Sea of Calm and Tranquility

The sea was dark in the shadows of the park, yet it evoked an aura of calm and tranquility. This area gave me an avenue to be with myself, exercise, relax and clear my thoughts and emotions in my work and life, thus allowing me to do a series of mind-mapping and planning for my next 3 months and for the start of year 2008 and it did helped me to link different ideas/concepts together and spurn new thoughts and ideas too.

The burning candle and the spotlight shining on the sea are like beacons in life, giving people directions to work towards, guiding them to their goals and objectives.

"Feel the dream forever burn, teaching lessons we must learn, to bring us closer to the power of the dream"

Different types of fires for Mid Autumn Festival

There were a few methods to light up the event (and lanterns) during Mid Autumn Lantern Festival, that I encountered during my tour of West Coast Park.

Multiple Birthday Cake Candles

Cluster of wax



Fireworks sticks with dry leaves



A fire is an excellent tool/help to us yet it can also be dangerous as well if it is not handled/utilised properly.

Somehow, it must be my scouting roots and outdoor adventures experiences. I always love the warmth of a campfire with friends sitting around the fire, chatting and relaxing, miss the good old days.

Inaugural Lion City Marathon 2008

Folks,

Have you heard of this great person, Dr William Tan ?

He is a remarkable person with outstanding credentials, qualifications, achievements and Superhuman breakthroughs. No simple words nor fanciful adjectives would be sufficient to describe Dr William Tan, he is simply too outstanding.

I was honoured to be involved in one of his Guiness World Record Breaking event in 2006 and he had been one of my role models that I looked upon.

Please drop in and take a look at these 2 links and the truth would come to light:

Dr William Tan - Will Power

Lion City Marathon

Let's all support this wonderful event !

West Coast Park Night Landscapes

I have lived in the West area of Singapore for 30 years and there are many shipyards that can be seen from the West Coast Park promenade. The shipyards haven't changed much but West Coast Park, the nearby surroundings and the beach had changed significantly.

Showing different views of West Coast Park and its surroundings:

A straight powerful guiding light from Pasir Panjang Terminal towards me.

Night Panoramic Landscape of the busy Southern Islands.

A lonely broom under a bright lamp, waiting for day break to continue their service.

Row, Row, Row your sampan, gently down the sea, going to find his bumboat

Singapore is a small country yet it has its own treasures, beauty, landscapes and characteristics and West Coast Park does have its own beauty and unique attractions.

Mid Autumn Festival 2007 @ West Coast Park

中秋节 25th September 2007

The night was brightly lighted up with a full moon in the dark sky, 25th September is 2007 Mid Autumn Festival. It was a time whereby there would be many different lanterns and mooncakes available for all to enjoy. Mid Autumn Festival celebrations have changed with time, the lanterns today are very fanciful with many different designs and patterns. Mooncakes have become more unique, packing in many different styles, types, packaging and tastes.

It's been a while since I was writing & posting something here, this evening, I went to my neighbourhood park, West Coast Park and there were quite a number of people of all ages, happily playing with their lanterns and having a nice evening chill out/family gathering/couples time under the bright full moon. There were families, friends in different size groups, couples and a soloist like me lugging a DSLR w/ my Crumpler sling bag.

It was a quiet and fruitful time for me, being able to take photographs again, had been caught up with my work and strategic planning/mind mapping for the past few weeks. West Coast Park had transformed into a peaceful environment for me to relax and relieve stress and pressure. The former beach had been transformed into a beautiful promenade made up of breakwater granite boulders. When I go for my night running, I would always head towards there to cool down and enjoy the sea breeze and night scenery. Currently, it is about 80% complete, there is still another segment of the promenade path leading towards the jetty that is still under construction and the shelters along the promenade are almost completed.

Hope everybody had a fun Mid Autumn Festival 2007 with lots of mooncakes and lanterns!

Dragon Scout Group 85th Anniversary Campfire and Dinner links

Dear readers (esp Dragon Scout Group)

I have uploaded the photos into the Dragon Scout Gallery for the 85th Anniversary Campfire and Dinner and Hawaiian Scout Troop 42 visit:

The links are summarised below for an easy and quick reference to the mega events

(1) DSG 85th Anniversary Campfire

http://www.dragonscouts.com/v/groupcampfires/85th+Campfire+2007/

(2) Hawaiian Scout Troop 42 Visit

http://www.dragonscouts.com/v/overseastrips/Hawaiian+Scout+Troop+42+Visit/

http://photojournalism-tgh.blogspot.com/2007/08/24th-july-2007-arrival-of-hawaiian.html

http://photojournalism-tgh.blogspot.com/2007/08/28th-july-2007-steamboat-buffet-at.html

http://photojournalism-tgh.blogspot.com/2007/08/farewell-dinner-for-hawaiian-scout.html

http://photojournalism-tgh.blogspot.com/2007/08/bon-voyage-hawaiian-friends-till-we.html

(3) DSG 85th Anniversary Dinner

http://www.dragonscouts.com/v/Dragon+Scouts+Activities/85th+Anniversary+Dinner/

http://photojournalism-tgh.blogspot.com/2007/08/dsg-85th-anniversary-dinner.html

http://photojournalism-tgh.blogspot.com/2007/08/dedicated-to-85th-anniversary-dinner.html

Happy viewing !

Army Open House 2007

The rotor blade stands proud in the sky

The Army Open House 2007 was held at Pasir Laba Camp and it was a great festival of live demonstrations, military display and fun activities. I was keen to take a look at the Army Open House, admiring the new weapons and equipment the modern army have but the real attractive factor was for me to walk down memory lane.

Main entrance to Army Open House

Arriving at the main entrance of the Army Open House on a sunday, it was full of life and people, from all walks of life and different ages and sizes. Many of them were climbing up and down the various military vehicles, the hot favourites had to be the Leopard Tank, Apache and the Chinnok.

Crowds and queues at the highly popular Leopard Tank

Well, I also started to enjoy and immerse myself in the carnival and started taking photographs for memory sake. Though it was fun to admire the new military toys, I had the best part walking through a dedicated exhibition memory lane, a specially created "history museum" of NS 40. When I was inside, memories of my army days flashed back into my mind, the tough training and operational readiness requirements. Nevertheless, there were always be memories and unique items that would always make things funny and put my army days into my personal stories telling time. Well, I shall let my "retro" photographs walk you through a time machine:

A famous leaf

Remember the food ?

After walking through the memory museum, I went to visit 2 hills in the training area (very near to the camp). Walking up and down the 2 hills was awesome, relieving my training days there when I was undergoing NCO aka ISL course in SISPEC.

There were many people playing the various obstacle courses, confidence ropes courses, abeseiling and flying fox. Some others queued up to go through Mission and Battle Worlds in various military vehicles. There were so many other activities for many different types of people, even though I did not manage to visit and enjoy all of them.

Going "back in time" was memorable for me. Lots of memories and stories.

Meow Meow ! My Friendly Neighbourhood Cats

These lovely cats stay around my neighbourhood that I am living in.

The cat love this rockbed


One of my favourite neighbourhood cats


Cat stretching


More photos of the neighbourhood cats can be viewed in my flickr photo site, do click on the link to take a look!

My New Toy ~ Palm Treo 680 Product Photo Shoot

I had recently upgraded my Singtel mobile contract and got myself a new toy, a Crimson Red Palm Treo 680, replacing my Palm Treo 650 that was damaged. Therefore, I took the opportunity to do a produt photo shoot on my pda phone without any extra lighting setup, instead just using my DSLR setup with external flash.







Experimenting beyond my usual photography style and preferences.

Colleagues Outing @ Costa Sands Downtown East ~ 30th August 2007

It's been quite some time since we had our last outing together. Our last outing of a similar nature was on 3rd May 2006 at Pulau Hantu.

First and foremost, we had to give a big thanks to Jerlyn and Collin for planning this activity.





We all arrived at the chalet in different waves. Some of us arrived earlier in the day, relaxing, drinking coffee and afternoon snacks, while some others went swimming. A group of us went back and prepared the BBQ fire pit for the evening folks coming in later and the fire was prepared by Scott, Collin, Viktor, Andrew and myself.





Pretty soon, the other folks started streaming in and started to help with the BBQ. The fire wasn't really that strong and it did cause delay in getting the food cooked, thus some inconvenience caused.





This gathering was also the occasion to celebrate August and September birthday boys (Viktor, Sean and Gabriel). We had a delicious chocolate cake, along with our BBQ food.

It was a night of eating, drinking and relaxing.

p/s: (1) Thanks to Celeste's friend, Garry (from Hong Kong), who helped us took the group photo.
(2) Thanks to Andrew and Viktor for helping to take the photos.