Beginner's luck

YB's arrival!

I'm still pretty much excited over my dslr. Loving it.. and I've asked Calvin to bring his over so he could help me snap some pics of my camera... then what do u know, shutterbug leader emailed out asking if anyone of the bugs brought their camera today. Well, Calvin and I responded.. and surprisingly no one else did bring.. hmmm.. or they're testing us.. LOL.. nvm, seek approval from my manager and then we're off.

Our state chief minister Mr. YB Lim Guan Eng's on tour to the plant for new product launching. Well, we waited at the lobby there, I'm preped up for my first shots actually. Quite a heavy task but I'm not thaaaat worry as I know Calvin will have better shots than me, I'm just glad I had the opportunity to snap the chief himself.

YB checking out some of the new products

"It's quite small and light... "

Followed YB and some other hosts and guess around the plant. Snapping photos as they went pass the departments and listened to product briefing at the cafeteria. Ran ahead of the pack and turn around to steal a few shots. No time to check the result at all, I actually sweated at the end of the event. hahahahah...

Calvin and YB Mr. Lim Guang Eng

Lastly, before they went inside a meeting room that we're not allowed into... Calvin asked for permission from Mr. Lim to have a 1 on 1 photo session. hahahahahah.. First up.. I snapped Calvin with my camera and then he helped me with mine.

Overall very happy with the experience and the 1 on 1 shots. My camera's initial price has paid off... its all about the timing! Thanks YB.. thanks Calvin.

YB and me!

P/S: Beginner's Luck really exists... ; )

A new hobby...

Those of you who were close to me or happened to be one of my 'unlucky' colleagues and friends should have known by now that I've intended to buy a dslr sometime ago. Was actually consulting my friend and read up online reviews for quite a while .. while I was stocking up $$$. Learned up some of the dslr jargons... skills... tips... mental preparation. Was flip flopping between either Canon or Nikon as my choice to select the camera models. Canon's 1000D, 450D was in my consideration list while Nikon's D60 was actually in my mind too. Discovered some of the specific model's strength and limitation as well...

Finally I've chosen Nikon D60! : ) I liked the rugged design of the body and sorta like bulk looking kit lens and it's cheap too... well, at least cheaper than 450D I've aimed for earlier and I liked its feature more than 1000D so... there you go.

Went over to I-avenue's Ichiyo Rahmen with Bloon and quickly took out my camera for some indoor shots. These are the best I can manage so far so please bear with me for a while

Was quite satisfied with the noise performance of this light picture I took which was set at ISO 400. so far so good

Another close up shot and the doll model displayed at the wall

My Kimuchi seafood rahmen.. hahahhaa.. looks delicious.. isn't it? no? probably is my skill... :p nothing to do with the chef

this fish dish which I have no idea what the name was.. was ordered by Bloon along with 1 plate of unagi sushi and 1 more sliced squids I didn't take cos was busy eating already

Overall was very satisfied and happy with my purchase... now to get my skills up! stay tuned for more post with my camera! My first digital camera and also my first DSLR!

woo hoo~

Ways to save on petrol

A while ago I mentioned that I came across this article on how to save petrol consumption cos the cost has rised considerbly in the past few months. Ouch... ok, on with the tips..

1) stop going around in circles - unnecessary travel wastes petrol. Take a short walk or use other cheaper means of transport e.g. motorbike or bicycle.

2) watch the pedal - avoid accelerating hard when over taking a car or approaching hills.

3) keep it cool - petrol evaporates fast and especially in hot temperatures, park under a shade if possible.

4) loose those weights - heavy loaded car tend to consume more fuel so get those unnecessary junks off.

5) reduce trip to the fueling station - well, lesser trip lesser petrol unless it happened to be on your way to work or home cos the avoidable detour saves petrol too.

6) do not leave engine idle - leaving the car idling too long burns fuel and cuts off some of your mileage, for newer models of car nowadays there's a little need for warming up the engine too long.

7) tyre inflation - keep them properly inflated to reduce friction.

8) avoid unnecessary breaks - speeding when the traffic lights turns red or when there are bumps ahead and then hitting the break is pointless. (a lot of people like to do this...)

9) drive at moderate speed - Toyota eco driving leaflet recommends driving should be limited to 40km/h to 50km/h on ordinary roads and 80km/h on highways. fuel effeciency improves by 10% to 30% while drivinig at 80km/h rather than 100km/h.

10) avoid rush hour - get up and go out some 15 to 20mins earlier than most people in the morning helps you avoid a much more congested road.

11) savvy with aircond - A test by Energy Conservation Sector of Japan showed that running the air cond at maximum output as oppose to auto setting increases fuel consumption by 14%. might want to turn it off at cool nights or wee morning or just wind down the windows when possible.

There you go... can make reference and track your current mileage and implement these steps and see how much do they make to your petrol usage per month.

Thanks for reading. : )

Super Malio...

I stumbled across this clip on the net and it was about a spoof based on the video game characters from super mario... anyone who has ever played mario knows the usual plot.. mario goes out to save the princess... eats mushroom.. leaped over a bunch of other mushrooms... jumps over fire spitting dragon boss and kill it.. then saves princess...

the plot is 'almost' the same here.... have fun.

Rainy Season

Rained non stop these few days especially past saturday. Rained since morning till night... a few 'hotspot' for flood has been flooded as usual.

This morning I went pass the road which I saw was flooded last night and a few police car blocked the path and seems that they sent out rescue team there.

There are a few people cleaning and sweeping off the mud of the road with water canon. 

Mud all over the road.. yuck

I like rainy season's atmosphere... cool, calm... quiet. As long as there's no flood. : ) Reminds me of weather like Europe eh... : ) 

Dentist Visit

Finally arrived the day to have my teeth cleaned. Felicia introed me Penang Dental Surgery, so I went ahead and scheduled an appointment there last month. Mine was today as I wanna make it on weekends and not weekdays so.. there I was. The last time I went to see a dentist was 3 years ago.. gosh... time flies. Now my daily routine of brushing my teeth has been increase from a mere 2 - 3 mins to 6 or 7 mins.... giving it a good scrub everytime I brush my teeth. I was quite nervous during the whole process as dentist used the water canon thing to clean away the plak around some areas of my teeth while her able assistant on the other hand operated 2 sucktion device to suck out waters from my mouth.

Whole operation = RM70... she asked me to come back for another round... gosh... she said my gum was not good and it has to be cleaned the 2nd time. ~($)~

kids... keep your teeth clean... LOL

Mooncake celebration

Well, mooncake festival is just around the corner and our team came up with the idea of throwing this mooncake tea session similar to the one we had last year.

Here's the one we've bought and a free smaller ones

I forgot to buy the mooncake so some of us went to shopping complex after our lunch to grab a few of it. This time a lot of us participated compared to last year cos it involved team members from 2 teams.

YS actually took some of the lantern we've bought and sort of decorated the nearby fake plant in the pantry to add to the mood of the festival!... hahahahha... nice touch!

Here's some of the snaps during the break. Enjoy~

Here's the main collection, noticed that there's 1 being sliced up already while others remain intact. I've requested them to be arranged this way and let me snap a few shots first b4 the hungry one destroys their beauty~... admire first.. then only eat ma...

Lots of mooncakes~

I never get tired of looking at them here... so colorful... so cheerful

See the special ones are those lantern shaped boxes ... bought by Mandy

Product catalog shots, finance selection.. hahaha

This is the pre-slicing moment... the mooncakes awaited their fate... can see YS snapping a few shots also

Sorting out the moon cakes and cutting them in 8 pieces each

Lychee fruit flavour mooncake by YS, its quite tasty

Jelly fruity mooncakes... somehow nowadays a lot of mooncakes just shaped like one but doesn't really taste like the traditional ones

Tada~ my selection, snow skin purple er.. i forgot what flavour is this.. but its nice :Þ

All of us had a great time, I've sampled quite a lot of the mooncakes and they do taste a bit sweet if you didn't take with any water... All in all a great time and thanks to everyone who made it happened!

Last but not least!... our happy latern mooncakes part-time promoters! Mandy and HP wishing all a happy mooncake festival ahead! *claps*

When 2 souls comes together - Aun Soon's wedding

Cheese for the newly wed!

Attended my good ol' college's pal - Aun Soon's wedding lunch on 31st Aug 2008. Got a call earlier of the week from him inviting me over to the lunch. He asked me to help out to send invitation out to some of our college mates and so I did. Mailed a couple of friends but a lot of them said it was too short notice as it was on the Sunday of the next week which is only 5 - 6 days apart. Well, I have no particular appointment or events that I couldn't risk cancelling off for this event and so I went on.

here's the DIY GPS

Followed the map that he gave me, I drew it on a piece of paper and went straight out. I'm not that familiar with the road outside Penang but I did travelled there last time on assignment from my previous company so I roughly know 50% of the road leading towards the restaurant.

Golden Phoenix Seafood Restaurant

Went on with my guts and the trusty map, as soon as I've reached the cross junction near Auto City, I wipped out the map and held it on my hand on top of my steering wheel (kids dun try this at home). As I looked out for turnings and traffic lights I turn my map accordingly just as a map like a GPS! wahhahahaa... human-gps I was... and frankly, the map was quite accurate and with my superior navigation skills, I've reached the destination with over 50mins to spare. Called Aun Soon and waited for him to arrive while I took a nap inside my car under a shade.

Lots of people... all whom I never met... I think there's only like... 3% of the people here that I knew..

Soon, HY arrived behind my car and there A.S. was around 12:30pm in his coat looking at his best. : ) Went out of the car with HY and approached the restaurant. We're among the earliest bunch, went in and sat down in one of the few tables allocated for us. I chose the one near to A.S.'s table to have a good view of the center stage as well.

There's 2 projectors and slide on each side of the center stage displaying the photos of A.S.'s wedding photo album

After awhile, I saw my other college pal - Boon Kong as well. boy oh boy, time sure flies... its been like.. let's see.... over 6 years since we last met during diploma years. Chatted a while with him while waited for the event to kick start.

Around 1something, the MC announced the official starting of the event and each of us stood up, clapped and welcomed the newly weds : ) yay... quite frankly my tummy agreed too and start growling all over the place.. hahahhaa ..

Well, unfortunately I didn't take any of the photos of the food but I did snapped some of the events that took place. Have a look below :

z

Group photo

Center stage, a lady who sang some nice tunes for us while we're enjoying the food

Well, even A.S.'s twin brother went up stage and sang 2 songs.. his voice is very much like A.S. hahaha.. talk about twins

Champagne pouring ceremony

More...

They're forced to kiss each other for 10secs straight after A.S.'s colleagues shouted and requested for it... haha

the cross-arm champagne drinking ceremony.. not sure how to say it in English... I just came up with that term. hehehe

Yum Seng part with their family members

Yum Seng shout part 2

Yum Seng shout cont. part 3 (with my cup and 'good' sign)

In the end, Aun Soon also went on stage and sang 2 songs to entertain the crowd, seeing that he's a talented musician himself... what would the lunch be without him participating in the singing.. hehehe...



See that guy who looks so familiar with A.S? its his twin brother : )

Last but not least, a Warmest and heartiest CONGRATULATIONS to Aun Soon and his wife!!!

P/S: some of the 'clearer' shots were taken by H.Y.'s N82... over my cacat hp camera.. hahahaha... thanks!