Turn of Events

Recent turn of events:
2 days ago - sprained ankle
1 day ago - broke a spoon scooping icecream, cut myself
today - tried to knock in the 3pin plug but ended up slicing the skin at my knuckles

I still wonder why the spoon could snap into half easily. Plus, its brand new from the cup+spoon xmas present mayyi gave. Hm.

photojourn

I'm not taking advanced photojournalism (:

Learn nothing, waste time, lousy grades.

On the other hand, I'm quite happy about the rest!




Nikon FE2 / 85mm f1.4 / Portra 400 VC

I like old bicycles (: I remember the dog being in focus though, prolly didn't focus well while digitising it.

Sprained

I sprained my ankle, for the third time, at the Night Safari yesterday. Haha (:

Liftoff

At the airport, I fired quite a few shots, not realising that I had switched off A mode and my shutter speed was stuck at 1/500. Five shots were wasted.

After realising my mistake, I retook this shot:

budget terminal by cherieamour on Zooomr

The original was a much better angle but I was already in the queue and unable to move backwards.

Anyway, the yellow cast present is also seen in the next few photos. I wonder why (:


tiger air by cherieamour on Zooomr

Through the foggy window and the rain.


plane wing by cherieamour on Zooomr

I'm always sitting at the wing... BTW, I don't like this new shop. Lots of dust and scratches, a big disappointment. Shall try the kodak shop next to it.


outside window by cherieamour on Zooomr

Touchdown. The buildings in the background are part of Macau's skyline. However, due to either my shaky hands or lousy focusing, its blur :P


I must admit I'm unhappy using the D80 to digitise my negatives, however the budget does not allow for a good scanner yet.

bicycle2 by cherieamour on Zooomr

Nikon FE2 / 85mm f1.4 / Portra 400 VC


I woke up to xmas with pain in my throat. Yesterday's celebration was too much work for the sick.

Hope popo likes her macau photos from sis and i (:

scared

I'm scared.

I don't know how long Billy has left to live. I see hamsters of flickr friends dying ): And I don't even know how old Billy was when he came to live with us.

But Billy has an irrepressible will to escape and I'm sure that applies to living too (: Shall spend more time with him.

Shyam

Here's some information relevant to my PI at SPH:

"However, if you have any issues or complaints to bring up, you may want to send an email directly to your tutor rather than record them in your logbook. If your NTU tutor is not contactable, and you need to speak to someone urgently, please contact... for assistance."

My tutor is Shyam, of photojournalism. Good gosh, will I ever be able to contact him?

Ha.

Macau Hat

The Macau hat:









Only the unsporting wife will not wear the hat. She has no sense of family!

P.S. I love Rihanna's cd (: Yay!

Lala

Hodeeho (: I have gotten back my latest slides from the CL! Their fine, but looking at some of them just makes me think of how irritated I was, not being able to focus close enough. I HATE THAT! I wonder if I'll ever get used to that moot point rangefinders have.

Otherwise, bokeh's looking good, and velvia, as usual, makes EVERYTHING look good (: I love velvia. Maybe I should start looking at other chromes...

AND!

I got the x'mas presents ordered from USA, the fella ordered the wrong thing for my mom which is making me want to tear my hair out, but I have to resist, seeing as how my hair has been dropping of its own accord.

I AM ANGRYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY!! So angry that I have to use caps and drag out letters. What do I do now! ):

Oh well.

Anyway, up later will be a series of photos taken in Macau. Quite a few, in fact (:

The Day Before

The day before going overseas, we left our hamsters in the care of my aunt.

Whom I thought loved hamsters, but that was apparently more than 10 odd years ago.

I'm thankful that all were healthy and alive when we got back though (:


DSC_4901 by cherieamour on Zooomr

Bitchy w Cowboy, the only crazy and awake hamster in the afternoon.


DSC_4902 by cherieamour on Zooomr

The other grandma, which Bitchy says looks like Cruella de Vil. There is a certain resemblance. She is senile, and keeps insisting my Dad hasn't given over her monthly allowance.


DSC_4906 by cherieamour on Zooomr

Her poison. Apologies for the blur, I tried to be sneaky and mf wasn't accurate (:

More photos when I have the time.

CD, trip

I've got about 8 new CDs with some being doubles to sort out, it gives me a break from unpacking which is great cos I've been feeling under the weather.

Macau was an ok-only trip, Dad, bitchy and I fell sick. Which is bad, cos Dad never ever catches a cold, and I never ever get dizzy, weak and aches everywhere.

Bitchy had a leaking nose, which happens almost always in cold weather for her, but Dad and I had really lousy sleep (or almost no sleep) for the 6 days which kinda killed our immune system. The wife snored like a wailing system and grandma kept tossing and turning really loudly and coughing and blowing her nose and waking up really early and making lots of rustling noises. UGHHHHHHHHHHHH. BTW, I think she may have sleep apnea seeing the above, and the fact that she has very troubled breathing at night... should go see a doctor for that.

I think old age is really catching up on her, she was fine when we traveled together in the past, and the times bitchy and I used to sleep over.

Shall not say anymore, lots of occurrences during the trip were already earlier expected.

Anyway, there were some beautiful (and new) things we saw during the trip which we did not see previously. Will upload photos soon.

Macau

Flying off tomorrow.

I was thinking of trying my luck at gambling, but the wife says we're not allowed to spend there, so much for changing currency.

Wonder what I'll do there... and wonder if grandma's gonna be fine as my family walks so much overseas it could be counted as training for a marathon.

Anyway, I got my Velvia back from Fotohub, and I'm loving the colours (: Bokeh for the Nokton is also fine with me despite what others say.

Will upload the photos when family's back from the trip. Will not be bring the CL as... bringing a new camera on each trip we go is not a good thing, haha!

It started with:
UK - Olympus P&S
Bangkok & South Africa - Nikon D80 and above
Canada - Nikon FE2 and above
Macau - Leica CL and above? HAHA! The old man's not gonna be happy.

I see a disconcerting trend now... from the compact to the dslr... and backwards I go into film with the slr and rangefinder.

Next will be a tlr, I can't wait hehe (:

Meet Tofu!

Meet my new coinbank, Happy Tofu! (:

Inside his plastic tofu container...

DSC_4896 by cherieamour on Zooomr

His name is bean curd?

DSC_4898 by cherieamour on Zooomr

I think that's sort of his birth certificate (:

DSC_4900 by cherieamour on Zooomr

There he is, ready to start ingesting coins into his tofu tummy!

DSC_4899 by cherieamour on Zooomr

BAH

I don't know whether to feel consoled upon seeing lousy photos (taken by others) using rangefinders. Cos its not consoling.

I dislike not having "what you see is what you get" and the distortion when you tilt the camera, as the frames do not always show you what gets on the film.

More cons appear with RF. Where are the pros when you need them?

Perhaps when I get the latest roll of velvia developed I'll feel better (:

Little Red Dress

WALAU!

is all I can say.

The Little Red Dress photo competition is apparently in collaboration with my school?

http://www.flickr.com/photos/32186419@N03/3010654064/

Where can I find a little red dress? I have many little black dresses... and recently, just one little red dress. My goodness! I cannot conceptualise any thing in my brain regarding a little red dress...

Little red dress little red dress little red dress little red dress

Yesterday

Yesterday, I saw the most beautiful thing I'd seen in a long time.

My heart stilled, for a moment.

A Leica CL in a perfect unmarred black coat stared back at me, making me long to run my fingers down its smooth body.

AGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH. Its more beautiful than an M2 could be. I still think of it... (:

Anyway, got the slides yesterday. I'm glad to say that MY CL meters perfectly. I shall console myself with the knowledge that mine is working fantastic, even if it might not resemble a newborn baby.

Used Fuji Velvia 100F, the colours were stunning as usual. Sad to say, when I used Prince Hairy to digitise them (apologies in advance for lousy focus), he couldn't bring out the colours the way they really were!

Anyway, here's most of what was taken. Some photos were burnt out cos I opened the camera to look at the battery haha (:

First shot was the bitchy.


sis cut off by cherieamour on Zooomr

She doesn't like being in front of the camera - I guess many people conscious about their looks aren't.

I don't know what happened here (cos nothing is in focus haha!) but the blurred parts look nice to me (: We were waiting for Lily at Bugis MRT.


bugis mrt blur by cherieamour on Zooomr

Then we went to eat steamboat!


lily at steamboat by cherieamour on Zooomr

Tada, Miss Lily and our uncooked food. V thin DOF as the lighting was bad and ISO was low... But I still love velvia (:

Burnt photo here. That's my bag... and a really cute cupcake I gave my student for Children's Day. I'm not used to the fact that RFs can't focus close-up.


bag at piano by cherieamour on Zooomr

On Saturday, went film shooting with YS (:

Here's the fella who escaped from jail (names evade me).

jackass by cherieamour on Zooomr


jackass 2 by cherieamour on Zooomr

I really liked the flower below (: And its blur because I didn't focus well on the slide.


flower on wall by cherieamour on Zooomr

I'd really love to go inside the vintage shops one day (:


jap vintage by cherieamour on Zooomr

I wonder if these kids were trying to colour code on that day. Thought it was something only couples would do.


girls at haji lane by cherieamour on Zooomr

Wanted to take the guy inside the door, but it was dark inside. And he was dark-skinned, which didn't help.


red door by cherieamour on Zooomr

I'm beginning to see my photos in a new light. Hurried photo-taking which resulted in lousy compositions. Disappointment. Perhaps, not used to the framing was a contributing reason too.


street shadows by cherieamour on Zooomr

Hehe, check out the blue of his shirt! Is that velvia at work? :P The trolley thing is the exact colour I remembered though.


trolley ys haji lane by cherieamour on Zooomr

Composition with chairs...

chairs man haji lane by cherieamour on Zooomr


chairs car haji lane by cherieamour on Zooomr

Along the road


debris roadside haji lane by cherieamour on Zooomr

While I was taking this photo, YS took a photo of me, haha! Will upload that soon.
I have no idea what I thought when taking this. Its so random!

street angles by cherieamour on Zooomr

Pretty curtains

bead curtains haji lane by cherieamour on Zooomr

Wanted to test bokeh here

bokeh haji lane by cherieamour on Zooomr

Burnt out, and overexposed. Bit of salvage done for colours here.


mosque by cherieamour on Zooomr

On the slides for this one, the orange and red lines were so saturated and fantastic. Here, not so much ):


construction by cherieamour on Zooomr

A pretty yellow door (:


yello door by cherieamour on Zooomr

I'm beginning to wonder if the framelines in the CL are a bit wonky cos some shots are coming out differently from the compositions I did.

Litter


can by cherieamour on Zooomr

YS at Haji Lane. He looked very orange here - I doubt its velvia though - so I desaturated it a bit.

YS haji lane by cherieamour on Zooomr

Ending with my bedtime companion, Hippoo.


hippoo by cherieamour on Zooomr

Will be updating my other blog again. Remember to visit here!

**Reminder to self - stock up on more velvia.

I am sad because I know I didn't complete the 8 runs. Just like Inspector Clousseau said to 006, I'm one short of the big time.

Okay, not the big time, but the teeny goal I set (: I will endeavour to run though. Just that when I go shooting, my legs can't seem to take much more. Haha!



This here's a big horn sheep. When I was in Jasper, a woman told me she'd love to see one. The day before taking this, I caught a glimpse of one bounding high up in a mountain meadow, just a tiny dot to my eye.

We were pretty lucky to catch a bunch of them sunning themselves in the afternoon. I still am disappointed that we didn't see a moose in daylight though.

I wonder...

I wonder if I should save up for a Leica lens. I've heard quite a bit about their lenses, and especially that its their lenses and not cameras (although darn, they sure are sexy cameras) which are fantastic

However, I'm quite satisfied (and lazy) with my 40 f1.4, and should I get another lens, its prolly a 12 or 15mm voigtlander (: what to do? :P

And I gotta say, I love my FE2 a lot compared to the CL... Gotta start getting out with it more!

X'mas gifts

Note to self:

Miss Ma, Bird, Date

Banilla Circus... Ballet stamps, Ninja post-its

Clothes

I wish I was a little kid again.


DSC_7985 by cherieamour on Zooomr

OOF, cos was worried parents would think I was a stalker, and anyhow MF! (:

Anyway! I hate sorting my wardrobe.

There's so much stuff! Mountain of jeans - I think I'm a closet jeans fanatic - yet I only wear my favourite pair all the time. Yet they've all been my favourite once upon a time (: So I can't bear to give them away.

And I found my favourite skirt today!!! Hidden among the countless jeans haha!! Was so happy (:

And I gave two pairs of Levi's to Dad. They were once my favourites... But I can't fit anymore into the first one (I think my butt grew) and the second one is a bit loose (my butt shrank?) haha!!! The old man was so mean. When he held up the first pair... he was like. You can fit in?! O__O I was like, yes, last time, haha. How sad :( It fit him perfectly, the butt-less man. He didn't want the second one cos it was loose for him too. But oh well, I told him if he won't take I'll give it away! Of course he won't give it away haha :P

I've finally went through almost all the pants... And I can't bear to give away a single pair ): not even those that are now too big for me... Or those I can't imagine wearing! Every one has a certain significance. I can imagine myself at 40 with a few mountains of clothes, and some of them from decades before (: I still have my primary 2 pants!!! :D

Okay, I'm so lazy to sort through skirts... But I have to ): Denim denim denim....




I have so many bottoms. When can I finally wear all of them?

Presents!

Hehe... I bought myself a christmas gift! (:

And I think it will arrive by christmas, hopefully.

Also got stuff for the bitchy, old man, the wife.

(don't my family members have weird names?)

Obama

I know that president elect, Obama, will do a great job compared to Bush.

But, cutting Y tax for low and middle-income workers? USA is already in such a huge budget deficit, they need money from taxpayers. Instead of relying on other countries to finance their debt. I don't know, guess I'll have to read up more on the stimulus plan.

Photos

An upload of photos (:

Firstly, let me say that, despite my fervent love of taking photos of food, I am often (actually always) too lazy to upload photos of them.

So, I am resigned to having a permanently dead food blog.

Here are some photos taken today...


DSC_4721 by cherieamour on Zooomr

Bear-Moo, from Canada, says hello!
If you're wondering about the name, its a half bear plus moose. The bear is the lump that the moose is currently sitting on (:


DSC_4725 by cherieamour on Zooomr

My old man, who was moving towards me so fast I cut off half the head haha! Luckily its still in focus...


DSC_4742 by cherieamour on Zooomr

The bitchy who always hides from the camera when she has no make-up on :P


DSC_4757 by cherieamour on Zooomr

End with a disgusting shot :D of the old man after drinking celery juice (mom pronounces it as see-leh-ree) with a celery mustache hahaha!!!!

All of the above taken with the 85mm f1.4 which was finally put into use after a long long long long slumber in the dry cabi. Its so beautiful! Shall put it to good use after the exams.

ANYWAY!!!! Please head over to http://jessicayeo.wordpress.com for the cutest photos ever of Cappuccino (:

Highlighter

I realised while studying halfway that I had neon yellow ink from the highlighter on my clothes, the cushion on the sofa (which I managed to wipe off or else Mom would kill me), my hands and my forehead even.

Hope that means I'm studying really hard.

Not, my highlighter is leaky or I just can't use one (:

I got a really cute shot of Cappuccino today who was doing the most absurd thing ever! Will upload later (:

Today wasn't that good a day.

I went to collect my mail at the PO, only to remember it had moved upstairs.

Went I reached the counter, the person asked me for my IC. I had been using my ezlink card all this time, and finally someone asks me for the IC. She insisted that she couldn't give me my mail as firstly the person only wrote Jess instead of my entire name, and my ezlink card didn't have the address.

So much for writing down the NRIC number when mails are collected.

Then I went down to the pet shop to get food for the hamsters, happily thinking along the way that it wasn't a good day and I wouldn't find what I wanted.

Lo and behold the big bag of Vitapol premium was not there. I spent at least 15 minutes looking at different bags wondering which brand to try.

Then after going home and finishing the lazy post, I decided hmmm shouldn't have the self-fulfilling prophecy and decided to go for a run.

Which was pretty good and I ran an extra round but in the middle of my run, I swiped at my cheek as perspiration was running down, and out came my nose stud. Which, being the teeny little thing it is, couldn't be found among the tiles.

FANtastic (:

I'm feeling great though hehe. Though I had to stuff back the old and bigger gold stud down my nose and it BURNED.

Lazy

I am feeling really lazy (:

Rushed home after the exam and... decided it was too hot to go running! So, I switched on the fan and used the Internet.

Then I decided I was feeling too lazy and moved to the recliner and was happily reading blogs (not studying) and now I feel like falling asleep.

But, I should be running. Should I? It's still hot! UGHHHHHHHHHHH how I miss the comfort of the air-conditioned gym ):

I shall stop blogging before I start ranting on how MUCH I miss the pool too..........

Silly

How silly can one get?

Apparently, very.

I've been looking high and low for a missing lens backside-cover... really looking. I've emptied drawers, searched shelves and cabinets. I even looked through my drycabi about thrice.

I had given up finding that cover, deciding that my poor ol' 50mm would have to be Prince Hairy's permanent mate.

And then, today, I decided to take the battery out of my Leica CL and put it together with my FE2's batteries.

Guess what I found? My batteries were all put in the plastic lens cover, and cos my brain had classified it into a battery holder a long time ago (instead of a lens cover), I just didn't notice it each time I looked through the drycabi!

Silly, silly, silly.

And I was looking over my Leica CL carefully too, and found out that someone had used some sort of black marker to cover the brassing all over.

I am rather miffed.

"Red Pointe Shoes" 27th August 08

"Red Pointe Shoes" 27th August 08, originally uploaded by peter_robin_hill.

I hope to dance ballet again, very soon.

Its just rather sad that the SPH internship has weird working hours, which might cause to me to miss a lot of lessons should I start learning now.

Aware

DSC_4430 by cherieamour on Zooomr

Are you Aware? Hehe (:

Visit the central National Library B1 before 23rd November to find out!

Anyway, I'm trying out Wordpress, so I will be uploading photos here and there.

Do visit in the meantime! (FatterBB's cute photos are up!)

http://jessicayeo.wordpress.com

Jap Essay

A bit of essay practice for today's jap exam (:

私の家族

私の家族は　よにんです。
りょうしんと　あねと　わたしです。
ちちとははは　４９さいです。
あねは　２２さいです。

りょうしんと　あねは　かいし¬¬やいん　です。
しごとは　げつようびと　きんようびです。
しごとは　９じに　はじまります、５じはんに　おわります。

まいにち　家族と　いつしょに　ホーカー・センターで　ばんごはんお　たべます。
ははの　りょうりは　とても　へたですから。
まいにちようび、家族と　いつしょに　レストランで　たべます。かぞくは　にほん　りょうりが　だいすきです。

りょこう

まいとし、かぞくと　いつしょに　りょこうへ　行きます。
去年　かぞくと　いつしょに　なながつに　みなみアフリカと　タイへ　行きました。

南アフリカは　すこし　さむかつたです。
そして　たかかつたです。
でも、とても　きれいでした。　
そして、おもしろかつたです。
りょこうは　たのしかつたです。
アフリカの　どうぶつえんは　とても　大きかつたです。
かぞくと　しやしんお　とりました。

タイは　バンコクへ　行きました。
バンコクは　すこし　あつかつたです。
でも、とてもおもしろかつたです。
そして、ホテルは　やすいでした。
バンコクは　とても　にぎやかでした。
タイじんは　とても　しんせつなひとでした。
かぞくと　シャツお　たくさん　かいました。
バンコクのシャツは　とても　やすかつたですから。
そして、バンコクのかばんは　とてもきれいでした。
わたひは　青いのかばんお　ひとつ　かいました。
りょこうは　とても　たのしかつたです。

Cappuccino

Little sweetie Cappu got a home upgrade today!

He's now living in a silver Habitrail with a little castle inside and he loves it! - the castle, not the cage.

Hope he likes his new home (: