elke

"A super cute five-day-old Francois Langur monkey named Elke is being cared for by Taronga Zoo primate handlers after it's mother rejected the new born." as reported by Yahoo!7 News. Must check out the video below. She's so cute!

classical music helps resolve gang fights?

News of bikie gang fights, drive-by shootings, brawls in public places such as shopping malls were hitting the headlines here in Sydney almost everyday since a bikie's brother (who's not even a bikie gang member) got bludgeoned to death in a Hells Angels vs Comancheros brawl involving up to 20 people at the Sydney Domestic Airport last week.

Latest news is that gangs are flying in reinforcements from both within Australia and overseas and stockpiling weapons and explosives for a showdown under the pretext of some BS peace talks. How exciting... and some people think that these can only happen in movies such as The Young and Dangerous (古惑仔).

I was discussing with Beh Kee how dangerous it is now to go anywhere when you don't even know when you'll get hit by stray bullets or stabbed by accident if you end up in the wrong place at the wrong time. But well, you can never prevent something from happening if it's destined to happen, so why lock ourselves up at home?

So what are the authorities doing to ensure the safety of the innocents such as Zervas (who got killed in Sydney Airport), myself and Beh Kee? Besides the finger-pointings going on among the various departments responsible for public safety and security (makes one wonder what is more important in an emergency situation: doing the right job that is within your official list of reponsibilities or saving lives and preventing the public from getting hurt) and brainstorming sessions to rethink the laws governing bikie gangs (makes one wonder what the government has been doing all this while when the gang fights have been going on for a long time, does it only warrant action when a fatality occurs in a high profile location such as the Airport? Also, is a complete ban the solution?), the police has even gone to the extent of playing classical and easy-listening music in certain places in the hope of detering such troublemakers from gathering and hence cut down the chances of brawls taking place in those places. Like, wow. How ingenious. I'm really curious to find out if this classical music method works.

happy monkey goes out to play

Check out what my monkey co-pilot does in the CelicaR when we go on road trips...

cool autumn... not

It's autumn... but why is it still so blazingly hot?



Picture of a random fallen maple leave was randomly taken along Darling Harbour.

bbq, singstar & matt's bday

Got an exclusive invitation for a BBQ/Singstar/Matt's birthday celebration at Steph's place on Saturday. Matt is one of the pilots we recruited from South Africa as part of my overseas pilot recruitment project last year. Here's Matt with the biggest smile I've ever seen him carry, with his beer and three gigantic candles in preparation for Earth Hour.



First drink I had for the night was this South African cider Hunter's Gold that Steph drove all over Sydney and its suburbs to find. It tastes great, way better than Strongbow which I've always liked. Cheese platter with chips were supplied by Beh Kee as starters while we prepared the meats for BBQ. I was the main alcohol supplier for the night - vanilla vodka, chocolate liqueur and shiraz but sadly we forgot to take a pic of the poisons.



The originally designated chef Dylan had to be called up to pilot a flight at the last minute and so a few of us had to take up the daunting task of cooking for the whole gang.



Steph was the overall supervisor while Irwin and I slogged our guts out at the fire.



Izzy did all the lamb cutlets.



While I did all the kebabs, sausages and rissoles. Irwin's part was in marinating and cooking the chicken wings and assisting Izzy with the lamb.



Ready to feast.



Steph made this homecooked potato bake thingy with pumpkin and mushrooms that tasted fabulous.



Cassy had her own private little dining corner where she got to enjoy the delicious BBQ spread too.



Izzy had to go fight with Cassy for her cute Winnie the Pooh plate and her little white baby chair! Bad girl. Heh.



Matt did the setting up of the Singstar discs and mikes for a singing challenge after all the feasting. Seajay and her little friend had the first go which wasn't too bad.



It's actually not that easy to make sure all the pitches, rhythms, timings and words are executed perfectly.



The audience had a great laugh over some of the tone deafs and superstar wannabes screaming their lungs out. Here's Georgia, Matt's pilot girlfriend getting bored to death by the amateur singing.



Dijon with the beer bottle poking out at a weird angle in a funny location is officially the worst challenger of the night. He's got quite a *ahem* unique *ahem* singing style. By the way, is that a new way of chilling your beer or cooling the b*lls?



Everyone was sporting and got to sing something, even Irwin who never sings at any karaoke sessions did more than a few numbers, and did them surprisingly well too. My vanilla vodka could have played a part in getting everyone to embarrass themselves eh? Great way to spend a Saturday night in. Looking forward to many more such sessions!

on creating those pop arts

Dante has been bugging me for the article "Create a Pop Art Portrait" by Howard Millard that was featured in Better Photoshop Techiniques Issue 16 ever since he saw my virgin pop art portraits. I am unable to send him a copy of it as I don't think I can find it anymore so I shall attempt to illustrate it step-by-step here SPECIALLY FOR DANTE. Please do pardon this very noobly written guide by a very noob me intended for a noob student.

Firstly, you have to select a suitable photo to work on. This pop art technique works best on photos with strong edges and outlines and good contrast. If your image looks dull / flat / lacks contrast, then try to enhance it first with a Levels / Curves / Contrast Adjustment Layer before going to the next step outlined below.

Below is the image I selected for this exercise.



We will need to convert it into the high contrast black and white image as shown on the left below. In the Layers palette, choose a New Adjustment Layer called Threshold. You will see the window as shown on the right image below. Adjust the Threshold Level until the image shows good bold outlines that you are satisfied you can add in the colours on. I have set it to 165 in this case.



Next step onwards (the adding colour part) is the most tedious part of the whole process (but still very easy so don't worry!). Create a New Layer (icon is shown at the bottom of the Layers palette). Name the Layer according to the part of the photo you are going to apply a particular colour to. For example, I decided to colour all the flowers yellow and hence named my new layer "Flowers". Notice I have the "Skirt", "Ribbons" and "Face & Hand" layers below. It's not a must to create separate layers for each part but this makes it easier to edit or fine tune a particular section / colour afterwards. Before you apply the colour, change the Blend Mode (top left corner of the Layers palette) from Normal to Multiply. Then choose a Brush, select your desired colour for the brush, set the opacity and size of the brush and you're ready to paint over whichever sections as you like. The black parts of the image will not be affected. Repeat the same steps for the different sections until you complete the whole photo and there, you have your own pop art portrait. Very easy right?



I have only done up to this point for the above photo as it's solely meant for illustration purposes. I don't have too much time to perfect this pop art or complete it so will leave it at that.

the unofficial swimming challenge

It all started about a year ago when two of my colleagues challenged each other to a swim race. The challenge never took place due to some unforeseen circumstances. It was brought up again very recently at Baby Matthew's party and the date and venue was set. The day arrived and a total of six challengers and eight supporters turned up.

Here's most of the people gathered at the rendezvous point waiting for the latecomers and strategising on how to win the race.



A few of the swimmers testing out the water.



Changing into their gear.



The cheering squads getting ready. Here's presenting to you our cutest and youngest cheerleader Cassy. She totally stole the limelight that afternoon.



We had Seajay (the youngest challenger - she's only twelve), Dylan (Seajay's Dad) and CC in Heat 1 (left pic); Little Boss Irwin, Steph (Seajay's Mum) and Izzy were in Heat 2 (right pic).



And we had the three men in the finals.





Here are some pics of the action.





And we have the second runner-up receiving his medal.



The runner-up receiving his medal.



And the champion got a medal and a trophy!



Even Cassy the youngest cheerleader got a medal for her efforts (actually I think she stole her Dad's).



Group pic of all the challengers below.



And finally, a relaxing lunch for the whole group. It was a Saturday morning well spent. Next I think I'll organise a track and field day or some spoon and egg race event.

baby matthew is 1 month old

Time truly flies. We just welcomed Baby Matthew into this world not too long ago and now we're celebrating his first month. At this rate, we'll be celebrating his first step, his first word, his graduation from kindy and primary school, etc etc in no time at all. See how grown up he looks now? He definitely looks wiser than his age!



In Chinese culture, a baby's first month calls for a grand celebration where the proud parents introduce the new addition to their family by holding a 'red egg and ginger' party. Several of us got together for a pre-celebration where Baby Matthew's Grandmother from SG whipped up lots of yummy dishes that allowed us poor Singaporean 'orphans' to savour the familiar taste of home. The spread included fried bee hoon (vermicelli), Singaporean style chicken curry, crispy deep fried chicken wings, sambal chilli prawns, beef brisket stew, roti prata (Indian style pancake bread) and stir fried mixed veges. The highlight of the dinner was the pig's trotters with ginger and vinegar stew - supposedly a very nutritious dish for new mothers that helps in the recovery from their weakened states following childbirth. The red-dyed eggs, symbolising happiness and the renewal of life are handed out at the end of the party so that all guests don't leave empty handed. Traditionally, an even number of eggs are sent out for a boy, and an odd number to announce a baby girl. The below photo of the red eggs was taken by Ernest (which I photoshopped a bit) as I'd forgotten to take any pics of them.



I tried playing with Baby Matthew and carrying him. I don't think I look half as motherly as all the other female guests present.



There was a second celebration for Baby Matthew, this time at work in the Rex building on a Friday afternoon. Baby Matthew's Mummy bought a special tiramisu cake for the occasion that tasted heavenly.



Mummy also prepared lots of different coloured jelly in various flavours for the office which I kept eating non-stop, especially the pink almond jelly.



I just love their colours.



And here's the Lee family. It's obvious both Papa and Mama are extremely proud of Baby Matthew, he's such a fine baby. Congrats!