And what would an afternoon swim in what’s been the among the driest month in years be without some poolside humor? :)
Yeah Matt swam as well. He’d been wanting to give the pool a go for a while now, and finally got round to it that day.:)
Sandie – Matt’s wife – picked up some new clothes for Hannah, and here’s our baby wearing them. Hannah looks like a little American cheerleader lass now, though she couldn’t quite adjust comfortably to the head band.:)
It didn’t take long for her to take off the band and started chewing on it.:)
Matt was using a Nikon D90 with his 35mm f1.8, and myself the D300 with the Sigma 24-60mm f2.8. Different lenses not withstanding of course, the flash settings and DSLR modes we used were roughly similar but the results turned out rather differently.
Mine’s the first set below:
And Matt’s:
And just for fun: of Matt shooting Hannah.:)
Every other day there’ll be photographic events organized and posted up on Clubsnap, with the subjects of photography in one room at least typically young female models, and not always fully clothed but in lingerie and bikinis. I remembered these amateur model photoshoots were actually reported in The Straits Times a couple of months ago, and there was some bad publicity surrounding some of these photo shoots with some persons I think asking aloud if some of these amateur photographers participating in these events had sleazy intentions. While Matt was in Labrador Park last week, he encountered one such event with a young female model being followed by seven photographers around the park, and texted me asking what was going on haha.:)
Anyway, we decided to pull our own TFCD (LOL) ‘model’ shoot at The Rivervale stunt, just for fun. The model? None other than our very own Hannah! Here’re the third-person behind-the-scenes pictures taken by Ling on that little Panasonic LZ8 compact.:)
Hannah gamely took up the challenge of posing for Matt and myself, and didn’t seem in the least perturbed by the three flashes constantly going off. I’ll put up the pictures tomorrow in a different post.
In the mean time, the whole experience was just outright hilarious, and Hannah’s mood willing, we’ll do this again very soon.:)
It’s extremely rare for Ling to show any interest in the lenses I use when it comes to taking pictures. So it came as surprise to me when she took a look at some pictures I took of Hannah yesterday evening, expressed surprise at how amazing the shots looked and asked what lens was used:
The lens belongs to Matt, and is the Nikon 35mm f1.8G DX and for cropped sensors a fairly recent release from Nikon actually. Prior to coming to Singapore and earlier this year, Matt actually asked if I’d to buy a copy of the lens too for him to bring here too but I declined then. While I don’t have a lens capable of shooting at 35mm @ f1.8, I thought the Sigma 24-60mm f2.8 I normally use for indoor and Hannah’s pictures would cover any intended use of the 35mm.
Well, I got to eat my words now: the lens is simply superb! Even Ling was bowled over at its color reproduction and how much detail the lens could resolve (“Wah… can see the detail in the cushion cover!!”). And when I told her it was a lens the lens costs about USD200, she said “buy buy buy!!”, and even suggested buying it from Matt haha!
Matt isn’t a stranger to seafood here in Singapore: there’s an entry he wrote for our blog here more than three years ago tucking into Jumbo Seafood, with photographic evidence to boot. This time round, Matt was taken to seafood dinner by Tchung and Jasmine on Sunday – and that restaurant that’s named after a certain English footballer, “Owen Seafood”.
This restaurant’s a pretty popular spot among Singapore foodies (the Foo clan at Lentor is no exception). One of the really special things about this restaurant, or the place it’s located at rather, is that the seafood comes live and off a multilevel bazaar comprising huge water tanks. Basically, you pick which critters you want for dinner, and half an hour later, voilà – they’ll be on your table, all cooked and ready for you to tuck in. Some of those critters are freakin’ big, as in mutant-size huge. I wonder are they really open for sale and consumption, or are those really just intended as museum artifacts LOL.
No complaints about the food too: it’s as good as ever. We had chili and black pepper crabs, coffee pork ribs that were so good we ordered a second plate of, minced beef toufu and other veggies.
One thing though: the place, or heck the entire Turf City, looks a little rundown and in dire need of a major renovation effort. The pictures turned out pretty alright though on Matt’s D90 DSLR, coupled with the Tokina 11-16mm f2.8. Great lens, tack sharp wide-open.:)
In all my years of fumble and folly, I have locked myself out of many places: my car, my house, my office, even my bathroom. Today, however, I managed to lock myself in.
Preparing to leave Yang and Ling’s condominium late yesterday morning, it became evident that I had lost track of the house keys Yang passed me. One key is paired to the front door, the other key is paired to the iron gate clasped to the external frame encasing that door. Opening the front door from the inside is obviously not a problem. However, opening the locked iron gate without a key is a non-starter. Having left earlier in the morning for their respective workplaces, Yang and Ling took with them, quite naturally, the only remaining keys. I was trapped!
I never tire of explaining to friends the safety and security I experience in Singapore, often conjuring exaggerated circumstances under which, comparative to the US or elsewhere, I’d be a dead duck, yet in the assuring confines of Singapore one’s safety is practically guaranteed. But one thing is for sure: If you lose the spare set of house keys, they’ll lock your ass up.
With William Wallace’s last-breath cry of “Freedom!” reverberating through my bones, I faced, by means of my own stupidity, the not-so-proverbial rusty cage that imprisoned me and my people — except Irish, not Scottish. Just beyond the reach of my outstretched arms: my shoes, the elevator, the neighboring children’s bicycles . . . roti prata.
A stiff wave of panic enveloped me. Before the US consulate could return my phone call, Yang caught up with me online on MSN. We felt certain the house keys fell out of my pocket while riding in the front seat of the car the night before.
“Listen, buddy,” he wrote, “it doesn’t look like you’re getting out of there until Ling returns home from work. I’m sorry.”
“That’s OK,” I wrote.
“As you know, you have plenty of bak kwa there, and if you like go ahead and order McDonalds in, or a pizza. They should be able to stuff the food through the gate rungs.”
“I just might do that.”
“But, in the meantime . . . Look, I’ve read studies on incarceration.”
“Oh?” I replied in surprise.
“Yes, it’s very important for you to keep busy, or else you’ll rot away into nothing.”
“Is Ling returning home sometime within the next decade?” I asked.
“Oh, yes, yes, of course. But still, we should be proactive.”
“What do you have in mind?”
Yang hesitated. “I think the marble floors could use a mopping.”
“Oh really?”
“Yes, I’m sure of it. You’ll find the necessary supplies in the storage closet. While you’re doing that, I’ll contact the warden.”
“The warden? You mean the landlord, right?”
“Yes, I meant the landlord. . . . Bye for now.”
With Yang’s helpful advice in mind, I took to my task. He was right, I’d decided, it really is best to have a clean prison cell to inhabit. And the work helped quell the pity for the self and the pangs of hunger quaking throughout my body.
Not long after completing my task, Ling sent me a text message. I rushed to my notebook to give Yang the news.
“Yang,” I wrote, “Ling just texted me saying she found the keys in the car! They’d fallen out my pocket into the front passenger seat, just as I expected.”
“Great news, buddy,” he replied. “Did you mop the floor?”
“Yes, it looks fabulous.”
“Great. Ling should be there within the hour. Tell me, buddy, how do the windows look?”
“I’m logging off.”
Soon after Ling arrived home to free the incarcerated ang moh, carrying with her little Hannah, an armful of various food, and, of course, the spare keys.
“I have brought your rations,” she said, smiling. “Wait — have these floors been mopped?”
“Um, yes, Yang thought it would be good if—“
“Oh! Yang is clever one. This happens every time!”
“What, you mean this has happened before?” I asked.
She remained silent and set about preparing Hannah’s afternoon bath. I chose to leave well enough alone, for clemency had been grant and there was food to be eaten in the kitchen. And after all, I had learned an important life lesson today: To get the most out of Singapore’s tourism catchphrase, “Uniquely Singapore,” one need but remember the spare house keys.
One of the restaurants that the both of us have liked a lot and got onto on our mission check list to fatten Matt up was the Sweet Spring dim-sum eatery at AMK Hub. After work last evening, I swung by to pick all three persons up – Ling, Matt and little Hannah – got into the usual heavy and slow traffic along Avenue 5, but otherwise reached the mall uneventfully close to 7 pm.
We’ve blogged about the restaurant here before; while the dim sum range itself isn’t quite as wide compared to Crystal Jade Kitchen, what they’ve got, they sure do it very well! The spicy wantons remain my favorite (Ling prefers the chive vegetable dumplings) as do the steam barbequed pork buns. Unfortunately, the latter was sold out by this time of the hour, though we did tell Matt a return trip on his own is really worth it considering the taste of those buns. Absolutely yummy.
We rounded off dinner with a trio of desserts: of which the mango pudding mix was easily the most impressive of the lot. We had no idea the size of this particular item was more than the other two desserts put together, and between just Ling and myself there’s no way we could had finished the mountain. But we had Matt, of course.:)
Hannah was pretty well-behaved throughout, grumbled just a mite but certainly nowhere near the roof-shaking dins she’s capable of.:)
Well, after maybe more than half a dozen flight itinerary changes that started after the North-East region of American was blanketed in snow, the Ang Mo Dude is finally back. 4 days later than planned that resulted in the cancelation of the Bali and Penang segments of his stay, and departing a week earlier too, but there’s no stopping him ripping through roti-pratas now.:)
Proof of life:
Yeah Hannah looks more interested in Matt than the lens!
Nicely too; Matt’s flight landed in Singapore 30 minutes earlier at 0523, which made it possible for us to make a quick trip home after picking him up for Hannah to get fed – she was getting cranky, since she normally doesn’t wake up quite so early.:)
It has been two months since Hannah started her weekday morning infant care at Punggol. She has adapted extremely well to the environment and is familiar with all her care-givers. However, she always cry when she sees me at the usual 2.30pm pick-up time. She will only stop when I carry her.
For the record, she came down with a mild flu and diarrhea throughout the period of infant care. So far so good I’d say. I was informed by her principal that she’ll be promoted to the mobile group next week as she has been crawling quite well. This means that she will have more space to roam and roll and interact with other mobile babies. I just hope that she won’t hit other babies or ‘fight’ for toys.
Last Friday was the first time I had to stay back in school to finish setting two test papers. So it was the first time Hannah was left at her infant care center for the whole day. Yang could synchronize his timing with ours and hence he picked both of us up. Yay. He took a few photos of Hannah at the center with his D300 as well. :)
1:25 pm update: Matt’s coming earlier – Yay! He managed to bring his flight forward by 5 days, so he’ll be arriving on Tuesday early morning now.:)
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