Flawed beauty.

“Today, I like a klutz. Actually, I’m a klutz everyday. But, today, just a little more. I am the kind of girl who get cinema halls wrong and I can’t remember numbers well. Can we still be friends? :)”

Two weeks plus since I last blogged, damn. This semester, I’m simply laden with far too many exams, issues and stress. Blogging has taken a back seat on my priorities. But, today, I’ve had it and I decided to have my another Walk in The Park shutter therapy.

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It started out quite disappointing, with the insects flying all over when I tried to take a picture. I kept walking till I passed by a row of neatly trimmed bushes. A few stalks of pink flowers caught my attention, but only for a moment. I walked on straight. A few steps after, I stopped and looked back. There was something about the flowers that was not quite right. It was imperfect, such is the wrath of the insects.

The flower is flawed. It is not hideous, just flawed. Like us all.

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Some privacy, please?

Erm, I think they are mating, right?

I never meant to intrude these insects’ privacy, really. I just came across them during one of my Shutter Therapy session at the park. And I really couldn’t miss such an opportunity like that. I mean how often do you get to see insects mating. I was surprised that I was able to get a nice clear shot since it was windy and the leaf was shaking. I was afraid that they might just fly off since I’m there but they didn’t. :)

This picture is part of my Walk in The Park series. Click Walk in The Park for older pictures.

In The Garden; Meet the Pink Beauty.

Before you go, “Not another pink themed pictures?!”, hear me out first. :) These pictures are not edited for the dragonfly to be pink in colour. It is purely the natural colour of the dragonfly; the only thing I did to the pictures was to post-process and enhance it a little to make the pink pop out a little more. Or else, the pictures would turn out rather bland as it was taken under direct sunlight.. so and so and so (you get my point).

The first shot was a spontaneous one, since I wasn’t actually planning to take a picture of the it. I managed another shot, which was quite similar, so I didn’t post that up. Then I actually tried to take a better shot of it, and the second picture was the best I could get. Because somehow, I think the dragonfly now knows I’m taking a picture of it and so, it doesn’t even land long enough for me to get my angle. :S Oh well, I thought these two shots were actually okay.

Do tell me what you think about these shots, yea? Thanks!

xoxo.

Btw, these shots were taken in my very own garden. :D So, sometimes, you don’t have to go searching far for a good subject. Look around closely, and you’ll be surprised with what you can find.

Project: Theme Pink!

Woots! The pink themed photography project is finally done. Yay for me, because I procrastinated so much, it dragged on to weeks just to finish up the project. And now, looking back, I realised I could have finished them in a flash if I wanted it. Blah. And suddenly I wished I took more pictures for the project because four pictures seem so little now! AH.

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1. Aurora, The Sleeping Beauty

2. Pink Halter Top, mentioned in the I See Pink! post

3. Pink Capri Pants

4. Elianto’s Hot Pink + OPI Shatter Polish

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This project was inspired after the Pink Halter top I wore in the I See Pink! post. I went home, did some self portrait shots using Cammy, my Canon S90’s Colour Accent feature. I wanted only the pink in every picture to stand out, and that feature really helped me a lot. Of course, the pictures were then post-processed using a few photo editing software. I hope you enjoyed this post. I’m already working on another photography project already. :) Do keep a look out for that.

A walk in the park. [With Cammy] – Quotes Edition

A walk in the park. [With Cammy] – Part 2

Considerably, the worst shot for today’s walk. I may sound a little too critical about my photographs - I know right. But this was shot without looking through my lens. I placed Cammy underneath the leaves and just snapped away. Actually looks fine-lar!

 I know this is a super plain shot. But I took it because I just felt like it. It’s simple, nice and free from clutter. Ah, such a peaceful shot, don’t you think so?

Do you know what this reminds me of? The speck of dust which fell on the flower! From the movie, Horton Hears a Who! This flower certainly looked something like that.

 Spot the similarity! :)

 And guess who I meet there at the park? A ladybug! I’m so happy! It’s my first time seeing one and I managed to see a baby one also, but too small for me to take a picture of. :D

 Ladybug, ladybug, ladybug!

I would have never found these little wonders if it wasn’t for my brother who kept pestering me to bring him to the park. Luckily he dragged me there because I was so bloody stressed out and annoyed with my portfolio, I could use the fresh air. And I came back home, feeling lighter and happier.

And, out of the blue when my brother was gaming, I showed him a picture of a guy with 6 packs. I said, “Kah Lok, you must look like that next time.” He said, “Ewwwwwww.”

Lou Shi Fun [Mouse Noodles] – I made these for lunch.

This morning I just wasn’t in the mood for breakfast. Water was a a good substitute, well until 11 am that is. I woke up around 8ish this morning, a very ungodly time indeed when everyone else is fast asleep till 12 pm. I couldn’t fall back to sleep, not today at least.

When I finally decided that I wanted to eat breakfast, I realized it was close to lunch time then. Brunch, it is! But mommy just started eating her breakfast. So, she suggested that I cook lunch. Of course, I’m up for it. Yes, that is despite the very fact that I am indeed a bad cook. 

Cooking proved to be a good therapy but somehow, midways I find myself staring blankly at the wok. I was obviously thinking while cooking. Thanked God Mom kept talking to me, subtly reminding me that I was cooking.

Can you imagine me juggling between cooking and taking photographs? Thanked God, I didn’t burn lunch. Plus I didn’t want to use the Auto mode on my camera, the pictures taken using that mode usually are over-exposed.

God, I love taking photographs of food.  They are so photogenic, but of course I had to adjust things a little.  Add some spring onions to bring out the color of the toppings. Add some black sauce to the noodles to make it look less bland. Yeah, you get my point.

It seems like my cooking is getting better. I’ve always been interested in cooking but (last time) all my mom would let me do was help her in the cooking preparations; like washing the vegetables and all. That just killed all my interest in cooking. Assisting is so not my thing, I’d rather be the one cooking.  Which explains why I do (sort of) enjoy cooking now. I still loathe the preparations part of cooking.

But still, I’m dabbling with cooking because as the saying goes; the way to a man’s heart is through his stomach. Haha. Though, I so wouldn’t mind if a guy can cook. Then, we could like experiment with crazy food ideas and make a mess in the kitchen. Ah, what a nice daydream.

A walk in the park. {With Cammy}

I need to exercise more often. I'm thin but my body is in dire need of a toning. Plus, I need to get fit by next Friday because I'll be playing futsal again. But it's a competition this time, so it's no longer child's play. And I've already picked my team; Liang Bin's team! Haha. If you had read my previous post about my first Futsal Experience, then you'll know why I chose to be in Liang Bin's team.

Anyway, most people would bring their dogs for a walk in the park but I bring my camera instead. Well, I don't have a dog and I badly need to need to know how to use my camera's functions. I need someone to explain to me the shutter speed and aperture settings too.

I took this picture after it rained. I tried to take the same picture another day but it didn't turn out this nice.

I basically spent 30 minutes kneeling on the sand trying to get a nice shot of the pink flower above. Guess why? Because of all days I decided to take a walk with Cammy, I choose one day when it was windy. And most of the flowers were swaying from left to right. Which is why I gave up and took pictures of the sunset instead. I thought those pictures were pretty good. 

I like this because you could see the rays of sunshine here. It's not that obvious and I want to get a picture where the rays are obvious.

God, I love the hues of orange here.

The sun morphed into a star. Wait, it's already a star. Hehe.

I love this shot. Took it single handedly as my other hand is in front of the lens.

So. what do think of the pictures? I hope to be able to get better shots soon. Maybe I should bring Cammy to the jungle. I will, one day.

Hungry now? Then, don't read this.

Before I go on about the delicious Dim Sum I had for breakfast with my family, I'd like to say something about yesterday night. Well, I was pretty down yesterday night. I was being rather over-sensitive over something, but the point is I was emo-ing, like big time. Thanked God for friends who were there. And the best thing was this issue affected me so badly till I couldn't sleep and woke up at 6 am in the morning. Sighs. But I think I got over it already. I have to move on despite what had happened.

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I recalled telling Mom Dad before that I was craving for Dim Sum since I haven't had them for a long time. And all of a sudden, this morning, Mom said that we're going for Dim Sum but it's not at our regular place. Hmm, I was rather sceptical at first. I mean, I do have a pretty high standard in food and not many can match it. So, anyway Dad drove us to this restaurant which was recommended by Aunt Christina.

Pretty informative picture, don't you think? You know where to find the restaurant already.

Fried varieties and pastries.

Dim Sum that has yet to be steamed.

This restaurant took a pretty practical approach to ensure that the Dim Sum would be steaming hot when it arrives at the table. It's simple really. Common Dim Sum restaurant would bring the Dim Sum in huge hot trays from one table to another. But not this one, they brought cold, uncooked Dim Sum to the table and takes down the order and then only steamed the ordered Dim Sums. I like that, I mean they can prevent wastage too.

Uncooked unidentified Dim Sum. Haha.

Siew Mai. Tastes pretty good. They don't skimp on the meat.

Har Kau. Didn't really like it. I thought the dough was tad thicker than usual.

I'm not sure what this is called but it's good.

This is so-so only. I've tasted better fish ball than this.

Siew Long Pau. It's famous Shanghai's meat dumpling with soup. But their version falls short.

As you can see the dough is a bit too thick and dry.

Pork Ribs with black beans. Not bad.

Hong Kong style steamed Chee Cheong Fun with shrimps. Again, they skimped on the shrimps.

Egg Tarts. If you like thicker and flaky tarts, this one would suit you.

Fried Yam with fillings. This is so god damn good. One of the best ones I have tasted.

It feels like eating cheese. The fillings practically melts in your mouth. Oh my.

This looks pretty normal right? But guess what? It's even better than the Fried Yam.

It's Fried Shrimps! Surprisingly, they didn't skimp on this one which makes it tastes so good.

Grren Chilies. This is one of the Yong Tau Foo you can choose from.

Ladies Finger Yong Tau Foo. If you want the best, I'd suggest you go get them from Bandar Baru Ampang.

In conclusion, most of the Dim Sum here in terms of taste are average with a few really good ones. However if you're talking about the serving size, then I think it's pretty value for money. The Dim Sum starts at a price of RM 3.50 per plate. If you're around the place and you don't know what to eat, you can always try the place out.

The day everything went wrong. [Snapshots of the day.]

Yesterday just sucked really badly. Almost nothing went right and everything bad that could not have possibly happened did happen. Sighs. It's pointless talking about it now. I shall just post some pictures and we shall marvel at Cammy's [and my ability] to take such ah-mazing shots.

Myself and Cik Rahayu, my BM teacher.

Myself and Cik Sri Devi, my Sejarah teacher.

A great big thanks to the both my teachers for teaching me since I was like Form 1. If it wasn't for their effort, I can say that I wouldn't have gotten A+ for the subjects. Of course, I'll like to thank all my other subjects teachers too. And even though, I didn't managed to get A+ for Chemistry (I think I may have let her down since she expected that from me), Puan Lee was one of the best teacher I ever had, albeit only teaching me for two years.

Myself and Puan Lee, my Chemistry teacher.

Remember I mentioned earlier about how everything went wrong? Well, what I'm talking about is that I basically missed the whole prize-giving event because I went to get flowers for my teachers. Plus I didn't expect the event to finish so fast. And when I finally made it there, I couldn't find Puan Lee at all. I searched like all four corners of the hall but I still couldn't find her. Eventually, after the hide and seek game, she called me. Said she was in Methodist Boys School. Daddy drove all the way there and finally found her. Haha, things I'll do for my teacher.

So, you want to see the pictures of the flowers that caused me to be late for the event? They are really pretty. Red roses, my favourite. I bought white too, but the picture didn't look so good. So, I'm not going to post it here.

I just love how beautiful roses are. Even those not fully bloomed yet.

At first, I didn't really like the arrangements for the red roses. I thought the white flowers were too small. But they turned out to be quite pretty on camera.

You can't really see the curves of the petals here but I like how sharp the image is.

And this would have to be the best shot I got of the rose. It looks like I managed to lift the rose of the picture.

Not bad for my Cammy. DSLR could of course do this with ease since it's something related to the Depth of Field which prosumer compact doesn't have or something like that. Please do correct me if 'm wrong.

Anyway, I'm hooked on origami roses; I have been folding and perfecting the art of folding it. Well, take a look and tell me which is better.

The purple rose origami; I coloured the inside of it. Do you like this or ...

... Or the red rose origami better? This is is of course much simpler than the other.

 Hmm, I'm undecided. My brother, Kah Lok prefers the purple one.