Perth Weekend - Murdoch University

Visiting a few friends in Perth over the past weekend certainly is fulfilling though too short and tiring. It's tough trying to keep everyone happy. For that reason, I kept my trip to myself and a handful of people to avoid disappointments.

Dropping by Murdoch Uni and its Student Village on the first day with my good ol' friend from college and uni days brought back memories from more than 9 years ago!

The courtyard and flats we lived in, the walkways and stairways we took, the halls and rooms we sat in. It was nostalgic. We even dropped by the usual place we got our lunches. However, the Asian Caravan was no longer there as it has been replaced by a proper hut/container that houses the kitchen! The aroma of Polo Chicken definitely brought us back in time. I took some shots of the food with my phone and sent to some usual suspects of the food! It was hilarous!

Here are some pics:

Flat 45 where some great memories!

Polo Chicken & Chilly Squid

More on the Perth trip later. Speaking of Murdoch Uni, a few of us managed to meet up in Melbourne for a good ol' friend's wedding! That will be the next post.......!

Penang and Xi'an Family Trip in April 2008

My recent trip back was tiring though it was for about 2 weeks, a week being spent touring Xian and Henan with parents. Since returning from the Xi'an trip, I have been feeling really tired. The tour wasn't as tired as previous trips. Sleeping late and getting up early since the trip had certainly worsened the condition as I'm feeling the effect now.

As for the photos, I am still editing them and at it will take some time since it's about 900 shots. Here are some of them.

Airport train in Guangzhou that is not functioning, so we walked for a distance! We arrived late in Guangzhou and had to rush to another terminal far away. 6 of the tour members were lost after arriving in Guangzhou. It's mayhem!

Simplicity is beautyColours

Teracotta Warriors in Xi'an were simply spectacular

I did have some great time catching up with friends in Penang and Singapore. Certainly, I am delighted for making this trip. Chatted with Uni bro til late on my only night in Singapore was fulfilling.

Unfortunately, I left before I could celebrate my birthday at home though it's always been just another day for me. Having said that, a good friend brought me out for dinner to celebrate 2 occasions - my early birthday and friend's new job! A night to remember though my friend didn't eat much!

Anyway, I experience another first! On the way to the airport, dad's car broke down! Perhaps, it's a sign that I should have stayed longer!

Photography Workshop

About 2.5 weeks ago, I attended a workshop to pick some tips from other photographers, not only from the pro! Anthony McKee is one of them who gave an interesting talk on ambient light. A quote from him (which was from his master) goes something along this line "The study of light takes a lifetime, not 10 years".

"Give me light and I'll bend it"

Surprisingly, I didn't take lots of photos that are worthy of posting. The models (Claudia, Mel & Mel - Bruce tried to get them all named Mel!!) are certainly very accommodating to us newbies. Most of the time I was just trying out the lighting and absorbing as much as I could without trying to get distracted by taking too many pics! Anyway, here are some of the keepers I thought are nice.

Here's the group shot of us - fellow photographers and models.

Lessons learnt:
Emotion, emotion, emotion
Reflections, Ambient, Skylight, Colours, Rim Light, Scrooge on Flash
Relax and Chat (no counting down) to get candids

It's certainly a worthwhile workshop. Thanks to Bruce who organised this event, the instructors - Anthony (ambient & overall), Wayne (flash), Dave (macro) & Bruce (studio lighting)!


On a not too related note, Anthony was one of the 3 pre-production D3 testers in Australia. He's in for the available-light and ambient lighting tests and the other one for sports photography (forgotten about the other tog though - might be macro or product). He's still waiting for his actual production D3 (last check) from Nikon.

50th Anniversary of the Construction of the Great Ocean Road

I had the opportunity to visit the Twelve Apostles along the Great Ocean Road and wouldn't have done the trip in 2007 if my friend didn't drop by Melbourne for a visit. The coastal road is certainly great, in fact, it's magnificent!

I really enjoyed the drive but would have been better if my friend could just stay awake and keep me company (=P).

Here are some of the shots from the Great Ocean Road Series from my album. I'll just let the photos do the talking.

Perhaps some of these photos will bring us some emotions as well as some ponderings and reflections in life.

Hope the new year will bring us all good fortune.

Finally

Finally, I get to meet up with a close friend
Finally, we get to catch up after so very long
Finally, we reminisced the good ol' memories we had
Finally, I am suddenly feeling very tired


The friend who visited from Perth recently finally left Melbourne few hours ago. I am very happy that we get to meet up, catch up and sharing the laughters from the good ol' times we had during our swimming days.

Time really flies. We were just chatting on our way to the airport and both realised that it's been at least 12 years since we've known each other (longer for her elder brother). We just clicked right from the dawn I picked her up (and right from where we left off back in Malaysian Games 1998 and back in Perth 2005)!!

TWELVE years and TWELVE Apostles!! Hahaha......That's a coincident!

I am very glad my friend made the trip here. Certainly, the one week including New Year's eve was one of my best moments. I will certainly cherish these memories - our 1st trip to the 12 Apostles, Sovereign Hill and the many adhoc plans we had! It was fun, tiring but very fun. Lots and lots of photos were taken during the 1 week, meaning I have plenty of backlogs ;P.

After sending her off, I am finally and suddenly feeling very tired after a week of having someone to annoy, chat and spend some time with.

The memories of those moments have been captured. I guess when I look back in many years from now (like all other great memories) these captured moments will definitely put a smile (perhaps a cheeky grin) on my face.

Quite frankly, I am very happy to know that she's doing well in life.

Thanks again for the sweet gifts and of course for visiting me.......the gifts are of course not necessary but nevertheless very nice gestures.

When will we meet again? Perhaps in 2009 during the BIG Swimmer Get-Together, an idea I have put forward to many other Malaysian swimmers from many states but now scatter all around many continents. I'd rather hope some of us will come together more often.

New Year Resolutions - making the Swimmers' Gathering in 2009 a reality, continuously strengthening myself in many ways and keeping in touch more often with family and friends.


Finally, I am heading to bed


p/s: These captured memories will be posted on my WhoALSE website soon. For now, I need to get to bed and get myself ready for the reality tomorrow.

An Unforgetable Experience - A Late Nite Out in Lorne

Going back to Sat night after dinner, some of us played Truth or Dare (or Kiss) in Jo's cottage while others enjoyed the antics displayed by them. Further into the night, a few of us decided for a walk by beach for some photo shoot. Little did I know that I would get the opportunity for some cool and wonderful shots that involved poses & emotions akin to modeling shoot. Having said that, I was quite disappointed that I did not bring spare batteries for my flash and flash stand thinking that I wouldn't need them! Lessons learnt..........!! Luckily, someone came to the rescue (no name mentioned here, for now)!

Claudia did the posing (modeling) while Alateia gave the art direction!

Superwoman calling her laundromat to check up on her costume.....Wrong no.....Operator, get me out of here as the AGENTS are coming!!

Wicked Wig.....

Serenity with the sound of wave crashing nearby

CSI dropped by Lorne for the unknown circumstances

Resting in the Garden of Eden (in Lorne)
Lay me down, Hold me tight

Cowering

Barring the disappointment, I'm certainly very delighted that I have some good shots from the night shoot. It's an awesome experience.

Many thanks to Claudia for the shoot (it became chillier) and Alateia for her direction!

Bubblers in Lorne & Apollo Bay

This is the second part to the earlier post on Red Bubble's trip. I'll let the pictures do the talking....

Chris doing the Aussie Bloke thingy

David does the feeding to the King

Wen does what he does best

Jo's giving the look

Chris' looking at his beer Jess salivating her dinner

Julie's enjoying the chat topic

Claudia's looking some where

David's enjoying the moment

Mel from QLD join the Bubble for the weekend

John with his schlong, urm....I mean long huge lens!

Michael's taking a few shut eyes

Claudia's chilling out (baking) on the warm sands

James' meditating..........with his gear

One group of Bubblers painting Apollo Bay Red (that is after Lorne)

What great moments we had over the weekend!!

Many thanks to Jo for organising the awesome trip!! Now bring on the next one....Hang on...The Club first.....!!

Memories in Lorne, Great Ocean Road & Apollo Bay

It's been really some hectic 2 weeks for me. Hence, the silence. I have been taking and editing loads of photos in that fortnight and still am -from jugglers, birthday, random shoots and travel. That is because I have picked up bits and pieces from my master who has been willing to illuminate me.

As part of the Red Bubble Melbourne, we paid a visit to and overnight in Lorne over the weekend. It was certainly a blast and getting closer to some of them whom I have met during my first RB meet in August. RB Melbourne is certainly made up of diverse groups of people - cultures, personalities, job backgrounds. Fun, warm, friendly are some of the descriptions I can put in words.

I definitely love the drive along the Great Ocean Road to and fro from Lorne (Apollo Bay). It reminds me of the stretch in Penang leading to Batu Ferringhi albeit a much shorter. Both shares the similar winding and steepness with trees all around. I'm glad I joined the trip, especially the teasing of playing catch up by a Bubbler with his red hot Golf GTi.

About 20 of us spent most of the time by the beach and weather was just awesome for a beach out! Shooting by the beach and even having someone handpainting a portrait, talk about art!

I have to admit that there wasn't much sceneries to take other than the horizon which is pretty much similar. Where we are do have some pretty sunrise (and not sunset) but there were just too overcast for the sunlight to come through. In fact, all of us slept in as it drizzle in the morning and of course the late night we had!

Feeding the wild cockatoos and King Parrots on the balcony of the cottage are some of the memories I would reminisced. It was so up close and personal with the birds and they are not very shy of us, so long we have the seeds!

Here are some of the shots taken:

Welcome to Great Ocean Road

The Horizon

Pathway to the Ocean

Cockatoo with its Crest Displayed (just for a few seconds after landind)

The King & I

One thing led to another and I did have the opportunity for a model shoot too with art direction! Certainly, there were some keepers from the shoot. I'm still very excited by the experience though I did have some disappointments. I'll leave it for my next post.

Cheerios.....

Connected Ties

It seems that PwC Penang has certainly brought us up really good. Some of us agreed that it has played some pivotal roles in our lives. It does bring us together, wherever we are, every now and then. A fellow ex-PwCian recently visited Melbourne and we managed to meet up for Dim Sum (aka Yum Cha but I'm still more used to DS) in Shark Fin House yesterday. How would I give up that opportunity for meeting up though I am still coughing?

Robin aka Batman's sidekickWhat?!Look! Is it a plane? No, it's Robin!Ain't that a nice Grafitti

Once a PwCian, always a PwCian - PwC Penang, that is! It's Connected Thinking, Connected Ties! :)

Til next time........