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

Recently, took a trip to Australia with my wife. Yeah. We left the baby home. I swear I wont do that ever again. Period. We missed the little one so much when we were abroad. Thank God for the iPad, iPhone and Optus Australia. I was never cut off from home and internet. For AUS30 I think we got ourselves a pretty good deal. AUS300 call credits/Unlimited FB and Twitter/500 mb Data lasted through 3 weeks trip. Best! I think I called home 2-3 times a day. Hahaha. One thing about Down Under. There is no such thing as free Wifi (unlike Malaysia where its free at most popular spots) except in the Airports or maybe some places that I didn’t know. Would be great to able to FaceTime with love ones back home. So the Data plan was keeping me very happy as I traveled. If one follows my FB updates you will know.

I tried to do some Street Photography when I was in Melbourne. I love the place. Its pretty ‘multiracial’. You got all sort of mixture of people there. The city is mix of modern and old architecture. Perfect. We walked to the bus stop to catch the bus to the train station. From Murumbeena train station we took the train to the city. I dont know why. But Melbourne has lotsa lotsa lotsa graffiti. I guess it makes the city colorful. It was towards the end of November and Christmas decorations were up during the last week of our stay in Melbourne. Didnt manage to take much pictures. I admit..I sucks at travel photography. Did a couple of street shots. Havent process the other pics yet. Here are some samples.

Uncle David Jones

Quickie

Should I get a Haircut?

Waking up in the morning

Milk milk time

zzzzzzzzz

Wakes up again

Sleeps again

Bad Habit?

Details

More details

Good friends

Happy Birthday!~

988 Cheryl and Phyllis

Drink!~

Alvin Wong in the House!~

Another local celebrity

Its never boring when Alvin is around. This guy never fails to crack me up!

If you know what I mean..Hehehe

The cake tastes good!

Howie having a go at ‘15 20′

Good friends having a good time

This guy can sing too!~

Cant remember is its Frank Sinatra or some Hakka song

Best friends

Sweet ladies

It was his Birthday too!~ Happy Birthday!

Dad and Nathania. The infamous ’stare’ from my Dad

Nathania crying for ‘Help’

Steady Girl

She loves see saw, horse and swings

Grandpa gives a helping hand

Sister, Dad and Nathania

Shadows

The Giant

I Am No 4

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