maisie :: photo.travel blog

Highlight of my week.. NATGEO!!

2011-11-18T23:37:00.004+08:00

Took a shot and submitted some photos to the National Geographic 2011 Competition and was surprised to be editor's favorite for week 10's 'Places'!

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Gyeongju JY Pension

2011-11-07T22:17:00.003+08:00

5-7 October 2011

A beautiful, beautiful pension in Gyeongju.

Run by Ms Min and Mr Han, this cosy pension is surrounded by mountains. Ms Min met us on arrival at the Bomun Lake Area and offered to bring our luggage back to the pension so we could start touring around Gyeongju town. After a day of ambling around Tumuli Park, Cheomseongdae Observatory area, the museum and Anapji Pond, we took a bus back to Chuwon Village and Mr Han came to fetch us back to the pension, which was 5 minutes drive from the bus stop.

The feeling of stepping into the room was like getting home after a long day. The room and floorboards were heated to just the right temperature and the furnishings were so nice.

I had seen pictures of the pension on their website, but nothing beats stepping in here. The pictures didn't begin to describe how lovely this place was.

The next morning, we walked around the property and were greeted by their two dogs. There was also a pool which was not in use at this time of the year. It was nice just sitting on the swing or in the garden. We stayed for two nights and wished it was longer! Definitely would love to come back for a stay if we visit Korea again! *love*

Here's their website http://www.koreagj.com/jypension/

Thanks Ms Min and Mr Han!

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Gyeongju

2011-11-07T00:46:00.001+08:00

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Deoksugung and Noryangjin Market

2011-11-07T00:33:00.001+08:00

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Suwon day trip

2011-11-07T00:21:00.002+08:00

3 October 2011

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Zhiwen and Suye

2011-11-06T23:41:00.001+08:00

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Warsaw

2011-11-06T23:12:00.001+08:00

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Wieliczka Salt Mine in Krakow

2011-11-06T23:08:00.002+08:00

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Auschwitz-Birkenau

2011-11-06T23:03:00.001+08:00

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Krakow

2011-11-06T22:54:00.001+08:00

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Driving through Tatra Mountains

2011-11-06T22:37:00.001+08:00

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Budapest

2011-11-06T22:29:00.001+08:00

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Bratislava

2011-11-06T22:05:00.001+08:00

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Vienna

2011-11-06T22:00:00.001+08:00

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Prague and the Medieval Cesky Krumlov

2011-11-06T21:50:00.001+08:00

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More of beautiful Germany

2011-11-06T21:39:00.002+08:00

Loved the buildings in Dresden.

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First stop Berlin

2011-11-06T21:27:00.003+08:00

13 June 2011

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Chill out in Phuket's private pool villa

2011-04-22T10:27:00.001+08:00

2 - 4 April 2011

First time I shelled out extra for luxury. Three days of lazing around by the pool, by the sea and enjoying the sun, sand and sea of Phuket's Nai Yang beach. Dewa Phuket was a great place to just chill, away from the crowds of party-goers and endless bars of the more popular Patong.

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Short Getaway to Borobudur, Yogyakarta

2010-12-28T13:37:00.002+08:00

18-21 December 2010
Borobudur temple was still closed for cleaning of the volcanic ashes after Merapi's eruption couple of months back. With no confirmed date of its re-opening, we took the risk and were rewarded with being its first visitors when it reopened on 20 December.

It's the rainy season this time of the year and the cloudy skies made it impossible to see the glorious orange sunrise over Borobudur. Despite waking at 4am for a short hike up a hill, all we saw was the sky gradually brightening without the usual orange. Still, we were very lucky that we were only caught in the rain on our last afternoon there, and definitely because on the morning before we left Manohara hotel, Borobudur temple was finally opened. It was rather depressing that for the first two days, we could only see it from the bottom.

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Greece 2010

2010-05-05T23:10:00.003+08:00

Athens - Mycenae - Olympia - Delphi - Meteora

Travelling the land of Greece, the Theatre of Epidaurus and the skies of Olympia and Delphi were what took my breath away and I was most fortunate to have had those wonderful skies as backdrop when I was in Delphi. Meteora was another awesome sight and it will always be amazing to even think of how the people in the past would scale the vertical cliffs to build monasteries atop of them.

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The Greek Islands (and a Turkish port)

2010-05-05T14:51:00.003+08:00

Kusadasi - Patmos - Crete - Santorini - Aegina - Mykonos - Delos

Greek island hopping was almost always a huge part of any greece tour. A 3 day cruise brought us around Patmos, Crete, Santorini, Mykonos and the Turkish port, Kusadasi. At the end of the cruise, we embarked on our own island hopping by hopping almost straight onto another ferry to Aegina, where we spent half a day around the fishing port and visiting the Temple of Aphaia. And our greek tour was completed with a 4 night stay in Mykonos where we watched sunset after beautiful sunset in Little Venice and made a trip to nearby Delos. Delos, the place I call the island of ruins. It was almost like anyone who was someone saw the other huge buildings/monuments built by others before them and decided to leave (a big) piece of themselves on that same island.

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Crazy in love with the drama skies :: Olympia and Delphi

2010-04-26T00:08:00.005+08:00

6 April 2010

The morning started with really drama skies accompanied with light drizzle. Good thing it stopped less real soon once we reached the ancient site of Olympia. The site was huge and though they were covered so long ago, they no longer were now.

Here we saw the Temple of Zeus, the olympian stadium, the gymnasium that housed the athletes that travelled across the lands to participate in the games. Our guide explained that the athletes had to compete naked and all the events were held on same rectangular piece of land that was the stadium. What this meant was that events like long jump were also held on that same hard land.. Ouch..

This was a huge site which was one of our longest stop for the tour, followed by the museum at Olympia. We then made our way to Delphi where we visited the Sanctuary of Athena Nike before calling it a day and continuing the other sites of Delphi tomorrow.

Don't have so much to say. Will let the beautiful sceneries tell the story for this post. I *heart* the super drama skies!!

THE stadium where the 1st games were held

Phillipeion at Olympia

Statue of Hermes with infant Dionysos

Rio-Antirrio Bridge

Warning: Crazy skies overload

Sanctuary of Athena Nike

Temple of Tholos

I *heart* long shadows

Room with a view

Somebody was very happy because Barcelona vs Arsenal was LIVE on tv at like 9pm or something. On a free channel. He reminds me excitedly as I check with him what match it was.

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Corinth - Epidaurus - Mycenae

2010-04-25T22:18:00.003+08:00

5 April 2010

We set off to Corinth Canal. The Corinth canal separates the Pelopennese from the Greek mainland. The 6.3km canal was built between 1881 and 1893 saving some ships from a 400km trip round the Pelopennese.

We stopped at the Theatre of Epidaurus which had amazing acoustics and sat up to 15000. This theatre blew me away even though we saw the Theatre of Dionysus in Athens which sat between 14000 to 17000. There was a stone in the middle of the stage area where tourists took turns to sing/play an instrument to test out the great engineering of this theatre. It probably helped that one of these tourists was singing beautifully just as we got there.

Mycenae was next, it is an important archaeological site with artefacts found here dating back to the Neolithic period. The most known feature of Mycenae was the Lion Gate. Our guide was explaining that it was pretty much just a guess as only lion bodies were found and it was not known if they had heads of lions, humans (making them sphinx) or eagles (making them griffiths). There was also a huge grave containing a Queen from Egypt.

Then was lunch and a 3 hour bus ride to Olympia.

Beautiful colours of dawn from our balcony

Dawn over the Acropolis

Corinth Canal

Bee hives! These were organised bee hives for collection of honey.

Yiannis, our guide

Theatre at Epidaurus

Short stop at Nauplia

One of the tombs at Mycenae

And these were smaller graves from another time.

The Lions Gate

What I liked about Mycenae was that we finally got to see a bit more of nature after several days in the city

Lunchtime!

Roast lamb

Moussaka, fast becoming my favorite food. Who would have guessed? Eggplants?

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Easter Sunday on Mount Lycabettos

2010-04-25T18:34:00.004+08:00

Almost 4 April 2010

Alarm rang at 11.50pm and I wondered if there would really be fireworks. As I lay wondering and drifting back to sleep, I heard the bursts that came loud and fast. Leaping out of bed, I pulled on a jacket and burst into the balcony, looking at the Acropolis. Nothing. I could still hear fireworks and now, bells ringing all over town. Decided to go up the rooftop where I could see all round, and finally saw the tiny fireworks just popping up barely from the tops of the buildings around. There were three main areas where I could see the fireworks, but all too low and too far for me to take decent pictures. After almost half an hour, the bells and fireworks were still going on, but I decided its time for bed, nothing much I could see and I was in shorts and slippers on the rooftop!

In the morning, we went out to breakfast, today at Everest (open 24 hours - I think they should call themselves Neverest). The streets were deserted and no shops were open. We confirmed with our hotel's reception that nothing would be open on this biggest holiday in Greece and he suggested we take a trip to the beach or climb Mount Lykavittos. (Greeks call it lee-ka-vee-toss, though we know it as Mount Lycabettos) I asked if we should make a trip further out to the Attica Zoo, and he was like "Singapore's Zoo is 100% better than theirs, in fact, it wasn't good, it was Wonderful! Ok, its not so often we get to swell with national pride.. After all, what did we have in comparison with so many others steeped in history or blessed with breathtaking scenery. But at that moment, yeah, I gotta feel our zoo's real WONDERFUL =D

So off we went to Syntagma Square and then in the direction of Lykavittos. On the way up, we saw some angmohs who were on their descent and checked if we were on the right route and how long it'd take to get to the top. So the guys said they took 20-30minutes and it was not tough though it'd get us sweating a bit. Then he asked where we were from, upon hearing that we were from Singapore, he went "OH, you guys'll have no problem." *puzzled* Singaporeans were mountain climbers? So I was like "Why?"
Guy: "I figured, the humidity?! You guys are in jeans!" He was in berms and t-shirt and sweating from the climb, not like sweating buckets, but you could see him breathing a bit harder than normal. Ha..

After definitely more than 30minutes (I stopped to take photos, and OK.. so I took a leisurely climb), we were finally at the top where I guess half the tourists in Athens have decided to climb this today since nothing else was available. There was this uncle selling 500ml mineral water for 1 euro (SGD2), what better way to exploit people who have just climbed 277m (908ft)? Atop the hill, there was only a restaurant and a Chapel. We sat around for awhile enjoying the breeze and the view before heading down.

Along the way back to Syntagma, we passed this dessert shop, it was like Heaven.. The fridge was filled with so many many types of desserts.. *swoons* We (ok, I) got a choc mousse to go 'cos the charges would be double if we sat down to have the tiny cup costing 3.30euro (to go). Then its back to Monastiraki where we got a lamb pita for lunch/snack before dinner. After the climb, I was strangely not hungry.

With some time to spare before dinner, we had a lazy sunday afternoon in the cool (15degrees?) balcony reading papers. Hahaha.. Dinner was at Thissios and then early to bed as we'd be picked up at 7.30am next morning for our 4-day land tour.

I couldn't get a decent night shot of the Acropolis from my balcony with the max 70mm :(

Old styled elevator. Had to push the door when you got to the level.

Kambing! *slurp*

One of the more modern buildings in the very old Athens.

Cat nap, the best way to spend Easter Sunday.

On the way up to Lykavittos

We are ALMOST there

This curious bug on the husband's jeans.
Its blur cos he refused to stop for me to take a picture -.-

Real steps = REALLY almost there

Inside the chapel of St. George

Chapel of St. George

Marble steps

Is it love? A shop full of desserts? Definitely love..

Shops were closed so only hawkers hawking their fake LV and such, or DVDs.. or this toy tomato which splatters when u smack it against a surface and regains its shape after. I don't even understand why this would be a fun toy..

Chicken pita, only 1.80euro

Graffiti filled the streets

Mount Lykavittos from my balcony

There's something about newspapers and Sunday. And there's Lykavittos in the background again.

Kalamari

Cod with Garlic Sauce

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Easter Saturday in Athens

2010-04-25T15:50:00.004+08:00

3 April 2010

It was Easter Saturday! Most, if not all sites would be closed tomorrow with it being one of the biggest holidays in the Greek calendar. So we got up early to hit the sites as soon as they opened!

First was breakfast at coffeeright and we headed to the Roman Agora, getting there at 8.20am. The streets were deserted and there wasn't anyone at the counter for tickets. So we wandered around and a dog started following us. He would wait when we stopped and we waited when he stopped. After awhile, we realised he was leading us up the Acropolis, how lucky to have our personal guide!

The reconstruction work going on at the Parthenon was a bit of a bother and I didn't get very nice pictures. We headed to the New Acropolis Museum next, where most of the statues and artifacts from the Acropolis were stored. The museum was built on top of an existing site where archaeological excavations were still on-going.

Next stop was Hadrian's Arch and the Temple of Olympian Zeus. The Temple of Olympian Zeus was the largest temple in Greece with the colums standing at 17m high.

Lunch was moussaka and pork souvlaki. Moussaka was made of mainly eggplant and minced meat, usually lamb. Reminds me of lasagne or sheperd's pie, yumss.

After lunch, we quickly made our way to the Ancient Agora before it closed at 3. The Temple of Hephaestus and Athena Ergane was the best preserved Greek temple and stood on the hills of the Ancient Agora. At 3, the guards were using their whistles to drive us out of the site so their Easter holiday could begin.

With all the sites closed, we went to Syntagma Square where there were changing of guard every 2 hours at 10minutes to the hour. Its quite silly how every tourists flocks to see this happening daily but well, we had nothing else planned anyway!

The national gardens was just nearby so we had a stroll in the park before dinner back at Monastiraki Square. Guidebook recommended Thanasis for kebab and pork souvlaki which was just at the nearest corner near our hotel.

After a full day of walking, it was off to bed at 10pm and I set my alarm for 11.50pm. (Fireworks were supposed to go off at 12am in celebration of Easter)

Athinas Street

Breakfast at Coffeeright

I *heart* the flare on this pic. If only it were nicer.

Chuck the dog. Our guide for the morning's stroll up the Acropolis.

The streets were empty and we were the only ones walking around. We were lost for awhile and ambled along looking for the right way up the Acropolis. So Chuck started following us around and decided to take the lead midway.

I decided to share my breakfast with it along the way but unexpectedly, the fella had this peeved look as if to say "You think I'm following you for food?" He then sulked and ignored us for the rest of the journey up.

Oh and I didn't make up his name. We heard a guide (a real person) telling her tour group his(Chuck's) name.

Theatre of Dionysus

The beautiful morning sun on the Acropolis

The Erechtheum

The Parthenon

Overlooking Athens

Outside the Theatre of Dionysus

The New Acropolis Museum

Ongoing excavations

View of the Acropolis from the cafe at the museum

Hadrian's Arch

Temple of Olympian Zeus

Pork Souvlaki

Moussaka

Bubbles!

The Temple of Hephaestus atop the hill

The whole group suddenly stopped and lined themselves up to take a shot.

Temple of Hephaestus

View of the Acropolis

The Parliament House, formerly their royal palace

Sundial at the National Gardens

Rainbow!

Chestnuts.. GOW-LAK!!

Rock On!

Dogs at Syntagma Square.

These fellas' highlight of the day should be when the rubbish truck drove by. The entire group of them would chase it all through the square and create such a ruckus with all the barking. Reminded me of a scene from Lady and the Tramp. :P

And this guy was turning a music box. I thought I saw Doctor Parnasus.

Pork Souvlaki

Kebab

At Thanasis

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Αθήνα :: Athina, Athens in greek

2010-04-25T14:36:00.006+08:00

2 April 2010

We are in Athens!

After a long (almost an hour) wait at the customs, we finally got on the metro at about 3pm + and waited for the train to move off at 3.35pm. The metro (10 euro for both of us) was an easy walk from the airport and got us straight to Monastiraki at 4.10pm!

We headed to find Hotel Attalos, where we'll stay for the next 3 nights and it was just 5minutes from the station! After snapping some quick photos from our balcony (we could see the acropolis!!), off we went to walk around Monastiraki square. We wandered as far as the Roman Agora's library and took a peek at the flea market and decided to have dinner and an early night. (Time difference was -5h from SG time which meant that by the time the sun set at 7.50pm our brains were (still stuck) already at 1am!

So we settled down at Monastiraki square and our first meal was Lamb Souvlaki and Kalamari! (they spell it with a K :P) At the end of our meal, we had complimentary shot glass of what the owner called sorbet. It tasted of baileys and was yummmsss :P

Then off we went to catch the sunset from our room.

Dubai Airport (6am - 10am)

This is an absurd box of detergent powder proclaiming that dirt is good.

Our SGD10 Macs McCrispy Fillet Meal

Flying over Dubai

Acropolis view from our balcony!

Cosy internet lounge with the sunlight streaming in

We wandered only as far as the Roman Agora

Monastiraki Square

Waiting for dinner

Lamb Souvlaki

Kalamari

Complimentary Bailey's Sorbet

Sunset over Athens

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Desmond and Eileena

2010-03-30T00:20:00.002+08:00

Its my dear cousin's big day! Their suite at the Amara Sanctuary was fantabulous, with a beautiful backgarden that had a mini jacuzzi pool that looked super inviting!

Wishing Desmond and my Jie a lifetime of love and bliss!

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James and Sandra

2010-01-11T23:37:00.003+08:00

Brought my barely 2 days old cam to Sandra's wedding, and while I fell spectacularly, I saved my camera and ended with a huge bruise that didn't go away for 4 weeks. Still, I was so glad to be part of my dear friend's wedding and had great fun tinkling with my new toy!

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Joseph and Huimin

2010-01-11T22:59:00.002+08:00

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Winston and Eugenia

2010-01-11T00:24:00.002+08:00

Thanks Winston and Eugenia for such beautifully fun memories, this was one laughter-filled day!

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Jong and Wen

2009-12-28T23:27:00.001+08:00

Jong, one of the husband's best buds since secondary school, got hitched over the Boxing Day Weekend!

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December's Hydrangeas

2009-12-15T23:46:00.002+08:00

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Flash project test 1

2009-09-24T13:24:00.004+08:00

Aha! After hours of fiddling and figuring, finally my first test project is up.

:x and after posting here I realise the size is wrong so now its off centre.. will try again!

under my umbrella

2009-07-05T23:54:00.003+08:00

Sneaked this pic after dinner. It was raining slightly and me folks were sharing an umbrella. *so sweet*

Purple Sky

2009-07-04T21:24:00.001+08:00

Somehow it seems that when I go out for the purpose of shooting the sunset, it just won't work. And this is what I get just randomly looking outta the window before dinner.

four kilometres per hour

2009-06-27T22:45:00.003+08:00

Drove onto AYE at the Jurong Town Hall exit on Thursday evening and was greeted with a line of cars all stationary and neverending. I thought, 'just the usual peak hour traffic'.

After some time, I realised it was not the usual jam when the sign said accident at clementi, lane 1 and 2. But hmm.. which part of clementi? I didn't exit at Clementi Ave 6 thinking its already in Clementi and can't be far. But boy was I wrong..

After 40min in the car, I finally reached the Clementi Stadium area, and still obstinately thought against leaving the jam since the accident site should be near. I took another 25min to get to NUS, where I saw the accident vehical facing against the traffic and a line of cars stopped on the road shoulder, only 1 lane was passable.

The surprising thing about this (1 hour 5min to pass the accident site) was that I was hardly impatient. Being ~~kiam siap~~ environmentally conscious, I switched off the air con and wound the windows down slightly. For the last part of the jam, I switched off the radio and decided to call a friend to chat while waiting.

I thought to myself, some people are stuck in an accident, they may be hurt, I'm just wasting some time, no matter. But I do wish the radio's traffic update was more informative. All that was said throughout the hour I was stuck was 'Heavy traffic along AYE', now that sounded more like the usual peak hour jam. It was more like 'Massive jam on AYE and traffic is at a standstill from NUS tailback beyond Jurong Town Hall Road exit'. Whoa, I can almost write traffic updates now. :X

80s rewind

2009-06-08T23:53:00.000+08:00

I was having dinner at my mom's and for some strange reason suddenly thought of a theme song from a cartoon I watched when I was a kid.

Came home, googled and youtubed and its so fun looking at the cartoons from so looooong ago!!

See if you recognise any of these.. (ok, I meant to get the pictures but cant really sit here all night, needa yank meself outta bed early, so juz the names 1st HAHAHA) Good thing about youtube is all the 'related' videos! So many cartoons from the same era that I'd forgotten!

It all started with me going "Denver, the last dinosaur! He's my friend and a whole lot more!"
So here goes.. (Decided to 'categorise' them)

Denver the last dinosaur

Centurions

Ghostbusters

Transformers

X-men

Dennis the Menace (People in suits/People)

Duck tales
Count Duckula
Darkwing Duck (Ducks!)

Care Bears
Gummi Bears
Yogi Bear
Sharkey and George
The Raccoons
Mighty Mouse
The Chipmunks
Chip and Dale
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles
Looney Tunes
Tiny Toons (Bears and other animals)

Wuzzles
Smurfs
The Snorks
Animaniacs (Imaginary creatures)

And this is not the end of the list of course.. but I realise I watch a lot of Ducks and other animals cartoons HAHAHAH.. not a fan of watching people in cartoons.. Guess for me, the idea of cartoons is to see things that aren't so realistic. Like.. bears talking HAHAHA.. I'd just watch non-cartoons if I wanted to see people walking around, or like I do now, watch movies with great visual effects =)

Ok, looks like I spent an hour watching youtube videos of cartoons. Enough for the night! =P

Kervin and Maureen

2009-05-11T23:09:00.000+08:00

My official role at this wedding was 'brother'. Yep, by virtue of being the best friend's wife, i am, 'brother'.
Tasked with some coordinating work, I was not to be distracted by my favourite hobby, hence, here's just a few of the shots I liked from the wedding. Congrats Kerv and Maur!

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Ice cream maker

2009-04-21T13:15:00.005+08:00

One month into my perceived 'leg-shaking-at-home', I have busied myself with much activities. One of which was getting more acquainted with my kitchen..

I've been looking for an ice-cream maker for awhile and it was finally in stock yesterday! Will be trotting out soon to welcome the ICM into my home. I've been looking up ice cream recipes and can't wait to try them out!

Surfing for ice cream recipes brought me to this site and I recognised his book cover! Was browsing through a copy in the bookstore and tempted to get the book. But I wasn't sure I'd be getting my ICM for sure then (had not managed to track it down) hence it was left on the shelf. So glad I found this website that's chockful of info on ice-cream making, amongst other things. Boy, I do envy this man, he cooks well, and dang he takes nice pictures too!
http://www.davidlebovitz.com/

Also getting ideas from..
http://allrecipes.com/
http://homecooking.about.com/
and of course, mom is just a phone call away! ♥ ♥ ♥

Heh, here's what I whipped up last week.

It was high time for some simple chinese cooking, in place of the steaks, lamb chops and pasta. Speaking of which I finally got down to cooking cream of mushroom and not just pouring it outta a can and heating it. Managed a less starchy variant from the very creamy mushroom soups of the campbell kind which wasn't all too bad for starters.

Will update on the ice-cream making and my other antics when I'm back!

Rain on my parade

2009-04-04T23:16:00.001+08:00

We were walking along Namba walk again, this daily trot to get to the JR station was becoming very familiar. This time, it was to find the tourist information centre (which had moved). After being misled by several signs, we finally found the place and got our 1-day Osaka Unlimited Pass (2000yen).

The pass included entry to several places. First stop was to the Osaka Bay Area, where we were planning to visit the WTC Cosmo Tower Observatory, board the Santa Maria Cruise and visit the aquarium.

View from WTC Cosmo Tower. Wasn't too fantastic as the clouds were gaining in and there was a gloom about the skyline.

We had a very yummy katsu don and were all set to board the cruise when it started pouring.

Ended up shopping around in the stores till almost late afternoon while waiting for the rain to subside when we decided it probably wouldn't.

So off we went to Osaka Castle, which fortunately had extended opening hours for the cherry blossoms festival.

So we got pictures of Osaka-jo in the night and strolled in the drizzle amidst the lit cherry blossoms. Gloomy but there was a strange sort of niceness about strolling in the rain under an umbrella..

Not too much strolling though, the garden was closed at 8pm and the uncle was trying to tell us it was time to go back heh. Off we went for dinner!

Having been suitably fed, we made our way to the last stop of the day, the floating garden observatory. Unfortunately, the view was far from expected though the place had a nice ambience.

And I got my favorite escalator photos. =P

Back at the foot of the tower.

It was a rainy day, causing us to miss the Santa Maria Cruise and the Tonbori River Cruise. No matter, gives me an excuse to be back doesn't it? ;)

Album here.

Messengers of God

2009-04-03T23:24:00.000+08:00

We set off to Nara on the Rapid Express train. The tourist information at the train station in Nara was excellent! We got a map and started on the recommended route.

Deers were regarded as "messengers of god" here. Here's a picture of a deer who still looks dignified and possibly a true messenger from above.

But the strange thing about these messengers is that they are going at leaflets, COLOURED pamphlets and any kind of paper!

All these despite being fed by the many happy tourists with small stacks of biscuits for deers at 150 yen per (small) stack! I was seriously suspicious that the biscuits were made of recycled paper. Hahaha..

I was left alone for awhile and was wondering what to do (would have sat down on the park benches to just enjoy the park, but either the benches had bird poo, or there were deer poo around the benches, so i gave up) and was thinking about fish-eye lens and suddenly decided to harass the deers with my 10mm wide angle. Started out trying to look through the viewfinder but realised it was hard to get close enough while keeping my eye at the viewfinder. I then decided to just shove my cam up the faces of the puzzled and curious deers who decided to sniff my lenses to see if they could find any paper trace HAHA..

Another stop for Nara was the Todaiji. House to the largest statue of the Great Buddha, this structure was the largest wooden building in the world.

Nara is a relaxing place for a leisurely stroll and great for children too!

See the happy faces!

We headed to Yasuka Shrine just two train stops away before returning to Nara for Sushi dinner, a fine way to end the day!

Click here for the full album.

Why I Teach

2009-03-08T23:25:00.003+08:00

Lost my voice in the last weekend of Feb, rendered completely speechless for 3 days and started coughing after that. Its been 2 weeks now.. and my student showed up with this..

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.
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Oh So Sweet.

Kids just have a way of being spontaneous and touching your hearts in the most innocently sincere ways. Though they may not always be the 'ideal' student, or as respectful students as us in the old days (yeah, age Has indeed caught up huh..), what remains unchanged is their innocence, or most of it anyway. Thanks for showing you care. Appreciation is not necessary, but a luxury and it certainly brings a warm feeling to the heart! =)

28 on 28

2009-03-08T23:20:00.003+08:00

Loooong overdue posts coming up.

Its been an eventful first quarter of 2009. It is nice to know that throughout life's ups and downs, family and friends will always stay constantly beside us.

Counting my blessings first before I rant! hahaha..

Tada! Here are my blessings! Me wonderful Friends and Family! Love You!

the search for mascarpone

2008-12-28T17:41:00.004+08:00

I made dinner again! In less than 2 weeks too I must say..

Was at carrefour on Xmas eve's eve where there was only 1 brand of mascarpone cheese and wasnt the one I used, thinking that I could get it at Great World Cold Storage (and I was getting other stuff from there), I walked away from about 8 250g tubs of mascarpone. GW CS only had ONE tub left, not enough for me, wanted to make extras. Went to 2 NTUCs and discovered that NTUC didnt seem to stock them at all.
Woke up the next morning and called FOUR CS outlets before finding the elusive mascarpone, seems like everyone was making tiramisu this xmas.. Just a week ago, I could take my pick from every brand available at CS..

Yeah yeah, i'll load on more greens for the next meal :P

dinner for two

2008-12-18T23:27:00.006+08:00

Escargot
Lobster Bisque
Roastmary Lamb
Homemade Tiramisu
2nd Anniversary Dinner!!

It was a mad rush to keep the surprise under wraps. I sneaked out to 'The Mango Sale' on Wednesday to get the grill pan and new steak knives, got some groceries on Friday, and just before dinner went to grab whatever was outstanding from the supermarket! Had to call the Husband to get some stuff from supermarket to stall more time and dinner was ready in a crazy 30min!

My kitchen had never been more fully utilised with the soup in the saucepan, lamb on the grill pan, escargots in the toaster, and many more bowls n plates of marinates and sauces. Good thing the tiramisu was chilling itself nicely in the fridge from morning.

What went in the tiramisu..

Yeah I know I gotta work on the presentation, but it tasted quite fine :P or maybe kahlua just tastes good? hahaha..

Too hungry and remembered to take photos when only shells were left haha..

Thankfully everything was quite edible and the Husband was making orders for the next meal as the dishes were cleared to the sink =)

Assignment 2

2008-11-19T22:45:00.007+08:00

Here are some of my fave works from assignment 2..

Composited pic..

Retouched..

Enhanced..

Portraits..

My concept for home loan ad..

My concept for anti drink driving campaign..

Have changed text for my 2 poster designs in case of copyright issues..

It was a gruelling and fun 20 weeks! And apart from picking up all the new skills and having fun in the darkroom, it's great making new friends!

Yesterday Once More

2008-11-18T00:23:00.004+08:00

Its been almost a year yet just like yesterday that I saw my bunch of kids. Thanks Jean and the rest for inviting me the most efficient BBQ I've ever been with the skilful Hasif setting up the 'pit' in minutes!

End of Course!

2008-11-14T00:03:00.002+08:00

Its been a fun and interesting 20 weeks though I am now just tired out.. Still have 5 more weeks till I finish my other course. I am SO gonna rest after that..

Quite happy with my works and definitely learnt much =) Here are my submissions for b&w, portraits and product/campaign shots.. My photo of photos, too lazy and definitely too tired to upload soft copy now. Photoshop works later..

Sleeping around

2008-11-02T23:00:00.003+08:00

These little rodents were really in deep sleep! Nothing much could rouse them from their sleep even when they were trampled all over in the face or have someone else's butt in their nose!

(pardon the low-res, took with my hp thru the glass in the pet shop window..) was walking past when i saw these little fellas sleeping like their lives depended on it.. hahaha.. too cute! =D

Kaya butter toast

2008-10-27T22:56:00.001+08:00

Ah.. It was a great long weekend of food.. Its a lazy monday and we decided to juz have brunch at the kopitiam downstairs.. It always has a really relaxed atmosphere to be sitting in this very old kopitiam and many old uncles clanging their spoons around their kopi cups..

Love the kaya butter bread. The cold butter in the sweet kaya.. Toasted bread.. *heart*

No. 3 Crab Delicacy

2008-10-26T22:03:00.000+08:00

Seafood craving strikes yet again! Trotted over to No. 3 Crab Delicacy on 265 Outram Road, just 5min walk from my place.

The walls of this little seafood restaurant was plastered with newspaper articles about their specialities in english and chinese. Ordered two of their specialities curry crab and cabbage chicken.

Curry crab was served in claypot and the sweet aroma of curry leaves filled the air. The crab was fresh and juicy and the texture was just right. man tou dipped in the curry was just yummy..

The cabbage chicken was spring chicken wrapped in cabbage and tasted just like chap chye.. It was not bad though i personally didn't like chap chye very much hence i'm not a big fan of this dish. It was still rather special though.

I'll be back for more.. *slurp*

Lots of fun

2008-10-25T22:48:00.000+08:00

Haha.. First it was funny subtitles, now.. I found some more funny translations!! Was having dinner with my folks and we were having a real long wait. Sis suddenly was laughing at this sign board..

(sorry about the small words, i didnt wanna get whacked by the auntie should i have stood up to go nearer to the store)
米粉 (beehoon) was Rice Fun
面线 (mian xian) was Noodle Line
冬粉 (vermicelli) was Squid Fun!!

I say, this is a very fun store :P

Victor's Kitchen

2008-10-25T22:42:00.000+08:00

After reading all the raving reviews about Victor's Kitchen, decided to try it even though I just had wanton mee some 10metres away :P

Started our meal with iced milk tea. This was rather yummy.. and the drink was served with the cup in another cup of iced water, thereby ensuring the ice won't melt and dilute the yummy milk tea.

I liked this, though the husband found it a tad too sweet.

Since we already had wtm, we ordered each of our fave dimsum dishes just to see if its enough to make us return for more. So here's siewmai for the man, and deep fried prawn roll
fu pi juan for me.

Hmm.. well.. I'd say, its nothing to rave about.. I found the fu pi juan a little too oily and the siew mai was just normal..

I would say the gem was the milk tea. Not sure I'd be back, I should probably have saved my stomach for ice-cream instead..

Parklane Zha Yun Tun Mee House

2008-10-25T22:32:00.000+08:00

Its my second visit to this wanton mee store at sunshine plaza. 5min wait was about all the time you needed before the wanton mee was served piping hot. The zha yun tun was crisp and fresh, noodles had just the right consistency and chewiness. The yummy black sauce was also very authentic and not like the usual foodcourts where wtm was served with chilli since it was the most convenient sauce around. Definitely one of my fave wanton mee speaking as a non-wtm fan.. *heart*

(There was fried and soup wanton but I traded my soup wanton with the husband's fried wanton hence only fried wantons in the pic :P)

Ethel wants to cut the cake!

2008-10-13T00:33:00.003+08:00

Was at my niece's birthday last weekend and here's my fave shot for the day!

Hehee..

Super crazy moment where little Ethel had the knife dive right in while Daddy caught her just in time =P

Romance in the air

2008-10-13T00:08:00.004+08:00

Cruise down the river..

Trishaw ride to the pavilion..

Uber cool Grand Shanghai where we were serenaded by live band all evening..

And again.. full album here

Chia Yuan + Lian Shi

2008-10-03T00:09:00.004+08:00

Its F1's first night race today! I wake up early to.. shoot my friend's wedding! Thanks to CY and LS for having me around for their big day.

Started off bright and early and the groom is ready to go!

Brothers for feasts and feats ahead..

Joy on his face..

..or apprehension for the gruelling tasks ahead?

Could hardly watch, the man i married was also gonna be chewing on that??

All for the beautiful bride..

Hand in hand..

The sisters have accomplished their tasks..

Happiness in his eyes..

More pics, click title above or here

subtitle cows..

2008-09-21T22:18:00.003+08:00

Subtitles strike again!

Was watching a movie on cable. This doesn't beat the LP falling off but it still caught my attention. Give a guess, what could be the subtitles for..
"Damnit!" or.. "Jesus!" in general, just some exclamation about some bad situation?

... "我靠!" read: "WA KAO"

Should really be known as hokien subtitles, si bo?

Half completed/remaining?

2008-09-06T01:56:00.003+08:00

Its almost time for assignment submission for my Nafa course. Still editing some pictures before they are ready. Looks like the theme for this post is brown..

This was editing with some suggestions from my lecturer. Taken at Kom Ombo in Egypt, 2004. Editing really did wonders for this one..

Ancient tree that still stands tall in Beijing.

Will post the rest when they are ready.

my Thursday ended on a happy note

2008-09-06T01:45:00.003+08:00

It was great meeting up with friends from so long ago. Hope they had as much fun as I did with the name-guessing and story-telling :P

The Tavern Pub & Restaurant

2008-08-30T03:07:00.001+08:00

It was our third visit here and it never fails to be a quiet and relaxing lunch in this quaint little joint. The decor brings you miles away from the coffeeshops situated just outside and stepping in immediately transports visitors to another feel altogether.

Appetisers and desserts are always my favourite parts of the meal here.

For appetiser, we had Mushroom vol-au-vent and Home Made Gravlaks.
The mushroom vol-au-vent was light and crisp while the cream sauce was so smooth and silky.
Gravlak was yummy, just the usual.

Main courses were the Grilled Australian Black Angus Rib Eye Steak and the Pan Fried Hokkaido Scallops & Tiger-Prawns on Curry Sauce.
Steak was fine though could be juicier. As for seafood, I guess I'll always prefer asian styles of seafood though the prawns were really crunchy.

Dessert was tiramisu. It. Was. Yummy.

A cup of fresh coffee and my lunch was complete.

Will I be back? The tiramisu alone is worth my visit.

Fireworks on the Bay

2008-08-11T21:31:00.003+08:00

Taken at a preview. 12 July.

Crimson

2008-08-11T20:49:00.005+08:00

Red is in the air..