Holiday in Penang - 22 to 25 Sept 2014

The family flew back to Penang to visit my parents for a couple of days and also take a break from hectic Singapore.

Playing mah-jong on the kitchen table with Dad and Mum mentoring me, a novice to this game.

Playing mah-jong back at the hotel at night too as there was nothing much to do if we were not going for a movie in 1st Avenue mall, next to Traders Hotel.

We managed to do some shopping in 1st Avenue mall and Jas found a replacement for his torn street soccer boots.

This modern and clean food court is called New World Park and the Persambu ( or Indian rojak ) can be found there with all the local food like char koay teow, koay teow thng, hokkien prawn mee and more.....!

Of course, we could not leave Pg without eating the famous Pg Rd teochew chendol too!

 Jas managed to take a dip in the hotel pool before we left..... but it was a hot day though....!

 We took a late afternoon snack at the hotel café before we left for Pg airport as we were flying the late night flight and  would miss a proper dinner.

Our favourite, Club Sandwich, which we ordered almost every night for room service supper in the hotel.

( After we left for Spore on Thu night, my Mum fell in the kitchen on Sat morning and had undergone an operation to replace a ball bone in the hip socket joint on Sun night. I will be flying back to see her next week. )

Studio Lighting Photography Course Certificate

I was awarded a Pass with Credit for my Studio Lighting Photography Course that I attended in May 2014.

The class was conducted by the Photographic Society of Singapore (PSS).

Here are the 6 photos I submitted for the class assessment :

Jason's graduation bear

Wine and grapes 

Old film camera

Butterfly portrait - studio lighting

Rembrandt portrait - studio lighting

Model portrait taken during the class

My photos mounted on black cupboard for submission.

I actually bought a set of basic studio lighting with a background cloth and set it up at home to practice what I have learned. Of the 6 photos, 3 of them were taken at home ( graduation bear and portraits of Jason and I ) and the others during my class. 

This is my studio setup at home :

Ideally, I should have two more lights for the background but it would have exceeded my budget.

I bought a photo light box to take still photos and a couple of desktop lamps for lighting in this set-up.

To-date, I have attended the following classes to further my interest in Photography:

- Digital Basic ( Night & Lighting ) Photography

- Digital Basic ( Foundation ) Photography ( using a DSLR camera )

- Adobe Photoshop CS5 Image Editing

I look forward to my next class, Basic Travel Photography this month.

Hotpants the Musical by Dick Lee

We saw the musical show, Hotpants by Dick Lee,  last night at the Drama Centre and thoroughly enjoyed it....!

We also managed to get a few photos taken with Dick Lee and the cast after the show, it was their last night.

We managed to get Dick Lee to have a photo taken with Jason when he was on his way out to the lobby. He was very nice and obliging to the audiences approaching him for a photo to be taken with him.

 We also got the autographs from all in the cast after the show and have a few photos taken with them too.

Joakim Gomez, a previous Singapore Idol contestant and currently also a DJ too.

Nikki Muller is also a host for a couple of programmes on TV, on food and travel. Very bubbly personality....!

Finally, one more photo with Dick Lee after getting his autograph.

Happy Birthday, Mummy...!!!

We celebrated Mummy 's birthday with a sumptuous dinner at one of our favourite Chineses restaurants and a cake at home.

Bought her a white watch as it is so trendy now as an accessory and we use our mobiles to tell time instead.

Congrats to Daniel on reaching the Rinjani Summit !

Congratulations to Daniel on his reaching the summit of Gunung Rinjani in Lombok, Indonesia.

This is his second mountain climb as he also reached the summit of Mt Kinabalu in Sabah in 2011.
http://pcwthoughts.blogspot.sg/2011/05/mount-kota-kinabalu.html

 

The type of terrain that challenged Daniel in his climb, loose volcanic rocks...!!!

Camp site at the rim of the volcanic crater....... not my idea of sweet dreams... !

This is where you answer to the call of nature..... the TOILET....!

 

Daniel at the summit of Gunung Rinjani !

One steps too many at the wrong side of the summit and you would go straight down the mountain ....

View of the active volcano from the summit.

 

(  http://rinjaninationalpark.com/rinjani-summit-and-lake-4-days-3-nights-package-rinjani-national-park-lombok.html )

 

I asked Daniel , so what's next... man? Our friend said maybe some mountain in Africa would be nice......!

 

So watch this space for news on his 3rd mountain conquest...... great job, Daniel !

 

As for me, I am still training hard with my Apostherapy shoes so that I need not wear my knee brace and able to walk longer distance and visit places like Bhutan.

 

Melbourne Holiday - Shopping

No holiday is complete without some shopping.... so I must share some of our shopping done there ....!

As we were not on tour but free and easy and staying with my siblings, we move around and shop like the locals and not at tourist places.

We somehow like to go to their supermarkets like Coles and look at their products and we did so upon arrival and a few more visits to their different branches to look for specific coffee flavours.....!

We like their Jarrah Coffee and normally take it at least twice a day there especially during winter and we have no problem sleeping even if we took it in the late afternoon or evening. I think the hot coffee went well with the cold there......?

We bought 4 different flavours home and put them in the fridge as it does not like our hot weather and the coffee powder will become clumpy.

We also saw Tim Tam biscuits and since they were on offer and the packaging make them easy to share with friends ( like Kit Kat chocolate bar ) , we bought quite a no. of boxes.

While shopping in Coles, we also came across these coffee capsules that are for our coffee maker and they are 50% cheaper so we bought several boxes of different flavours.

We also like their varieties of cornflakes, muffins and crumpets and we bought them for our breakfast too. 

Then my brother introduced a pack of Macadamia nuts to us and we went looking for it at the Vietnamese shops in Springvale when we went there for our noodles ( we have yet to come across good Vietnamese noodles in Spore, so far ). They are made in Australia. In the big pack are small bars like that of the Tim Tams or Kit Kat chocolate.

When we were at the departure lounge in the Melb - Tullamarine airport, we bought 4 small packets of nougat on offer since we still have some room for them in our hand luggage.

Pamphlets are distributed on every Thu to the homes to publicise their special offers in the coming weekend. We enjoying reading them and that's how we found a pair of boots on offer and went to look for it for Lai Meng.

We found this pair of advertised boots at their outlet in Frankston while shopping with my sister there over the weekend.

I was looking for a SD card wallet and saw this advertisement by Office Works and we went to look for it, including the 16GB Thumb drive as they are cheap even compared to Spore pricing. I am so happy to have found the SD card wallet as I could not find something here that meet my needs and budget...!

Finally, we were also very successful when we went shopping at Direct Factory Outlet (DFO) in Moorabbin. These are typically branded stuff that are sold at a discount.

I bought a light fleece jacket with a hoody, something that I wanted so that I can carry it easily when flying or going out to a cold place like the cinema in Spore.

I also bought this reversible jacket at Giordano in DFO since I like the design and colour and the price was right. I doubt I could get something like this in Spore or not at this price.

Both Lai Meng and my sister bought this pink jacket as it was on sale for A$20 only...!!!

One of the reasons we decided to buy a new jacket each was that we keep wearing the same ones for our holidays and we looked the same in our photos taken in Korea, Japan and Australia. Since the varieties and fashion are plentiful in DFO and the prices were affordable too, we thought it is a good idea to buy some new warm clothing or jackets.

Well, staying with my siblings and living with the locals is definitely different from a holiday tour where u spend most to the time sight-seeing and going to tourist places to shop and eat. Also, living out from the suitcases and sleeping late but waking up early if on holiday tour..... sigh

We have been to Melb so many times ( since Jason was 1 year old, we were flying there almost every year so that he could get to know his cousins there until Year 2000, the change of century, and when he started schooling ) and have seen most of the popular sights, maybe more than once too, so we normally go for free and easy stay esp in Melbourne.

Melbourne City

During our recent holidays in Melbourne, we decided to take a train to the city on our own to have a quick look since we were there 6 years ago.

The transport system now uses a myki system, similar to our MRT travel card, that can be used for train and tram and bus too. We were passed 2 myki cards by a friend who just visited Melb a few weeks ago.

We sought help from the train station to top-up the myki cards and off we went for a day trip to the city.

( Pls note that you are supposed to tap the cards when you entered the station as we forgot to do so and there was no barrier to prevent you from entry...!!! There was a machine for you to tap your card but no turnstile to regulate your entry. We have problem getting out at the station in the city and the staff let us through without checking our cards and said that they should be good and no worries, typical Aussie style. )

We decided to stop at Melb Central station instead of the well known Flinders Station as it was linked to shopping malls and within walking distance to the Victoria Market.

A typical train station in the open, it was a rare sunny but windy day that week so it was an ideal day to go to the city.

The tower and big clock are still there in Melb Central but the Japanese Daimaru has closed their business and taken over by many small shops and food outlets including a food court.

We rushed to Victoria Market as they are closing at 2pm on Tue. Nothing much have changed but a few new stalls operated by Chinese from China selling mobiles accessories. Since we have been to the market a few times during our past visits, we did not really have the thrill to buy souvenirs like items from there but just to re-visit the place only.

Our nephew recommended us to have our lunch at Grill'd restaurant in Melb Central so we gave it a try. The meat in the burgers were good esp the lamb and the fries were huge and very tasty too!

We went to look at the new shopping mall called the Emporium. The malls are all connected by enclosed walkways.

 

 

Found the 1st Uniqlo outlet in Melbourne in Emporium.

 

 

We left the City around 4pm after checking out the shopping malls but we did not have anything in mind to buy as we have bought our new warm jackets at the Direct Factory Outlet (DFO) in Moorabbin, on the way to my sister's home in Pearcedale.

 

( BTW, there is a DFO at the edge of the City too, DFO South Wharf is located at 20 Convention Centre Place in South Wharf , directly next to Melbourne Convention Centre. )