The extra candle 2009

Suddenly inspired to hv a post with this topic.

All plans failed for the day. All the talks abt going for a nature walk, going to the optician, making a portfolio of the pinkys… FAILED.

The phone started ringing non-stop from 7am. I slept only at 3, having spent a fair bit of time on the post on the F1 trip. Not that I’m complaining of my sleep being interrupted, I’m in fact feeling very blessed having friends remembering the date. =) Regardless of how distant we had been. How long we’ve not been keeping in contact. How close we used to be. How close we are now. Thank you my dear friends!

Finally woke up at 11 and was too lazy to leave hse by the time I had lunch.

Procrastination won. Ended up sitting in front of the laptop. Didn’t feel like watching the long-overdue shows. Got too bored and decided to get myself a meaningful present. Searched for a webhosting company and finally www.cloudie.sg is alive! Not an empty shell anymore. Hahha.. For the time being, it’s my experimental project. Until I move this blog over.

Kept thinking to myself, why am I still doing work when I’m on birthday leave?Yes.. cloudie.sg is currently running on wordpressmu. A research that I’m doing at work to better-house some of my works and probably increase performance.

I feel so… dead. Think I need to get it over and done with, and take a proper break from work. When passion becomes work, u need to keep the fire burning. Else the passion will go and u’ll feel unmotivated with work.

Back to topic. Hahah digress too much already! The day ended with mcdonald dinner. It’s so… Unbelievable.

Some me-time for the day. Though procrastination spoilt the plans. Ended up nuahing the day away. But hey at least I got my site up!

Can still be considered a well-spent birthday I guess =)

Up on the Singapore Flyer for F1 Night Race

Thanks to @24seven for the tickets!

Had a chance to go up the flyer (2nd time in 2 weeks) for the Singtel F1 Night Race! Woohoo~ (The previous visit was a trip sponsored by STB, by 24seven too!) [If I can get those posts up…]

Saw this tweet by 24seven, Victor, Huishan & me decided to try our luck. I didn’t get the tickets, but both of them did! So I still get to tag along! 😀

Go flyer.. cannot forget Pinkys right? hahhaah

Found a box to house them!

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Met Qiquan, Victor & Huishan for dinner @ Central Waraku. Saw the flyer Level-1-access package (which we later understood that it means access to level 1 viewing area but not the level 2 & 3 ones).

The Singapore Flyer – F1 pass allows us unlmited rides. Didn’t know what that orange strip was meant for, but we put it on anyway. (Only when we left the place did we realise that.. that is the media pass! *facepalm*) The card also gave us unlimited rides on the water taxi that ferries us from Clarke Quay Jerry to Raffles Marina Jetty and vice versa.

Water taxi leh! Who will take a water taxi from Clarke Quay to Singapore Flyer? Vaguely remembered reading about it sometime back, when it was newly launched. But I can’t seem to find any information on the web. Only managed to find a link for the River Cruise, which is SGD15 for a 30min ride. Oh! Found the link! But the boat we took was the one for the River Cruise. Bigger!

Since the practise race starts only at 10pm (missed the 7pm one), we decided to go for a ride up the flyer first. Capsule’s not very crowded, so out come the Pinkys!

(I usually don’t edit my photos unless I’m printing them. So what you’re seeing are the original ones! Zhiwei commented that I compose well after seeing the Dairy Farm Nature Park photos.. I don’t think that applies to this batch of photos leh)

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The above photo, I was trying to get a feel of Yoshiko (that’s the name of this pinky!) looking at the circuit. I think.. it’s almost there?

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She’s my favourite pinky coz of the sweet look she has on the face. But.. I cannot neglect the rest right?

This round of flyer, I took out 3 pinkys. Out of the 9 that I brought along. (The other 9, unfortunately, did not get to see the scenic view in the end)

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An attempt for a group (pair) shot with Maki!

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That’s Miko!

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I thought this photo look nice, with the CBD area at the back. =)

That’s about it for the Pinkys shots.. We took a breather somewhere and took another round up the flyer, just in time for the race to start!

My 6-yr-old camera failed me at my attempt for the F1 shots up the flyer. Hahahah.. It has only 3x zoom! The shots were so bad I didn’t want to post them here. Some of them are up on my flickr set though!

Huishan has some nice shots (she said only 3 passed her mark), but she hasn’t uploaded yet. Got those 3 from her!

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Now that is the difference between my trusty Canon Powershot A80 to her Nikon D300 =X I need a new camera with more zoom!

Oh! I took a short video while up on the flyer! Listen to the ZOOM ZOOM noise! woohoo~

Shiok hor? 😀

Went over to the race track (level 1 viewing area) and attempted some shots. Mostly failed, quite blur! Either settings were wrong or forgot to use macro hahahaha

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One of the few that made the mark..

It was a nice experience being so close to the track. Thanks again @24seven (@claudia) for the tickets! It’s a nice birthday gift! 😀

Took the water taxi back to Clarke Quay  (which took us 1 hour to reach!). Headed over to Liang Court McD and a bit of monopoly deal, which DK joined us the moment he knew we’re there LOL. Played Deal till almost 4am, after which DK sent all of us back. Thanks DK for the ride home!

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Post edit: Forgot to include the link to the flickr set =D

Pinkys loves nature

Plans for the day (had a date with office – hey I’m passionate about my job!) failed when I overheard mum’s conversation on the phone with dunno-who. “Later meet 4pm @ the Salvation Army carpark right?”

Curiosity got the better of me. “Where are you going?” I asked. “The newly opened park at Dairy Farm” Mum replied. For the uninitiated, this was reported on Straits Times on Friday. (While doing research on Dairy Farm Nature Park, I realise NParks site isn’t iPhone friendly. Fail!)

And so I postponed my date to Monday =

A 15mins bus ride was all we need. I was in my tshirt & shorts, with slippers. Everyone else was in sports shoes LOL

Upon reaching the destination, first thing I did was to whip out my camera!

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My intention of this trip, was a Pinkys outing! So while waiting for 4th uncle’s family to reach..

We started on the route first, while 4th uncle waited for small uncle to reach. Grandma’s joining us! woohoo!

I allowed the rest to walk ahead.. while I take my own sweet time to take photos.

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At the speed I’m going, I’m uncertain if I’m able to finish the trek with the rest.

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Just as I was done with this shot, I heard familiar voices behind.. Granny caught up with me! That’s how slow I was! haha

A good 30mins later.. Quarry in sight!

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1.5hrs after I started the journey, I’m finally at the quarry!

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I’m fully satisfied with the turn-out of the photos! From the exposure, contrast, focus etc. It’s a good attempt this time round! Macro shots can be fun! I had a hard time choosing from this set of photos as the album cover on facebook 😉

If you find these photos cute, check out the other photos on my flickr set =)

FYI, these figurines are called Pinkys. Each of them has a unique name. It’s hard to find them in Singapore now, as demand is not high. You can find more information on them at the official site.

Looking forward to the next photography trip. No idea where I will be heading to next!

It’s all about basketball

First heard of the Singapore Slingers when Daphne Maia plurked/blogged about it last year. Missed last yr’s season for some reason, didn’t want to miss it again this year.

I’m not going to do any quotes, but if you’re curious enough to know more about the Singapore Slingers, check out their site.

Was half-hr late coz I was caught up with work. The moment I was at the North entrance, waiting for Daphne to pass me my ticket, I kept hearing “Wei Jian” from the commentator. Didn’t know who he was, since the only player I knew was Darren Ng. LOL. I know nuts about the players at all!

And so, the first match was..

vs.

(Images taken from Daphne’s post)

Initially I felt lost at the match, partly coz I was late, partly coz I know nuts about the players. Took me a while to realise which team is which, and who the slingers are playing against.

Once I got my facts right (which team – by the colour of their jerseys – to cheer for), I’m hyped up. That’s already at the 2nd half of the game *facepalm*

Nevertheless..

It’s my first time watching a live basketball match! Kinda cool, especially when I realise one of the referees is a female. Rare case!

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So here you are, the orange jerseys being the Slingers, the white being the CoCo team =)

And the female referee being TYN! woohoo~ yes she’s a fren of mine! hahaha!

Though I’m not a basketball fan, it’s a great experience being able to support our own team in matches like this. No matter how big or small.  Big thanks to Geekonomics for the tickets and Daphne for coordinating!

Now I’m looking forward to the match on Wednesday!

Punctured Tyre

Heard a loud explosive sound few minutes ago while sitting at the room watching show.

Aunt was curious about what it was and asked me to take a look at the bus that stopped at the entrance of BKE (I stay beside the exit FYI).

Had a sudden urge to take my camera, so here it is.. HAHAHAHA

As the bus-load of passengers started to walk back to the bus stop, I saw the bus bumper on the ground.. Hmm.. Did the bus knock onto anything that caused the loud sound?

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Oh upon closer inspection of the photo, I think that’s the exploded burst tyre.

Mayday 创造DNA演唱会 2009

隔了1年又4个月,他们又回来了!好盼望!但那期盼的感觉,怎么没去年那么强烈啊?

终于等到了8月29日。演唱会门票,早在7个月前已经买了。7个月的等待。。好久!不久前滚石加了一场,28日。没打算买,觉得应该和29日的一样。怎么知道,消息传说28日五月天会场到凌晨12点多!好后悔!开始问志同道合的朋友,有谁要陪我去28日的演唱会。可是大家都觉得太奢侈了,都不大愿意去。:(

27日傍晚,Miss Oi 在 msn 上问我是否要陪她去28日的。兴奋!可是。。被我拒绝了!哈哈。。觉得真的好像太奢侈了啦!28日早上,因某种因素,心情不是很好,就觉得说,不如晚上去看演唱会,听五月天现场唱歌,心情一定会好起来!就msn了Miss Oi。她答应了!开心!怎么知道。。10分钟后,她改变主意了。:(

无所谓啦,反正29日的我都会去了,应该满足了,对吧?

说回正题!隔了1年又4个月!2007年6月2日 五月天 《离开地球表面》 演唱会。2008年4月28日 五月天 《回到地球表面》演唱会。2009年8月29日 五月天《创造DNA》演唱会。

已经忘了他们唱的第一首歌是什么。:(

这次的演唱会,除了听歌以外,慢慢开始欣赏歌曲的编排、他们的服装、萤幕上播的video。觉得video 似乎太多了。虽然与主题配合的恰恰好,感觉好像不是在听演唱会,而是在看电影。有点不习惯丶觉得怪怪的,但还是继续享受演唱会 :)

听他们的现场演唱,心情郁闷的我开始跟着音乐跳了起来。他们,就是五月天。总是能够让我忘记烦恼。

真的忘了他们唱了哪些歌,印象最深刻的几首,应该就是「志明与春娇」、「温柔」、「突然好想你」、「一棵苹果」、「天使」、「知足」、「恋爱ING」、「离开地球表面」、「最重要的小事」、「孙悟空」、「HOSEE」、「放肆」、「DNA」、「垃圾车」、「我心中尚未崩坏的地方」、「后青春期的诗」、「爱情的摸样」、「疯狂世界」、「拥抱」、「如烟」、「你不真正的快乐」、「出头天」等等。冠右也独唱了好几首闽南语歌。

我,有被感动到。明明已经是第二场了,看得出他们已经累了,但他们还是唱到午夜12点!很想他们再继续唱下去,但又不希望他们累坏了身子。矛盾!哈哈哈!

谢谢了,五月天!期待着你们的下一场演唱会!