Place to Nua

Met up with terry and yihan on sunday. initially wanted to play mahjong, but yihan was against the idea. he feels that we are too serious when it comes to playing mahjong. like we are out to kill whenever we ask him to play mahjong!! so he suggested going to a cafe just to nua, and if possible, play board games.
Terry suggested tcc immediately because he just received his tcc membership card which entitles us 15% off.. not bad right? i cannot remember how much you need to spend (without discount) to be eligible for the card.
We had tea, coffee, some light snacks while we set up the table for my board game louis xiv, the game was gift and i loved it quite a lot, it's another one of the strategy games where the more you play, the more you think you can play better the next time. spent around 2 hrs on the game and of course, i emerged as the winner.. haha

We had some time left before going for our next appointment, so since we had 2 laptops and there's wireless@sg there, we decided to search around for the most suitable accom for out upcoming trip to krabi. i have totally no idea what to expect from there. never even knew this place existed before terry suggested going there. anyone been there? are there many different areas there? which is the most happenning? which area shall we stay? these still remain as questions to us even after we searh the web looking for the right place.I hope this will be a relaxing trip and i hope we will be able to find a nice cozy accom that's not too expensive.

Puerto Rico

It has been a while since i last been to settlers.. still remember the times when we go there like once a week.. trying to master every new game.. decided to go and have a look at the place on sat with terry, cheesing and jackson. was a little shocked with i reached there, cos i walked a little around the place trying to look for a familiar face and i realised that i do not know any of the staff!! ah, is the turnover rate that high??
Was not ready to learn new games, so we played puerto rico. if i'm not wrong, this is the first strategy board game that i learned and was so interested in it that made me want to try all the other strategy games.. the game is still as fun.. and as we are approaching the end of the game, kaejer appeared.. finally saw someone familiar .. and we can ask for a discount.. even though i have lost my vip card.
It was realy nice going back settlers.. would try to find more time to go there more often...anyone game for it?

Sentosa - A Pictorial Post

Js suggested going sentosa and since i was intending to go watch songs of the sea, we arranged a trip there. but sadly, there wasn't good responses, there were only 4 of us in the end, but it's a good thing too cos 4 is a good number to take in a car. And js ripple sr with me.. had a wonderful day at sentosa, lot's of photos, loved them 3, wonderful models! The sun was hiding behind the clouds for most of the time while we were there, so ended up taking lot's of photos instead of tanning under the sun.

This photo comes in a matching pair.. see the other one here.
At 6 plus, we went to wash up to prepare for the entry to the new attraction at sentosa, songs of the sea, which is supposed to replace the famous musical fountain that has fasinated me even when i was a little boy, even before laser was added in. then we were totally captivated by the water sprays dancing and swaying to the music. expectation for this new show was really high, moreover you gotta pay $6 to watch it now. at 7pm, ,long queues had been formed at each of the 5 entrances!! wow!.. because it's free seating, i guess there will be people who want to get the best seats and the only way is to get there early and wait.

Doors opened at 7:20 and we got quite a good seat, queueing up for 20 mins was quite worth it. stage set was beautiful, looked like a fishing village, the beach became the performance stage and the sea was the backdrop. show started on time at 7:40pmclick on the photo for a larger version.
Was rather disappointed, i felt that it could have been better, the laser, the lighting effects and the fire effects were good, but the dancing fountain has lost it's magical touch, i wasn't impressed by the non swaying water sprays at all... water that can dance to the beat of the music have became a thing of the past, only found in my memories... let's hope sentosa will improve on that part and present a better show, so i guess you can't call it the musical fountain anymore.
On the way out, we saw this..
rip: hey, aren't you guys called the j4?
jx looked at js and i guessed the same thought arised "j4..haven't heard it for a long while, is this group still around?"
I haven't been blogging with the j4 label for a long time, and i hope this is not the last. Ok.. let's not spoil the mood for the evening.. it's dinner time
Walked a while around vivo to look for a place for dinner, and when i saw that kim gary was queue-less... i just had to try it after hearing the comments from the place. so there we went. and with sr being a frequent visitor to hk around, he should know if the food is autentic tasting (i think he goes hk more frequently than i go sentosa). you can see my reviews by clicking on the "kim gary" link above.
Walked past pat's oven and got some toasted wasabi macadamia nuts.. and spent the rest of the evening laughing at js as he hiccuped his whole night away!... thanks guys for the wonderful weekend! Photos were suberb.. a good lens is nothing without you sporting people being the models..

Quick Visit to the Zoo

The last time i've been to the singapore zoo was when i was still in primary school.. wow.. but i've heard that singapore has got a really wonderful zoo. so decided to go take a look and find some new models for my camera. thanks to js who has a lobang for free visit to the zoo!! this trip was totally worth it.. $3.80 for parking.. that's it.Going to the zoo means that i need to have a zoom lens to get close up photos.. so borrowed this from leon.
A 70-200mm zoom lens! very huge and heavy, it's about a foot in length, you can compare it with my phone from the photo. carrying it around the zoo was quite embarassing, everyone looked at you with the "wow, a professional photographer" look, when i'm not. i felt weird when i walked past a group of pros carrying all sorts of equipment and were discussing about shooting techniques in hokkien. ok anyway, the photos came out quite good, my standard not that high ..haha. i guess most of the credit should go to this wonderful lens.
Here are some of the photos i took, and as you can see, i separated them into 2 groups.. the main ones below are the monkeys and their relatives.. are they called primates? cos most of them are found in this section called the primate kingdom. anyway, i think they are wonderful animals to take. their eyes, postures, expressions etc, so similar to human beings, it's as if they are trying to tell you something. you gotta click on the photos to see a larger version.Didn't have enough time to finish up the whole zoo, so i'll be going again, and hopefully i'll have better photos from the next trip.

Relaxing and Lazy Afternoon

It the start of my chinese new year break. met up with terry at corduroy & finch for a nice afternoon tea and chat. the place is fantastic, serene, wonderful ambience. we actually stayed there for 3 hours... mostly chatting.. haha
I have liked this place since the first time i stepped in here around 2 yrs ago (hhmm dun really remember if it was that long ago. but time have been passing very quickly these few years). wasn't impressed by the food here but the ambience itself and the settings have attracted me to come back again and again. food is quite expensive over here, so i usully pop by or some dinks in the afternoon or at night .. must go must go... you won't regret . i wrote more about this place on my food blog.
They even have such an inovative idea for the washroom, to use a shower head a tap for washing of hands, cool right! one week of holiday.. yeh.. already planning events to keep myself occipied for this festive season!!just hoping that i won't put on weight after the holiday

A Night at Sentosa

Dinner with meili bingwei and leon changed from the expensive tepanyaki at jurong hill to food replublic at vivo city because of bingwei's toothache, but i guess it was a good decision to change it because that led to an eventful evening. a short kopi and teh session at tostbox with some gossips haha..
Sentosa express has started running and we planned to buy a ticket and take a round trip just to experience it, the station was quite empty, probably because it was 9pm in the evening, staffs were very helpful at the stations and direct you to the trains and to the exit with beaming smiles, oh and you cannot use your ezlink card for this ... so we gotta go get tickets from the counter.Got our tickets, ready to board this newest transport system in singapore... it feels like an lrt, reaching the siloso beach was really fast. bingwei can think about being advertisement model, this photo looks like an advert for the sentosa express. maybe sentosa can consider it, anyone there working in sentosa?

Guess what? there's this new club openning at siloso beach called cafe del mar, i guess many would have heard about it. since we are already at siloso beach, why miss the chance to check out this new place, it's free for the night anyway... so we went..
right at the entrance, we met the jemej couple!! still so actively cheonging after marriage, better cheong all they can before kids come into their life!!
One of the few times that you can actually carry an slr camera into a club openly and you can freely take photo of the place. it's really a big place, indoor area is quite small but there's a rooftop area, a pool side bar with a shallow pool that you cannot swim in it, and a big sandy beach area with lot's of day beds to chill out. i guess the pool is there so that you can go to the club in your swimwear without feeling stupid.. cool right?? it was really an eye opener, didn't regret going for the opening of this new club.

Guess what's happenning after the visit to sentosa? not difficult...... going to mingbao's place to play mahjong again.. 3rd time this week. after 2 rounds of mahjong, mingbao brought in cards and we start rounds of card games ... till 4am in the morning, driving back was quite a difficult task, because i need to put in quite some effort to keep awake..
I'm starting to like the high grade mahjong chips.. and when are we going to get the automatic mahjong shuffling table!!... any sponsors?

First Trip to Vivo City

This is quite a late post, this happened on the day i came back from bintan, it's part of the set of photos that was stuck in my cf card, but i realised that i had copied this series into my office comp before the cf card became unreadable. Met up with ripple and js for dinner at vivo city, so we walked around and finally decided on earle swensen's, stayed there for quite a while. after dinner was photoshooting time, because i was still excited by the beautiful photos taken with the 50mm lens, and now that i have 2 willing models, why waste the chance!! see the photo above, it's fantastic, the background looks so blur but with the colour, you can actually feel the christmas mood.
Walked past this comic store and saw this cute astroboy figure outside, cannot resist not taking a photo of it since i like astro boy so much!! ...
Js came from sentosa because he has a company training/bonding session at sentosa and so he was carrying a backpack. before i arrived, he did some shopping at daiso and bought a few stuffs. and he actually hanged that plastic bag on his backpacklike that!!! ... he and his plastic bags, remember this? he just have a thing with low class plastic bags.
Ripple's posing skills have indeed improved, js has always been a natural poser, look how natural the 2 of them are in the photo above, it was not a candid shot, we took a few shots of this pose before i could get one with the right amout of light.
This photo again confirmed that js is a natural poser.. he had a similar photo taken in taipei, i actually haven't post that, haha, i wonder if i will have time to post taipei photos.. too many to choose from. after spendind a whole night there, i didn't even explored 10% of vivo city, will be going again this sat!! will have more photos then...

Pacific Coffee @ Raffles Link

Met up with risa and terry on sunday to discuss on work. risa chose the venue to be at pacific coffee (raffles link). when i reach there i was a little shocked to see 50% of customers are using their laptops there, later then i realise that they offer wifi for free... hhmmm is that a good business strategy? yes - will attract more customers because many people carry laptops with wifi, no - customers will stay there for the longest period of time ordering just a cup of tea. nevertheless, the place has quite a nice ambience, quite a good place for discussion or for a chat.

Happy Birthday, Borong

Sorry for not posting for the past few days, have been really busy, it was an eventful weekend.

Started with borong's birthday celebration at settlers cafe(remember to go to the northcanal road branch, other braches not as fun).

Andy and ripple prepared a surprise for birthday boy,he got a surprise visit from.....


hoho.... peifen... see how happy he was? he totally forgotten that we were still there, it seems as if he only knows peifen in the cafe... hai.. must re-evaluate this friendship.

How can we celebrate a birthday without presents

Of course, not forgetting the cake and the sabo!!

Even played taboo... added lots of our own rules to make the game more interesting!!

here's bangzhi, yunying and ripple with their attempts for 16 continuous shot, who do you think is the best?

Borong: i hope you enjoyed your bd celebration!! .. happy birthday once again!

Dorina is on Sunday Times

Did any of you read last sunday's sunday times, i never read the papers, it was dawei (my brother) who came across this article!! WOW, an almost full page coverage of dorina!! as a successful businesswoman.. remember to go take a look at the article especially if you know her personally, how often you see your friend being covered on the papers. hai... haven't got the chance to visit her riyuegu hot spring, dunno when will i find the time to go there!! anyone on for a retreat to xiamen?

Dreams Do Come True

Had a primary school class gathering yesterday at a super cool place. It's this art gallery called mola at 34D north canal road.. we bought satay, ordered kfc and pizzas, had wine on a roof top garden under the starless sky. Thanks to weizhong who knew the owner of this place



Do not have many photos of my ex classmates because most of them were MORE than 90 mins late! One special thing about this place and it's owner casey, he has a dream to be a millionaire in 2 yrs time and how is he planning to achieve that? he want to publish a book about how dreams can come true, and the content will be obtained from what he's doing now with this gallery, that is to work with people who have dreams and help them achieve the dreams. not long ago he held a cook book release at this gallery because this friend of his has always dreamed of having her own cookbook!! so his target is to help 25 people achieve their dreams and write these stories into his book. If any of you have dreams you would like to fufill, be it being a star, publishing a book, hold an art exhibition etc, you can look for casey!! can get his contact from me.
I really like this place, maybe we can hold some functions or events there too...

Beautiful Lanterns

We saw this shop selling lanterns last sunday when walking around at holland village. remember the times when we were still young, we will always get a lantern of this kind for mid autumn and we can light it and carry it around the neighbourhood, usually until it catches fire, haha....

Ripple loved these lanterns so much that she wanted a photo with them.

Wonderful Weekend (Part 5)

After brunch we decided to go for a walk walk session at arab street .... and here are the interesting shots we got from that afternoon before it started pouring heavily

literal translation!! i still think dragon gate sounds more class than dragon door

how come the 2 girls have totally different expressions

saw this candle displaying along one of the shops at arab street... Happy Birthday To Me!!

super warm day

how retro and cool, we walk across this corner, there was even newspaper there

high fashion?? .... hhmmmmmm

see no evil, hear no evil

waiting to cross the road

a very considerate cat, making sure it doesn't block the way while sleeping

the ba kua powerpuff girls

is she too happy or is she crying????