Bersama Lima 2011
Friday, November 4, 2011
I had some shots in mind to take already for this last trip, and one of them was of the anchor shackles located at the forecastle of the ship. Here I wanted to go for a selective focus. I realised I had to deal with rapid condensation quite often, since moving from the air conditioned confines of the ship to the humid weather outside often adversely affected the camera. I checked up a solution online and found all I had to do was keep it inside a plastic bag and wait for acclimatisation.
The next shot of the MISTRAL, or SAM launcher was one that suprisingly needed little retouching. The light was nicely dramatic, and all I wanted of the silhouette was granted naturally. The launcher, located on both sides of the ship, are meant to defend the ship against aerial attack should our escort ships fail to screen attack aircraft successfully.
My workplace is among those areas most classified on ship, and so I hesitated to put it up on facebook, even when only my Navy acquaintances can view the photos. Here's the console I work on when I close up. I had to bring up the ISO to 1000 for most all the indoor shots.
Helo ops was scheduled after some days, when we had to embark some important personnel on board. This Chinook came all the way from Singapore, I had no idea just how far a helicopter's range could extend to. Being quite senior, I had the privilege of not being the Helo Ops party, hence I was free to take this shot.
It was either later in the afternoon, or the day after, when another helicopter was expected, this time an Australian Sea Sprite. Pictured is my ship's Buffer and a flight deck officer before the Helo Ops commenced.
I was egged by the ME2 to venture beyond the safety of the flight deck shutters, and was really grateful for the chance to get photos from a much better angle. If not for the fact that my ship has quite a few people interested in taking photographs, including the ME2 himself, I might not have had the chance to go further with my camera.
The most heavily edited photo in the collection. The Sea Sprite struck an odd impression of something between oddly shaped and yet definitely deadly.
Here the flight controller motions for the Helo Ops crew to return to the hanger once the helicopter has been untethered to the flight deck.
We fast forward a few days to our few Replenishment at Sea operations, where we shifted to the West side of Tioman to refuel a number of RSN vessels in the span of a few days. Some took place in the day, others in the night and early morning. Large imposing fenders had to be lowered from our flight deck to the side of the ship in preparation, and on one occasion, we suffered an incident due to poor sea state.
The Major in the photo has posted out since this sailing, a few months shy of ORDing. His farewell warranted quite a celebration, and there was quite a lot of booze that went around. That was also in part due to one of our ship crew striking the lottery and winning cash in the zone of five figures.
Dauntless arrives for her fuel as rain clouds start to gather over the sky. Ever single time we refuelled her, it rained. Many said it was due to the large number of female sailors she had on board.
Yellow helmets and red Cherry fenders in preparation for the A/S.
The sky cleared up after the rain, and I was lucky to get a shot of the parting rain clouds. They almost seem to move aside for the protruding upper mast of the MCV.
This is perhaps my favourite shot of the sailing, with the depth clearly accentuated here. I realised all of my outdoor shots were just a slight bit too blue, so I had them tweaked.
I fast forward many more days now, in part because there wasn't much else to our role there but those operations for the next few days. Many realised that I had been logging on nearly everyday for updates on BF3 online, and indeed in the days running up to the game's release, I couldn't stop thinking about it. After some point in time though, time seemed to speed up considerably, and the sailing was over pretty soon.
The pictures here were taken on our first and only shore leave, lasting for about 5 hours on Tioman Island, a place that seemed to have taken East Coast Park and Pulau Ubin, and meshed them into a much bigger island. Leaving the ship on a fast beaching craft was truly something that I had been yearning for for a long time, and on the 29th, I had that curious wish fulfilled.
That day, we had to pick up other RSN personnel from various ships all anchored in our vicinity, for it was the end of the exercise and they were enjoying their shore leave too. Like a bus on it's daily route, we powered our way to different ships, five in total, picking up passengers along the way before heading for the beach. Sadly, we didn't beach on the island, but simply went alongside the small jetty where Australian shore leave personnel were already awaiting their return.
Men, ready weapons! Quite a few of us gamely posed for our D-Day stances as we came even nearer to the beach. You can see the speed of the craft accentuated by the motion blur of the surrounding water.
"Pillbox! There on the hillcrest! We take that objective, men!"
"Mm... I don't like the sound of that mission, sergeant..."
"Sustaining heavy fire! Push forward, men! Drive them back to Berlin!
Anyway, here's what the island more or less looked like. There were quite a few lodges for tourists, and apparently almost the whole population works in the tourist industry.
The whole island is a duty-free shopping area, so beers were as cheap as canned drinks, and the first thing we did was to get ourselves some Hoegaarden to drink while walking around. A nice one, I must say. I kept both bottle caps. We also drank some more at the eatery we stopped at, which was more or less all we had time for. Tiger cans littered the whole of our table, as you can see.
Stefan, the CBA (Chinese Born American) was glued to Fruit Ninja for most of the trip. He was quite upset when, during a previous sailing, the Buffer I mentioned earlier beat his high score in one try, scoring about 1300.
Nothing special about this photo, except that the sign board invites you to eat at a 'Shady Bakery'. Heh, not my cup of tea.
Here my camera was hijacked by the CBA dude, who showed me a light motion technique that produces pretty interesting results. Pictured is my Weapons specialist PO.
The reluctant Corporal made it up the hillcrest to take the pillbox that day. He's actually a regular, though. Weapons.
Here we chance upon a stall selling Ramlee burgers. It took some time, and apparently other shore leave personnel had to cook their own burgers because the islanders simply idled too long when cooking the burgers, and invited them to be the cook. Ours was fine, they apparently have Supermarket-packaged Ramlee burger patties ready to cook there.
The last shot of the sailing, taken in the ship's briefing room. The distortion here is accentuated by the lens and angle. The two in the photo are part of the Flotilla's 20th Anniversary team that I'm in, and we got some things done during the slow-paced sailing.
In the far corner is the Resolution Lighthouse, something I came up with and constructed for the ship. It was perhaps the most arduous effort I put in for the ship. It did get me an artfriend membership though I guess. And one duty off.
Until the next update, then.
posted by joseph at 4:09 PM
thinking back
Thursday, October 20, 2011
As I speak, I can't help thinking of Battlefield 3. Never before have I sat in such keen and eager anticipation for a game to come out, and it pains me to know I won't be around when it releases. I want so much to ask someone to come over and simply start the download for me, so that when I get home, I can jump right in. But I guess it's for the best that I don't do that, because I'm quite sure I'd not leave the game for a while and my bag will be left unpacked.
My thoughts on getting a job after I ORD had been refreshed by Nicole's mention of tuition as a possibility, and I quickly got to finding out how to list myself on the web. Given my desire to only teach English/GP and History, mine is quite a narrow fit. Sometimes I wonder if I'm too keen in finding a job after I ORD, even my parents say there's no need to think about it so early on. If I were to give tuition, it would make my time much more flexible. Yet I'd need to put in more effort than with a regular job as say, a sales assistant.
I still remember my tuition teachers, from the crazy bat who tried to teach us Chinese many years ago, to the two good and dedicated ones who taught me A Math and Physics.
When I entered MJC, I realised there was a path available to take Math at the H2 Level even though I didn't have the prerequisite that was A Math at the 'O' Levels. I had to catch up with all my peers who did the subject two years earlier whilst studying the new syllabus, so for that I had to engage a tutor. If memory serves, (which many say it doesn't for me) my mom found me a tutor who was already studying in the U, and her name was Sophie Choo. I think.
Once J1 was over, I decided I could cope without her from then on. I couldn't cope, however, with the increasingly complex Physics, and so found this guy in NS as an Air Defence Artillery man. He eventually went on to tutor Joel too. Both tutors seemed good and dedicated to the job, and both helped me through something I would otherwise have done poorly in.
All this recollection about the past when I was in JC triggered a lot of memories, likes how the atmosphere was like during the 'A' Level period. The tense, foreboding and thoroughly gripping period is without a doubt the most intense few months of my life thus far, and I wouldn't at all like to relieve it. Seriously, just thinking hard about it makes my heart beat faster.
Interesting memories, though. I'll have to end here as I'm going to go off soon. There'll be vsat on the exercise though!
posted by joseph at 11:45 AM
Monday, October 10, 2011
Shooting in the general direction is usually reflexive, but it's not guaranteed you can see him better than he can see you.
Warehouse architects often got away with replicating schematics in China and the Middle East.
Quickly kill all the people you can on the streets before someone spots you sitting pretty up there.
Forest Tycoon could really take a leaf from BF3's books.
posted by joseph at 10:35 AM
Sunday, September 18, 2011
A new Navy advertisement was created recently, one which was filmed in part on our ship. I might have told you about how the film crew came on board during one of our short sailings, making us do extra work and close up extra operations. I might also have mentioned how it peeved me that two fat ang mohs were running the show, and I'm not sure till now if it was some bias I had in me, but they seemed quite arrogant and more instructive than necessary to their Singaporean crew. It didn't help that one or two of them clearly seemed to behave more 'subordinate' than necessary.
But I digress. I guess you should watch the video unmolested before continuing with the post. If you haven't already. Aren't we a connected generation.
The advertisement is made more personal by the fact that the main actor is an officer onboard our ship, one who's quite chummy with the ratings and generally fun to be around with. We all knew he was singled out for some filming, but didn't actually realise he was going to have so much airtime. The girl at 0:07 is a batch-mate, but I must say, she's pretty darn 'chor-lor'. And what you see at 0:13 is three to four hours of Ops condensed into a few seconds. Heh,I'd like to note I'm actually in that scene... covered, of course, by a metal exterior, sitting down in the hot and humid welldock of the mothership, waiting for the darn craft to come back once the film crew is satisfied. Haha...
To add, 0:41 has a shot with a bunch of my ship mates, of whom second from left is my direct superior, whom I address as 'L', for leading. Not quite a petty officer, not yet quite a Chief. A nice guy, I'd say. They only wanted regulars for that shot, and had to reject some NSFs who fit the bill of being handsome enough initially to be considered. Haha, I wasn't one of them shortlisted.
As a token dirt-dishing piece, the guy on the bottom right, almost hidden by the shadows in that scene is a full-time chao-keng regular. Just so you know. Hahaha...
Lastly, that whole journey-embarking bit from 0:47 was a funny moment. We were doing our regular life run in the morning when they were preparing to take shots for that scene. As we ran by, we were wondering how come there were so many civilians waiting at the wharf when our sister ship was clearly not scheduled for any overseas deployments. As we ran back the other way some time later, we then saw those guys lined up there on the flight deck in Senang Diri. The comical moment, knowing the film crew was re-enacting something of pretty big significance on such an ordinary day was quite funny. And yes, my officer hugged a random woman in that scene.
posted by joseph at 6:00 AM
F1RST!
Friday, December 24, 2010
posted by joseph at 10:00 PM
To China!
Thursday, December 23, 2010
I spent the last 5 days in Xiamen, visiting my relatives in Fujian, China, for the first time. Together with my aunt, parents and one cousin, we spent two days in the village and two in the city. Ironically, the ones in the village were far more interesting than those spent in the town.
Seeing as it was the perfect opportunity to take the kind of shots I'd be less able to take in Singapore, I tried playing around as much as I could with compositions of people who were less camera shy due to their lack of exposure to cameras themselves. As usual, I'd let the photos do the talking while I run the commentary.
Having arrived in the Village from the city late in the day, we only really headed out the next day to visit everyone. The ride from town took us three hours, and the barren but supposedly 4 star hotel we stayed in was anything but welcoming.
Until now I still can't figure out the large family tree over in the village, so I'd take wild stabs where I can, and leave the rest to the next trip. This photo was taken in a shop owned by our relative selling sundry goods.
This was taken in the village home, with everyone congregating at different times to see their relatives from abroad. All of them took days off to be with us, and that's saying something, given they work a 7 day work week.
While the older folk discussed some matters in Hokkien (which disturbingly felt like I was back home, where the dialect sounded so common and yet the whole environment was unfamiliar) my cousin and I walked around the village. Standing out clearly with our clothes and cameras, we attracted many stares, especially when I tried at times to take pictures of village folk.
The livestock here was huge, with this fat chicken seen here and ducks close to four times the size of what you see in ponds. If you didn't see it in the village itself, you'd think they were all genetically modified.
Teng Soon, the oldest of the whole family, talking to my dad in our ancestor's house a few houses away. His hair, all white, was nearly always covered with a cap. I think there's a chance I'll follow the way of my dad and him when I grow old...
My mom talks to Yijing in this photo, with me on the second storey of the same house, looking down. She was brought over to Singapore by my aunt at 8 years old so that she could study there and hopefully help pull my relatives out of the farms. She's now a year older, with a place nearly secured in a primary school in the west. She lives with my aunt while in Singapore, but she's busy as heck with her own business, and it kind of makes us all wonder if she's being parented in too detached a manner.
Here's that same boy in the first photo, with his mom and younger sister on the scooter. Scooters and bicycles were the primary mode of transport in the village, and everyone horns liberally as a warning of intention to overtake, or some other minor driver's notice. Highly irritating and noisy.
Same little sister, different composition.
Here's the baby brother of Yijing, taken while we were in a restaurant having lunch. All four meals we had at the village were 12+ course meals, with one dish coming quickly after the other as we were nearly always the only customers. We always occupied two large tables, and once the dish came, the five of us Singaporeans would quickly take what we wanted. This was because our relatives grow up with much stronger stomachs, and serving us or picking the food at the same time would only invite a very, very serious onset of diarrhoea. My dad himself experienced it when he let his guard down the last trip. I'm not sure if our relatives are aware of why we chiong for the food the way we do.
Testament to their strong stomachs could be seen when the little kids would take nearly anything and put it into their mouths, including those that dropped onto dubious surfaces. they'd play and eat sand, flowers and the like, too. Heh, I lost an apple bar to a little girl who wanted a bit. I hadn't taken a full bite before she came up to me, and then once I gave her one chunk, which she swallowed with my fingers in her mouth, I knew I had to give her the whole thing. My dad funnily compared the little kids to our kind back home, who grow up with the Pediasure, Enfagrow and omega 3 nonsense.
After the meal, we decided to do a bit of sightseeing, and headed out to a windfarm at the beach. In this picture are pipes drawing water from the sea (that is closest to taiwan from the whole of the PRC) to the farms inland.
Here's the inside of the wind turbine.
The sun was setting, but a fog or haze constantly hung over the land and it dulled the view somewhat.
Another little one, also taken in another restaurant with a 17 course meal in the villlage. My aunt paid for all the meals there, which were not as spectacular as the digits sound. Once more, we were the only customers in the hotel restaurant. The hotel in question was just one month old.
The next day, before we could head out, an aunt brought oranges from a nearby orange grove they owned. Expressing interest, she brought me there to have a looksee. Instead of being interested in the grove, though, I was more interested in the four puppies that tagged along wherever I went... before their mother came along and shooed them away. This one is the only white puppy, with the rest having a brown coat. It's name is Xiao Bai.
Chalking up a first; riding a bike.
My dad used to bike when he was younger, before he sustained his foot injury during a ride from Pasir Laba camp to meet his girlfriend in Yio Chu Kang. He was just as excited as I was to get on a bike (again) and took my mom for a ride to the beach with the rest of us.
Sitting pillion on a bike myself, I turned around and snapped a photograph that my dad would probably like too.
Here's my cousin on a scooter she rode pillion on to the beach, and beside her is my aunt who drove it for her.
One of two family photos I took, with the rest taken by my aunt's sharp and powerful S95 Canon digital camera. The same model retailed in Xiamen city for twice the price. It's all about the kind of goods people are looking to buy, I guess. Not every single person is in this photo, though. And in retrospect, I should have just asked my aunts to move into the shade rather than compromise the whole setting. In the background is the house that a few of them live in.
When we got back to the city, we checked in to the 5 star Sheraton hotel, where I again got a room to myself, this time much, much more welcoming than the hotel in the village. I'd talk about it more in the next post.
We spent some time visiting Gulangyu, a small little island at the bottom of Xiamen. In colonial times, this small island was occupied by 13 different nations who exacted small bits of China during successive wars. As a part of concessions that China was made to part with, they more or less owned the island with luxurious houses and consulates. All of them were restored or rebuilt by China in recent times, save the Japanese one. However, the state of disrepair that it was in was actually pretty interesting...
We arrived at a house museum with our guide, (she was asking for just 4 SGD equivalent, total for our 2 hour tour, and she was a registered tour guide, at that) one that once belonged to a European family. It was chock full of old artefacts, from bank notes to stereophones, maps to beds, television sets to old European paintings. It seemed like they had insufficient space to display all of them, and through the tour of the house, I was begging inside to buy some of them, like those really old, authentic cameras. Seen this picture is the toilet, with the title above saying "foreign babes restroom" (yes, there was a nice lot of evidence of Engrish) and the picture showing an interesting interaction of naked ladies...
at the pier of the island, accessible only by ferry, was a small fishing trawler undergoing repairs. We passed it by quite a bit while on a small buggy ride, but it was just itching to be photographed. While doing so, my cousin and I got accosted by those sham monks who tried to hard sell us with their beads. My constant refusal of the darned beads earned me a "sha hai zi".
posted by joseph at 10:09 AM
Friday, November 4, 2011
If everything goes as planned, the two-week sailing that I just came back from will be the last time I join my ship out to sea. There are quite a few small sailings coming up from Exercise Northstar, but I have been able to clear leave on all those days, effectively giving me an eight day work month, give or take a day. I'm about to ORD, and I'm still mixed over whether to celebrate or feel slightly disappointed.
This post is more about the sailing, though. My last opportunity to enjoy the Navy experience, if you will. Also my last chance to take any photos that I want on and off the ship in the Navy, and here they are.
It nearing the monsoon season, there were only a handful of days at the beginning where the light was good and weather dry. We got there in around twelve hours (Tioman Island is located to the central east of Malaysia) and promptly dropped anchor East of Tioman. This would be where we'd fulfill our role as an overwatch for diving operations, and activate fast craft to rescue divers in danger should the need ever arise. We had the company of Malaysian, Australian and New Zealander divers on our way there, but once we reached Tioman, they left for the beach.
The seaboats that we had to launch from the very stern of our stern ramp got us soaked to the waist with incoming seawater that poured in rhythmically, and it made an impression on me how strong a force the waves could be. The rougher sea states had yet to come, though.
Our role the first few days was pretty insignificant, and we didn't do much each day but to laze around, completing watches on the bridge and finding things to do the next. This first shot I took was during Dogwatch, from 1630-1730, where people are free to exercise should they have a permitting schedule. Running around the flight deck is a staple for some, despite the small route and repetitious cycles. It offers good views but often harsh sunlight. See the small black ball next to the upper mast? It indicates that our ship is at anchor, and on which side the anchor has been dropped.
I had some shots in mind to take already for this last trip, and one of them was of the anchor shackles located at the forecastle of the ship. Here I wanted to go for a selective focus. I realised I had to deal with rapid condensation quite often, since moving from the air conditioned confines of the ship to the humid weather outside often adversely affected the camera. I checked up a solution online and found all I had to do was keep it inside a plastic bag and wait for acclimatisation.
The next shot of the MISTRAL, or SAM launcher was one that suprisingly needed little retouching. The light was nicely dramatic, and all I wanted of the silhouette was granted naturally. The launcher, located on both sides of the ship, are meant to defend the ship against aerial attack should our escort ships fail to screen attack aircraft successfully.
My workplace is among those areas most classified on ship, and so I hesitated to put it up on facebook, even when only my Navy acquaintances can view the photos. Here's the console I work on when I close up. I had to bring up the ISO to 1000 for most all the indoor shots.
Helo ops was scheduled after some days, when we had to embark some important personnel on board. This Chinook came all the way from Singapore, I had no idea just how far a helicopter's range could extend to. Being quite senior, I had the privilege of not being the Helo Ops party, hence I was free to take this shot.
It was either later in the afternoon, or the day after, when another helicopter was expected, this time an Australian Sea Sprite. Pictured is my ship's Buffer and a flight deck officer before the Helo Ops commenced.
I was egged by the ME2 to venture beyond the safety of the flight deck shutters, and was really grateful for the chance to get photos from a much better angle. If not for the fact that my ship has quite a few people interested in taking photographs, including the ME2 himself, I might not have had the chance to go further with my camera.
The most heavily edited photo in the collection. The Sea Sprite struck an odd impression of something between oddly shaped and yet definitely deadly.
Here the flight controller motions for the Helo Ops crew to return to the hanger once the helicopter has been untethered to the flight deck.
We fast forward a few days to our few Replenishment at Sea operations, where we shifted to the West side of Tioman to refuel a number of RSN vessels in the span of a few days. Some took place in the day, others in the night and early morning. Large imposing fenders had to be lowered from our flight deck to the side of the ship in preparation, and on one occasion, we suffered an incident due to poor sea state.
The Major in the photo has posted out since this sailing, a few months shy of ORDing. His farewell warranted quite a celebration, and there was quite a lot of booze that went around. That was also in part due to one of our ship crew striking the lottery and winning cash in the zone of five figures.
Dauntless arrives for her fuel as rain clouds start to gather over the sky. Ever single time we refuelled her, it rained. Many said it was due to the large number of female sailors she had on board.
Yellow helmets and red Cherry fenders in preparation for the A/S.
The sky cleared up after the rain, and I was lucky to get a shot of the parting rain clouds. They almost seem to move aside for the protruding upper mast of the MCV.
This is perhaps my favourite shot of the sailing, with the depth clearly accentuated here. I realised all of my outdoor shots were just a slight bit too blue, so I had them tweaked.
I fast forward many more days now, in part because there wasn't much else to our role there but those operations for the next few days. Many realised that I had been logging on nearly everyday for updates on BF3 online, and indeed in the days running up to the game's release, I couldn't stop thinking about it. After some point in time though, time seemed to speed up considerably, and the sailing was over pretty soon.
The pictures here were taken on our first and only shore leave, lasting for about 5 hours on Tioman Island, a place that seemed to have taken East Coast Park and Pulau Ubin, and meshed them into a much bigger island. Leaving the ship on a fast beaching craft was truly something that I had been yearning for for a long time, and on the 29th, I had that curious wish fulfilled.
That day, we had to pick up other RSN personnel from various ships all anchored in our vicinity, for it was the end of the exercise and they were enjoying their shore leave too. Like a bus on it's daily route, we powered our way to different ships, five in total, picking up passengers along the way before heading for the beach. Sadly, we didn't beach on the island, but simply went alongside the small jetty where Australian shore leave personnel were already awaiting their return.
Men, ready weapons! Quite a few of us gamely posed for our D-Day stances as we came even nearer to the beach. You can see the speed of the craft accentuated by the motion blur of the surrounding water.
"Pillbox! There on the hillcrest! We take that objective, men!"
"Mm... I don't like the sound of that mission, sergeant..."
"Sustaining heavy fire! Push forward, men! Drive them back to Berlin!
Anyway, here's what the island more or less looked like. There were quite a few lodges for tourists, and apparently almost the whole population works in the tourist industry.
The whole island is a duty-free shopping area, so beers were as cheap as canned drinks, and the first thing we did was to get ourselves some Hoegaarden to drink while walking around. A nice one, I must say. I kept both bottle caps. We also drank some more at the eatery we stopped at, which was more or less all we had time for. Tiger cans littered the whole of our table, as you can see.
Stefan, the CBA (Chinese Born American) was glued to Fruit Ninja for most of the trip. He was quite upset when, during a previous sailing, the Buffer I mentioned earlier beat his high score in one try, scoring about 1300.
Nothing special about this photo, except that the sign board invites you to eat at a 'Shady Bakery'. Heh, not my cup of tea.
Here my camera was hijacked by the CBA dude, who showed me a light motion technique that produces pretty interesting results. Pictured is my Weapons specialist PO.
The reluctant Corporal made it up the hillcrest to take the pillbox that day. He's actually a regular, though. Weapons.
Here we chance upon a stall selling Ramlee burgers. It took some time, and apparently other shore leave personnel had to cook their own burgers because the islanders simply idled too long when cooking the burgers, and invited them to be the cook. Ours was fine, they apparently have Supermarket-packaged Ramlee burger patties ready to cook there.
The last shot of the sailing, taken in the ship's briefing room. The distortion here is accentuated by the lens and angle. The two in the photo are part of the Flotilla's 20th Anniversary team that I'm in, and we got some things done during the slow-paced sailing.
In the far corner is the Resolution Lighthouse, something I came up with and constructed for the ship. It was perhaps the most arduous effort I put in for the ship. It did get me an artfriend membership though I guess. And one duty off.
Until the next update, then.
Labels: interesting, jolly pirates, navy, photography, thoughts
posted by joseph at 4:09 PM
thinking back
Thursday, October 20, 2011
I'll be leaving in a short while for the exercise to Tioman, but the last line will cast off from the ship at approximately 1700hrs. We won't take long to reach the nearaway waters of our neighbour, and there we'll anchor serenely and conduct our auxilliary role.
As I speak, I can't help thinking of Battlefield 3. Never before have I sat in such keen and eager anticipation for a game to come out, and it pains me to know I won't be around when it releases. I want so much to ask someone to come over and simply start the download for me, so that when I get home, I can jump right in. But I guess it's for the best that I don't do that, because I'm quite sure I'd not leave the game for a while and my bag will be left unpacked.
My thoughts on getting a job after I ORD had been refreshed by Nicole's mention of tuition as a possibility, and I quickly got to finding out how to list myself on the web. Given my desire to only teach English/GP and History, mine is quite a narrow fit. Sometimes I wonder if I'm too keen in finding a job after I ORD, even my parents say there's no need to think about it so early on. If I were to give tuition, it would make my time much more flexible. Yet I'd need to put in more effort than with a regular job as say, a sales assistant.
I still remember my tuition teachers, from the crazy bat who tried to teach us Chinese many years ago, to the two good and dedicated ones who taught me A Math and Physics.
When I entered MJC, I realised there was a path available to take Math at the H2 Level even though I didn't have the prerequisite that was A Math at the 'O' Levels. I had to catch up with all my peers who did the subject two years earlier whilst studying the new syllabus, so for that I had to engage a tutor. If memory serves, (which many say it doesn't for me) my mom found me a tutor who was already studying in the U, and her name was Sophie Choo. I think.
Once J1 was over, I decided I could cope without her from then on. I couldn't cope, however, with the increasingly complex Physics, and so found this guy in NS as an Air Defence Artillery man. He eventually went on to tutor Joel too. Both tutors seemed good and dedicated to the job, and both helped me through something I would otherwise have done poorly in.
All this recollection about the past when I was in JC triggered a lot of memories, likes how the atmosphere was like during the 'A' Level period. The tense, foreboding and thoroughly gripping period is without a doubt the most intense few months of my life thus far, and I wouldn't at all like to relieve it. Seriously, just thinking hard about it makes my heart beat faster.
Interesting memories, though. I'll have to end here as I'm going to go off soon. There'll be vsat on the exercise though!
Labels: exams, interesting, mjc, studies, thoughts
posted by joseph at 11:45 AM
Monday, October 10, 2011
The last
time I so closely tracked the release of a new game was when Cities XL was in
the works. That game seemed to offer revolutionary graphics for the genre, and
much more in-depth gameplay than any other Sim City had offered previously.
This
time, the game in question is Battlefield 3, and the main game-changers for me
seemed to be the much-improved graphics and the supposedly more equitable
gameplay. The open beta for the game came out some time ago, and I quickly
jumped into it. With about 5 hours of gameplay to date, I feel I’d like to
write my own review of the first look.
**
I’d
first put out on the cards that especially for FPS games, a sizeable part of
the fun for me stems from my ability to play the game well, i.e. kill more than
be killed. So it was of little surprise that when I played my first half an
hour of the game, I wasn’t getting a good vibe from the game.
Weapons
For starters,
the realism in the game has been ramped up from the latest Bad Company 2.
Weapons deliver much more recoil and rounds deviation, setting it apart from
BC2’s more arcade-y weapons shoot out. In Mark’s words, it’s no longer so much
about who spots who first. It took some getting used to when I couldn’t spray
rounds as much as I did before, and it was difficult at first to appreciate
this increased difficulty technicality.
With the increased recoil, ironsights seem even more of a hindrance. You'd want to get laser dot ones as soon as you can.
Still,
other changes came with this, including the sniper’s lens light reflection that
allows one to more easily spot a camping sniper. This makes for more balanced
gameplay. Then there’s the ability to add all manners of attachments to your
primary weapon, something previous games lacked. For example, in the dark
tunnels of Metro, a flashlight attachment dazzles enemy troops in close
encounters, but gives away one’s location in bigger spaces. Red Dot sights can
be attached to different kit’s weapons, so one does not have to stick with a
certain weapon simply for the sights that came with it.
So far
though, there seems to have been a removal of the Magnum ammo and Armor jacket,
perhaps because in BC2 it was a bigger disadvantage to newcomers. There is
though, a flak jacket upgrade for the engineer class to reduce damage taken
from shrapnel, which probably means absorbing less vehicular damage.
Maps
Weapon
changes aside, the maps seem to have been improved in some ways. While the Beta
only tested for two maps, Operation Metro and Caspian Border, it was quite
sufficient to show that more effort was put into map making than in BF2. In the
latter, control points usually consisted of similar looking buildings clustered
around a point, while the rest of the map was more open and even less varied.
Maps were either all-urban or all-open, favouring one kind of attack style.
In
Battlefield 3, individual maps have different kinds of ways in tackling each
control point or M-com station. Of course, you’ve heard of Metro’s change of
pace from outdoors to indoors, but that is not all there is to it. Besides,
that map transition at first comes off as a bit contrived, but that’s up to the
individual to determine.
In
Caspian Border, (whose closest equivalent I can think of would be Zatar
Wetlands) one would imagine it to be an open-map concept whose formulaic control points are the center
of attention, and the commute between them uninteresting. Just like the
Wetlands. However, this isn’t the case at all. The control points all have
their own unique characteristics, and one can’t assault a point in the same way
he does in another. For example, one point, Forest, is a wooded area great for
camping in the bushes for an enemy attack. (and it’s also where the better ambient
graphics, with more shadows and varied colours, shines. There have been a few
occasions where enemies walk right past me, or search in vain for me when I’m
just meters away from them) It has few hard cover points, and is accessible
from many directions.
A road diverged into a wood. And I, I took the one without the tank.
Just
opposite it, separated by a small meandering river, is Hilltop; a tall, cramped
outcrop with a radio tower. It has vantage points overlooking the passage
between both points, a single warehouse unit that one can play hide-and-seek
with, and some hard cover points. Much further away is Antennae, an open point
with little cover, little vegetation, but a good camping point on a craggy ‘cliff’.
That cliff is easily accessible from the rear, preventing one from staying
there too long to watch for people below. Lastly, along one part of the map is
a long stretch of no-man’s land, partitioned with wire fences. It’s open and
dangerous, slows down people with the cutting of fences and generally breaks up
the hilly, open map.
It might
be difficult to imagine, but that’s not the point. It simply shows that unlike
the building-plopping slap job that was ubiquitous in BF2, and unlike the
single-combat-style maps of BC2, Battlefield 3 offers richer environments to
tackle. Even Metro’s transition from open-CQB-open fighting areas does not
switch back to the same kind of open gameplay that was at the start. At the end
of the map, terrain plays a much greater part, as one has to look out for
enemies not only on the ground, but at least three different level separations.
This wasn’t the case at the start.
Vehicles
Vehicles
were something I didn’t get to try until sometime later, when they re-opened
Caspian Border for testing once more. (Or just because many were crying out for
it) The most surprising thing I noticed was that it wasn’t a given that many
were rushing for the planes and ‘copters. The planes, now a direct spawn point
themselves, (looks like they took all that team-killing seriously then. Helps
that you need not worry of your teammate shooting you in the back as you run
for the plane) were a few times left uncontested. Flight control was jerkier,
in the realistic kind, and gone were the days where those in the sky ruled the
scoreboards. Things could be shot out of the sky more easily, and it’s more
difficult to rush out of a burning vehicle just seconds before it explodes.
Gone too, then, were the days you thought you had the satisfaction of killing a
tank gunner, only for him to flee from the vehicle unscathed.
Oh, and they replaced the Bradley with the LAV. The LAV's chassis is also used for the anti-air equivalent.
I
remember one of the reasons I loved vehicles in BC2 was because of the EW
upgrade that allowed me to become aware of enemy troops sneaking around my
vehicle. Realism has thrown that back out the window, and in addition, swiveling
small caliber turrets around to track targets are now much harder to do. One
could always tweak mouse sensitivity, but that’s seemingly impractical. It’s
also less accurate now, compared to the pinpoint accuracy that one was forgiven
with in BF2. Also, I assume it’s got to do with realism, but now if you power a
buggy through water, you get separated from your vehicle.
Of
course, an interesting dimension to the new gameplay is that one can disable
vehicles too, rather than just play a game of armor reduction before the
destruction of the vehicle. It seems like the performance of the vehicle will
degrade after a certain ‘heath’ point, something that builds on BC2. All in
all, the vehicles seemed to have undergone quite some balancing efforts.
Graphics
Lastly,
the graphics of the game are pretty darn pleasing to the eye. As I mentioned
before, the more realistic shadows lend a slight change to gameplay. One doesn’t
necessarily need to find a secluded spot to camp anymore, but can find a
position with good shadows along a path that is just as effective. Patterns are
broken up in the swaying grass and rocks of different gradients and shade
spots. Flashlights and tactical laser lights dazzle enemies tastefully (what?)
and in general, it feels much nicer to play. Mark mentioned it looked like a
souped up version of one Call Of Duty, I believe, but I don’t find that to be
the case.
Still,
there’s nothing really legendary to the graphics, and when firefights become
intense, there really aren’t many players who would concern themselves much
with the ambience of their surroundings. Yet a point worth noting anyway,
especially when graphics have the ability to change how you play.
Interface
Talk has
been made of how odd it is that the game first transits to a web browser before
gameplay, and initially I agreed it seemed very different and clunky. Yet one
quickly sees the merits to it, when not only are things made more streamlined,
(All your stats, your friends, your server browsing page and game news are put
into one neat package) the whole process is, very importantly, sped up
considerably. No complains with the speedy display of available games, no glitchy
jump of pings in the list. While waiting to jump into a game, you can browse
your stats or chat with friends. If you want to do something else, you can also
just bring up a new tab to use Facebook, Google or whatever catches your fancy.
See another server you prefer? No need to get stuck with the existing one, just
cancel the load in a fuss-free manner.
There really is everything here, within clicking distance, with little loading time.
I must
say, this new way of playing multiplayer FPS takes all the hassle out of
logging in, checking browsers and updating stats, something every previous
Battlefield iteration I had played was plagued with.
In-game,
one interesting regression is that the HUD now displays your health in
percentage, so you know more accurately how alive you are in a battle. I would
note though, that the process of kit, squad and spawn selection seems slower
and bulkier than compared to last time. The old way of doing this could have
been stuck to, and I don’t think developers are going to change this when the
game officially releases.
Ignore the numbers in red boxes, those were added from elsewhere. You can see from here that they've segmented the three sub-pages, making the process clunkier.
Conclusion
On the
whole, despite all the talk, I must say that I’m already a bit of a sucker for
the game because I’ve loved the gameplay of this whole FPS series, more or
less. It serves to entice me more that the game playing community is much more
active and present, the gameplay itself is smoother and fairer, and that the
graphics do make it more pleasing to the eye. The beta didn’t have the campaign
mode nor co-op, both of which I’m looking forward to when the game does release.
I’d say
I’m willing to spend $64 on some novel fun for these reasons, and I look
forward to playing with friends when I come back early November to an age-old
time-wasting endeavor. My first order of things is to bring up my KD ratio to
1.
Labels: gaming, interesting, military, opinion, thoughts
posted by joseph at 10:35 AM
Sunday, September 18, 2011
A new Navy advertisement was created recently, one which was filmed in part on our ship. I might have told you about how the film crew came on board during one of our short sailings, making us do extra work and close up extra operations. I might also have mentioned how it peeved me that two fat ang mohs were running the show, and I'm not sure till now if it was some bias I had in me, but they seemed quite arrogant and more instructive than necessary to their Singaporean crew. It didn't help that one or two of them clearly seemed to behave more 'subordinate' than necessary.
But I digress. I guess you should watch the video unmolested before continuing with the post. If you haven't already. Aren't we a connected generation.
The advertisement is made more personal by the fact that the main actor is an officer onboard our ship, one who's quite chummy with the ratings and generally fun to be around with. We all knew he was singled out for some filming, but didn't actually realise he was going to have so much airtime. The girl at 0:07 is a batch-mate, but I must say, she's pretty darn 'chor-lor'. And what you see at 0:13 is three to four hours of Ops condensed into a few seconds. Heh,I'd like to note I'm actually in that scene... covered, of course, by a metal exterior, sitting down in the hot and humid welldock of the mothership, waiting for the darn craft to come back once the film crew is satisfied. Haha...
To add, 0:41 has a shot with a bunch of my ship mates, of whom second from left is my direct superior, whom I address as 'L', for leading. Not quite a petty officer, not yet quite a Chief. A nice guy, I'd say. They only wanted regulars for that shot, and had to reject some NSFs who fit the bill of being handsome enough initially to be considered. Haha, I wasn't one of them shortlisted.
As a token dirt-dishing piece, the guy on the bottom right, almost hidden by the shadows in that scene is a full-time chao-keng regular. Just so you know. Hahaha...
Lastly, that whole journey-embarking bit from 0:47 was a funny moment. We were doing our regular life run in the morning when they were preparing to take shots for that scene. As we ran by, we were wondering how come there were so many civilians waiting at the wharf when our sister ship was clearly not scheduled for any overseas deployments. As we ran back the other way some time later, we then saw those guys lined up there on the flight deck in Senang Diri. The comical moment, knowing the film crew was re-enacting something of pretty big significance on such an ordinary day was quite funny. And yes, my officer hugged a random woman in that scene.
Labels: interesting, military, navy, thoughts, weblinks
posted by joseph at 6:00 AM
F1RST!
Friday, December 24, 2010
So when I was thinking through the post of holiday firsts while sitting in my hotel room, I realised that there were many other things I accomplished or experienced for the first time too, through this whole year of many significant milestones. Some might seem familiar to you, and for good reason too. I just felt that I had to search the back of my mind for some of them, which made me realise that even significant events can fade away pretty easily. Or maybe it's just my poor memory.
These go, like the previous post, in chronological order.
1. Getting my head shaved
My brother and mom mused that I seemed to look better with the really buzzcut, and short it was because I had only spent a few days in Tekong before we were allowed to book out for the Chinese New Year period. Once a guy goes almost bald, a trip downtown will suddenly see him spotting so many others with his same hairstyle walking about, something he never noticed but now can't help but realise. I still have less than a year to go before my stint is over, and I'm sure before then, I'd have many more interesting and memorable moments that I'd take with me through these two years.
**
2. Going overseas with friends (twice!)
I store my holiday photos in chronological order, and I noticed that the end tag " '10 " appears three times now in my photo cache of 40gb. KL and HK were my first two trips overseas with friends, and I must say I enjoyed both thoroughly. The slight sense of independence, coupled with great company made both memorable. Even doing the cash accounting at the end of the day gave me a slight satisfaction, I'm not sure why...
**
3. Riding an ATV/ Go-Kart
The closest I'll get to driving a vehicle until the later half of next year. Both, in particular the ATV, were pure enjoyment when the accelerator was gunned and the forward push to your body the very first time sent a tingling sensation through me. Definitely won't have the same kind of enthusiasm when I get behind the wheel for practical driving lessons...
**
4. Sailing out to sea on a warship
I believe entering the Navy redefined my interest in warships. While I had the initial interest in them even before NS, I find myself being more intrigued by foreign navies and various nitty gritty details that I'm surrounded by five days a week. Sailing on board the stealth frigate for a night was definitely a memorable one, and next year I'll have more than 10 combined weeks of sailing to contend with.
**
5. Going on board an aircraft carrier
Lifelong dream fulfilled. Now awaiting the return of the supercarrier, the USS Enterprise to Changi Naval Base. Nothing quite beats seeing so many desertized humvees, in the flesh, so many crew walking around in jumpsuits next to harrier jets, helicopters and all kinds of heavy equipment.
**
6. Participating in NDP
It's one of those things that you'd know you enjoyed and found interesting in retrospect, but would think twice about doing it over again. Marching in the contingent, with the eyes so many upon you, seeing the president and LKY in the flesh, witnessing the flyby from my unique position, everything was seriously memorable about the experience that day, as well as the 15 weekends preceding that.
**
7. Clubbing
Heh, I told myself before that I'd probably never ever do this, because I really didn't see the point to all that gyrating and loud noise. Funnily enough, I found my first experience pretty fun and quite interesting. o.o Must have been thanks to the enjoyable company, too. Sadly, no pictures, we were all pretty much busy having an interesting night, heh.
**
8. Going to the PRC (Shenzhen, then Xiamen)
First time visiting a communist country, and I'm sure that's a milestone for me. I fulfilled my interesting desire to see a Mao portrait in Xiamen, at the village in a small sundry shop where it presided over humble goods. Then there were the prominent party buildings that always looked more ornate and imposing compared to the buildings surrounding them. All in, a pretty interesting first, though the people there at times irritated me with their inability to comprehend personal space and polite behaviour.
**
9. Buying wine for myself
Having turned 18 some time back, I finally managed to buy some duty free wine after returning to Singapore from Hong Kong, after having seen my parents and older brothers do so many, many times during previous trips abroad. Of course, that's not to say that I was dying to do so ever since I turned 18, but I felt a tiny bit of me feeling liberal when I made the purchase of that expensive bottle of Inniskillin. I think I'll use it for ORD, haha!
**
10.
**
**
2. Going overseas with friends (twice!)
I store my holiday photos in chronological order, and I noticed that the end tag " '10 " appears three times now in my photo cache of 40gb. KL and HK were my first two trips overseas with friends, and I must say I enjoyed both thoroughly. The slight sense of independence, coupled with great company made both memorable. Even doing the cash accounting at the end of the day gave me a slight satisfaction, I'm not sure why...
**
3. Riding an ATV/ Go-Kart
The closest I'll get to driving a vehicle until the later half of next year. Both, in particular the ATV, were pure enjoyment when the accelerator was gunned and the forward push to your body the very first time sent a tingling sensation through me. Definitely won't have the same kind of enthusiasm when I get behind the wheel for practical driving lessons...
**
4. Sailing out to sea on a warship
I believe entering the Navy redefined my interest in warships. While I had the initial interest in them even before NS, I find myself being more intrigued by foreign navies and various nitty gritty details that I'm surrounded by five days a week. Sailing on board the stealth frigate for a night was definitely a memorable one, and next year I'll have more than 10 combined weeks of sailing to contend with.
**
5. Going on board an aircraft carrier
Lifelong dream fulfilled. Now awaiting the return of the supercarrier, the USS Enterprise to Changi Naval Base. Nothing quite beats seeing so many desertized humvees, in the flesh, so many crew walking around in jumpsuits next to harrier jets, helicopters and all kinds of heavy equipment.
**
6. Participating in NDP
It's one of those things that you'd know you enjoyed and found interesting in retrospect, but would think twice about doing it over again. Marching in the contingent, with the eyes so many upon you, seeing the president and LKY in the flesh, witnessing the flyby from my unique position, everything was seriously memorable about the experience that day, as well as the 15 weekends preceding that.
**
7. Clubbing
Heh, I told myself before that I'd probably never ever do this, because I really didn't see the point to all that gyrating and loud noise. Funnily enough, I found my first experience pretty fun and quite interesting. o.o Must have been thanks to the enjoyable company, too. Sadly, no pictures, we were all pretty much busy having an interesting night, heh.
**
8. Going to the PRC (Shenzhen, then Xiamen)
First time visiting a communist country, and I'm sure that's a milestone for me. I fulfilled my interesting desire to see a Mao portrait in Xiamen, at the village in a small sundry shop where it presided over humble goods. Then there were the prominent party buildings that always looked more ornate and imposing compared to the buildings surrounding them. All in, a pretty interesting first, though the people there at times irritated me with their inability to comprehend personal space and polite behaviour.
**
9. Buying wine for myself
Having turned 18 some time back, I finally managed to buy some duty free wine after returning to Singapore from Hong Kong, after having seen my parents and older brothers do so many, many times during previous trips abroad. Of course, that's not to say that I was dying to do so ever since I turned 18, but I felt a tiny bit of me feeling liberal when I made the purchase of that expensive bottle of Inniskillin. I think I'll use it for ORD, haha!
**
10.
**
Labels: bmt, holidays, interesting, NDP, nostalgia, thoughts
posted by joseph at 10:00 PM
To China!
Thursday, December 23, 2010
I've got three posts queued up in my head, and this one with all the pictures goes first.
I spent the last 5 days in Xiamen, visiting my relatives in Fujian, China, for the first time. Together with my aunt, parents and one cousin, we spent two days in the village and two in the city. Ironically, the ones in the village were far more interesting than those spent in the town.
Seeing as it was the perfect opportunity to take the kind of shots I'd be less able to take in Singapore, I tried playing around as much as I could with compositions of people who were less camera shy due to their lack of exposure to cameras themselves. As usual, I'd let the photos do the talking while I run the commentary.
Having arrived in the Village from the city late in the day, we only really headed out the next day to visit everyone. The ride from town took us three hours, and the barren but supposedly 4 star hotel we stayed in was anything but welcoming.
Until now I still can't figure out the large family tree over in the village, so I'd take wild stabs where I can, and leave the rest to the next trip. This photo was taken in a shop owned by our relative selling sundry goods.
This was taken in the village home, with everyone congregating at different times to see their relatives from abroad. All of them took days off to be with us, and that's saying something, given they work a 7 day work week.
While the older folk discussed some matters in Hokkien (which disturbingly felt like I was back home, where the dialect sounded so common and yet the whole environment was unfamiliar) my cousin and I walked around the village. Standing out clearly with our clothes and cameras, we attracted many stares, especially when I tried at times to take pictures of village folk.
The livestock here was huge, with this fat chicken seen here and ducks close to four times the size of what you see in ponds. If you didn't see it in the village itself, you'd think they were all genetically modified.
Teng Soon, the oldest of the whole family, talking to my dad in our ancestor's house a few houses away. His hair, all white, was nearly always covered with a cap. I think there's a chance I'll follow the way of my dad and him when I grow old...
My mom talks to Yijing in this photo, with me on the second storey of the same house, looking down. She was brought over to Singapore by my aunt at 8 years old so that she could study there and hopefully help pull my relatives out of the farms. She's now a year older, with a place nearly secured in a primary school in the west. She lives with my aunt while in Singapore, but she's busy as heck with her own business, and it kind of makes us all wonder if she's being parented in too detached a manner.
Here's that same boy in the first photo, with his mom and younger sister on the scooter. Scooters and bicycles were the primary mode of transport in the village, and everyone horns liberally as a warning of intention to overtake, or some other minor driver's notice. Highly irritating and noisy.
Same little sister, different composition.
Here's the baby brother of Yijing, taken while we were in a restaurant having lunch. All four meals we had at the village were 12+ course meals, with one dish coming quickly after the other as we were nearly always the only customers. We always occupied two large tables, and once the dish came, the five of us Singaporeans would quickly take what we wanted. This was because our relatives grow up with much stronger stomachs, and serving us or picking the food at the same time would only invite a very, very serious onset of diarrhoea. My dad himself experienced it when he let his guard down the last trip. I'm not sure if our relatives are aware of why we chiong for the food the way we do.
Testament to their strong stomachs could be seen when the little kids would take nearly anything and put it into their mouths, including those that dropped onto dubious surfaces. they'd play and eat sand, flowers and the like, too. Heh, I lost an apple bar to a little girl who wanted a bit. I hadn't taken a full bite before she came up to me, and then once I gave her one chunk, which she swallowed with my fingers in her mouth, I knew I had to give her the whole thing. My dad funnily compared the little kids to our kind back home, who grow up with the Pediasure, Enfagrow and omega 3 nonsense.
After the meal, we decided to do a bit of sightseeing, and headed out to a windfarm at the beach. In this picture are pipes drawing water from the sea (that is closest to taiwan from the whole of the PRC) to the farms inland.
Here's the inside of the wind turbine.
The sun was setting, but a fog or haze constantly hung over the land and it dulled the view somewhat.
Another little one, also taken in another restaurant with a 17 course meal in the villlage. My aunt paid for all the meals there, which were not as spectacular as the digits sound. Once more, we were the only customers in the hotel restaurant. The hotel in question was just one month old.
The next day, before we could head out, an aunt brought oranges from a nearby orange grove they owned. Expressing interest, she brought me there to have a looksee. Instead of being interested in the grove, though, I was more interested in the four puppies that tagged along wherever I went... before their mother came along and shooed them away. This one is the only white puppy, with the rest having a brown coat. It's name is Xiao Bai.
Chalking up a first; riding a bike.
My dad used to bike when he was younger, before he sustained his foot injury during a ride from Pasir Laba camp to meet his girlfriend in Yio Chu Kang. He was just as excited as I was to get on a bike (again) and took my mom for a ride to the beach with the rest of us.
Sitting pillion on a bike myself, I turned around and snapped a photograph that my dad would probably like too.
Here's my cousin on a scooter she rode pillion on to the beach, and beside her is my aunt who drove it for her.
One of two family photos I took, with the rest taken by my aunt's sharp and powerful S95 Canon digital camera. The same model retailed in Xiamen city for twice the price. It's all about the kind of goods people are looking to buy, I guess. Not every single person is in this photo, though. And in retrospect, I should have just asked my aunts to move into the shade rather than compromise the whole setting. In the background is the house that a few of them live in.
When we got back to the city, we checked in to the 5 star Sheraton hotel, where I again got a room to myself, this time much, much more welcoming than the hotel in the village. I'd talk about it more in the next post.
We spent some time visiting Gulangyu, a small little island at the bottom of Xiamen. In colonial times, this small island was occupied by 13 different nations who exacted small bits of China during successive wars. As a part of concessions that China was made to part with, they more or less owned the island with luxurious houses and consulates. All of them were restored or rebuilt by China in recent times, save the Japanese one. However, the state of disrepair that it was in was actually pretty interesting...
We arrived at a house museum with our guide, (she was asking for just 4 SGD equivalent, total for our 2 hour tour, and she was a registered tour guide, at that) one that once belonged to a European family. It was chock full of old artefacts, from bank notes to stereophones, maps to beds, television sets to old European paintings. It seemed like they had insufficient space to display all of them, and through the tour of the house, I was begging inside to buy some of them, like those really old, authentic cameras. Seen this picture is the toilet, with the title above saying "foreign babes restroom" (yes, there was a nice lot of evidence of Engrish) and the picture showing an interesting interaction of naked ladies...
at the pier of the island, accessible only by ferry, was a small fishing trawler undergoing repairs. We passed it by quite a bit while on a small buggy ride, but it was just itching to be photographed. While doing so, my cousin and I got accosted by those sham monks who tried to hard sell us with their beads. My constant refusal of the darned beads earned me a "sha hai zi".
Labels: holidays, interesting, photography, thoughts
posted by joseph at 10:09 AM