships you dont have to do much work but they can grow big and strong.
When it does end, a friendship rarely goes out with a bang but seems to sail out into ocean quietly, and sometimes its too late to save and yo uthink "oh well' i will give him or her a call and it will be alright and it will be like it used to but its not and it wont be because they have sailed off without you.
And years later you do things like search for them on the internet or in quiet moments u wonder of friendships lost and one day maybe your walking down the street or sitting at a bar and he or she walks in and ur heart leaps in memory of a friend and they give a wave and thats all you get or you send and email and you get no reply and you realise that really its over, or you call and you get the "i'm busy" and never get the call back, you sort of got to get the hint eh, maybe you are the one they shudder to talk to or you are the one that hurt them who knows.
Its over, finshed, done, kaput and yet is it? whee there is breath there is life and where there is life there is hope, and if there was any real love in the friendship to start with there is always a chance.regrets? i had a few but then again too few to mention.
Sidebar- Dont look for the hidden meaning in any of this, its just something that i happen to be thinking about and not related to any incident or friendship.
If you find any typos, speeling erros and stuff and feel the need to tell me, please note that you are the one i regret calling !!!

there ya go

A tiny fist and a face to match,
Jet black hair as think as thatch
Big brown eyes looking around
A tiny mouth but man what sounds
With puckered brow she carries around her lovely Mothers,
not so lovely frown.(joking darling!)
Grunting and crying dawn and at dusk
Milk she must have and have it now she must.

i had to put this pic of her looking all forlon in her cot, about to burst into tears but still stylish with a lovely Li May provided dress.

Rubbish Rubbish..........and more rubbish

I am tired. It has been a rubbish weekend with me not doing anything yesterday. tried to nap but nap wouldnt come. friday night was good with dinner and a visit to borders with tloml but all else was just rubbish. people got angry. people were tired, i was tired.plans got changed and so on and so on. generally speaking i am an optimist normally dont stay this way for long but this morning was rubbish as well. after feeding the baby at 8pm115am, 430am and waking up 7 to get tloml to feed her i figured i would seelp in for half and hour and catch a cab to work. just so tired. but alas i woke up not in the mood to speak to anyone, i go to the atm put my card in and the bloody machine does nothing. IT takes my card and the screen doesnt change, clear, cancel the buttons are totally useless. So i am standing there already late for work, with four dollars in my pocket. The kind people at ocbc were of course so kind they kindly told me that they were of no use to me the only thing they could do was tell me to go to the bank and draw money. alas the nearest bank was rather out of the way so i sent an sms alert to my office that i would be late and hoped on the first of two buses to work. So now i am tired, have a headache and am pissed off and i dont mean the gentle flow of a babbling brook i mean the crazy pounding that is niagra falls. More rubbish, as the bus takes the slow gentle turn off the express way and into sengkang i look out the window and to my horror, dispair i dont really know the word to use but whatever word it is it cannot convey the feeling i had as i looked and saw two dead puppies byt the side of the road.rubbish rubbish rubbish.

This is not the way to start the week coming or end the week going. i am tired and would like to reset the marix now if at all possible. Today the cup is not half empty it is as always half full but this tiem half full of poison, so drink not this draught of despair, take this meal of madness from me and give me light, joy and bliss, it really is too much to ask isnt it.
Sidebar-The kind people from ocbc just called and said that as it wasnt my fault the card got swallowed they would waive the $5.00 and would be so kind as to mail me a new card within 7 days. they can take their 7 days and shove it, i want my card now.but of course another compromise , i can go to the nearest branch and get a card right away. You know its their fault, they should come ot me and give me a card rightaway and they should pay me $5.00.

i got the whole world on my shoulders

Caitlin with her normal "look" and in a rather nice dress. I ws told who gave it to us..but i cant remember

Unique

Just a snap shot i took, i wish i had waited for the guy to walk further into the frame. I was actually taking a pic of him and only noticed the sign in the back ground later.

Are we there yet?

SIDEBAR-Its monday afternoon and i just had a look at my blog on my office computer and i have found the black and white shots rather dark, the same goes for the previous post. At home on my lovely flat panel it all looks nice but here its dark! is anyone else having this problem
My nephew Philip and i took a mini adventure today, after awaking bright and early and getting a lift from Bil, we were off to Kusu island or that was the plan. The plan was flawed from the start, having missed the first ferry we had to linger on Sentosa till the next ferry. Once our little boat made it to Kusu we decided to skip what looked like a plain island and head straight to St.Johns and Lazarus Islands.

Hello and Goodbye Kusu!

Jetty to the right.

A little house on St.John's island, this house was used in a TCS 8 show a couple of years ago

Some dude fishing on the new causeway between St.John's and Lazarus Islands. Many times i have stood on the shore of St.John's and looked longingly at the raw isle of lazarus and hoped i could go across, well now that they have reclaimed the land around the island it is possible to just walk across.

A new lagoon on the kusu facing side of Lazarus...looks good for camping.

My nephew.

I took lots of shots but decided to post a few, it was a very enjoyable time and philip was an eager participant in the adventure.

The legend of the chair, the pipe and the sink.

I read somewhere that pictures should tell a story, while i agree certain types of photography should tell a story others are just beauty in the eye of the ogre.
When i looked at the above picture i imagined that these things, the chair, the sink and the pipe were somehow interacting with each other, yes i know that they are inanimate objects the feeling that being left alone for so many years allowed them the ability to react to one another. i broke down this picture into a few parts and below are a couple. i hope you understand what i am talking about cause i really dont know how to explain . I have looked at this picture long and hard and to me personally it is one of my best, maybe not technically but to me to conveys emotion, the same goes for the earlier post of the table titled "forgotten" as well as my fav photograph of the stone bench "take five"in a post i did a few months ago. They are not photographs that would win any competitions or sell books but to me these pics are my favourite work so far. remember in this story i am the ogre.

"You know i always wanted to pretend i was an architect" GEORGE COSTANZA

Greetings and salutations! no photographs today. Havent done ANY photography this past week but i hope to change all that this weekend. Dont worry i will put more baby pics soon.

You may be aware that i am in charge of feedign the piglet at night and since i sleep very little anyway its not a problem but now that i have to stay awake i find myself getting sleepier much earlier ! ! ! Its catch 22. Anyway to kill time i discovered that the kind people from google have developed a software called googel sketch and i have been happily trying it out. Below are some pics of the little doodles i have done using this software, please keep in mind that i am neither an artist or an architect. I had to resize the pics cause they were just too big and i did find i lost some detail but such is the life of a poor blogger. I havent tried doing any interiors yet...next project maybe i will.

A pretty basic house with a half court basket-ball court a pool and a bbq pit...lovely. I think i shall get abit more "out there" with the next house i do.

I wanted to sketch a church that was not run of the mill, i wanted it to be different and yet keep soem of the 70's style church designs. The roof is supposed to symbolize Golgotha...you know the hard uphill struggle to Calavary...the triangles well like my home parish "trinity". This was the first building i did so please be gentle.

These are DOODLES nothing more nothing less, they are not meant to be taken very seriously :) things i do late at night!

1year annivesary

While feeding Catilin this evening after we got back from the wedding, i heard some music cominng from outside so once she was done i decided to go and have a look, took some pics, not very good cause of the angle but i like the look of the sepia style i tried.
Just some random shots, all pics have been resized to 20% of the original for bloggin purposes.
And if u find any typos, dont tell anyone let it be your secret.....

The thing i forgot to mention earlier is that the 29th of june was the 1st anniversary of me starting up my blog. yup 290605 one year ago i blogged for the first time and i really didnt think that i would keep it up for a year! in one of my earliest post i spoke of a departed friend and how i still think of him, i nthis past year both tloml and i lost our grandmothers and it was hard or it is hard sometimes to think of the loved ones who have left but this past year wasnt about loss alone, in the 12months since i started bloggin, pepper has grown up to be a kind and caring little dog to her new sister Caitlin whose image i am sure will grow to dominate the pages of this blog. To all those of you who were forced to "check out my blog" much thanks for the many comments that you have posted, i look forward to reading everytime i go online. The pics i take are for me a form of release it destresses me to take pictures and it gives me pleasure and while i take pictures that i enjoy to view the same cannont be said for the few people who stroll through here, lol who can blame them i mean on one post you get oranges and another u get fabric..not the general idea of art lol but still bare with my pics and i will post more of what yo u all like, Caitlin :)
Lets see if i can make it 2years. watch this space.

Debbie and Adriel ..for life.

Where do i start! what a great day! Debbie and Adriel got married today! and not one picture did i take...i didnt bring the camera as i thought i was going to be rather busy which i will say i was! The morning started early with TLOML(bridesmaid) leaving at 645 for debs house. My mum stayed over and helpeds us with the baby sitting duties for the day, while i left for church at 815(bloody early). After a lovely mass, where of course the people in my pew were all giggling away just like the last time we attended mass together, badly behaved heheh. The bride looked radient and the groom looked ready for action, after mass we headed to the merchant court hotel where my duties of the day were awaiting me. AS the MC i decided that my co host would be Tuf Tuf (she had no say in the matter) and together with a very happy bunch of staff from the hotel we set about to make sure that a good time was had by all. Aside from the eating and drinking there was dancing and lots of laughter and i think that anyone who didnt enjoy themselves would either have to have been dead or wanted to marry debbie or adriel for themselves lol. In my opinion a damn happening wedding! i enjoyed myself. So here is a HEARTY CONGRATS to the happy couple! May it be a long, bountiful and happy marriage :)

A bug a day.....

After putting Caitlin down for the night, i went back to the study and lo and behold there on the wall was this green monster, we have had our fair share of moths, beetles and even on occasion a praying mantis but this monster is something different altogther. I reckon its from the family Tettigoniidae Katydid Similar to grasshoppers but with some difference especially the curved bit at the back lol anyway after taking some qucik shots of the green hopper in a fish bowl i set it free, long may it hop.