vintage rare red hot awesome



How can I not get this? Tell me. How how how?

schmap

Back in early October, I received messages in my Flickr Mail informing me that 3 of my photos have been shortlisted for inclusion in the ninth edition of the Schmap Sydney, Melbourne and Canberra Guides. While they did not offer me any payment in the event that my photos get published, I was happy for my humble photos to be submitted for consideration by their selection panel.

Having forgotten about this very soon afterwards, I was surprised to receive confirmation that 2 out of the 3 shortlisted photos have been selected for inclusion in the Sydney and Melbourne guides.



You may click on the below links to have a look at where my pics are published:
Coogee Beach photo in the Schmap Sydney Guide
Brighton Beach photo in the Schmap Melbourne Guide

Although happy with the inclusion of my photos in a publication, I was quite disappointed with their choice of photos. These 2 pics are not my best pics. In fact, both the photos were taken on dark cloudy days, which explains the gloomy grey feel in both.

I have tonnes of better photos so I wonder why these 2? Oh well. Whatever. Beauty is subjective.

malaya inn

I was in Melbourne for the weekend and the highlight of the trip was the authentic Singaporean hawker fare I had at Malaya Inn in Doncaster.


Hokkien mee ie. fried prawn noodles. It was served with very good sambal chilli although they were very very stingy with it. I could have finished the tiny saucer of chilli in one gulp.


Fried carrot cake with lots of eggs in dark soy sauce. My favourite!


Orh lua!!! ie. fried oyster omelette. I have not had this dish in ages. They served it with the wrong type of chilli (chilli that is meant for hainanese chicken rice) though.

Oh why why why can't we have some of these in Sydney? I know there are places here that serve such Malaysian / Singaporean cuisine, but I have not found one that is half as authentic as Malaya Inn yet. According to friends who are living in Melbourne now, they have no lack of options (and very good ones too) whenever they need to satisfy their cravings for some super greasy SG hawker food. And that Malaya Inn is not even the best restaurant around. Argghhh.... unfair!

Malaya Inn
25 Village Avenue
Doncaster
VIC 3108
Tel: (03) 9857 4269

i am contented with sunday picnics


Why are you turning away from me? You're totally ignoring me now.


You get abandoned when the bottle you came with is used.

One Sunday slightly more than a month ago, I woke to a brilliantly sunny but comfortably cool morning and decided to pack a picnic basket for some relaxing time by the beach.

My picnic bag had the following:

- a picnic mat

- a soft bag stuffed with a huge beach towel for resting my head on while lying down, and a cardigan in case it gets chilly

- a bottle of Brown Brothers 2007 Moscato (I love it for its refreshing frizzante effect and light sweetness; the light alcohol content of 5.5% also makes it the most suitable wine in my stash to bring out when I am driving.)

- a vietnamese chicken and cheese bread roll from the famous Hong Ha shop in Mascot (that was my lunch)

- some finger food for snacking throughout the day: spicy hungarian salami, mild spanish salami, prosciutto, black pepper pate, pickled olives with herbs and potato chips

- fruits: a small bunch of grapes and a few kiwis

- a book (Veronika Decides to Die by Paulo Coelho - a birthday present from a colleague) and a photography magazine

- my camera

The above photos were taken when I was lazing on the ground reading my book. I was happy 'cos I had everything I loved around me. There wasn't anything else I wanted on top of what I had at that very moment. Really.

FYI, this was at Maroubra, not the main beach area, but where the land slopes upwards along Marine Parade towards the cliffs. There is a soft green grass patch near Mahon Pool that's perfect for picnics and a few rolls on the slopes.

when the sun sets



This is the view out of my work cube window every evening when the sun sets. I was having a discussion with a colleague someday last week and had to stop whatever serious work we were doing to gasp at the brilliant colours in the sky. Above shot was taken with my ever-handy Sony DSC-T5. I ran up to the open air roof garden as I didn't want to get any reflections from the glass window that came between my camera lens and the scene, and was amazed I managed to capture a crystal clear shot despite the howling winds that threatened to blow me off my feet.

ps: I wonder if anyone still reads this uninteresting almost-dead blog of mine. I just haven't been in the mood to write anything lately.