Kel's now on Flickr! Link to Kel's Photostream

Yay! Just bought my first ever big bicycle pump! Now I can pump my GT's tires to my usual 75psi without having to make a mandatory trip to the Shell pump near my home at the start of every ride! Yay!

Haven't blogged in a while...
Quite tired with the constant report & proposal writing at work, trying hard to sell my ideas during the project lull period, while I wait for my hardware to come back online, and then I have to start clearing all the bad debts accumulated during the last 5 weeks of system downtime...

I do look forward to going out to take photos on the weekends though... the recent weather hasn't been good for biking. Just as well, it's also nice to go out, soak in the chill and peace of the early morning jungle. Especially after every 5 shitty days...


MacRitchie is my newest jungle home. The recent weather also made many fungi subjects for me to try out!


Looks good enough to eat!


"R-21"... Fly mating in progress!


Fat spider, with tiny tiny eyes...


My favourite subjects are these jumping spiders. I love how their soulful eyes can be! Although it's a big big challenge to snap pictures when they're always busy hopping about!

I feel like crap. I feel like I'm a piece of crap. Useless piece of rubbish.

Didn't feel like biking on last Saturday morning... still feeling sore after doing my first jog since Chinese New Year. But I woke up damn early, and didn't want to waste the beautiful morning. So I packed up my camera gear, and took the bus to MacRitchie Reservoir. It's been years since I hiked there; the last time I was there, the multi-storey carpark outside wasn't built yet! Really tiring hike though... a total of 10+km, with my camera, a few lenses, tripod, water and food on my back, under the mid-day sun, plus once-in-awhile dashing off into the bushes after some creature... it's really like some army mission! My legs were really lembek (soft) at the end of it man! But happy happy day!!


Really lucky to spot this sweet baby Wagler's Pit Viper. If not for my growling stomach, I wouldn't have stopped at a shelter to have my snack, and noticed this sweetie on a branch behind the shelter. She's a real sweet snake. She's really deadly toxic, but she allowed me to get so near and practically rub her nose with my lens! And she laid perfectly still for me to get all my shots, even though my flash was just millimetres away from her! Only when I got really bold and poked her with my finger did she really looked pissed. Really beautiful snake. My first viper encounter in the wild! Yay! I love snakes!


Pissed after I "molested" her by stroking her tail... =p


A hoverfly was bugging me when I was having my sweet date sitting next to the snake. So I just aimed at it and fired two shots. But goodness me... look at its mesmerising eyes!


Got lucky when I flipped over some leaves and found a family of caterpillars sleeping under them. I found them so cute to be nicely "parked" in their individual "lots"! And then, I saw this pair of siblings, away from the rest, probably sleepless and having a nice heart-to-heart chat...


This jumping spider was also so sweet. She did not run away as I was shooting at her, even though my flash was directed straight at her! Instead, she turned to me and flashed her big shiny eyes. Really cute! Next time maybe I'll concentrate on spiders!

Was wrapping up my "home-made" corrosion test for my work project. This is the face of a badly-corroded piece of aluminium alloy just 10 days into my test. Putting my macro lens to good use =)

Met Alex on the start of BT trail this Saturday evening. He was a relatively new mountain biker, just about a year in riding, and was excited about his new GT Force bike. I loved the look of his white bike, and went over to chat. Then we headed into the trails together, for my first lap, and his second. I stayed with him on the up-slopes. But try as hard as I could, I totally lost him on the down-slopes! Couldn't even see his dust cloud! Mid-way on the trail, I gave him a pat on his back, and mentioned that he's a really fast rider. Then he replied that it's my bike that's holding me back. His bike has 2 times more suspension travel, while weighing the same as my bike. Then he said my fork was already 9 years old, while my bike frame is 7 years, almost reaching end of "COE" already! What's more my fork and frame has been pounding rocks and roots and potholes over the length of time... it's good time to retire this set of old wheels...


Alex's comments got me thinking again, and yes, I could really enjoy having a new bike... and here's my current dream bike! And nope, it doesn't cost as much as the Universe. Start saving Kel!!
Bike Radar

Tried night nature macro for the first time today, as I went with my aunt to Hort Park after dinner to play with my new Canon 100mm macro lens. Yay! Found this tiny praying mantis on a squash melon vine. It's probably just hatched, because it's not much bigger than the black ants on the same plant!


Found this grasshopper sleeping in the grass beside a lamp. Until I came to pepper it with my repeated flashes! This is the face of a "tulan-ed" grasshopper!

Haha... Link

My mum said, "Don't disturb it. It's just paying us a visit for the New Year.", as a praying mantis sat on my bedroom ceiling, then moved to the ceiling light after a while. There he sat, watching me upload his picture, and typing this blog post. He'll probably be watching me sleep tonight as well. My guardian angel for tonight... =)


Sky on fire, as the sun waves us all goodnight...

Playing with camera bokeh recently... =)


Fishy rush-hour!




Love Traffic Junction... =)

It's yet another Valentine's Day... Kel is still damn lost on the highway of love with everybody else speeding past... but anyways... Happy Valentine's Day to all my friends; single, attached, married or complicated!! May love be with & around us all the time - Cheers!

Got my free company ticket to the Airshow. Of course, my company's the biggest single exhibitor at the show. Must be the bad economy... hahaha!! Was totally sun-burnt, from an hour under the noon sun watching the aerial display, which was somewhat of an anti-climax to what I was expecting. I loved the F16 and Korean aerial displays though! Otherwise the most interesting things were meeting familiar guys at the exhibits booths, as well as at and after the show. Nice to sit in the F16 cockpit too! Took me and my supervisor Wei Yao almost half-hour of queuing under the 3pm sun for that! So cute to see him so pleased when getting the "Remove Before Flight" red tag key chain from the RSAF booth that I got for him! Also so cute to find myself wearing a bright yellow polo tee and jeans, among the sea of business suits. =p




The US and Australian static displays. =)

A snail which fights back! Here's a snail which has a shell that can blunt claws of crabs which try to crack it open; The wonders of Nature! The more I read about snail shells, the more I'm amazed by how Nature can generate such structures in direct response to day-to-day problems. Human engineering is peanuts compared to the intricate natural designs manifested on supposedly "simple lifeforms". We are only as big as what we see ourselves to be. Bigger, may just only be smaller.
http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/80beats/2010/01/19/could-a-deep-sea-snails-shell-inspire-next-gen-body-armor/

Super tired week... So happy it's the weekend! Until seeing that it's coming to end... It's as though I'm living for the weekends... No, I am living for the weekends! Only to see myself sometimes too tired to fully exploit my weekends... Shits it's Monday again...


A pair of Golden Orb Web Spiders, with the tiny red male, as compared to the huge female! Spotted on a busy track near Henderson Waves bridge... I feel like I'm the little insignificant red guy, treading on the sticky web of politics & relations, with huge omnipotent giants ready to swallow me whole at any one time... Or am I just being spider-ish? Hope it's just me, blurred me...

A very busy caterpillar who thinks he's a choo-choo-train! Spotted on the railings on Mt Faber...

A pretty caterpillar also travelling on the railing, who also thinks he's a choo-choo-train! Life as simple as it gets; eat-sleep-grow... Nice haha!!

Good weather times are coming back! It all signifies cheery sunshine, good biking times, good outdoors times and less chances of having to go to work on wet mornings on jammed-packed, rain-slowed public transport! Yay!! Cheers to the weather!!

The beautiful riverside view in Kuching, totally exudes the peace and calm of the place... I love the place. Totally unlike our messy, hectic island.
*Click on the pic to view it, so nice I love it!! =)*

When can this blur turtle ever get his Subaru?

It's yet another year past and gone. What have I achieved this past year? While... I've graduated finally, and I got myself a job. I have a stable income. I broke my back, and will never need to worry about IPPT ever again. I picked up DSLR photography, and still enjoying it. I still don't have the free cash to splurge on my bikes. Life has been an exhausting juggle between work, play, family, friends, and sleep, with no signs of abating. Plans and hopes for the next year? We'll see.


The flower of the night, the almost-last-flower-of-2009. And it was a resplendent example to cap the end of 2009. Not to say it smelled so especially sweet.


The first example to flower pointing towards my home too. Hoping that the sweet fragrance and exemplary beauty will spotlight new and better times ahead on my family and loved ones. Cheers.


The New Year's Day fireworks. Home sweet home. So sweet, the ants, roaches and flies on it are getting ever so all over our increasingly-xenophobic nerves.


Nonetheless, all hopes that in the new year will end up as sparkling and beautiful as these fireworks, as they fade away awaiting the next barrage of fireworks to display their glory... life's a non-stop fireworks show isn't it? Cheers to 2010!

Christmas Day holiday, spent it out taking photos, eating prata, and playing pool. My first pool game like almost ever (not withstanding all the little failed tries when I tag along with the other guys...)


The oldest ship still sailing on the seas of the world; the 95-year-old MV Doulos, now berthed at Harbourfront. Was once a wartime supply ship, now a floating book fair...


The beautiful basement of Orchard Central, before the foodcourt opens, and the peace and quiet is lost amongst food smells and chatter~

The beautiful lighting of the basement...


Taking the lift up to the rooftop garden of Orchard Central.


My pool experience today wasn't quite as disastrous as all my previous attempts... haha!

Stepping from 2009 to 2010 really soon, what lies ahead?