take a break: honeymoon greece

Been half a year since i took a break...

Ok time for another one.

+ - =

ok bye

Punggol: sky

Ok people normally go to beaches to take photos of the surroundings. So I did some as well.

The weather was terrible. It pissed the entire day and after that still leave a heavy shroud to eliminate any chance of anything resembling a sunset. I had to edit in the reddish sky and some of the nanyang flavaa.

Oh this is the site of the Punggol Beach Massacre and we named it a National Heritage Site... Shouldn't we national heritage some place where we actually kicked ass instead?

Anyway...

How the sky should ideally look like. It did not look like this.

Sun during sunsets are at a very low angle. This did not turn out well but I had to go low low low low low low low (say it like flo rida) to get the shot.

Punggol: pirate bike

Along the sidewalk, I chanced across the very definition of despair. Or dis-repair if you wanna be a wiseguy.

mission impossible: restoration of the bike

This looked like something the villain of Pirates of the Caribbean would ride when he emerges from the sea and don't want to walk because his peg leg was aching.

my evil Urata! aggg!

The organic barnecles juxtaposed against the inorganic metal crank to create a seemingly unreal scenario.

Punggol: loneliness

The saying goes,

the uncle and his cpf are soon parted

I love the coy body language from the woman. The hazy background (thanks Indonesia!) sets the mood for a dream like state which no doubt the uncle is currently in.

a nice day out with my 老公#7

My friend once told me that if you were to go to East Coast Park during the weekdays afternoon, you can see many of such 'couples'. From their body language, you will see that a transaction is going on. The currency for that transaction is not sex, but rather just company to fight the battle against loneliness and low self esteem.

'谈感情', my friend puts it aptly.

Punggol: pre-wedding

Back in 2008, I mentioned that there is a time where walking down beaches in wedding gowns, drawing heart shapes in the sand and piggybacking each other suddenly became something normal to do.

That time is during the pre-wedding shoot.

such a sweet couple

To make my point very clear, here we go:

walking down the beach in gown/suit

to the left, to the left

drawing heart shapes in the sand

dude doing the charlie chaplin ass tilt to great effect

piggyback

thats sunny on the left. say hi!

But why Punggol? I mean Sentosa beach is easily a better choice. Better sand, no container ships in the background, nice coconut trees, clearer water... the list could go on. The only reason is the lack of crowds. But your assistant can do some crowd control no?

Punggol: the LBD

Back in the 20s Coco Chanel made LBD (little black dress) a classic. In the 60s, Audrey Hepburn's Givency LBD in Breakfast at Tiffany's sealed the LBD's legendary status.

Simple, flattering and forgiving. The LBD became the weapon of choice for woman's deceit of men for decades.

Of all places, I chance across a cute LBD in action at Punggol Beach.

Perfect volume and length. Coupled with a the square neck and a longish sleeve. Simple yet flirty. She can go from Punggol Beach to Ritz Carlton with this number.

Punggol: the young ones

Punggol, also spelt as ponggol means hurling sticks at the branches of fruit trees to bring them down to the ground in malay. No kidding.

An example would be 'I ponggol the goddamn rambutan tree'

Anyway, I saw these bunch of youngsters at the beach. As it was not the usual bunch of people you would normally find along punggol beach, I instinctively turned my lens towards them and started taking shooting. They caught me taking photo of them and they started posing (I was half expecting them to run towards me and beat me up). Normal singaporeans are allergic to the camera.

Such spontaneity!

I ran forward to compensate for the lack of reach of my lens and started taking the shots. As Punggol is such a ghetto place, I edited all the photos in various forms of retro-ness.

Man, the dude in pink is damn funny.

good job!

Beautiful smile on the little lady

oui #!@$ block my face

The eerie looking trees behind set the atmosphere for a sepia toned photo.

ahh, friendship.

kai liang doing the super model swagger look

I asked them for an email address so that I can somehow let them see the pictures. If you guys are seeing this, leave a message or something.

dreams

Meet Mr Gupta. I never got around to asking his name. The internet seems to suggest that Gupta is one of the most common Indian surnames. So I'll call him Mr Gupta, if you don't mind.

I met Mr Gupta at the void deck. He was checking his toto ticket against the papers with such intensity. Though I cannot see his face. But his body language betrayed his yearning for a fresh break in life. All his dreams can come truth in one swift turn of fate!

As it was plain rude to just take photos of someone this closeup, I spoke to Mr Gupta and seek his permission to take his picture. He grinned, folded his papers and set upright for a semi-formal portrait shot.

'no no. Toto! Toto!'

I gestured at the papers which he tucked away by his toolbox. He mistook my intention and ask if I wanted to take pictures of him working. As he replied, he got up eagerly and started to pick up his tools.

After further gesturing, he finally got my intention and started spreading the papers for a posed shot.

I saw the opportunity and snapped away feverishly, hoping to make up for quality through quantity. That's what amateurs with dSLRs do ok? If it is film, it's another story.

I love how serious Mr Gupta took the shoot. He assumed the exact position I saw him in when I met him and gamely posed for the shot.

After a few seconds of shooting, I shook his hand, thanked him and left, regretting not getting his name or a teh-peng for the trouble. Thank you Mr Gupta.

auntie around the world: amsterdam

Auntie's first trip to the land of windmills, tulips & drugs. The trip almost turn out to be Amster-damnnnn! for shuyi when she picked up the newly fixed camera and found that it did not work.

What I say bout them windmills?

Phew! Glad that was over with.

There are canals everywhere. But they didn't quite make it as longkang-land like Venice. Prolly because the water look dirty.

But shuyi loved the duck ridden waters. Check out the queen duck here. All the green head ducks want a good time with her. Shuyi fondly remembers way back when she have several ducklings who would circle in the tub like sharks waiting for lunch. The downside is duck shit really reeks. I like the green-head duck. They look so classic.

女王 duck

Shuyi really loved the neat little duck refuges littered around.

In line with the nautical theme.


Miniature land or something.

shuyi doing the godzilla

the crow terrorizing the rail

giant shoes + mini building
they have messed-up proportions

ok this big clog thing has gotta stop

Do the Marken Express? What do we eat? hmmm?

Is it mutton?

baaaaahhh!

don't look. she'll go away... eventually

Andreas the 999 baby

This little boy here is the 999 baby. Born on 9th Sept 2009 at 9.09pm. And coincidentally he weighs 3.33kg. He'll be Andre the Giant if his weight is also 9.99kg.

Andreas, don't forget that mommy can crush you like a cockroach if you misbehave!

the standard face-on-coin pict

I maintain that all babies look alike. Refer to this one.

same

Singapore Sakura

We drove past the Park Connector and chanced across these flowers in full bloom. From a far, they almost look like sakura. Actually they are pink mempat (Cratoxylum formosum) (also known as the Singapore sakura), rose of India (Lagerstroemia speciosa), or trumpet tree (Tabebuia rosea). Everyone wants a piece of the action.

It was evening time and the light was glorious.

Though the flowers looked great from afar, they look like crap when you walk closer. They tend to rot in the tropical heat and hang onto the pavement like their lives depended on it. In short, it is a bitch to clear. They even leave ugly stains after rotting too.

Don't even get me started on rain trees and their small leaves and why they like to plant it in army camps where we have to sweep/beg them to get off the parade square. The angst!

Everything looked murky cause it was. We really need to thank our southern neighbours for bestowing upon us such lomantik feel. And the smell! The smell! Glorious.

See? I was so happy that I began thrashing around.

graceful

doing my jordan

If you ignore the railings and the flat, you almost forgot that you are looking at a goddamn long kang.

A long winded way to say "don't be stewpid ok?".

I made it so that we can see the light falling through the leaves falling onto the sign. But it seems that it was a tad too far cause everything looked a little too dark. oh well.

This dude got the funniest grin ever.

Other random shots.

2 lovers riding into the sunset (obscured by the goddamn haze ok)

Shuyi was particularly happy for some reason.