First attempt at Vector.

My first assignment at NAFA was to vectorize an image of a person, and I have to admit I got over ambitious in choosing the portrait of the Afghan Girl. Seriously, anyone has tips on vectorizing hair? I am losing my own hair in trying to give her hair! Wakakaka…

So anyway, the Afghan Girl, whose real name is Sharbat Gula, was forced to leave her home in Afghanistan during the Soviet war for a refugee camp in Pakistan. There, she was photographed by journalist Steve McCurry, and became recognized worldwide when her portrait was used on the cover of National Geographic on June 1985.

On a related note, as part of Month of Photography Asia 2009, an exhibition of Steve McCurry’s works is currently going on at the Asian Civilizations Museum until the 19th of July. You can check out the above link for other exhibitions happening as well :)

Have a good Sunday everybody!

Vietnam Part 5 : Mui Ne!

I confess. I totally forgot about my remaining Vietnam entries and if it weren’t because of a couple of readers e-mailing to inquire about them, these two coming entries will for sure not see the light of day :P

For those who have not read the past entries, or need a recap, kindly see Part 1 (Saigon), Part 2 (Cu Chi), Part 3 (Mekong Delta) and Part 4 (Nha Thrang). So without further ado, Vietnam Part 5 : Mui Ne :)

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We boarded the Sinh Cafe bus to Mui Ne at the lobby of our hotel at Nha Thrang (they fetched all passengers one by one) early in the morning at 7am, and we pretty much dozed off all the way on our seats for the next 5 hours or so (in between vainly attempting to tune in to 89.7 fm for The OShow haha!).

Once the bus rolled into Sinh Cafe’s own resort at Mui Ne, all of us clambered off for a much needed breather and proceeded to the restaurant for some chow. In between gulping down DELICIOUS (not exaggerating) dishes and ogling at the table of hotties next to our table (mixture of British, American, French and Japanese guys – ALL CUTE!), we cohesively decided that since Mui Ne is our last real stop at Vietnam, we would splurge the remnants of our cash here (little did we know we would be spending all of it).

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Making Do With What You Have.

At the point of time I received the LG Viewty Smart, the phone was not yet released into the Singapore market, and thus we did not get any accessories for it.

Knowing full well that I would need a tripod to record my video, I had a look around my room, grabbed what ever ‘junk’ that was lying around and in thirty minutes, managed to make the tripod that you see to the left.

Things that I used : A roll of duct tape (I ALWAYS keep duct tape with me, it’s a lifesaver), a box of which used to be the product box for my Puma watch, scissors and my Joby Gorrillapod.

I cut the box into pieces as according to size of the phone, making sure to leave ample space to cushion the insides with sponge (also available in the puma product box) so that I won’t have any scratches to the phone.

Once I got the shape and cushions all in place, I used the duct tape to make sure everything holds strong, cut a hole at the bottom to fit the Gorrillapod’s screw head in, taped it further for good measure, and TADA my own Viewty Smart tripod at the cost of zero cents.

During the LG debriefing, some of the other bloggers quipped that they think LG should have like tripods and stuff for the Viewty, and I cannot help but smile at my making do with what I have.

The point of me saying this, is that life is such that we most probably will not get all the things that we wish to have. Sometimes it is because of pure bad luck, or doors not being open, or in this case, the thing we want does not even exist. So instead of moping around and complaining, why not make do with what you have? Sometimes the results might turn out to be even better :)

P/S. You should have seen my setup to do the video recording. Ironing board, hanging table lamp and my mom’s bamboo poles were all sacrificed in the name of art wakaka…

Marina Sails.

Wouldn’t it be nice to live in such a place…

Where the lobby seems fitting for a 5-star modern hotel…

Where tasteful artworks and sleek furniture are displayed in perfect spots…

And the view that greets you when you look out of your bedroom is as such?

*sigh*

One can only dream, ey?

Catching Clouds.

Taken with my LG Viewty Smart, no editing done whatsoever. Red hue is from sunglasses which I used to act as a color filter :) Nice, hor!

Wedding of a Cousin.

A close cousin of mine is getting married this weekend at a bungalow next to the beach at Changi and how I wish I can escape doing chores and merely take photos all day long! Hahaha… I love taking pictures during weddings – the general positive energy all around is just too electrifying and everyone’s more then happy to give a smile to the camera.

Sadly, my Lumix LX-3 ability to zoom sucks to the max, so I guess I won’t really be able to capture facial expressions and whatnot from hiding in a corner boohoohoo! Nevermind, I think I will try to figure something out whilst I slave for another ten years or so in the workforce before investing in a DSLR.

Meanwhile, since I will be busy during the wedding over the weekend, here’s a set of pictures taken during Kimmy’s sister’s engagement last year. Have a good weekend everyone!

Post-Paintball Date.

Stinky and sweaty after the Paintball session, I headed back to Haikal’s crib for a bath and brunch whilst catching up with his mother. Although there were some leftover mee goreng of theirs which his mother had heated up for me, Haikal insisted on making me some Pizza.

Although I laughed upon hearing his mom comment that he very ye-ye-oh want to impress me (and that he did) and made a bunch the day before as a test run, I have to admit that the pizzas were good!

Got two different flavors some more ok! He wanted to make Hawaiian Pizza after the Chicken Supreme but I was so stuffed I had to turn it down hehe.

So after chatting a while with his mum, finally getting a refreshing bathe and karaokeing to M Nasir, Haikal and I hopped aboard a bus, slept for one hour and finally managed to wake ourselves up at

The Arcade at Marina Square. By the way this game above  (baby I am banning you from playing this anymore) is such a rip off! At $2, one would think that as long as you keep on clearing the stage, you can continue playing right? But nooo after 3 songs it automatically says Thank You For Playing!

What the fish? And to add on to that, the pirated Guitar Hero game next to us was 1 000x louder then our game, so we practically can’t hear anything we are playing pfft.

Wanting to comfort ourselves for the loss of $6 on a stupid game, we had a quick 10 minute shoulder massage at Kenko (apparently the stiffness of our neck and shoulders made it impossible for the masseuse to do a proper job in 10 minutes bluek) and to comfort ourselves for the loss of $22 for the massage, had a Chocolate Amer from Starbucks.

And to further comfort ourselves for the cholesterol that we willingly paid $6 for (haha!), we started walking from Millenia Walk to Bugis (Arab Street) to meet up with Fitree, who was finally out from camp and had spare time between his date with his girlfriend and his midnight movie with his friends.

Just some random pictures from the night, which consisted of the usual catching up and talking cock over food and sheesha :-

Reached home at around 1030pm thoroughly shagged after sending baby home and I really think I am getting ‘old’ at a fast rate… I used to be able to be out till 3am and stay online till 5am before crashing, but these days I am usually a goner by midnight :(

Boohoohoo. Maybe I should buy me some Kacip Fatimah as it’s supposed to increase one’s energy or something wakakaka…

Exploring Quirky Ann Siang Hill!

Waking up at an ungodly hour on a Saturday is no longer a big deal for me, as Haikal and I (yes, we’re back together) usually try to cramp our Saturdays jam packed with activities as it is the only day we get to spend a whole day together. The luxury of it all!

As we are nearing our seventeenth month as a couple, we realized that we have spent a LOT of Saturdays together, which meant that we have gone to a fair share of places (scroll through the archives and you’d see). So I think it’s kind of apparent to us that we have ran out of places to go and explore… well, that was what we THOUGHT.

Thanks to blog2u, I got invited to go on a tour of Ann Siang Hill and well, who can turn down an opportunity as such? Sponsored to explore Singapore by visiting museums and whatnot, you know! Hahaha… I tell you, if I can earn a living like this, I’d be the happiest girl in the world -.-|||

So anyway, the tour began inside the Singapore City Gallery, where we were greeted by the tour guide, as well as a huge replica of the Singapore skyline. It struck me just how pretty and detailed everything was, right down to the itsy-bitsy details like the windows. So much so that when I peered into my miniature office building (79 Anson Road), I could actually see myself sleeping under my desk.

Ok kidding. But seriously, that was how detailed everything was! And at around $15,000 per miniature model (for the better ones), it BETTER be detailed. Iris, our very sophisticated and knowledgeable Peranakan tour guide, informed us that the whole model’s cost run into millions. MILLIONS.

I wish I had that kind of money to construct my primary school art projects.

Iris further explained to us the reasons why certain areas are allocated for certain activities, why buildings are built the way they are, the projection of Singapore’s land for the next 30 years and things to that effect.

For example, she talked to us about the height limits of our skyscrapers due to aviation (which means Singapore can never host the tallest building in the world), the reasons behind why the URA has decided to incorporate living areas in the CBD area in recent years (to make it look less dead when all the offices close for the night/holidays), etc.

What struck me most was how interested I actually was about the whole thing! I don’t know about you, but I guess for me, being there whilst having something visually appealing to look at while having a running commentary from a very articulate lady sure beats learning in a dank classroom.

How else can I remember the above information, as well as the many more that were fed to me by Iris throughout the whole tour?

BTW, did you know that Beach Road was named Beach Road because it was actually the BEACH years ago? Yeah baby, everything beyond that and Telok Ayer are reclaimed land! I was REALLY surprised.

After being given a basic introduction and foundation, we then headed out to the open air to have a tour of the Ann Siang / Club Street area. As if bidding us farewell, three statues of Samsui women stood at the gates and Iris stopped by to have a chat with them.

The story of how the women came and lived in Singapore was really interesting (and to think I did not bother to register the stories when my National Education teacher preached about it eons ago), but I would like to divert and mention here that I HATE IT WHEN PEOPLE DON’T LISTEN.

There were some people who represented the media from God-Knows-Where, and whilst I was trying to listen to Iris, they kept buzzing around in the background and interviewing people in the crowd. That’s rude, yo! Shouldn’t all that be done later?

And when we have proceeded to the next stop, this bugger from the media would go up to Iris and ask questions which have already been explained mere minutes ago. So for his sake, she would repeat everything. Not once, but several times!

Now that that’s out of my system, let’s go back to the tour, shall we?

Under the blistering morning sun (which did not bother me much, surprisingly), the group of us were immersed in historical tales of the area as we proceed from one place to another. As Iris puts it,

If the walls could speak, they would be able to tell you so many stories. But since they can’t, I shall be your storyteller for today.

And that, she was (a good one to boot). For the next hour, the group of us listened to tales of the olden times; about how China men first arrived, quirky tales of poopie Ah Peks, Indian settlers, exhumed cemeteries, amongst others (shan’t be a spoiler and tell you).

Ok maybe I shall just share one :P

Did you know that shop houses were first built without back doors? This only changed when the Poopie Man (the poor guy who has the worse job in the world – collect poop from all the houses since there was no proper lavatory system) kept on leaking poop when he walks from the ‘toilet’ at the back of the shop house all the way to the front door.

Perhaps after one too many cases of stepping on poop, the residents wised up and made back doors, to give the Poopie Man easy access to their poop! I could only imagine how frustrating that might be to the Poopie Man, who could previously have secretly reveled in dropping poop on the floor of the rightful owner hehe.

If there’s one thing which the tour makes me realize, that would be my lack of questioning why things are the way they are.

Why are shop houses long and narrow? Why are there bamboo poles on the roof of many houses? Why do these renovated shop houses still keep many of the old designs? Why does the height of the shop houses vary? Do Chinese clans still exist up till today? Why are there so many luxury cars in the area?

And most importantly, why does URA spend millions of dollars in miniature replicas? kekeke… Which of course, can be partially answered by Iris’s saying:-

We are planning for the future to save the past!

The past, essentially, is what leads to the current. And what is happening currently, will in turn affect the future. So to answer that million dollar question (pun unintended), the cost spent is nothing compared to the benefits that brilliant planning will bring to our nation in the future :)

I have to admit that by the end of the tour of approximately 90 minutes, so many interesting information have been fed into my brain, my eyes have had an orgasm from the many photo opportunities and my wallet has been crying for attention since I have spotted one too many unique clothing stores, bookstores and stores full of unique trinkets :P

I thoroughly enjoyed myself exploring the side of Singapore I’ve never been to, and the added information from the tour guide was a definite PLUS point. This coming week will be Explore Singapore’s last week, so they are having quite a number of free events which you can attend (and perhaps spot me? haha!).

Trust me on this, kids. It is interesting once in a while to go out and attend such stuff, instead of walking up and down Orchard / Bugis / City Hall day in day out. Those who know me will know that I am not saying this for the sake of this entry… I REALLY try to avoid doing that because I see no point in seeing the same old clothes every time.

And as the tour of Club Street wraps up, Haikal and I concluded the afternoon by eating Fried Mars Bars at a British Take Away place – Chippy. How apt :P

Thanks Bie for being my photographer for the day (though I can’t figure out why the pictures blur after I resize them)! And of course, thanks blog2u for the opportunity :)

Related links:-

• Explore Singapore
• Explore Singapore programmes
• Blog2u
• My winning NDP blog entry

This is a Sponsored Review by BLOG2u.

Sentosa with Sunshine!

Wow, it’s been more then a week since I last blogged isn’t it? Kekeke… It takes so much time and energy to turn on my computer after long days out that I really just can’t be bothered to edit pictures or write anything. Weirdly though, I’ve been penning my thoughts using ye ol’ pen and paper, which takes much less of a hassle (but at the sacrifice of aesthetics, seeing how fugly my handwriting is) kekeke.

Ah well, since I’m quite sick of editing pictures for work and am rather pleased with the pictures the boyfriend and I took with the Lomo Fisheye during our trip to Sentosa yesterday, I shall squeeze in some time to blog about the fantastic day out we had, albeit it being a short one :)

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To be a shadow.

Wouldn’t it be nice to be a shadow, to not have an appearance and thus not be judged? Or would life just be a bore without all the different colors that are at present?