I have gotten myself a decent camera finally after many years of daydreaming. The credit goes to Weitat and Gin for accompany me to the showroom, especially Weitat for the special discount he has gotten for me.
My new girlfriend, Sony NEX F3, is a mirrorless camera, which ranges between a normal compact camera and DSLR. According to some reviews I have read online, newer versions of mirrorless cameras are equivalent to entry level DSLR.
Mirrorless cameras lose to DSLR in autofocus speed. This means that mirrorless camera users may not be able to capture moments as fast as DSLR users. As a user who has just upgraded from sub quality compact cameras and having a few touches of my friends’ DSLR, I find my Sony NEX F3 satisfying.
The thing I quite dislike about my new girlfriend, F3, is that it does not have a viewfinder. I do not like the feeling of having another person seeing what I'm exactly focusing on. Therefore, it strongly discourages me from capturing some great moments, people and especially eyes candies. After all, mirrorless cameras are designed to be used without optical viewfinder, hence, have smaller bodies.
The main reason I have chosen a mirrorless camera over DSLR is that it is much more portable given its size and weight. My brothers will be using it then, which makes purchasing of the camera more worthwhile. Other than that, the discount in price is a big bonus. Luckily, Canon has yet to come up with a mirrorless camera, otherwise I would have to make more comparisons.
I was, in fact, stuck between Sony NEX 5N and F3. NEX 5N is an improved version of NEX 5 and it has been out in the market for about a year. NEX 7 has recently being launched and is out of stock, but the price difference is far too high - around $600 to $700 more. My girlfriend, NEX F3, is new as well, however, is said to be a lower-end version of NEX 5N, which is around $200 cheaper.
- Resolution of images
NEX 5N is the winner despite NEX F3 is about a year newer. However, I do not need extremely high resolution images.
- Design
Both models look quite alike at first glance but NEX F3 looks more like a box, which is uglier. Looks of the camera is of a lower priority to me, just like a girlfriend, which nobody knows.
- Flash and external gadget
NEX F3 has a built-in flash, which is stronger than the external flash that comes with NEX 5N. I do not like attaching and removing of external flash. The main issue is that both cameras have only a connector for external gadget, including the external flash. Therefore, NEX 5N users may have problems attaching an external microphone in future for video taking, but of course, this is not a good example since you do not need flash when doing video shot.
- Price
As mentioned earlier on, NEX F3 costs around $200 cheaper.
- LCD
Both cameras depend solely on the LCD for phototaking. Both of their LCDs can be adjusted. NEX 5N's screen can be adjusted to face downwards more, so that the user can hold the camera higher and still be able to view the screen. NEX F3 can instead, flip the LCD screen 180 degrees to face the front, so that the user can take self portrait. Both are useful but I think the latter is more useful for causal shooting, especially with friends.
The Sony salesman, Jose, was a very honest man. He did not persuade me to buy NEX 5N, which was the more expensive model. Instead, he advised me to get a camera as accordingly to my need. He did his work professionally such as showing me how to attach the external flash and the power of them. He also reminded me that NEX F3 was very new and thus there would be fewer online reviews about it, which could be the reason why I felt NEX 5N was much better.
I love my girlfriend – Sony NEX F3.
Photography has been my hobby since young. I may not be very good in it but I put in extra effort than most people to make sure my photos turn out better. I wish to capture all the greatest moments and people of my life, and bring out their best smiles in my unique angle. I want to be appreciated through my work and not words.
I hope I can get some models and improve on my photography skill for photoshooting.
I went to bed after 2am and woke u by noon. I was doing SEO for the tuition agency site before bringing Lucky out for his nail trimming session at River Valley.
After that, we went up to Fort Canning Park to feed the mosquitoes but I was enjoying photography all along. It could be a good place to bring girlfriend along if not for the involuntary donation of blood.
We went to Maxwell Food Centre for dinner and waited for my mum to go over.
Back at home, I worked on the links page for Smart Tuition.
I was working on the tuition agency site until 1am before taking a tablet of melatonin. I managed to doze off only after 2am. Melatonin caused drowsiness in me and made my entire body weak. I felt tired but it did not put me to sleep as quickly as expected.
Lucky woke me up after 8am when my mum left the door opened. He was standing by the block of board and crying for me. I went to the office at 10am and continued with my programming work for Smart Tuition. I did some SEO work after that. Zaki called me to invite me to catch Chingay together.
It was pouring heavily and since I had to pass by my house to take the train, I decided to go home to get changed because I hated wearing wet socks. In the end, I decided to take bus instead. Bus 97 took me to near Millennium Walk and I tried my luck and managed to reach MacDonald’s at Marina Square to meet up with Zaki. He was sick and I offered to get him the dinner, which was a rare chance I could get to give him a small treat. However, I was famished due to not taking lunch and I upsized the two meals without thinking that he was coughing. We could not finish the second packet of French fries.
We walked towards the Singapore Flyer at the F1 racing track. It was muddy along the path before we could get up to the audience stand. It was one of the rare times I did not charge my camera’s battery and also not bringing the spare battery along. Anyway, the lighting was too dim for a lousy camera using freehand on moving objects.
The Chingay performance was fantastic. I did not even bother to look at the television for the broadcast all the past years and I knew the reason well – the live performance beat everything.
After the amazing event, Zaki had fun laughing at my feet because the mud looked like shit. I met Warrant Twang and we exchanged numbers. I was quite disappointed that he was still holding my old number and that was probably the reason why many friends had lost contact with me.
I went to Maxwell Food Centre to meet my family for supper. After that, they went to the NTUC for a while as I accompanied Lucky outside, trying to hurry home to catch my Bao Qing Tian (Justice Bao) on channel 8 at midnight.
I spent some time after midnight asking Kachua and Joceyln to test my website. I went to bed at 5am eventually. Lucky refused to sleep and it was difficult to doze off as my mum would start screaming whenever he went near her.
I woke up before 7am and waited nearly half an hour for bus 75. It was ridiculous for the bus to take so long to arrive where the bus-stop was crowded with irritated faces. I regretted not leaving my house earlier or to take the train instead. It started pouring on the way to slow me down. Firman was worried throughout but I was very certain that everything was going to be fine since I had experienced convocation at SIM campus before.
I was right that I was still early even though the stated time was up. I took my time to go to the toilet to release myself but regretted not going in earlier since I could have taken a seat nearer to the stage for better shooting of pictures when Firman went up. Anyway, being at convocation ceremony was one of the things I hated most for the long speeches.
After it ended, we went down for phototaking. I was expecting more friends of him to be there but his classmates were not very “happening” and some had left early for group photos. I followed him around and missed taking food from the tables. I got hungry and had a little gastric pain. In the end, I took bus with him and his parents to Dover where we transited to train.
I went to Bianhong’s mum working place at the coffee shop. She was too busy to entertain the customer at the counter to see me. After standing there for very long, I left for home. Since I had asked Wanling to have lunch with me as I thought she would be coming down soon, I took only a small slice of mooncake.
It was almost 3pm when I went down to find Bianhong’s mum again. After passing her the thumbdrive to return to Bianhong, she treated me two packets of chicken rice. I went down to the MRT station to meet Wanling and we had our chicken rice at the hawker centre, followed by a bowl of ice-kachang.
Since Wanling could not find her kite, we called off the plan to go to the Marina Barrage and instead, we went straight to my house to play with Lucky. Lucky hit off well with her soon and he even scratched her as he got hyperactive. Together with my younger brother, we played for quite long and I got so tired since I had slept for less than three hours, and eventually dozed off inside the bedroom.
My mum, Wanling and I had dinner together after my brothers had their. My mum was asking questions and then she caused some embarrassment when she asked why we were together only now after knowing for so many years. It was a different case for my younger brother for my mum would never mistake his female friends as his girlfriend. Anyway, we quickly clarified with her.
After the dinner, we went down to get batteries before joining my brothers at the second storey for a while as they were playing with Lucky. I sent Wanling home soon. I tried contacting Gilbert since he was staying nearby and he thought we were together as well. We had good chats along the way and it was peaceful after alighting from the MRT station, walking towards her house. We stopped by the 7-11 store and grabbed two bottles of milk tea.
When I was crossing over to my house, someone called me and I was surprised that it was Tommy whom I met at MediaCorp years ago. I could not believe it that he could still remember me. I walked him to the MRT station as we chatted. I loved talking to him even though we did not chat often online.
My brothers and I had a game of Command and Conquer before my younger brother went to bed. We planned to go swimming in the morning and thus I wanted to try dozing off earlier. However, Eileen messaged me and told me of her failed application to SIM and we started talking on phone later. Her incredible cute stories of her past entertained me till after 6am.
I woke up at around 12pm, feeling surprise that my younger brother did not wake me up for the swim. However, I could see that the sky was not in good mood. Five of us had lunch at the market and the owner selling duck rice turned me off the second time with his sales. My younger brother wanted to add an additional egg and he muttered and then pointed at the picture of a set meal for me, which included beancurd and egg, and thus I said okay to him. In the end, he did not serve us with egg and he told me that he had earlier mentioned that the egg was sold out. It was sort of ridiculous. The worst thing was that his duck meat was over salty.
Not long after reaching home, Huiting messaged me and told me to help her with a banner design for a blog, which she needed it by the same day. I spent the next few hours doing up the banner. Towards late afternoon, Regina told me she did not want to attend her church but she refused to meet me earlier.
I set off after 7pm and took bus 167 at Cantonment Link. When I was near Bukit Merah, I saw a bus number 5 in front and I had a strong intuition that Regina inside and true enough that she SMSed me that she was reaching. We went shopping for food together. I was quite disappointed that I could not find sushi at the NTUC. The MacDonald’s was closed as well. We went to the KFC and that was when I realised that upsizing everything in a Zinger meal could cost a big bomb.
We went back to the interchange and took bus 131. When it started turning into Bukit Purmei, I was quite turned off since Henderson Waves was actually just a few bus-stops in the straight Henderson Road away from the interchange. After making a big round, we finally reached our destination and climbed up the stairs to the beautiful Henderson Waves. I was glad that Regina was amazed with the beautiful scenery as well. It was a cool night and I had never thought of being with a female friend hanging around there at night, especially when I did not own a car.
We walked to the far side of the bridge and found a space to sit down. We took our dinner while playing around with the cameras. Next, we walked towards the Terrace Garden and we stopped by the fitness corner to take photos together. It was the moment I had waited for years as she trimmed her hair super short the previous time I managed to take a picture with her.
As we were entering Terrace Garden, I saw three Bangala walking behind us and I supposed that was the problem with going out with a girl at night that I had to tighten up my muscle and get ready for any unforeseeable event. Regina was acting like a reporter with my Sony camera but the battery was drained up soon. It was to my horror that my younger brother did not charge the spare battery and we had to give up the fun.
We reached the top of Terrace Garden to join other people to glance at the fireworks of the Youth Olympics Games starting ceremony from far, but it did not last for long and I could hardly catch any. Regina was waiting for more fireworks with my Olympus camera but it was a useless wait. I was glad that she was ready to take more photos with me ever since her crush joked with her that she was ugly. She did not see the remote control I held in my hand until I decided it was not fun to keep the secret anymore.
She was on the phone for quite long before I led her down to Forest Walk. The place was beautiful, though it more remote than any other places and I was shocked that she chose to complete the journey with me instead of turning back. It was the first time I went there at night, and instead of being with a group of guy friends, I was in fact with a cute girl. I felt lucky being trusted. We reached the Alexandra Arch after the long walk and finally Hort Park. After using the toilet, we went down to the hall area and Regina took pictures with the SYOG Mascot. We went to the swinging seat near the entrance and finally started heading off.
I checked my phone and was amazed that it was already 11.30pm. Regina was worried about getting home since she stayed far in the east and I was a little disappointed for she should not worry with me around. We crossed over the road and took bus 166 to Outram Park and waited for the last bus number 2. On the way, I dropped Hirman a SMS and he told me I could look for him afterwards.
It was one of the greatest nights I had ever been through.
I reached my peak of drinking at times but the sweating reduced the impact that I was able to consume more than usual. Hirman tried to push me to hook up with girls but it was never in my mind to get to know girls in club, moreover, I had never approached girls face to face before.
As everyone started to weaken down, we left for supper at a coffee shop near Bugis Junction. I had only a cup of milo. Hirman’s friend, Jeremy, brought him home. Amy hitched a cab first and travelled towards East. Joei and I shared a cab and she dropped me at Tanjong Pagar.
It was 4+am and I started to feel the effects of bottoming up. My mum was asleep, while my brother and his girlfriend were fishing outside. I started chatting with Vanessa in MSN. Meanwhile, in my drowsy head, I uploaded the photos taken at Shenton Way earlier. I went to sleep at 6am in case my mum would get to see my reddish face and body. As hard as I tried to keep my eyes shut in the drowsiness, I failed badly.
I got up for breakfast when my mum returned with my aunt. I finally got to eat half boiled eggs but it was not as tasty as I expected. The wantan noodle was spicy and I gave up since the alcohol seemed to have affected my throat. Huiting replied my SMS at 11am, telling me she was already at Vivocity, and I started preparing myself.
I met a very weird old guy at the bus-stop who changed seats twice, and he was besides me eventually, whistling shit. Luckily, the bus arrived not long later before I could roar at him. He even got to rush to become the first to board the bus and whistling his way throughout the journey like a moron. In Singapore, there were so many cases of mild mentally disordered people travelling around that I was quite irritated at times.
I met up with Huiting and took a picture with her finally after knowing her for more than two years. It was always a delight for me to take picture with babes, especially those with really beautiful hearts. As she went to register for the Hair for Hope 2010 event, I went to the basement with her three little classmates. They chose to dine at Super Dog and I gave it a miss since I had my breakfast not long ago.
After that, we went up to catch Huiting and started queuing up together. More of her friends arrived and she was a star. She even received a board of photo and messages from her class to show their supports for her. Somehow, I was quite nervous since the place was quite crowded to get a good photography spot and that I had not tried the lighting inside the shopping centre. I could not get a good position as she was sent to another side of the stage for her haircut where it was partially blocked to get a good angle.
Her classmates left after the “after” photography session. I had no plan and thus I followed her and her cousin to find her friends – YongJun and Yongbin. We ended up walking to Breeks at HarbourFront Centre for tea. I was hungry but since none of them was eating, I skipped my food. After that, we walked around as I wanted to get her a cap to show my support but we could not find a suitable one after roaming around the two shopping centres. Her friends left after we visited the pet shop and both of us went down to meet up with her other friends before we went in search of a place for dinner.
We settled down at Fig & Olive. After taking our orders, I went to the toilet and also to withdraw money from the ATM machine at Harbourfront Centre. I crashed into Tingfeng on the way back. I was not as noisy as before for my brain was numbed and that I did not know her friends well. I had fish and chips as usual and it was not really good. One of her friends was very interesting and his appetite was excellent. After dinner, we did a little shopping before closing the day.
I accompanied Huiting to the bus-stop to wait for her bus and in order not to cause any misunderstanding, I did not offer to send her home. I had failed badly to act accordingly to my will for the past few outings, as I really saw the need to see female friends home to make sure they were safe.
After reaching home, I dozed off for some minutes while waiting for my mum to clear the bathroom. While MSN seemed to be more efficient, I managed to send Huiting the photos taken by me.
I was not in really good mood and started playing game until late hour, sleeping at 6am finally.
I woke up at around 2pm. after dilly-dally for some time, I left my house after 4pm for photoshooting alone. I began with Shenton Way towards Lao Pa Sat, One Fullerton and ended before Esplanade after I caught up with Sharon and her family. We had a little chat before I paced home. She tempted me with a job offer to teach a new web module.
My dinner was delivery – hor fun. It took quite long for the food to arrive, and while waiting, Hirman called me to join him at Double O. I took my dinner too quick that my stomach was bloated soon. I rushed to Bugis and met up Joei at the Iluma bridge. Hirman joined us soon. On the way, I was quite disappointed when Hirman misjudged my passion for teaching.
The three of us went in first. Hirman’s friend, Amy, joined us later. The noise was too loud for my ears. There was a weird guy dancing non-stop, drawing all the attention. I was told that he had been doing it at the old Double O. We had different types and drinks and I did not even know their names, except that I knew it was going to cost a bomb. As the crowd started to swing their bodies and legs, my gang got me involved as well.
It was a “movie morning” for me as I managed to catch three movies in a shot – “The Imperial Guard”, “Big Soldier, Small General“ and the “Lightning Thief”. I also got lots of entertainment from Eileen in the midst of the earlier movies. I managed to give tomato a wake-up call for the second continuous day. I went to bed slightly before 7am.
As expected, I woke up in the afternoon again. I set off for my photography trip around the neighbourhood since it was late and I could not go far. It was not a good day for shooting though since I was too sleepy. Perhaps, the old places were not so attractive to me. I still could not get a good hand of my old camera.
After the boring trip, I went to the gym and did my first session of workout for the week. Bobby was around to guide me and I was very impressed with his knowledge. It was a short stay in the gym this time for I left home once I was done with it.
Blogging killed lots of my time with the distraction from the television.
Monday morning, I was busy with my usual blogging and editing of the SmokeForWhat.com website with my new photos in the supporter page, and eventually I went to sleep after 6am, after giving Tomato a wake-up call.
I woke up in the afternoon and after clearing my email, taking my lunch and lazing around, I started my photography trip to Ann Siang Hill Park. I was horrified at the beginning of the trip at the entrance when my rechargeable batteries died on me. The charger was too old and rusty that it happened often that the batteries were not charged properly.
I was quite surprised to see people walking through the park as I expected it to be more remote. My photoshooting trip ended when the spare Energizer batteries died on me. I dropped by Tze Khit’s gym when I was on my way home but I stayed for only a few minutes.
I started uploading the photos and some of them were indeed failures as seen on the tiny LCD screen of my old camera.
Firman messaged me to do web design for his community centre. We started talking about his next day’s involvement in their event and invited me there so that I could get some photos for SmokeForWhat.com. I agreed to it immediately since I loved event photoshooting.
I took some self photo for my resume and passport renewal photo, and one of the causal shots was quite impressive somehow. I spent some time editing photos due to the ugly wall and shadow. Eventually I slept at 6am.
I could not get up in time but luckily I targeted my timing earlier like usual. After reaching Seng Kang, I was disappointed that the MacDonald’s breakfast had not ended and thus I could not get my chicken burger. Firman called me just in time for me to get him a pair of slippers at the Bata shop in Campass Point.
I went to find him at the field near Farmway. He lent me his DSLR camera and made quite a basic and good presentation of how to use it. I took a lunch packet and the nasi lemak was quite nice.
The field was surprising wet even though it was on a higher ground, my shoes and socks were soaked soon. I got to use my old Olympus D-750 a lot and I got to appreciate it more for the ten times optical zoom to capture natural faces from far. Firman kept his promise to ask his students to post for SmokeForWhat.com and I could have gotten more supports if one of them did not show craps.
I went straight home at the end of the event even though I was tempted by Long John Silver’s opposite the MRT station. I hated having my feet inside the wet shoes for it would pose me great problems.
My younger brother called me from Germany using Skype and we chatted for more than an hour, such that I called for food delivery near 10pm. I had a packet of mee goreng. My mum and my elder brother got home after I finished my dinner.
The updating of blogs took me hours and by the time my sleep devil stopped refusing me to doze off, it was daylight.
Both my brain and movement were slow in the morning. I was supposed to meet Vanessa at 12.30pm but I was late for around fifteen minutes in my zombie-like pace. Nevertheless, I waited at Boonlay MRT station’s platform for more than half an hour for the hot babe.
We went to Tanjong Pagar market for our lunch. I was glad that she was more than easygoing and she got so excited while eating the famous ice kachang. We went to Tze Khit’s gym and started the photoshooting. I was at a lost since I was a newbie in handling DSLR camera and had never tried focusing on both model and equipments. The three of us managed to get things done eventually.
Le Tian arrived later. The four of us left for Bras Basah to pick up the gym posters and purchase some hard board. After that, we took our early dinner at the foodcourt. Le Tian left to meet his friends at Bugis whereas Vanessa went to Raffles’ City to shop before meeting her friend. I felt bad to let her go alone and having to travel to the west by herself.
I followed Tze Khit back to the gym. Diarrhoea hit on me and I had to wait for some time to do some simple workout.
The first second of the day was the continuation of Hirman’s reflection session. He could assign everything to his emcees but definitely not this task. His enthusiasm, warm-heartedness and firmness clearly stated the importance of the camp. He wanted the students to learn in the midst of enjoyment to see beyond themselves and spare thoughts for others, and to persist on no matter how tough their future would be. I supposed not everyone bothered to listen but those who had listened were people who were more likely to succeed in future.
I did not feel like sleeping afterwards for I was quite worried about the students. I tried to tidy up the photos inside my laptop but I was disturbed by a sudden alert that a student was falling sick. I woke Hirman up and it turned up that that girl did not have a fever. Later on, I went to accompany Aaron for his guard duty but I did not talk much. Upon returning, I was told that Hirman and George were back to settle the problem of the sick student. I went to take my bath before continuing with my work but I did not last till daylight.
Mrs Grace Cheong highlighted to me that by sleeping in front of the door with my head facing it would cause me to have nightmare. I was very glad to hear her advice for I felt protected somehow. The breakfast was nasi lemak and later on, some of my ex-colleagues decided to go for movie and I felt I should be ready for in case anything happened. I dozed off until noon time when I had a shock that I had missed out a few hours of photography. However, it seemed that the activities were not as fun as the previous camp.
I joined Iylia for lunch before we set off to capture all the precious moments. It seemed that she preferred to stick together but that would cause us to miss out some interesting events happening at other parts of the Singapore Discovery Centre. Anyway, I was quite disappointed that everything came to an end soon and dinner was served early so that they could prepare for the performance at night. I helped Iylia with the phototaking of all the classes.
The approaching of the night placed my photography skill into great challenges. I borrowed Diana’s new Nikon camera but it was not as good as what I had expected for a costly new digital camera. Hirman got me to go into the theatre to take photos and during Kelvin’s speech, I knocked out completely since I did not have enough sleep for the past three or more nights. By the time I woke up, the event was about to end. I went to the main area and my shagginess dragged me to the Hospitality Suite to rest.
When everything was over, I stayed with my two ex bosses and Mr Neo to clear up some of the mess. Hirman went off without me after he loaded up the equipments and my bag was inside his car. Mr Neo gave me a lift back to Clementi campus and we were earlier than Hirman. During the journey, I was very impressed with the ultra big moon.
I reached the lobby to see volleyball game going on. There was not enough time for me to go in to greet Mr Peh and uncle Jiaming. I left with Hirman in sorrow somehow. I followed Hirman to Bar Stop to meet up with Jenne and Joei. I had a glass of beer and a plate of chicken pizza. The earlier hunger had caused a lost in appetite and that we left too early for me to finish up my stuff. I felt very lousy for the first time for the little amount of beer I took caused me a bit of drowsiness.
Jenne insisted not to collect money from me. She sent me home before driving off with Joei. I was quite worried for Hirman for he might doze off anytime on the way home but I did not want to distract him by SMSing him to check him up.
For as hard as I tried to sleep at 2am, the month of bad habit refused to my determination. I took more than an hour to doze off.
I woke up before 6am and the dark cloud cooled my enthusiasm down. Nevertheless, I began preparing for the camp. I was welcomed by the good weather when I stepped out of my house at around 7am. I stood all the way in the train from my place to Joo Koon. Seeing smokers in school uniforms on the way was demoralizing.
A stage was set up near the lake. Hirman was not the emcee like the previous time and I could see a big difference in the crowd’s response. On the other hand, everything was run more smoothly than the previous time, which Hirman claimed “auto run”.
I started my job soon but was never confident because the Sony camera was not with me. Using the old Olympus D-750, I was not able to capture moving objects easily especially when the light was slightly dim. However, there was this great advantage of being able to zoom ten times into my target, which most cameras could not do it. I missed out quite a number of precious moments.
I was impressed with the lunch set for it was a hundred times better than the previous camp’s food. With my laptop and the wonderful wireless internet access at Singapore Discovery Centre, I was able to go online as when I liked. Nevertheless, the purpose of my laptop was more for transferring files from my old camera. I faced quite tough situations when I was asked to help look after some equipment inside the room while using the laptop, such that I was not able to go out to continue with photography.
A late announcement of students having to go home caught me extra busy for a moment. I was asked to walk them to the MRT station together with Farahi. One of the girls was too afraid to highlight that her parents were on the way to pick her up and she walked slowly until I questioned her. I suggested her to get her parents to meet us at Joo Koon MRT station instead but they were already approaching. Therefore, I signalled Farahi to continue the walk while I stayed behind near the bus-stop. The parents arrived soon and I raced my feet towards the MRT station to meet up with the rest to stun them with my speed. I had a great chat with Farahi on the way back.
The darkness of the night restricted phototaking badly with the cameras on my hands. I spent the last few hours preparing the video for Hirman to broadcast to the students.
Gilbert and I finally went out again on Wednesday morning. The main destination was Wild Wild Wet at Downtown East but he planned to go to Changi Point Boardwalk before that since Wild Wild Wet’s operation hours started in the afternoon.
I met him up at Cityhall MRT where he hopped onto the train to go to Tampiness MRT together. After which, we took bus 29 to Changi. The walk was quite nice except that some parts of it was not completed yet, especially the Kellong Walk. I had some problems using my old Olympus D-750 camera after abandoning it for some time. The torching sun almost burned me.
After the walk, which we ended at the Changi Ferry Terminal, we went to the hawker centre to have nasi lemak. We gave the most popular stall a miss since the queue was long. After which, we took bus 29 to a bus-stop near Tampiness Junior College, crossed over to transit to bus 3. We alighted at the bus-stop opposite Downtown East and quickly went to the MacDonald’s to find Gilbert’s friend, Rachel.
Soon, we proceeded to Wild Wild Wet with the two free tickets Gilbert was holding while Rachel had a discount voucher. It was a fun afternoon but I realised I had a bad sunburn after that.
Reaching home, I started checking my email and it took me a couple of hours to reply to those regarding my farewell message. I finished a blog entry before going down to the prata shop to join Kachua for supper.
On Saturday, it started pouring before I could leave my house to join my ex-colleagues for the karaoke session at Iluma. However, after I opened my umbrella at the road, I realised most people were not carrying their umbrellas anymore; the rain had stopped specially for me.
The train was crowded. In return for the bad squeezy journey, I got to see babes all over the places, especially at Bugis. Since I was late, I made my way out of the underground as quickly as possible because the crowds would slow me down ten times my usual pace. I realised I got out at the wrong exit and had to waste extra time on waiting for the traffic light.
After reaching Iluma, I scratched my head for the location of K-Suites. Jenne called me to end my search at the fourth storey. I went down to meet them and I was the last to arrive. We were put into a small room at first but we decided it would be too squeezy for us and Jenne requested for a room with bed. As I walked past the rooms, I realised all of them were decorated nicely and differently; I was greatly impressed.
Our room was occupied mostly by the bed. Two LCD televisions were clear. At the side near the door was a controller, which included making a few sounds such as cheering, whistling and jeering. There was a small corner with a computer which came with internet access.
Zaki occupied himself mostly with the computer after he crazily stuffed food into his stomach. I joined in the fun as well, however, took much lesser food than him. The crazy thing was about the free-flow drinks since we had a coupon, which Jenne gotten from the previous fun. I was still shy like usual and did not sing until Jingkun picked a few songs for me. I died at the first song after chewing very long with the finger food.
With my younger brother gone to Germany, bringing the shared Sony camera along, I felt the great photography crisis when the images taken inside the dim room were horribly shown on the LCD screen of the old Olympic camera. I knew I could never get images as sharp and especially while using freehand during daylight.
After the karaoke, which we paid thirty-five bucks each, I joined Zaki, Jenne, Joei and Christine for the movie – The Lovely Bones – at Vivocity. Weitat and Jingkun bid me farewell after the toilet break, having a good laugh over the nacho Jingkun dropped into my shoes earlier on. Jenne did a quick shop for her pencil at Bugis before we took the train over to Harbourfront. We camped for a long time at the ticket booth for collection of the tickets, buying of food and waiting for Christine to withdraw money. Luckily, the movie started only after we went to the toilet to clear the water we consumed at the K-Suites earlier.
The Lovely Bones was filmed in an artistic and poetic way. It came with many horror scenes with anticipation of dangers. I found it quite dragging and in the mid of the two hours show, I really wished it would end soon. Zaki, on the other hand, loved it a lot.
At around nine o’clock, we bid each other farewell. The girls took cabs while I accompanied Zaki to the MRT control station before I crossed over to the opposite bus-stop.
I woke up in time to catch my favourite show on channel 8 at 11am. It was the last episode of “Plan A”.
It seemed like a long afternoon for blogging. Somehow the clock on my laptop was wrong and I had to adjust an hour earlier, such that the meeting with my ex NP classmates was kind of delayed. The long waiting put me to sleep after stuffing a chocolate into my mouth.
I woke up more than an hour later in shock. I checked my phone and realised Wen Chang had messaged me saying that he had overslept. Eventually he was only late for half an hour, whereas, I doubled his record. Jason won me.
Brewerkz was never my ideal place for dinner. Even though I had been there for a few times with Irwin, my short term memory told me it was a western food restaurant and thus I made a silly and wasted trip up the Central shopping centre.
I had pizza for the second time the week but I preferred that place as a drinking place more.
It was never a comfortable gathering with a few big expensive DSLR cameras around. I kept my small digital camera behind me. I hated the feeling when being asked to comment on the fact that I used to be the one taking photos around during the schooling days and now that others were doing it on my behalf.
I could only admit to myself that photography is an expensive habit.
After the dinner, I was on different way from them after passing by the Central. Missing a bus after the long way, I decided to continue with the walk.
The day started off terribly. It was pouring heavily and my pant got wet during the journey to Bukit Batok. My stomach was rebellious. I was surprised to see that Andrew had set up everything when I arrived, however, the headphones were all plugged in at the wrong slots. I made a dash to the toilet after I cleared up the time bombs.
The lessons started later than usual. I took charge of everything and began with my usual craps. However, I was surprised by the rude girls who eventually made me burst after almost forty-five minutes of tolerance. I lectured them on how to be good human beings based on the teaching materials of customer service. After the break, I let Andrew took over the class since I could not kill my anger. I was very sure that Andrew would never be able to handle them without my earlier lecture to scare them off. He left before noon for me to settle everything by myself.
It was the third day of the week and also the third day my eyes were not listening to my commands. When I started to feel feverish, I realised what had happened to my eyes.
I joined in the trekking at Dairy Farm and we took a different route this time. The quarry side had better scenery. I was quite shocked when I realised I did not charge my camera’s battery after the Pulau Ubin cycling but it did last through the trip. On the return trip, we took the wrong path and entered a private place accidentally, which I thought it was a good accident for the place looked very nice.
I took a lift from Alex after the walk and dropped at Bugis together with Joei and Darni.
It was the first ever known overnight camp for the students to my knowledge. I had not witnessed an event as exciting and enriching as this. Two days one night were too short for the fun, though ample for the bodies and minds to endure. Hirman, the great one, together with his team of lecturers and student leaders, made it all happen.
Most of the staffs of the Singapore Discovery Centre were over-accommodative, responding well to all needs and they even prepared coffee at night at their own good wills.
The schedule was packed and every moment was fruitfully spent. The orientation group leaders (OGL) were quick to react to fill the time in the middle of switching the game stations. They did their jobs well and responded to the lecturers.
The management made their ways down after work on both days to show their supports. I was much luckier than them since I could stay for the entire camp to interact with everyone, including their seeds – the students.
There was nothing much I could really do other than photo-taking, but I believed my fruits of labour would sharpen the fading memories in future; I hoped the sights of them would bring back true smiles on everyone’s face. Most importantly, I hoped I could help Hirman to sum up the entire event through the photos.
So much for my great photography experience and fun in disturbing the kids, everything came with a price. The greatest exchange I made was my two days of time to do my own work and probably longer time to sum up the event together with the aids of the photos. I went down in my sore throat, cough and flu. The sleepless night before that almost made me float and I managed to challenge my limit again by sleeping less than three hours throughout. I had gastric pain twice on the first day and once on the last evening. My feet were sore and my knees were stiff after two days’ walk.
Hirman had brought back confidence and enthusiasm to this five hundred-plus-strength future of our country. It was the first step, a magnificent thrust, to implant hopes into them by making them understand that there was a big pool of people who really cared for them. It was a great effort to bring out all the goodness within them.
There was no absolute measure for the success of any event. However, it was made obvious with the sight of sick and injured students refusing to leave the camp to rest at home. The reluctance of students to leave the place at the end of the camp proved it.
No event could be perfect; although with the strong support from managements, staffs and students, there were still a number of areas to be improved since it was the first attempt of such grand event. There were some ground rules, which were not lay, and thus, creating some political issues. Some students created big issues for the leaders at night.
If the camp goes on for future intakes of students, many great souls would be torn to bones; but a much awesome and impactful one would commence after all the reflections.
On the eve of the new year, it was all quiet. Everyone seemed to have their own plans and thus, there was no outing. The only significant thing was the dinner with Jasmine at Farrar Park. She told me she was alone but lying was certainly part of Singaporeans’ lives. It was probably the first time I heard vulgarities throughout the night. After she went home to dismount her ladylike clothes, she turned from a tomboyish girl to much more mature and refined lady. I was finally entertained after the dinner for a while before they went to find their friend. My stomach was not well and that since it was late, I left after waiting for some time.
On the first day of the new year, I delegated most of my time on the “quit smoking” website.
The second day saw me struggle with debugging; I was quite frustrated since the codes were written more than two years ago and somehow the way I programmed was too unique. In the late afternoon, I played Command and Conquer with my younger brother to avenge our defeat a day ago.
Then we went for a jog towards Labrador Park. It was a grave choice to choose to cross over the road at the T-Junction joining Bukit Purmei, where the traffic lights almost killed me; I was frustrated. It was my second visit to the park but I did not go towards the fishing area. The place looked ordinary to me except that the stretch of path along the water was an ideal background for portrait photography. As we walked further away, I was deeply attracted by the picture of natural beauty, such as the coral. The sunset built lighting too magnificent for the most romantic evening. I never knew Singapore could be so fantastic. We took bus 408 to Harbourfront bus interchange to wait for mum for dinner.
On the third day of the year, I woke up late after sleep for around eight hours, missing my favourite show “Plan A” for the third time. Before I could do much, my younger brother tempted me for a game before we set off for a swim at Mount Faber Safra. The pool was quite packed and we had to swim zip-zag directions. It was the first time I swam slowly and thus could eventually complete thirty-five laps. I realised I had been racing too much with Gilbert in the past.
After reaching home, I continued with the packing of the cupboard and finally, one slot was free, but I put some unused ring files inside temporary before I could clear my wardrobe. There were actually many things that could be thrown away, but I was too sentimental somehow. We went to my mum’s friend house to pass the old lady something at International Plaza. Once the door was opened, the air gasp towards us and it was a heavenly place in the humid Singapore island. The scenery was great as well for it was facing the office buildings, at the Lao Pa Sat direction. Then, we went for dinner at the small food court besides the MRT station. We proceeded to the “Once upon a milkshake” shop to purchase a heavenly ice-cream milkshake, which was times better than MacDonald’s.
My elder brother returned from Malaysia to sum up the weekend.
I was tremendously excited by the Treetop Walk at Macritchie Reservoir. It was planned since more than a year ago by Gilbert and I, but we were tied down by other commitments.
This time, we had my younger brother, Wanling and Jesslin. I told Wanling to sleep early, knowing I would not be able to do it myself. As anticipated, it took me some time to settle down and to blog, and I could finally sleep at around 1am.
It was a tough fight to wake up at 5am, and the battle lasted for some minutes before I got up to get prepared. Like usual, my younger brother and I missed the first train. We went to Ang Mo Kio to meet up with the rest of them even though we had direct bus over to Macritchie; it was for convenience sake since Wanling had not met Gilbert before and that we were not very sure of the exact bus-stop to alight.
It was simply less than ten minutes’ bus trip and we reached at 7am as planned. It was a long journey through the forest and we had no idea when the path would end. Alas we saw vehicles and eventually reached a country club. Since there were road signs, we were able to find our way without much problem.
Our resting point was at the ranger station. The urinal was flooded and before I could prepare the camera, two foreigners came in and I gave up the idea of taking pictures.
As we proceeded upwards again, we saw to our disappointment for we were too early for the bridge to be opened. We sat near the top of the stairs at the main road and there was a little cute boy who kept us entertained.
The 250 metres bridge was too short for enjoyment. Most people were simply crossing it fast and thus, we did not want to get into their ways and ended up not posing a lot for photos. After the walk, it was far long journey upwards and downwards, exhausting us badly. We reached the Juletong tower and enjoyed the breeze at the second top level under the shade.
After that, we passed by the golf course to enjoy the beautiful scenery of the reservoir right along the water.
We bid goodbye near the carpark. My younger brother and I missed bus 167 and waited very long for the next one. It was crowded and we could only find ourselves seats after Velocity. I dozed off on the bus and my brother told me the journey was almost one and a half hour.
It started drizzling upon we alighted. We went to the market to meet our mum for lunch. After bathing, my younger brother went out. I felt quite bad for he failed to catch his long sleep due to joining me for the trip, whereby I was able to rest after it.
