4/4

a day in jakarta

2011-12-30T22:00:00.000+11:00

This won't be a long post.

I am now bloated since I've had six meals the whole day.

Why? Because I caught up with three different friends in three different malls. But if I only caught up with three friends in three different places shouldn't that make three meals only?

OK, here goes.

I woke up in the morning and had a bowl of chicken noodle for breakfast (yes, you can have chicken noodle for breakfast in Indonesia, same goes for nasi goreng or whatever food you think you can only have for lunch or dinner).

Then when I went to the first catch up, we went and ordered two kaya toasts, two soft boiled eggs and a cup of coffee, aah yes, coffee.

After the semi brunch, we actually went to another restaurant inside the same mall and I ordered pasta. This particular restaurant actually stated that customers could buy their menus (yes, you read that right) if you want. Apparently this is to deter people from actually stealing menus from the restaurant. Weird? I thought so too. Do people actually eat menus? I don't know.

3.30PM, I arrived at the next mall for the second catch up and ordered a dark waffle with ice cream. This was shared with a friend (so I could also share the sin of my gluttony).

Then by 6PM, I already sat down at a ramen restaurant in yet another mall and slurped dry a bowl of ramen. Had an overpriced bottle of Erdinger afterwards (double the price I used to pay dammit! Rip off!) but as my friend told me, twice the price thrice the fun right? Then I went home.

So finally at home, I also had a little bit of rice with rawon soup.

And as I said above, I am now bloated and my tummy is also somehow filled with lots of wind.

Note to self: This can never happen again, ever. And also, taxis are, at the moment, my best means of transportation in Jakarta. They're cheap, well air-conditioned and I can avoid looking for parking which can waste a lot of time, seriously. When it's not raining though, motorbikes are you best friends.

Alright, bedtime.

my strike continues

2011-12-26T09:00:00.001+11:00

Well, well, well, apparently my-things-always-go-wrong-when-trying-to-fly-off-of-Melbourne stories reveals a new chapter tonight and this is how the story goes.

The night was breezy. I could still see the clouds floating beneath the starless night sky. I was in a taxi on my way to the airport. The driver was South Asian and the car smelled. It wasn't too bad that it was unbearable but it was enough to keep my snifflers alert all the time. I tried to occupy my mind with something, anything, and it worked, for a while, but then the frequent sound of the wiper wiping away all the water droplets falling on the windscreen brought me back to reality.

I hung on.

Just before we got on the freeway to the airport the driver told me that he's out of gas and needed to fuel up. I didn't mind since I've already checked in my flight online and just needed to grab my boarding pass and drop my luggage.

So he kept on driving and I minded my own business when I realised we were moving slower than we could have. The driver had turned on the hazard lights and we were moving slower and slower until he pulled over and stopped.

The taxi was out of gas, but the driver told me the petrol station wasn't far away. I was OK with that.

Then he started the engine again and accelerated slowly. We were gonna make it for sure. The petrol station was just two red lights away.

Then comes the uphill. It wasn't that steep that I never really paid attention to it myself when I'm driving but for a two ton steel box with a few drips of gas to burn, it was an uphill we could not climb. The engine died a second time.

He tried starting the car a few times and surprisingly managed to overcome the seemingly high obstacle until we reached the first red light. The engine died again.

I thought the driver turned the engine off on purpose to conserve gas but that wasn't the case. He tried starting the car again and again to no avail. I suggested turning off the aircon in hopes to be able to shed some of the gas necessity of working the car again. He did. It didn't help. And this makes me hate cars with gas (instead of petrol) more than before since I was pretty sure that there was no way you could tell if the tank is close to empty, or could this be just the driver's discretion?

Anyway he tried time after time after time. It just didn't want to start. The gas tank was empty. He apologised and I said it was alright. Nothing dramatic right? So we sat there in the middle of the road with the hazard lights on.

Luckily we were close to Crown Casino and the taxi driver managed to call another taxi passing by. I paid him what I owed and transferred to the other taxi. Poor guy.

After that it was smooth sailing, taxi didn't smell either.

The airport was packed, and I mean jam packed like if you put Disneyland ride queues side to side in a small space. Immigration was the same, like the ride queues without a fastpass. And somebody farted in the queue! @#$%#$%^$%^&*&^%!! Everbody seemed to be going to Bangkok. The Hangover part 2?

Funny, the queue for my flight dispersed straight away the moment they announced they were boarding by row numbers. All the while I was watching from the sidelines. Huge hand carries anyone?

And so I'm signing off now, my flight's ready to depart and the next place I want to head off to is dreamland. Not the beach in Bali, but you know, sleep.

How time flew by

2011-11-28T00:14:00.003+11:00

OK, ever since I posted all my so called artsy fartsy rants to my Tumblr, this blog has only been a space for me to update whoever's out there reading it on my travels but this time I'm going to try to recap of what's been going on since the Europe Trip in June.

I visited Surabaya for a week in August during the Ramadan and I can tell you now that it's not the best time to visit. A lot of the traditional and hawker food stalls are closed and not a lot of restaurants sell alcohol and if they do they have to do it discreetly. Bummer.

Not much have been going on in life afterwards.

I sold my Mesa Boogie Stiletto Ace head and matching cabinet and gotten myself a Marshall YJM100 head and at the moment I'm still looking to sell my Mesa Boogie Mark IV Combo. Any takers? No new effects, no new guitars (well it's too much already), just trying to downsize (yeah right).

No new camera gear although if the newly rumoured Nikon D800 comes out with a built in GPS, I may be getting it and sell my current D700.

Haven't been taking as much photos as I wanted to after the Europe Trip so not a lot of updates on my Flickr. There's only the Melbourne Zombie Shuffle bit.

No new LEGO sets though I had my eye on a couple. Worried of where I'm going to put them once they're done.

Sold my iPhone 4 after upgrading to 4S. Apple has made my dreams come true with the keyboard shortcuts. Still waiting for that battery drain fix though (I now own a car charger since owning the 4S). No biggie.

My couple friend who went to Japan with me last year had a baby in October. Congrats to the both of you, you are now the proud parents of baby X and just like a doctor's beeper, he now controls your lives (just kidding).

Miss mis/adventure wonderland left for Tokyo in search for a better career (and lots of better food…and alcohol) and won't be back for at least six months starting mid November 2011. All the best of luck for the job and food/alcohol search and of course your mis/adventures when you're in Tokyo as well!

I've been playing badminton twice a week now. I had my right foot checked by a physio and have had to wear an ankle brace whenever I play ever since but I might have injured my left one now. Might need to get it checked out too.

Christmas trip back to Jakarta is coming up soon. I have to renew my ID hence the trip back. Will be spending four days in Bali so I'm quite looking forward to it.

I'm also planning on another trip to Morocco, Jordan and Turkey for April. Will see how that goes. A prospective travel buddy is in order and will be discussing the trip in Jakarta and hopefully we can get everything sorted out late Jan/early Feb.

I found out that if you hold an Indonesian passport, you are exempt from having to have a visa to enter Morocco and you can get visa-on-arrivals for Jordan and Turkey but I might apply for the Jordan and Turkey tourist visas ahead though since I wouldn't want to waste time queuing for them just in case the queue is long. Now, if only the Indonesian government can make some kind of agreement with more countries in the world to eliminate tourist visa requirements, that would be super (European Schengen visa, I'm talking about you specifically, gaaaah the horror).

That's about everything I guess…oh also I've finished reading Inheritance. The ending made me feel so so sad.

There, all major events since June up till now summed up.

Europe trip - Jun 2011

2011-08-23T00:12:00.003+10:00

Europe trip was awesome bla bla bla don't feel like writing about it even after settling down and about to fly on another mini holiday.

Maybe some other time when I really feel like it.

Alright I'll do it now, might as well right?

London felt a lot like Melbourne, or should that be the other way around, whatever, but I didn't feel like I left Melbourne at all. Still curious with Pret though. Oh, when we first arrived at Goodge St station, people were queuing for the two elevators. We couldn't be bothered and took the circular stairs. Boy was that a hasty and wrong decision (but can you blame us for being tired from the fourteen hour flight and just wanted to check-in to the hotel?). The stairway was over two hundred steps. Congrats and welcome to London.

Paris, first of the three attempted theft/scams, right after we got off the Eurostar and got on the train at Gare du Nord. Responsible parties: a group of three young girls. Uncool. Relaxing on the stairs in front of the Sacre Coeur with buskers entertaining us though, was cool. Eiffel tower, so so, but when we did the Paris by night tour, that's when the madame really shone. She was colourful, the lights, the sky, the bridges, the river, the everything.

Amsterdam, in my opinion, was the best city I visited on this trip. The canals, the bikes, the bike lanes, Indonesian food, Suriname fried rice (best meal I had on the trip), the red light district, everybody spoke English, windmills, boat hotels and a real plus for not having the annoying company of thiefs or scammers. Beautiful.

Venice, I thought was ok at first, you know, the gondolas (for €100 per ride, oh c'mon), the canals, the Grand Canal, Rialto Bridge, St Marco, everything was right until the next day when I woke up with my body full of bug bites. I will never go back to Venice again, this I swear. PS: this oath is only valid until I feel like going to Venice again or someone would somehow pay for my trip to Venice then all is forgiven.

Florence was a nice city, I think, we didn't spend much time in Florence since we went straight to Pisa (trust me there's nothing in Pisa except if you like seeing people posing like they're trying to support the weight of the leaning tower, talk about your big time waster) after checking in then straight to Cinque Terre. Supposedly beautiful but we couldn't get to the really nice parts because they were closed. Aaah the beauty of travel. The Vespa Tour was definitely a breather. The countryside of Tuscany (we went to Chianti) was beautiful and my feet got a well-deserved rest from all the walking for the past ten days.

Rome, the second of the three attempted theft/scams, again right after we got to Termini station from Florence and got on to the train going to our rented apartment. Responsible parties: a group of three gypsy mums. Merda. Spaghetti was the size of hokkien noodles and pizzas were beautiful, thin based, just the way I like it. Coffee was molto delizioso.

Madrid. I had very little recollection of Madrid. The ones I remember were Zara, trying to buy a new electric adapter, a flamenco show, Zara aaaaaaand...Zara again.

Valencia, the last attempted scam. I was by myself and it wasn't until the scammer asked me to input my credit card pin into his phone that I realised they had scammed me. And it actually almost worked if I did input it in. The City of Arts and Science made it all go away though. I loved spending time in the Oceanographic. I felt so calm in there.

Barcelona, the last city on the trip. Gaudi, Gaudi and Gaudi. La Sagrada Familia, Casa Mila and Casa Batllo. The international airport needs a redesign though. Who on earth decided to put the stores before the immigration and not after? Who? Who? Spent the last hour and a half in the airport waiting in McDonald's because we couldn't walk around into the stores anymore. Muchas gracias flawed airport design! Mierda!

So that was it. Inspiring? Definitely, especially the Eurorail train rides, definitely the way to travel Europe if you have the time. Tiring? You betcha, after all, a lot of the time we had to carry our backpacks and we had to be alert the whole time and that by itself made the trip far less enjoyable. I didn't whip out my camera as much as I would like to and it's not Southeast Asia, this continent runs on Euros baby, and that was harsh on the bank account.

Until next time…I hope. Oh and pics are, as usual, up on my Flickr

Europe trip preparation

2011-05-22T00:24:00.011+10:00

Getting the visas
Notice that I needed not only one visa but two. Allow me to elaborate on this seemingly simple matter.

The itinerary is London (2), Paris (3), Amsterdam (4), Venice (1), Florence (2), Rome (3), Madrid (3) and Barcelona (2). Note that the numbers in brackets indicate the days I'll be spending there. Then I'm stopping over at KL for two nights and Singapore for three nights.

All the flights, trains and hotels were already booked by the end of Feb so all the documents I need for my visa applications are mostly ready and here is where the drama begins.

I filled in the online UK visa application, made an appointment for my biometric data to be taken and sent my application in the mail early March. I got my passport back by Monday the following week. How fast was that. Then I flicked quickly to see the visa sticker they stuck on my passport.

They had my name wrong.

Even on my visa application I already typed that my full name is on page five of my passport, they still had my name wrong.

Oh boy.

So I gave them a call (at a premium rate of $3.50 a minute mind you) and asked them what they could do about it. They told me they'd get back to me as soon as possible to fix the matter and this is where things started to get really draggy.

I had to wait three working days for them to text me saying "give us a call" so I gave them a call only to have to tell them again the problem I had which I already told them at the first place. The only response I got this time was that they were going to tell me what to do in the next couple of days. OK, so I waited a couple more days and they asked me to call them again. This time they told me to send my passport page which contained my full name and to wait for them to contact me again. So, after a couple more days they finally told me to send my passport back to them and so I did. I waited for maybe almost two weeks for my passport to come back to me and it had to be Easter by that time as well. I felt mentally tired just waiting for my passport.

So it finally arrived and I quickly checked my name on the visa sticker again.

It was correct. Cool.

So for my next visa application, which is for the Schengen zone, I had to apply for it in the embassy of which country I will be spending the most time in, so in my case it was Italy and I had to book an appointment online just to lodge my visa application (which I think is just ridiculous, but hey, to each his own right?). I didn't have any appointments set up since the earliest appointment I could get was for mid-Jun and my flight would be by the end of May. Impossible right?

So my friend told me to try and apply the Schengen visa at the Spanish Consulate General. I did try it but they said I had to apply for it at Italy's unless I change my travel plans and spend more time in Spain.

Fair enough.

So I went to the Italian Consulate General only to be disappointed as I thought they weren't really helpful at all. They asked whether I had an appointment or not, I did not. They said go and make an appointment so I explained about my flight and the appointment availability. Then they told me to send them an email or give them a call (I was already there!!! Why!!!) to which I replied that I sent an email the previous week to which nobody replied and I called as well but I couldn't get through to anyone since I only heard recorded messages and the call was disconnected after the recorded message was finished. So they told me to send them another email telling them it was urgent. By this time my patience were running really low and I told them again about my flight arrangements. Besides I was already there, why couldn't they just help me out a bit anyway only to be replied that if I had no appointments they wouldn't accept my visa application.

*swear word here*

So I left. I went back to the city and changed a bit of my travel plans in an internet cafe then submitted my visa application to the Spanish Consulate General. They accepted. I was told to give them a call in two weeks and if within those two weeks they needed more documentations from me, they would give me a call. They did not.

I have both visas now but it was just mentally really tiring for me. I think at some point I had a thought of cancelling the trip or just to go somewhere else where applying for a visa wasn't such a pain in my ass (hint: maybe back to Japan even with the radiation and all that).

So at the moment I have all my documents ready to go and I'll be flying in a week!!! My excitement had slowly started coming back.

I wish I could hold a dual citizenship, be an Aussie citizen but still retain my Indonesian citizenship as well. That would certainly make travel life a lot more easier.

Packing
Aaaaaah, the hardest part of the trip. What to pack. This will be my first time backpacking and if that wasn't a challenge enough for me, I'd still have to bring along my camera and laptop. And up to this point all I have packed is nothing. Seriously, nothing. I'd have to start packing little by little starting tomorrow and when I say little by little I mean literally small amounts of top and pants. I do not want to break my back just yet.

More updates soon.

crazy wing

2011-04-03T01:15:00.003+11:00

I went with two friends and tried Crazy Wing in Chinatown yesterday evening.

I always thought I could handle spicy food. After all I enjoy eating Sichuan food, so how spicy could this Crazy Wing be right?

I was proven wrong.

It was one normal friend chicken wing with whatever hot spice I don't know. Three bites was all I could muster before my eyes started producing tears, I couldn't taste anything but the spiciness of the chicken wing and my nose was suddenly runny. I couldn't eat the rest of that chicken wing.

I asked my friend for one tablet of the Vitamin C he just bought to hopefully cure my need for yoghurt or milk or whatever to calm the tastebuds down.

Luckily it worked.

my wishlist for iOS 4.3

2011-03-04T10:48:00.002+11:00

I need autotext!!!

Would somebody in Apple put this function into iOS 4.3 please.

I personally never use auto correct or auto complete or whatever it is. I seldom type in English anyway when I'm messaging people. What I want is something like Blackberry's autotext where I can program abbreviations for words/sentences I type a lot.

If Blackberry can do it (since a million years ago) I don't see why Apple can't.

It's efficient, it's time saving and it gets things out of my way so I can do other things that I need to do. All I need to do is program the words/sentences once and I'm ready to go.

If only.

it was nothing

2011-02-27T00:17:00.001+11:00

I did write a post about Melbourne weather as of late, fine dining and a bit of the petrol prices just now but I decided to delete it.

I feel much better now.

a four-day weekend?

2011-02-22T10:24:00.003+11:00

I have now booked my accommodations for the coming Europe trip.

I thought that's quite a big chunk off the preparation part. I still have to book my flights within Europe and my rail pass though...and the two visas. And I'm still thinking of how to bring my dSLR with me along with my backpack.

Other than these enormous researches I've done for Europe there's not much going on really.

The last weekend went by just like that. Had two days full of activities (which isn't too bad sometimes) and I felt like having very little room to breathe and wind down.

Brunch on Saturday (I will never come back to Mr.Tulk for brunch again since I've never had two poached eggs and a croquette for $15, well maybe I will if they decide to lower the price but what are the chances hey?) followed with a visit to South Melbourne to send my friend a Japan travel guide and had a quick chat about it (a thirty-minute chat is a quick chat) then off the another friend's housewarming and stayed with them until probably 10PM. So there goes my first day of last weekend.

The following day I had to wake up really early. And by really early I mean earlier than the time I usually wake up when I have to go to work. Went to an apartment in the city to go a wedding registry preparation, then went for the couple's photoshoot in Carlton Gardens then straight to the wedding registry shoot. Went to lunch afterwards, then visited another friend's place who apparently haven't had lunch so I went with her for more lunch which I only went for drinks. Sent her home, stayed there for a while then off the an early dinner breakup-farewell barbeque. It was a sad event with a few laughs in between.

Went home afterwards and tried to wind down but downloaded the whole photoshoot from my CF card. Read a book which I borrowed from a friend until probably 11PM and that ended my weekend just like that. And no, reading isn't winding down. I want two more days to wind down damn it!!!

I've started editing the shoot last night but they were just rough edits (delete the ones I don't want and colour correct them). Hopefully will be able to do a lot more tonight.

If you're bored with what I'm writing, here's another blog for you to read.

Europe trip ticket

2011-01-25T23:29:00.007+11:00

HAS BEEN BOOKED!!!

It's only the airplane ticket for now but it's a start nevertheless.

Excited!!

Will keep you posted when the accommodations and visa have been booked as well.

Ciao amigos

the joys of travel

2011-01-09T10:18:00.002+11:00

I'm in the phase of planning for my next trip to Europe in May.

So far I've only got the dates down and the cities where I want to go.

There's still a lot of work to be done.

Still need to figure out what we're gonna see once we got there, where we're gonna stay (and it's going to be pretty much nine accommodations cos we're gonna be moving a lot) and apply for the two visas.

Why can't I have double citizenships? Why?

I need to get myself a backpack to. Thinking of a 55L backpack with a daypack. Hopefully that will be enough.

end of 2010

2010-12-30T23:30:00.001+11:00

2010:
japan - singapore - thailand - cambodia
girlfriend - ~~girlfriend~~
tumblr

uninspired now. bye

merry christmas

2010-12-25T23:19:00.001+11:00

Another year's gone by and it's Christmas again.

And after all that's happened and the lessons learned, I can only feel grateful.

Life, with all it's unnecessary complexities, problems and ups and downs, is beautiful and I am thankful for the way it is

Anyway, here's a little something to celebrate this year's Christmas. Do enjoy and have yourselves a merry little Christmas.

portrait of the composer

2010-12-22T17:28:00.003+11:00

I took the Jung's Typology test the other day as recommended by a friend. She told me she'd bet that I was the Artisan type aaaaaand *pause for effect* she was correct. I'm an ISFP.

ISFP (intuitive-sensing-feeling-perceiving), according to Dr.David Keirsey, falls under the temperament Artisan, the concrete utilitarian. The temperament Artisan is divided into four divisions. He calls the ISFP Composers.

The following is a direct quote from Keirsey Temperament Website.

---
ISFP
As Concrete Utilitarians, Artisans speak mostly about what they see right in front of them, about what they can get their hands on, and they will do whatever works, whatever gives them a quick, effective payoff, even if they have to bend the rules.

Portrait of the Artisan
Artisans are the temperament with a natural ability to excel in any of the arts, not only the fine arts such as painting and sculpting, or the performing arts such as music, theater, and dance, but also the athletic, military, political, mechanical, and industrial arts, as well as the "art of the deal" in business.

All Artisans share the following core characteristics:
- Artisans tend to be fun-loving, optimistic, realistic, and focused on the here and now.
- Artisans pride themselves on being unconventional, bold, and spontaneous.
- Artisans make playful mates, creative parents, and troubleshooting leaders.
- Artisans are excitable, trust their impulses, want to make a splash, seek stimulation, prize freedom, and dream of mastering action skills.

Artisans are most at home in the real world of solid objects that can be made and manipulated, and of real-life events that can be experienced in the here and now. Artisans have exceptionally keen senses, and love working with their hands. They seem right at home with tools, instruments, and vehicles of all kinds, and their actions are usually aimed at getting them where they want to go, and as quickly as possible. Thus Artisans will strike off boldly down roads that others might consider risky or impossible, doing whatever it takes, rules or no rules, to accomplish their goals. This devil-may-care attitude also gives the Artisans a winning way with people, and they are often irresistibly charming with family, friends, and co-workers.

Artisans want to be where the action is; they seek out adventure and show a constant hunger for pleasure and stimulation. They believe that variety is the spice of life, and that doing things that aren't fun or exciting is a waste of time. Artisans are impulsive, adaptable, competitive, and believe the next throw of the dice will be the lucky one. They can also be generous to a fault, always ready to share with their friends from the bounty of life. Above all, Artisans need to be free to do what they wish, when they wish. They resist being tied or bound or confined or obligated; they would rather not wait, or save, or store, or live for tomorrow. In the Artisan view, today must be enjoyed, for tomorrow never comes.

There are many Artisans, perhaps 30 to 35 percent of the population, which is good, because they create much of the beauty, grace, fun, and excitement the rest of us enjoy in life.

Artisan - Portrait of the Composer (ISFP)
More than the other Artisans, Composers are in tune with their senses, and so have a sure grasp of what belongs, and what doesn't belong, in all kinds of works of art. While the other Artisans are skilled with people, tools, and entertainment, Composers have an exceptional ability-seemingly inborn-to work with subtle differences in color, tone, texture, aroma, and flavor.

Although Composers often put long, lonely hours into their artistry, they are just as impulsive as the other Artisans. They do not wait to consider their moves; rather, they act in the here and now, with little or no planning or preparation. Composers are seized by the act of artistic composition, as if caught up in a whirlwind. The act is their master, not the reverse. Composers paint or sculpt, they dance or skate, they write melodies or make recipes-or whatever-simply because they must. They climb the mountain because it is there.

This ability to lose themselves in action accounts for the spectacular individual accomplishments of some Composers, and yet on their social side they show a kindness unmatched by all the other types. Composers are especially sensitive to the pain and suffering of others, and they sympathize freely with the sufferer. Some have a remarkable way with young children, almost as if there were a natural bond of sympathy and trust between them. A similar bond may be seen between some Composers and animals, even wild animals. Many Composers have an instinctive longing for the wilds, and nature seems to welcome them.

Composers are just as plentiful as the other Artisans, say nine or ten per cent of the population, but in general they are very difficult to observe and thus greatly misunderstood. Very likely the difficulty comes from their tendency not to express themselves verbally, but through their works of art. Composers are usually not interested in developing ability in public speaking, or even in the art of conversation; they prefer to feel the pulse of life by touch, in the muscles, in the eyes, in the ears, on the tongue. Make no mistake, Composers are just as interested as other types in sharing their view of the world, and if they find a medium of non-verbal communication-some art form-then they will express their character quite eloquently. If not, they simply remain unknown, their quietness leaving their character all but invisible.
---

there you go ENTP heheh.

melbourne - singapore - jakarta - bangkok - siem reap - bangkok - jakarta - singapore - melbourne

2010-11-27T16:37:00.004+11:00

Everytime I go travelling there's always some kind of drama going on. This time is no exception. Here's how it went.

The flight schedule:
07 Nov, 01.00AM, Singapore Airlines - Melbourne to Singapore
07 Nov, 07.40AM, Singapore Airlines - Singapore to Jakarta
08 Nov, 01.30PM (roughly), Thai Airways - Jakarta to Bangkok
15 Nov, 08.30AM, Thai Airways - Bangkok to Jakarta
16 Nov, 06.00AM, Singapore Airlines - Jakarta to Singapore
16 Nov, 10.10AM, Singapore Airlines - Singapore to Melbourne

The drama
On the night of my flight from Melbourne to Jakarta, I ordered a taxi. Remembering it was a Saturday evening, I did order the taxi about a half hour before I had to leave the house. After half an hour, no taxi showed up. I gave them a call back asking where my taxi is and I was told that they are resending one straight away.

Cool. Half an hour later, no taxi showed up again. I was getting quite impatient. After all, have you ever had to wait for a taxi for an hour? So I gave them another call and guess what I was told? 'A taxi was in front of your house at 11.05PM but no one was waiting outside'.

Huh?

So according to this woman, I was supposed to wait for the taxi (that never showed up) in front of my house for the past hour? Is she nuts? Couldn't the driver just get off and knocked on my front door if honking wasn't allowed? I did turn on my lights outside. What the hell man? Anyway so she told me she's sending one right now and that I should wait for the taxi outside. 'No way in hell' I thought to myself.

So while waiting for the taxi (again), I received an SMS from Singapore Airlines telling me that my flight from Singapore to Jakarta had been cancelled due to Mt.Merapi's volcanic activities.

Great. The taxi never showed up and now my connecting flight is cancelled.

I still went to the airport anyway. I must be the last person checking in since the check-in line was empty and while I was dropping off my baggage I received a call from Tullamarine Airport's Singapore Airline's customer service asking if I was still flying tonight. I said I was at the counter already and he checked me out from the other end of the check-in counter.

I also asked about my cancelled flight from Singapore to Jakarta and was told that it might just be a system error. I was told that a passenger received that SMS previously as well but they weren't told anything about it.

Woohoo! Now nothing stood between me and the Thailand & Cambodia trip anymore. It was already 12AM by that time and I even still had the time to get my MacBook Air GST back. Sweet huh? Not long after that, I boarded the plane and quickly fell asleep. I felt really tired after all my effort to get to the airport and the supposedly system error SMS.

So I arrived at Changi airport in the morning, got off the plane and asked the customer service straight away, "which gate is SQ956?". She answered me straight away "Oh flight SQ956 to Jakarta has been cancelled sir".

SAY WHAT?

Remember that SMS I received last night? Apparently that was correct. All flights going in and out of Jakarta had been cancelled and I was told that Soekarno-Hatta airport was closed (of course this wasn't the case). I could see how it was a precautionary measure by airlines. Still I was groggy and I was pissed off.

So I was told to gather at the Transfer Station where they gave us stickers to check in to the Pan Pacific Orchard.

At this time I had a few choices.
1. Go back to Melbourne
2. Re-route my flight to Bangkok instead of Jakarta
3. Wait and hope Singapore Airlines will still fly me to Jakarta

Not long after I received the sticker to check into the hotel, the customer service made an announcement. He had news that there might be a flight flying to Jakarta at 11.30AM. Might, not will. So I decided to wait and got another sticker to fly that might-be-flying flight.

Fortunately, it did fly. And my travelling drama ended here.

The trip
The trip itself was quite fun. It's a bit like last year in Bangkok.

We visited the Grand Erawan Shrine for the birthday of the Four Faces Buddha. Same thing happened this year, lots of smoke from burnt incense, lots of tears (because of the smoke) and lots of coconut drinks. Ayutthaya was also the same with the addition of Wat Ban Rai.

And on the fourth day of the tour we went by bus and stopped at the border crossing in Poipet. From there we took another long bus ride to Siem Reap. Roughly 400km wasn't supposed to take that long but the road condition and the traffic made it quite long and felt like a never ending bus ride.

The next day, we visited Ta Prohm, the Bayon and Angkor Wat. They were unreal. I loved the details of the carvings in these temples. It was really hot though, the typical Southeast Asian heat where you'll just be sweating for no reason whatsoever and by the end of the day your top would have went through the cycle of being wet and dried again for a few times. And that night we also went to Angkor night market and visited Artisans Angkor the day after before heading back to Bangkok. Here'are the pics (also live on my Flickr).

After going back to Bangkok I went to Wat Arun and Wat Pho. Wat Arun because I've always wanted to go since last year's Chao Phraya river dinner cruise and since Wat Pho was just across the ferry pier, I'd just visit it briefly.

Wat Arun wasn't too big, in a sense that you'd be able to walk around it in less than half an hour. It was really high though, and tourist were only allowed to climb up to the third level I think. So I climbed to the highest I was allowed to (you'd know you're at the highest since the don't have anymore stairs afterwards) and felt vertigo kicking in straight away. The way down was even more scary. I had to climb down the stairs fairly slowly, but I made it.

I didn't spend too much time in Wat Pho. Only went in to see the huge reclining Buddha.

If you want to see what I snapped in Thailand this time around, click here.

That was essentially the trip this time. I'm still planning my Europe trip for next year (May-June) but to my dismay I still haven't got a travel buddy yet. Fingers crossed.

toys update

2010-10-15T10:41:00.003+11:00

camera gear:
- Nikon D700 body
- Nikon 24-70mm f/2.8
- Nikon 70-200mm f/2.8
- Nikon 50mm f/1.4
- Nikon 18-35mm f/3.5-4.5
- Nikon 105mm f/2.8 Micro
- Nikon 16mm f/2.8 Fisheye
- Nikon SB800 flash
- Nikon SB600 flash
- Nikon GP-1 GPS logger
- Nikon MC-30 cable shutter release
- Singh Ray Colour Combo filter
- Gary Fong lightsphere collapsible
- Black Rapid R-Strap
- Polaroid One-Step 600
- Fuji Instax Mini 7
- Fuji Instax 500 AF (I want to sell this if anyone is interested)
- Diana F+ with instant back
- Gitzo 0541 Mountaineer
- Really Right Stuff Ultra Light Ballhead
- Kirk L-Brackets

on trips, i'd just bring the D700 (with the strap attached) with 24-70mm and one flash (usually SB800 with the lightsphere collapsible attached). lately i don't bring tripods anymore and the camera, lens and flash would fit nicely in my camera bag.

when i'm travelling at my destination, the camera is usually never in the bag. i have it strapped on my shoulder all the time.

guitars & stuff:
- Ibanez RGR620
- GrassRoots Forest GT
- Epiphone Dot ES-355
- two Warmoth custom strats
- Mesa Boogie Mark IV combo
- Mesa Boogie Stiletto Ace head
- Mesa Boogie Stiletto 2x12" cabinet
- Bad Horsie 2
- Fulltone OCD
- Boss DD-7
- Eventide ModFactor
- Stomp Box Turbo Tuner

won't be buying anything for a long while now i guess.

been a while, a bitter while

2010-10-10T22:48:00.005+11:00

last time i updated this blog was in may.

it's been five months.

a lot has happened between then and now. some were happy, some were sad, some really lifted my spirit, some crushed it, some were lovely and one was heart-breaking.

and so much has happened that i'd never thought that those things could happen just in a few months time.

i was really happy but i was also really really sad.

it felt like it had just went by but it also felt like it had been dragging and dragging for years.

my soul is relieved but my body and mind are exhausted.

and after the long but short five months time that had just passed but felt like years now what do i get out of it?

i feel i am now more reserved and bitter than i ever was.

not that i was usually a sweet and super outgoing person (read my playing jester post) before.

truth would and should only be revealed to a select few. to the others, maybe just some facts here and there, just to entertain and be a sport.

see how more bitter i become even on my blog?

other than that, nothing's new, guitar is still on, LEGO building is still on, photography is definitely still on. i should do a post soon putting my gears these days (photography and guitars).

thailand and cambodia trip is coming up next month. woohoo *discouragedly*

alright, gotta go, i'm still smiling, but that's just because that is the face i make when i am around.

a bold move

2010-05-05T00:34:00.000+10:00

As of now I'm moving all my artsy fartsy rants to tumblr.

I'll still post my rants and my trips (fingers crossed) here.

from blue to black

2010-04-28T14:01:00.000+10:00

I was standing on an ice lake. It was really cold but the ice had started to crack. Nobody was around and I could only see one house at the end of the lake.

The house had a solid foundation. It was a house made out of glass. The glass was so thick that you can only see what was going on inside but sound didn’t go through.

I came over to the house, hoping to get shelter.

When I reached it, I could see what was going on inside.

The house was nicely lit. It was decorated in white and everything was beautiful. Plenty of food, plenty of warmth. People were dancing to the music. It was a wonderful sight.

Then I saw the most beautiful girl. She was wearing a white dress and was seated on a white couch right at the center of the house. She was smiling. It was the most beautiful smile. I couldn’t help but notice her straight away.

She was surrounded by family, friends and people who are close to her. There were a lot of chit chat, laughter, champagne and all wonderful things were happening around her.

Just by looking at her I knew she was the one.

I wish I was in there, right by her side.

I tried knocking on the glass but it was too thick. The music was so loud it didn’t help much either.

I was alone, I was cold and the cracks were getting worse.

I knocked again and again and again until she finally noticed me.

She went over to her side of the glass where I was leaning on. When she stood in front of me from the other side, she smiled, reached out her hand and spoke. I couldn’t hear what she was saying but she looked sad. I tried to smile and hoped that it would cheer her up. It didn’t.

So I just reached my hand out to her and just looked at her face.

She was crying.

At that time I felt so helpless and frustrated because I couldn’t do anything. I signaled to her asking if she could let me in. Still crying, she slowly shook her head.

At that time, I could only think that if she’d let me in, I’d be able to console her, to throw all her sadness away…and love her.

Then all of the sudden the freezing water got to me. I was already ten feet under. The ice had broken but I didn’t realise it.

I was drowning.

‘Why did the ice break so quickly?’, ‘Could things have been different?’, ‘Why couldn’t she let me in?’, ‘Why was she crying?’, ‘Would another day make a difference?’.

Drowning even deeper into the seemingly bottomless lake, those were the things that I thought last. The freezing water didn’t even matter anymore.

Then I started to run out of air.

And when my consciousness started to fade, she was all I could see. Still wearing her white dress and her beautiful smile she reached her hand out to me.

I tried to reach out to her.

Then everything faded to black.

to japan - part 5 - the finale & encore

2010-04-21T21:15:00.001+10:00

Monday, 5 April to Monday, 12 April

So we arrived back at Tokyo. What a familiar feeling. So many people, all busy, noise everywhere. I was home. And felt more at home when we finally got back to our ryokan. After re-checking in, we went to dinner and rested.

Next day, Shinjuku. Yep, back to the busiest station in Tokyo. It was so big that when we got separated, even if we knew where we needed to meet up, we couldn’t find the right exit.

Went through Takashimaya and around 3 or 4PM, I went back to Asakusa. Went to Daiso/Hyakuen shop (100yen shop) and back to Senso-ji. Took photos of it and I learned my lesson that day. And boy I was glad my camera handles high ISO photos better than my previous one.

Japanese temples are much better photographed at dusk. They are OK if you photograph them during daytime but at dusk, that’s when they really shine. Or maybe it’s because my daytimes in Japan are mostly filled with clouds, not the nice ones, the gloomy ones.

After dinner, it was just the routines, fully packed train ride, Sunkus konbini opposite Minowa station and bought breakfast the next day and headed back to the ryokan.

The next two days were Disney themed with Odaiba in between.

First day we went to Disneysea. Took the Disney themed monorail from Maihama station. Even the station attendants kept on waving at people to look nice and happy.

I didn’t have that much fun in Disneysea. It’s not the place, it was the cold and drizzly weather and my stomach. My stomach hurt the whole time and I had to do my business a couple of times. Can you believe that? Finally at around 3PM I decided to bail. I went to Odaiba then back to Ueno to grab myself a quick dinner at Gyuu no Chikara then back to the ryokan.

The next day at Disneyland, it was much better. The weather was nicer, although still cold and my stomach wasn’t acting up anymore. Had lots of caramel popcorn. We stayed until late and left after the fireworks. Saw lots of parade there. Dinner, again, at Ueno. Had a karage set in a nice small diner at the corner of an alley in the market. It was so good Then back to ryokan.

And Friday came. Went to Mitaka to Ghibli Museum. After that we just went straight to Shibuya, just to take photos of the crossing, then back to Akihabara. Tried going into one of those maid cafés. I felt weird. I won’t explain what it is. If you don’t know and you want to know, click here.

Later that night we had some yakiniku at, yes, Ueno then headed home..

Two days before we left, we went to Ueno station quite early and bought ourselves the Skyliner tickets for us to go back to Narita airport on Monday. I didn’t bother bringing my camera out today. My shoulder was sore. Then off to Shinjuku to have lunch, then off to Shibuya and just explore the alleys. Later that night we were taken by my friend’s friend, a local, to have dinner at an izakaya in Shibuya (if I’m not mistaken, sorry Shinjuku, Shibuya and Ikebukuro is now a blur to me heheh) and she promised to take us to this spicy ramen place the next day in Ikebukuro. Woohoo! Spent the night, yet again, in Ueno. Got myself a Crayon Shinchan plushie after the machine ate probably 2000yen of our money. Never again.

Last day in Tokyo, we went to Ikebukuro and as promised we were taken to this spicy ramen place called Nakamoto ramen. People were queueing outside and I didn’t dare try the spiciest ramen (10/10 fires) since tomorrow I had to hop on a plane and I don’t want my stomach acting up again, just a precaution. If I were still there for a couple of days, then I would.

The verdict, it was spicy.

Then spent the afternoon around Ikebukuro and Harajuku and that night, yep, you guessed it, Ueno again. I’ve become so attached to Ueno because of their small alleyway markets. The food was awesome and it was close to our ryokan, only two train stops away. I tried to go back to the place where I had Hambagu rice on our first week in Tokyo but I was too late. When I got to the alley where it was located, I saw a sign on the door and straight away I had a bad feeling. And I was right, the sign said ‘closed’. Argh! Next time I’m in Tokyo I have to go back there again. I hope I still remember where it is.

And on the day of the flight, we woke up quite early, took a taxi to Nippori station where we then took the Skyliner to Narita airport. There I returned my rental simcard, had breakfast at McDonald’s (yup, they had a muffin with pork, how cool was that?), bought some snacks and was on my way home.

Would I come back? Definitely, but I’d like to travel around to other countries before I go back to Japan if possible.

Things I’m gonna miss: definitely the food and the snacks. They’re fast, they’re easy on the stomach and they look good too. And the toilets. I love Japan’s toilets.

Things I definitely don't miss: getting lost, the noise, the packed trains, the packed trams, the packed buses, the continuous ‘irashaimaseeeeeee’ (welcome) in high pitch voices whenever you enter a store (it was cute at first but after a while it becomes quite annoying), the maid cafés and the scarceness of rubbish bins

Photos as usual, are up on my Flickr.

And I will post again soon, hopefully, just about anything.

to japan - part 4 - banzai kansai

2010-04-21T15:12:00.002+10:00

For my Japan trip photos, click here.

Tuesday, 30 March 2010 to Monday, 5 April 2010

We were on our way to Tokyo station quite early. Shinkansen leaves at 8.30 (from memory) so we didn’t have time to dilly dally.

Got to the platform on time, bought ourselves bento boxes for lunch and we’re on our way to Hiroshima.

It was our first Shinkansen ride. We were excited.

The Shinkansen passed the Mt.Fuji view but I was able to resist my urge to take photos of it. I don’t know why but for me Mt.Fuji wasn’t that exciting. I couldn’t remember if we needed to switch to another Shinkansen somewhere but the train ride to Hiroshima took about five hours from Tokyo and of course, most of the time we were sound asleep.

And so we arrived in Hiroshima.

We didn’t waste much time in Hiroshima station. Went straight to our hostel, checked in and straight back to Hiroshima station since we wanted to catch a train to Miyajima-guchi.

When we were waiting at the platform, I wasn’t sure of what was going on but nobody seem to be getting on board the train, so we tried asking around, and by asking around I meant asking around since it’s really quite a daunting task if you don’t speak Japanese.

Not sure what was really happening but apparently the train to Miyajima-guchi wasn’t running at that time and we had to take the tram to Miyajima-guchi.

No worries, I’ve been on trams before, they’re alright.

Mistake! Apparently everybody from the station (yes I’m exaggerating a bit) had already queued at the tram stop for tram No.2, the one that’s going to Miyajima-guchi. And after we got on the tram, it was jam packed with people *reminiscing my Tokyo trains experience* and so it began, the hour-long tram ride to Miyajima-guchi. It felt like so long that when there are actually space in the tram for me to sit down, I didn’t feel like it anymore.

An interesting fact: you get on the tram from the front door and exit from the left-hand side door where you pay your fares to the conductor there.

When we got to Miyajima-guchi, it was freakin’ cold. I finally sat on board the ferry that’s going to take us to Miyajima island.

And there it was, Itsukushima jinja. I went all the way to Hiroshima just for this.

And so began the long walk from the ferry terminal to the actual giant tori and when I got there I was amazed. It was huge. Photos didn’t turn out great since the sun was facing our way and I, being a lazy person that I am, didn’t bother bringing a tripod with me so I could HDR the view.

We stayed there until the sun went down. It was freezing. I bought a few manjus on my way back and when I finally got back to the ferry terminal, the warm tea in that pet bottle felt like the best tea I’ve ever had. It gave me warmth, it gave me sensation (of all twenty days of travel this day killed my legs the most. It was far and it was cold), it gave me life.

Back at Hiroshima station, I was already craving for some Hiroshimayaki and I got mine from Reichan in the Hiroshima station complex shopping mall. It was big, it was tasty, it was satisfying. And afterwards, we went back to our hostel.

The next day, it’s our second Shinkansen ride. We’re going backwards to Osaka. Took about two hours from Hiroshima to Shin-Osaka station. From Shin-Osaka station we had to take another train to Osaka station and from there we had to take the Osaka-loop train to Noda.

In Osaka, nobody speaks English.

That’s not an understatement, they’ll actually force you to speak Japanese. Don’t trust me? Well, seeing is believing. Go ahead and try.

And the subway system didn’t help making it any easier either. I think Osaka’s train system is the worst compared to Tokyo and Kyoto. We didn’t reach the ryokan without getting lost first by a rapid service that actually went past Noda. We had to go back a bit.

As usual, after we got to Noda station, maps didn’t help so we had to…yes, ask around. We finally found the hotel we were staying in and even there, they just spoke really really broken English. Example: yes, phone *pointing to a telephone*, black, free.

We waited until we could check ourselves in. It was 3PM by then and we went out again half an hour after that.

The site we were after was the Osaka 1970 Expo park. It was located at Banpaku Kinen Koen station. Got on the train to Senri Chuo station and took a monorail from there. Walked a bit more and I finally saw it from afar.

The Tower of the Sun.

As glorious as it was drawn in the 20^th Century Boys manga..only without the ‘friend’ logo.

After getting lost again, of course, we managed to get ourselves to Dotonbori. Time to feast! My friends ordered tempura, seafood etc etc and I could only manage to get myself a pot of sukiyaki, with raw egg, of course. It was delish. And so the night ended.

The trip to Koya-san the next day was probably the longest trip without Shinkansen ever for us. It was two train rides, a cable car ride and we had to take buses within the Koya-san complex. The whole trip to Koya-san probably took an hour and a half one way.

Went straight to Okuno Dobyo, the deepest site at Koya-san complex and made our way backwards to the entry. It was already 4PM when we left. I was quite tired and hungry.

That night we went to Naniwa Kuishinbo Yokocho, a foodcourt which supposedly was modeled after Osaka in the 70s (or 80s) but we got there quite late and most of the food stalls were already closed. Dammit! Had a curry rice but it wasn’t great.

The day after, took another Shinkansen to Kyoto. After checking in, we had lunch at Sukiya. This was one of the many meals we were going to be having at this place. For us, it was cheap, it was delicious, it was fast. I, of course, got myelf a gyuudon with raw egg.

Inari station was only two stops away from Kyoto station. Here lies the infamous Fushimi Inari Taisha. For you who has seen the movie Memoirs of a Geisha, this is the place where they shot the oh-so-many-red-gates scene. We didn’t finish the whole complex as it was quite big. We decided to have a walk around the district and had a look at a lot of shops, mostly selling seafood and souvenirs.

That afternoon, we went to Gion. I had to see what it was like and it was quite packed. Had to take a bus to go there and, as usual, it was jam packed without any seats left.

Fact: get on the bus from the left-hand side door and exit from the front door next to the driver where you’d pay your fares there. Prepare small change.

We weren’t quite sure what to do in Gion so we walked around and ended up at an opening of a festival. Can’t remember what it was but it had something to do with the sakura. Got one free shot of sake and felt a bit woozy afterwards. Yes, I haven’t had anything to eat yet. Stayed in Gion until probably 8PM-ish and back to, yep you guessed it, Sukiya! Actually we wanted to have dinner in this fancy place where they’ve got like a kaiseki but it was fully booked.

Next morning, another Shinkansen ride to Himeji. Took about an hour from Kyoto. When we got there, me and a friend just rushed to Himeji-jo as there was a sign that said, in English, waiting time at the entrance of the castle was 40 minutes. I knew we couldn’t waste so much time since we had to catch our Shinkansen ride back to Kyoto later that afternoon.

So after a lot of queueing, we got to enter the castle. The wait is finally over.

Apparently not. It was the same inside. And after what felt like a few hours of queueing, we finally were able to go into the castle, explore all six levels of it, went back down and exit. We had to take our shoes off to enter the castle but they did provide plastic bags for us to carry our shoes. Free of charge.

After Himeji, rode the Shinkansen again back to Kyoto and I went to Pontocho dori, next to Gion, which is an alleyway famous for nightlife, geisha, restaurants and teahouses. Got some snaps of a couple of geishas, or as they say for geishas originating from Kyoto, geiko.

The bus ride to Kinkakuji the following morning was a long one. As usual, it was packed. I guess everybody wanted to get a look at what the Golden Pavillion is all about.

Got there after about an hour standing in the crowded bus.

Once we got to the photo spot of Kinkakuji, I was pissed and I can now say that Chinese tourists are the worst. Well, maybe that’s not true but these people made it seem that way for me.

I was just doing my business, that’s photographing my view in front of me. I was leaning on the fence in front of me when this couple of Chinese tourists started pushing me to the side.

First push I thought OK, they might just be getting themselves next to the fence in between other people so I sorta let that go. Then came the second push, so I took a quick look at them and went back to photographing. While I had a glance at them, the woman said something in Chinese, which I didn’t understand, but I was sure it wasn’t asking me politely to move away (I kinda guessed out of her facial expression), so I just continued taking photos when another push to my hand landed.

Seriously, couldn’t you just wait for a few seconds?

What does she think? That I’d be standing there the whole day just to not let her have her picture taken with her boyfriend/husband?

Back to Kinkakuji, I did a circle of the complex and out. Went back to Kyoto station area and had lunch. Not at Sukiya but at this fancy restaurant I wrote above.

Afterwards, went to Arashiyama to Sagano bamboo grove. To tell you the truth, I was expecting more, but I took photos nevertheless.

Later that night, I did my laundry and hung around at our hostel with a large can of Sapporo.

The following day, it was time to go back to Tokyo, but not before visiting Kiyomizu dera.

The bus to Kiyomizu dera was the same with the one we took to go to Gion, only we didn’t have to stop as far.

It was quite a long hike to the entrance but I persevere. It was still early after all. The temple was gorgeous. Especially with the sakura around it. Walked till I finished the whole complex and went back down. My friend rented a kimono and I took a few photos of her.

Had a bowl of Kyoto style noodle soup and we were on our way back to the hostel. Checked out and went to catch our last Shinkansen ride of the trip back to Tokyo.

To be continued…

to japan - part 3 - lost in tokyo

2010-04-20T16:08:00.002+10:00

For my Japan trip photos, click here.

Wednesday, 24 March 2010 to Tuesday, 30 March 2010

So, we were roaming Narita airport (without my luggage) and went to the JR Office, exchanged our JR Passes and bought the Narita Express tickets along with some Suica cards.

Yokoso Japan!

When we first board the Narita Express, I thought Japan was so peaceful. The train was quiet, we were the only ones in that carriage and there was only the occasional tray-pushing waitress selling drinks and snacks passing by.

After an hour and a half, we arrived at Tokyo Station area and started losing our way even though we’ve got directions to our ryokan. So we started asking around. I couldn’t remember which train line we hopped on but it was definitely a JR train. We were told to get off at Minami-Senju station even though the ryokan gave us directions to get off at Minowa station. We thought ‘yeah, it’s OK. We’ll just find a map and find our way to the ryokan’ (this happens all the time during our first week in Japan, directions were scarce).

So we got off at Minami-Senju station only to confuse ourselves once again. After asking people around and finally giving the ryokan a quick call, we finally were able to find our way there. It’s not too bad. It was only a fifteen-minute walk with us lugging our luggage’s (yes I did help a friend carry their luggage too, so I wasn’t dilly dally-ing).

Once we arrived, we just did all the paperworks and were on our way.

First stop, Kanoya Udon. Having to feel the winter breeze all over again (in March mind you) without the proper jacket is really a situation you don’t ever want to be in..ever. So having seated myself in this cozy udon restaurant and slurping my udon and the soup away was really refreshing to me, my body and my two sleepy eyes. Got coffee for free afterwards. So warm.

I didn’t think we did very much on our first day. After lunch we went looking for a Lawsons (one of the many konbinis – convenience stores). Lawsons sell the entry tickets to the Ghibli Museum and we haven’t got that yet. We finally found one. After a lot of effort buying it from the ticket machine (don’t understand the language and the entry time slot were all fully booked), we managed to squeeze ourselves into one of the timeslots and went back. It was just check-in and sleep afterwards.

Went to Ueno for dinner whilst getting amazed by our surroundings. When we first arrived at Ueno station and got out, we were surrounded by shops selling..just about everything, and when we got out from the station, it was even better. We didn’t explore too much, we just wanted to go for dinner. So finally we went into one of the curry rice restaurants. Whaddya know? A vending machine curry restaurant. So we ate and we ate hard (we were hungry people). Afterwards, went to a seven eleven and bought some snacks and then home.

The next morning I’ve already thought to myself ‘relax, if my luggage doesn’t arrive this morning, it will be here this afternoon’. So we showered. Lucky the ryokan had towels, liquid soap and shampoo provided for tenants.

I was ready to go when the reception called and she told me my luggage had just arrived. I was excited.

Changed my undies and we started exploring. We went a little bit further than Ueno to Akihabara, the electronic city. Went in to Yodobashi camera and had a look around but mostly drooled a lot. Only bought an Ethernet cable since our room has free internet connection. And I now can hum the Yodobashi camera theme by heart.

Went for lunch in a restaurant where they didn’t have any English menu. So with my limited Japanese (I can only read katakana) I was finally able to order myself a kaki fry set.

It was a rainy day but our ryokan was kind enough to lend us umbrellas. They have a neat system in Japan where if you go into stores when it’s raining, the always have a place where you can get plastic bags for your umbrella that’s shaped like an umbrella cover when you first bought it. Sometimes they’re manual, sometimes they’re semi-automatic (you just put your umbrella into the hole and pull out with your umbrella already covered in plastic).

Later that afternoon, our destination was Odaiba. My long lost friend agreed to meet us there. I still remember how we had to ask for directions in Shimbashi station to go to the Yurikamome monorail. Odaiba wasn’t so bad after all. Weather sucks though. Most of our days in Tokyo are filled with one hand wielding umbrella and the other hand in a pocket to make sure we’re not freezing to death.

We visited Yoyogi Hachiman temple the following day. It was a secluded nice small temple. Finally, time to click that shutter away.

Afterwards was a visit to the Meiji-jingu. This was a large temple right behind Harajuku station. Plenty of local tourists as well as foreign tourists here. I think we entered from the back side and exited from the front where they had sake barrels all lined up nicely just after the tori.

Naturally we visited Harajuku and Omote-Sando after that. Had lunch at a ramen shop in one of the alleyways of Omote-Sando. Beautiful. Hung around in Takeshita Dori almost the whole afternoon then crossed the road to Harajuku St where I finally got myself one of those hot sweet potatoes. So very sweet, and for the weather that day, it was heaven.

I bought myself a Nobita action figure from Kiddy land and a Sapporo Tee from UT then moved our butts to Jimbocho and had ourselves dinner at Le Gout Raffine en France. It was packed. I had the beef curry and if it was a little bit more spicy it would’ve been awesome, but I didn’t complain.

The next morning started really early. I should probably have said dawn instead of morning. I woke up at 4AM and gotten myself ready to go to Tsukiji fish market to see the tuna auction which start at 5AM. We got there alright, not just us, a few hundred other people too.

Walking into the market while watching ourselves not to get hit by the buzzing battery carts we made it to the tuna auction area and had to queue for a bit. It was quite a scene. And viewers could only watch from a near distance without being allowed to enter the actual tuna auction area. We were just, sort of, passing through the tuna auction area and it was so packed with people it felt like the trains in the evenings.

Had hot tea and onigiri before and after the market then breakfast. Sushi and sashimi at Sushizanmai. I wasn’t too fond of them but they’re OK.

After that, we visited the Kitanomaru garden and got a glimpse of the blooming sakura. There wasn’t too much there yet but we got the gist of it. Afterwards, had some snack at Yasukuni jinja and went for a buffet lunch at Zenmaru.

Shinjuku was bustling with people. That’s my first impression when I first got there after lunch. I though maybe because it was lunch time but then I was informed that it was actually the busiest station in Tokyo. Believe me, it is. We hung around Shinjuku until late afternoon and went to Nakano afterwards. I want some Crayon Shinchan but couldn’t find any.

My cravings for gyuu don brought me into Yoshinoya and man, I was satisfied. Say what you want about Yoshinoya but I’m a sucker for gyuu don. Went back to the ryokan with my legs feeling as if they were almost done for.

Next morning, Ueno again. Got out of the ryokan quite late thanks to yesterday. Went straight to lunch to this place where there was no English menu (different from before). I had a hambagu rice (minced meat like they have in burgers) and a potato salad. I love this place so much but I didn’t know what it’s called and I forgot to ask. I actually tried going back to this place the night before we flew back to Singapore but it was closed. Damn!

Walked around Ueno a bit then off to Roppongi. I really want my Crayon Shinchan. Made our way to Asahi TV building and got myself some Crayon Shinchan. I was quite surprised and disappointed since they didn’t have that much Shinchan merchandise compared to Hello Kitty and Doraemon.

Anyway, spent some time at the bazaar next to the building and went to Ginza later that night to have wagyu bagu for dinner. Nice.

Next day, Asakusa’s Senso-ji, but not before doing our laundry, dried it and had many-pork-noodle (chasiu-men, but it says many-pork-noodle on the menu) for lunch. That many-pork-noodle is one of my food highlights in Japan. I'm still hooked up to this day and I wish Melbourne would have something similar to it. I will be back!!!

Once we got to Senso-ji, it started raining. Awesome. Why Tokyo? Why? Bought some umbrellas, one an actual umbrella and two other were just tiny ones..for photography purposes I guess. Again we entered the temple from the back and made our way to the front where Kaminarimon is.

Had Mos Burger after Senso-ji and later that night we visited Nijubashi bridge in Chiyoda. Parked ourselves at Wadakura Fountain Park and back to the ryokan afterwards.

The following day, we were off to Kansai.

To be continued…

to japan - part 2 - quirks

2010-04-20T01:22:00.002+10:00

For my Japan trip photos, click here.

Alright, before going into the whole trip, I’d just like to point out some facts and quirks which you might not be able to find in any other countries. Here goes.

Locker coins at train stations

I’m not sure if other countries have this kind of facility. I know Asia probably don’t. Australia definitely doesn’t. Not sure about European countries though. You’d just put whatever things you don’t need to carry if you know you’ll be going back to the station where you put your stuff is. Not sure if the coin is refundable though.

Rubbish bins, where are they?

If you’ve ever tried to dispose of any kind of rubbish you have in Tokyo, Kyoto, Osaka or Hiroshima (these are the cities I visited) then you’d probably notice the same thing, that it’s really hard to find rubbish bins. And when you actually find one, you’d probably had to differentiate your rubbish from cans, papers, bottles and plastic, or in the more lenient rubbish bins, burnable garbage and non-burnable garbage.

I did a google search on this and (since I’m so lazy) apparently the Japanese used to litter all household rubbish in public rubbish bins. I believe it. But these days the city is so clean it’s crazy. Maybe it’s a good thing that you can’t find rubbish bins since it forces people to carry their rubbish with them and dispose it accordingly.

Vending machines galore

Even on small streets and alleys you’ll find them. Most of the vending machines sell drinks but in some places, they’ve got vending machines selling ice cream, newspapers, books, memory cards, batteries, cup noodles, flowers (I didn’t actually find one) and in a lot of fast serve restaurants you don’t order from the guys at the counter. Yup, you go to the vending machine inside the restaurant, insert your money and choose what you want to eat. You’d get a ticket, give it to the person at the counter and you just sit and wait.

Eating while standing

Have you ever went to a restaurant where you’re standing while you’re eating? I happen to see a lot of these restaurants in Japan, unfortunately I didn’t get to try any one of these. My legs were always killing me so I always want to sit when I’m eating. Helps me ease the pain.

Every train station has their own theme song

Does that calm the soul? Does it make people walk a bit more slowly? Anyway, every train station does have their own theme song.

Super packed train carriages

I thought I’ve experienced ‘packed’ during peak hours in Melbourne, apparently I was wrong. I’ve now experienced what it’s like being pushed into a crowd of people when I thought they couldn’t fit more in. I was standing next to the door inside a carriage until the announcement was saying that the door was about to close and it felt like my first metal concert when the headliner was on. I was pushed into the middle of the carriage, stuck there and couldn’t move an inch.

Can’t talk on your mobile phone in trains

There’s always that announcement telling you to turn off your mobile phone if you’re standing next to designated seats (for elderlies etc etc) and to not talk on your mobile phone. And in trains, people only seem to do a few things; play games on their phones, watch TV on their phones, play a Nintendo DS, or sleep.

Tissue packs as promotional materials

Everywhere I go it seems like people are always handing out small tissue packs as promotional materials to whatever kinds of things. Brochures just aren’t enough anymore.

Heated toilet seat and bidet

Love em! I can’t say that enough. Love em! It was cold when we were there. So when it comes down to me doing my business, that’s a no brainer.

They love to push

Seriously, and they don’t think it’s rude…at least that’s the impression I got over there. I’m not sure if they’re like that to other Japanese too but in a society where people seem to be so very polite compared to other countries I’ve been, pushing each other seem contradictive.

Maid cafés and butler cafés

Seriously, I felt awkward when I went into one of the maid cafes in Akihabara. It’s like a whole different world. The waitresses in maid cafes dress up as French maids and will serve you like you’re their..masters? I felt weird, seriously.

Fashion

If you’ve been to Japan, you’d definitely see what you’d probably think a wacky sense of fashion, especially if you hang around Harajuku. Takeshita dori comes to mind straight away. Go and see for yourself.

To be continued…

to japan - part 1 - the beginning

2010-04-19T23:46:00.005+10:00

For my Japan trip photos, click here.

Tuesday, 23 March 2010.
OK, I was excited. I was going on a holiday, I was going to meet some friends and I was going to Japan!

Of course it wouldn’t be me if there weren’t any mishaps in my trip. And apparently, it didn’t take long for things to start going wrong.

The flight from Jakarta to Singapore was delayed for about fifteen minutes. The PA said it was because the flight from Singapore to Jakarta was delayed for fifteen minutes.

No biggie right?

Wrong. My connecting flight to Tokyo is scheduled to take off an hour right after my flight to Singapore and me, being not too fond of being in an airport and waiting thought I had cleverly booked a, sort of, back to back flight. After all, there’s an hour space for me to get out of the plane and move to the next one right?

Wrong again. Since my flight was delayed, when I arrived at Changi Airport, the customer service there was already shouting around asking for the people who should be boarding their next flight to Melbourne or Tokyo. And one of them is me.

So they had me and a Japanese guy hop on to one of those battery cars they have at Changi and took us to the gate where our flight was supposed to be boarding. This is when I heard more bad news.

‘I’m sorry, but since you arrived less than fourty five minutes before your next flight, we don’t have enough time to move your luggage into your flight to Tokyo, so when you arrive, talk to the customer service there and they’ll arrange for your luggage collection’.

I beg your pardon?

I tried to reconfirm and he said the same thing except he also added that if they could, they’d try to do it then but he didn’t want to give me any false hopes so I gave in..because I was quite tired too, it was an evening flight.

And so he drove and drove to almost the very end of the B gates of terminal 3 when he spoke to someone on his walkie talkie and found out that he drove us to the wrong gate. So we went back to the A gate (I think it was A10) and I managed to board my flight with my friend still waiting for me to come.

So we caught up for a bit since we haven’t seen each other for a while but on the flight, I was sleeping most of the time because I was tired and I know we’ve got a whole day ahead of us tomorrow morning. At this time, I haven’t even met my two other friends I’m supposed to meet from Melbourne.

And so we arrived at Narita airport. Hello Tokyo. Konnichiwa!

When I stepped out of the corridor, I thought we’d both wait for my two other friends so we'd check out together but guess what, I’ve already got my name written on the whiteboard just outside the corridor. Talk about your five-star welcome to Tokyo huh? So I walked over to the lady who’s apparently a Singapore Airlines customer service personnel. She explained (in English mind you) that my luggage couldn’t be brought along with this flight since my previous flight was late (way to go smartass) and that it would have to be delivered to where I was staying. And she added it could take a week.

SAY WHAT?

No big deal, I'd just walk around in Tokyo with the same piece of clothing everyday, right?

So I met my two friends, asked them to take my photo with the whiteboard with my name on it and proceeded to baggage claim area. I filled some forms there to get them to send my luggage to the ryokan I’m staying. I grabbed the simcard I had rented afterwards and was on my way to Tokyo.

Lesson: when you need to book two connecting flights, leave about a two-hour window in between. You'd have to wait longer but it guarantees that your luggage travels with you.

To be continued…

back from tokyo

2010-04-19T21:08:00.004+10:00

Actually it's been a week since I got back from Tokyo.

Stay tuned people, I'm writing a blog that would hopefully summarise my experience in the land of the rising sun...yeah, like that'd happen...

Seriously, stay tuned. Good to be back though.

off to tokyo

2010-03-23T23:32:00.003+11:00

Well here I am yet again.

Waiting for the flight that'deh take my to Singapore, then an hour after that, I'm flying off to Japan.

Three years in planning, delaying, more planning and more delaying. Well now here it is, Japan, my (used to be) ultimate travel destination.

The thing is now, I'm not even sure if I'm ready for it or not.

Maybe it's because of the delays that I've almost lost interest, maybe it's the lost anticipation. But maybe it's because of something more personal than those reasons.

Sure I want to travel more, see more places, get in touch with more cultures, taste different cuisines, definitely take (and hopefully sell) more travel photos, but at the moment I'm too focused on something else. Something only 'you' would know.

I feel a bit of everything at the moment but I'll soldier on.

For the next 20 days, it would be crazy sushi-eating, loads of camera-clicking and definitely some sakura viewing.

But having said that I know that 'you'll still be there lurking underneath, shadowing me doing these things even if it's only in my mind.

Aaaaaaah the beautiful agony, wonderful misery.

japan

2010-03-16T18:06:00.002+11:00

I'll be flying to Japan next Tuesday. Super excited.

After my trips to Thailand and China late last year, this one is the one that I anticipated the most, but to tell you the truth, I didn't really prepare for this trip. I don't really research itineraries, I don't really research how to go from one place to another. I'd just hope that everything goes according to plan.

I need to find Crayon Shinchan merchandises.

I'll see you after the trip.

Anyway, I've been staying in Indonesia for a while now. I'd say it's not that bad. There are differences to life in Melbourne, but I'm getting used to it.

Anyway, ready or not, Japan here I come.

2 in 1

2010-02-14T02:01:00.002+11:00

happy chinese new year and happy valentine

I'll be coming to you in twelve minus nine

h2c

2010-02-12T14:31:00.002+11:00

worst feeling ever

unfavourable endeavour

crushing all intention

feeling cold and tension

i'm shaking

perpetually breaking

even if i want to start braking

nothing can stop me from aching

except for you

f@#$!!!

2010-02-01T16:30:00.001+11:00

Go to hell!!!

it's one of those days

somehow you feel that you don't belong

nothing seems to go the way you want to

and nothing seems to be able to get through

when i stare into space

i'm hoping there's a place

where no one is obese

and i can just rest in piece

of course we'd all wish

that it'd alwyas be rainbows and butterflies

but what we end up with is compromise

and cries and lies

someday i'd find that happy place

there'd be no tears, just happy face

but for now, all that, i have to replace

with the whole world for me to embrace

3G when travelling overseas

2010-01-29T00:14:00.004+11:00

At the moment, 3G when travelling overseas sucks! Big time.

As far as I'm concerned, when travelling abroad, 3G becomes a nuisance. Yes, I'm talking about the price of data roaming.

It's so damn expensive.

I heard people who paid up to AU$2000 just 3G-ing for a week overseas. Isn't that kind of expense only meant for business people who are on their business trips and (hopefully) would be able to get their work to reimburse that?

I'd say telcos need to get around this. Do more co-ops with overseas telcos, or even better, offer a 3G-enabled SIM card for instant use (meaning: no hassles with registration bla bla bla paperwork and shit).

I'm sure plenty of people wouldn't mind buying a 3G-enabled prepaid SIM card to use on their mobile phones when travelling as long as the data service is priced reasonably.

At the moment, when travelling overseas, most of us are counting on wi-fi hot spots which in some countries are virtually non-existent.

I need my always-on connectivity.

I know, I know, I'm an IM junkie. Can you blame me for that?

speechless

2010-01-23T23:59:00.004+11:00

I know I haven't been blogging for a while.

Various reasons for it; didn't make time for it, didn't know what to jot down, didn't feel like it, working on my photos all the time etc etc.

Even at the moment when I do have time to do it, I don't know what to write.

Well I went to Thailand last *checking my past blog entries* November. That was quite good. Then came back for a few weeks to Melbourne and went to China last December.

Photo-wise, I'd say my photos in Thailand are heaps better than the ones I took in China. Gear-wise, they're the same, well almost. I took the D700 and two lenses with me to Thailand, my 24-70mm f/2.8 and my 18-35mm, one flash (SB800) and that's it really. Didn't even bother to bring my tripod with me and I didn't regret that decision. I'm still wondering if I should keep bringing the 18-35 on my Japan trip next March.

I loved my Thailand trip, but as for my China trip, let's just say I'm a bit bummed about it, mostly because of the weather and the food, not to mention I lost my lens cap there too. And the worst was when I had to do my number two in Jiuzhaigou. Not coming back to China in winter, at least for now.

Other than that there's not that much to write. I guess there is, but I'd just think that they're too personal for this space.

All I can say is that I've made quite a life-changing decision, and I'm so looking forward to it.

I'm not sure if it's going to be good or bad, but at the moment I can only hope that this decision would get me to a much better and exciting life than my current just-going-through-the-motions life.

Won't be shopping for photography and guitar gear for a while now.

Cheerio.

Surprise trip

2009-12-14T04:16:00.002+11:00

Since there's not that much work at work, I've decided to travel yet again.

I'm leaving Melbourne in two days. How exciting is that?

Going back to Jakarta, will apply for a Chinese visa, yet again, and will be flying to China the coming Sunday. Hopefully it won't be that cold. I heard it goes down to ten degrees below zero. I'm not really scared of that, just afraid that mom can't stand the cold.

I almost had a problem with Singapore Airlines again.

Here's the scoop.

I tried to get a ticket as I knew it's going to be hard to get since it was sort of last minute. Checked their website and it said a seat was available.

Not a problem, I think, but being a lazy person to fill in forms online, I decided to call SIA and wanted to book on the phone.

Had to wait aroudn fifteen minutes on the phone.

Not a problem, it was at work anyway. So after fifteen minutes I spoke to one of the customer service representatives. Goes something like this.

SIA Rep: Hi, how can I help you today?

Me: I'd like to book a return ticket from Melbourne to Jakarta with a stop over in Singapore on the way back.

SIA Rep: certainly, when do you want to fly out to Jakarta?

Me: 12th or 13th of December if possible

SIA Rep: please wait while I check if any seats are available

Me: thanks

SIA Rep: I'm sorry sir, those dates are not available, is there any other dates you'd prefer?

Me: around that date, but it should be after the 13th

SIA Rep: Let me check again... (and after a few seconds pause) I'm sorry sir, the 14th, 15th and 16th is full. In fact, the whole month of December is booked out

At this point, I was thinking to myself, how can that be possible that there's no single seat left for the entire month? That could be true but I refused to believe that.

Me: but the website told me that a seat is still available on the 15th

SIA Rep: then I would recommend you to buy your ticket from the website

Me: OK, thanks a lot

Then I hang up and (sot of) ran as fast as I could to my desk, re-log in to my KrisFlyer account and filled in those online forms I filled in earlier hoping that the same seat was still available.

It was!!!

I was relieved.

So I'll be home in two days and hopefully visa application isn't troublesome.

Tell you all about it later.

Thailand so far

2009-11-13T03:39:00.003+11:00

I've spent the last few days in Bangkok and surrounds.

It's more like a Buddhist pilgrimage this time.

I thought it wasn't too bad. I didn't have to pray with the group if I didn't want to. I could just run around and take photos and so far I'm liking them.

Bangkok kinda reminds me of Jakarta where traffic is really bad, but that's it.

I'm now blogging from my room in Phuket. So very tired and sleepy.

Will write more when I get the time in Melbourne. Of course I'll be uploading some photos too.

that took a while

2009-11-07T09:13:00.002+11:00

So there I was in the cab driving me to the airport.

The weather tonight was nice (meaning: not too cold). I had the window open to let the air in. I loved the smell of the air tonight. I felt a bit sleepy and was dozing off a bit from time to time. And as the cab took me along the M1, I couldn't help thinking how I miss my mom... and dad. Then there I was, Tullamarine.

Maybe it's just me but everytime I go to the airport for my flight, the queue seems to get longer and longer. I stood at the last of the baggage drop queue and it took me around thirty minutes for me to get to the counter.

I was anxious. I asked straight away if I could get my aisle seat. She said yes. She also explained that I had the aisle seat all along. Good job SIA customer service. I am, again, one happy customer. But still, please fix the mobile check-in system. Please.

Had to queue some more at customs. Probably took less time than before but felt like it was the same. Then had to queue at the Tourist Refund Scheme and through the x-ray.

All was OK. Didn't have to wait that long at Gate no.9 as we were boarding soon.

Slept most of the time on the plane. Only woke up to eat, eat and hot towels.

The flight felt like it took only about three hours. I was going to watch some movies but couldn't be bothered as I felt really really sleepy.

I'm now at Changi and writing this post while waiting for my next flight to Jakarta. I think I still have an hour or so to walk around so I'll go and see if the food shops are open. I want one of those Bee Cheng Hiang spicy pork jerky.

Till next time.

Singapore Airlines' mobile check-in sucks

2009-11-05T10:52:00.003+11:00

So I tried to check-in to my two flights on the iPhone this morning.

Went to Singapore Airlines' mobile check-in site and punched in my KrisFlyer details into it.

Seconds later I was choosing my seat for my first segment from Melbourne to Singapore and I thought 'hey, this is pretty cool. I don't have to do this from the PC anymore'.

From there things started to go downhill.

I finished my first segment when the screen just showed me the Next button. I scanned everything else on the page... nothing... so I clicked on it.

Then it thanked me and told me that my booking was completed.

That can't be good.

I still kept my hopes up. I'd thought maybe for the next segment I'd have to wait for the 48-hour before the flight thing for it to show up.

Wrong!!!

I got at work, checked my email and there it was, the SIA check-in confirmation in my inbox. And it's telling me I'll be sitting on the window seat, my least favourite part of the seats while travelling by myself.

I thought it's OK, I can still change it by going on to the website as they always have that option of changing your seats.

Wrong again!!!

After a few attempts of changing seats I gave up. I even went all the way to try to cancel my check-in but the system didn't allow me to do it.

So my last resort was to call SIA's customer service in Sydney. Why last resort? Because to get through to an actual person, you'd have to go past through a few machine prompts which of course is always annoying.

When I finally spoke to the customer service and explained my whole situation, the only thing the told me he could do was to inform the airport that this has happened and hopefully they'd be able to reserve me an aisle seat for both segments.

I'm pretty sure even if I got to the airport early tomorrow I still won't be able to get a good aisle seat. I'd settle for ANY aisle seat.

Will continue this post tomorrow evening after checking in.

funny love

2009-10-21T23:47:00.003+11:00

I'm still working on it (this tune I'm working on titled Funny Love, hence the title of this post).

The basic tracks are, well, basically laid out.

I've played it to a few people and the feedback is that it's a really catchy tune.

Gotta love a catchy tune.

It basically starts with a jazzy bossanova kinda beat up to the chorus then it changes to a basic 4/4 rock beat. That's basically the whole thing.

I'm still waiting for my M-Audio DMP2 to arrive and of course my Nikkor fisheye 16mm too.

~~And I've got my D300 on eBay too.~~ SOLD!!!

google wave

2009-10-07T00:19:00.001+11:00

Oh one more thing, Ronald sent me an invite for Google Wave preview.

Cool.

Keep checking my Flickr y'all.

where am i?

2009-10-07T00:04:00.003+11:00

I've been here all along but was just too lazy to write and couldn't find anything to write about.

I've been doing quite a few of people photography lately. I'm starting to get interested in photographing people as objects and to appreciate the beauty that the human being is.

I now own a Nikon D700 and got some FX lenses, the cheap ones. I just got back from testing the high ISO performance. For me ISO6400 is not useable in the dark. Might try and keep it at 3200 max.

I'm trying to sell my D300 as of now and some lenses and accessories too.

Took mum to the tulip festival Saturday a fortnight ago. It was windy and rained really hard. Bad move. But it was quite Ok, we got there before the worst wind and rain took place.

I've been working on this piece called Funny Love. I've already recorded the basic tracks. Will be doing the vocals this coming Sunday. Hopefully all will be fine.

And an upcoming trip to Thailand early next month. I'm looking forward to it since even I've been to Bangkok before, it was a million years ago that I don't even remember what it's like. Even though it's only going to be a week, it will be fun. I can imagine already, the food, the architecture, the culture, the whole shebang not to mention lots of photos.

Have already booked my flight to Japan for March as well. Paid $907 for a return ticket from Melbourne to Tokyo with Singapore Airlines. Score!!! Will have to book accommodation though.

I got myself a ukulele. This was long overdue news. It's not that hard to play actually.

Have a few more ideas for songs. Will have to make time for them though.

UP - the scrapbook

2009-09-06T19:29:00.004+10:00

I saw Up yesterday and I love the way they constructed the scrapbook.

There's a photo plus whatever elements of the occasion was glued on the page with plain tapes. For example, if there's a photo of them walking in the park during autumn, there'd be one or two red or yellow leaves glued on the page.

Simple yet nice, you get to live the experience all over again.

Good movie too.

goodbye dad

2009-08-09T13:13:00.003+10:00

I'm glad we spent your last days together. Even though it's not literally your last, but I was glad we spoke on the phone yesterday. I'm glad I still had the chance to go with you on those trips to Manado and Singapore.

I wish that China trip didn't have to be cancelled.

I wish I could have been there today... this morning...

And I wish I could see you smile one last time.

the urge for kfc?

2009-08-05T23:32:00.002+10:00

I went out to buy lunch today, nothing special about it.

I thought of maybe buying KFC for lunch but then again I saw my sweet soy with chilli still available so I thought I'd go buy some grilled chicken with rice from Warung Gudeg 'cos they're so good together.

And so off I went.

I don't know if my consciousness wants KFC or because I saw an ambulance pass by with the siren on, I took that left turn to KFC. I went in and ordered.

While waiting for the order to come, something struck my mind.

I WAS SUPPOSED TO GO TO WARUNG GUDEG FOR GRILLED CHICKEN AND RICE.

Too late. I'll try again tomorrow.

I have been trying to do more of my music but I'm just not that inspired. I don't know why. Maybe once I lay a few basic tracks down, that'll keep me going.

back from the july trip

2009-08-02T21:59:00.004+10:00

As usual, a late entry blog post from me.

I'm now back from my July trip. Click on the links below for photos.

Manado was great. Should've went snorkeling or diving but didn't have the time (or license). Bunaken is so awesome under that surface. Other than that, food was great. Tried having banana fritters with chilli, unusual but nice nevertheless. Seafood was great, I still remember the texture of that coconut crab meat in my mouth. Didn't remember who ordered it ('cos it was supposedly near extinction) because I thought they brought those two out just for show. My highlight: the suckling pig. The skin was so very crispy. Don't say yuck before you try it.

Tana Toraja was cool too. It was cloudy when we were there, so it was just a tad disappointing for my photography purposes. Had a taste of the local culture, mostly the traditional tongkonan house and the burial grounds (and walls).

Jakarta... well it's still Jakarta. I just found out that if you don't want to get caught in traffic, it is now possible to pay for police escort for around one million rupiahs. You'd get two policemen escorting your vehicle on the front and the back on their motorcycles and sirens. Cool huh? Didn't do that much in Jakarta except for eating (food is still the best here) and catching up with old friends (which is also long overdue now). Still didn't get to catch up with some other ones, I'm so sorry as I can't go out as easily as I used to as my Indonesian driver's license is now expired and the only car in the house is used by mom. Will upload all the the polaroids of people I took in Jakarta soon-ish.

I also went to this place just outside of Jakarta, in a small town called Cisarua, called Curug 7. It's a bit like a national park where you get to see a butterfly conservation area and a waterfall. It's quite a long walk and along the way we met two couples doing their pre-wedding photo sessions.

Singapore has got a new mall now on Orchard Rd called Ion Orchard. Went there twice just for quick looks. I thought it wasn't that special but I saw a clothing shop I've never seen before called Callate la Boca. Was going to buy a tee but none of the sizes fit. Bought a small pin instead. The fried prawn noodle in Wisma Atria's Food Republic really amazed me. Will go back for that again.

Can't wait 'till November. Bangkok I'm coming!!!

back to the stone age

2009-07-07T04:00:00.001+10:00

I am now experiencing internet connection at 12 kbps at my home in Jakarta.

I don't have broadband installed here as no one is computer-literate in the house.

i feel sick

2009-07-01T05:43:00.004+10:00

I don't know why but everytime I'm about to fly out back to Jakarta by myself, I always feel this nervous uneasy feeling. If I'm flying with someone, I'm usually OK.

It's not that I'm afraid of flying.

I always feel sick, like I'm about to throw up, and it's just for that one flight (or maybe two).

Damn.

Will see yous in about a month time.

And I don't think I won the lotto last night.

Double damn.

the queue

2009-06-30T20:33:00.001+10:00

If you think the queue for Transformer movie tickets is long, think again.

I've seen a lot of really long queues today for the AU$ 90 million Tattslotto jackpot.

And yes, I was in the queue too.

holiday

2009-06-30T10:43:00.002+10:00

I'm flying back to Indonesia tomorrow morning.

We're not going to China as originally planned since the touring company couldn't find enough people to go. Damn! I've got the Chinese visa already!

So we're going to go to Manado instead. Not sure what I will encounter there except for the famous banana fritter eaten with chilli.

Will probably go to Bromo after that if we have the time since we couldn't go last time, or maybe Tana Toraja, where the ethnic houses would be cool to photograph.

And I'll be stopping by Singapore for a week before going back to Melbourne.

I haven't finished packing though, just barely started and it's mostly my photography stuff.

And last but not least, I got myself an iPhone 3Gs. Yes I'm back to the dark side. I've already got a few games apps on it too. I'll probably want to switch to a contract once I go back to Melbourne.

As for now, ciao.

just being silly

2009-06-19T21:05:00.002+10:00

Bought a couple of pair of jeans tonight.

I was told that these jeans come with a one year warranty...

At this point I kinda thought if people actually steal the jeans you are wearing that you'd need a warranty.

And then she continues ... just in case you lose your button or zipper.

At this point I actually asked her if this ever happens and we joked about it.

But seriously, do the buttons and zippers on your jeans ever come flying off?

ukulele

2009-06-17T15:15:00.001+10:00

Should I switch to Ukulele?

Maybe I'd learn it for fun

temanmacet.com

2009-06-13T12:34:00.003+10:00

If you happen to be Indonesian or understand Indonesian and you can't live without your programming and codes, here is the place to go.

a moment of bliss

2009-05-29T16:11:00.004+10:00

I had a really weird dream last night (or was it this morning).

What happened wasn't much of a story but when I woke up I was blown away and was left thinking; #1 was it real or whas it a dream, and since it felt so very real, almost like deja vu, #2 who is she?

my photoblog?

2009-05-24T00:18:00.002+10:00

I've decided to put all things related to photography to another blog.

It's been up and running for a while now.

It's called f/2.8.

alive

2009-05-14T23:45:00.002+10:00

I hated my IVM gig.

I thought everything went wrong.

Almost at the end of the first song, the guitar went dead. I think it was one of the cables to/from the overdrive pedal. Then it was on again until the end of the set. I tried the overdrive pedal again in the middle of the second song. It was kinda half on. Got distracted by it and hit the wrong note when the solo came in.

Uncool.

There was a few other things that made me frustrated. It even made me feel that it was the longest fifteen minutes of my gig life.

Argh... so very tired... and still frustrated.

At least I'm still alive.

I'll be better next time.

have been shopping

2009-05-12T20:43:00.002+10:00

Yep, a few pedals are now at my sonic disposal.

Lovepedal Kanji Eternity overdrive pedal.

Boss Digital Delay DD-7.

Eventide Modfactor.

And there are still two more coming.

Robert Keeley's 4-knob Compressor.

Sonic Research Turbo Tuner Stomp.

And I'm thinking of getting an expression pedal to control the Wah on the Modfactor. The question is, which one?

I'm also in the middle of putting all these pedals into a pedalboard. The compressor might or might not make it depending if I decide to replace it maybe for a BB Preamp.

I'm also thinking about making space for the footswitch(es) of my amps. The Stiletto's footswitch isn't a big deal since it's only a two-button one, but the Mark IV's is quite a wide one. It's a six-button beast.

IVM gig

2009-05-12T00:29:00.005+10:00

Well, rehearsal's done. All that's left is to get to the gig and play.

I'd give the band a 7 out of 10. Just because I think the music and chemistry wasn't that great. Make that 6 out of 10, just because I'm really hard on myself.

It's going to be three songs.

I'll just close my eyes and hope for the best.

Will only be taking a guitar with me, the Shure wireless and the Lovepedal Kanji Eternity.

I'm now dead tired since last Friday I came down with the flu and still going to a friend's birthday party at his place. Saturday was ok, badminton in the evening then went to the city to discuss the songs for this coming gig. Sunday, got better from the flu but started to have this sore throat that I still have at the moment. Been trying to steal some nap time in between activities. So before rehearsal yesterday, I managed to squeeze in an hour nap and today as well.

Must sleep now, sore throat still killing me...

Yet another gig

2009-05-06T10:50:00.003+10:00

Got a gig coming up.

It's not my band though. I'll just be a substitute guitarist for the IVM organiser's band. Apparently the guitarist's visa expired and had to go back to Indo and renew it.

So it's called IVM - Battle of the Bands 2009. The venue is the Hifi Bar. I love this place. And it's on the 14th of May, which is Thursday next week.

I think they start at 6.30PM and we're the opening band. The band's called Root16.

And considering the set list, I might not need to bring the Stiletto head after all. Maybe just one guitar, the Kanji overdrive pedal and my wireless should do the trick.

elegy for my spoiled maharani

2009-04-22T04:00:00.004+10:00

i never thought this day would come

i didn't want it to come to full circle

i never wanted it to end

we were awesome, we were cool

we were inseparable, like magnets nobody could pull

sometimes i think we're really fools

and even love could be so cruel

there's no more dreams

there's just memories

i can never hold your hand again

i wish it wasn't that painful to let go

i wish you were just a passerby

i wish love would stay and not flee

i wish it was just between you and me

i'm numb outside

i'm cold inside

but these tears

why do they keep streaming down my face

i can never hug you again

why did you have to come into my life?

why did you have to give me so much joy?

why did you have to give me so much love?

if that was only to be taken away from me again

thank you for everything

you've taught me about life

you've taught me about love

you are truly one of a kind

i will truly miss you

i can never kiss you again

if only that matter would disappear

so all we had would still be real

if only time could stand still

we could be together forever

we didn't have to go our separate ways

and it didn't have to last for only five hundred and fifty days

i'm so sorry

i hope you understand

we'll be together again if it's meant to be

i love you, my spoiled maharani

toys updates

2009-04-01T22:37:00.006+11:00

Did an audit on my toys just now.

Here's what I have at the moment.

Guitar related stuff:

- three electric guitars; the Ibanez RGR620TKS, the red GrassRoots Forest GT with Fernandes Sustainer and the Epiphone 335. Two more coming hopefully soon; the unfinished custom electric(Ibanez RG replica) by Matheas Guitars and the Warmoth stratocaster which is being put together as I type this

- one accoustic guitar; the Cole Clark FL2

- three electric guitar amps; a Line 6 Spider Micro, a Mesa Boogie Mark IV 112 combo and a Mesa Boogie Stiletto Ace with a 2x12 Stiletto cabinet

- one pedal; the DOD Yngwie Malmsteen signature overdrive pedal

- one multieffect; the Digitech GNX3000

- one Shure SM57 and stand

- one Shure PGX guitar wireless system

Photography gear:

- Nikon D300 body

- Nikon lenses; 18-55mm VR, 105mm Micro f/2.8, 70-300mm f/4-5.6, 35mm f/1.8

- Tokina 11-16mm f/2.8 lens

- Peleng 8mm fisheye lens

- Gitzo Mountaineer 0541 with Markins Q3 ballhead

- a few Hoya filters (UVs, circular polarizer and ND4)

- Flashes (or Speedlights as Nikon calls them), both Nikon SB600 and SB800

- Cactus wireless flash trigger with two receivers

- two LumiPro umbrella swivel

- two Wescott 43" umbrellas, white

- two Interfit 7.5ft light stand

- Kirk L-Bracket

- Kata 3N1-100 bag

- Tamrac N-25 strap

- LowePro Nova 5AW (I want to sell this)

- Manfrotto 190XPROB with 804RC2 three-way head (hopefully sold tomorrow)

That's them.

revelation

2009-03-25T13:14:00.002+11:00

lost in the night

wandering alone

try as i might to escape the fight that never lets me go

oh no, oh no

i've got to find a way

a way - a way to rise above it all

Periodic Table of Typefaces

2009-03-17T12:53:00.002+11:00

Here's for you font addicts out there.

Click on image for a bigger view.

Enjoy.

credit: behance.net

longing dawn

2009-03-16T23:48:00.003+11:00

i want to scream out loud

no, no, can't tell no one

besides, who'd listen?

it's too late anyway

the day is gone

the night rules now

and when the night rules, no single soul is awake

i want to go out for a stroll

no, no, can't go out now

besides, who'd you go with?

it's too late anyway

the day is gone

the night rules now

and when the night rules, nobody's out strolling in the alleys

i want to play outside

no, no, that you can't do either

besides, who'd you play with?

it's too late anyway

the day is gone

the night rules now

and when the night rules, the only ones playing outside are the cold dark shadows

i want to play some music

no, no, don't you even think of plucking that lute

besides, who'd you play it to?

it's too late anyway

the day is gone

the night rules now

and when the night rules, music is only allowed for the dead

is there anything i can do?

even when the night rules now?

yes, yes, there's one...

what is it? please do tell...

you must wait

wait until the night departs

dark becomes light

the moon hides, the sun shines

only then you can bring about what you're set to do

but the day is still a few stars away

how should i wait until then?

lie down, cover yourself with your quilt

close your eyes, and dream of the brightest days

where the sun is shining

the birds are singing

and when you open your eyes, the dawn will arrive

and not long after, the day will rule again

sorry (3)

2009-03-16T23:23:00.002+11:00

Again, I can't be what you (and maybe some other people) want me to be.

Sorry...

Click here for sorry (2)

when

2009-03-12T20:10:00.003+11:00

when i see you i see myself

i see my past, who i was, how i were and where i was

when i see you i see myself

i see my present, who i am, how i am and where i am

when i see you i see myself

i see my future, who i will be, how i will be and where i will be

when i see you i see a light

shining down upon me, like dawn replaced by day

when i see you i see the dark

clouding surrounding me, like the night replacing the day

when i see you i feel calm

like everything just fell into place without trying

when i see you i feel anger

like verything just fell apart and i'm lying... dying

when i see you i see everything

i can feel all my emotion rushing through my veins

when i see you... i see nothing

i'm numb inside, like when this all began

Moomba 2009

2009-03-09T10:44:00.006+11:00

Look at this.

That's part of my Moomba Festival 2009 experience. I know it looks gloomy, but I just made it like that.

The others are live at my Flickr. And they're all really cheerful and colourful

let's rock

2009-03-05T23:57:00.003+11:00

Improvising a solo guitar is never easy, at least for me.

Even if i know the chord progressions, it's never easy.

It used to be easy, but not anymore.

I'd say two things are the cause of this.

First is the lack of practice, I don't play the guitar as much anymore. I've lost that touch i used to have. my musicality.

The other reason is that I don't feel the need for speed anymore. I used to think that if I could sweep and pick a million notes per second, then I'd be really good.

I still love it sometimes, the speed, the sweeps, the taps etc etc. Just not as much.

I love more soulful guitar playing these days, like Andy Timmon's stuff for example. Not to say that i don't like the shred stuff anymore. I still like listening to good old Malmsteen, he is an influence after all.

I guess it's the melody is what i'm after these days. It's cool to play fast as long as it complements the piece. The solos on songs like DreamTheater's Forsaken or Constant Motion for example, for me they are complementing the actual song instead of Petrucci just doing his psycho exercise on the whole solo part.

Melody, of course, is never easy.

The more you search for it, the more it seems to become more and more blurry.

I guess knowing your music theory and scales are also crucial.

But this is when jamming is also really important. The more i interact with other musicians (bass players, drummers, keyboardists, even other guitarists) in a jam, the more i feel like i could explore myself. And for me, having a drummer is the best way to jam. Drum machines are ok for recording, but for jam sessions, a drummer is best to have around. Why? Because they kinda inspire me through their beats. Myself as a guitar player, so far, could only think of a few variations of drum beats. This makes me feel bored when the same beats are played over and over and over again.

It gets me nowhere.

But when i jam with a drummer or a bass player with a variety of beats, things started flowing out naturally. I've actually encountered some nice melodies coming out from my playing during jam sessions. Even just from listening to them play, I could sometimes imagine what I could play over it and the continuation etc etc.

If only this could happen more often.

fourty to go

2009-02-25T23:19:00.003+11:00

At my workplace, I'm used to hearing a lot of people noise; chatting, laughing, humming etc etc.

Today it's gone. It felt a bit different.

I spent most of today listening to my iPod.

There's not a lot of people chatting and laughing today, instead there's plenty of silence from everywhere.

The company announced that some fourty people are being let go.

Didn't affect my department which was good news for me.

I had thought that the economic crisis didn't have that much impact on my workplace's business.

Apparently it does. And fourty people means that it's more than ten percent of the total working people in the office.

The future looks grim.

But hopefully not for me.

my photos on Lonely Planet Images

2009-02-22T00:27:00.002+11:00

If you're after some travel photography photographs to use in your publication or website, some of my photos are available for sale at Lonely Planet Images.

Just so you know.

Check them out.

my camera gear, more compact now

2009-02-17T22:36:00.002+11:00

In the hopes of travelling light whilst still carrying enough of what I need when travelling and doing photography, I sold my Lowepro CompuRover AW and replaced it with a Kata 3N1-10 bag. This is the smallest of the three versions available from Kata.

So far, I can fit all these in:

- D300 body with the 18-55mm attached

- Tokina 11-16mm

- Sb600 flash

- blower

- shutter release

- Acer Aspire One netbook (yes it does go in there too)

- Gitzo GT0541 with Markins Q3 head attached to the outside of the bag

- a few filters

The nice thing about it is that they all only weigh *drum rolls* five kilos. Yes only five kilos.

And the cool thing about this bag is that you can actually use it as a sling bag when you need to shoot and convert it to a backpack when you just want to carry stuff around.

I'd need to pack in a few more things into the bag of course:

- battery charger

- external HDD

But that shouldn't add that much more weight to the bag.

No more bulky Lowepro CompuRover AW for me. Kata is my way to go. And the bag is pretty small too.

At the moment I'm still trying to sell my:

- Hyperdrive Colorspace (by Sanho), the 80GB one

- Manfrotto 190XPROB tripod plus the 804RC2 head

- Velbon CX 560 (carry case included)

And hopefully I'll be staying away from shopping camera gear for a while.

This setup will hopefully be tested in the few coming months.

Happy Chinese New Year

2009-01-26T02:34:00.002+11:00

Happy Chinese New Year everyone.

I'm keeping it short and simple.

The Line 6 Vetta II plus accessories have been sold. Sweet.

This way I can now probly shop around for two 1x12 Mesa Boogie Recto cabinets.

That's it....

I'm hoping you can sleep well tonight.

Hugs.... and kisses.

tomorrow did come

2009-01-20T22:22:00.004+11:00

but I didn't get to write what I wanted to and now I've forgotten.

How typical of me...

Anyway I think at that time I just wanted to post some new updates.

I've got myself a Mesa Boogie Mark IV wide body combo. Got it second hand for quite a low price (compared to Aussie's RRP new). I'm loving this amp. I'm back to good old tube. Besides, have you ever had a guitar amp where you get push pull knobs and direct recording out in one?

Which also means I'm selling my Line 6 Vetta II combo (bound to happen I guess) along with the FBV longboard and an M-Audio Midisport Uno which I used to connect the MIDI ports of the Vetta to my computer's USB port. Hopefully it will sell soon.

I'm also selling one of my digital SLRs. It's my Nikon D80. When I first upgraded to the D300, I thought I'd keep it as a second camera which should come handy at times, but as time goes by, it ended up always sitting inside the shadows of my never-brought-to-photo-trips camera bag. I've lent it once to a friend for a photo shoot but that was it.

So I thought instead of it not getting any use whatsoever, I'd give it a new home. A friend at work actually wanted it so all is good.

I'm also trying to simplify of what camera gear I'm taking when going on trips, especially when going overseas and stuff.

I also want to sell my currect camera bags; the Lowepro CompuRover AW and Nova 5 AW. The CompuRover became obsolete for me when I've let myself carry too many things in it that I never ended up using and it's doing nothing but breaking my back. The Nova is quite nice for shooting in the city, but for me it gets a bit awkward carrying it after a while.

I'm looking into getting either the Lowepro Slingshot 200 or 300 AW. I'm hoping the 200 would do since for me, the more I have room to put things, I'll try to fill them up and ended up with things I don't actually need to carry.

For now, I've decided that on my trips, my most precious valuables to bring are the Nikon D300 body attached with my 18-55 lens, the Tokina 11-16mm which is quite handy sometimes and an SB800 flash which gets used really rarely as I like landscape more than people (no hard feelings please).

So that's all quite simple and lightweight... until you add the tripod. And that's what you get if you love landscape more than people, especially at night. Tripod is a must, which is a pain to tell you the truth. I wish there is a tripod PLUS tripod head which can be folded... I don't know... up to wallet size, like a credit card so I can always put it in that small empty compartment somewhere in the bag. I shoot daytime most of the time I guess, but when nightime arrives and that perfect light/place/composition comes, I don't want to be there thinking 'Man, I wish I've brought my tripod along with me'.

Another thing that concerns me is storage. I've always brought my 17" notebook on trips and after my first trip with that notebook (Uluru, October 2007), I've found out that this is not the way. I've tried portable storage with screen, couldn't get on the net with it. So, what did I do?

I bought myself a netbook just a few days ago. Genius!

I thought an Acer Aspire One (with XP installed) would be a nice balance between storage and wireless internet. I also brought myself a USB modem so I can still get dial-up, yes you read that right, dial-up connection when I go back to Jakarta where there's no internet connection in the house as no one's computer literate there.

So I love that small mini machine, until I found out that, as a lot of people on the net do too, the wireless connection is CRAP!!! I've tried a lot of solutions people post on the net to no avail. But I finally found someone posting that he replaced that damn Atheros wireless thing with an Intel one and no more problems arose. So at the moment I've handed my Acer Aspire One over to a friend of mine who's running his computer services business to get it replaced too. Hopefully wouldn't take that long.

So that's my camera, two lenses, a flash, and the netbook in the bag. Of course that's only the essentials. I'd still need to put a few more things in the bag. Chargers for the netbook and the camera, and of course my external HDD. Always back up twice AT LEAST. You never know when fate will be cruel to you and make one or more of your HDDs data corrupt. And also the lens cloth and a blower.

I'm thinking it's still going to be quite heavy. But hopefully it's gonna give my back a bit of a break.

The parents will be here tomorrow evening and I still haven't finished tidying up the house. Gotta do some more chores tomorrow.

I'm still waiting for my LEGO figures in the mail and I'm also looking forward to the Mesa Boogie Mark 5 which has just been revealed in the 2009 winter NAMM in Annaheim.

hopefully tomorrow

2009-01-13T23:53:00.001+11:00

I've got some few things I want to write but I can't afford to lose my sleep.

So tomorrow... hopefully.

goodbye 2008

2009-01-02T00:31:00.003+11:00

It's been a great year, but 2009 should be an even better one.

Happy New Year 2009 everybody!!!

The photo above was taken in Docklands. We should've moved a few hundred meters more before settling down and waiting for the countdown. Next year must be better. Hopefully I'd be able to shoot New Year's Eve in Sydney next year.

I'll probably want to sell my amp (Line 6 Vetta II) soon as I'm getting something else. Really excited. Hopefully this one's a keeper.

Ooops

2008-12-03T23:25:00.004+11:00

I actually forgot to stick my new registration sticker on the front of my windscreen. Hopefully I didn't get caught.

Must remember to do this tomorrow.

I haven't done too many photography lately. Mostly due to the house. But we did go to Port Campbell a few weeks back. So here are the pics.

And of course some arty farty stuff. I call them 'dragon rising' and 'the symbiote'.

As usual they're all live at my Flickr. I even uploaded the large size of The Symbiote so you could have a look at the details.

I need to do more photography. I wanted to try experimenting with off camera flashes. I've ordered myself an SB800. Should arrive anytime soon. I've also got myself a few coloured gels which should be fun.

And I do plan to do a photo submission again early next year. Should be fun. I haven't worked on my Melbourne pics yet, but hopefully I will have them done by the end of the year.

I wanted to write more but my brain can't handle it anymore, so it's time to go.

thank you, thank you and thank you

2008-11-24T23:59:00.000+11:00

This is a really big thank you for everyone who called or sent me an email or sms or message or wrote on my facebook wall (sorry, I probably won't reply to all fifty five of your posts, just because I'm super lazy) or showed up at McDonalds tonight.

Even to the ones who wanted to be there but couldn't make it (you did miss out a lot though).

I've seen a lot of my friends celebrate their birthdays in KFC or McDonalds etc etc when I was still in primary school. Even in high school.

Now I get to experience it myself. It was kinda cool.

And you guys really made this day super special, especially Yoan who probably went out of her way to organise the surprise party. You are awesome. Can we do it in KFC next time? haha

Once again thank you very very very much to everyone, may we be thirty forever.

back from a long absence

2008-11-07T00:07:00.002+11:00

I've moved in to the new place for a few weeks now.

Already feels like home.

Everything from the old place is now here, but it'll be some time before everything's settled. I'm pretty sure there's still plenty of stuff to be thrown away. Not that much I hope.

I still have to tidy up my guitar's hard cases and some other small things, but other than that, my room's pretty tidy for now. The living room needs a lot of work, the dining room too.

Sleepy, need sleep now.

Will try to blog more often now.

Will have to take more photos too.

And record some music.

not my own

2008-10-11T02:15:00.002+11:00

when i was little, i've always wanted to grow up really quickly. i observed every adult around me and they seem to be having a good time, nobody telling them what to do, where to do it, or when to do it. my mom even told me that when i grow older, i'd have all the time in the world to play. this was back when i was just a lazy student and my grades were just average. i guess even to this day my academic records would just be good at best.

fast forward ten to fifteen years, i realised that maybe growing old wasn't that fun anymore. work and chores to be done. more and more responsibilities. less play time, seriously. people would start expecting stuff of you.

but the worst is that you can't live your life just for you.

formalities, a notion that's done everywhere in every class of any living human being. i'm sure you've been there. the small talks, the fake smiles, long and boring chit chat and you could even end up arguing who's going to pay the bill after a meal with someone you don't even know. just pay the damn bill.

yes, we live in a society. we need to interact.

maybe not too much?

i hate formalities and the fake smiles, but i still do them nonetheless.

me smiling (or at least try to be interested in whatever conversation is happening) would be the best defense mechanism and a complete time saver. think about it. people wouldn't think (on the outside) that anything's bothering you. can you imagine sitting at conversation and one is frowning even before the conversation even started? wouldn't you be thinking to yourself about what he/she could be frowning about? if everyone on that same table is doing that same thing, wouldn't the dinner/lunch be awkward? awkwardness would lead to silence and we all know that silence during a conversation could feel like an eternity.

and with this happening day after day after day, i'm beginning to think that my life and even my actions aren't my own anymore. my body even began to act on it's own once these situations occur. sure we have rules and norms, but most importantly shouldn't i be doing what i feel like doing instead of doing whatever's enforced to me as long as it doesn't disturb the turning wheels of society?

and this has also managed to crawl into the only consciousness i have left, my mind.

i'd always thought my mind is a free entity. an exclusive area. me only. i can do whatever i want to it. i can fill it with knowledge, power, dirt, even shit. i can even choose to pick some turn of events recorded in it, put them in a little box, seal it and put it away in a section in my mind called memory. i can choose to remember it, or ignore it. but nowadays other people always seem to have the need to know what's in it. people need to peek inside and poke their fingers on it. any inability to comply from my side would be taken as i'm not accessible enough and this would be a complete time waster with all the questions thrown at me with no stopping until answers are deemed reasonable or at least acceptable.

again sometimes, in these kind of situations, my mind would send signals to my body and commands the mouth to just say whatever the listener wants to hear in order to save time, effort and energy. it would also, in retrospect, select some of the words spoken by the other parties and enable them to get heard or block them from getting heard depending if they are relevant to my world or not.

now, it seems only late at night my thoughts can be my own.

maybe ignorance is bliss.

googling myself

2008-10-09T12:47:00.002+11:00

and I found these:
Maschmeyer: Quote, featuring one of my photos (pls ask for my permission next time).

Flickr Hive Mind, which I never know existed before

Will be moving to the new house next week.

if it's not broken, don't fix it

2008-09-06T00:25:00.003+10:00

I think those words are true sometimes.

I sold my Randall RM100 head and bought a Line6 Vetta II.

It was great, but I felt that something was missing.

Yep, you guessed it. Some of the tone dynamics I had with my Randall were missing. And I miss them a lot.

I've tried the Mesa Boogie Roadster (see my previous post) and today I went and tried Dale Sherlock's Fat Head. I have to admit I was blown away by the technology that amp had. The self biasing on the Randall MTS is an infant compared to the Fat Head's TMS (tube management system). Just select how hot you want to run your tubes with a screwdriver head (ranging from, if I'm not mistaken, 20 DC volt up to 50 DC volt), and adjust the tubes accordingly (also with a screwdriver head) until both green leds under each tube generate the same amount of glow. Much more simpler (and advanced I have to say) than the MTS.

I was also blown away at how much gain the Fat Head had.

But maybe I've been to comfortable with my Randall MTS' sound. I love the distortion coming out of my Recto module and even though it's a Mesa Boogie Rectifier simulation, I find it different from the actual Mesa sound. I like Randall's better. I think it's more fluid for solos.

I might be buying back the RM100 head... and I'm not kidding.

whoo

2008-09-02T22:17:00.004+10:00

I went and had a play with a Mesa Boogie Roadster this afternoon in the midst of renovating-the-house errands.

Even though I'd probably take a lot of beating for saying this, I'll still say it.

I'm not a fan of the amp, especially some of the distortion voicings for my neck pickup (Duncan '59). The clean channels were awesome.

The good thing about me not liking it is that I won't be buying it. In Australia, it's AU$5500 retail. How crazy is that?

I've got my eyes on the MI Revelation and Sherlock Fat Head now (Dale Sherlock sent me some info about the amp and sound clips and I love 'em). Hopefully one of them would satisfy my hunger for liquid vintage tones etc etc.

I don't want to have to re buy the Randall MTS Head.

There's also the thought of trying out the Line6 Spider Valve. Aaah, yes, the dark side of the force. Hopefully I don't have to go that way.

back to reality?

2008-08-29T23:16:00.005+10:00

I'm now back from my little trip to Jakarta (and Malaysia in between).

Now that I'm back in Melbourne, a few annoying chores await.

The first one is of course work. I'll be back to work in two weeks.

And in between, I need to do some renovation to the new place. How will I manage? I don't know... other people have managed, so I guess I should be able to do it as well... flawlessly I hope.

Then comes the moving phase. As if the renovation itself isn't enough trouble for lazy me, I still need to move all the things I have to the new place, buy stuff I don't have (beds for example, yes I don't have any beds at the moment, I rent fully furnished) and last but not least, the most annoying of them all, having to tell every institution I'm involved with that I'm changing address. I can't imagine giving all of them a call; banks, Vic Roads, RACV, mobile phone provider, work, my super fund etc etc.

I thought my parents told me, this is when I was around fifteen probably, that I'd need to study hard and that I'll have more time to play when I grow up.

But that's just spoiled and lazy me typing... heheh.

I'm looking forward to some things as well.

Moving out to the new place. I'll have my own room where I should be able to crank up my amp to an unbelieveable volume level and hopefully be able to setup my own home studio in there (music and photography).

The MI Audio Revelation amp. I want this amp so bad... I think. I was trying to find a cheaper alternative of the Mesa Boogie Roadster when I stumbled into this amp in an Australian forum. I think it was Bmusic or Melband. Almost the same features, four channels and each channel has three different voicings, four effect loops, three output stages and a lot more features which actually convinced me to get this 60W head instead of the Roadster even withouth trying it out. I'm still waiting for it's availability since it's hand-built in Sydney. Size is smaller than most 100Watt heads too. Price is much cheaper too.

I might also try and order a custom Strat from Warmoth, thanks to Lexy for re-igniting that flame that died a few years back. I actually didn't want to order Warmoth since I'm currently waiting for my custom-made guitar to be finished. But the 24-fret option with reversed vintage headstock is too hard to resist. But this one might have to wait a while.

Last but not least, I'll probably get myself another lens. I know, it's either GAS or LAS for me. There's just no cure for these two syndromes. So, it's a Nikon 55-200mm VR or 70-300mm non VR. I'm still thinking about it. Both are under AU$300, so it's easy enough to get, but I'll probably wait until close to Chinese New Year next year. Can't wait to climb up to that parking lot and shoot down again.

I haven't worked on my Central Java shots. I've done the Malaysia ones. Again, too lazy to do it now, maybe I'll start next week.

looking at the sky
where the two kings rule
with thousands of servants glide by
staring back at me as i drool

wondering...
if the east king arise and the west king sleeps
while the servants go plundering
must i also flap my wings?

i close my eyes and count to three
then was thrown high above the trees
i tried to reach, i tried to flee
to where the wind and the clouds are free to be

and when i meet the two kings
with their servants glittering from the west
i'll pluck again my guitar strings
and tell them i'll be on my next quest

sorry (2)

2008-08-13T02:46:00.002+10:00

sorry I can't be anything you want me to be.

sorry...

back

2008-08-13T02:45:00.002+10:00

I'm now back in Jakarta.

Loved the time we spent in Sunway but that was it.

I'll be travelling to Java this Friday. Hopefully it will be much better than Malaysia.

to Genting

2008-08-10T22:00:00.000+10:00

We checked out of Berjaya Times Square at 11AM. This is due to our pickup at that time.

But, we also got a note last night slipped underneath the door, no bells, no nothing, saying that we have to check out at 11AM today just because they’re so fully booked and they can’t afford us even if we want to pay for late check out. How impolite, two days before they told us that they had someone paid for a late check out and that (conveniently) happened to our room.

My parents bought some durians on the way up to Genting and we checked in to the Theme Park Hotel. Even though cosmetics are worse than the previous hotel, service was much better, so all is good.

Went to First World Plaza and walked around for some time. Got tired and went back to the hotel and work on yesterday’s and today’s photos. I’ve managed to work on all of them, what a relieve.

Moving hotels again tomorrow. See ya.

awful awful hotel

2008-08-09T22:00:00.000+10:00

What an awful hotel this one is.

We had our breakfast this morning at the lobby and when we tried to go back to our floor we couldn’t. Tried putting in our card into the elevator and it told us that we tried to get on to a restricted floor.

We went back to the reception (which was a three minute walk from the elevator, yes it was quite a long walk) and asked for them to fix it. They did, I didn’t want to ask why or how that happened. I just didn’t care anymore.

So after that we went for the city tour. We were supposed to pay the fee to the driver who took us to the bigger bus and he charged us RM270 for three adults. I was shocked. The brochure precisely said RM45 each adult and that includes entry fee. So how come the price has doubled? I enquired about it and he said that might be an old price and it should be RM60 per head and he also said he’d call headquarters. It was RM45 per head after all. What a pain in the ass.

So we went to a few places. I really wanted to go into the National Mosque but entry wasn’t allowed for non-Muslim tourists. Argh… I thought I would’ve gotten some cool shots of that place. Tugu Negara (the National Monument) was alright.

After lunch, we went to Petronas Twin Tower. Couldn’t get tickets to the Sky Bridge anymore for the day as it’s sold out. So only took photos of it’s façade. It’s not bad.

Won’t be going out again tonight. I’m so very tired.

Decided to buy KFC for dinner. I’m so amazed. In Indonesia, we have steamed rice in the menu as rice is the thing. It’s like bread for westerners. In Malaysia, instead of steamed rice, they have Hainan Chicken rice!!! (minus the chicken of course). Awesome. The thing I won’t try is their Nasi Lemak wrap. I don’t think that’d go well with the chicken strip.

Again I’m complaining about this hotel. I called housekeeping and asked for some toilet paper rolls and a knife (to cut some fruits) and she transferred me to room service and I asked for the same thing. A few minutes later, somebody came up with two toilet paper rolls and that’s it. What the hell? Do I need to carry a knife everywhere I check in? My mom called again and somebody came up with a butter knife and pepper. I was confused, amused but most importantly furious.

And how hard is it to send us another blanket? We had an extra bed in the room, so doesn’t it just make sense to have another blanket for us? And I ordered this along when I asked to borrow a power adapter as well. Somebody came up only with a power adapter.

Toilet’s kinda leaking too. Arrgghh!!!

Again, what kind of a (five-star?) hotel is this?

We’re checking out tomorrow and leaving for Genting Highlands, hopefully the hotel would be better.

the flight to Malaysia

2008-08-08T22:00:00.000+10:00

The flight itself was OK. Everything went fine. The flight even flew on time.

When we got to KL’s International Airport though, everything started to fell apart.

Nobody was there to pick us up. I didn’t see any of our names held on a board by everyone who was there to do their pick up. I knew trouble was brewing.

And it did. It actually led to a series of events that did nothing to me but tiring me emotionally not to mention the waste of time because of the delay in pickup and car scheduling.

Dad was dead furious. Mom was too. I just didn’t want to get involved in the heat (and could possibly end up in the line of fire) and just stood and/or sat there.

I am now at Berjaya Times Square Hotel and just sitting in the lounge just waiting for our room to be ready. What the hell! Checkout time is supposed to be 12PM and even the previous room renter paid for a late checkout, that didn’t justify hotel management from delaying our entry into our already paid room.

We were also told that we were only booked there for one night, which was preposterous since we paid for two nights of accommodation.

The hotel’s check in reception is on the 14^th floor, which is quite cool I guess with everything beneath it are shopping centres and food stalls. I hope they’re good.

All these delays already cost us two hours of travel and leisure and photo hunting time.

Damn!

And now that we got back from dinner downstairs, I can say that the food was OK at best but it was quite cheap.

Went for a walk in the shopping mall, got myself a DiGi prepaid mobile phone simcard.

Then went back up to our room at 8PM, just in time to see the Beijing Olympics Opening Ceremony.

Also had to complain (to myself) about the room. It’s designed pretty bad. There wasn’t a lot of room to move even from the beds. And you can’t watch the TV from the bed. You’d need to go to the couch, sit there and watch TV. This is by far the most inconvenient room (design-wise) that I’ve ever been in. The mattress was OK though.

We’re going with a city tour tomorrow for three hours. I’m not expecting a lot of good things though… A lot of bad things happening in a day is more than enough for me to be pessimistic about tomorrow in this country.

flight to Malaysia - still on!!!

2008-08-08T00:38:00.000+10:00

I got my new passport!

This means I’m flying to Kuala Lumpur tomorrow morning.

Here we go… another flight.

And tomorrow’s gonna be the first trial for the new passport which doesn’t have my surname printed on the photo page. My full name is only written on the page after it. If I can enter Kuala Lumpur easily, it doesn’t mean I’m gonna be free of customs problems when I return to Melbourne in a few weeks.

Hopefully I can start photographing stuff tomorrow when I arrive.

Jakarta Trip August 2008 - beaureaucracy

2008-08-07T03:05:00.002+10:00

I’m pretty sure Indonesian Beaureaucracy people don’t appreciate time… our time.

I had to renew my passport today. It took me two and a half hours to queue up and had my photo taken in the interview room.

They told me that they have this new system in place that they couldn’t do it like they used to. Crap! Well maybe if they made sure the system would work first before implementing it, maybe it’d be so much better.

And after all that they didn’t even get my name right. I was only told that they’re putting my full name on the “see page” and it should be OK. I’m not keeping my hopes up. I already told them that I need my surname at the end of my given names. This is yet another problem with Indonesian Beaureaucracy. On my birth certificate, only my given names were jotted down. The rule is usually I’d take my father’s surname as my surname even though it’s not on my birth certificate.

Not sure if I could get the passport done tomorrow even if I asked for the ‘express’. If it’s not finished by tomorrow, I’m not going to Malaysia. Dammit!

We’ll see what happens tomorrow.

Jakarta Trip August 2008 - prologue

2008-08-04T22:00:00.001+10:00

Flying alone sucks and this morning, that’s exactly what I was doing.

Even worse when one thing or two start going wrong along the way.

The taxi I ordered arrived on the front door but didn’t bother to knock on the door. He left. I had to call Silver Top Taxi’s operator and she explained. So another taxi was on the way. I was quite sleepy due to going to bed at midnight and waking up at 5.30 in the morning. Fell asleep a few times in the taxi until I almost reached the airport.

This was when I realized that there was a blockage caused (I think) by an accident. We had to take a detour (and apparently not just us, almost everyone took the same route and that caused me a twenty-minute delay) plus I had to walk another five minutes to reach the international departure terminal.

Check-in queue was quite long. Took me half an hour to check in. I usually do it online but since my passport expires in less than six months, the system didn’t let me check-in online. Crap.

Everything was OK afterwards, the flight wasn’t full and I was finally able to doze off during take off. Sleep is good.

I HATE FLYING!!!
I love to travel, don’t get me wrong. It’s the long flights I can’t stand. Like this one I’m on right now. It’s going to go for another six & half hours.

It’s even worse when you’re flying alone. Not that I can’t go through it. I’ve done it so many times, but it’s just unbearable. I just can’t imagine flying alone much further like, say, to the USA.

I just want to land in Singapore straight away, catch the next flight to Jakarta and that’s it.

But still here I am after an airplane meal, four movies, another refreshment and some power naps here and there. The airplane meals weren’t too bad this time around. Black pepper beef on rice with tuna pasta to open with. The refreshment was a nice chicken & mushroom pie. It was creamy but not too much, just the right amount. Hopefully all airplane food will always turn up like this.

Eight hours after take off… we’re close to landing. Finally.

I’m now in transit. I’ve finally arrived at Singapore’s Changi Airport waiting for yet another flight which should take me to Jakarta.

Now that I’m in transit, this is the other thing I hate about flying. The connecting flight. You never really know where you need to go next and I seem to always get transferred to the very end of the corridor which usually take around fifteen minutes on foot. This leaves me no leisure time during transit as I need to always be in a hurry.

I’m now in the waiting lounge for the flight to Jakarta, feeling quite worried about my checked-in baggage. I didn’t get that sticker receipt from Melbourne. I forgot to ask for it and I think the customer service who checked me in forgot to give it to me. The worst thing that could happen is if he actually forgot to check it in, but hopefully not since I made sure that I could pick it up in Jakarta and he said yes. But if it did happen (he forgot to check it in), some blood will be shed. I just know it.

But hopefully all ends well. I’d hate to get stuck in the airport, especially Jakarta’s.

I’ve now arrived in Jakarta’s Soekarno-Hatta International Airport.

I got my luggage! I’m so relieved.

I’m missing you already.

And now it’s time to deal with… mosquito bites!!!

off in two days

2008-08-02T22:53:00.004+10:00

I will be flying back to Indonesia in two days. I'll be there for three weeks with a four-day trip to Malaysia in there sometime.

And this one's for you.

when i am not around
and i'm nowhere to be found
just close your eyes, take a deep breath and smile
and to your surprise, you will find that it will all be worthwhile

and besides...
after all emotions subside
and after a little bit of twist
i'll be home before you know it

Hopefully I'll be able to snap a lot of good photos.

I'm only taking a few photography things with me:
My D300 body with the 11-16mm Tokina, a Nikon 18-55mm VR and my Nikon SB600 flash. Other than that I'm taking my polarizing filters (couldn't find any ND8 filters in the shops in Melbourne, crap) and tripod (Manfrotto 190XPROB and 804RC2 head).

Three CF cards (10GB in total) should be enough I guess and I'm taking the XDrive portable HDD and Western Digital external HDD plus my laptop along.

I'll probably stick all of these into my Lowepro Compu Rover AW and put my Nova 5 AW in the baggage and take it out for actual photo trips.

The laptop and WD external HDD would stay at home most of the time, only for backup purposes. Besides I can sort of noodle around the pics when I got nothing to do... hopefully this won't happen a lot.

I've actually sold my Nikon 18-200mm VR for some various reasons.

the sydney trip - july 2008

2008-07-24T10:24:00.004+10:00

With my brother going to the World Shakuhachi Convention in Sydney early this month (sorry, should've been blogged a few weeks back) I couldn't miss the opportunity to tag along and take some more photos.

It's been a while since I've been to Sydney and for me, not much have changed.

Spent most of the time within the CBD. Caught up with some friends and of course took photos.

Anyway here's some photos (and more too, live on my Flickr)

The new Apple Shop which opened in Sydney a few months back. Apparently it's the 2nd largest Apple Shop in the world. I strolled in there and could only drool on the Macs.

Queen Victoria Building (QVB). Located in the middle of Sydney CBD.

The Gurr (Clear View Pavillion) in the Chinese Garden of Friendship. It's in the Darling Harbour area. Tried to get some seats at Lindt Café, but was too crowded.

NSW State Library at dusk.

The interior of St Mary's Cathedral. I think this is where the pope went when he did his World Youth Day mass. I also tried taking photos of the Archibald fountain just opposite of the cathedral, but there was no water coming out of the fountain and very minimal light. Damn.

And last but not least, the Sydney Opera House. I went here a couple of times because the first night I came, all lights were off, both the opera house and the harbour bridge. Came back the next morning and it was fine. Then came back next dawn and it was beautiful. The bridge didn't light up at all which was a disappointment.

And that's it really. There's a few more pics but I didn't put them up, like the Town Hall, Strand Arcade etc etc.

My back to Jakarta trip is in a fortnight, better get my cameras ready.

I've got to practice some songs for next weeks mass too. I am very rusty with the guitar. I tried playing last night. Like a kid who just started picking up the electric guitar. Gotta practice more often. I can't even shred for thirty seconds now. I used to be able to wail and wail forever.

And I will go to Aural Window's gig this coming Wednesday. I miss seeing them live.

long overdue updates

2008-07-11T09:06:00.003+10:00

I just got back from Sydney. My brother went to the World Shakuhachi Convention and I tagged along to do some photography.

Armed with my newly acquired Lowepro Nova 5 AW, I flew with just my D300 body and three lenses, my 11-16mm Tokina, 18-200mm Nikon and 8mm Peleng Fisheye plus some other necessary stuff.

It wasn't too bad there. Was warmer than Melbourne.

I spend my time mostly in the CBD. Also went to the newly opened Apple Shop and could only drool over some of the stuff they have in there (hint: the 30" Apple cinema display looked gorgeous at AU$2900).

I was a bit disappointed when I found out that they didn't light up the lights on the Harbour Bridge anymore. I don't know why but I'm guessing it's because of global warming. Yes, it's destroying everything in it's path.

I'm almost finished working on my Lonely Planet Images submission. I just need to tie some loose ends and I'll submit all nine hundred photos to them. Hopefully they will sell well so I could go on more trips and maybe buy one or two new toys (not to mention paying my mortgage).

I'll be going back to Indonesia again next month for three weeks to do some more photography. Malaysia might be on the menu as well. Really excited about this.

But by going back to Indonesia, I'll also be missing KafeArt this year. Mudistik's manager has asked me to join them and play with them this year (got that email just last night). If only I'd known, I'd probably re-schedule my travel plans earlier. I miss all the rehearsal part of it, the adrenaline rush before you go on stage (that's why a glass of whisky cola is always good before going on stage), that feeling that I get when I actually pick up that guitar on stage and just do what the hell I gotta do on stage.

I still wish I can do at least one or two gigs with Mudistik some other time later this year.

Pics on my Flickr will be updated really soon. Hopefully tonight.

Sorry

2008-06-24T00:54:00.002+10:00

Won't be blogging for a while.

I'm working on an ambitious photography project and hopefully everything will have been finished by the end of this week or the end of next week the latest.

Fingers crossed.

Meanwhile, feel free to enjoy my Flickr page.

I'll see you in a while.

it felt like a dream

2008-06-04T08:45:00.003+10:00

Woke up this morning as usual. Just a bit earlier actually. five minutes to seven. So I switched off the alarm. Slept for a bit longer then I woke up. The house was pretty dark (and cold mind you) since this is winter.

I saw the time. It was 7.05.

So I showered etc etc. I could swear it felt like the longest shower ever, even though it wasn't. Afterwards, out of the shower, I saw the clock again...

It was still 5.30, so I still have plenty of time to get ready to work... but something's not right...

It's only 5.30

That can't be right. I wasn't convinced at all. The battery must be out. So I checked my mobile phone...

5.30

Still not convinced, I consulted my watch...

The long hand of my watch pointed to six while the short hand was somewhere in between five and six...

5.30

So I was torn between whether I should just wake up and do whatever until 7.30 and go to work afterwards, OR, get back to sleep until my switched-on-again alarm woke me up at seven.

Decision had to be made fast as going back to sleep after waking up in the morning never felt enough. I'm pretty sure everyone has had this experience where they just woke up like six in the morning and had to actually wake up at seven. That one hour sleep always felt like it was only a five-minute rest.

But I persisted. I went back to bed...

just tired so far

2008-05-23T20:06:00.003+10:00

Haven't been blogging lately.

A few reasons for that:
- nothing interesting to blog (at least for me)
- haven't been going shooting for a while now
- and just generally too busy

And by too busy I actually mean it this time.

I'm working on my Vetta tones. I've realised that playing at low volumes and high volumes are very different (even though it's a computerised-solid-state-trying-to-emulate-tube sound). I've been working on four tones and so far I'm only quite happy (only 6 out of 10 I'd score them) with the first two. I haven't actually dialled in that perfect lead tone yet.

So that's the first one.

But the other thing that actually takes a lot of my time is actually working on my photo submission. At the moment I have more than eight hundred pics to submit and none of them actually had captions and keywords to start with and for me, who doesn't speak English super fluent as it's my second language, I find it quite hard to come up with keywords not to even mention captions for my photos. But I'm working on it. It's slowly getting there.

I can't work as fast as my eyes are so tired after a day's work.

I guess the next time I go travelling or whatever, I'd have to actually take the time to sit down, caption and keyword all my photographs instead of waiting for a bulk of them to pile up before doing captions and keywords.

And of course there's work and other daily human activities as well, like tomorrow for example. Me and the girlfriend will be at Knox City's Village cinema to see Indy's (probably last film) Kingdom of the Crystal Skull.

I need to get rid of some of my equipment as well, so if you want a solid body electric guitar (Ibanez RG Prestige) and or a nylon electric guitar (Yamaha APX-5NA) and or a multi effect unit (Digitech GNX3000), please do contact me as I need to sell them quite ASAP to fund the new Fat Lady.

tweaking, tweaking and tweaking

2008-05-11T00:54:00.003+10:00

I've just spent a couple of hours tweaking what's supposed to be my first clean sound for my Vetta. The Longboard has arrived so all is good. Tweaked the Vetta using Line 6 Edit so I don't have to press the millions of buttons on the amp itself.

And after two hours tweaking, I'm still not satisfied with the sound I have. Could be because I've gotten quite used to my (ex) Randall's clean channel. And also to the fact that I still can't route the post delay quite right. I will have to consult with the tweak-meister later... maybe Monday.

i cannot sleep. i heard that voice
ringing over and over
i've saved... and re-saved
i still can't get it right
i've chorused, i've tremoloed

what if 'a' is routed before 'b'?

shouldn't have done that in the first place
perhaps...

what if 'a' is parallel with 'b'?
what if i break your knee?

now i cannot close my eyes
the thought of having to spend days
without delays

how do i do 'b'? how do i route 'a'?
how do i find a way?

isn't it ironic?
when i have an endless palette of choices
but i can't even choose one right

the horror...
the horror...

Alright, gotta go to bed now. Vetta and board are back in their respective bubbles and the Midisport Uno is back home too.

Vetta II is here

2008-05-01T23:10:00.003+10:00

I've just received my Line 6 Vetta II.

Yes I'm back on the amp sim wagon.

After finally able to sell my Randall MTS RM100 head + 4 MTS modules + my 112 Marshall cabinet, I ordered this amp from a friend of mine.

Price? Shipping included, half the price of Australia's RRP. Didn't pay for GST either. Sweet.

I haven't played around with it a lot but so far it's very good and versatile.

Now all I need is the FBV deluxe pedal.

I wouldn't mind getting one second hand. Just so you know, the RRP here is AU$1200. Way more expensive than if I get it from the US and ship it here.

I also need an M-Audio Uno MIDI cable to upgrade the amp's firmware to the latest one.

eBay and more updates

2008-04-18T01:05:00.002+10:00

eBay (Australia) has announced that since 16 June, all listings must include Paypal as the method of payment. Either that or pay on pickup. Other methods of payment (including bank deposit, which is my most preferred method and COD) are banned.

That means if I'm selling something, the buyer either pays with Paypal or pay it when they pick the item up.

So for people like me, who doesn't sell regularly on eBay, this is just preposterous. This just discouraged me from selling on eBay. First of all, you have the listing fee and if the item is sold, eBay will take some more commission fee and if I have to receive money with Paypal, transferring the fund to my Australian bank account means more fees. And all these fees summed doesn't actually leave me with a lot of profit (if any).

I'm not sure if it's the same for Paypal users in the US, but here in Australia, it sucks.

I say let us choose how to pay and get paid. If eBay is forcing us to solely use Paypal (can't always sell locally), isn't that dictatorism?

ACCC should put a stop to this. I'll see what will happen within this few days.

And while we're on the topic, I'm still selling some of my stuff on eBay. Could be the last ones if this Paypal-is-a-must thing goes through, so hurry up as you don't need to pay with Paypal... yet.

Alright, moving on, I am now super duper broke. My last two trips have depleted me of all my funding resources. But fortunately, I'll be back to work next week, woohoo.

Will be going to Bright's Autumn Festival on the 3rd and 4th of May. This shouldn't cost me a lot of money. It will be a long drive though. It's 326km northeast from Melbourne. Looking forward to it (the festival, not the long drive).

And of course, check out my photos on Flickr.

Vlickr? myFlickr? Gimme Flickr!!!

2008-04-15T00:22:00.003+10:00

I don't like the direction Flickr is going.

You can now upload a ninety second video if you have a pro account on Flickr (US$25 per year).

Not that I'm against video or anything. I love checking out YouTube and see whatever people's putting up there but Flickr for me... it has always been exclusive primarily for photographs, photographers and the photography community.

THAT was why I signed up for that pro account, Flickr the photo exclusive site, not Flickr the photos + video site.

There's probably nothing I can do to change Flickr's decision so I'll stay (my pro account expires May next year). I'm not sure of how Flickr's going to be within the next year but hopefully it doesn't evolve into something like mySpace or YouTube.

We'll see.

the hobart trip - april 2008

2008-04-14T23:12:00.009+10:00

Went to Hobart for four days and went to a few places. I finally made it there.
Photos live at my Flickr.

10th April
Day 1, Melbourne to Hobart, Mt Wellington
After checking in the hotel, had a half hour rest, we (me and the girlfriend) went straight to Mt Wellington, which isn't that far from the CBD. It was only around a half hour drive and already we were at the pinacle (1240m above sea level... or was it 1270m). It was cold. I expected it to be cold but not that cold. The clouds were a bit below us and the only decent pic I could get was of the observation deck and not the city view. Bummer.

After descending Mt Wellington, went to Salamanca Place afterwards. It wasn't too crowded as it was Thursday. Walked around there for a while then went back to the hotel.

Later that evening, we searched for food along Elizabeth St, which wasn't too bad. I thought prices were quite overpriced compared to Melbourne and didn't taste as nice either. Maybe I just ended up at the wrong place to eat.

That wrapped up day one.

11th April
Day 2, Franklin-Gordon Wild Rivers National Park, Elizabeth St Mall
It's day two and Nelson Falls was the destination. It was quite a long drive there, I think around 250km, which took us three and a half hour drive one way not to mention road hurdles (lots of dead animals on the roads and I'm assuming they were possums). But it was well worth it.

The falls was part of the Franklin-Gordon Wild Rivers National Park which is just one huge national parks consisting of a few rivers, mountains and waterfalls.

Went past this incredible scenery on the way back to Hobart. It was in New Norfolk. I just had to get off and take a photo of it.

We got back at Hobart around 5PM and after a half hour rest (my legs were killing me after that long drive) we walked around the CBD to Elizabeth St Mall. By the time we got there, it was about closing time so most of the shops were closed.

Dinner at Hog's Breath cafe. Starting with the Boss Hog Mushies, then the Garlic Mushroom Prime Rib for me and Calamari Prime Rib for her.

Look how happy (and hungry) she (we) was. Yumm, should've ordered the regular cut instead.

Went back and had a well deserved rest for that day.

12th April
Day 3, Salamanca Market, Richmond, Port Arthur
It's Saturday which means the only time of the week when Salamanca Market is open. I'd say it was like an open air Victoria Market. A lot of food was sold, artworks too, clothing etc etc. Bought a bratwurst. It was the highlight food of this trip. It Tasted so wonderful even the bratwurst in Victoria Market doesn't come close (but again, I'm no expert on these things and I was actually quite hungry). We also put the Hot English Mustard on our bratwursts (how hot could it be huh?). That turned out to be a huge mistake. It was like wasabi... only yellow in colour. I was coughing uncontrollably and had tears coming out of my eyes. It was that hot.

Here's how crowded the market was. Check out the middle part of the photo.

Richmond was a city not far from Hobart. It was less than 30km from Hobart so it was a short drive. Didn't spend too much time here, but took some photos of the Richmond Bridge.

Port Arthur was next and it was unreal. I didn't expect it to be that big of a complex. Went on the cruise around the Isle of the dead.

Then spent the rest of that afternoon walking around the complex.

Visited the parking lot of the Wrest Point casino after dinner and decided to just go straight back as we were both so tired.

End of day three.

13th April
Day 4, Mt Wellington revisited, Tasmanian Royal Botanical Gardens
Revisited Mt Wellington in hopes of a better weather and view. That hope didn't come true. This time it's worse. It was colder and the cloud was so thick that you couldn't see a thing from the observatory deck. Didn't bother waiting any longer so we left.

The Tasmanian Royal Batonical Gardens, now that's another story. It was beautiful. Went straight to the Japanese garden and took some photos.

Here's some more photos from the Botanic Gardens.

After walking around, we finally returned our hired car (a silver Hyundai Getz, rego FN0878 - photo coming soon) and checked-in for our flight back to Melbourne.

I want to go back to Tassie again to explore more. I'm sure we've only scratched the surface as there must be a lot more places to go to. Anyway, it was good, but I was beat for those four days.

Ciao.

Hobart, here I come... again...

2008-04-09T18:03:00.002+10:00

Flying to Hobart tomorrow. Fingers crossed, everything will proceed nicely unlike last time. This is the exact same flight.

What do I expect? First and foremost, the gunpowder test at Tullamarine airport. I'm the lucky one, I always get it.

I'm not hoping much as I just saw the weather forecast for the next four days are mostly raining.

Will try to enjoy myself.

And will also update this once I get back.

Ciao.