FarBird Photoblog

Hongkong trip with family 1 - 5 Dec 2015

2024-04-22T20:07:00.001+08:00

Last holiday for the year!

Pearl of the Orient.

We booked since more than 6 months ago and we brought Sheryl along with us!

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Nathaniel K2 Graduation at BBTK 24 Oct 2015

2015-12-11T10:57:00.000+08:00

In a blink, he has completed his pre-primary education at Bethesda Bedok-Tampines Church Kindergarten.

Nathaniel's first try of the graduation hat and gown.

Looking at these pics, I can see the uncanny resemblance and I feel like I am in a time tunnel, looking at myself as if I am my father from a couple of decades ago.

I am unable to explain the weird epiphany I had that day, but I guess when the older folks kept encouraging the married couples to have kids of their own, this kinda explains why.

I saw the better version of me and he has all the time in the world to make mistakes and change the world in ways I never did.

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Macro shoot at Lower Peirce Trail 17 Nov 2015

2015-11-18T11:38:00.001+08:00

Testing new simple lighting setup on the MT-24EX.

Alone at 12 midnight in the Lower Peirce Trail sure reminds me of the good ol' army days.

Somehow, there was no fear, despite all the weird noises the secondary jungle was making.

The only fear was of the weather.
Because rain will definitely put a stop to my late night outing with the critters.

Click on each picture to see the close up of their eyes

Slideshow of photos taken at Lower Peirce on 17 Nov 2015

Family outing to Ubin 5 Sept 2015

2015-11-02T17:46:00.000+08:00

My children were born on an island.
But they have no idea what island living is all about.

So on this particular Saturday morning, I brought them to Pulau Ubin.

They had their share of sun, sand, sea, jungles, tracks, insects, crabs, mudskippers, mangroves,wild boars and did I mention sun?

And they said they didn't want to go back there ever again..

/me faints.

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Nathaniel's 6th Birthday Party at Aalto 13 June 2015

2015-06-13T17:00:00.000+08:00

Many thanks to cousin Qinghua and family for booking the BBQ area for us at the Aalto.

And much thanks also to Aunty Jaey for preparing most of the food!

Everyone had a fun poolside BBQ party!.

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501st Singapore Garrison visits Sarah's Pancakes 20 March 2015

2015-03-20T18:01:00.000+08:00

We were invited by the owners of Sarah's Pancakes for this special event as they were visited by the 501st Singapore Garrison.

As my kids and me are all Star Wars's fans, we couldn't resist the chance to meet them Storm Troopers.

After visiting Sarah's Pancakes for the first time, we became their fans too!

Sarah’s The Pancake Cafe
http://www.sarahspancakecafe.com.sg/
430 Upper Changi Road #01-62 Singapore 487048

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CNY St George with Mum 19 Feb 2015

2015-02-20T13:48:00.000+08:00

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CNY Visiting Eunos 19 Feb 2015

2015-02-20T13:45:00.000+08:00

After visiting my father's house, we headed on to my father-in-law's place as it is tradition to visit our elders during the first day of the Chinese New Year in a certain order.

All the ladies were dressed to their nines.

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CNY 2015 Visiting Dad's House 19 Feb 2015

2015-02-19T11:30:00.000+08:00

It was the first day of the Lunar New Year and it's customary to visit our parents place for blessings and at the same time, snap some family photos with everyone dressed up.

Nathaniel wishing 姑丈 “恭喜发财”

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Padang Night Shoot with Alex 31 Jan 2015

2015-01-31T04:00:00.000+08:00

It's been a while since Alex and me went for a shoot together.

Alex also helped me tested my Nissin flash against his Canon 580EX II flash.

It turned out that my Nissin DI866 MKII needed a flash power reduction on the Flash Compensation function on my Canon 6D body

Solo Bench on the Padang

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Birthday Dinner with Aunt Jaey at Merchant Court Hotel 30 Jan 2015

2015-01-30T23:00:00.000+08:00

For our favourite aunt, dinner is on us tonight!
We had dinner at Merchant Court Hotel with Aunty Jaey.
After our dinner, we had a relaxing stroll along Clarke Quay.

Nate's favourite Grandaunt

She gave Nathaniel a big Angry Bird jar filled with jelly!

Aunty Jaey with Christine

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Leicester House Party Feb 2000

2015-01-23T09:22:00.000+08:00

In the year of 2000 at Leicester, a bunch of cool kids thought we were cool too and they invited us to their home for dinner and more coolness ensued.

Back to the day when we had more hair and less troubles..

Some of the pictures below were selfies even before selfie was popular.

Pics were taken with an old JVC DV digicam that ran old MiniDV tapes back then.
Doesn't even has a SD card slot.

June & Angie

Yin Lin aka Yan Ling

Franklin & Alex

Lileen's Portrait

June's Portrait

Alex's Portrait

Andy's Portrait

Andrew's Portrait

Adrian & Angie

Angie's Portrait

Andrew & Andy

Franklin with Angie & Yin Lin in the background

Franklin & Lileen

June and Franklin

Andy & Angie

Andrew & Angie

June, Angie, Lileen, Yin Lin

TBT Circa March 2002

2015-01-22T09:46:00.001+08:00

Well, you can't turn back the clock.

But when you need to reminisce, it will always be there frozen in time.

Pics were taken back then with an old unpopular JVC compact digital camera.

Saint Germain des Pres Shopping and Lunch at Leon's 23 Dec 2014

2014-12-31T17:00:00.000+08:00

Everyday in Paris begins with the Metro.

St Germain des Pres. Shopping at Louis Vuitton aka LV

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Disneyland Paris 22nd Dec 2014

2014-12-31T15:00:00.000+08:00

We waited for about 30mins in the queue before we could get in Disneyland itself.

Isabel wanted to try those coaster rides but was denied because of her height.
In the end, all of us went kiddy rides with her.

Can see from her face that she wasn't too happy that day.

I promised her to bring her to Universal Studios in Singapore once she is tall enough.

This one is a dare-devil.. Don't play play...

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Paris London Trip 20 Dec 2014 to 30 Dec 2014 Arrival and Eiffel Tower Night

2014-12-31T14:45:00.000+08:00

Once we reached Paris Charles De Gaulle Airport, we tried using the public train service to reach our accommodation for the first 4 days which was booked via AirBnB. I must say that I was quite impressed with the accommodation and will refer this place to all my friends visiting Paris.

The Metro Station was Place D'Italie and our residence was on top of a shopping mall that has its own supermarket (Carrefour) inside the mall.

This was day 1 of our free and easy trip

Bienvenue en France ( Welcome to France )




Lugging Serious Lugguage from CDG Airport to Place D'Italie

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Eiffel Tower View from Place D'Italie Residence Balcony 22 Dec 2014

2014-12-31T13:30:00.000+08:00

This is my 2nd time in Paris since more than 14 years ago.

Armed with a DSLR and tripod, I wasn't just gonna take shoddy pictures of the famous Eiffel Tower and blame the poor lighting conditions and bite myself not coming back with sharp pictures of the Tour de Eiffel.



Night view of Eiffel Tower from Place D'Italie

Time Lapse taken from balcony of Airbnb Place D'Italie residence

Each time I see these pictures I took, it makes me miss the place,

but strangely at the same time,

I am also glad I came back with these photos.

farbird

Feb 2015

Paris London Trip 20 Dec 2014 to 30 Dec 2014 Pre-Departure and Transit

2014-12-31T11:42:00.000+08:00

It was our first long haul family trip and was just the 4 of us lugging suitcases full of winter wear to both Paris and London.

Mrs Neo ( aka Christine Koh ) was in between jobs and we have a period whereby we could afford to visit these 2 countries.

We managed to book the tickets at great prices at Emirates Airlines and transited at Dubai before arriving at Paris.

Pre-departure at Changi Airport. Nathaniel trying out his grins

Dubai Transit Experience

A wholesome day out with just me and my kids in London 28 Dec 2014 (Part 1)

2014-12-28T13:00:00.000+08:00

It was a day of walking with their daddy and I bet they regretted not choosing to go with their mummy to go shopping (Picadilly Circus & Oxford Street) instead.

We must have done more than 10km of walking that day.

We started off our walk at Embankment station, crossed the Thames using the Millenium Bridge, saw the London Eye and it's extended queue, walked past the London Dungeon, cross the Thames River again to see Big Ben and Westminster.

And just when we thought we can just hop on a train to go from Westminster station to London Bridge, it turned out that several tube stations were closed due to maintenance and that made us walk the whole stretch from Westminster all the way across the station St James Park(closed that 2 weeks) to Victoria Station where we took the tube to London Bridge station.

During the journey, we were either looking for cafes to use their toilets or just resting at bus stops to shelter our faces from the cold winds. We caught some fun while resting at this park near to Victoria station where the kids had a fun experience of chasing pigeons, seeing a whole bunch of them take flight, make a small loop and land again in the same area.

Once we reached London Bridge station, we walked across the Thames and along it to reach the Tower Bridge and looped back to London Bridge via the opposite bank pedestrian pathways.

Nate was so knackered that he started to make some unintelligible speech and was laughing to himself after realising it.

It goes something like "OrChee Orr Orr".

When we reached London Bridge station again after so much walking, the kids were so elated to see their mum at the Station. So tired we were, we just dined at a nearby takeaway shop.

Quite a heavy day on foot for the kids but it was very memorable.

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Last staycation at Fairmont 12-14 Dec 2014

2014-12-15T15:34:00.001+08:00

Possibly our last staycation there since the Feed@Raffles membership card no longer includes free 1 night stay at its chain of hotels in Singapore.

Nonetheless, we had a good time and took many photos.

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Happy 10th Birthday Isabel Neo (7 Dec 2014)

2014-12-10T12:18:00.005+08:00

She wanted a party on her 10th birthday so she can have some friends come over to celebrate with her.

So we organized a party on 7 Dec 2014, just over a week before her actual birthday [17 Dec ], at home for her friends to attend.

Waiting for her friends to arrive

What have you been doing for the December holidays?

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Solo Midnight Macro along Sungei Serangoon in Sengkang 6th March 2014

2014-03-07T13:44:00.000+08:00

Amaze and Awe of Nature by Tiny Eyes

When we were younger, we are often amazed by tiny things seen by our tiny eyes.

Perhaps it's the height and eye level of young children that makes them more observant about the flora and fauna around them.

Or maybe it is because as we grow older, our eyes, together with our materialistic desires, are set to see only bigger things.

As we eradicate more and more of our natural environment to build taller offices, condominiums and shopping malls that will awe the grown-ups, we tend to forget to leave some space for the younger generation.

Space for them to be amazed by the simple things such as an eight legged spider weaving its web, a colony of ants building an anthill, a host of shield bugs huddling together under a leaf, a grasshopper molting away its old skin or watch a stick insect slowly revealing itself from its camouflage.

While we had the chance to be amazed by the flora and fauna around us when we were younger, our next generation of children might not be able to experience the amazement of catching spiders, grasshoppers, butterflies and blowing dandelions.

Conserve what little nature we have left, so the children can continue to be amazed the same way that we had been during our younger days.

The pictures below were taken along Sungei Serangoon, on one of the Sengkang Park Connectors.

See other macro photos taken along this water way here.

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Potluck High Tea at BRV with old friends 9 Feb 2014

2014-02-12T11:01:00.000+08:00

We had a few good friends over for a pot luck high tea and it was a good chance for all the children to meet and have fun too!

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W124 Singapore Meetup Photoshoot 8 Feb 2014

2014-02-12T10:38:00.003+08:00

This was a gathering of Singapore's W124 and several classic Mercedes model owners.

Location : i-Connect carpark at Bukit Merah
Date/Time : 8th Feb 2014 / 0930 hrs

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Toshiba Colleagues Steamboat Lunch BRV CNY 2014

2014-02-10T16:25:00.000+08:00

Mrs Neo had some guests over for a steamboat lunch at our home.

Mr Neo was the designated cameraman.

We hope everyone had fun that day!

Here are the pictures..

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