Happy New Year 2011

Malacca in one day

We made a short trip to Malacca about 10 days ago. With Malacca being a UNESCO World Heritage City, I had high hopes of getting a fair number of decent photographs. It was not to be.

Maybe the trip was too short, maybe we didn't go to enough landmarks, or maybe there were just too many people around. Maybe it was because most of the shops at Jonker Walk had a 'No Photos' policy. Whatever it was, I was rather disappointed with the number of photos that I would deem decent.

taken at the Portugese village,

which was celebrating Christmas in a grand-ish manner.

Would have loved to have a more spectacular sunset.

in the kitchen of a mamak restaurant

on the banks of the historic Melaka River

England retain the Ashes

When pictures speak a thousand words...

Tim Bresnan claims the final wicket

England celebrate winning the fourth test

Hugs all around

the Australian crowd at the end of the test

and England celebrate with the sprinkler dance

Ah yes ..... the sprinkler dance...

A YouTube star is born

Year end reviews are common place for pretty much anything. So when it comes to listing the best goals scored in 2010, the usual suspects tend to show up : Lionel Messi, Cristiano Ronaldo, Barcelona, Holland, Arsenal, et. al.

However, thanks to the wonders of YouTube, now everyone can be a star.

I think it's safe to say that Matty Burrows' goal (who?) against Portadown in the Northern Irish Premiership (what?) would have lived only in the memories of those who were witnesses in the stadium when it was scored. Instead, his goal was nominated for FIFA's Ferenc Puskas Award for goal of 2010.

and so this is Christmas ....

Merry Christmas ! And God bless us every one !

We popped down to 1 Utama since our church didn't have a Christmas service and as these type of trips tend to be, it was the kitten who enjoyed it the most.

lunch was at Delicious

The main Christmas display - inspired by the village look in the

'Sound of Music' , presumably. The complex made quite an effort in

laying the flooring for the entire area to make the road look authentic.

the aerial view

carols to spread the joy of Christmas

my favourite shot for the day

Finished off with the obligatory visit to the book shop

- this was at the members lounge.

I'll leave you with a song that was played in the complex , albeit in a more jazzy style quite different from the original. I'm sticking with the original.

A World Without Love

Ever since I first heard this song, I've been a big fan of it. Not having been born yet when the song first debuted, I didn't really know the history behind it.

So when I recently googled the duo Peter and Gordon, and browsed through their wiki ...... imagine my surprise when I saw who had composed their first hit song.

A certain messr McCartney, although it was attributed to Lennon/McCartney - otherwise known as one of the most successful collaborations in musical history.



Yes, it does sound like a Beatles song from that era.

Comings and Goings in Manchester

It wasn't that long ago, 14th July 2009 in fact, when Carlos Tevez signed a contract to play for Manchester City. We got this :

As far as I know, nobody has ever come forward to claim responsibility for this billboard - it did rile up Sir Alex Ferguson quite a bit, though.

Now that Carlos Tevez has handed in a written transfer request to Manchester City, the Manchester United fans are claiming full responsibility for this :

NB. Tevez is a good player, but man, the amount of baggage that he brings .........

the Ashes

I've been following the Ashes test series recently. As the matches are spread over 5 days during working hours over here, it means that I can only follow via live updates - and that's where BBC comes in (here).

Why I would be following a sport in which I have neither played or even watched live is a wonder to me; but as a teenager, I learned to read the scores in the newspaper and I've checked back from time to time when the Ashes is on, or the World Cup.

As it stands, except for the first 2 days of the first test, England have been beating the shit out of Australia. This has led to some rather inventive songs being sent to the BBC site - as the below 2 ditties illustrate :

# 1 - on the star of the 1st day of match 3, England's fast bowler Chris Tremlett

Oh the weather outside is baking,
the Aussies are for the taking,
and since Tremlett's stole the show,
let him bowl, let him bowl, let him bowl !
(sung to the tune of "Let it snow !")

# 2 - match 3 is being played at a field called the Waca in Perth, Australia. The Ponting refers to Australian cricket team captain Ricky Ponting.

Away in Australia
at the Waca it's said
the little Australians laid down their sweet heads
a man with large biceps glared down from on high
and Ponting was found wanting as the Ashes passed by.
(sung to the tune of "Away in a manger")

the man with large biceps - Chris Tremlett

Let it Snow !

I know it's Christmas and amidst the smiling, laughing, hugging festivities of the holiday season

Going out on a limb...

When I first started my interest in photography, I made a conscious effort to take and show photographs without any tweaking or enhancements, save for cropping. Maybe I just wanted to keep the photos 'pure' and more natural looking. Of course, this meant that I wouldn't be trying to make the photos more striking by tweaking for more vivid colours....

So when I took this photo with my handphone, I knew that I was taking it with the intention of tweaking the photo.

First of all, I was only interested in a particular portion of the photo. Using my hand phone meant that I couldn't zoom in to take that particular portion. Experience had taught me that the zoom on my hand phone tended to produce less than sharp photographs.

Secondly, the colours were not conducive to what I wanted to highlight in that photo; mainly, I liked the 'texture' of the branches. So, with a crop and an adjustment to the hue and saturation of the photo, and this is the result :

ze Cop

The latest worthwhile one to share :

ze Cop

A traffic police cop stops a driver for running a red light. The guy is a real jerk and comes running back to the officer demanding to know why he is being harassed by the Gestapo !

So the officer calmly tells him of the red light violation. The motorist instantly goes on a tirade, questioning the officer's ancestry, sexual orientation, etc., in rather explicit terms. The tirade goes on without the officer saying anything.

When he gets done with writing the ticket, he puts an "AH" in the lower right corner of the narrative portion of the ticket. He then hands it to the 'violator' for his signature.

The guy signs his ticket angrily, and when presented with his copy points to the "AH" and demands to know what it stands for.

The officer says, "That's so that when we go to court, I'll remember that you're an asshole!"

Two months later, they're in court. The 'violator' has such a bad driving record that he is about to lose his license and has hired a lawyer to represent him. On the stand the officer testifies to seeing the man run the red light.

Under cross examination, the defense attorney asks : "Officer, is this a reasonable facsimile of the ticket you issued my client ?"

Officer responds, "Yes, sir, that is the defendant's copy, his signature and mine, same number at the top."

Lawyer : "Is there any particular marking or notation on this ticket you don't normally make ?"

"Yes, sir, in the lower right corner of the narrative there is an "AH", underlined."

"What does the "AH" stand for, officer ?"

"Aggresive and hostile, sir."

"Aggresive and hostile ?"

"Yes, sir ?"

"Officer, are you sure it doesn't stand for asshole ?"

"Well, sir, you know your client better than I do!"

London and Paris revisited

Having recently received a Hitachi digital photo display as a gift, I was going through the archive looking for photos to use as content. This exercise made me realize that we did take some pretty decent photos on our last jaunt to Europe (apart from the photos that had already been posted).

A sampling :

Hyde Park, London

Hyde Park again

beautiful people at Notting Hill

@ the Tower of London

Greenwich Park

photojournalist @ Madame Tussauds

bridge @ the River Seine

cycling in Paris

sunlight in Paris

Montmartre

generic photo of the Eiffel Tower.

everybody in Paris has one.

Deck the Malls...

We were at Sunway Pyramid just the other day when the decorations made it obvious that..... it's Christmas time again !

So, while we don't often go to shopping complexes, for the past few years we have tried to go to a few just to see the Christmas decorations. Gives Dream a chance to ham it up for the camera .....

So while we found the decorations at Sunway Pyramid kinda average, we realized the place would show up well in photographs.