KTM – The Old Railway

Random shoots at the forgotten railway station at Keppel Rd. Not that it’s inactive, just that with so many other forms of transport to bring you into Malaysia, taking a train doesn’t look as attractive nowadays…

Not my litter ok

The familiar lobby where it used to be more crowded, about 15years ago. At least that’s what i think i remember back then when i took the train up north.

The clock that used to remind people of the boarding time, is no longer working, stopping at its glory days…

As another train departs into the sunset…

Do you still remember the last time you took a train?*

*i’m not referring to the MRT

Sunday @ The Zoo

Originally planned to visit the zoo on Saturday, but was postponed to Sunday due to Benny’s graduation ceremony on Sat itself. Nonetheless, it couldn’t be a more perfect day as the weather turned out to be fabulous – cloudy & windy. Couldn’t ask for more.

Needless to say, it was photo-frenzy for me. The final count at the end of the day was almost 1,200 shots though after reviewing my collection, about 300 shots have to go straight into the recycle bin.

We caught all 3 shows that were available throughout the zoo, effectively keeping us occupied every 2hrs or so.

But nothing can keep us entertained as much as seeing the animals doing their own thing and getting completely grossed out when the rhino started to rinse his mouth in it’s partner’s pee.

In which they later proceeded to congregate at the mini pool & sniffed & sipped.

The whole zoo area wasn’t exactly big, but because of the layout, we certainly did a lot of walking and no tram for us whatsoever.

Seeing the ferocious lions behind a carefully thought-up restricted compound made me feel sad for them. A once free-roaming big cats of the plains, now confined to the area hardly a fraction of their former territory.

And made worse by seeing an ostrich in front of them everyday and unable to do anything about it…

It’s like trying to curb an age-old animal instinct.

And i’m trying to curb my instinct to trigger my camera at anything that moves.

But i’m lucky i did not, making full use of my zoom range to take some close-up portraits of the animals.

Slightly letdown by the purple fringing around the twigs

Another depressing image of a leopard trapped in an aquarium. Though without the zoo, many of us would never be able to see such animals up close.

Of course, the zoo also help breed endangered species so that future generations are able to learn about them. But the greater irony is that Man is usually the key reason for them being endangered in the first place.

Speaking of which…

The world’s slowest sexual intercourse, not to mention that it could be a matter of life & death should the male flip over & never recover.

We caught our 2nd performance for the day where they advocate the importance of preserving the natural habitats of the animals.

After the performance, Weiting got in touch with his primitive relatives.

Meanwhile, a tiny little monkey peeped through the foliage to see the visitors, only to be greeted with a sight of 8 camera lenses pointing at him.

When you look deep into the monkey’s eyes, you could almost feel its emotions & thoughts. It’s human-like behaviour also makes them feel like a part of us. Except the hairy part.

Since we were in Primate’s Land, we did what we ought to do… monkey around.

The Ethiopian Baboons were a joy to watch, scrambling around, playing, grooming, feeding…

… and yes, that too.

In fact they are such a joy to watch, i’ve taken so many pictures of them and struggling hard to choose which to post up. Perhaps i should do a separate post just on them.

When it came to feeding time, the baboons all lined up facing the zoo keeper & started doing their little tricks to ‘earn’ their meal. It’s quite unnatural to see these animals ‘begging’ for their food, it’s not animal-like.

And you see the alpha-male so proudly doing their tricks to impress, hopefully to gain another banana or two, is just demeaning to their stature. Well, maybe i’m personifying them a little too much.

Moving on to other exhibits in the zoo… The all-too-familiar white tiger which mauled a zookeeper to his death. Wonder which one did it, there were 3.

is this the one?

We made haste for our next animal performance to see the Elephants at Work & Play, where we saw the trained elephants handle the big & heavy log and also the more delicate tasks like picking up a hat.

And also show the playful sight of them blowing water into the crowd…

Though they were trained to do so on cue…

See the elephants smile

Have read about how the elephants were trained in the initial stages where the mahout has to break it’s will in a rather cruel manner (do your own google) such that it will eventually submit to it’s master.

Guess that’s how Man conquer Nature. At least attempts to…

Rounding up our day at the zoo, we headed for the kids zone where it features a mini water theme park for kids (& the kid at heart) to cool down from the afternoon heat.

Seems like some of the kids were all poised to spend the day there instead of the rest of the zoo.

For us, we just explored the rest of the kids area, where we were attacked by the dinosaurs…

I’m just glad i made it back to blog…

Not Your Everyday Cargo

Moving of a shrine! Quite a sight to behold…

The way to lash this cargo is definitely interesting, so much intricate details to take note of.

Before it is lowered into place in the vessel…

Which also brings to mind a few questions… Where is it shipping to? Somewhere else need his divine powers? 土地公 should be everywhere right? Just need to tap the ground & pray for his appearance…

and also… how did the sales people get in touch with the temple for such lobangs? FOC?

Benny’s Graduation

Attended Benny’s big day in his academic career last Saturday morning. Like every graduation ceremony, there was the collection of the piece of highly regarded paper on stage, some performance, speech by valedictorian, buffet reception… a lot of photo-taking.

In fact there were lots of pictures taken on the day and i’ll just have to pick a few to upload and leave the rest for Benny’s keepsake.

I also spotted a few friends while running around the lobby, one of which was my NS buddy – Wee Siang with his Doraemon grad.

Hope everyone will be able to land themselves a proper job and advance steadfastly in their career… and settle down soon.

According to highly accurate test/prediction on Facebook, Benny is supposed to get married by 25 years old. And he will be turning 25 this year… *ahem*

Another group shot that took ages for people to come scrambling over and get into position for a shot. Well, plenty of shots… as behind me was a wall of photographers with their lenses aimed to kill.

Family portrait

WeiShi also wanting to feel the graduation mood, donning the mortarboard & grabbing the bear & lion. Reminding us that we have had our graduation ceremony a year ago, how time flies…

Now we’re already in the workforce & counting down the end of the weekdays before we start counting down the end of the weekend, and a month will pass before we know it.

To COKTY’s only pride in studies…

“Graduate loh!”

Please Show Some Courtesy

Doing my public service, since the count for the H1N1 is just escalating. Counting the number of people who caught the flu is quite a difficult task, it’s so easily transmittable. Just try out this game and you’ll know.

Take care~

Night Festival @ Museum

After last year’s exciting night festival, we were looking forward to this year’s event as they feature a pyrotechnic show put up by a German group.

Just the word ‘pyrotechnic’ is enough to attract a huge crowd. Not to mention that it’s free.

At center stage of the museum stood a pagoda made of tanks decorated in lotus prints, a deep irony of what the destructive tanks usually stands for.

Make love, not war.

As with all other such events, there was no lack of DSLR to grace the events. You could pick up a stone and throw it in any random directions, and the odds are, that person is holding a DSLR.

That’s what you get from years of IT Shows & PC Fairs etc.

I only had my puny bridge-cam Pany FZ28. Completely dwarfed by the bigger cousins, but never mind. They say that photographers tend to carry larger equipment to make up for their lack of self-esteem in their *ahem* manhood *ahem*.

The queue to enter the exhibit area was also overwhelming, quite expected of any free events. Thankfully (& rather disappointingly), the exhibits on show were the same as the previous years, so we could spare ourselves from the long queues.

Instead, we waited for Weiting & Huixian to join us for the performance at 10.30pm

It was truly a late night affair, with performances starting from 7pm all the way into the wee hours (2am). Certainly added more colours & vibrancy into our Singapore’s night entertainment scene.

There was a huge crowd that gathered in front of the Museum, armed with their huge-ass DSLR & what-nots, nudging and fighting for precious standing space & prime lot to view the performance.

Not wanting to be outdone, we moved a lot closer and onto the roads to get as close to the action as possible, which was a good decision. As i believe the rear is too packed to see much.

The stage is set

It’s nice to see the National Museum warmly lit & facing a massive crowd which encamped SMU & crushed all the flora & fauna in the area. Not to mention the litter that usually follows such big gatherings of inconsiderate people.

The night kickstarted with bursts of flames accompanied by the drummer boys to hype up the performance. And almost unexpectedly, lines of sparklers lit from the SMU campus into the Museum, creating that distinctive ‘weeeeee-ummmm’ sound that got everyone on their toes.

“Wah so fast do special effects liao ah?”

In the giant spinning wheel of death, there were 4 ladies all strapped to the ferris-wheel-thingy-that-looked-like-a-hamster-wheel and they began their many minutes of free-spinning frenzy somewhere later in the performance

Think the view should be spectacular up there

It starts with the familiar hamster in a wheel scenario…

Which quickly escalate into a crazy head-dizzying spin.

As once again, pyrotechnics wowed the audience. But this time, in spectacular fashion as they shot straight up into the night skies.

After a couple of ‘WAH’s & ‘ooOoo’s, the performance had officially turned into a fireworks display.

With bursts of fire continuously bombarding the skies and filling it with bright spots of red & blue & orange & purple &…

Wasn’t prepared to take the fireworks as i scrambled to hit my manual settings right. Wasn’t planting my camera on a tripod as well, instead, manoeuvring it around like a monopod with one leg into my sling pouch.

i’ll learn to take better fireworks shots next time

Sparkles lit up the whole museum as a curtain of sparks veiled the museum facade in the finale…

… as the performers continue to spin & spin

Before coming to a halt & giving their bows to acknowledge the claps from the audience as well as the standing ovation given for their act. Heh, we were all standing throughout the performance.

Quiz time: What was the performance about? The plot?

I’m quite sure most of the people watching the performance would be scratching their head if quizzed the above. Probably just drawn to the promise of pyrotechnics & free.

Just to answer my own question, the performance was about the tribulations of a man’s journey & eventually succeeding & exploding into colours (ok, the last bit i added myself).

Never in a hundred years would i get that answer. No wonder i’m no arty-farty fella.

Optimus Koh Is Here

“Time to take out some Decepticons”

Miniskirts & Cleavage

Miniskirts, cleavage upset male SKoreans: survey
Tue Jul 7, 2:59 am ET

SEOUL (AFP) – Almost three-quarters of South Korean male office workers feel uncomfortable when female colleagues show too much leg or cleavage in the workplace, a survey has revealed.

A poll of 1,254 employees by the job portal site CareerNet found that 74 percent of men felt upset with the attire of their female co-workers.

Some 56 percent of them cited micro-miniskirts as their chief complaint, while 51 percent objected to excessive cleavage.

Low-rise trousers that reveal women's underwear, "killer heels" and flashy outfits in general were also cause for complaint.

Women meanwhile complained mostly of stains on the shirts and ties of their male colleagues.

Both sexes disapproved of colourful underwear under a white top, slippers or sandals and sleeveless clothes.

South Koreans in general still dress conservatively in the workplace, with an emphasis on suits and ties among men.

If i’m the one conducting the survey, i would conclude that almost three-quarters of South Korean male office workers are lying…

… or gay. But will give the benefit of the doubt that it’s the former.

I mean, this is what they complain about at work?

No doubt i would feel uncomfortable at work too…

… but in a good way

Colleagues’ Birthdays

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Celebrated Dana’s birthday last week & KG’s birthday over this week, meaning that we have been indulging ourselves with cakes for the past 2 weeks.

Also a good way to take time off at work & share some light-hearted moments…

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Happy birthday guys!

Relac Meet @ KTM

Met up with the gang last Friday for a mini-get-together, been quite some time since we chill over a cuppa kopi.

Zech arriving in high fashion

The rest of the evening was like every other relax meet-ups. Though the topics we talked about have moved on slightly, no longer about the modules or lectures…   

Though there were still students around…

Taking the chance to practise some close-up portrait shots…

Another week has passed just like that…

Ouch!

Hemispheres would have sounded better