the years gone by

Birthdays over the years
2008 - HK, had dinner alone in a little eatery near Fa Yuen St
2009 - nothing
2010 - Taitung to Hualien, Taiwan, with stupid

Christmas over the years
2008 - alone in sihanoukville, cambodia, in a quiet night
2009 - chiangmai with stupid
2010 - That elephant safari place, Sri Lanka, in an isolated resort with the scb folks

New Year over the years
2008/09 - nothing
2009/10 - Khao San Road, Bangkok, with ass and stupid and surrounded by 2000 ang mohs
2010/11 - on the plane from Colombo to Singapore with Jas and CJ

how $900 became $2972.80

money making is a vicious, vicious cycle

i'm going diving. Anilao, in Philippines. $900
And i thought, what a good place to venture into underwater photography!
so i sussed out a good deal. a little too good to be true. still it set me back by $1770.

however, with big things come big responsibility. i had to figure out some way to secure my entire rig to myself, in the event of inclement conditions in the sea. $75 + $5.50 + $3.50 + $1.80 = $95.80

and because i have more and more gear which requires more and more batteries, i had to go out and get some. $44

and battery chargers, of course. $140

and a long line of power sockets for the many chargers. $23

that's how a $900 trip turn into a $2972.80 hole.

refurnished whims

dive in a flag

travel

do it. shamelessly

talk to people

take photos

write about it

plans

inspired by fei's pics.

i want to climb everest base camp and mt kilimanjaro

need to get in shape.

how about i start writing?

i'm doing no justice to all my travels. memories are quickly fading away in absence of the permanence of words. photos are no good without captions, much less if they remain hidden and forgotten in the labyrinth of hard disks.

and write about my army life. time to do some scanning.

away

run and running ran away,
to where sorrow wept and lay,

and away

run.
away now, run away.
now run, away.
run away now.
run.

so long jimmy

james blunt is coming
and i'm going

noodles for thought

here i am, boiling a kettle of water at 3am to cook noodles.

here i am, a creature of the night, soaking up the silence that feeds a part of me.

and my noodles, soaking up the water that too feeds me;

i have no doubt as to which is the nourishment, or drug, which i seemingly live on.

.

how many 3ams have you seen?

Time

Time is a grasp of cold air in your hand, passing us by without moving.

Pete Souza

Chanced upon a documentary about the white house photographer Pete Souza while bumming at home today.. and it inspired me. he captured some great moments.

http://www.petesouza.com/index.html

hold it

i desperately hold my shit in as i think of the perfect album to play (or blast) as i savour the moment to come.

billy joel it is.

a red geordie

we're swapping torres for carroll and left with 10m for bak kwa.
this is historic.

m for million, in pounds. all 35 million of it.

i'm feeling really really sick.

good read

http://thoughtcatalog.com/2011/dont-date-a-girl-who-reads/

blinding light

the more you show, the lesser you are.

my deficiencies are glaringly highlighted each time i find works that i admire for hours on end. still not good enough. no where near in fact.

there will come a time when you find yourself opening up and awakening to another level. but not long after will you realise that you have in reality, and in the harshness of truth, barely progressed from where you originally stood.

recent dreams

i dreamt that i have a box filled with rolls of unused black and white film. i was excited.

i dreamt that there were a couple of fleas around me, and a tiny, toe size, rabbit next to me. in irritation from the fleas, i stamped on the rabbit and felt it's tiny skull under my shoe, before flicking it under the sofa with a sheepish smile.

some time ago, i dreamt that alex's brother, alvin, died in an accident and i was sad.

i dreamt of angel. a little surreal.

my life is dark and morbid.

3v2

played soccer today after months and months and it felt so good, despite being only 3 v 2, or playing with complete strangers, or the rain...

and despite the fact that i lao sai 3 times today, or that i've had the shits for almost 3 weeks now. 3 weeks!!! wtf...

Roy Hodgson

Roy Hodgson's pre-match interview:

"...if we could knock Manchester United out of the Cup on their home ground. It would be a remarkable coup."

a remarkable coup indeed.

no fuckin pride.

i've been through numerous frustrating spells of various liverpool managers and have stood by them all. if nothing, they had at least spirit and confidence in the last beaten team they had put out.

For once and hopefully the last, Roy, good riddance.

~~~~~~~~~~

Update:
Hours after this entry: Roy Hodgson was replaced by Kenny Dalglish.
Rob Hughes' column in Sunday Times also quoted Roy's 'remarkable coup' comment, thereby confirming what i've suspected all along, that I Am Awesome.

tart

kong xu

hollow.
very hollow.
and i know this feeling only too well.

really need a change, in all aspects.

what an ego day

funnie how things all come together sometimes.
suddenly received three different wedding photographer requests tonight; from zhiyong's sis-in-law joanne, iris - for her AD, and an overseas (!!) invite for diana's cousin's wedding in Kuching, Sarawak.

the words made me blush... shall allow my ego to float around for tonight.

I accepted iris' but humbly and regretfully declined the other two, honored as i am. i still feel bad for turning down yewjin some time ago too, but wedding dinners isn't really my cup of tea and not something i'm confident about. better not.

this one made me feel pro.. ahahah. and make me look forward to getting retrenched so that i have an inexcusable reason to do photography full time. hmmmm.
i'm feeling a lil sick today and yesterday though. zzz

Wing Thigh holdings

"one ayam penyet, take away. can you give me breast or thigh. thanks."

... short pause.

"you want drumstick? or wing?"

"no i want breast or thigh please."

his brows furrowed deeply.

"you want drumstick or wing?"

"no i want chicken breast or the thigh"

fed up, he...

"YOU WANT HAND".. slapped his arm.. "OR LEG??" .. slapped his huge ass.

unable to go on, i pointed to the nearest piece of chicken and said, "give me this"

he took a random piece of chicken and proceed to penyet it.

sorry

catch me as i fall
a star you said i am
in my fallen grace
hold me,
in safer hands

words

i miss writing.
words.
too long i've gone without putting them down.
this year, will i start again?

words
~~~~~
it's only words, and words are all i have,
to take your heart away.

2010 in figures

days spent overseas - 54

countries visited - 7

friends (unique) overseas with - 24

wedding invites received - 10

cameras in possession - 6

friends on facebook - 378

friends on facebook whom i've met for at least 5 min - 132

photos taken (excluding film, small cameras and deleted photos) - 5916