secretsmile.org

Happy Valentine’s Day!

Mon, 14 Feb 2011 09:54:44 +0000

What a wonderful surprise to find when you arrive at the office first thing in the morning – my colleague spreading the love and happiness to everyone in the team.

I recently purchased a Nikkor-S Auto 50mm f/1.4. It originally came attached to the Nikon FM2 that I bought, but I wasn’t sure about the lens. Long story shot, it was bought and then resold, so I decided to give it a whirl at $90. I posted some shots that I took yesterday over at my tumblr. It’s been a bit difficult without the digital metering which completely frustrates me at times – but its all part of the learning process.

Bring on 2011!

Sun, 02 Jan 2011 02:27:26 +0000

One of my new year resolution is to blog regularly. I’ve recently purchased a Nikon FM2 as well as a Diana + Mini, so there will be loads more images to come.

Where am I?

Wed, 25 Aug 2010 09:28:20 +0000

It has been one hectic month. I have just entered a new phase in my life – having joined the ranks of full employment and getting my head and feet around the company. So apologies for the lack of updates in the photographical department. But what else have I been up to?

+ Attended a Florence + the Machine gig, and got hit in the forehead by one of her drumstick!
+ Participated in a corporate challenge and ran from King’s Cross down to the Opera House to the QVB (Hey! It was a huge feat for me!)
+ Held a trained eagle (I detest birds!)
+ Attended a Yoga & Tea workshop and felt invigorating afterwards.

Things will pick up next month since two of my friends are planning to release their respesctive EPs. I’ll be working on their portraits/pictures to be used on their website and MySpace, and be working on their websites and MySpace – so watch this space for updates!

Learning the art of patience…in Melbourne!

Thu, 17 Jun 2010 03:18:17 +0000

This is a very sad relevation (and shock to most others) but I had never been to Melbourne before the previous weekend . I’ve been to one part of Asia (Hong Kong to be exact) and some parts of both Europe and the United States of America, but never have I ventured past the NSW border. Having heard so many fantastic things about Melbourne (from Melburnians and Sydneysiders) I was ECSTATIC (!!!) when my close friend J proposed to go to Melbourne for the long weekend for her birthday.

We were fortunate enough to stay in the heart of the CBD (cnr of Little Bourke and Queen St) and wondered around the CBD for hours on our first day. We also checked out Chapel St (of course), Chinatown, Crown Casino (for my Melburnian friend’s birthday), Queen Victoria Markets (our version of Paddy’s markets!), Flinders Lane and Brunswick St. My favourite place that we ate at was definitely at Bimbo’s Deluxe, which was a friend of D’s recommended but we found accidentally when walking back along Brunswick St. Flavoured Russian Standard vodkas +$4 pizzas, what more can you ask for!

Unlike Sydney, alleys weren’t scary looking at all, and walls were covered by beautiful graffiti artworks and not just graffiti tags. As the title of this blog suggest, I learned the art of patience. Overall, the pace in Melbourne is very laid-back and much slower than that in Sydney. We found that in general service was slower, albeit customer service or our food order to come out. We discovered ‘hook turns’ whilst being driven around in a taxi and turning right from a left lane and when the light goes red (one particular taxi driver thought us Sydneysiders were stupid because we were questioning the hook turns. Isn’t it easier to turn left in a left lane and right in a right lane?).

Seriously, 3 days wasn’t enough to eat, drink (did alot of that!) and see everything that Melbourne has to offer. There definitely will a next trip (in the near future) to visit Melbourne again, hopefully along Great Ocean Drive!

High Tea & Jenolan Caves

Tue, 08 Jun 2010 11:31:49 +0000

It most certainly was a busy week for me last week, which ended with an eventful weekend.

I started the weekend off with a girl’s day out on Saturday – shopping for a wedding dress and wedding stationery, followed by a lovely high tea at The Observatory Hotel. We were seated in what appeared to be a Victorian furnished library, lined with antique books. The desserts were fantastic and my favourite was definitely the creme brulee which I wish came in a larger size!

On Sunday, a few of my coworkers and I embarked on a roadtrip to Jenolan Caves. We made two pitstops beforehand – one at Falconbridge to pick up our manager and the other at Leura, where we checked out a beautiful candleshop and stationery shop. By the time we finished lunch (Indian food which one of our coworker’s mum prepared for us!) and headed to the caves, we only had time to check out one cave – the Lucas cave. Two things I realise during our tour – I was definitely the right size and height for future caving treks and that I was incredible unfit and unprepared for this year’s City2Surf. I’m hoping to check out the River Cave and Oriental Cave next time round!

Canberra

Tue, 18 May 2010 12:23:06 +0000

The last time I was in Canberra, the awesomeness of Questacon pretty much summed up my school trip to Canberra.

We drove around easily and we were thrilled at the fact that it practically took us 10 minutes to get anywhere in Canberra! We visited The National Gallery of Australia, The National Museum of Australia, The War Memorial and checked out the The High Courts of Australia, Parliament House, Gorman Markets and the Old Bus Depot Markets. The nightlife in Canberra, like most people have assured us, wasn’t the most happening place I’ve been to ever. We went to a bar/club which apparently was the hottest place to be, and even that proved to be dull, so we retreated early back to our room, ready for the next day ahead.

More photos can be found here. Sorry, still working on the gallery’s layout!

Moovin the Groove!

Wed, 12 May 2010 13:04:16 +0000

My friends and I went down to Canberra over the weekend because we were attending a music festival (Groovin’ the Moo) held at the University of Canberra. Again I missed out on seeing Lisa Mitchell, but I managed to see Miami Horror, Spoon, some of Tegan and Sara, Grinspoon and Vampire Weekend. I haven’t heard anything by Miami Horror before, and I was pleasantly surprised when I started bopping along to them (I’ll be looking forward in getting a copy of their album when its released!).

Vampire Weekend were wicked. I loved their set – misty ambience with several chandeliers hanging from above. I loved how they involved the audience in ‘One (Blake’s Got a New Face)’. I really wished we stayed longer for Vampire Weekend, that is, if we didn’t need to drive back to Sydney after the festival. I’ll definitely be checking them out again whenever they’ve got another gig in town!

The only let down of the festival was that we over 18-ers could only buy and drink alcohol inside a certain area, which kinda sucked because we felt like penned up animals!

Here are some gig pictures which I took (which are posted on my tumblr).

Next gigs? As much as I would absolutely LOVE (multiple by infinity) to attend Splendour in the Grass, I’ll just have to settle on the sideshows of Angus & Julia Stone and maybe Florence + the Machine!

Hello world (again)!

Tue, 20 Apr 2010 01:54:40 +0000

For some strange reason, if you’ve come across this domain that was bookmarked from oodles and oodles ago, you’re in for a pleasant surprise as I’ve finally updated it (goodbye to that hideous Rachel Bilson layout)! Plus I’ve finally found a purpose for this domain, which I’ve kept dormant for YEARS. Gone are the days of maintaining and creating fansites, and a big welcome to days of my current love: photography.

For all the new visitors out there – welcome to my humble abode. This domain mainly serves as an online collection of my photographs. I’ve been fed up with taking stacks of photos and then never publishing them on my Flickr, Facebook or Tumblr. Besides, I’ve been paying for this domain for years and its been dormant ever since my fansite making days were over.

I’m slowly configuring the gallery – its been ages since I even had to look at HTML coding and coppermine coding configurations – so please bear with me.