**\*/**

Happy Chinese New Year!!!

Wishing everyone for a joyful celebration of this festive season.

Remember to drive safely(speed trap), gamble safely(friend's trap) and eat safely(peanut trap).
I've never seen the word 'Ox' so often in my entire life. Not to forget the creativity using Ox in forwarded SMS.

Have fun!

:)

It's the happiest news I've heard throughout the week when Jeanette told me she's probably gettin married by next year :)

I've known Nette from Brats Lumut workshop '03 as well as the 2003 year end trip. She's been a dear fren as well as a 'tai ka cheh' to me and the rest of the brats. So i couldn't be happier for her.

Recently, she entered this online bridal contest by submitting her wedding and dressing ideas. So for those who are reading this, either you do know her or not, it will be great if you could just vote for her entry. Its as simple as clicking the green Vote button below. Based on judges decision as well as number of votings, she'll be having the chance to win a 5000 USD sponsor for her wedding :)

Thanks and do spread this around as I really wish she will win this.

David’s Bridal “Dress Your Wedding” Contest Sponsored by Visit David's Bridal

Bird + Orchid + Hibiscus Park

...or farm. I can't quite recall what they named it.
Anyway I went photoshoot with Esther again. We were overly ambitious to shoot every single park that's available there. But unfortunately, the bird park alone took us like 2 hours. So the deer and butterfly park will have to wait.

It's definitely ain't easy to shoot birds(with a DSLR) when most of the feather fellas were inside a cage. Wanna test how good/smart your lens can auto-focus? Go to a bird park.

It's not too bad inside, still having quite a number of species running/flying/hanging freely in the entire park. Don't ask me bout names, I can only identify the common ones.
The ostrich area apparently wasn't barricaded properly. Yeah, they have 7 foot fences at the front, but at the back, its just like a 4-5 foot cliff with small plants growing along the line. Can just easily jump inside(both visitors and the birds!). Talk about one of the most aggressive avian in there.

As for the hibiscus and orchid park, I barely took any shots. Probably Esther have better pics. Of all the days, we chose the day where there wasn't a single cloud up the sky. It was around 1.30pm and I thought I'm gonna die of heatstroke while trying to snap macro shots, squatted down.

Anyway, most flowers there looks dried up and dead, in comparison 'ikan kering' look much better. Not to forget a group of Jap youth came visiting the hibiscus park when we're there. Probably a group of 50 youths with a few tour guides. Poor fellas.

"Bring them to Mid Valley...bring them to Mid Valley", as I was exclaiming to myself.

P/s: I don't think I have any hibiscus nor orchid pics. lol







This looks bloody creepy. Trust me, I was viewing it at 200% zoomed-in
































...and this looks rather silly

Biggest Full Moon of the Year

You heard it right, according to the news, this month's full moon gonna be the biggest as the moon is closest to earth due to the position in the orbit.

I might suck in science, but I definitely know that the moon didn't physically grow bigger...and I hope no one gets the wrong idea as well.

Anyway, that's the best I can zoom in with the 55-200mm lens. Over-exposure is quite hard to control as its seriously darn bright for a moon.

Youth 09

See the pic above? That's probably the nicest section/side in the entire PWTC. Probably its all bittersweet bout the whole event itself.

Good news:
It's really huge, hip, happening as a 3 days event

Bad news:
The programmes, exhibitions and lineups screwed up big time. Noob rock bands screaming hell, out of place clothing bazaar and showcase of horrible pimped local cars...just to name a few.

Basically me and Sin Yee hung out mainly at the cosplay area, cause you don't get to see (or photograph) often. Our last ray of hope was gone when the cosplay competition turned to be as bad as the rest of the rotten apples in the hall. I rather have them walking around than doing nonsense up the stage.

Honestly, the host humoured me more than the cosplayer themselves. Despite the fact that he only knows Naturo and not any other anime.

Before the series of pics, I have to apologise for the terrible noise level in half of the series. Was using ISO 800 and the stage shots were zoomed in till 200mm (lens known for its softness at the far end)