Dini Blogs: August 2008

Friday, August 22, 2008

^_^

A warm morning surprise from my housemates:

A BIRTHDAY CAKE!

Thanks to Ipeh & Saras ^_^

OK, I know i said that i have planned to upload a few pictures from the last Singapore National Day Parade (NDP) show. So here they are.

Ridha and I had been planning to watch the NDP show since a month before. Our main purpose was to hunt for fireworks pictures. The show was scheduled to start at 6.45pm. But we knew that we had to be in the best spot for taking fireworks photos few hours earlier. At 1pm we got to Raffles City. We met our friends there to discuss where the best spot would be. While we had our lunch, we took some pictures from our friends office. I forgot what floor it was, but we can have a clear view to The Padang (but not the Marina).

Singapore Flag on The Padang. Some volunteers were going sit don on it and form the crescent moon and stars in the flag. We didn't stick around long enough to wait until the formation was complete. So, this picture is all we got.

Can you see a triangular grassland across the lake behind the tall buildings on the left side of the picture? We decided that that was the best spot. We would be far enough from the fireworks and be able to catch some fireworks reflection on the water surface. But check those heavy clouds. Ouch! We were worried about the weather. It could be raining anytime. But of course, we surely hoped not.

So off we went to our photographing spot. We had to be there soon, otherwise all the spaces would be gone. You know what? We were not the only ones who thought that that spot was the best spot. Many people were already there when we got there. I can say, mostly were photographers: be it pros, or amateurs, like us. And it was only 3pm; over 3 hours away from the show. Remember the heavy clouds? They were still there, except that they brought their bright-and-burning-hot sun friend along. Ridha had to put on some sunblocks so he wouldn't get sunburned.

We found our spot, then we set a 'camp' No, i'm kidding. It was not really a camp. We were just making sure that we had enough space for setting up our tripod, and for sitting down.

Nearing the show, the clouds got heavier. We were pretty sure the rain was coming. And we were right. It was raining, not so hard though. But it was enough to make us reconsider whether we would keep our plan go on. Some of us gave up. Some stayed. We stayed. And we were glad we did. The sky were clearing, the clouds are gone. The usual beautiful sky just after the rain.

Here are some from the shows.

Kites

Huge Singapore flag flown over the marina

The Black Knight air show

I don't know what those are. Some kind a birdie balloon with lights in it.

Fireworks

And lots of fireworks

All pictures are by Ridha.
More pictures can be seen here.

Saturday, August 16, 2008

Excuses

Uhm last update was on August 5. That's quite long. I have a few reasons excuses for that.

Let's see....

At the end of last month, I signed up to join Plurk. My, oh, my... it's really taking up most of my online time. Plurk is pretty much like Twitter, but with points to be accumulated, called karma. I think this karma thing that makes it so interesting. Unless you updated your Plurk regularly, you will lose karma. And one more thing, people can comment on your Plurk. In this case, it's like chatting with so many people from around the world (Plurk users, that is).
For me, I call Plurk a one-line blog. Go on and check out my plurk page.
Warning: you may get addicted to plurk. Sign up at your own risk.

Next excuse is...
I got a job. A full time job. So, for the last two weeks I've been busy preparing things related to the me-starting-my-job: all the necessary documents, medical check-up, employment pass collection, buying things to accessories my desk in the office (haha!), etc, etc. Finally, since two days ago, I am officially a full time employee of an academic institution. Yayy!

With this full time job, i think i won't be able to update my blog quite often (like before two weeks ago.. hehe). Maybe i will have to schedule my blogging time like once in a week? But, i doubt i can stick to that schedule. I've tried that before, it failed every time. Oh well, it doesn't hurt to try... again.

What else can be my excuse....
I can't think of anything else now.

Let's talk about something else.

Err.. on second thought, i can't think of anything else to talk about right now. Sorry about that.

I'm planning to later upload few pictures from the last Singapore National Day Parade show. But those pictures need some retouch first before they're viewer friendly (i need at least one hour for this *sigh*)