Some of you have never met my cat, Gemma. It was very difficult to take a good picture of her with my previous camera. Something would always be wrong with the lighting, or the clarity wasn't there...etc.
Today, I can proudly put up her first 'professional' portrait (with many more to follow, I hope).
Well, the deed is finally done. I have in my hands the long-awaited camera that I've told you about (more than once) and I was finally able to bring it out early today for her maiden shot!
I had not been completely sure if I should take the plunge into the world of DSLR photography because of the costs involved, and even after I had bought the unit I was still beset with doubt. But after seeing how the pictures turned out, I was besotted! All reservations vanished, and I'm raring to go!
I spent all morning at Pasir Ris park fiddling with the controls and learning about how to use the Konica Minolta 5D. There's still so much to comprehend, but I'm going to take it slow and do things right.
Here are some of the pics out of the 200 shots that I took.
Christmas is a time to be dazzled by tacky blinking lights strewn overhead and other shiny things (like your fresh-from-the-atm money glistening goodbye from your fingers as your shopping bill inflates to several times the original budget). 
This year, I had a chance to do some impromptu shopping in Little India on Sunday night. Now lest you think this was a selfish excuse for some personal revelry, it was to hunt for fabric to create a nice stole for the choir members, ok? Of course, this was kinda last minute so there was a race against the clock to find the right stuff as soon as possible (btw if you don't know what a stole is, google it).
Anyway, I've never actually visited Little India before so it was quite an eye opener to take in the messy throng meandering along the narrow and colorful streets. To make a lengthy adventure succinct, we had a quick bite to eat before plunging into our quest for the right fabric. 
We found our way to the basement of the famed Mustafa Center and ended up spending about 2 hours browsing through their stock of beautiful fabrics. Everything we liked was way above our budget (naturally!) but we decided to persist and explore other options. We even dug through the household section's curtains and bedspreads in our effort to find something cheap, good and usable (while not making the choir look like singing manual laborers). We had a little too much fun imagining stoles made from the unlikeliest of materials such as plastic shower curtains and pineapple fiber! Eventaully we returned to the section we started out in and settled for, much to the irate salesmans' relief, a striking emperor-gold satin that suited our budget and needs.
With the 20 meters of shiny fabric acquired, now came the task of cutting it into even strips to make the stoles. I had to borrow a pair of tailoring scissors so that the fabric could be cut smoothly. Then it took 3 people to undertake this task - two to measure and hold the billowy fabric taut while the other sliced it into the required size.
It was 1am on Monday evening when this was finally done! Phew!
I thought that this would be it, but I was chided by others more experienced in fabric science that the unsewn edges will fray very quickly and result in fine golden threads sparkling all over the place; yeah, and how about creating a hazardous 'Christmassy' environment for those prone to asthma while you're at it?
Tuesday morning - the cut satin was delivered to the rather unwilling tailor we had to beg to take on this last minute job and she promised it would be ready for collection by Friday. The choir is going to look so fantastic with them!
Of course, despite the saga surrouding the acquisition and preparation of the stoles, hopefully it will be the words of the music that we sing which will capture the attention and hearts of the those attending our Christmas Day service. There are many things to dazzle us during this season, but the brightest light of Christ shines clearly above them all; it's sad that this light seems to be largely ignored in place of cheap and gaudy trinkets.
May we never lose the golden wonder of Christ's unfathomable love!
I was trudging home one late afternoon from work when I saw this beautiful pattern formed by the clouds. I just had to stop and snap a momento of the moment.
One of the things I used to do in my younger (and idle) days was cloud-watching. Just laying at the beach, watching the clouds go by, and trying to see what shape each cloud most resembles was such a simple but engaging activity. The wonder never ceased from admiring God's creation in the changing hues of the sky and each fluffy textured cloud.
Nowadays, life is so complicated. Why has it come to this?
I gotta find some time to go cloud-watching again one day soon.
If the past two weeks is anything to go by, the most interesting things seem to happen to me around lunch time.
I was heading back to the office from White Sands when 3 young backpackers asked for directions to Wild Wild Wet (at Downtown East - looks like I can't avoid this wretched place). I was embarassingly gorging on a yummy McSundae at that moment but I played it smooth to make it look like it's what all decent Singaporeans do. Then I offered to walk them there since it was much easier than giving complicated directions with my mouth jam packed with gooey ice-cream.
I quickly finished the rest of the McSundae as discreetly as I could and turned to the trio for some small talk. There was a long way to go still so it would have been plain rude to just ignore them. Turns out two of them were from England while the 3rd was Canadian. I started chatting with the English guy who had asked for directions in the first place and ended up having a really nice conversation with him the rest of the way.
Apparantly they have been making their way down from several SE Asian countries like Vietman, Thailand...etc. They were glad to finally make it here because, for once, everything was in a language they could understand!
He gushed a little about our country, which was a nice change from the bad publicity we've been receiving over the hanging of the Australian drug trafficker. Apparantly where he comes from people aren't friendly and helpful like in Singapore (I raised an internal eyebrow at that statement but kept up with my unflappable facade to avoid ruining the illusion for him) and he's been so amazed at the warmth he's experienced (warmth from the people, not the weather) that he's gladly willing to try to find work here when this trip is finally over.
Now I thought that really was the ultimate compliment anyone can pay in this situation and felt proud at that moment to be Singaporean. Of course, being a tourist he's not really seen the ugly side of our culture yet, but I'll leave that nasty reality check to time.
Finally we arrived right outside Wild Wild Wet. He asked me,
"Have you been inside before?"
"Nope.", I replied.
Looking around at all the Barney and friends posters and cut outs, he wrinkled up his face and said,
"It looks kinda... kiddish."
"Yes. That's why I've never been in there."
"Shiiiiiiiit!"
Still, being the nice guy that he was, I'm sure he'll find something to like. I sure hope he enjoys the rest of his stay, and that he'll make it back here again someday. Singapore can never get too many fans!
I know I just posted, but I couldn't resist adding this!
Thanks to Rui, who scored as the passé Neo (yawn), I followed the link on his blog to determine the action hero I would be and it turns out I'm Gotham's Dark Knight (who just happens to be my FAV super hero)! Woot!
This is quite a fun little distraction. You answer a list of questions pertaining to your likes/dislikes and character traits. Based on your answers, a percentage score is awarded to each of the heroes in the line up.
Here is the list of the other heroes I could have become and their corresponding scores:
88% Batman
83% James Bond
83% Captain Jack Sparrow
67% Spider Man
63% Indiana Jones
54% Maximus
54% Neo
50% Lara Croft
50% William Wallace
46% The Terminator
33% El Zorro
The site describes Batman, I mean, me as such:
As the Dark Knight of Gotham, Batman is a vigilante who deals out his own brand of justice to the criminals and corrupt of the city. He follows his own codes and is often misunderstood. He has few friends or allies, but finds comfort in his cause.
Such profound statements of sagely truth - it's so me! Now fear me as I flap about in the dead of night!
I'm not the sort who dreams a lot, but when I do, my dreams are so completely out of this world (which is, I suppose, befitting for me) that I usually wake up briefly with a gamut of questions before going right back to sleep. I mean, they're not going to really be answered there and then, right, so why waste precious sleep time agonizing over them?
Let's take last night, for instance; I dreamt that I was this person by the name of Ninoto Sale (pronounced as 'sah-lay'). It continued with me dreaming that I woke up and asked my mother who Ninoto Sale was and she said that it was probably the King of Spain. Then I woke up (for real this time) and wondered how on earth I came up with the name Ninoto Sale?
I fell back to sleep almost immediately after that and when I was finally forced out of bed because, you know, work calls, the name was still lingering in my foggy mind so I reasoned it must be some vastly important sign sent cryptically to me.
Dreams are usually a manifestation of an event or triggered memory the person experienced recently. Select bits of information mingle with the dreamers' latent creativity (or psychotic tendencies if you're refering to me) and produce a little B-grade short film. Well, mine are B-grade, I can't vouch for yours.
Now in this case of the Nonoto Sale identity mystery, there is no such prior real-life basis from which it can spring from. I did a search online for 'Ninoto' and, as expected, it's not much help because it only appears within the context of foreign languages.
Great. More weirditude (yes, I made this word up) to add to my resume of life!
To be fair, my other dreams are usually also downright strange and even scary; but this is probably the first that has me scratching my head (or is that because the pillow case needs changing?) and going "Whaaat?!" (but then again I have that same reaction to every other warped thought I have)
Oh well, I will stop pondering over this mystery with no exciting conclusion in sight and take it that this new name heralds the beginning of a new facet in my life: a spilt personality.
Now if anything goes wrong I can always say,
"It wasn't me! Ninoto made me do it!"
T'was an ordinarily hot day like any other. I was shuffling my way to good 'ole Downtown east for a predictably unimaginative lunch when I saw a screaming man being swallowed whole by a glistening python.
Fortunately the shock of the spectacle didn't hit me till I had finished lunch and was ambling back the way I came. As a helpful and concerned fellow human being, I raced toward the hapless man though I didn't have the foggiest idea how to disarm a python in the middle of its meal. I mean, I totally hate it when I get bothered while eating. Then a road sign which I had seen countless times caught my eye and the light bulb of understanding finally went off in my head in a blazing flare of illumination. 
** ** ** ** **
Like a law-abiding Singaporean I observed the rest of the show and went on my way, satiated and entertained. Burp.
My 'trusty' Casio digital cam failed me for the first time today. I whipped it out for some quick shots and it simply refused to work while flashing a 'card error' notice. Since I had never encountered this before I didn't know how to solve it quickly despite my best frantic (and embarassed) efforts - suffice to say, the moment passed, leaving me in its dust and the opportunity was lost forever!
*fume*
Well, I take it as a clear-as-day sign that my time to progress to greater cameras has come! What could be more obvious? Haha, well, I'm sure you've heard of how people sometimes see only what they want to see in life, right (kinda like Bruce Wilis in the Sixth Sense)? So here I am giving you a living, working example of how this works! This is important, children, did you notice how I was able to slyly manipulate this disasterous event to fit my personal agenda?
Oh, the things I do against my will for YOUR benefit...
Now back to devising other ways to rationalize purchases on my die-die-must-get list.
If you were curious as to which car I was refering to in my previous post in which I gushed about how amazed I was to have survived, here it is:
If you're already a certified car enthusiast you'd already know all the pertinant details regarding this baby, but if you're not, well, you probably couldn't care less.
Anyway, just to set the record straight, it's not my car. And even if I could afford one just like that I still wouldn't own it. Having lived in the US has spoilt me for life regarding the exhorbitant cost of owning a car here in sunny Singapore. I paid about US$900 for my 2nd hand Mazda and when I left I sold it for that exact same amount. Now tell me, how could I possibly spend nearly 10 times that amount just to own one here?
And speaking of ownership, you don't even get to truly OWN the car that you cough up fresh blood to pay for every month. It's like donating blood to the Red Cross except this time it's mostly wasted. You Singaporeans will know what I'm talking about. In effect you're only renting it for 10 years. Try as I might, I just can't see how owning a vehicle here makes economic sense for me.
Don't get me wrong though. I've nothing against people who do own them; especially since I get the occasional lift here and there for which I'm always thankful and grateful (and less sweaty at the end of it). I guess it's a matter of prioities, and this is one of those things in which I'll have no qualms about living vicariously through others - sort of like the recent camera issue.
However, with the camera I know I will get one real soon. With the car? Naw, don't see it in the crystal ball.
And if, for some unforseen reason, I will need to own one in the distant future, I can always delete this post and deny everything.