I feel the need to apologize for the lack of updates here. And of course, lack of pictures

reason 1:
We had now officially said goodbye to my trusty Nikon S3, who had been with me precisely 2 years in October. I bought it just before moving to the UK,my Canon kaput-ed sometime in September 2005. Heck, this was the first trip that the Nikon went on.Not very long shelf life isn’t it? My Canon lasted around two years as well, and both cameras, I think, suffer from cracked lenses.

Nikon has been to the beaches of Tioman, the sea (literally) in Bondi, the sunny Ibiza…..always strong and steady even when I happily dropped it in sea water.And now it has died. My love to snapping photos seemed to have died with it literally. I have been abandoning my new Canon the past few weeks/months because I am really quite upset with the death of Nikon,all food pictures have been snapped with my Cybershot off the Sony Ericsson.

I don’t know, I might try to revive it again one last time. I don’t know how. I guess remove batteries,SD card, charge, reboot? Sigh. This is about as pathetic as someone stealing my purse or cutting my my little pinkie. I still stupidly bring it in my handbag everyday,and it’s so pathetic when I turn it on that nothing shows on the viewer.How did I get so attached to a CAMERA?????

reason 2:
I have been literally hibernating at home with temps dipping to a few degrees with the wind factor. I really really hate this…been persuading bacon to move to more temperate climates (HONG KONG!!!) with no avail. With any luck we might move to an even colder climate. BLEAH. And of course, dayfarkinglight saving is not helping; it gets dark at 4pm.

It also does not add to my cheer that this comming thursday some smart alec at work had decided that the whole department should go away for a team day out..in an ADVENTURE COURSE. We will be doing arrows and bows, clay piegon shooting and propelling down some rock or something. At bone-chilling 1 celcius weather. AAARGH! And we leave at 7.30am as well….why can’t we do this in summer when it’s nice to be out!?

reason 3:
I have, of course, been trying to study. hah. with not much luck. So I would need to cross my fingers for this saturday.There is a whole chapter about working in the UK ect, so that one is quite easy as I spent such a long time job hunting.

Sat evening was one of those rare days here where it did not rain all day long. AMAZING.It was strange not waking up to raindrops or not comming back in the rain. After a few failed attempts somewhere else, decided to test out the wide lenses in my own back garden. Literally

Rows and rows of sweetheart cabbage

That’s how it looks like. Don’t know what’s the diff with normal cabbage except the size -will let you know soon as I ‘borrowed’ a cabbage from the farm

Savoy cabbage. A constant companion on the english sunday roast platter;usually sweated and drenched with gravy.

Can you see my house?Bacon using the 200mm telescopic

Would you believe that this is the first time that I had ever been to a cabbage/veggie farm?

I am, I am!

How come mommy’s friends don’t like me?They keep asking her to get a dog…I think it is racist and sooooo unpolitically correct myself.

Whether you like it or if my mommy convulse in short breaths whenever she is near me,I am here to stay!

to meeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!!!

woo!!!

yes,bacon baked and iced me a car - influenced by the skoda advert

and oh,please welcome EOS400D to the family!I’ve missed you canon!

Sorry for the spotted quality - taken on the toilet mirror.heh.

Just got it 2 hrs ago,so you will see more of my EOS400D in action soon!

so happy birthday to meeeeeeeeeeee!!

Sangria-ed sunset

I have seen many a pretty sunsets in my life - you would have more than noticed it if you had been following my blog for more than a few months. Even my wedding march was done to the tune of a purply red pretty sunset - or so I noticed after the event as I was too stressed out being mad at the photographer and everyone else.

Anyway. Ibiza is blessed with clear skies in the day, and long lingering colors of sunsets from 8pm onwards. The prettiness of sunset only dissapear around 10pm - whilst in Malaysia it would start at around 7.15pm and pitch black by 8pm.Not much of time for you to enjoy the calming effect. All around the island,there are outposts and cool chillout bars for you to sit out and enjoy the remnants of a beautiful sunny day, in calm relaxing surroundings - no, not piano lounge.It is truly la isla bonita.

The San Antonio Bay sunset

And again

Boats boats, take me away..

Reflecting on an angry sun

Sunset from my hotel

The super-famed Café Del Mar is located on what is called the Sunset strip, which should give you some clue of why is it included in this post.It is currently a shithole of a place - renovations are intensive in that area as they are building a broadwalk so that people can walk on it safely instead of on the rocky beach that has been part of its charm since the early 80s with Jose Padilla manning the decks.Incidentally, Jose Padilla has apparently moved on to Café Mambo, which is right next door,thereby their direct competitor.

Watch this - the café del mar sunset. All taken in bursts of 1 minute.:

The end

Blurred

Putting your feet up

The beer after.

I love old buildings. They are always filled with character and images of days gone by.For that reason alone, I am a big fan of castles and churches.I can sit in churches for a whole hour just not doing anything, as I often did in Bruxelles. But I am not even christian, so it’s not like as if I was having conversations with God. I also love old chinese temples, the smokier and the more colorful the better.

Admist the modern amenities and the endless building around Leeds is the very special Kirkstall Abbey. Looking dark and formidable next to a busy main road into town, I had always wanted to do a photoshoot there…and the suprise of a sunny day made the opportunity too hard to pass up.

Introduction
————————————————————————-

Kirkstall Abbey is one of the most important buildings historically in Leeds. Built between 1152 and 1182 on the northern bank of the River Aire, the Abbey was home to a community of Cistercian monks and lay brothers. One of Britain’s best preserved abbeys, it has been through many changes in the nearly 1000 years of existence ; a cafe and as part of a main road (!!) is some of the stranger ones .A quick and inept history on the Cistercian monks; they follow the teaching of Jesus Christ but prefer a monastic existence. They are only allowed to speak in certain areas of the abbey. A typical day’s in a monk’s life would start with prayers from 1am - more prayers - transcribing manuscripts -eat- prayers - bedtime at 8.30pm.

By the sixteen hundreds the spiritual fervour that had gripped the middle ages had started to fade, the monastic way of life fell under suspicion by a king whose need for spiritual freedom (and financial expansion) forced the demise of an increasingly unpopular way of life. With the publication of the Valor Ecclesiasticus in 1535, all monasteries valued under £200 per annum were suppressed and their occupants either pensioned off or moved to larger sites. By 1540 the “voluntary” surrender of all the religious houses in England and Wales had been obtained, their estates and sites granted, rented or sold and their inhabitants pensioned off.

After its dissolution in 1539 the abbey’s windows, roofs and much of the stonework were steadily removed for use in local building projects and this helps explain its current partially-ruined appearance. Nevertheless, Kirkstall is still preferred by many historians to other Cistercian abbeys such as those found at Fountains and Rievaulx.

entrance to heaven

the infirmiry

The Church:
Beginning at the west end, the view along the church’s entire 200 foot length is unbroken, with 8 huge columned arches. At services, there was a strict order from back to front. Closest to the west door is the Nave, where lay brothers and lay visitors sat. Closer to the front were aged and infirm monks, then monks and novices in the choir.

The Main church. Believe it or not, it used the be the main route into Leeds during the Victorian era until conservationist moved in on it. How crazy was that? There were even properly carved initials of Victorians into the columns.

Arches

Inside the side arches.

Altar looking up

The Transept:
On either side of the tower providing the important crucifix shape to the church. The North Transept doorway gave access to the cemetery after funeral services. A fascinating feature of the South Transept is the ‘night stairs’ used by monks to reach the choir from their dormitory for night vigils.

Upview at the middle of the Transept.

The Cloisters and Chapter House:
The Cloisters form one of the most tranquil corners of Leeds, a square with covered walkways where monks would sit reading and writing. The Chapter House has many carved arches and pillars and some old stone coffins.A little piece of trivia; coffins were also stuffed into the walls, for some strange reason. Probably to reinforce the walls ; coffins were made out of stone in the Middle Ages.

Inside the cloisters & chapter house

Courtyard

Out and around:

Gateway to the shining light

Side view

Holy swan!

quack?

bloomin’ river

sepia-toned glory

view the rest of my pictures in my Flickr account here. Bear in mind that they have been kept private, if you would like to view it, please let me know and I will add you!

information/facts stole off Kirkstall Abbey’s website . Photos are all mine.

No mood to blog - i so tanked the skills test they put me through yesterday (dont even know wtf they asking for) ableit seemingly having a good interview = i suck big time:(. random pictures to keep you entertained..it’s another depressingly grey rainy day here in hicksville..reflecting on my ‘i suck’ mood.

Hilton Hotel in Manchester. Notice something missing?I find this most bizzare - surely it is not structually strong?!

Bacon built me a build-in wardrobe.Love the spotty mirrors. Ignore my toilet paper.

My Valentine’s Day cum Chinese New Year red tulips

Manchester Eye in all it’s glory.

strange bedfellows

hmm…

Ever since I started blogging back in 2005, I had always hankered for

a) my own domain
Achieved at last, even though it did take many years and panting jealously over mooiness.com.

b) a new camera
Had to replace my faithfull Canon Ixus in Oct 2005 due to malfunctioning lenses.I still miss it; my Nikon S3 is not as inituative as the Canon. HOWEVER, it was the first digital camera that I had purchased for myself with my hard-earned money - even the canon was a donated item.So it still remains a well-loved part of my handbag.

Jan 2007 - a passable version of the cybershot is now in my posession; masquerading as a phone.

Feb 2007 - thirsting for a dSLR with Nikon D40. I want more control, I want nice macro shots. I want to be a food photographer and an amatuer wedding photographer.Sigh.HOW NOW

c) a new laptop
My Dell inspiron had served me since 2000 (!!!)Which means it is now 7 years old.

Shall I buy a new Dell or whoop my lazyass and reformat Bacon’s 2 year old completely useless Compaq for my own usage?

Decisions decisions.I can only do one

meet my new friend.His name is cyber. Cyber Shot

You might’ve noticed if you hovered over my some of my pix from flickr - I have a new camera! Oh, I had never believed in multi-combo phone-camera-fakeipod, but my k800i (urm..not sure what the number actually is) is doing more than it’s fair share of assisiting me in a click-happy frenzy.

This would be my first Cybershot, and for Sony to at last allow their phones to use the Cybershot name, I’ve wanted this baby in all it’s 3.2 glory since I first heard of it.The sleek black lines, the functional displays - how could I resist?

The only gripe I have with my new snapper (steamed teochew style) is that it only has DIGITAL zoom, which is as good as no zoom. Hey, if you were going to call it cybershot, better make sure we can get some good quality zoom in…but no. Anyawy, it’s got really clever features like BestPic, which takes 8 pictures of one shot at (I think) 1/2seconds intervals and lets you choose the best one taken out of the 8. Clever!

Other features are the frames that are so often availabe in most sony ericsson phones ( I am on my 3rd!) …dreybee is going to kill me but:

Heehee

Anyway, that was taken with my old SE Phone..but it gives you an idea of what sort of frames I am talking about.The pixels were 1.2 on the old phone…but with this new cybershot family member(at 3.2MP) - you can hardly tell that I was snapping with a phone! Pix of masak-masak are snapped with the cybershot for ease of handling.

Another thing, I don’t remember the last time I had such a brick for a phone.Oh well, at least it’s a small camera

Today I dream

Of the life that was and the life that could have been

Of opportunities missed

And chances taken

Of endless weekends of reeking whiskey breath

Mingled with the morning-after starbucks iced americano

And conquests that were made and left

Just as quickly as the smouldering of the cigarette after

Smiles that starts as rapid as the arrival of the next Chivas

And lost as soon as the dj stops spinning my life away

Of people who stuck through thick and thin

Of living life with no regrets.

*thinking of an old friend, who composed beautiful pictures out from a car wreck that is me. i miss you, and i wish you well. I wish we were still friends - just like old times.