Lonely

Sometimes I wonder - what if.

The time flies and unfortunately couldn't be held back nor frozen by mortal hands.

While we while away precious time, in conquest of money, wealth, and that eventual happiness, what if we become wrinkled, crippled, weak, when the time comes for the harvest.

Simple.

Sometimes maybe just keep things simple, with low expectation. It is easy to try to have happiness but it is so elusive when the mind keeps on weighing the optimum efforts. Isn't it a waste of time to do this. Isn't it useless to attempt that. I do not enjoy this. Or I will do this next time.

Oh so easy to delay and procrastinate. Please motivate me.

Standard Chartered

I was motivated. Tired. Energized. Not trained. Lazy. Glutton. Pasta party. Strategy. Pace.

Well I didn't train at all this time. Got to say do better than even my expectation - which was very low. Was hoping it would rain, so I could skip the run. Woke up at 545 - warmed up. Watched the marathoner running on the road below my house. Then got ready with my bro - got banana, gu tri-berry, and some strategy. Keep my heart beat slow and steady.

The results: 1:21 not that bad, we got into the first wave. Based on net timing I was doing worse. But I am contended - I got what I deserve except slightly better coz of the pacing.

Olympic Sculpture Park at Seattle

Nostalgic Russian dinner

After a friend's post about Shaslik we went back for a nostalgic trip to this one place - fusion Russian Singaporean restaurant - that still has tables decorated with plastic pink flowers, at this age.

The meal started with the mandatory soft sweet bun, where eaten with the butter is heavenly soft. Then opened with the mandatory famous Borsch soup - which served with optional sour cream. I opted for Fillet Steak medium rare - and yes they serve the steak on hotplate with serving of mixed veggie (cubed carrot, kacang polong and all), and frizzy fries. We had fun watching the waitress preparing the Flambees or the Baked Alaska - cherry, but decided too full for desserts.

Shashlik Restaurant.
545 Orchard Rd #06-19
Far East Shopping Centre. Singapore 238882

Promontory meet up and MBS

Marina bay sands Photo outing.

For this clubSnap outing, I went to have my first Tripod. The guys at TK Photo Funan Mall are very friendly and knowledgable. They patiently explained the feature of 4 sections, ball head, the tripod setup, the long- and short- section, the low-ground setup, etc. I ended up purchasing Sirui K-1204 and G10x head from them, as a set for $349 as well as Kinko Pro-1 58mm lens filter and a lens hood from them. Here is a review from Clubsnap forum on the tripod and head combi. I will most probably write my own review then.

K-KI

My discovery at Ann Siang Hill. Just opposite my place, there is a famous small bakery called K-Ki (supposed to meant Cake in Jap katakana style). It shared a tiny space with a knick-knack shop. The whole place definitely has a definite charm to it. It has around 5 tables - wooden with the flimsy whimsical chairs pair next to it. When I was there majority of cakes were sold out or reserved.

So I chose this one: Cafe Dumo ~ chocolate mousse

For take away it came with a pretty box and small ice-pack glued to the side to keep the cake in good shape.

Yummmy. 

K-KI
7 Ann Siang Hill, 01-00

Captain America

Today had productive day. I went to mass, first time at the Church of St. Teresa - Kg Bahru Rd. I love the songs - the same set one from the Church of St Mary of the Angels. Oh how my heart signs with joy. The mass there at 1030 and another one at 12pm for now.

Then, went for quick lunch before catching the Captain America: the First Avenger. Chris Evans is so very cute and heart-meltingly sincere. It was an entertaining ride thru American patriotism, the WW II and the crazy warzone fighting. The scene I most enjoyed is the first part - with the frail little boy and his journey of discovering his fate. The rest felt right, but also predictable. You should not miss the clip after the ending credits - we almost left, luckily we didn't. I read somewhere that the hallmark of Marvel comic is the great character developments and plots. I have to agree on the way the director Joe Johnston portrayed the movie - from a pretty outdated settings at WW II to the modern day's patriotism and valor.

My most favourite song

In this lonely night, singing the song that is best for anyone looking for soulmate outthere.

Gotta Be Somebody by Nickelback.

Audit of my achievements

I went down for drinks then party yesterday. Woke up at 8am promptly without alarm - amazing.

Doing "audit" of my 2009 commitments - personal goal right now. As I am feeling empty, aimless, and lost. Perhaps I had been concentrating hard on certain aspects and neglecting others.

Audit results:
Scorecard metrics: 10 green (mostly exceeding by a mile), 1 yellow, 4 red (hmm not too shabby)
Red in love, well-being, social work and intellectual pursuit.

Thoughts:
I am perfectionist. I do things I focused on, and do them extremely well - depth, but overkill sometimes. Well I am overachiever. I guess the lesson is I have to focus on just a couple of things, and set high goals, coz I will exceed them :)

Focus and High Goal.

Farewell lunch and Birthday

Yesterday marked the departure of one of my closest collegue. I feel sad and missing something but I am glad and happy for her and the next opportunity awaiting her. I think she made the right decision so next step has been taken.

We went for a small team lunch at the Rocks Urban Grill+ Bar. The steaks, pizza, were good by natural consensus. A couple of tables were facing the bay and the natural settings are good. Some tables were grouped together on a simple white and black minimalist design, while a couple of smaller table outlined the tall bay windows.

The actual run

My Shape Run

Yesterday, I went thru the 30-minutes inventory routine.

Started at 6:33pm, as I was enjoying (late) lunch at Tampopo Liang Court. Spent time traversing Spice street of the Singapore Food Festival. Sure there was kebab, spices, laksa, some thai, tourist popiah, some taiwanese fares, but... something lacking. Until I crossed Clarke Quay, arrived at Liang Court.

At the ground floor, was Tampopo, Kurobota (black pig specialist). Promptly I checked the menu, and found its signature dishes. Tonkatsu - which is the breaded fillet, typically pork, served on hot short-grained rice, and heaps of cabbage. Both latter were free-flow. I had two plates each, pipping hot rice, and cabbage (best garnished with sesame oil that the waiter would bring out customarily). I ordered the premium BP (Black Pig or Kurobuta) Premium Tonkatsu set. The layer of "black" meat and white flesh were distinguisable! Yummy.

Highly recommended. The whole place was run by Singlish speaking Singaporean and throngs of Mainland Chinese waiters though.. hmm. Supposedly best Pork Cutlet (Kurobuta Katsu set) in Singapore arguably. I for sure enjoyed the meal. :) Here's the link to their funky website...

Then I counted, 30 mins Meidiya shopping, 30 mins Kinokuniya browsing, roughly 30 mins walk home. Then manga reading for 90 mins! I would slept soundly until the morning Shape 2011 run! Flag off time at 710am, promised XJ to meet at 640... so I am having headache. I hope for good run.

Happy July

It's been a while since I had the time and interesting content to update this blog. Many eventful stuff happens erstwhile.

June mostly inudiated with work. Emotional june, leading the closure. Year end drink parties... and stressful cases.

July comes and I felt mixed. A big relief mostly awashed with apprehension. Org changes, new HC, and roller-coaster feeling when I realized a post on June 30. I am no doubt slightly worried, and disappointed even mirrors largely my thinking. Mostly I am more at peace, now. Reset of expectations would be good. Emotional, needing to move on, and grow in other aspects of my life. Heath, eating, exercising, thinking about taking some advanced education, or simply hobby, spend more time in social networks, loving, and enjoying life. Perhaps cooking, travelling, or some new hobby. I don't know. Or volunteering social, overseas, or political. Take up energy levels to pursue my life.

GE 2011

Tiring, congested. Another example of good run is hard to organize, and taken for granted.
This year, the committee' complaints ranges from shirt that's too small (it bunches up when I ran among tummy), narrow sections, horrible water points, late flag-off time, and bad goodies bag.

Hot day, but I dashed off for my flight to Jkt soon after at 130 pm. Productive!

Desserts Galore

During the close, I had experience to taste a Chocolate Italian dessert, Profiteroles. It was a puff pastry with creamy custard filling, and sinful layer of cold chocolate ice-cream on top. In my recent gathering with my friend over Friday, the topic came up, and my mind momentarily gave way to local amnesia.

Not to be undone, here is my record of the delicious dessert. Profiteroles at wiki.

Bintan

My team just concluded team offsite at Bintan.

Bintan is a relatively small island off 1-hour ferry ride from Singapore. It is convenient, clean, luxurious, nice weekend getaway from buzzling Singapore. It is amazing how efficient we could be, with people managing schedules, arranging logistics; we zipped in and out with plenty of time to spare in 2.5 days, 1.5 days full meetings, squeezed in to-and-fro ferry ride, three lunches, and two dinners, drinks (social, at the bar, on the beach, in dinners), a massage, ATV group activity, and yoga at the beach. Plus emails sessions and my 1:1 with boss. All in 3 days work. Thanks for efficient logistics and all preparation - they are really cool.

I am tired and had terrible headache after we were back. Practically I worked thru Friday midnight, and had to pay with terrible headache on Saturday.

I must keep my energy level high, at the peak session. I am reading, learning, discussing, talking to expand my life. Work is not all there is to life. I must change my rhythm and start to take over my life.

Shakespeare at the Park

I had a good time with my gal friend. Watching Macbeth at Port Canning Park. It was performed by Singapore Repertory Theather (SRT) a charity non-profit organization. Conclusion, the play was better than I expected and I walked off feeling a degree smarter, and cultured :)

The show was at 730pm, we arrived strolling around 7 and the whole field were covered with picnic blankets by the time we got there. We had wine - white and red (ended up only consuming Moscato since it was hot and humid!), chips, dips, fruits, sandwiches. Very enjoyable and relaxing.

I signed up SmugMug

Smugmug i discovered is the preferred choice of site to host your photos, if you are an aspiring pro photographer, smugmug site is a must. So I did it, i created my (trial) smugmug site.

http://starelle.smugmug.com

And my first gallery

Enjooy!

Posting Profile Photo

I went to networking website and event rather for first time. Vainly trying to find a nice profile photo. Became interested in Photoshops.

So I have been following two videos on youtube on:
1. How to smoothen face:

1. Use Spot Healing Tool
2. Filter/Blur/Surface Blur
3. Duplicate layer with black fill. Pass those thru with White brush.
4. Filter/Sharpen/Smart Sharpen. Then do step 3.
5. Lights - duplicate with Quick Layer Edit (bottom left corner).
6. Duplicate layer and set "Normal" to Saturation -> Duplicate Layer (Ctrl-J) set to Soft Light and Overlay. Play with Opacity. 

2. Another method

1. Copy Red Channel over. Set RGB channel back to liven up.

Google Doodle

Today I saw a v unusual and impressive Google logo. Celebrating Martha Graham's 117th birthday, animated Doodle illustrated by Ryan Woodward.

It's first time I learned Doodle is Google's name for its logo when commemorating certain dates.

Copyright: Google

Transient times

2 weeks ago in a family gathering, my uncle and I had a conversation. He inquired about the procedures after I received the notice to become Singapore citizen.

That made me recall then... 2 years ago when I decided to apply for that change of citizenship. The decision was fairly easy one, that I didn't hover on. I had studied, stayed, lived, and worked in Singapore for more than 7 years then - my PR was due for renewal and I was very firm in my mind that I wanted to stay in Singapore for good.

Busy Sunday

On Sunday night, I was telling myself "Yeah, keep it up. Fill those days!".

Feeling energized from the good exercise on Saturday, I filled my Sunday with:

Waking up refreshed at 11am
Breakfast/lunch at Yan Palace Hong Lim. (I love the porridge and my fave cheong fun).
Facebooking.
330pm Indo mass at St Bernie - it's 2nd Sunday of the month. Mother's Day
5pm Gym at GWC
615pm forgot my clothes! Express shopping
Meet M and dinner with Y and M at Parkway
After-dinner walk along East Coast with some sob sharing
Long taxi queue (note to self : never attempt calling nor queuing for cab at East Coast on a Sunday night)
Gave up and took bus home. Home sweet home at close to midnight

Nike 5KM Run

Saturday was Hot and Humid. The run was inaugural held by Nike, so we could see some hiccups. Marine Barrage was nice as venue, I could see the perfect blue sky at the bubble up near starting line. But it was hot and if 5,000 people (luckily all girls so not as sweat smelly :) crowding in a narrow area towards the line, it was pushing and a bit chaotic.

Nike gave out a dry-fit Orange running tee, love the shirt, the design was shucky. And a black shoebag that is functional.

As finisher, we have a table trophy and a stalk of Gerbera. Mine is red. Gerbera in flower talk means innocence, purity and beauty. I like its cheerful color.

Now, timing! 37mins over 5KM. Not bad considering how hot it was, not my best timing either :( despite having run my best in first 2KM before the true heat sets in.

Update on May 17:

Nike created a pretty cool, if impractical site to check the timing result of the last run. Hey I got rank 218, I guess not bad out of 1,135 runners in my category (303 out of 1,672). Net official timing 36:43.

Here to check your timing.

Source Code

Movie: I love it 5 STARS

Moral: Live is valuable. Cherish the present and time.

Purvis St

Had a nice lunch at Garibaldi today with a close friend. Was there before for after drink desserts. Today we enjoyed the 3-course set lunch. Bread sliced like cake, with olive and balsamic vinegar - just the way I liked it.

Appetizer started with the Soup of the Day - a creamy Italian that is suprisingly filling.
My main was Tagliatelle (tal-ya-TELL-lay) with salmon bits.
Dessert is Italiana a mix of berries with pistachio ice cream. Finished with coffee.

It was close to 230 by the time we languishly enjoyed our meal. Thanks for the company, E!

I wished I had my EOS with me.

The most wanted man is neutralized

The buzz of this May 1, the most wanted man in the planet, Osama Bin Laden is dead. He's been wanted as the mastermind of the greatest and most horrific terrorist attack in modern times, in terms of the scale and momentum of destruction and fear. That's terrorist isn't it, to instil and promote fear. I remembered watching in horror when the TV showed WTC Tower 2 collapsed, it was nighttime in Singapore. Remembered waking up in the morning, going to my internship office in HP Consulting arm then, and hearing buzz.

Now the wanted man is gone. This is symbolic win to humankind that good will prevail in the end.

Here is a cool photo from White House watching the situation unfolded.
http://www.businessinsider.com/barack-obama-in-the-situation-room

Four Seasons HK

The restaurant talked about by my friend, 3-star Michelin Chinese restaurant, Lung King Heen - View the Dragon.

Excerpt from the site:

"Michelin three-star Chinese restaurant, Lung King Heen, is led by Executive Chef Chan Yan Tak. As the first Chinese chef to receive three Michelin stars, Chef Chan is the master behind the intricately designed menu at Lung King Heen. Chef Chan combines textures and flavours coupled with inventive presentation to excite the taste buds and satisfy the most demanding epicure."

Holiday morning

This is long weekend in Singapore. Traditionally here we always have the next Monday off if the public holiday falls on a Sunday. It is also a Mother's day. After lazy Sunday morning, we promised instead to wake up today at 530am for morning walk/run and see the sunrise with Mom. So after painful wake up, we were ready, out of the door at 610 with the bike, full running gears, and sleepy eyes.

We walked out... and suddenly it started drizzling merely 3 minutes out! Gosh. What a waste of our morning efforts. So we turned back (I ran to check out if Yakun at Far East Sq was open, it wasn't). Our family promptly went back to bed, with our new comforters :)

I am accompanied by Robert Timm's instant latte, editting my photos now.

Let me recommend a good little app that I am using this morning: FastStone Photo Resizer.

Museum Shots

Some of my favorite practice shots:

Rattan wickets and baskets at the History Gallery, NMS. 

Semi-auto mode 1/8 3.5f @ISO3200 Evaluative Metering, 21mm.

 Lo-Ho objects from recent past. 

The petromak lights (the version in museum were sadly lighted by electric bulbs), water pumps, kompor ijuk (stove stoked by the straws and gasoline), and the stone grinder.

Semi-auto with flash off. 1/25 3.5f ISO3200 18mm.

 "Food" exhibition. I liked this exhibition the most. 

This item is the ice-crusher that I used to see from my childhood days.

1/20 3.5f ISO3200 18mm

National Museum of Singapore (NSM)

Singapore is having its Biennale. My first experience with Biennale had been at the 17th Sydney bien's last year 2010, which was insightful. I recall esp an exhibition, quietly disturbing about experiment with photos take by maids in HK with prop help from plastic grenades.

One of The exhibition venue is the National Museum of Singapore, having its open house on the May Day yesterday. Some of my shots below.

Singapore GE Fever

Singapore is hit with the Election fever. Usual efficiency was this conducted. The nomination of candidates were officially done by last Thursday, campaigns over this long weekend, the voting next Saturday.

When we were about to go out, some entourage called us and notified the candidate is coming. So I greeted the PAP Candidate for our Kampong Glam ward, Mdm Denise Phua briefly. I should have asked her to sit down, but I thought she is busy and would be glad to move swiftly from house to house. Sorry if you were offended Mdm Phua! Let me made up by publishing this post....

Killiney road for dinner

After a bout of (heavy) shopping at OG, our retail appetite satisfied by new bed sheet, quilt cover, shoes, convertible bagpack, interesting adventure on "Japanese" demo floor mat, well... almost, I wanted to take mom to my favorite Indonesian food place at Killiney Road, yep Warung M. Nasir. I have known the place since they had the place at showflat of the Sail, long time back, when MS first moved to OMB. I took a Jap fren there once, and she liked the atmosphere. Warung is Indonesia/Malaysian. It normally refes to a small, informal, eating place, where atmosphere is kampung, simple, and natural.

But we walked shooting past the place (again - since it is rather poorly lighted), and mom spotted a sign in Chinese that says Rice Roll and Porridge. I am delighted to find a new eating place to try. And the place is simple, lined with newspaper clippings about the place and Durian Cheong Fan. Hmm Durian and Cheong Fan - which means soft Rice Flour cake that is normally served warm with plenty of sweet light sauce and sesame seeds. We finally settled to ordering Durian's hallmark, and we were not dissappointed. Throughout the way, we observed that the popular dish was ordered by many, and another hot favorite is the Porridge.

Durian Cheong Fan:

Chilling out at Spinelli

The story of cutout birthday voucher. "How do I use this?" at Spinelli.

The chosen dessert "Apple Crumble", Lemon Yuzu Tea cake on promo, at XL Latte (can't remember the term for Spinelli's off top of my head.)

The Apple Crumble is my fave. It has warm generous apple bits, and crispy sweet outer shell. Yuzu tea cake is too sweet for my taste, although the sponge is tasty (not too crumby dry, nor too buttery, just nice). And I always dig on sugar coating.

I realize that Orchard Central has many nice spots for really good study or reading... as evidenced by the opinions of many groups and individuals cramming at BK, Quizons, Tully's, EWF, Coffee Bean, just to name a few. I really liked the vibe of the OC' now. It used to be too pretentious for my nice, now it has cooled down a little bit.

Saturday's adventure

Today I went out with mom for some adventure in Orchard. Actually it's because she wanted to check out some "designer bag sale" at *SCAPE, and I needed to collect my race kit for Nike 5KM Goddess run next Saturday.

The designer sale turned out to be dissappointing. It's at 5th level of Scape, but with sparely populated collections (of past seasons, many of the bags look familiar from my few years' ago trip to US Outlets...) and pretty expensive compared to US vs the value of the collection. The Coach bags pricing ranges from $250+ to $400. There are some Kate Spade's, Gucci, and Prada - each less than 15 bags for sure.

Anyway, so Orchard Central was a lovely place for photo shooting.

Here's some result playing with shutter speed:

 Manual, 1/320 4.5f ISO400, Evaluative metering 20mm

Royal Wedding buzz

This past Friday had been abuzz with the Royal wedding between Prince William and Kate Middleton, now both are crown royal. I read some news about their banquet last night, and become interested to know more about "biscuit cake". Here is one of good one from the net.

http://blogs.babycenter.com/life_and_home/royal-wedding-chocolate-biscuit-cake/

Just a few days ago I wrote that I was not into the royal wedding hoopla.

Scratch that.

I took one look at this ultra decadent chocolate delight and changed my mind. The chocolate biscuit cake is the “chosen” groom’s cake for tomorrow’s royal wedding — chosen by the Prince himself. It’s not an aristocratic cake; rather a childhood favorite of the Prince’s which can be whipped up in no time. And the best part? No baking required!

Our Trip Itinerary Final review

So this trip was planned in haste but turned out okay.

Monday Apr 18:

5am wake up. Singapore - Johore Bahru (JB) Larkin terminal, Malaysia.

7am Bus JB - KL. Having a break in KL, visit Pasar Seni Chinatown & early night sleep.

Tue Apr 19:

6am flight KL-Siem Reap. Arrived 8.30am in Cambodia.

10 am early lunch in Old Market Psaar Chaa & Start out temple tour.

South Gate photo ops, Bayon, Baphuon (under reno), Phimenakas, Terrace of the Elephant and Terrace of Leper King. All in Angkor Thom complex. Then proceeded to smaller temples. Watch sunset at Phnom Bakheng.

7pm Dinner at Apsara Show and buffet of local and international foodfare.

Holiday Calls

Yesterday when I woke up, post-holiday at 745am. I started by checking my work inbox. Fortunately there was no emergencies but there was a big sweeping company-wide in regards to our review system and compensation. It will take me after I get back to understand the changes fully, but I see good things from my first look. I couldn't resist checking the company external blogspot and was interested and amazed to note how negative the reactions were. What is the limit to human's greed, no, I think it was more people are generally blinded to see only things that they wished to see. That colored objectivity even from some of the smartest people on the planet.

In this company, I have learned, experienced, grew so much. I continuously feel privileged to work with people so smart, so passionate, so politically-savvy. It is indescribable. But I can understand the sentiment.

I Just had a most disturbing dream. About something that I dread to happen again. It was about a group of us went to a conference in Australia. And suddenly I said something cynical to B to the extent "don't open your shirt and show your bikini". But my more-friendly colleague looked at me in dismay as if I am doing something suicidal to my career, and quickly pulled me away to leave the two of them on a yacht. Then we trekked in a maze of hotel hallway towards a multi-tiered area with 3 open hotel rooms, and started to sing and jumped up and down in madness.

Crazy dream.

I woke up feeling so sad, and felt a bit of relieved since the thing that made me sad was only a dream.

Angkor Wat Apr 20

Sunrise waking up @5am to catch Angkor Wat.

AE mode: 1/1600 3.5f ISO 400 18mm @7am.

AE mode: 1/100 3.5f ISO 400 18mm @ 6.47am.

Many people were already there!

Ta Phrom Apr 19

Flash off mode: 1/100 6.3f 21mm ISO100.

Ta Prohm has a feel of the forgotten temple. It was one of most interesting jungle temple in the Angkor Archeological Park. Here is the temple made famous by Tomb Rider movie. And the twisted roots of Banyan and Kapok trees made a bizarre combination with the relic of carved walls and ancient Khmer arts.

AE mode 1/100 3.5f ISO400 20mm

And something for human touch - this little girl swinging at tree branches just outside of Ta Phrom complex.

Read more about Ta Phrom at Wikipedia article.

Angkor Thom Apr 19

Fiery guards at South Gate of the great Angkor Thom complex

Contemplative Buddhist monk quietly at Bayon

The robed Buddha statue and incenses lighted by reverent Buddhist followers

@ Bayon at the Centre of Angkor Thom Complex

KL Chinatown

After numerous visit, here is the view of KL Chinatown (nearest RapidKL : Pasar Seni) captured:

The famous soya bean

Roasted Chestnut. Notice the fake LV bags on display :)

Petaling Street @ afternoon

We went over to Lenas at Bugis Junction for lunch + high tea. There is a little known promo (not appearing on the menu) with main course meals (12-3pm) and FOC salad or soup bar. The salad bar were almost gone when we got there. But we were pretty happy with the look our main course turned out.

The service was slow and not so prompt. The menu was confusing that we took time and some investigations with the waitress to figure out the system. It turns out that you pick a main course, and get a choice of a sauce - unless specified.

My bowl from the salad bar. Grilled Tomato and Toasted Bread on top! Mashed potato with some mushroom gravy.


Main course 1: Chicken Breast with Pesto sauce.

Neighbourhood

Today, I am wandering around my neighbourhood looking for nice shots. Anything to shoot at.

Here are some results:

Nearby at Hong Lim Complex, a fruits stall next to Barcook Bakery was selling the "King of Fruits" and "Queen of Fruits". Both fruits are thought to be originated from Indonesia.

Durian, is a famous fruit in Southeast Asia region with its infamous foul yet loved smell and creamy centre. It is called the King of Fruit by locals here. It's kind of acquired smell, I have encountered people who loved it lots, or hated it a lot. Very extreme reactions. I for one love it. Especially those with sweet yellow creamy texture, and just chilled out of refrigerator.

Next is Mangosteen or "Manggis" in local language. I always thought it's word association with Mango is funny. Mangosteen, Mango. "Manggis" and "Mangga" for the two corresponding words in Bahasa Indonesia/Malay. Mangosteen is considered the "Queen of fruits" here. In fact there is a pub in Vivo called "The Queen and Mangosteen Gourmet Pub". Mangosteen has shiny dark purplish husk, with 4-5 digits of leaves at the head of the fruit. The flesh is beautiful white soft center, with a large seed. You kind of suck the juicy rather than eating the flesh. It has no smell, which makes a quiet comparison to the smelly Durian.

So a fruit stall with the King and Queen, ladies and gentlemen. It is also thought that it may be poisonous to eat both of these fruits at the same time. I don't know exact scientific reason why, but it may be good to just follow the local advice, afterall, both originated from same place. And the local must have developed local custom after some trial and error, right.

Pursuit of Happiness

Today I got a note from a colleague who is leaving my company. He is someone I respected alot because he is genuinely interested in people - invested his time to coach and improve. He is also someone who could see different point of view which I think is a rare and admirable quality of the leader.

He also reached out as he wanted to get a trusted point of view on areas of improvements - at least 3 points. Let me share what I said:

1. Time and investment in people - balance that.

2. Know the right people and gut to trust.

3. Communication style - share when needed esp if people gap is too big.

The discussion inevitable turns into discussion about his past experience, and reason of his resignation. I asked him why he resigned. He shared his observations from reading "Prisoners of Our Thoughts : Viktor Frankl's Principles of Discovering Meaning in Life and Work".

Beside's link to the Amazon site.

My Practice Shoot

Today I was so excited after getting my SLR.

Here is the first try.

Going straight from Chinatown Point, I went along exploring the South Bridge Road before heading to Maxwell for Rojak.

On my way, I passes Masjid Jamae - that is Jamae Mosque.

I passed by the gated - and took two quick snaps.

First image here on the left: has closer depth of field vs the picture at the bottom where the AF auto focus produces different effect.

However, both images are indicated from my Canon tool has having same ISO, aperture, and shutter speed... 1/10 4.0 ISO3200 Evaluative metering. Focal length 28mm. Why the different in focus?