Agar Agar Making Session
Dear told me he feels like eating agar agar and wanted to try making it, so we bought all the ingredients for making agar agar. I’ve been making almond jelly but making agar agar is my first time. Initially, I thought that making agar agar with so many layers of colors will involve many steps and take up a lot of time. But it was actually very simple.
Funny conversation that happens:
RS: mum, how much sugar must we add?
RS’s Mum: agar agar lor. You go taste how sweet you want.
RS: mum, how much coconut must we add?
RS’s Mum: agar agar lor.
Haha… so now I know why is it call agar agar!
Equation:
Simple ingredients + simple steps = delicious agar agar
Now I know how to make another dessert, I Can make for my friends to eat when we have meet-up or picnic… haha.
Singaporeans to Redang holiday
Finally went to Redang with a bunch of my good friends after long waiting and planning. Had lots of fun snorkeling and joking around.
an hour of ferry
It was a 3d2n trip. We journeyed by a 9 hours coach followed by an hour of ferry from Singapore to reach our destination. Though the journey was long and tiring, we were all blown away by the beauty of the island. We stayed in Redang Beach Resort, just beside Laguna Resort. It's not as luxury as Laguna Resort, and it's bathroom is kind of disturbing too...
The waves were quite strong, and we love it!
Beautiful isn't it?!
Softest sand I ever felt
We were told that we were not allowed to bring any thing out of the island including any form of living/dead corals, shells and even sand (RM25000 fine or 2 years jail if caught). I was told that the fine sands promotes the growth of corals on the shore of the island, therefore implementing the strict restriction to prevent anyone from bringing the sand out of the island.
Due to the fact that my DSLR wasn't waterproof, I couldn't bring it to the snorkeling points. There were 3 snorkeling points(different locations, speed boat to bring us out to the island) that the resort would bring us over the 2 days. We went one of the snorkeling point on the first day, another on the second day and decided to give up the 3rd point because most of us were too tired from the 2nd snorkeling.
The first snorkeling I experienced sea sickens and was vomiting on my way back to the island. There wasn't much to see there as it was more for us to get familiar with the gears and breathing methods.
The 2nd snorkeling point was at the Marina Park. Even though there were corals and fishes on the first snorkeling point, it wasn't much as compared to Marina Park! We were all given breads to feed the fishes and immediately we were surrounded by more than 30 fishes trying to get their bites on the bread! I tried to stuff some of the bread under my pants so that I can transport to another part of the ocean, but the amount of fishes attacking my pants were so crazy that I quickly shake out each and every breads out of my pants. We were also lucky to have one of the staff bringing us around the ocean in Marina Park(There's only a few of them) and we got the chance to touch and see a lot of creatures that others couldn't. =D
As for the rest of the day.........
Sand fight!
I'm not participating due to the fact I'm carrying my camera
Tie Boon and his girlfriend...
LOL!! I couldn't stop laughing at their expression
One of the rare photos to prove that I've been to redang
shemale....
completed!
Chilling with coconuts and ice kachang
frisby!!!
Another reason for this holiday trip was to celebrate 2 of our friend's birthday which fells on the next month. We couldn't have the trip anytime near their birthday therefore we went earlier. We planned and gave them a surprise cake!
The wonderful people who sang happy birthday in many languages
yeah!
Tie Boon and his girlfriend... My external flash and super big bounce card was making wonders at night.
On the last day, we bought souvenirs for our friends and love ones...
which one nicer leh?
deciding on design...
It's time to go home.... =(
Ferry back home...
Sun rise on the ferry
I'm home with very serious sunburns. However it was all worth it because we had a lot of fun!
Random
These 2 weeks have been a shopping week for me and dear… but is mostly shopping for my stuff. Dear has been accompanying me for these 2 weekends to shop for my things. Even though I didn’t end up buying a lot of things but it’s still fun strolling outside. Dear bought himself a pair of shoes and he is so funny after wearing the shoes because he cannot walk normally… haha. Hmm… I always end up buying food and basic necessities and I must say these 2 things contribute to a majority of my spending. But, I’m happy to be able to eat nice and delicious food (better if I won’t get fat after eating them).
My tired looking dear
SB 600 flash, new toy for my DSLR
Bought a very good condition second hand external flash, Nikon SB600, from clubsnap yesterday. Been looking for a very valuable and good condition external flash on the forum for quite sometime and finally found one. Seller was pretty friendly and gave me a lot of tips on the usage of flash.
Nikon SB600 external flash
External flash not only provides my camera with stronger flash(not the main point) but allows a technique called bounced flash. As the flash source can be point at any directions, it creates a new window for interesting and creative lighting on images. Though I have been reading professional photographer's blogs and flash tutorials, it's never the same when you have the one to try it yourself. It's also a good chance for me to learn some new techniques and expand my knowledge in photography.
Flash pointing to the left
Flash pointing to the right
Quick test shot. Flash pointing to the left, 45degree up
Here another test shot. The pencil case was made during secondary school's dnt class. RS stands for my name =D
Too tired to do anymore testing with the flash..
Will upload portrait shoots when I got the chance to take some with my flash.
Disadvantage? My camera becomes a lot heavier now when the external flash is mounted.... =S
90degree bounce
Update: The flash was put into used when my good friend called me up, wanted me to help her take some photos for her pushcart stall. Great opportunity for me to learn the different type of bounce flash. It's really amazing how much difference a bounce flash can make!
Singapore Garden Festival 2010
Singapore Garden Festival? I have never of that before. But got to know about this event from my colleague that there is this event once in 2 years and she said I must really go because all the flowers are so beautiful and are from many different countries. So I told dear I want to go and we went on Saturday. We checked online and saw the tickets for weekend is $12… super expensive, but nevertheless, we went. And when we are at the ticket counter, the ticket assistance ask if we are student… haha… I didn’t notice there is student price. And student ticket is $8, on top of that we got passion card so addition 10% discount… so in the end we paid $7.20.
The crowd is not that much from what I thought. There are tourists from other countries, a lot of photographer carrying super pro camera, and of course dear brought his dslr there too. We tour at the event for around 3 to 4 hrs and took a lot of photos. I think if we did not take photo while we walk, we can finish touring very fast. But because of taking photo, we have spent the $7.20 wisely… haha.
I even bought an orchid seedling home. I have long wanted to grow orchid… hope my orchid will grow up healthily. After that we went shopping and have dinner at Imperial Treasure La Mian Xiao Long Bao and they have nice and affordable xiao long bao.
For your info: Singapore Garden Festival 2010 is from 15 - 22 Jul 2010!
P.S. More photos on facebook!
DK-21M Nikon Magnifying Eyepiece
I've been using Nikon D60 for 1 1/2 years and I'm glad that I choose D60 as my first DSLR.
I've been envying the size of the viewfinder on higher end models such as D90 and D300 after playing with it some time ago. The viewfinder on D90 is so big, bright and much easier to see your subjects. Despite that, I couldn't upgrade my DSLR as national service is just around the corner, 4 more months to be exact from the date of this post. In addition, there rumors spreading that D90 replacement is coming out soon. It will be totally meaningless if I purchase a D90 now.
While I was googling around, I came across a discussion Nikon DK-21M magnifying eyepiece. Basically it magnifies your viewfinder by 1.2X. In another words, it means you are able to get D90 viewfinder magnification size without having to change your DSLR (default 0.93x magnification on D90, 0.6x magnification on D60).
Finding it this magnifying eyepiece in Singapore is tough job. I've went to every single camera shops on the first floor of Sim Lim square and yet to find one. Finally I've decided to purchase it on ebay, even though it cost $2 more than MSRP.
Surprisingly, it was delivered to my mailbox in just 3days after ordering it from Hong Kong!
The eyepiece is from Japan!
Fitting it on my D60 isn't much of a hassle and when I look into my viewfinder, it's as though I'm looking through a D90!
My viewfinder become much bigger, with a 0.9x magnification, just 0.03x lesser than D90.
Hee... Good buy leh~
I've seen discussion on forum that the eyepiece causes vignette. However I don't see one when I'm pointing at the sky or my room's lamp. Despite the positiveness that it brings, it also give me another problem. As I'm wearing glasses nowadays, the increased magnification made the edge of the viewfinder a little harder to look at. It's much better suited for non-glasses users. Humm, maybe I'm gonna go back to contact lens?
Nevertheless, I've not regretting purchasing this and I think it's something that every entry DSLR needs!