Opera Estate part 1.

I was in siglap for a lovely dinner the other day, but being very very early i decided to talk a walk around opera estate where i grew up. The walk was a lot shorter then i remembered ...AS you know i don't like change but having seen the old estate a couple of times recently i wasn't as shocked as i would have imagined and it was pleasant trying to remember all the names, faces houses and drains i played with and in. It really was a great place to grow up.
Above in the center you can see number 7 lakme terrace, to the left my old friend Koon wee or ah wee as we called him, to the right the domain of steven and his large family including big aunty, small aunty and a host of others.

Above Ah Kiats house a lovely girl or woman who was very nice to all of us, she used to call my sister patricia tapisha, she still lives in the house by the way.

When we were young we all loved this house cause he had the cool clubhouse..and lots of doggies

Above is a random house that looks vaguely like what our home used to look like...though ours was a lot nicer

The back drain, we used to sneak out the back gate when daddy was in the living room lol we all thought he didn't know but alas he was a lot smarter then us. The house on the right is where Aunty Daisy lived the house on the left is Ja Ja's place pats partner in crime throughout our youth.


Sidebar-Typos should be noted and kept in the journal of typo errors.

Random II

No script no plan. Just random items. yesterday, today and maybe tomorrow..maybe

Random

:)

For those of you wondering about the strange little smile on my daughters face, its because she is teething.

A dog, a horse and a baby.

Buddy Guy.

Buddy Guy breezed into town for what turned out to be a master class on the Blues and how to entertain a crowd. For a man almost 71yrs of age his stamina put people 50yrs younger to shame. His skill with the guitar needs no embellishment, the man can play. I have been for a few concerts in my time with the most recent being Eric Clapton which was awesome but i have to say last night was prob the best i have ever been for. AS our tickets state we got the cheap seats at $60.00, stashed in a nice little corner on an upper floor of the esplanade concert hall we had a great view of the stage. We had an even better view when midway through a song Buddy walks off stage into the audience out of the hall up the stairs and right to where we were sitting!! Our little group of 4 let our a bellow that may have been heard around the world! he played right there 2ft away from us!
For more then an hour we were in and out of our seats clapping cheering and willing him to go on, he played Clapton, Hendrix and Hooker as well as a host of songs most of which he never finished! he was bouncing from one tune to another and the crowd roared its approval when he mentioned by way of explanation that he had so much music in him he wanted to share it all with us. Buddy Guy, 5 time Grammy winner, Rock and Roll Hall of Famer, LEGEND.

Night.

Mountbatten part 1

If you have been following my blog and i am rather sure you have not, you will note the amount of pleasure i derive from old buildings. Walking along Mountbatten Road, i felt as if i was walking in the toy train sets of my youth a number of the houses look as if they were lifted right out of my memories. I would have liked to have seen these places in their glory days, what a walk that would have been.
There are a few more houses i want to photograph before they become condos or changed in ways i shudder to think about. Don't get me wrong, some of the newer buildings really do lend themselves to beautifying the neighborhood but there are those....those monstrosities of design that remind me that here in Singapore even Phua Chu Kang has his fans.
The first two pictures are of houses in the same compound.

Just lovely. One of the easiest things to forget is that some of these properties where once beach front homes or a skip hop and a jump from the sea. With the wonders of land reclamation they have all lost the sea shore but somehow these buildings are able to retain a relaxed sea front atmosphere about them.

JACOS.

Just a couple of shots.

sigh...

So its been a rough week. Caitlin was in hospital for 5 days last week, we never really found out what was wrong with her all we know is that it was an infection. she had a fever for 48hrs straight, for a while there it hovered around 39.5 and that was pretty scary. The worst part of it all was the inability to do anything to make her feel better. We brought her home on Friday night and she has had the runs since ...poor girl no appetite, broken sleep , nappy rash, being prodded and poked by doctors, meds shoved in her mouth and yet for the most part she still manages a smile here and there. One tough little cookie. In the midst of all that Tloml, the maid and I get sick too and pepper gets a false pregnancy. Sleep is at a premium in the Simon house this week. Lets hope things take a turn for the better real soon.

Day 11

I think for most of us one look at the first picture and we think of east coast, hundreds of fir trees planted as a wind break on the reclaimed land that is east coast. I took a short walk there today during my lunch break and though the sun was blazing i enjoyed my little stroll.

What a life.

I tried using some different onboard settings on my camera today as well as played around with my circular polarizer.

Oh my Noordin what have they done to you.....(Day 10)

these 2 pics are late editions.

Noordin Beach note the fence.
Ubin, for me always a place of memories. I first ventured to the island almost 22 years ago when i was a mere boy of 12, my brother had booked a chalet in changi and on one of the days i skipped school, pinched my dads binoculars and off i went. Little did i know that it would be a 22yr love hate relationship with the island of granite. Today Ubin is a very different place from what i remember, the old school is no more, the island clinic is now a seafood restaurant and where homes used to stand the jungle has reclaimed the land. I used to love Ubin for its peace and quiet, the sheer pleasure of having a beach, a pristine beach all to ourselves. I hate it now for what it has become a dumping ground of litter and refuse a place where fools go and do things they would not on the mainland. Kampung Noordin or Noordin beach as it is known now is awash with litter, the trash of campers too stupid to clear up. The beach itself resembles nothing of the clean brown sand i spent many happy hours sitting on during my many camping trips there, the water while still peaceful and calm is now the colour of black tea, penned in by a fence to keep the illegal immigrants out, but allow their refuse in. Tracks have been paved over, jungle fenced in, buildings put up and others torn down. The paradox that beauty shared becomes beauty lost has not completely eroded the charms of the island and with some help things may change for change is inevitable but let them change for the better. Of course the question will always be posed "change for whose betterment" the answer for now is NO ONE.

Phalanta Phalantha Phalantha (Leopard), note the stink bug below the butterfly. For want of a macro lense....

Buildings.

Blue Skies

C is for Cookie.

Sidebar-for day 9 refer to TLOML's blog

Day 5,6,7,8

Sandpiper

Water Monitor(Juvenile) Varanus salvator

Arowana

Water Monitor Varanus salvator

Window

Bougainvillea

Heliconia

Salt water Crocodile Crocodylus porosus- I got a real kick out of seeings this baby, second time in two trips to buloh and close to the same spot. woo hoo

This looks like a golden web or an orb spider..not really sure. Note the silken thread coming out of her spinneret, and it is a "her" the males are tiny compared to the females.

A weird mix i know, but what could i do its been a weird couple of days. I havent had a chance to do any bloggin so i am late and i figured it didnt really matter....

Day 4

Day 4 saw me taking stroll from my office to Katong Park which is a short 5min walk. My daily look through the view finder of my camera showed me beauty aplenty as always and i really did not have to look very hard to find things which appealed to me, the difficult part is always taking the picture, composing the shot and adjusting the settings till that little sigh of satisfaction is allowed to escape ,y mouth only to be replaced with a sharp intake of breath and a curse when i see my poor attempt at capturing the beauty of the natural world...but i love it, i love trying, failing and trying again i love the whole idea of trying to freeze a moment in time maybe its a Peter Pan complex i don't know but i do know that i derive tremendous joy from this hobby of mine, and on day 4 i am well pleased by with work(such a horrid word i know but used in a positive manner here). The question i get alot is "what were you supposed to be taking a picture of?" Well my version of photography is just that my version, i take what i find beautiful i take what i find has the potential to move me in anyway be it the joy of photographing my daughter or the pleasure in photography animals or even the desire to try and do something different for anything else i have done like trying to photograph the void deck of a block of flats. So i will muddle along and hope that i don't confuse to many people with the photographs i post and maybe just maybe i might have taken something that moves someone else in a similar way, if not cest la vie.

In the first picture, which is of a frangi pani tree, i felt the light filtering through the confused jumble of branches was a very interesting pattern if that is the right word to use. The blue sky contrasted nicely i felt with the darkened branches.

Above, a nail driven hard into the tree, i wouldnt know where to begin explaning what I see when i look at this image.
This gnarly tree really requires more patience to photograph and i reckon i may spend more time trying to capture a good image the next time. I couldnt decide between the above and below photograph so i have posted both..

And so day 4 on my little quest ends.
if you have noticed any typo's or gramatical errors do write them down and when i am reborn i will promise to work harder in school.