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Clare and I had our usual morning routine today: wake-up, milk and tv, wash-up, mad dash out of the house. It was like any other day, except that we rode in silence all the way to my in-laws’ house, listening to the rain and the radio in the background. She’s usually singing or babbling, or I would be asking her repeatedly if she loves me (so insecure!).
When we arrived at our destination, my little girl gave me a huge hug, a kiss, said goodbye and promised to be good.
It was nothing very unusual, but definitely a moment I will treasure for a long time. I love sharing the world with my girl, and most of all, feeling her love, watching her behave so wonderfully (instead of whining or ignoring what I say to her).
I seriously can’t imagine what it would be like if I had another kid, because there just doesn’t seem to be enough time with this one.
Rant: Drivers
You know how male drivers always diss females as bad drivers? No doubt, there are some of us bad ones. As there are bad male drivers too.
Bad male drivers are those who think that only they should be on the road. They tend to bully other cars by tailgating you (even though you are already driving faster than the speed limit). They’ll flash their headlights, almost looking like they are swearing at you in morse code. They’ll only decide to turn on their indicators just as they are swerving in front of you, if they turn them on all at all. And sometimes, they’d just edge into your lane even though there’s no space, so that you’d hit the brakes to avoid hitting them.
These bad male drivers often feel that they can get their way or get to their destination faster by intimidating others on the road. This, I don’t understand when often times, they drive so dangerously to just move from behind my car to the front. That’s like, 3 meters?
But you know what? Not everyone WILL get intimidated, especially not THIS female driver. This female driver will not be edged out and she will not be freaked out by the explosion of lights flashing or the dangerous car driving. GET THAT, MR RED PEUGEOT HATCHBACK?!?!
Road Trip
Am at the Tuas checkpoint on my way on a road trip to Malacca with my cousins! We’re gone for just the weekend but I’m really glad for this break. It was a really hard week at work. I think Terence intentionally forgot to bring my Mac so that I wouldn’t do any work. ;)
Creative Photography with Canon
P.S., Posting this picture up again because I want to take part in this competition.
Spiderman Comes To Singapore
With Angelia, Kelvin and Alain Robert. Spiderman’s really tiny!
I love it when Angelia calls me for photo assignments, most of the time, that is. They are usually exciting and keep my fairly busy during my time there. Last year, I photographed magician, J C Sum’s, disappearing act from the ground of Raffles Place to the top at OUB Building. This year, height was involved again, as Spiderman scaled Suntec Tower One. This was part of Straits Times’ ‘A Part Of My Life’ event, celebrating its 163rd anniversary.
Getting ready for the climb. It was sunset and had really gorgeous light, for a while.
Alain Robert, a frenchman, is the world’s unofficial Spiderman who has climbed over 80 buildings and has also been arrested many times for his illegal climbs. He was arrested in 2004 when he tried to climb OUB building.
He’s climbed the Petronas Towers in KL, the 443m high Sears Tower in Chicago and the Eiffel Tower in Paris. He usually climbs with his bare hands but his climb yesterday was with a harness due to safety regulations. Suntec City was easy for him, and only the humidity and heat made it tough, so he rated the climb as a 5 out of 10.
It was challenging trying to get a shot of his face, and my neck hurt from the 90 degree angle it was bent at.
It was the most exciting assignment I’ve gotten all year because of the challenging task of getting various angles of the ascent. It did help that I was with the press photogs (always nice to see familiar old faces — hello Maye-E and Kelvin! — and getting to know new ones) and suddenly, I was kicked back into news mode functioning purely on the adrenalin rush.
Worker in the building snapping a picture of Alain Robert. What a view!
We first went to the top of the building to see how we could position ourselves to capture the final bits of his climb. Unfortunately, there was a really high ledge which one would have to climb over and hang off to grab the shots. Naturally, security was really tough and they said ‘No’ to our requests to get into a gondola and hang off the side of the building.
The scale of the building and him.
So after grabbing a few shots of him climbing up from below, the TNP and ST photographers and myself made a mad dash through the Saturday shopping crowds in Suntec, sprinted up some steps, and took the lift up to the Suntec office to get a straight on view of the climb. I was exhausted from the sprint and carrying my gear with me! I later made a mad dash back to the spot so that I can be ready to catch his descent.
Spiderman, Alain Robert, reaches the top of Suntec Tower One.
Needless to say, I had an awesome, awesome time. (Thank you Angelia!) The crowds, the rush, catching up with friends… I went home with sweat-soaked clothes and a terribly aching body, but it was worth it.
Being on ‘assignment’ with Maye-E. What a treat. And it was great catching up with her too. We managed to catch her husband Terence in the background, picking his nose! :)
Bathroom Antics
After Clare and I brushed our teeth this morning, we were both making monkey faces at the mirror. She now understands when I ask her to smile! So we were having a bit of fun posing and hamming it up this morning. The little one was more interested in using the camera after a while, though…
We look alike, no?
And this is the first picture that Clare took on her own. She just grabbed the camera and snapped! She’s snapping more pictures now and is giggling away. She’s starting early, this one. :)
ESP(N)
I must have ESP(N)* or something, but lately, I’ve had quite a few freaky coincidences. Whenever I’m thinking of someone in passing, or at his/her Facebook page, or talking about someone, they get in touch with me. MSN, SMSes, calls… It’s happened about ten times in a couple of days already!
I guess this just means that I should channel all my thoughts on money.
* If you watched the movie, ‘Mean Girls’, you’ll understand this.
The Car Returns
I collected my car today, thankfully. In good time too!
Last night, three cockroaches crawled out and were running helter-skelter at the back seat of the rental car! Terence decided to fumigate the rental car last night and this morning he said a silent prayer for the 15 baby cockroaches that turned up dead.
However, there was one survivor of the wreckage, which I decided to let live in the car, as a present to the rental car company.
It’s so nice to have my car back. I really take it for granted — the seats are much more comfortable, the car is cleaner, I miss being able to control the radio from the steering wheel, and having a remote controlled lock is a luxury.
Now we’re all prepared for our little road trip to Malacca next week!
Beeker’s Evilness
I hate you BRYAN VAN DER BEEK for making me think of the Nokia E71 now. YOU EVIL, EVIL MAN. May the iPhone and BlackBerry appear in your nightmares tonight. :P
Anyone using the phone? Feedback?
The Terrible Twos
Being an only child, it’s quite unfortunate that her only playmates are the dogs. Unfortunate for the dogs, that is. But Thunder is such a darling to humour her when she plays with him. These photos were taken a couple of weeks back.
Someone flicked the switch this weekend, and turned my once charming daughter into this wailing, ‘NO-NO-NO’ yelling machine. I think she’s going through the ‘The Terrible Twos‘, but I hate repeating that every time she acts up, because it just seems that I am making up excuses for her bad behaviour. But really, she’s suffering from a major case of it.
As the article suggests, oppositional behaviour was the theme of the weekend. She yelled NO-NO-NO at everything I wanted her to do. She ignored my requests. She smacked my hand when I told her off. And boy, did she wail her lungs out when I had to extricate her from my neighbour’s house and trying to get her to return my neighbour’s kid, Ezra’s, balloon.
I’m stepping up on my discipline, letting her know that when I say NO, I really mean NO. Other times, I let her express herself and allow her to do what she wants within reason, since she’s in a decision-making phase.
Other than that though, there were little moments when she turned back into a little darling, which was absolutely wonderful. I also saw bits of her strong-willed and gung-ho personality: we were at the playground at Paragon with Ezra. There were plenty of much older kids around, being rather rough. But Clare held her own, and had a really good time climbing up and going down the slide. She even did a little ‘YAY!’ at the end of each round, with hands raised.
And! Because she hadn’t seen Ezra in a couple of weeks, she was supremely excited to see her on Sunday. So excited that she climbed the gate of the house, so that she can reach the handle to open it! I’ve got a trained monkey in my hands.
