I see a pumpkin...

We spent a nice evening at the Machado's place last night, Michaels school had organized a halloween night for the kids and of course the 3 machado kids were involved! We even got caitlin a littlt bit o costume.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY PHILIP

Today is Philip's birthday we are off to the ZOO!

Aunty Alison and Caitlin.

A nice day

What a lovely day, went to the zoo with Doo this morning(i was late! the horror!). We had planned to head out to Sungei Buloh but as we drove towards the mandai exit the Zoo beckoned and so off we went. I took 339pictures of which these are the only ones i thought passed albeit barely. IT seemed a poor day for photography for some reason it was so difficult to judge the lighting and choose the right settings...i guess all this means is another trip to the zoo to practice ...oh dear what a sacrifice...hahahah. Anyway its worth heading down for a nice walk, lots of new landscape areas near the front.
Dinner was great, TLOML made a lovely white suace pasta and Debbie dropped by for a nice afternoon visit.

The Duck

Nasallis Larvatus(Proboscis Monkey)also known(by me) as the big nose moneky or the who monkey from Dr.Suess

Panthera Leo(Lioness)

Pan Troglodytes(Chimpanzee)

Photograph by Edward M.Simon

A couple of months ago, well almost a year ago a good friend of mine(shout out to SKA!) mentioned that a friend of hers in penang was writting a book on durians and asked if she could find someone to take some pictures of the Esplanade building in Singapore. So after much thought and persuasion ( i didnt want to take shots and have them rejected cause they suck..shy right) off i went with frodo (you remember this night many months ago?tripod broke all!) and took lots and lots of shots of which i selected four or five and sent them off(with some editing like lamppost being removed thanks again SKA). A couple of months after that i got an email mentioning that the book had been printed and was available for sale but with the baby coming and all i put it out of my mind though i was very very excited. Anyhow got home today and checked the mail, got a package and lo and behold! The book and on page 13 the photograph taken by yes thats right ME! sent by the lovely author!(never met but i am sure she is lovey!) I am thrilled beyond belief! The book is great and this is from a non durian eater. The book to steal a line from the intro this book basically about durians of penang! If you like durians or penang(and i LOVE penang) then go out and buy this book!

Photograph by Edward M.Simon- cheh damn ya ya only :) lol
I reckon that Moo knows how it feels ya, getting your name in print like that!
pardon the poor pictures i have taken of the book, i am too excited to do anything fancy with
lighting. I am as they say well chuffed.

I remember........(part1)

We went to my mums(full table again! crabs,fish, chicken wings and lots more) house today for lunch with her and the machados, while there Alison came out with a couple of boxes of my old stuff, pics, letters and all sorts of things from my youth, i just spent the better part of 3hours sorting out the pictures alone, and while i am sure i will scan and post more of them as time goes on i hope you enjoy the first installment. Above is one of my fav pics, its Uncle Mar(6860319)k,Larry and I in our holiday shirts in front of the Berjaya George Town Hotel in penang. Mark passed away about a year after this pic was taken and its i think the only one with us together. Forgive the poor quality of the pics, some of these go back to 1997!
Kenneth,Law,Me and Brad..some of the usual suspects.

Left-Sherwins departure for oz in 1997.
Below-brad and me at looking lovingly at each other!










The boys in the band.

At the beach.

Two Monkeys and a Frog

Just two guys.

Rodin's "Thinker" this isnt, just a dude on a bench.

Untitled
Click the pics to see the larger pics and tell me what you think

The things i do at midnight.

Tloml has gone out for a nice dinner and a night of partying at M.O.S with her gang of gals. Its her birthday today and i shall post some pictures on her special day.

Caitlin is fast asleep she had to go for an injection today just a regular one but she now has a slight fever, and its her first real fever so we have been keeping a real close eye on her(with calls from tloml very often). At the moment pepper is sitting next to the cot keeping a close watch on Caitlin.
I liked the pictures of the skull so much i decided to use one of them as my windows wallpapper, here is a screen shot of my new an improved desktop.

A skull.

A couple of years ago Kenneth and i took a walk along changi beach on the last day of a little chalet stay. I was picking up bits of drift wood just for the heck of it when we came across this skull, after much searching online I can now confirm it is a Turtle Skull, however the breed illudes me still. Anyhow as i am on this rampage of still life photograpy i decided to re-shoot the skull(i've photographed it before ) I will say i am rather please with the way it turned out.The only editing i did was to resize, the rest of the work was done with the camera and lighting.

Dawn of Still Life.

So i hope that you folks bear with me, as i enter the phase of photography known as still life. The main reason i have been taking shots like the ones in the last couple of post is that i just havent had time to do anything else. In the office things have been hectic and there just isnt time for my lunch time romps around pongol park, at home with things have been going good baby is growing fast and her older sister pepper is doing great as well. Tloml and i did something on monday we havent done in a long long time, we went to watch a movie yes thats right a movie one of my favourite pastimes. We went to see the devil wears prada, while i found the show a little draggy i do simply adore Anne Hathaway..babe of all babes. We are hoping to make this a regular thing as we both enjoy movies and i love the whole thing, smuggling food into the cinema, watching the previews rushing to the loo to pee after the show...ah good times.
Anyway back to photography, i realise that my attempts at still life leave alot to be desired, i am hoping to pick up some skills with practice! The pics though similiar to each other have subtle differences mainly in lighting or placement, i couldnt decide which i prefered so i put them all.


Side Bar-More to come i nthe days to follow. Please note that any pointing out of errors in the above post will result in being cursed.

Bowl.

Desk Gold

Well i was sitting here watching Miami Ink and realised that i was bored, Tloml and Caitlin fast asleep..pepper out cold at my feet so i was basically on my own. So i popped the camera out and took some pictures just some random items on my desk. The above picture of the unicorns is actually a wind chime hanging in the dining room of my mums house. I am using it as my current windows wallpaper.

Got this little monkey from Philip, its less then an inch high but the strange thing is the pink or fleshtone face and the red lipstick, the missing link?

A nut and bolt set from my old ergo bag...served me well that bag.

Ah...the last of the Ramon Allones Hand Made Cuban Cigars that the Jost clan bought for me, what a beauty.

er..my watch. One of the things about me is that i dont like to take my watch off except for when i am using the computer, got to take it off then

Reckon Tiger balm has saved my life on more then one occasion

Carrabiner...used for an infamous attempt at adventure

As i finish this blog, i hear the familiar voice of Steve Irwin on animal planet, he really was the most "alive" person on T.V..

Babe in arms

Granny And Caitlin.

Daddy and Caitlin(taken using the timer)

Had a quiet weekend, worked sat morning. Spent sunday at home puttering around doing bits of this and that, went for dinner and mums place with the machados.
Tom should be exciting got a date with a hot chick, ssshhhh its our little secret!

cest la vie

I remember it like it was yesterday...

Monday was my father's birthday. We had a little dinner at home just my mum, the machados and my family. Thanks to Tloml for cooking....i reckon its time for that heavy sigh.