The cleaner aunty at my plant in Tuas has passed away, on the bus, on her way to work early in the morning (those who read the New Paper would know...). Apparently, she suffered a heart attack and burst artery while on the bus, and passed away almost immediately... We were all so shocked when we got the call from her cleaning supervisor. She was a frail lady, yet she insisted on coming to work every single day except Sundays, where she'll go out with her grandchildren. Soft-spoken, and ever so courteous, yet always ready to smile and chit-chat. She always ask before coming in to mop the meeting room floor, where I'll be every morning to check my emails before I start work. She'll always greet me whenever I go to get water from the water cooler. She'll always greet me when I go out for lunch, always reminding me to go early to beat the crowds. She'll never get angry even when I step into the toilet and leave my black safety-shoe prints on the floor. And I'll try to greet her if I see her too. I'll even try to chat with her when I finish lunch early and see her sitting in her chair by the stairs. She even asked if I needed coins to buy drinks from the vending machine just the day before she suffered the heart attack! Now, we'll all get goosebumps whenever we pass by the stairs, with the empty chair and her slippers beside it. And I'll never feel the same whenever I check my emails in the meeting room. It felt worse when we heard that she had to lie for hours on the bus, before the police brought her to the mortuary. And her kin had to wait for two days before they got to see her. So sad, for an old lady to leave without to see her loved ones, without getting her daily hug from her 3-yr old grandson, with seeing her older sister in hospital. At least she left the world with love from all over; the office people, her cleaning partner uncle, even the Bangala worker from our plant came on his own accord to her wake with flowers for her. Really touching. Really sad.

Went with the Snappers to Keppel Harbour. I never knew such a nice place lied at the end of that road! I only knew it hated the construction sites along the main road, which littered it with irritating rocks and cement that threatened and claimed my bike tires and gave me a puncture once!


Got Mas to help me take this... Had to launch off a bench to get some height... I've never been a good jumper haha!! Guessed it that I hated SBJ in IPPTs... =p

Dropping pebbles into the water feature under one of Harbourfront's office towers...

Our "poor-man's" fish-eye lens...

We were captivated by a leaky hose and taking turns to capture it and the wet leaves that it was creating!

The Keppel bridge, leading to the "island"... quite a bloody warm day, although it did leave us with a glorious sunset...

The classy wooden planked seaside boardwalk...

I love the effect of this pic! Like machiam diving into the sea!!

Met two friendly dogs, although Rusco here is more interested in biscuits than me...

Beautiful sunset, but I'm only allowed to enjoy it on weekends...

Have to thank the Snappers for not fxxking me when I was half-hour late... at least not in front of me... =)

Really missing riding my singlespeed GT bike; it has been leaning on the wall, tires flat, since I last swopped it's tires out for my marathon last month. Pumped the tires back up, kitted it up and got it ready to ride, and off to my favourite beach that is Labrador Park...


Playing with auto-bracketing on my Lumix, and then trying out Layers adjustments on Photoshop, which really did wonders with some of my shots!

One of the only rocky beaches left in S'pore, along with many of the unique creatures that only live here... so sad that they're stuck on a vulnerable 100m stretch of coastline, next to potential threats such as oil refineries and thousands of passing ships...

Tree branch, against the sea...

One of the architecture on the jetty, with the setting sun glistening off it...

Me, my bike, the sea, and the setting sun...

Tagged along with my aunt and the Nature Photographic Society to Sungei Buloh for shooting today. They have really good equipment! Like their tripods alone are worth as much as my camera! Some of them are really good too, especially the young man, sort of the teacher of the group, a really experienced and confident nature photog. Although I drifted away from them along the way, as I kept on walking just to keep mosquitoes away from me! Yes, I was pretty much sucked dry by mosquitoes today! Their Depavali breakfast buffet! Till the point I gave up shooting many pictures, and many pictures were blurred, because I was swatting mosquitoes! And the sound of mosquitoes in my ears almost was as loud as the singing of birds and cicadas! Super duper scary!


Saw my first ever wild Oriental Whip Snake today! So so so excited! Found it in the trees while I was looking at a grasshopper... then I saw a pair of eyes also looking at me! I was so excited that when it was climbing away and up the tree, I reached out and grabbed its tail and tried to emulate Steve Irwin and pull it down again with my tripod's legs! But I couldn't see its head, and the snake is mildly-venomous and could strike at me any time, so I decided to play safe and let it go on its way...


What a beautiful snake...


A shed cicada nymph moult, glistening in the sunlight. This guy has been living underground for years, before coming up to moult, and then sing his song and hopefully have some babies, before he dies in a few weeks time... wish him all the best!

Good morning Mr Monitor Lizard! Still a bit blur-blur, and shocked to find so many cameras clicking away at him so early in the morning...

Another one sun-tanning...

Saw three preying mantises today! I love them too! I used to keep a couple as pets during my primary school days, and I love to see them eating mealworms! Although their strike can be very painful and draw blood too...

Saw quite a lot of mudskippers today... Huge ones too! They were always fighting, making huge splashes so indiscretely...

As usual, there were many, many crabs!

Went to the Dairy Farm Trail today. Much less people nowadays, as compared to its opening a few weeks ago... Good! Nice sunshine too, feeling too tired to go cycling after near-cramps from yesterday's riding, but I don't want to waste the beautiful weather...


Saw a Bronzeback (not too sure whether it's an Elegant or Painted Bronzeback...) sashaying across the pathway in front of some excited kids and adults alike. I was so so excited too! I love snakes so much! So excited I was snapping away at it, completely forgetting I had zoom on my lens! So regretting that I should have zoomed in on it much much more! But I'm so happy! I saw a similar snake yesterday on my bike ride too, as well as a coral snake (so deadly it can kill me for the rest of all my reincarnations over & over again!), but I didn't have my camera on my ride... Spotting more snakes recently, good sign? Good for me though...


So many grasshoppers too! Until I got sick of photographing them haha! Lost so many pictures to camera shake though... my hands seemed especially shaky this weekend! The breeze doesn't help either! So pissed!


Some bikers were chasing the monkeys around on their bikes... Can't tell who's the monkey in that situation... =p


Nice Sunday evening, and another work week beckons...~~

Recently, I discovered that I can't sleep for more than 8 hours, otherwise my back will wake me up! It will start hurting by the 7-8th hour, and nothing I've tried helps (I mean by changing sleeping positions... =p). Guess the bone that broke is probably one of my "lazy bones"; now cannot be lazy and keep lying in bed liao haha!

Need to start running more after work liao. My stamina is plummeting like the US stock market! Must start training so I can enjoy my weekend bike rides more... hehe!