Connecting ASEAN Part 1.

To my colleagues and friends,

Our "special informal try at your own risk dinner" gathering at my place is still in the agenda and I'm still trying to come up with a theme. Will let you know soon...

Our 23rd National Day Celebration

Everything went well last night. We had quite a number of high-powered guests attending the event compared to last year. I'm sure most of the guests went home with a smiling tummy and a high cholesterol level! hehehe... the roasted lamb, sauteed scallops and prawns were great!

The Wii

Last month, we celebrated my Mrs birthday with a Wii night sponsored by our Indonesian friends. Actually, they brought this Wii just to get the feeling of playing it on a 60" TV. It was really a fun night and gave me the temptation of getting one. I know I won't be buying it probably never, but the thought of me wanting one.... made me feel that I'm still very very young! hehe...

My bro-in-law bowling on Wii. Ajul..it was fun having you around for a couple of months here... the Subway sandwiches has your name printed on it already and the Red Lobster misses you!

The National Art Gallery of Canada

The gallery is housed in a glass and granite building with a notable view of the Canadian Parliament buildings on Parliament Hill.

The Gallery has a large and varied collection of paintings, drawings, sculpture and photographs. Although its focus is on Canadian art, it holds works by many noted European artists. It has a strong contemporary art collection with some of Andy Warhol's most famous works. Recently, the Gallery acquired a painting by Italian Renaissance painter Francesco Salviati for $4.5 million.

The Canadian collection holds works by Tom Thompson and the Group of Seven as well as Emily Carr and Alex Colville.

Old Fashion

Nobody grows old merely by living a number of years. We grow old by deserting out ideals. Years may wrinkle the skin, but to give up enthusiasm wrinkles the soul...

Johnny the Munchkin

According to Wikipedia, the Munchkin cat is a relatively new breed created by a random mutation that produced a cat with extremely short legs. Munchkins have short or long coats in a wide variety of colors. The breed was begun in 1983 when Sandra Hochenedel found an extremely short-legged black cat living under a trailer in Louisiana. The cat, Blackberry, was pregnant and half of her kittens were born short-legged. One of Blackberry's kittens, a tomcat named Tolouse, became the father of a breeding program and helped establish the breed in North America. The Munchkin breed is not recognised by all registering associations and is specifically banned by the Fédération Internationale Féline FIFe and other European registries, but it is accepted by The International Cat Association (TICA).

The Mrs. bought this muchkin in early 2006 and told her not to neuter this little guy and suggested her to open up some sort of munchkin breeding place when we go back home in the next coming years. Months after, this munhckin loves splashing his "p" all over the places and apparently had a very high sexual desire....

.....meet Johnny the Munchkin..now neutered...

Ottawa Winterlude 2007

Ottawa hosts Winterlude each year, featuring snow sculptures by local teams, ice sculptures, concerts, and ice-skating along the Rideua canal. The canal, well frozen by this time, is packed with people skating along the 9 kilometer skating lane between the Hartwell Locks and the Downtown area. Along the way there are snow sculptures, huts selling "beavertails" and hot-chocolate, and special performances.

The Mrs. and I decided to walk along the canal during the opening weekend of the winterlude...it was fun, slippery and cold!

Below are some pics that I took during the first weekend of winterlude...

The Rideau Canal

Purple & Red

"Silliness is the comedy relief of life...." (Red Hat Society)

This picture was taken in spring 2006 at Clifton Hills, Niagara Falls, Canada. It was supposed to be a candid shot, but somehow, one of the ladies spotted me and gave me this sweet pose. They are members of the Red Hat Society, a social organisation for women above 50.

First post...

The main reason why I decided to create my own blog is my revived interest in photography. The interest started 16 years ago when DSLR cameras were probably still in the making. But, I think Kodak released the first commercially available digital SLR in the early 90s - the DCS 100, modified Nikon F3 SLR body, US$15-20K or perhaps more!

Anyway, currently I'm using Nikon D50 (perfect for beginners!) and will get the D200 sometimes this year after purchasing:

NIKON DX NIKKOR AF-S 18-200F3.5-5.6 VRED

either SIGMA 10-20MM 4-5.6 EX DC SIGMA MT HSM

or NIKON AF-S 12-24MM F4 G DX IF-ED NIKKOR

and all other accessories related to it.

By the way, pics of my endeavors with this basic nikon DSLR will be up soon. For now, give me time to play around and get used to this web blogging thing.