So there was I ( in the middle of a workshop), I was actually concentrating on eBay I came across a couple of interesting auctions and Buy It Now Rolleiflexes. I tried bidding on a couple of auctions. But usually, the prices are not stable and I got to wake up in the middle of the night to monitor the bids. Buy It Now offer a hassle free method for buyers who can t be bothered with waiting 5 to 6 days for an auction to end. They simply BUY it now Buy It Now items usually command a higher price. So..Here am I ..Looking at a couple of Buy It Now items. A particular Rolleiflex 3.5 F ad caught my eye. The item was described as MINT. Priced at USD1199.99 (excluding shipping). Unfortunately it says Will Not Ship to Russia, Malaysia and Indonesia. But I was keen to try my luck. I contacted the seller, Randy Smith of www.holgamods.com asking him if he can reconsider shipping the item to Malaysia. After a couple of emails the deal was sealed! I asked Randy to insured the package. I was not worried about Randy. I was worried about our local postal services. Once upon a time, some idiot decided to threw the parcel over the gates. Thank God it was not lenses.

Dealing with Randy was very pleasant. He kept me updated with tracking and mails. On my side, I updated Randy when the parcel touched down and cleared the customs. I was lucky that my office was near to Batu Caves PosLaju. I picked up the parcel the moment it arrived as the Batu Caves PosLaju. Hahahaha. Couldnt wait. I opened the package at the Mizi Shabu Shabu while having lunch with my dear wife. Randy gave me a modded Holga as well. Thank you Randy!~ The Rolleiflex was packed neatly with lotsa layers of bubble wrap. True to Randy’s eBay description. The Rolleiflex was in great condition. Despite a speck or two of paint loss, I didnt mind at all. Its a great looking TLR. I love it! Its a beautiful beautiful beautiful camera, I kept telling my wife. Hahahaha. As of this morning, I ran 3 rolls of film through the camera. The speed knob is abit tight, but will do. The screen is bright and snappy. Will update again once I dev the film. Do pay Randy’s site a visit. Lovely mods he done to the Holgas.

A TLR within a TLR

Waking up in the morning

Milk milk time

zzzzzzzzz

Wakes up again

Sleeps again

Bad Habit?

Details

More details

First stop in Singapore, we had our quick tea (makan again la) at a local food court. Johan recommended one of the must have whenever he is down in Singapore, Bak Chor Mee. I can tell it is good. Why? The Q was so damn long. Its not an easy to prepare meal. According to them, its very manual. Hahahaha.  Anyway, the taste is pretty interesting. Although its called pork noodle mee, its different from the KL version. It tasted a bit sourish ( I think its the vinegar). The liver is cooked differently as well. Its not greyish like the one you see in KL. Apparently it s not fully cooked. What the chef did was..He poured the hot soup over the uncooked liver. Its like medium cooked. I took a piece only as I sorta outgrow livers. Quite a lot of ‘liew’ if you ask me. Its nice!~

The mission was simple, get to Johan’s place before 8 am as we were supposed to leave by 8 sharp. I left early and got there in time. See Meng was having sinus congestion and he was still 50-50 that morning. He was undecided on whether to make the trip or not. But while on my way to Johan’s place, he sms-ed and said he is on the way too. Johan’s grandma made some really nice Yee Mee for us. The hearty breakfast was complete with some really nice Xui Xian chinese tea, fruits and spicy hot chili padi for the Yee Mee. Many thanks to Grandma for the meal. Also met an interesting character at Johan’s place (my first time there), Johan’s Golden Retriever Max. Such an adorable companion. He greeted me like a long lost friend ( I found out why later.. He was kinda horny and he humped my leg a couple a time LOL).  No time to really play with Max. We had to get going. We need to reach Singapore by noon.

Fuel Up

The journey was really ok ( I am not a big fan of long journey ) as the ‘van’ (according to Singapore term) was really comfy and stable. We were going at a very decent speed. The thing with these better built cars, its pretty stable at high speed. It was like we were cruising at 100 km/hour? But in fact we were doing 160-170 km/hour? Some ‘healthy’ discussions were brought up during the journey making it very interesting. Topics ranged from iPad 2, Development time, X100, Leicas, Rolleiflex and films of course. We entered Singapore via the 2nd link. The first time I passed via 2nd link. Its better and nearer as we do need to pass by Johor Baru. The traffic was lesser here. Interesting that I saw at the Msia Immigration counter. I saw a sign ‘ Homemade Chocolate Cookie for Sale’ pasted on the glass of the booth. I can see why one would try to earn some extra money. But hey, Singaporeans drive past this checkpoint ok? Dont think its an appropriate to place an ad at the checkpoint counter. Next stop was the Singaporean immigration and Customs. Nick has some ‘issues’ with the custom officer. Hahahaha. Was queried why he wants to go to Singapore and etc. Anyhow we had a simple answer. We are here to stimulate Singapore’s economy *grins*  Ok. Here is a plus to Singapore’s Custom. They are so thorough. 3 officers checking the car. On a look out for contrabands Eg ciggie and gums.

Bak Chor Mee

Something interesting to share. Johan told me its ok to leave the bags in the car while we makan. Its pretty safe. But I cant say the same for KL. Hahahahaha. Another interesting fact to share with you all. The food court was really clean. We got there somewhere around before lunch time, just before the lunch crowd kicks in. The floor were really clean. No tissues paper. Of course when the lunch crowd came in, I can see some tissues on the floor. But generally speaking, its still cleaner compared to KL food court.  Noticed that two items were used commonly to ‘chup’ or reserve the empty tables. The umbrellas and the tissue packets. Hahahaha.

Leica Camera Asia

See Meng, Johan and me headed off to the Leica office to collect SM’s M7 while Nick went off to meet up with Phillip Tay to work on his Rolleiflex. After that we met up again at Penisular. Honestly, if I were to work in Singapore, I think it will be a new gear once a month. The analogue community is alive and well in Singapore. The amount of 2nd hand Leica gears reflect on the buying power of Singaporeans. Johan headed over to Konota to pau-ed the Fujifilm while we headed to Ruby. Developer, Fixer and of course FILMs were our targets. I got some Tri X, HP5, Ektar, Pan 400 and Pan 50. The Pan 400 came highly rated as it was cheaper and characteristically the same as HP5. Johan also managed to get some Fuji Superia 1600 (which was said to be almost similar to Natura 1600). Cant wait to test those out. It was not cheap. The Superia is retailing around $10.50. Nick got himself a 5 Reel Paterson. Now we know who to look for besides Johan when we want to do some major dev session.

Leicas For Sale

After tapau-ing the film, we headed off to Funan, Adelphi and some other places. We had tea at some place ( I forgot the name). It was raining that day. So the weather was kinda cool and wet. Not much shots taken. I managed to finish one roll of Neopan 400 and took some shots with the NEX3. Have not check the shots out yet. But its kinda interesting in Singapore. Some points need to be taken:

• I think Singapore is seriously a well planned city. The walkway are well shaded. The trees are well pruned and not chopped here and there. Its like a big garden in the city. Covered walkway enable us to walk around the city. The lights are well maintained and well lit. This is a big difference between KL and Singapore.

• Nobody Speeds around Singapore. We were doing like 160-170 km/hour along NS expressway, but once we are in Singapore, we were doing 80 km/hour only (Yes! Even on the expressway). Motorcycles keep to the left lanes. Lorries keep to the left lanes too.  Drivers are very courteous. No tail gating and etc. I guess the enforcement were doing a very good job. I noticed there were a lot of automated cameras/Speed along the way. This is good as it cuts down corruption. I think this is where Malaysia has to learn. The Singaporeans have a very good demerit system. If you screw up, they will take your license away. Here..Repeating offenders can try and accumulate as many summons as they CAN!~



Subject To GST Too!~

• No..You dont see the police everywhere to maintain the level of law. Its just that the people in the city are very law abiding. No jay walking. No Stop by The Road and Wait. No price Haggling on Taxi. No Touts. It feels very organized. The underground passage between malls are just amazing. Clean and air conditioned. Ah..Something I noticed. No beggars on the streets.

Generally the feeling is, I feel Singapore is  really a nice place to visit and shop. Somehow, the inflation is lower in Singapore. I can still source a $2 plus/bowl mee. Shopping is comparatively cheaper compared to Malaysia. Electronic items are cheaper too. Hahahaha. How I wish I can shop some of the items there and bring back to KL. But I dont want to risk it by getting apprehended and taxed by the Malaysia Customs.

Specialized Bookshop

We met up with George, Mabel and David for dinner before we headed back to KL. Nice place. Pizza, Sausages , Pork Knuckle and most importantly..German Beer ( I didnt drink la ). Its funny how photography brings people together. We are friends because of a common passion. We met Olivier/Oliver ( An Austrian, hence I am not too sure on how to spell his name) another photography enthusiast who was going for a beer but ended up having dinner with us. He owns a cool Leica M6 classic and a DR 50 mm Summicron. We took quite a lot of shots that night. But my film is still in the container waiting for its turn to be developed. We headed back to KL around 930 and got back real late. Hahahhaa. It was a good trip to Singapore. Fresh stock, good food and companionship. Looking forward to do this again. Many thanks to Jo for the ride down.

Practicing her Crawling technique

She finally managed to prop herself up sitting when she turned 8 months old. Within days, she also managed to stabilize herself by using both her hands. Right now, she is very quick, every now and then she will stop, sit up and turn around and off she goes on the wall. Crawling distance has been increased as well. She can cover the distance from the Living area all the way to the Kitchen. Its pretty interesting to see how she practice to sit upright..Wobbly and I ll go “be careful!~” Hahahaha. Yes, once in a while she has her fair share of knocks by falling over. Thank God for wooden strip flooring. Hehehe. It minimize the damage.

One of the few early shots

Papa and Nathania

Mama and Nathania

Lately she is practicing her ’speeches’ as well. Yeah..Baby languages. I have no idea whats she saying at all.  Everything sounds foreign to us.  Sometimes, she will go Pa..pa..pa..pa..pa..Pa!!~ or When she is crying she will Pa pa ma ma pa pa ma ma!~Hehehe. For the record, she started calling ‘papa’ when she was about 6 months old. Kekekeke. Wifey is jealous coz baby called papa first. But the odd thing is..She sometimes calls my wife Papa instead *Irony*. Kekekeke Nevertheless, I look forward to her future development.

P.S. I love Instagram

Well..Looking back at 2010, alot of things happened throughout the year. *btw, its 23 Jan 2011 now. Doing post edit* I got married on the 30th Jan 2010 to my beloved wife Yee Woon. Actually we registered our marriage back in 2009 on the 28th of Fed *Thanks for pointing out dear*. You may be asking why am I listing out the dates This method actually serve as a reminder to myself. So excuse in future if I can t remember the dates of the important days in my life. Marriage was never on my mind years ago until I met Yee Woon. Love at first sight? Hahaha. I still remember the very first time I saw her at the clinic when she reported in. Not so pretty due to the ‘aunty’ hairstyle. But as time progress, I realized she is indeed beautiful. Back those days, my dear wife uses make up *enhances the beauty* but nowadays she seldom make up *naturalist ma..:P* And she is slightly meatier back then. Now after delivery of Nathania, she lost a lot of weight. But makeup or no makeup, fat or thin, she is my beloved wife. Love ye dear!~

Next best news of the year! Promotion. Who does not love promotion? Be it in the gov or private setting, everyone welcome the good news of promotion. Been working with the gov since 2004. Started on U41 grade. The lowest ranking ‘officer’. PM Najib introduced automatic promotion in 2010. Was upgraded to U44. Now, it takes only 14 years only to reach U54. Back those days..You can slog till you drop, but no promotion guaranteed.  I know some very senior officers who have served for more than 10 years but still stucked in the U41 grade. But good news for them. Most of them are upgraded to U52 or U54 immediately after the new scheme was launched. Many ask why am I still in the gov, I get this question all the time. To be honest, back in the student days, I have always look up to my dad who was a KKM staff as well. I practically grew up around the Cancer department HKL. I welcome the Dettol smell everytime I stepped into the hospital compound. So when I was in my final year in Uni, I was determine to join HKL to do my pupillage. Thus my journey in the gov begun. Yes..the thought of leaving the gov service did crossed my mind a couple of time during the past few years. Something always held me back. Anyhow, am grateful for the cheap house loan. Without it, I will not be able to purchase my current property.

Speaking of property, we got the keys to our first home in April 2010. I have to say a big ‘Thank You’ to my cousin Anderson and his wife Joy. If they did not notify me of the project, I would have not pay the show room a visit. Never did give  thought to the idea of buying a property back then. Went back home and had a serious discussion with Yee Woon. We knew we couldnt afford a landed property. I wanted to have a home near to my parents place. But price of property was soaring and it has not slow down till now. We bought the condo for RM250k in 2008 and it has risen to around RM450k now. I wanted to cash out but..I know very well I cant afford landed property for the prices has gone even much more higher now. Anyhow, we moved into the new home on June 2010 *cant remember the date*. We did a simple reno to the place. Lighting and plaster ceiling. Just nice. Of course, if $$ is not a problem, the place would have been a lot nicer. I look forward to spending some good years at the condo. If God bless me with some good money, I ll invest in another property.

The biggest happening of the year was the birth of our precious daughter Nathania Ng En Qi on the 19th of July 2010. It was not a planned pregnancy, but God had His own plans. We got the big news about the pregnancy on the eve of Anderson and Joy’s wedding day. Hahaha. My wife couldnt sleep and she broke the news to me at 8 am on the 29th of Nov 2010. I was really happy..Euphoria!~ I have always wanted a baby. I love kids. Hahaha. Had some trouble breaking the news to my parents. I expected Dad to be pissed and Mom to be happy. But I got it wrong. Dad was really cool about it and Mom was kinda angry. But she got over it pretty quick and soon she was wondering what if it was a pair of twins? Hahahha. Ladies and Gentleman, that s my mom. Being traditional ,she was kinda pissed coz we have not gone through the traditional wedding yet. But hey..We are legally married The next 9 months of journey was preparing for the arrival of the baby. We made multiple visits to the MCH at KK Jinjang to make full use of the ultrasound machine and etc. We kept good track of the baby development. I remember I felt Nathania first kick when we came back from Pangkor Laut trip. It was just outside the entrance to Sierramas at the traffic light . The feeling was like ‘WOW! I felt the baby moving’. Now as off 22th of June 2011, baby Nathania is already 6 months old. I love her dearly. She has brought joy to our family. Mom, Dad and even my sister Ling Huey spend a lot of time with her daily as mom takes care of her during the day.  Am grateful to my parents for making the effort to wake up early daily and travel through the notorious potholes infested Jalan Segambut Dalam to reach my condo to pick up little Nathania back to the Kepong house. Even my brother Yang is making good progress with the baby. Funny thing, it sorta gel the family together. To God, thank you!~ The baby is indeed a gift of God. The name Nathania means ‘Gift of God’. Papa and Mama loves you dearly. May 2011 brings us even more joy and happiness.

Overall, 2010 was a pretty good year with ups and downs. But the 4 above were the major happenings of the year. I look forward to 2011. It has not really begun well, Notebook rosak la and Car rosak la etc etc. But hey…I got some really good stuffs to start the year off. Wedding photography was good too. Been involved in several assignments with some of the big names in the wedding industry. Well..Time to sign off. I hope to write more. But as usual la..Writers block LOL. 73!~ Cheerio (HAM language)

]]> http://www.jasonbeyond.com/2011/01/reflecting-2010/feed/ 2 http://www.jasonbeyond.com/2010/12/happy-feet/ http://www.jasonbeyond.com/2010/12/happy-feet/#comments Mon, 06 Dec 2010 02:58:43 +0000 beyond http://www.jasonbeyond.com/?p=769

Hello and good morning!~ Been missing for sometime. Was pretty busy at work *wink* Most of my PCs have some form of problem. Mac Mini- Dead Fan (Repaired) and  Compaq Notebook- Dead MOBO ( Squeezing the last bit of warranty- Appointment with the technician this Wed). Mac Mini repair was pretty straight forward. Quotation, was hopeful that its not the logic board. The warranty just expired and the fan decided to die. Thank God the repair was not that expensive. Not so lucky with the notebook. God knows why the ‘Blue screen’ syndrome keeps popping up. I ran memtest to test out the RAM. They came back ok. Ran checkdisk to make sure the new hard disk was ok . Yeah..You read me right. A NEW hard disk. Funny thing was, the problem surfaced after I changed the HD. Tried reformating, problem persisted. Hopefully a new MOBO will solve it once and for all, else..I ll need to get a new notebook (which is something I dont want to do so after spending on a new iPad). Will talk more on the iPad in the next post.

Update Update, baby Nathania is around 4 months and 2 weeks old now. Active little baby she is. Loves to sing ( sebenarnya is screaming ler). Also loves to grab Daddy’s spec and Mommy’s hair. Started her on milk powder recently. Due to unseen circumstances, the natural milk production is kinda low (wife s gonna kill me for saying this), so we had to supplement with milk powder. In comparison with her cousin Adriel, Little Nathania is kinda small in size. But nevertheless, she s our little bundle of Joy. We are happy as long she is healthy. Think she is teething lately. She loves to chew on Grandpa’s shoulder. According to some, its too early for teething. I m not too sure. But she had the teething ‘low sai’ symptom too. Hopefully we will get to see her first tooth soon. Little Nathania inherited the infamous Ng/Wong family’s temper. She will show her displeasure by screaming/rubbing her ears/crying and etc. Not easy to manage. But I hope that she will grow up and learn to control the temper. We dont want her to be a spoilt little girl. I pray to God, please guide her and mold her. Picture above was taken sometime in November. She loves to rub her tiny feet. Just like me. Hehehehe. Think she looks like me when I was small. Will post some of the old pics for reference too. Cheerio!~

Batu Clinic is a pretty interesting place. No longer in the small shop lot, it had moved to a larger premise just further down the road. We have a decent parking complex. The entrance to the clinic looks kinda a bit dodge-y due to a snooker parlor and a karaoke “ahem ahem” outlet next to it. So many bad elements but yet the clinic is where we heal the patients. As long we dont get involve, we are pretty ok. Another plus to the area is..we have 4 different kind of banks in front of the clinic. This is a boon to me as I have better access to banks now.

Selamat Hari Raya!~ Since it is public holiday, I think I ll spend sometime to rewrite this blog entry. When was the last time you remember you had a naked photo of you taken by your parents? I dont remember mine. Hahaha. But I remember cousin Wayne has one. All the cousins had a good laugh whenever we saw the picture.  Took this pic after her bath session in the morning. She looks forward to the massage session after bathing. Odd for a 1 month plus baby, she can raise her head well above ground level when placed on her tummy. Cute or not? Hehehe. She is now very responsive towards people. She giggles in a funny way and has her own baby language. Sometimes she goes ‘ooh-ooh, ah ah’ and some other that are just too cute to describe. She even knows how to cry out or call out for our attention. She absolutely loves people’s attention and talking session. Looking forward to more interactive session with her. Cheers!~