(:

Wow, this is a bloody depressing blog (:

SO! I've been doing quite a bit lately...

Such as going out with my sister for an entire day and spending more than $200 on clothes, for a wardrobe which is filled to bursting point. Getting clothes in it involves a lot of pushing and shoving and perspiring. I guess shopping gives me a workout at home too. I've also been "spring cleaning" it, which basically involves pulling most everything out... and then deciding I want to keep 99%, of which i only wear 30%. I am somehow getting very worried about moving back to my homesweethome cos the wardrobe there is about... 1/2 of this one...

BUT anyway I've been up to some stuff (:

Such as knitting this hat for my dad:



I think he wanted a robin hood look here. And, he's wearing shorts yes.

I've also, lately, been wanting to tear out someone's hair. Specifically, someone from Ruby Photo (or who develops the film) cos this is what happened:



Its dreamy yes, but its also known as bad development.

I like to be positive though. I tell myself its another reason pointing me towards buying my own darkroom equipment. Hehe (:

Photos were taken at Borobudur, Indonesia.

I love the colours here:



The monster is unbelievable. I love it, i love it, i love it!



I don't know if I'd ever sell this camera. As much as I want a Hasselblad (just for its good looks)

And my favourite all-time monster photo:



The chendol man at Malacca!! This guy's chendol is unbelievable. Me and my dad we eat two or three each visit to the shop. Which probably explains why I leave Malacca scared of chendol hehe (: His stall is... I think a mangosteen or a coconut. Oh wait that was a decade ago ):

Wouldn't mind one now!

Mount Bromo at Twilight

Mount Bromo can be seen in this shot, it isn't blocked by Batok (: See the trail of steam from the crater? Sometimes when you're a lucky photographer, the entire valley is filled with mist and its a GORGEOUS view. I'm not that lucky after all (: BUT lucky enough to reach just before the sun came up, or I'd have killed my uncle HAHA.

Unfortunately, this photo is made up of two composited photos, as the sky was way too bright and I couldn't hold it back well enough with my 3-stop ND grad. Plus, I left my other ND grad at home, silly me. Oh well, time to get another Singh-Ray filter I guess (: Ha! And I met a caucasian at Mount Penanjakan who borrowed my filter and told me he was Galen Rowell's student. What a joker (: And his friend who was munching on a carrot said he's a rabbit. Ah well (:

More shots to come!

Horseriding at Mount Bromo

That's me trotting on a horse and trying to get a sharp and composed photo (: My horse was really small, and kept neighing and tossing its head (prolly angry with its bridle) and my lens kept bouncing on the saddle and I got kinda worried that my expensive B&W KSM CPL would eventually crack into millions of tiny pieces!

But it was impossibly fun, and beautiful in the stunning landscape (soon to be uploaded). It was really necessary to ride the horse to and fro to Mount Bromo, for the distance to walk is extremely far, followed by a long and tiring (or short yet very steep, how contradictory) climb up to look down into the crater.

The horse ride cost about 50,000 rupiah per person after bargaining, for a group of six. Highly recommended (: It was MUCH more fun than the sunrise at Mount Penanjakan, or even the view down from Mount Bromo.

Mount Bromo

I'm back from Indonesia, and this here's my second favourite place from the trip - Mount Bromo.

Well, technically not really Mount Bromo (: I just realised that from this view on Mount Penanjakan, I can only see Mount Batok (in the middle), the smoke from Mount Bromo which is entirely blocked (haha) by Batok, and Mount Semeru distant at the top right of the photo.

But it was really gorgeous and quite cold at the top, where I missed the change of colours in the sky before sunrise, partly due to my uncle who really moves at an impossibly slow speed. Sometimes I feel like killing him! I wonder how my aunt tahan-ed him for 30 years (: My tripod also failed on me countless times while I was trying to take steady photos, and my knee gave way on me many times afterwards from all the kneeling on the ground.

I also need to mention here that I took a butt-numbing 11 hour car ride from Yogyakarta to Bromo, and the air-con was not working throughout the sweltering journey. After reaching around 10pm, I had to leave the hotel at 3.30am for the sunrise. Was it worth it? Most probably yes, I did enjoy the scenery. I did feel that it was the surroundings (ie driving from Probolingo to Penanjakan) with its gorgeous colours and sprawling landscape that was a whole lot more stunning than the view of Bromo though (: Yes, such beauty does exist in Indonesia indeed!

More photos to be up soon.

(:

I'm gonna be MIA, flying to Borobodur today morning!

Some updates:

Went for the Stanchart 10k, courtesy of Stanchart (:

Was unprepared having caught the flu again and didn't train. Needless to say I feel some aches. I also found out that my running shoes were too small for distances > 7km and my toes felt like they were gonna fall off. Still do!

Anyway, got a few laughs with my 'words of encouragement' (:



Now its 1am and I'd better sleep or I won't be able to stay awake tomorrow in Indonesia hehehe (:

*Reminder to self, join half marathon.