Sirigiya, Sri Lanka
Here we have the obligatory guy trying to play Atlas lifting up the rock....
I finally managed to find the time to scan in the photos using my new Epson V700 and work on these photos! All taken using Fujifilm trebi 100c. While requiring some work to get right but I think I’ve managed to get the work flow just about correct now.
Here are the shots I took during the weekend while I was in Sri Lanka for work and decided to visit the biggest tourist trap there, namely Sirigiya, entry cost about USD30 and then additional Sri Lanka Rupiah 1000 for an English speaking guide.
It was at least a 4 hours drives from Colombo. The taxi ride cost about USD270 from the Hilton hotel in Colombo which includes both ways, so it wasn’t so bad.
Back from Bangkok~~~
I’m back~~~ Actually, I’ve been back since Sunday but was busy with work and haven’t been able to blog anything till now. I’m still working on the those photos and will try and have something ready by next week!
Many new happenings
Yes I know I haven’t blogged in a while but things have been very busy since I came back from Sri Lanka and I’ve been trying up to finish my personal projects along with scanning film. So let’s begin each item.
Back from Sri Lanka!
I'm finally back from Sri Lanka! Actually I'v been back since Saturday but I've been unwinding from the assignment since and only found the time today to make an entry about!
Happy Chinese New Year 2012!
Here’s to another Chinese New year! To top it off! It’s the year of the Dragon! That is right! The freaking dragon! Which means either good news or bad news. Either way, we cannot let our guard down, les we be eaten by those of the dragon or we lose sight of our prey for those of the dragon!
So what have I been doing? Oh the usual, flying home to my hometown in the middle of my work and since it’s like a big steaming pile of dung, it’ll be stinkier by the time I get back and actually work on it. Sleeping, and more sleeping. Once can never have too much sleep.
I hope everyone is having a a great time as they usher in the Chinese New Year, besides it’s a good reason to drunk and be happy about without breaking any new year resolution.
My journey home this time was actually pretty good! No screaming babies this time! Either everyone decided to hold off having kids during the year of the rabbit or they already went back by the time I took the late flight home to Labuan. Though I predict nightmare next year as people bring back the “dragon babies” to their hometowns.
Anyway, to all my Chinese friends,
GONG XI FATT CHOI!!!!!!! (Angpow gia lai! for those who are married!) hahaahahaahahah!
To those who are single, “See? Being single ain’t so bad! You still get ang pow! While married people have to start dishing it out!”.
Journey to Cyprus (11th ~ 16th December 2011)
The flight to Cyprus was packed as expected. Here is after we landed at Dubai international airport. The only really I hate about is that we need to go through security checking again even though we are just transferring. What followed was another 3 hours wait until our flight to Cyprus.
I’ll be traveling to Cyprus.
I’ll be on my way to Cyprus by the time you read this. It’ll only be for a week since it’s for work related training. There are no projects pending until early next year anyway. Hopefully this training will help get some good projects for next year and none of the so-so stuff I worked on so far but with so many projects coming in and so few of us available, I may not have the choice of which project I get to work on since it’s up to the top brass to decide.
As a result, I’ll be missing this year’s Comic Fiesta in KL especially the fact that they’ll have Shimokawa Mikuni and Ceui there but those are the breaks since I need to earn money.
Once again, I’m not too sure about whether or not I’ll have Internet connection in the apartment where I’ll be staying and we can forget about the company Internet since they’ve practically locked out everything except CNN and Reuters. I’ll be bringing my iPad for this trip again but assume that I’ll be out of contact since wireless access is even more limited than wired access except for SMS.
As for photo gear, I’ll be bringing
1. Nikon F6/D700
2. Nikkor 17-35mm
3. Nikkor 50mm f/1.8G AF-S
4. Nikkor 105mm f/1.8 AI-S (new toy to play with!)
6. Six rolls of film (2 neopan 400, 2 portra 400 and 2 rolls of Ektar)
I doubt I’ll have any chance of shooting anything interesting considering the short week but heck, it can’t hurt to be at least minimally prepared for something to shoot. After all, weird things have happened before. On the bright side, I’ll be traveling with a senior who is also going for the same training so the trip won’t be so boring.
Looking at the weather forecast, it seems I can expect something akin to winter like weather so I’ll be bringing my winter wear for this trip.
AFA 2011 Day 3 (Event + cosplay report)
Let’s go straight to the main points of today, Cosplay, Cosplay and MORE cosplay! Yesterday, I already attended all the events I wanted! So now today is just getting loot from the exhibits as well as focus on the cosplays!! And boy I was not disappointed!
AFA 2011 day 2 (event + cosplay report)
Today’s event was just as awesome except now all the exhibits were open as well as the main stage events! The crowd was even bigger than yesterday’s one. It would still be a while before the doors open so instead we went around checking out the cosplay scene and let me this is one of the best years’ yet
(more…)
AFA 2011 day 2 report will be delayed…..
I’m sorry but I won’t be able to upload the photos until I get back to KL next week because there is just way to many photos to process. My poor iPad can’t take the stress! So instead here I have a photo of the first of many loot! Hahahah managed to finally find it after missing it the last time!
AFA 2011 day 1 (event + cosplay report)
After getting myself settled in and my friend from Penang arrived fashionably late 
, we then made our way to suntec convention center.
Finally here in Singapore!
I’m finally here in Singapore. The flight was alright although the toilets in the waiting area weren’t working at the airasia airport aka lcct.
Anime Festival Asia 2011
Right,as some of you may already know, tomorrow’s is the start of AFA11. It’s the second final event of the year for me! I’ll be flying off tomorrow and will be back next week and hopefully will have lots of stuff to blog about!
The good thing about this year’s event is that there are twice the number of events and artists there this year, the bad thing for me though is that JAM project is not there this year but that still won’t stop me from having fun!!!!
And let’s not forget about the cosplay and movies showing there! It’ll be the biggest anime event in this region!!
Though there is one silver lining, for the first time in southeast Asia, Miku 3D live will be there!!
So for those who are also going there! I’ll see you there!! I’ll have the report up as soon as I can!
Autocity Super GT Roadshow 2011
So here are my shots! The whole was fun, tiring and hot (not just the ladies but I mean real hot! It was 35 celsius during the day and 30 at night!). To make it worse though, it rained but not long enough nor strong enough to really bring down the temperature, just enough to increase the humidity and make it twice as hot >_<;;
Super GT Roadshow at Autocity
By this time, I should be on my way up to Penang. Why? Isn’t it obvious? I’ll be in Penang for 2 reasons, (more…)
Kodak Portra 160VC
I picked this up during a visit to Keat Cameras in Pudu a month ago for a bargain. It came in one of those 5 roll packs, it’s cheaper to buy them like that and it makes storage easier instead of individual boxes.
My test so far puts this film strictly as a portrait film although it can be used for landscape but you need to really know how to use lighting or else your shots are not going to turn out well. Portra is the other end of the spectrum when compared to Ektar it seems. Where shooting people using Ektar is a waste of a good landscape film, shooting landscape with Portra is an experiment like washing a car with a dishcloth, it can work but it sure as hell is not the best way to do it.
Trouble is, I thought with the moniker VC (vivid colors) this was something with higher saturations and hence suitable for landscape and tried to used it for landscape shooting. So my shots turned out weird….
Troodos mountains, Cyprus
Finally paid a visit to Troodos mountain. It was an early morning trip and definitely worth the experience. It was a cloudless days! Everything was just right! The only disappointment was I couldn’t stay til sunset.
Another first as well was that snow had formed the night before, not powdery kind though, more of the “gold fish food” type. But snow nonetheless and it was a bit fun to play with.
I think it was about 5 Celsius but wind chill factor brought it down to below freezing! Fortunately I had prepared for such temperature after researching. Still it was cold and wished I had brought clothing more suited for winter.
Using film again hence why there aren’t any shots yet, one point thought, it was really hard to load a roll film while wearing gloves in such cold weather. I was there for only 4 hours but I think I managed to get some good shots. We’ll know once I have them developed. Even after coming back, the light was still so good I decided once again to go around Nicosia area and do some more shooting.
the story so far in Cyprus
- Been shooting film…
I’ve been meaning to do more updates but because of training that hasn’t been possible and because of that, I’ve also had very little chance for any shooting. And any shooting I do is mostly with my minolta CLE which show far has been a gem to use since it doesn’t attract so much attention so taking shots is pretty easy without anyone knowing.
Yesterday (Friday was actually a public holiday hence a long weekend), I had original opt to join a group of the other trainees from India but I pulled out last minute when I wasn’t feeling too well.
Sure it would have been cheaper to go with them yesterday but feeling down and so fourth would not have been a good idea.
Anyway, I figure since I brought so many rolls of film it would be best I try to use them instead of bringing back unused.
So far, I’ve only explored the city of Nicosia and frankly I find it rather simple, nothing really stands out and it’s pretty run down and really old.
Hopefully with the money I’ve saved so far, I can rent the car myself or hire a driver with it and head up to troodoos myself next week.
Will let you know til then.
Cats, feline and early closure….
I have never seen so many cats before. Every house I pass by, at least 2 or 3 cats would be hanging out by the porch. Every building I pass by, I see about 4 or more.
What is this place? Cat central? Though not all of them are cute and cuddly and for the most part they’re rather mangy and weary of humans or at least strangers.
So far I haven’t gone anyway except work and back, though I can offer you this time. If you ever find yourself changing for Euro, DO NOT LET THEM GIVE YOU BIG DENOMINATIONS! Especially the Euro 500 because no one will ever accept them! I had to get it changed to smaller denominations at a bank! Else I would have been short on funds.
Another thing you should be aware about Cyprus is that they close early. At about 7:30pm, most shops are already closed so if you have plans to do anything, you’re out of luck. Only a few places would remain open especially eateries which makes sense. But I was hoping to check out the night life and sadly, unless I plan to go clubbing, I’m out of luck!
Currently in Dubai (Updated!)
Sorry folks, I left my card reader in checked in luggage so all I have for now is this low-res shot from my handphone. I'll update this entry later with more details about Dubai Airport. For now Sheepy here will keep you entertained. (Update: There are now more photos! Click on more!
I’m right now in Dubai for a 2 hour transit to Cyprus and this airport is HUGE! If I didn’t know otherwise I swear this airport occupies a few zip codes between where it begins and where it ends! The weather here is really nice and I wish I could go outside to take some shots but a last I’m only transferring so no such luck. Maybe I’ll plan my next personal vacation to come here again ^_^
I’m off to Cyprus.
As you may remember, I recently had to cancel all my plans to Bangkok for this year’s motorshow due to training at work. What I didn’t mentioned was that the company would be sending me to Cyprus for it so it wasn’t all gloom and doom then but I didn’t mention that fact because I’ve had incident where at the last minute it would get cancel is favor of cost cutting measure and managers’ went instead (lousy assholes).
But even if that had happened, I could have reverted back to my Bangkok plans because I’m still unable to get any refund for my plan tickets and the hotel would be easy to book again. Anyway, to keep a long story short, the trip will be for 2 weeks and everything is paid for (for once!) and I still have the weekends to myself. The whole thing is just about right, not too long and not too short.
Originally it would have been a five week training course but the company just revamped the training plan to reduce the duration. Hopefully they didn’t just try to jam pack the whole thing into a longer day but instead streamlined the training material or removed the irrelevant stuff.
Am I excited? Yes. Am I worried? Yes. Will I have fun, I sure as hell will try! Hopefully, I’ll be able to have some sort of Internet connection at least since the company are rather strict with their proxy servers. I can’t even go into gmail using the company Internet connection here! And since we all use the same proxy servers at all the branches, Internet updates from me might be forthcoming or at least deferred until a proper Internet connection can be obtained.
So what’s the gear line up this time? Since it’s for 2 weeks, I opt for:
- D700 with 17-35mm, 50mm, 70-300mm (going for a more balance run this time.)
- Konica Minolta CLE with 28mm, 40mm, 90mm (and it’s still lighter than one of my Nikon lenses XD)
- 22 rolls of film and lots of SD cards
and when will I be flying off? By the time you read this I would have flown off already, so yeah this is a post dated entry 
. I’ll let you guys know how this part of the trip turned out.
You didn’t think I wouldn’t give this trip a name now would you? Of course I will, I don’t see any other reason NOT to so without further ado, Operation Aphrodite. There is a reason for that name
Happy Chinese New year 2011.
Happy Chinese new year~~! And a prosperous year to all! Now hand over the ang pau! XD hahahahah Well fortunately this year's Lunar new year doesn't fall on the same date as Valentine's day. So that means I'll still have something to blog about later hahahaahah!!
Anyway, as you all know this is the year of zee rabbit! But like previous years here are the predictions for everyone in 2011!
Note: All artwork copyrights belong to their respective artist and the predictions listed here were from here.
Lunar new year. The rants of an ingrate Chinese
An AK-74, best crowd clearance weaponry pity I don't own one....
Like every year I will be returning to my hometown for the new lunar year AKA Chinese new year. The very journey itself is rather perilous due to the high volume of travelers at this time of the year. It can be sometimes equate to the mass migration animals in Africa, at least that’s the case for China. Though that doesn’t mean Malaysia is not without it’s problem.
Travel plans have to sometimes be made 6 months in advance to ensure a smooth journey home at a reasonable price. Though do you know what is the greatest and most horrible thing that one may encounter on such a journey?
- Nay it is not the canceled flights.
- Nay it is not the fickel weather that hampers thou’s quest.
- Nay it is not the sickness that may strike you down!
- But the horrible thought of sitting next to a crying baby for for the next 3 f**king hours! Given the choice, a car ride through a minefield would be a blessing! At least it is out of your control but with crying babies, one cannot do anything but bear with it! Oh please mighty forces of the void! Do not condemn me to such a horrible fate!
Now I know how Hannibel Lecter felt! The journey back for me, is equate to fighting my way through barrage of idiots! Especially the nitwits who do not know how to calm their babies!
So how long will I be there? A week. No doubt it would be nothing except meaningless visits to relatives whose names I don’t even bother to remember because of how insignificant they are to the schemes of things except for themselves. Almost all of them cannot remember mine as well so it evens out.
For my chinese compatriots, I wish you a safe journey home. Especially my friends from my last companies Runge, Intel and Agilent. This is the time of the year I dread most, the journey back……
AFA X 2010 Singapore Day 3 (cosplay report!)
And here we have the final installment for AFA X cosplay report! So enjoy the photos~~~!!
If you just want to read about the day event then go here though please forgive the short report as I didn’t attend most fo the events that day and instead focused more on the cosplay.
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