NCS Team Building 2008

Okay, went to the team building event which was held at Paradise Sandy Beach hotel. Lots of people, went with Penny.. got into the same group with her. Didn't know the rest of the people there.. well, almost 98% of them actually.


My team was C2, the team victory shout was came out by a funny guy which sounds something like this...

"1,2,1,2,1,2,3... 3,2,3,2,3,2,1....
1,2,3, 3,2,1... Team C2... NO.1!"

Its a bit lame.. but it gets the message across. Was elected by the team as the leader as they said I'm tall enuff to be one.. >_<

Gaming sessions was held by the beach, total 4 games.

1st game led by me, team member queued up, blind folded, only i can see.. I'm at the end of the line... guided the team to navigate thru the beach area to collect props for points. use sign language like touching shoulder to navigate left or right, touched arm to signal members to squat down and try to pick up whatever stuff they can.

2nd game, we're given a roll of fishing string. a cup was placed at a center of a marked square, team members are not allowed to go in, use string to tie around the cup, tried to lift it up and pull it to the other side and dump it into a hole. Wasn't fast enuff, lost to team C1. Break time for some snack... rushed for water and sat down with Penny for some sandwich. Break lasted around 15 - 20mins.

3rd game, led by Penny... carry a person or "mummy" across an obstacle course of ropes tied around 2 poles. Each member must be carried across the course and u-turn back to starting position. I was the last to be carried so... yea... was very very very exhausting game.. >_< (but i got carried by 4 girls at one time... =_=!!) We've won the game.


4th and final game - use 4 rope that tied to a center rubberband... 4 members, pull each string to enlarge rubberband so to fit plastic cup. carry over to the other section where team members use the same device (not hand) to stack the cup up. whoever that stacks the highest wins.... we poured sands in each of the cup to make up for the increased height. unfortunately, base was not stable so the height had been compromised. in the end, lost to the other team who does their building in slower pace but still within time limit. :)

Took a few shots and head back to the ballroom. Received debriefings and my team and another are tied for the champion as we've got 5 extra points from the start for able to assemble a full 20 people group first. well, that's not fun to me.... doesn't feel like a real win... as each other 'loosing' team each won 2 out of 4 games as well. In this case, the real winner to me is some team that can win all 4 or 3 of the games. But anyway, it was a good effort by the team and got the prize...

keychain~ yay.. better than none. then come the NCS employee awards ceremony...
Had our buffet dinner which was nothing to be shouted at... so so only then we took a group photo as well.

A tiring but overall okay experience for me as we get to know other people from the same company as we are too. Great job guys if you're reading this!

"potato, tomato, tomato, potato... team C2, PAK BEH TOH!" .... LOL

kupu-kupu vs rama-rama

I remember this question was raised when Calvin, me and the gang went for macro shooting a few weeks back. I saw a .. i really couldn't remember which one is it.. then I shouted for Calvin, hey.. there's a kupu kupu here. Then he was like... "what is a kupu-kupu?" :S "I tot they're the same?" said Calvin.... lol.. "if my BM language served me correctly, they aren't" I said.

Then a few days ago I asked some of our colleagues at the office:-

Mandy: kupu-kupu stays at people's house one, rama-rama is outside....
CW : dun ask me... my BM is not that good...
Doris: kupu-kupu is ugly, rama-rama is prettier...

a lot more funny funny answers i couldn't remember...
some say one is bigger.. another one is smaller.... prettier..mostly cosmetic.
well, short answer and direct translation would be.. kupu-kupu is moth while rama-rama is butterfly.

simple? hahahahahhaa... funny funny question. ;)

Tzu Chi vegetarian food fair @ 2nd Nov 2008

A while ago I've purchased 2 vouchers for Tzu Chi's upcoming food fair then I received another one from a friend so I've got 3 in total.

Almost forgotten that today was the day for the event cos I've stayed up quite late last nite playing games with my fren. :p Anyway, suddenly thought of it when I was having lunch today and thinking that it would be another nice opportunity for taking photographs.

Went there with my fren, the weather is again... hot but cloudy. so there's some shade every now and then. At first I thought that it would only be a small part of the Pesta area but boy, I was very wrong, and since it's 1 day only event... there's a lot of people there.

Had fun experiencing the event, snapping here and there and exchanged my coupons for some bags, plants and of course... drinks!

Enjoy the photos below for more details :-

Wooden hand made dragonfly that is able to balance on a stick or finger

This particular photo shows that all of the volunteers started to stand still and held their palms together when the announcer played a certain Tzu Chi tune, not sure what is it perhaps its the organization's code. :)

Saw these set of mascott near a stall but there were not for sale. cute!

I've exchanged for 2 of these bags

Even fresh vegetable are for sale here too...

Never saw a square tea cube b4

A little girl is choosing her favourite soft toys


Never thought I'd see this there, but the best thing about it... it's FREE

I've got this too

creative clothes clips

I think made by childrens of the art classes

A lot of volunteer cleaning up utensils

Overall a great experience... a small donation goes a long way! A good deed a day makes the world a better place! :) peace~

Red Island Cafe

Somehow the logo resembles some cafe's design...

Ah Choo is kind enough to treat a bunch of us to the Red Island Cafe at Crystal Point for lunch. The restaurant was moderately full, found a table and ordered up... not to mention I brought my camera there and snapped up.

Stopped snapping for 2 days and back to my old prime lens of 50mm I can't use to the manual settings I've got to shoot at again... sigh, so please bear with me for the below shots.

Overall the food was okay, the kaya toasted bread is nice, not sure if its theirs that was nice or its cos I have long tasted toasted bread. :)

Enjoy the pics.

Ice lemon tea rite?

Er... some hot coffee I guess, unfortunately there were no Red Island Cafe logo around the cup...

Tom yam, tasted very spicy and... not sure sour or not

Hot and Spicy chicken (not KFC) with er.. sour sauce. Personally the chicken tasted hot cos it was just out fresh from the oven but doesn't taste spicy at all...

Rojak... not my type of dish...

My favourite.. toasted kaya bread!

Ah Mon's nasi lemak, didn't hear his comment...

But somehow Ah Bok highly recommended it! (order at your own risk.. LOL, j/k :p)

P/S: Thanks Ah Choo for the treat! and excuse my food pics, still getting a hang at shooting with full manual and food photography, not sure if i did justice to the cafe or not.. anyway it's free advertistment for me... hahahahha...

20 years apart...

Old and New

Technology as we know, gets replaced very quickly. Take for example, PC... can you possibly use any part of your PC 20 years ago for a brand new PC of today? ok, maybe u can use the casing, probably keyboard with some jack converter or the monitor huh?

Guess what? I'm amazed at 1 particular thing that's able to function beautifully as of today as it was 20 years ago. What am I talking about? Take a guess... no prize for guessing it correctly...

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Nikkor 50mm f/1.4!!!

Okay probably u've guessed camera, but which part? it is the SLR lens of course. I bought Nikon's dSLR a while ago (as you all may know from my previous entry) and my dad had his Nikon SLR some 20years ago.

My dad's SLR, notice the retro design, haha...

I got curious, so I asked my dad if he remembered where he put his camera. And there he went and flip through his books on the shelf... a while later.. tada... he found it! It was tucked away nicely in a plastic bag. He took it out, gave it a scrub or two... then woala! I was amazed when I looked upon this.. anchestor of SLR. hahahahha... the divine one!

My dad checking out his camera cos I can't seem to view thru the view finder (notice the engraving words 'made in Japan', mine's made in Thailand...)

And so, initially I've tried his lens, pluck out, pluck in.. wow. surprisingly.. it fits! hahahahha, alright.. tried to snap a pic.. pressed the shutter release... er...nope... can't. the LCD screen kept reminding me that no lens has been attached. Well, I tot that my body aren't compatible with this type of old lens.. so a bummer...

It is a very good lens. 50mm Prime lens of f/1.4. okay so most of you who are not into these photography jargons.. i'll put it in simpler term. An autofocus type of this lens today costs RM1.xk. Thousand over lens so dun play play. : ) I'm delighted that it was in a good shape and no fungus was developed in the lens.

I went over to a camera shop just now and asked one of the fellow there, he taught me how to use it and I came back... took out that lens and mount it on my dslr body, made the necessary settings and I was snapping away~ wow... happy man..

Well, I'm happy that I'm able to use the lens and I hope I'll use it to capture nice moments in the future in my photography journey, I'm sure my dad are much more happier for me to use it rather than keeping it in a plastic bag.

Thanks dad, I'll put it to good use and make the lens proud! : )

Test shot, notice the shallow background... hence the nice "Bokeh" effect!

P/S: Its a shame that my dad stopped taking photography when I was growing up and he was busy taking care of the family than enjoy this only hobby of his. Aren't we all? as we grow old, we surpressed most of our hobbies because of work life... I truely hope one day I can cope my dad to go take photos with me not along side with me but together, each of us holding our own camera. that'll be a great moment for me. : )