Sunday, August 03, 2008

Week of farewells and gatherings...

(Warning: Super long entry)

I'm still reeling in the events that happened this week (and a little of last)...

Last week, we celebrated Tehpeng's birthday by giving him a little 'surprise' - planned and coordinated by Lil' Ms Snooze no less - by hiding out in his lounge room and surprising him when they came back from the celebratory dinner in Sentosa! Together with JX, Uncle 'Caipor', Ms Clover, LiBing, Lil'Ms Snooze and of coz, Lil Nat, we celebrated his transition from 29 to the big 3-0 with Liverpool cupcakes and a Piper champagne no less :p

(image lifted from LMS's blog entry) -
hehehe... a year older, a year wiser. Read all about it here on LMS's entry.


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This week was rather a week of many gatherings... after the shoot on Monday, the next day was to meet up with the Pau gang to bid Xiao Long Pau farewell as she will be going over to Chicago for the next 6 months as part of her work programme. The farewell wasn't really easy coz although it's a mere 6 months, it's neither short or long and we will definitely miss the impromptu meet-ups, the late night supper @ Holland Village's La Mien Xia Long Bao (Crystal Jade), the lunches @ SGH and the occasional smses to see how's life and work...

Well, 6 months will pass us by fast so cya back in S'pore next year! Take care now, my dearest friend!

Thank God for modern day communications where we still are able to keep in touch but nothing beats meeting up physically and enjoying each other's company. The supper at Tong Shui Cafe along Thomson Rd with Char Siu Pau, Lian Rong Pau, CY and myself is definitely memorable coz we are all close friends for a really long time.

Met another friend of XLP @ the airport also and R, who has also came especially to send her off, is really really funny. Glad to have met him also!

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Friday was another gathering with the gang I went Sri Lanka with back in 2006 (under SIF, YEP project to rebuild homes for the Tsunami victims in Balapitiya area). Kindly organised by Esme who got us a very nice location in China Square's Ricciotti Italian Deli and Pastry (3 Pickering St, #01-36/37. Nankin Row. China Square Central) for some light bites and wine.

(the happy groupie with the alcohol)

Amongst the group, GX will be relocating to France as she starts her new life with her French fiance and plans to get married by next year as well. The other members like Shin and W.W (aka the Balapitiya Idol) have also relocated to Italy and Shanghai as well. The night was peppered with lotsa exchanges, reminiscences of our trip and adventures in Sri Lanka, getting to know more friends as well as updating each other of our well being. Not forgetting also that we had like 4- 5 bottles of premium grade Australian red wines to try as kindly arranged by Esme's wine broker who kindly provided a lot of insights to Aussie wine market, trading, brokering and the potential of buying wine as investments.

By the time the night was over, we polished off all 4 - 5 bottles of wine, with the proportion that almost 4 of us (minus 2 non-drinkers + 1 social drinker coz he needs to drive) had nearly drank 1 bottle worth of wine throughout the night... hic! Seriously, by the time I met up with CY ard midnight to get some stuff from her @ Tong Shui Cafe in Thomsom, I was quite woosy already... frankly, I can;t even remember what I ate there also... hehehe....

side note: Ohh yeah, I met my ex-client couple who happened to be in the same deli for dinner as well! Small world!

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Saturday - had a really early start despite knocking out around 2am from the alcohol. Met up with Tehpeng and Uncle P. (Tehpeng's dad) at the golf range around 8am. Yes, finally Tehpeng is on-board with golf and he is quite a natural coz by the time we are done around 9.30am, he is able to get the golf ball flying with a good loft angle using only 1/2 swing on an 8 iron! 1st timer only lor..... well done!


After the bak gu teh breakfast, I went back to take a nap coz my stomach is having a really bad handover from the alcohol and it's the next round of gathering @ Mudgod and Ms P's new place in the East side! It's DURIAN and tropical FRUITS + the impromptu Punggol Nasi Lemak dinner.

(click for larger image) - Evening @ East Side


So it was at this big gathering of friends that I managed to catch up with the very busy couple, JemeJ, caught up with my ex clients Lyn + Siang Chee & their lil' boy Chew, who are all friends with the Mudgang (talk about small world lor), met up with J.Chua whom I will be shooting their Pre-Wedding and their Actual this year and next, met up with the recently married Mr and Mrs Quek (Ead's clients) and a whole bunch of friends we bumped into occasionally when there's an event revolving around this group :)

One of the biggest surprises that night was the appearance of my poly mate, J... When I spied her walking through the door, I went like "no way the world is so small!" She was the nicknamed 'pocket dynamo' (for her small size but extremely energetic personality) when we were still studying in Ngee Poly (more like slogging our youth away in the dark and very cold animation studio in Blk 52) and we did our final year project together as well... After Poly graduation, we sorta lost touch with each other until the appearance of Facebook but no physical meet-up till that Sat! Ha! Really the 6 degrees of separation is just so mind-numbing coz she knew one of the mutual friends of the group when she was studying in Uni!

Anyway, here's some careless shots from the night's event:


getting high from eating fruits...

...and drinking beer as well

young adults do have a good appetite and Punggol Nasi Lemak is just 3 minutes walk away!

no idea breathholding for 30 secs can be so zen-like


the nasi lemak looked very tempting....

there she is, J the 'pocket dynamo'


The night didn't end there for me coz since I was in the area, I parted ways with the group to meet up with Char Siu Pau for a cup of coffee .......

and what originally was a kopi session turned into a Chivas drinking session @ Sharky's bar (212 Telok Kurau Road #01-216 Tel: 63450580) in Telok Kurau! No idea how that happened but in the end, we were there with Lian Rong Pau's brother (or CSP's Bro-in-law otherwise known) for an hour plus.. drinking scotch at the bar, chatting and catching up... (I also remembered I had a little bit of Cat Mountain King (猫山王) durians during the fruits session earlier but what the heck...)

* disclaimer: durian and hard liquor is strongly not recommended so please don't try. I was blessed enough to have digested the durian before I hit the scotch. People have died from the combination before.

that's not green tea but Chivas on da rocks... and I had 3 - 4 glasses! 损友!

ambience inside Sharky's not bad.. I love their 2nd storey's floor space!

So my Saturday ended around 4am coz I need to get the alcohol to clear out of my system before I can rest properly but with a wake-up call @ 7.30am to get ready for Sunday church band kinda made me a little dazed today.....

Yupz, and such was my wonderful week of farewells and gatherings :D

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Wednesday, June 04, 2008

Kill me Course

After Awana golf course, I have been itching to get back to the greens for a game coz I did very badly @ Awana. Yupz, scores that were too horrendous to mention but that's another story for another time.

Been busy the past month with the website as well as some other corporate projects, decided that today is a good day to go play. My initial selection was the Executive course @ Mandai which I am quite familiar but my dear friend, Char Siu Pau, decided to up the ante and suggested Green Fairways @ Bukit Timah.

So brand new challenge, new insights and another bout of terrible scores for me. The public course resides in the lush greenery of Bt Timah Rd where the drive-in towards the range and course captivated me with sights of horses in stables, some roaming freely within a fenced up pen and some riders taking their horses for an early gallop. The light was extremely beautiful this morning, highlighting the dew and mist that rose from the early hours of the morning. I will definitely go there one morning to take some shots.

We decided to start out early coz we want to avoid the blazing sun or the intermittent rain that seems to plague Singapore these days.

A quick warm-up @ the range was good, loosen up all the knots in the joints. It's also a test for my driver as I have discovered just 3 days ago how to 'tame' it. Good start with a bogey on the 1st hole and everything went downhill from there. 2nd hole's a long par 5, horse shoe and uphill somemore.... this course is challenging to me coz the mental obstacles are the intensive walking up and down hilly terrain, the distance from teebox to flag can be very misleading and becoz, most of the holes are formed with the terrain, there are quite a few sand bunkers and terraces cut into the features which an accurate tee-off or shot must be made in order to save precious swings...

Needless to say, I used a lot of my sand wedge to rescue the golf ball....

The whole experience was quite stressful but fun all the same. I mean, golf is a game and should be enjoyed as a game. If you take it too seriously, it has lost its meaning. So big deal I was scoring triple bogeys on almost all the holes but I relish the companionship of my good friend, the beauty of the course and the morning exercise...

Well, I would definitely come back to challenge this course again but I would first need to build up my stamina and endurance 1st.. it nearly killed me walking up and down the slopes, carrying my golf set and in the blazing heat despite being 9 am.

The below shot was taken with the ronberry... shall bring the Ricoh the next time. The terrain is simply awesome!

(click for larger image) - Char Siu Pau teeing off on the long Par 5

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Friday, May 23, 2008

Today...

I sent 400+ balls into space...
I murdered my fingers with blisters in the process...
I worked out some stuff in my head...
I felt adrenaline coursing through...
I felt pain, fatique and the urge to hit the balls even harder. even further...
I felt focused and relaxed

I feel damn shiok

...

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Tuesday, April 29, 2008

2nd visit to Menya Shinchan

I love their Tsukemen!!! Slurp!!!

After a good short practice @ Marina Bay Golf course with Char Siu bao and Xiao Long bao in the evening, I wanted to show them this little piece of delightful haven in the heart of Robertson Quay.

hehheehee.. I think they like it although I still have no idea why no one can actually finish the Madame Sinjiro (which is especially catered to the ladies somemore ie: more veg and less noodles)? Xiao Long Bao was only 1/3 through it when she declared a temporary white flag .. hehehhe...

as for Char Siu Bao, he had the Kuro Ma-yu Ramen (the same one I had the other time) while I tried the Shoyu Tsukemen. The dipping sauce is light and zesty. Goes exceptionally well with my handmade ramen (for extra zest, I recommend squeezing some lime over the ramen before dipping)

Beside that we had 2 onigiri,  (I made it a point to have one each time I visit an authentic japanese food outlet): one Konbu and one Ume... introduced Xiao Long Bao to the Grapefruit  Chu-Hi which Ms Clover and myself love and must have every time we go grocery shopping in the convenient marts in Japan....

Evening ended with a drink @ Laurent Bernard Chocolate with Xiao Long Bao while Char Siu Bao needed to go home and paint a yellow chinese bowl (that one is a private joke) but with such a lovely evening out with good friends, I'm super looking forward to our trip tomorrow!

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Saturday, April 26, 2008

Weekend updates...

The last few days have been quite a furry of activities : a commercial shoot here and a short interview shoot there... managed to meet up with Ead (Plush Photography) during one of the nights for coffee, yet to meet up with WS coz he also very very busy.... doing up some work, selecting pics for the new website and shopping for a new golf driver....

In preparation for the upcoming game @ Awana Golf resort (Genting) with Char Siu Bao and Xiao Long Bao this coming Friday, I have been hitting the range more often. Now that I have gotten a great golf driver after recommendations and testings @ PanWest (one of the veterans there was even kind enough to give me a lot of pointers to better my game.. very useful for this recreational newbie here). I was initially swayed to buying the Callaway's HyperX driver but after testing it out and also, under the expert supervision and recommendation of the veteran, I was then introduced to either the TaylorMade's SuperQuad (the one Char Siu Bao's using) and the Cleveland HiBore XLS driver. 

So the plunge has been made and I'm now a proud owner of a Cleveland HiBore XLS driver (10.5')...

have been practicing @ the range with it and I like how it feels, how it sounds and how the power of the swing is been transferred properly down from the Fujikura shaft to head. 

Think I overdid it also coz after yesterday's practice of 400 ball swings, my left shoulder felt strained and I'm totally aching also. Evidently, it is more pronounced today after 100 ball swings... time to take a breather liao... 

But I am really looking forward to the game and a short holiday with my closest friends... hehehe ^.^

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Wednesday, January 16, 2008

Great day...

Funny enough, I'm still 'energetic' enough to blog about today.

Managed to clear 1/3 of the backlog already and had quite a productive week so far. Met up with Xuan and Char Siu Bao in Chinatown after visiting KT Imaging to print some stuff.

Played @ Marina Bay Golf range in the late afternoon with Char Siu Bao for the 1st time after a 3 months long hiatus from golf (due to weather, busy schedule and laziness) but thank God that even after such a 'long break', I still managed to play quite okie and have seen a little improvement in my distance hitting with the 7 iron and 6 iron... hehehe... even had a little competition to pitch the last few remaining balls to the 40m baskets as a cool-down exercise after a good session.

Then it's off to Botak Jones in AMK to makan. I went ahead to try the specially air-flown tenderloin (300gm for SGD$47.00 est) and man, it's really worth the money! Let's not talk about the standard condiments that comes along with the mainstay: the beef... my main attention is on the tenderloin that sat so docilely on my plate, unassuming and looking rather plain @ 1st sight.

The 1st cut revealed beautifully cooked medium rare tenderloin that oozed succulent bovine juices from the intruding poke of the fork... the tenderness of the meat is amazing to the palate and I must tell you, the meat is thoroughly smoked from the grill and this sweet aroma fills your senses as you chew in total ecstasy... it's goes really well with the HP sauce or the mushroom sauce.

The fries and the coleslaw is okie only (to me) but it's the tenderloin that really got my attention. Along with the meal, Char Siu Bao had the Botak Burger and we shared the stuffed Jalopenos with some Heineken beer...

it's a great way to end a great day :)

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Friday, September 07, 2007

Officially TaylorMade-d :)

Funny how it turned out when I was looking for the Nike Ignite Irons and the R7 XD irons @ the Golfers' Network Golf Sale in Harbourfront today and chanced upon the TM's R5 XL irons going for quite a good price and bargain.

Well, the R7s are really nice but I find that for my 1st official set of golf clubs, I would do with something simple and game improving instead of having to struggle with clubs that is meant for mid-handicappers...

After testing out the R5 XL and comparing them with the R7 CGB irons and the Nike's CCI irons, I find the R5 XL has a cool advantage of only a slightly smaller sole compared to the R7 and therefore it's very forgiving on off-centered shots and consistent loft/ distance hits (i always have a problem with lofting it high enough). And I find that the XL has shifted the balance about 1.5 - 2inches away from the head (compared to the Nike and the current S-Yard set I'm using) so that means I can train myself to hit further and harder and progressively, I can get a better set of irons weighted nearer the clubheads when I graduate from this newbie stage.

A further read on the internet reviewed that the R5 XL is a good starter set for beginners.. hahaha.. Yippee! For once I know I haven't bought something that I will regret. TM has these irons made exclusively for Japanese markets and the good thing, no knock-offs (ie: grey set from our friendly mass producers, China). Thank God I got the last set for the (S)tiffer TM shafts coz I really like a lot of control factor when the clubface hits the ball. The (R)egular TM flex shaft is just too 'bendy' even when doing the waggle test - therefore a loss of control on direction upon impact even though it helps in the distance.


For those who are looking around for golf stuff, the sale is @ Harbourfront Lobby A (LRT exit to Harbourfront, not Vivocity), lotsa good stuff for reasonable price. Sale ends this Sunday. Callaway X2.0 irons going for only S$1.2K (retails around S$1.8k for graphites). TM's R7 burner going for S$400 est.

The TM set (graphite shafts from TM) comes with 10 pc irons (#3 - #9 + AW,SW,PW) and a free TM R5 XL cartbag for only SGD$ 699! Tomorrow - look for Fairway Woods and maybe a 460cc Driver

Can't wait to go the range/ greens to, as Xiao Long Bao texted, 'baptise' this set.. hehehe.... ^.^

----------------------- Updated 08/09 -----------------------

Went down with Xiao Long Bao this morning to take a look @ Putters, Fairway woods and driver and I didn't buy any!

hahaha.. resisted the temptation even when I was seriously enamored with Nike's new putters:

Nike Golf OZ T100 (Black) putter
The T100 putter is slightly heavier and smaller but it's really something I love. The feel is really responsive even though the weight is balanced similarly to those mallet putters.


Nike Golf's OZ T130 putter
The T130 putter is similar to the Odyssey 2Ball putters but distributes the weight to the 2 corners thus creating a flat downweight that maintained good right angles when putting.


The feel is amazing, Nike's really pouring a lot money into R&D. The conventional putters just can't compared to the balanced weightage of the Nike OZ putters.

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Wednesday, September 05, 2007

Feeling good....

Had a game of golf with Char Siu Bao yesterday afternoon where the weather was cool, the pace of the game was great and the fellowship was awesome :)

Need to start training myself up again, I was terribly tired after dinner and decided to have an early night... Slept through the night till 5am this morning...

Now that I've been playing for the past 6 months, I have started to think about improving my game with a new set of clubs which I have been looking at for sometime already...


NikeGolf's Ignite series Irons

Love the feel of this set of clubs (more forgiveness, bigger soles, balanced COG, good MOI and the advantage of graphite shaft from Fujikura, for high - low handicappers) but at the same time, am swayed by the TaylorMade's R7 XD clubs...

Really tempting especially when there's a golf exhibition sale going on in Harbourfront Center Lobby A...

anyway, here's a clip on why Tiger Woods still remains one of the most amazing golfers of this era:


linked from here

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About me

  • I'm Shutterbug
  • From- Singapore
  • What- Photographer
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Email...

    ron@eye-deas.com

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Shout Outs


Calender

  • 15/12 :: Proud owners of our own Loft!

  • 19/12 :: House Reno begins

  • 19/12 :: All-White XMas Party @ The Pond

  • 20/12 :: WPN Xmas Party @ Lightpixels Wessex

  • 25/12 :: Merry Christmas everyone!

  • 31/12 :: New Year's Eve Dinner @ Yveon Loft

  • 01/01 :: Happy 2009 everyone!

  • 07/12 - 10/12 :: Good bye Bishan, Hello Bukit Panjang

  • 19/01 :: Renovation completion

Vision'08

  • SAVE UP FOR OUR CUSTOMARY WEDDING !

  • To serve more efficiently in God's kingdom

  • To cultivate a closer relationship with my loved ones

  • To lose 10 kgs

  • To learn to be more sensitive spiritually and emotionally

  • To go for a liveonboard dive trip again

  • To exercise musicianship professionally

  • Have a solo photography exhibition in 2008

  • Love more, give more and bless others more!

  • Expanding my photography business

Travel dreams...

  • Watch a live Sumo match in Japan

  • Climb Mt Fuji

  • Watch the Northern lights

  • Play the slots in Las Vegas

  • Trek Nepal

  • Dive in Maldives

  • Shoot New York City

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