Singapore Bienalle 2011

The first day I was in Singapore on 15 May 2011 coincided with the last day of the two-month long Singapore Bienalle 2011 edition. Organised by the Singapore Art Museum, this is the third Bienalle after the first and second ones in 2006 and 2008. The Bienalle is an exhibition of contemporary visual arts from around the world.

The works of arts of 63 artists from 30 countries were showcased at four locations on the island. As it was the last day of the Bienalle, I only managed to visit the exhibitions at the Singapore Art Museum (SAM) and its extension  Singapore Art Museum at 8 Queen Street (SAM @ 8Q).

There were many interesting works of arts by the artists involved. I'd like to post them here but to protect intellectual property rights, I've decided against it. By the way, Singapore Art Museum allows non-flash photography on its premises.

Interestingly too, two Malaysian, Ise (Roslisham Ismail) and Shooshie Sulaiman, were among the artists featured. In total 29 of the artists are from Asia. Someday, I hope someday Malaysia would also organise a similar event. In the meantime, I'm planning to be back for the next Singapore Biennale.

Singapore Biennale 2011 Bunting

Singapore Art Museum (SAM), organisers and one of the venues

Singapore Art Museum at 8 Queen Street (SAM @ 8Q)

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PETRONAS Twin Towers

Photo taken on 14 January 2011.

The twins have to be the most photographed man-made structure in all of Malaysia. Read all about them here. Visiting up the skybridge that connects the twins at levels 41 and 42 used to be free but these days, a Malaysian adult or any child below 12 years old pays RM3 while a foreign adult pays RM10 for the privilege. For RM20 (Malaysian adult or any child below 12 years old) or RM40 (foreign adult), a visitor can go up to the observation deck on level 86 and the skybridge. For the curious, there are 88 levels or floors in the both buildings. Tickets are limited, so be sure to come early in the morning, except on Mondays when visits are not available.

I once worked here and frankly, one of the things that I would try to avoid then was coming here on my off-days. Not even to shop.

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Labour Day Outing

 Baby baby baby ohh.

A group of my work colleagues, who happened to be photography enthusiasts went on a photography walkabout at the famous Gaya Street fair. It was a fun and enjoyable day. The photo above is my favorite shot of the day. 

After lunch, we headed to the Times Book Fair 2011 at Suria Sabah shopping complex. There were too many books to look through and as I was too tired to look at all of them, I only got three novels (one hardcover and two softcover) and a career related book (for the year 2011 no less), all for RM36. The fair will run until 8 May 2011. (Note: Book purchases year-to-date count: RM504)

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Third Header For My Blog

I've lost the second header of my blog. The second header featured me at Tanjung Simpang Mengayau. It was then temporarily replaced with another header but without me being featured in it. Well, this is my blog after all. So, for the third header, I've chosen a self-portrait taken at Sabah Tea Garden longhouse a few months back. It's me taking a photo of a framed-up traditional article of clothing. Here it is the third one.

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Five Foods that Will Make You Look Younger

A magazine that I will try to buy each month is Details, an American lifestyle, fashion and entertainment magazine. I'd like to share the above from the April 2011 issue with all my readers. The five are:

• Sweet Potatoes
• Wild Salmon
• Tomatoes
• Citrus Fruits
• Leafy Greens

In addition to the above, I'd like to add a sixth item. It's not food, just an advice to have less worries in our lives. We can do this by separating inconveniences from problems and wants from needs.

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What I Do on a Saturday Night

I am too old to go clubbing these days. So, when I don't have anything else to do on a Saturday night, I will spend time in a coffee shop. Yes, one belonging to an international coffee chain. They have air-conditioning, wi-fi connection and usually great friendly staff on duty. What more could you ask for.

Besides having something to drink (my usual choice is hot chocolate) and something to bite (a piece of pastry), I usually read books, magazines or newspapers, or surf the internet. The coffee shop is a good place for people watching too.

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My Photography and I

First and foremost, for the record, I'm not professionally trained or anything like it. I just tweak with my tools, try to get the best angle and then, shoot. I usually use either the camera on my Nokia E-72 (and a few other Nokia models and an O2 model before it), my point and shoot Olympus FE-310 or my DSLR, Olympus E-520. The DSLR comes with twin kit lens (14-42mm and 40-150mm).

Sometimes the photos turn out okay (for me, at least), sometimes they don't. The ones I put up are the ones I like, of course. A photo not shared is a photo not taken. Your constructive criticisms on these photos are most welcome.

Please note that I do not perform any post-processing on my photos, save for reducing the size, say from 1 to 4 MB to an uploading/downloading friendly size. What you see is what I shot. I strongly feel that if I'm to share my photos with anyone, the photos must be how I saw them and not how I imagined them.

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E-mail for Every Malaysian?

This has to be one of the most preposterous (this means "absurd") idea coming out of corporate Malaysia. Many areas in Sabah have no basic facilities such as electricity and water and someone is going to connect everyone there on the Internet. Puhleeze..... Remember the story about the rural school computerisation project? How to run the computers with limited electricity? Hello! Anybody home?

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Blogging Again

Ohh uhh I'm sorry for not blogging for a very long time. I got tied up with work and then, facebook happened. I was late on the bandwagon but as they say, the rest is history. I'm not as busy now as I've been in the past and I've actually recently deactivated my facebook account. So, here I'm (that means “Did you miss me?” in my code words with some friends on meeting people. By the way, “Hello there you are.” means “I miss you”.) Ok, I'm not up to making long posts just yet. Please bear with me. I'll be back sooner than you know with my usual posts. For the time being, my next few posts would be photos I've taken while I was away.

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I am Back

But I don't know for how long this time.

Well, where do I start? I'm sorry to all my readers. I've been busy and I admit it, lazy too, for the past six months. I suppose I've lost it. I just didn't feel like blogging despite it being one of my new year's resolutions. Anyway, I'm going to be busy again as our new academic is starting soon. However, I hope I will not be lazy again. Lookout for my new posts soon.

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Happy New Year

Image from widgetslab.com

To all my readers, here's a Happy New Year wish to you - I hope the new year brings success and happiness in your lives. I also hope you've achieved what you set out to do last year. As for me, I've not. Anyway, I've a few things I want to accomplish this year. Here are some of them:

• Be a better person to my family and loved ones as well as to my friends, colleagues (maybe not all of them as some are just right down nasty) and students.
• Arrange my finances.
• Exercise more. I'm not getting any younger and yes, my biological clock is ticking.
• Have more leisure time for my other interests like reading more books and improving my photography skills. Right now, all I would say is that firstly, I've too many unread books in my bookshelves and secondly, I've a camera which actually can do more than being an expensive point & shoot one.
• Blog more and maybe resuscitate my other blog once my photography skills improve.

At work, I do have a few things cut out for me to do this year and I'm sure that I'll work my ass off to get them done, somehow.

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Imperial or Metric?

I just started secondary school when the country began the switch from imperial measurements to metric ones. Yes, it was confusing though once you get it, I'd say metric is easier. Afterall, for example, there are 100 centimetres in a meter and 1,000 meters in a kilometre but 12 inches in a foot, and three feet in a yard. Which one is easier to remember? Metric ones, of course.

Anyhow, I left school and went to university in a country which still uses (even now) the imperial system. When I got back home, I got my first job and I remember one occasion when I got the two systems mixed up. On of my colleagues asked me how much I weight. I answered wrongly, saying “65 pounds”. Another colleague quipped, “That must be the weight of one of your legs.” Everyone laughed. After that, I never used pound or feet, any more.

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Arabic or Tamil?

Many years ago, I was travelling on a flight between West and East Malaysia. For this particular flight, I asked to be seated at the last row of the plane, which was a Boeing 737.

Anyway, sometime during the flight, one of the female flight attendants took a stack of newspapers from under the aisle seat and placed them on the seat.

Apparently someone must've asked for a newspaper as I saw her loooking through the stack. She must've noticed me for stopped in the middle of the stack, which happened to be on a newspaper in the Arabic script, probably the Utusan Melayu, the only paper printed in that script. Back to the flight attendant, when she stopped, she first looked at the paper and then at me, mouthing a question in Malay, asking me if I could read it. Caught off guard, I sheepishly answered that I could but a little slow.

The flight attendant continued looking through the stack of newspapers. I was still watching her and I supposed she noticed it as she stopped looking and looked at me again instead. This time, I had a question for her. I nonchalantly asked in Malay too, "Looking for the Tamil one, is it?"

I had the last laugh this time because she was probably too dumbstruck to answer. Instead, she just returned the whole stack to under the seat. From then on, I hardly notice her smiling when she passed by. Well, you started it.

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American or British?

A few years back, when I applied for a visa to a certain English speaking country, one of the requirements was an interview with the staff at the country's Embassy.

At the appointed time, I came but had to wait for a little bit for those applicants who came in before me to be interviewed first. There seemed to be a prepared set of questions asked by the Embassy’s staff.

I wasn't so concerned about getting the visa because the organization I worked for then had dealings with organizations in that country. What concerned me was what would be my answer for a particular question I overheard, which was, "Do you speak English?". I could've answer with a simple, "Yes" or with a triumphant and thumping "Yes indeed, I do". I even thought of answering it with a question, "American or British?" in my best accent of both, of course.

Anyway, when my turn came, the staff enquired about my English as expected. But he asked me, "How's your English" instead of the question I thought about. Unexpectedly and too bad, all I could muster for an answer was an uninspiring "Uhm, okay."

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A Tale of Two Mobile Service Providers

One of them is not applicable in this post.

I have two mobile phones with two different service providers. One is the same with my broadband service. For my birthday, I didn't get anything from this service provider, not even a free happy birthday sms. Last month, however, I got 30 minutes of free calls for numbers within the same network for my 12th anniversary using their service. Yes, 12 years. During this time, I’ve kept the same number but have been changing from one package to another.

The other provider, on the other hand, gave me 1 whole day of free calls for numbers within the same network on my birthday. Believe it or not, I've been using their service for less than 2 years. Less 2 years.

One more thing I feel my birthday is a more significant date than the anniversary date of my signing up with a service provider. But I guess that's not up to me to decide.

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My Broadband Service Provider is Amazing

Only one of them is applicable in this post.

Amazingly slow, that is. I've been using the service since April this year and its not getting any better. Sometimes, both the upload and download indicate 0 kpbs. I'm not a heavy user of Internet. Normally, my monthly usage is way below than the 5G allocated. I usually use facebook, e-mails, look up information for work, blog and enjoy interactions in social and interest forums. Actually, I wanted to terminate the service but then the modem is tied to this particular provider, which means, I can't use it with another. Too bad, huh. Well, my own stupid mistake.

I've asked a friend who works with the service provider about this and one of the possible causes I was told is that much of the bandwidth was being used up by the students at a nearby university. I can see that but I know that the students have completed their final exams and most would be on their way back to their hometown. I expected the service to improve when the students are gone. Sadly, its still the same now.

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What did I get for my birthday?

A book, a perfume and deodorant set, a lunch, a digital camera bag (but I managed to squeeze my notebook in there too), a digital photography book, a cake and a lot of wishes from my family and friends. Thank you all. For me, its the thoughts, not the physical items, that count.

P/S: I'm still thinking of what to buy for myself. I'm thinking of getting accessories for my digital camera - maybe, a lens or two and a flash.

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My Birthday

I was born today many years ago. Sometime ago, I got around asking my mother about the time I was born. Well for starters, I was born in the local hospital of my mother's hometown. She said labor wasn't very difficult. My mother came to the hospital around 8am and voila, 2 hours later, I was born. If you check here, you'll know I was born on a Tuesday.

My mother said I wasn't a particularly difficult baby to take care of. Even later, as a young boy, I wasn't a difficult child. According to her, I usually followed what I was told, like to stay in one place or to behave. (Wow, I'm amazed of myself, really.) Anyway, I still could recall being mischievous at times, but there were not so many of these. Kids being kids, I guess.

I usually try to take leave on my birthday. That's not possible today as I've a lot of things to do at work. If I'd taken leave, I'll probably do them at home, anyway. So, what's the point of taking leave, right? It's too bad that I'd to work on my birthday but I'll get through it.

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10 Things to Do in Jakarta

Photo: Ships at Sunda Kelapa Port

I've lost count of my trips to Jakarta for work. I first went in 2001. My worst experience was being in the city the day the Australian embassy in Kuningan was bombed. My colleagues and I even passed by the area on our way to work that particular morning.

For a change, I was in Jakarta for a proper vacation for the very first time last December.

Here's the list:

1. Visit Monas, the National monument and have a picnic on the grounds. Don't forget nearby buildings, like the Istiklal Mosque and the Roman Catholic church.
2. Visit Jakarta old quarter and see old buildings from past centuries.
3. See the ships at Sunda Kelapa port and if you are lucky, you'll see a nice sunset too.
4. Visit Ancol area. Taman Mini Indonesian and the Underwater World are perennial attractions.
5. Eat somewhere along Jalan Jaksa. A backpackers haunt, the road is lined by many food outlets.
6. Shop at Mangga Dua area for affordable stuff and souvenirs.
7. Shop at Plaza Indonesia or Senayan Mall for more upmarket goods.
8. Stock up on local Indonesian music CD's and Indonesian movies DVD's. The prices will blow you away.
9. Get lost for books at Taman Gunung Agung Kwitang or at any Gramedia outlets.
10. Take a train and get away to Bandung and Bogor, 3 hours and 1 hour away respectively. Enjoy the cooler climate in both places and in Bandung, some more shopping.

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Last Night

Actually, ten nights ago. There was a full moon, so I decided to take my camera out and take a photo of the moon.

Reminds of Az Yet’s song “Last Night”. Last night, while making love to you. I saw the sun, the moon, the mountains and the rivers…

Photo was taken from outside my home, Kota Kinabalu on Wednesday 4 November at 10.15PM