Ahnyeonghaseyo!

**Note: I was gonna put this post up at the airport but the Wi-Fi connection wasn't strong enough! Anyway, here goes:

(14th of September) Greetings from Doha! I'm making my way back to London today and thought I should update this blog that I've been neglecting for some time now, while waiting for my next flight. 

My parents and I went on a trip to Korea two weeks ago; we started off at Busan and ended in Seoul. It was my second visit there as I went to Ulsan and Seoul with Zhao Feng and Eunice last summer (here are some photos of the trip on my old tumblog), but this year's vacation was an entirely different experience. For one, we didn't have a guide who could speak the language this time, whereas we had Bong and Jung Hwan to bring us around last year.

If I have to rate the level of difficulty of going around without knowing the language, I'd go for... 7/10 (10 being most difficult!) However, we were very fortunate 'cos we met some really nice people who patiently helped us get on the right public bus with the right amount of change and all that. Kudos to hand language! :)

We arrived at Busan just before noon, and after checking into our hotel rooms we headed for Taejongdae. It's quite a big place; nice sea view and a rocky beach (even had an auntie/ahjumma selling fresh sashimi but we didn't go for that 'cos my stomach wasn't feeling too good then), and I would recommend that you bring some food for picnic 'cos it's a perfect spot for that kinda thing (although as tourists we won't bother to do that).

Jagalchi market was absolutely fun. Seafood were sold fresh, and when I say fresh, I meant to say that they're still alive. Breathing, swimming, climbing. When the ahjumma wasn't looking, this silly octopus tried to escape its fate but my dad ruined it by picking it up and throwing it back into the basin (EEE!!!)

If you intend to try some of the seafood, and in this case I'll say that you MUST, go for the ones in the indoor market. The level of hygiene there is great and there's a better control of freshness. Also, Seoul's seafood are mostly from Busan so they're definitely cheaper here. 

There were sooo many kinds of weird-looking seafood but we went for the familiar ones. The idea is to pick your seafood, pay, then go upstairs and they'll cook them for you. They'll also charge you a small fee for the side dishes. 

Here's where I started disliking dishonest shopkeepers who try to take advantage of foreign tourists. Firstly, the shop lady picked out a skinny crab but my mom noticed that, so she requested to get a bigger one of her choice. Skinny crabs have no meat, we all know that. Secondly, my dad did his research online before our trip and found out that it costs 3,500 won per head for the side dishes, but we were charged 4,000 – well that's fine, not too much of a difference. The annoying part is that they gave us a miserable variety of dishes but we saw the next table having more choices, and I'm guessing that it's because they are local customers. Maybe I'm just being judgmental, or maybe it's just another disadvantage of not knowing how to order for more in Korean.

But of course, fresh seafood can never go wrong. Ever. 

Check out these babies!

After our meal, we walked around the dried fish market and saw lotsa interesting things. Dried whale meat too, ugh. And a whale is not even a fish?

Next post soon, byeee!

HOLA

I AM ALIVE. Gosh, so many things to tell. Flying back to London this weekend and will prolly work on updates during my long hours of transit! Right now I can't decide if I'm excited to go back to adventure and the big beautiful world out there, or if I would miss feeling warm and comfy and well-fed and pampered and protected at home! If only I could be at both sides of the fence at once, woof woof. 

Malacca nomnom trip

Wednesday was such a treat. We drove down to Malacca to check out some good ol' places since it's been ages since my last visit. Yay for us too 'cos we got there in time for breakfast at Bukit Baru, somewhere we used to go almost every weekend when we stayed at Ayer Keroh. 

On our menu: curry laksa, mee jawa, asam laksa, char kuey teow

One of the reasons why I enjoy having street food in places like Malacca and Penang is because I can order my food in English. Sometimes in KL, I can go as far as saying "one plate" in Cantonese but when the auntie asks if I'd like to add more condiments and stuff, I wouldn't know which one she's referring to, and I don't really like it when my noodles come with extra surprises (like chicken liver or some intestines, haha). But then again, kudos to universal hand language ;)

It was nice to know that the food was still as delicious as before, although I must say that the best char kuey teow I had was in Seremban (not exactly sure what's the name but it was one of the shops cum food court in Taman Oakland). It felt sooo good to have all these local goodies after so long. Food, is definitely one thing I miss about Malaysia.

For snacks, we went along Jonker Street and tried Jonker 88's famous cendol :D Then, my bro insisted that I try this twisty potato thingy at one of the roads facing Balai Seni Lukis Melaka. We ordered a stick with sour cream and onion flavouring and hah! You can never go wrong with fresh deep fried potatoes sprinkled with MSG powder!

As for lunch, we had Atlantic 1's Baba Nyonya food. I would certainly recommend this place! The service was great and they serve good food as well. We had the complimentary keropok with sambal for starters, and we ordered pineapple and pandan rice - both good. We had this okra dish and I can't remember what it's called, but it was such a simple dish yet it tasted so yummy! Their rendang chicken was also one of a kind; I preferred their asam fish (too engrossed in the meal and forgot to snap a pic), but purely because I prefer eating fish over chicken. The cincalok omelette was also good, but to me it just tasted like a well-made omelette - couldn't really taste the cincalok (if they were meant to have a distinct taste). I've had better otak-otak before but the one we had there was not too bad. Overall I would give this restaurant a 3.5 rating out of 5. The interior and exterior (very corny exterior I must say) didn't look very nice, but it was clean and comfortable so I won't complain too much. Decent price, decent food, clean place, good service = yay!

We ended up at Bukit Baru again (told you it's our favourite place) for ikan bakar before heading home. I love it I love it, and I can tell you that I'm definitely going back for more. 

Right! So here's a food post after being MIA for so long! Raya's been treating me well, I get to eat all the lemangs and serundings I want and that also means that I'll need to start working out. Hope everyone's enjoying yourselves, till next time!

julai

So today is the first day of July, and I ought to be getting ready for home. I'm quite sure that there'll be a few things I'll be complaining about when I get back, i.e. the weather's too hot, it's too hazy, my mom's too naggy, etc, etc. To be honest summer here in the UK has the most perfect weather, you get the sunshine but not too much of the heat.. splendid. But too bad I'm missing the sound of an early human morning alarm by my mom and hence I'll have to get back asap, hehe.

I attended Kelly's son's first birthday party as a photographer two Saturdays ago, and here's a blogpost on our Pixellot Photography webpage if you'd like to see more photos.

I've still got some photos to work on before delivering the complete album to Kelly, and I hope to finish everything by this week. Busy busy! Gotta head out to get some vacuum bags to store my fat duvet now, till next time!

White Post Farm

You're gonna think that I was being ridiculous, because I brought my twenty-year-old friends to a petting farm that was designed for little kids. Hehe but they don't know that, so, shhhh! It took us an hour plus from my place to get there, and Bong was rather displeased that I got him up so early in the morning. My punishment was a grumpy faced Bong throughout the day when he's not sleeping (i.e. in the bus, bus stop, bench) :(

We were dropped off at two bus stops ahead, but the walk back to the farm was quite pleasant and I enjoyed that part of Nottingham that even I had not been there before until then. We got some feed for two-legged and four-legged friends (I'm not that interested in two-legged's 'cos they're really quite unresponsive, but Bong somewhat loves them). There was also the reptile house which I absolutely didn't like, but we spent almost an hour looking at snakes, iguanas, froggies (I know they're amphibians but maybe they're snake food..?)

Then.. we met Chir Wey's new best friend. Haha! This fella liked her a lot, and loved the thing she was holding in her hand even more.

While at the other end of the shed, the goats met their new enemy.. Bong.

He seriously annoyed the crap out of them, teasing them with the sight and smell of food and not giving any in the end! (He was kinda holding the feed for two-legged's, so I guess he was doing the right thing.. BUT STILL) 

We had a picnic for lunch.. and the minced meat spaghetti I cooked in the morning was so dry! HAHA. Sorry guys.. Didn't have time in the morn and couldn't make any sauce 'cos the pasta would get soggy and, well. Yucks. Messy. Luckily we got some ham and cheese and bread and juice and some good cider and ales, so we did alright in the end. The worst part of having to rush back that afternoon was missing the first bus and we had to wait for a whole hour for the next! So much for having to rush back.

Yay so that's one blogpost! Phew. I've been quite lazy and busy at the same time, things have been going on and I've had some not-very-nice days. Need to get going but need to do some thinking as well, whew! Till next time! 

Bzzz

It's been a crazy, crazy past few days. Following Bong's visit, Chir Wey arrived the day after. My initial plan was to bring them for horse riding but alas, all slots were booked. The weather wasn't looking too good either so I guess it was sort of a blessing in disguise. All we did that day was walk around the Uni Park Lakeside, cooked our dinner and chilled in the evening with crisps and a movie on my laptop. 

The next day, we went to the White Post Farm and visited some animal friends. I felt really bad that I had to rush all of us back to the city that afternoon because I had agreed to take some photos for NCN art students; it was a CSI scene set up so the photos looked rather morbid.. but I'll show some of the photos in a set later on.

Bong left for London that night to catch his flight home the next day. On a side note, my summer trip to Korea is confirmed! Pa bought the tickets and all that already, so yay!!! I've started paying for my holidays even when I'm with family, but I must say it's a good feeling to save up for something you really want.

In the morning, Chir Wey and I headed down South to Brighton and London respectively, where I stayed with Seow Wei for 2 nights before our short post-exams trip to Prague! 

Prague deserves a whole blog post altogether so here's just one pic to show you the awesome view from up on Petrin Hill! Aha, there's a story to that as well so stick by for a funny read. If you'd like to know more about Prague and our 4-days trip then check out Seow Wei's blog! She's an amazing informative blogger and a fashionista as well, so go go go check it out now!

We were supposed to head back on a night flight but I changed my schedule as I had a wedding to shoot the next day. Had a lovely time, although drenched in rain then dried again. My new pair of moccasins were totally destroyed in the puddles of rain, now looking as though they've been worn for years. Oh well, that's actually not too bad of a thing. Click on the photo below to check out a whole blogpost on Peter Pan's wedding! (Bride and groom have names of Wendy and Peter, how cool is that)

It's gonna be crazier in the next few days, I'm not sure if I can keep up with the blog but I hope I'll be fine! I've just got a last minute booking for a wedding in Birmingham this coming weekend and I've got little Toby's birthday to photograph the next day. In need to clear my laptop for more photo space before it decides to crash and kapoot on me one day. Oh the HORROR. Really don't wanna imagine that happening.

Going out with Jin Wun tomorrow to catch The Great Gatsby then chinese dinner at a restaurant afterwards! Woohoo! Hope everyone's had a great Father's Day. I'm so bummed that I'm missing my pa's birthday, then Father's Day, then mommy's birthday! GRAHH. Can't wait for July. 

Oh deer me!

My exams are finally over! Meaning that my summer has officially begun. Just a quick post for now, have got to go make breakfast for the sleepyhead Bong when he wakes up, and Chir Wey's arriving from Brighton at 2pm later. We planned to go for horse riding but Nottingham looks gloomy today, not exactly the right mood for giddy-yappies! Thank goodness it was all bright and sunny yesterday when we went to the deer park. One of my best ways to celebrate the end of exams is basking in the sun, and even more with this cool weather.

Nerves

So getting the opportunity to work with Rosie Hardy was a big thing for me already, what I didn't know was.. It was for Cat Lane's wedding. Another amazing photographer who does fashion, portraits and editorial in the UK. Gosh.. I think that's probably why Rosie didn't tell me who she was.

I've linked the photo below to the full Pixellot blog post on the wedding.

Very quick updates

Busy busy. What's in line so far, in chronological order:

1) Working with Rosie Hardy as a second shooter in a client's seaside wedding! (I can't believe it myself, this is NOT a workshop with models)
2) UNI EXAMS
3) Photographers' party in Birmingham!
4) Travel with Seow Wei!
5) Peter Pan wedding (simply because couple's names are Wendy and Peter) - what happens to the Lost Boys? Oh, my first solo wedding assignment.
6) Taking photos at a little person's first birthday party in Manchester! Teehee this is gonna be so fun. I'm thinking of wearing an animal onesie but I think his mom will shoo me away. Need to start sorting out my wardrobe for different work assignments.

Aha. Back to work back to work!

Dot com

FINALLY. A dot com for Pixellot Photography! With that, I am now officially work partners with my brother Jonathan. Can't properly describe to you how busy I've been with all these stuff recently. Really, really glad that it's finally up. My work photo adventures will be blogged on that site from now onwards, so do check them out sometimes. Just wanna say thanks so much for reading! Drop by and say hi!

Lately

I've just had a great weekend second shooting for Marianne during Elizabeth's and Nangeloum's wedding. I took the coach down to London on Friday and returned on Sunday, hence my absence for a few days. I learnt so much from Saturday, it was such a long day but it was so much fun. I must admit that by the end of the day I was almost too tired to speak, so it does take quite a lot of stamina for the job, haha.

I'm not allowed to post any photos from the wedding in public yet, but Marianne helped me request for a few photos to be allowed for viewing on my portfolio, so I'm just waiting for the green light. Oh and the one thing I'll always remember to do when I go for wedding shoots is to wear silent shoes. We ended up being barefooted throughout the whole church ceremony 'cos the flooring at the sides are made of wooden planks (it was actually quite funny).

Anyway, here are a few shots from the 48 hours of fashion event that was held in Nottingham over the weekend. I was walking around the city with my fat luggage, then saw this event so I decided to take a rest, and I got to watch a good show too.

Exams are around the corner and I might be MIA for awhile now. My bro Jon and I are working on our website, so many exciting things happening at the same time! I just wanna do my finals well or I might ban myself from touching the camera if anything goes wrong. That would be the worst nightmare ever. 

Anyway, thanks for reading and hang in there for a bit! I'll be back in June!

Ermahgerd

I AM SO STOKED. I'll be shooting my first wedding this Saturday at a very beautiful church and a very beautiful reception venue. Oh my goodness, think I'm gonna explode from the excitement. Need to practice on keeping a calm face or else everyone will think I'm mad. Hahaha I can't imagine myself on my own wedding day (if any), since I'm already like this for someone else's wedding. The only sad part is that I won't get to publicize any photos, because the couple wants them private. I just ordered my flashgun.

I WANT TO HUG SOMEBODY. 

Family at heart

Here's a few photos of my outing with the Fairbrothers. Cat's family friends came too, and their daughters Rachel and Esther were very happy to see baby Ben.

Having a sister must be really fun

Rachel got stuck in the tree and couldn't come down

Lazy afternoon, mmm

I've had such a great time at the park, but I'm not sure if I'll ever get to go there again though. I would love to spend a whole day cycling around, but first I'll have to find out how to get there by bus.