the mountain sword

Photo outing at botanic gardens

2009-06-06T14:32:00.003+08:00

Tiffany and I went to CHIJMES and Botanic Gardens on Friday, June 5, 2009, to try out photography. Some interesting pictures below.

Candles in CHIJMES. Reminds me of the Phantom of the Opera scene.

Chapel in CHIJMES.

St Joseph's Church, one of the oldest Catholic churches in Singapore.

Tiffy posing with the swans at Botanic garden lakes.

The ugly me in supposingly one of my best ever taken pictures.

Quick snap of Tiffy.

Yes, this is Singapore, not somewhere in Narnia.

Recycling bins at Green Generation concert.

Crowds at Green Generation concert.

Attempting some self photography. I still look real weird.

Concert performers rocking it out Mother Earth.

Palm valley in Botanic Gardens got more crowded as night fell.

Nice pic of the moon after several attempts.

Linguine gatherings

2008-10-27T02:43:00.001+08:00

Hat day!

NDP!

SPH-NJGZ concert

2008-04-15T00:04:00.001+08:00

NJ guzheng ensemble 08, playing with SPH chinese choir on their 20th anniversary concert. The theme was highland music, featuring Tibetian, Himalayan and I think some folk tunes of ethnic minorities. I think it is quite special that 6 generations of seniors and juniors can play together, even if there is no Aurora this year.

Seniors on the bus on the way to SCH.

Me with 7 seniors from across 3 batches before the performance =) We played Jay Chou 菊花台，送我一朵玫瑰化花，茉莉花, and an shortened version of 瑶族舞曲。

Highlights of UK-France Trip

2008-04-14T22:22:00.015+08:00

The changing of guard ceremony at London.

Feeding squrriels at Hyde Park, where the Princess Diana memorial is.

The filming site of Platform Nine and Three-quarters at King Cross.

The staircase where they filmed Harry Potter and Golden Compass.

Top view of All Souls College, where they filmed Lyra walking on the roof, in Golden Compass.

My mum at the Lourve in Paris.

My favourite painting in the Lourve

Olympic Torch relay protests in Paris.

The hall of mirrors at the Palace of Versailles. The infamous place where they signed the Treaty of Versailles.

A pic of my sis at the grave of Chopin. Paris.

The Stonehedge.

The snow on Snowdonia Mountain in Wales.

English Castle built on the North Wales Coast.

Just a quick update. Will add more pics. Currently still arranging as I arrived back in Singapore only today.

ORD chalet

2008-03-20T13:20:00.000+08:00

A picture of my unit at our ORD chalet!

SAF Day!

2007-07-15T00:34:00.001+08:00

SAF DAY:
Our President S.R Nathan walks past the RSAF GOH, didn't talk to much people except asking the last guy of the row whether he wanted to sign on. We were quite tired by then. But he walked faster than we thought. Phew!

Glimpse of NDP

2007-07-08T01:04:00.000+08:00

A glimpse of me within the RSAF GOH at NDP rehearsal today! Picture taken my 2nd elder sis:This photo is a combination of luck and technology. My sis got a good seat near the media area because her friend came late. She was also able to take such good photos because of a good camera my sisters bought recently. Kudos to those who develop the technology too. If you DL and zoom v close, my face is quite clear!

Long Live General!

2007-05-23T22:02:00.002+08:00

SAF changed it CDF (Chief of Defence) on 23rd March 2007, with LG Ng Yat Chung replaced by former COA (Chief of Army) MG Desmond Quek. We have a new Great-General! If it was during the Romance of the Three Kingdoms, he would carry his 81-Jin Spear, ride a horse amid cheers of "Long Live the Great General!" ...But no... Singapore only had paper generals.

But for at least three weeks, as great, loyal 3G thinking soldiers of the SAF we sweated, sunburn-ed, drilled, and three-cheer-ed for the CDF COC parade of SAFTI-MI parade square. Especially Air Force GOH, our marching is the best!
Mah-Sir and his fellow 1-bar officers are cool. They could carry such heavy flags for almost an hr. Glamorous but useless structures are called White Elephants. Pretty but useless girls are called Flowerpots. I don't know what to call grand-looking but low-ranking RPs; wearing no.1 with no medals and having the lowest visible rank.

White Saikang Warriors maybe.

Teck Ghee CO BBQ

2007-02-18T11:50:00.000+08:00

Had a BBQ with CO mates from Teck Ghee CC!

When I was a recruit...

2006-06-14T16:25:00.000+08:00

A right of passage that all true-blue Singaporean males go through, the BMT had been a memorable experience for all, including me. Some glimpses of life when I was a cougar recruit..

Section two bunk. It was relatively comfortable, at least compared to my unit living conditions now. I miss the large and spacious cupboard!

Tired, sweaty, muddy but victorious back on the company line. Platoon two cougar warriors in high morale after completing the SOC.

A photo taken with my section 2 mates back in BMT, just before to the 24KM march across Tekong. We would start at 430PM, ending at 1AM the next day, dead exhausted but triumphant.

All tired and homesick on the bus during the book-out. We would alight at Pasir Ris interchange, indulge in the air-conditioned malls of White Sands, and chiong for home or in some adventurous ones, DOTA!

The Cougar banner which was to be used for recruits day. The design may be interesting, but I could hardly make out the writing.

All of us wore red company tees on Recruit Day, enjoying ourselves with self-organized performances as life became more relaxed towards POP.

The cougar mascot. We attempted to make a model of black cat but it ended up looking very much like Scooby Doo. There is even a tail!

POP loh! A final photo with section 2 at the Cougar banner. We would bid each other farewell as we were posted to different units in the SAF.

Links to other photos

Cougar Platoon 2

Some NJCO photos

2006-03-30T12:10:00.000+08:00

A glimpse of NJCO Aurora 5, 2004. This was one of the most professionally taken pics=)

A glimpse of NJCO at Genting! 17th June, 2004.

A glimpse of guzheng essemble at SYF, 26th April 2005. The purple costume looks weird close up, but on the whole on stage it looks good. 21 players, 2 percussionists. We got gold!

Shortly after our SYF, guzheng essemble performed at the 36th College Day.

Taiwan-Jinmen Trip

2006-02-19T17:00:00.000+08:00

I had long wanted to photoblog of myself in Taiwan-Jinmen trip after my O levels 2003:

Fellow Singaporean friends in Jinmen, beside a military tunnel entrance. Jinmen was a heavily fortified military outpost in the cross-strait conflict between Taiwan and mainland China.

We lived in a hostel. The room was very comfortable and cosy =)

A class in Jinmen, which we visited. I like their winter uniform, jacket with school emblem and track pants. Their schools, which received alot of funding from Taiwan, were surprisingly well equipped. Unfortunately, we didn't have interaction with the Jinmen students as they were having exams. It was such a disappointment.

A statue of a wind lion, one the many mythical gods in Jinmen village folklore.

Group photo at Shui Tou village.

The highest "mountain" in Jinmen. Tai Wu Shan. It was from this mountain, the Ming dynasty general Zheng Cheng Gong established his observation point, for Jinmen was in an excellent geographical location to observe naval movements.

There were rock carvings in chinese calligraphy on the road up, and there was a huge Buddhist temple and statue built there.

Farmland of cabbages, with a temple in the background. In the past, Jinmen was mostly agricultural, with some fishing for economic livelihood. When Jinmen became a military base the military provided much jobs for the locals. Jinmen villagers also plant gaoliang, a type of crop, to make gaoliang wine which Jinmen is famous for. Nowadays, many Jinmen islanders have left for overseas in search of economic opportunity, there are not much farmers in Jinmen left.

An underground tunnel where supply ships from Taiwan to Jinmen seek refuge from mainland bombing. It was an incredible engineering feat. The rock is made of solid granite and it took years of hard labour and drilling before a huge underground tunnel is drilled out of barerock. Under Jinmen there is a complex network of stone tunnels where air-dropped bombs cannot penertrate.

The wretched Cold War divide. Like the Berlin wall and Korea DMZ. This is a view of mainland Chinese coast from Jinmen. Can you imagine how close it is?? The side I am standing on is under Taiwanese control, while the other side is under Chinese communist control. It seperated by a strait less than 5-6 miles wide, like Johor strait. Mainland China bombed Jinmen countless times from here, till today there are so many shells on the island that they can be used to make knifes. They sell well tho, they are made of good quality Soviet metal.

Above: Jincheng is main town in Jinmen apart from rural villages. It has nice food and we ate ou ah mee sua (oyster mee sua) and smelly toufu. Smelly but nice man!

HAHAHA then to celebrate our last day on Jinmen, we went to a firework shop and bought the ENTIRE stock of fireworks plus a huge array of other stuff like sparklers butterflies. (stuff that you will NEVER use in Singapore). We bought TWO boxes of fireworks lasting a total of 20 minutes each for 50 Taiwan dollars. We were so paiseh, we didn't even know how to light them! One of the guys called Junjie approached a high school girl walking home with a bicycle:

"Excuse me hor... I have never played with fireworks in my childhood and I don't know how to light them, can teach me?" *LAUGHTER*

We exploded them all on our last night cum farewell party, on the open grassland near our hostel. What a grand finale! We can rival National Day parade wahahaha.

Jinmen is one the very few places left on earth were you can launch your own fireworks legally. The fireworks were so beautiful, and yet so hard to capture on camera. This shot was taken after 10 attempts.