Aerobics

Awhile ago, there was an aerobic session just outside my office. On that day, I had my camera with me at the office and I managed to snap few pictures. I will share one or two here.

It's been a long time since I've posted anything on this blog. Many things happened over the last few weeks that tends to have slowed down my thinking a little. Generally, there are people who say I am a little lagging anyway, that I had to think hard for what to say or what to do sometimes. Well, just feel it's funny getting comments like that for various reasons....

Welcome Back Gathering

About two weeks ago, a few of my colleagues organised a small gathering to welcome Tsuey Lin and me back to Brunei. There were food, drinks and a lot of karaoke. For me, my job can be quite stressful but one of the best things with it is that I have great colleagues who're also good friends. They're a bunch of fun people who love life.

If any of you is reading this, thanks for being such wonderful people. You rock...!!

KB Food

It's good to be back in Brunei. It's business as usual in Kuala Belait (KB). One of the things I like about KB is the food available here. There are so many choices of food that sometimes I just get so lost when making my order. From noodles to all types of rice dishes, the standard of food from restaurants and foodstalls here is very high.
Here I'd like to introduce Butter Milk Prawn from Cottage Restaurant (located along Jalan Pretty) and KB famous Duck Rice from a foodstall near KB ChungHwa Middle School. For the latter, I don't know the real name of the stall but the locals call it 'Lou Fu Zai' Duck Rice (Little Tiger's Duck Rice). Both of the dishes are among my favourite KB food.

Butter Milk Prawn from Cottage Restaurant

'Lou Fu Zai' Duck Rice

More Madrid

It's just a few days before I will fly back to Brunei. The work experience in UK has been great. In Brunei, work have always been very tedious, coping with ever changing plans and new emerged problems. Such are the challenges I'll have to face once again.
Anyway, below are few remaining selected photos of my Madrid trip.

More Street Musicians

In an indoor market. I don't know the name of those meat hanging there. Any idea what they're called?

Some random shots to share.

Look at those flowers and look at the sky. I thought it would rain but it didn't. Only that part of the sky had dark clouds but the sun was pretty bright behind me nevertheless.

The Royal Palace

More graffiti that I thought were quite nice :)

Madrid

Just wanna share some pictures I took yesterday while walking in the streets of Madrid. I reached Madrid yesterday and first thing that struck me is that the weather here is as warm as Brunei which is a contrast to Aberdeen. It's not as humid as Brunei though.
Anyway, hope you'll like the pictures I took.

The exterior view of the hotel I stay.

The room I stay in. It's quite nice.

First thing I had once I left the hotel is a cup of tea.

After tea and some food, I went to Puerta del Sol area and this group of musicians were playing some classical tunes. They are really good.

While I walked on, I came across this couple, who were performing in the street. They were sitting still but what's interesting is that they were covered with mud all over their body. Everytime someone puts a coin in their jar, which is placed in front of them, they will robot move for a few seconds and then go back to being still again. I wonder how much they earn a day like that.

Some snapshots of the buildings. Look at the cloudless sky.

These two guys must be trying to make some special effects with their photos. I just assumed that because the subject is posing in front of green papers that they put on the wall prior to taking the photos.

Cinema. All the hollywood movies are translated to Spanish

I came across this lady who was floating. All the time she was posed with a buddha stance and clinging on to the bamboo next to her. She looked like she was floating or supporting herself with just one arm. Curious onlookers intrigued by this, approached her and she'd introduce them to whatever she's trying to promote. There's a lady behind her video recording all the curious faces around. It looked really real but of course it's fake.

Later, I came to an area where there's a promotion being held. Free shandy were handed to the public. Very refreshing.

There were artists doing graffiti on the wall too. Look at the many cans of spray paint they need.

The artists at work.

There will be some more pictures which I'll post over the next few days. In the meantime, have a good weekend!

Portrait of Myself

Happy Father's Day to all dads and of course especially to my dad. I could only greet and wish him on the phone, but he sounded happy anyway.
Ok...weekend was quite quiet for me. I went out to get some stuff in town and stayed in my flat most times. I'll be leaving Aberdeen and travelling home to Brunei in three weeks time...hooray to all the food and getting to see my family I miss but boooo to going back to work. I dread to think about work but....life without work commitment is quite boring and demotivating as well. Challenge in life is to keep ourselves happy no matter what the situation is like. Easier said than done :)
Enough of that. Photo I have here is a portrait of myself. I browse through a photography website sometime ago and came across a picture which I think is interesting. In that picture, there are other pictures in it and they were presented such a way that they visually 'pop' out of the picture.
I decided to try that on my picture, something I feel is different from the norm. I am quite satisfied with the result.


The picture on the wall is an actual picture that is hanging on my flat but the other three on the floor are pictures taken by me and digitally put in. Notice I'm wearing my new shoes and dressed up for the shot (wink). Proper right?? I like it!
The shot was taken with a bouce flash from my camera, 18mm f/4.0, ISO 400, some warm ceiling light (that's why there are some yellowish and reddish tone) and some light from a nearby window.

Dinner Special II

Yup this is a sequel to my post dated 17th March 2008, Dinner Special. Well, it is because miss Yap TL again invited Alex and myself to her house for dinner on Saturday night. She was away in Glasgow for a 2weeks work assignment and only got back on Friday. Still, she could prepare dinner for us the next day.

Well, this dinner is actually to celebrate Alex's belated birthday. Look at the food in the picture...nice. She made curry beef, fried noodles and spring onion pancake. We took our meal with some wine. It was a great night.

Food prepared by T Lin. Tasty!

Alex with his cake.

Puff.....
Trying to get an artistic shot...brrr....

New Pair of Shoes

Last week after going into a few shoe stores in Aberdeen, I bought a new pair of shoes for myself. I chose this one as it kinda look old-school to me. It's been a long time since I bought a pair (one I wear now) and I have to say, I like this one.
So here, I've taken photos of it. Fabulous right?

Sunny Day Out

It was another sunny weekend. Was out at Culloden Battlefield. It's an interesting venue but a little bit flat for me (my own opinion!) to take any landscape pictures with my 50mm lens.
However, I did take some portrait photos outside the Memorial Centre.

Stuart, Alex and John.


Stuart


Alex

BBQ Outing

Yesterday wasn't a sunny day and was very cold but I had a desire to be out for a picnic or something. It's a funny thing but I just thought it'd be weird if you missed a bbq in the UK. Being very unpredictable as usual, the weather the day before yesterday was great with lots of sunshine.
However, the bbq was planned yesterday and a very last minute one (very typical of me!). Probably it's a good thing to apologise right here, to those who turned up on the short notice. One guy had to cancel his prior arrangement...won't mention names.....Sorry Alex but great you made it :)

Anyway, it was also quite a rush as food had to be bought right after work, we getting changed, setting up, etc. Initial plan was to have the BBQ at Duthie Park but we found out that it's not allowed there. So we went to Torry instead. In my opinion, this turned out to be a better place.
It was a nice small gathering, four of us, food, and a frisbee.

Look at those delicious beef patties...yummy.

Lighthouse View in Black & White

Frisbee throwing people (Tsuey Lin and Eric)

Our Shoes

Looking at UFO or simply watching out for seagulls spray....ahhh those evil things.

Alex posing

Enjoying the fresh air. I need a haircut. Thanks to Alex for taking the picture of me.

The day ended with four satisfied people. The food turned out to be just the right amount. The view and the surrounding was pleasant. It surely was a good last minute planned outing.