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DCM Bird Photography Workshop

I went to a photography workshop at the KL Bird Park, near Lake Garden somewhere in the middle of KL. We (me, KY and my dance studio's principle, Uncle Alex) went there around 8.45am after having our breakfast in brickfields area. The turn up was superb, I could see people... people with big camera(s) walking around holding their monopods. Aren't this for newbie like me??...........

The event started off with the introduction from the DCM's editor followed by a presentation by the first speaker, god knows his name.. lol, we were taught the basics (shutter/aperture/exposure) and slowly exposed to some practical examples.. now, the best part is.. to actually go take pictures in the bird park.. Canon (M) actually provided few bodies and a line of lenses to loan during the shoot out.. I was lucky to get a white telephoto lens, 70-200mm f4L USM to try out... the optic quality is just amazing!!

1/45secs, at F/4.0, ISO 400

1/350secs, at F/4.0, ISO2001/125secs, at F/4.0, ISO2001/350secs, at F/4.0, ISO4001/250secs, at F/4.0, ISO100
1/500secs, at F/4.0, ISO200
1/750secs, at F/4.0, ISO200
What are you looking at?!

*more photos -will soon to be- in photo page

The whole thing finishes close to 5, after the prize presentation for the photography of the day.. we got ourselves EF Lens Work III book and a miniture model of EF 600mm lens which costs more than a MYVI lol.. we went back to studio in Bangsar to get our car.. but ended up in the studio to practice our routine and our former dance instructor, Brenda asked us to wait for her and invited us over to her house for dinner.. close to 6, we left studio and go 'bai nian' at Uncle Ben and Aunty Lenny's place first.. the house is huge and comfy, a mixture of western and oriental feel to it.. although it wasn't as casual, coz it was our first time there and it was pretty awkward.. I had a few oranges and 'rou gan'? .. I don't know how to pronounce it .. sat for 20-30mins then we chao..

next stop, brenda's house. It's an old apartment in Shah Alam.. although old but still feel cozy like what KY said.. she said her future house has to be at least like this.. if not better.. haha.. then comes the dinner.. there are 5 dishes all together, her mom's cookings are pretty different from my grandma's cookings but it was all okay.. after which I took my cam and shot a picture of the two, mother and daughter.. played awhile with my camera until when KY took out her cam....then when she opened the cap.... gosh! the lens filter was broken into pieces ..must be the accident drop during the workshop.. KY almost cried on the spot.. straightaway I took it out and clean the glass shatters so it wouldn' scratch the lens.. I really feel sad for her.. :(
We took off after awhile... sadden by the cam incident, I comfort her on the way home.. hopefully she's okay now..

Moments right after I reach my room, KY called me and said, "All roommates gone dy, later got firedrill! I scared to bath la".. lol so I asked her out to Oldtown... the date became a orgy when Gan, Abdul, Jasmyin and Richard hop into our car.. too.. we spend 'quality' time in Oldtown, drinks and pool.. then we balik to campus around 1+..

Kemaman!

*Warning* - lots' Images

Last weekend I was back in my hometown with KahYee (KY) for my dad's belated birthday on the Feb 8th.. when we reach Kuantan, we went straight to Megamall to get a cake for my dad. Then I drove straight back home to surprise my dad.. unfortunately he just went out for dinner with my two little brothers at KFC near my mum's place.. so we made a little detour back to town and greet my dad with his birthday cake hehehe.. boy, that dinner sure was tough for KY, my dad untalkativeness made her sit upright straight beside me while having her burger.. lol

So later that night after another dinner with my mum n dad.. we celebrated my dad's belated birthday..

my dad while having his piece of cake

The next day, we went down to Kemaman (Kmn) around 10+, after fetching my younger bro from school. My house was in a total mess when we reached, as the work of repainting the whole house is in progress.. stuffs were everywhere, hehe.. after a few rounds of introduction of KY to my grandparents we had our PRE-lunch at home..

grandma and grandpa..

then set off to visit a temple where used to be KY's heaven during her National Service (NS) days.. where they could shop for food/basic necessities every weekend at the nearby minimart.

KY with the background of a old cinema which was turned into a snooker center..

the temple entrance

behind the temple lives the giant fish.. it's huge.. was there since I was little.. and it's still there now.. lol I think length around 8-9 feet long..

BIGGEST drawback of dSLR.. you can't preview and compose, sigh.. taking self pics are not-a-dSLR thing..

Next stop was the Taman Persiaran Cukai..

After that, we went halfway Kijal to get some fresh Lemang to makan.. then back again to town for some coffee at Hai Peng Coffee Shop.. I think, I forgot the sequence of the events but later we dropped by at Taman Rekreasi Bakau Tinggi where we took few photos..

some trees do have some weird names tho..

my little brother followed us on our trip.. posing maut!

Went back after that, KY went to nap while I helped out my grandpa with the house chores.. I really pity my grandparents and hope to come back early before CNY to help out in the cleaning up.. sigh..
We set off to Kuala Kemaman after that for our dosage of Otak-Otak and Sata (Yes, 'Sata' without the 'r') and bought some souvenirs for KY's parents. Straight after that I drove down to Cheneh NS camp so KY could take a peek at her old haunting ground.. sad we weren't allowed to go in.

Later that night, I brought everyone down to Simple which serves -good- nasi lemak.. had nasi lemak and kunyit too, KY missed the opportunity to try nasi dagang hehe.. it was already sold out when we got there.. 2 hours later, we went out again to a restaurant built above water near the bakau tinggi area.. as KY said, the setting was almost perfect.. creates the mood for late supper :D

Photo before goin' to bed..

Next day, we went to have curry mee as breakfast.. then to pasar to get some ketupat, pulut n stuffs to try on.. I can't believe KY never tried ketupat! OMG.. lol, and KY bought more souvenirs for parents..

Awana Kijal was our last stop in Kmn. Brought KY and my brother there to take photos and walk walk.. played on the beach just only awhile then we had to rush back already.. packed our stuffs around 4.30 where we set off back to KL, reaches Klang around 9++.. pass the keropoks.. had dinner and came back to campus...

Relaxing trip I would say.. I get to see my family for the weekend, I'm happy coz I didn't miss my dad's birthday this year.. hopefully next year and the following too. And thanks dear for being there with me hehe.. hope you enjoy the trip.. :D

Yesterday I went to a theater performance with KY and Wee (KY's roomie). Reluctant at first, confused and not interested, but being dragged to the show.. although at first ultimately would just to accompany KY and Wee.. as the show starts, I would tell myself not to laugh if it's too lame.. but to my surprise the show wasn't that bad, it's nice and has good theme song to go along with.. soon as the show progress.. with a few emotional scenes..I realized I was wrong.. and I'm thankful that I was brought to watch such drama.

It was my first time that I actually went to such places, the KL Old City Hall, opposite of Merdeka Square, and to watch a Cantonese Drama. The scene of the front desk, ticket booth.. I felt like I'm in Hong Kong for a period, everyone speaks in Canto and I couldn't find a single soul who's not chinese there.. haha, partly because it's a Canto drama lol.. So 3 of us secured our sittings, first row from the stage to the right side. My view was partly covered by the props during the show.. but that's only a minor thing really...

Overall, the story line was okay.. it was all set back to a guy (main character) who was forced to get married for the benefits of family business. He ran away from home (Macau) and headed straight to Sarawak/Sabah to meet his father.. as soon as he arrived he found out his father has been living in a rural area (long house) in the forest, nothing like the lifestyle he's in.. when he arrived his father was away in the forest so he had to spend time with his step mother and his aiya brothers and sister.. he struggled at first but slowly learn that the love and passion that these families in long house gave him throughout his stay was the things he has been missed all this while.. later, fast forward towards the end, his father didn't return home after all.. he was killed by natural disasters (I ain't sure what is it).. so sad and disoriented, he begged to the tok guru to bring him to the underworld to at least to meet his father.. after the reunion then he realized how lucky he is to have such father and mother.. he accepted the death and he promised to live to the fullest.. in the end he followed his mother back to Macau.. and lives happily ever after.. without forgetting his step mother and aiya brothers/sister here in S'wak.

Wee and KY have to become my part-time translator and narrator for me.. sometimes they spoke too fast I couldn't catch a single word they said.. One thing that I really salute these actors are.. the tears that they shed are.. real.. tears.. I was sitting in the front row and I saw clearly the tears coming out of their eyes... they put lots effort into this play and I actually envy them.. the drama taught me many things that we used to neglect in life.. like even our own family.. It reminds us that if it wouldn't because of our father and mother.. we wouldn't be here.. so we should really be thankful and appreciate what have been given to us.. some things in life won't be here forever.. like our parents and family.. so cherish your moments and treat them nicely sincerely from your heart..

When it comes to expressing myself, I always had problems.. to the extend of even just writing a blog post, I'll take ages to come up with words.. I don't know why but it's just me.. many people has no problems expressing themselves even including those quiet ones, I know a few who could write dozens of posts everyday but quiet in RL. I'm actually more of the opposite, sigh..

This period could be one of those depressing periods at certain points in my life.. It turns out that I have many hi-bye friends but not a single good friend to share things with. It is true that when I think back that I never stay with one friend long enough to be close enough..

One of the times that I really really shared my life story was during the OC binding last year.. it took me a lot of courage cos I'm not keen at first to tell.. I don't feel comfortable to tell, i have a feeling that they might not want to hear my ramblings and what not..

had a chat with kahyee yesterday and I found out I didn't put much effort in making friends as much as others do.. and for a change, I think i should already.. graduating soon doesn't really help the situation either, i couldn't imagine the boring working world with no one to hang out with other than the other hipokrits in office..

New Year Wishlist!

D Day is drawing near.. it's coming to the end of 2nd semester, here I am pondering at some videos which I find it very interesting.. check this out, the "bachata" dance. It belongs more to the salsa family, not part of the standard latin-ballroom dance. It's pretty cool, and they were only doing the basics..



Also, I just got myself freakin' legendary a 50mm f1.8 lens! hehehe.. now, what's left is another external flash and a standard zoom... have been looking for the flashgun for some time already, couldn't buy new one as new one costs a bomb, therefore have to resort to 2nd hand ones. So my wish list for the new year are as follows; (so ppl, start saving money ya! I'm expecting 'em! :P)

Canon EF 50mm f/1.8 II

Speedlite 580ex

and the lens I hope to get in a year or two time.. Canon EF 24-105mm F4.0L IS USM.... weeeeeeeee!!!

My families...

My family..
Since my grandpa's incident, I believe my family got together really well.. although it's not as perfect as others but I really appreciate them.. the last sem break, I got myself a 400D dSLR which I wanted since 3years ago (since 300D era) thanks to my grandma who supported me financially.. My dad, got me a car to drive, he called again just now, and asked how's the car, (the car was a flash-flood victim two weeks ago at studio, whole interior carpet was soaked in mud) and he said he might get me a wira instead.. oh well, doesn't really matter actually, I'm really thankful to have him supporting me 'til so far now. And my mom who made me two pants which are still in Ktn, yet to be taken... It's not the things they supported me physically but the love they shower.. I've been calling home quite often lately just to ask how are things goin'.. feeling abit homesick already.. although I've been away-from-home longer than this but I've never felt this before.. maybe b'coz I really miss them very much this time..holidays coming soon, hope to spend all my time at home..

My dance family..
What keeps me going back to the studio is because of the bond we have with our studio mates. There are Derek and Stephanie, David and Cathy, Kim and Samantha and of course Kahyee :). I really appreciate what we have now in studio, like the times when Cathy bought us a cake just to celebrate our achievements for the competition even though it's just the 4th placing... and the time where we sit down and chit-chat about almost everything.. and that sit-down-and-chat period was even longer than our class lol. We're planning to go down Salsa club down in KL tomorrow night to have fun, all thanks to event organizer Wee Hong that got us together. One thing I'm proud to be part of this class is 'coz we help each other a lot and we could get along pretty well unlike.. I don't know, other classes that doesn't have the bond as strong as ours. Too bad our former instructor didn't get to join us already, Brenda, she's a good instructor who taught us our basic social dances. Also, not to forget Uncle Terrence who chases us for fees all the time, WeeHong who helped me a lot in many things, and Uncle Alex, who's crazy enough to drop by Putrajaya around midnight to take photos of the Putrajaya Mosque. Last but not least, thanks kahyee for being my partner.. would really appreciate it, couldn't have all these without you.. *hugs*

My OC family..
I felt really bad didn't join them for the whole 3days period in PD, so was kahyee. So we woke up early 5.30am in the morning just to drive down to PD and surprise 'em! I took some pictures, and took the courtesy to entertain them with my singing early in the morning lol.. too bad we couldn't stay for long as we had another function later on that day.. actually kinda' regretted that we didn't stay back hehe.. hope to spend more time with the people there.. although the time we spent at the rented bungalow was short but we had a few rounds of karaoke, a few rounds of jenga, UNO and chor tai deess. Now I know that..
1. shuk sings really well
2. jasmyin shouts like nobody's business.. without reason..
3. gan sucks at Uno
4. das goin' after xiang
5. zeek never stops farting (even when he sleeps)
6. nicky is the chef of the family
the list goes on...
I really had fun and it was a very relaxing trip for me.. if the next trip I could help, I would hehe..

.... and those were the days, my friend.