Just try this! Free Photography Contest!

I came accross this add on a photography contest thingy and it is from Sony! Its a really easy competition just take a picture, enroll and you are on your way to winning something :) Anyhow... i just join it for fun and i know i have plenty friends who are wonderful photographers so why not just try your luck on this one and besides its free! heheheh Good luck trying everyone and most of all have fun doing so! :)

here is the add i think if you click on it it will bring you directly to the webpage where you need to sign up in order to submit your post for the competition entry!

good luck!



Submitted :)
Clarity!

Just my day .... and my Birthday!

It the time of the year again where for one day we will feel uneasy or just thinking too much or just thinking back and fort of what you've done for the whole year and whats been achived. well my day is today and as always i dreaded the big day coz i will by then entertain stuffs in my head of things i should have done or not done and by the end of the day take it or leave it ...live must go on...so that day is today which is my birthday!

This year i have done tremendous leap towards my carrer in life as well as relocating myself to another place and looking back i wouldnt be able to do stuffs like that without the commitment and support of a dear one who is consistantly encouraging me to move on and stand out in the crowd and just express myself. I have always been a very timid person and took me a while to get out of this shell of mine and now look at me i feel like i have finally took the step out of my shell and become me.

Looking back, im afraid to do anything and try anything for fear of rejection and failure but now i have a better perspective in life and having somebody who is caring, loving and understanding and most of all supportive tremendously helping a lot with building myself up again and thats someone is my other half Raymonnd. And i cant thank god enough for bringing us together and hoping for many many more birthdays and lovely time and moments together for we always say to each other...it only just begun :)

Today, i have a speacial treat from my other half and we didnt get to talk for the whole day until the evening when he mentioned to me on skype no need to cook we are eating out and im coming home shortly! then when he got back home, he was all wet from driving around in his motorbike and was holding a bunch of roses at the same time...I cried a little when i saw that because its not everyday that i get flowers on my birthday and i can count with just one hand how many times i receive flowers from a loved one and this is certainly the best gift ever. Before this it never bothered me people getting flowers from loved ones as i dont know how it felt and when it did happen to me my god i felt like im over the moon with happiness. With just a simple flower bouquet is enough to get me all teary because you can ask my sister how many times in my life do i get such gift...close to none. So this is the time for i will always treasure this moment and will always be a reminder for me and ray of how it felt like to make each other happy and felt loved. I guess we are one of the lucky ones to feel it and experience it and not take things for granted.


and not forgetting also to my family and friends far and near who have wished happy Birthday to me, it meant the world to me for having friends and family and relatives as all of you really touched my heart particularly my mom who tried to call me at 5 am in the morning just to be the first person to wish me happy birthday...thank you very much mom and to my sister mewot for sending me the morp picture of herself ...now i know i can bribe her wt that picture hehehehe thanks sis :) and finally...

Just want to say from the bottom of my heart, i love you for you and thank you so much for being the pillar of strenght for me when im down or in need of a helping hand and most of all thank you for being you and loving me just as i am.


merci du cadeau mon coeur!

fleurs très belles


merci beaucoup d'un beau dîner d'anniversaire mon chéri FM :)



Acceptez les choses auxquelles le destin vous lie et aimez les personnes avec qui le destin vous réunit mais faites ainsi avec tout votre coeur!


Je t'aime


yours truly
Clarity!

Giap's visit to our home :)

It was definately an honour to have our friend Giap to stay with us for the weekend all the way from Vietnam. When i was in vietnam he was the perfect host to bring us around and went jalan-jalan with us and help me bought my cosmetic blue lenses :) It was really nice of him and so to return the favour although it was only a 2 day visit and plus he had to work half of it we had only the sunday morning free for he had to leave for vietnam the same day which also happens to be his birthday! so happy birthday to you Giap from both of us!



here is Giap and Ray ready for their management meeting and Ray packed with his Brioche to share with his workmates :)

Btw, thank for the bottle of wine Giap it was super nice of you indeed :)

The following day we had some time to spare after the late breakfast and took some shots at Giap for he had a very striking shirt on :)


Then Raymond finally do the tour of the place with Giap throughthe garden and finally to the Maple eternity swimming pool

we had a jolly good fun time at the pool and our guest was being very sportive for doing all those funny stunts inside the pool with us :) Thanks for the pose giap :)


For lunch we had some nice cakes and lunch at secret recipe for its also Giap's birthday so we got him a cake :)


After our guest left for the airport, ray and i decided to pay a visit to the canards and chase them around just for fun and walk around the park until it started to rain and we had to head back home :(
Then we decided to have dinner elsewhere so we went to Bangsar pasar malam to get out seafood supplies and then head back to BV and bought us some books from MPH and it was jolly good fun indeed browsing for them books and megazines

then we finally settled for Fish & Co for our hearthy dinner :)


what a day!
C&R

My gadgets! :)

I remember discussing something about owning a gadget with our friend Phillipe during when he was here for his vacation and he lugged with him some very interesting "Gadgets" as i put it but he didnt want to admit that his wi-fi Ipod thingy is a gadget but anyhow, enough said i was actually pretty amazed and intrigued with all his gadget stuffs so finally i told myself i think i need some gadgets too :))

so here is what we collected after spending some time reading reviews about things before we bought any and so here is what we have in our gadget box now :)


First, is my Olympus SP-507UZ after selling off my cannon S3 on the net with a good deal, i finally decided to get this Olympus because firstly, i dont like to lugged with me types of lenses and all so this is my solution as packed with 20X zoom capacity i guess its all i need for my photography hobby, as im just taking pics for the fun of it hehehe and also im a point and shoot kinda person so this is perfect for me as i dont know much about taking pictures and all i just go by what i feel like and just snap! snap! snap! Besides its 10.1 megapixel so hopefully it will help me take nice enough pictures without having to edit them with softwares coz i'm really bad with them too hehehe Its the closest i cant get to a DSLR camera s its stated in the description its a DSLR like for the functions and all are kinda like a DSLR kind of camera. Enough said i just love the simplicity of this camera and the lightness of it just perfect for tiny hands like mine. So i'm an Oly person now :)

Next on my gadgetry list is this Selphy ES20. We got a good deal for this one too as it was on sales and was just selling below RM400 and its enough for me to get my instant picture print out and with quality just as good as a print out from a photo shop so im happy about it! So, now i can print out my favourite picture all at home and need not send it for print outside anymore :) yeahhh! And top of it all its really tiny and portable as well as wireless and packed with bluetooth and everything you can just carry it around with you anywhere :)
A must have for anyone doing scrapbooking like i do!

The third gadgetry we have in our collection is another camera which is really great for everything, particularly for photoblogging for it is compact to bring anywhere, its waterproof, its shockproof and it takes very good macro shots for it has a Led light capabilities...really superb. In fact i used more of this camera then my bigger olympus camera because its very good with the moving action picture taking like inside a car for its stabilation capabilities is really good. packed with a 10.1 megapixel its really a great deal. One of the reason why we got this camera is because we are doing a lot of snorkelling and travelling so this is a perfect camera for all of that. We made a few test already during our recent snorkelling trip and it was really good working underwater wt this camera. It works 10meters under water so its good for snorkelling. Anyone thinking of getting this Olympus SW 1030 my recommendation is you are getting a good deal indeed! I had a good deal for this one too as i bought it during the recent KLPF meet and bought it directly from the Olympus distributor and got it below RM1300 with one extra original lithium battery. One other good thing about this camera is that it works with Xd Cards as well as a micro SD memory card so you get more memory packed in it.

My final gadget is this Pocket PC. Ray seemed to have it for a long time now but has not been utilising it for years and i quickly put it to use for i love the wifi capabilities on this Pocket Pc for i can be anywhere and surf the net and most of all i can load skype, msn and facebook and etc. So these days i will have it with me to wherever i go for its small and very convenient and also i can have skype out calls and call home anytime im connected. This is a very convenient tool to have if you are doing a lot of travelling and the google map is easily loaded for when you are lost! hehehe Besides that i can also blog from it and check my emails from anywhere. so its a wonderful tool to have eventhough this Toshiba Pocket PC e800 is already 4 years old but with 8G of memory and window base application i can do almost everything with it. Right now i use it more for my French lesson for i can listen and read my lessons on pdf format on this tiny machine.


So....here are my most current gadgetry @ home. For me and Ray are both very much into buying gadgets stuffs and our next gadget for our collection is a small pc for travelling! So going to do a research on it before getting one!;)

gadgetry freak!
C & R

Canal St Martin, Bastile & Montmartre

Before coming to France i watched a movie called which literally translates as "The Fabulous Destiny of Amélie Poulain" I was really excited about it as it shows a lot of scenery on Paris and somehow after watching the movie i was quite intrigue with all of the sights i've seen on the movie especially when Raymond told me then oui bien sur, we can go to all those sights and realised your dreams of reliving the movie when we are in Paris! The moment he said that i was baming with joy and just couldnt wait to go to those places Amélie Poulain went and did things. So my journey to Montmarte was a memorable one especially when i can walk by the fruit market and where Amélie Poulain use to venture about in the story and also particularly to the cafe where Amélie was working! It was an awesome journey and i owed it all to mon cherié, Raymond :)

here is a bit of insight about the movie i picked up from Wickepedia. Amélie is a 2001 French film directed by Jean-Pierre Jeunet and starring Audrey Tautou. Its original French title is Le Fabuleux Destin d'Amélie Poulain which literally translates as "The Fabulous Destiny of Amélie Poulain"; poulain is French for foal. Written by Jeunet with Guillaume Laurant, the film is a whimsical and somewhat idealised depiction of contemporary Parisian life, set in Montmartre. It tells the story of a shy waitress who decides to change the lives of those around her for the better, while struggling with her own isolation.

The journey begins....

Before we reached the Canal St. Martin, these are the cafe thats just next to the Canal

And finally.....I present to you Canal St.Martin

Just looking at my face you would know i was estaticly happy with this visit to the canal St. Martin as i can recall in the movie how Amélie was when she was here....it was a wonderful great feeling!

The whole wide angle view of the canal

1st Mission accomplished!

Canal St Martin

After the long stretched of canal, we went to the end of the canal where its called Bastille. Its where they have a fairly large area for traders to sell their stuffs like a typical "Pasar-Malam" and its really beautiful! lots of varieties and colours and particularly the people are just so amazingly mixed with different cultures! Just simply beautiful!

Sea food area where a big french man was shouting and doing the auction for fish. Marché de poissons

Then you can find all sorts of traders there wine, socks, cheeses, olives and etc...i ended up buying three pair of socks for 2€ and a very nice bottle of wine ;)

Then i saw beautiful flowers...especially the sun flowers :)

and the food section where i saw some yummy chicken paella..was yummy indeed!

Then the next bit of the journey brings us to Montmartre

This little map was a big help indeed and it explains everything about where is where around montmartre and my advice is to look it up so that you will know where to go from there.


The ever so famous Moulin Rouge

And here is the cafe where Amélie Poulain works and if you look carefully bottom middle u can actually see my reflection on the mirror taking this picture hehehe :) And that is Amélie Poulain by the way :)

some shots inside the cafe and yours truly C & R :)

As we proceeded going uphill for about 10 minuted or so...we finally reached to the traders place and the area is full of painters who can do live sketches would have love to do one with Raymond but unfortunately time is not on our side so we proceeded to place where Amélie Poulain did a lot of screen shots here including the photomaton which i finally get to sample doing :)

here is a what we managed to do on this trip as i was really curious on this thing called photomaton so we got ourselves a taste of it :) look and see our own photomaton just like in the Amélie Poulain movie :)

Voilà photomaton! It is actually an automated photo taking kiosk :) hehehe

going through the heaps of painters around montmartre and they are all so beautiful ...

paintings encore!

i love what she was doing!

The Sacré Coeur Church ( Sacred Heart Church) , Montmartre, Paris

sights around the church

Having a picnic just after the cascade just below the church for the weather was really nice to just sit on the grass and enjoy the view

Some of the street performers performing nearby they were really great entertainers.

One last look at the church of Sacré Coeur

the view from the top of montmartre

view looking down.....

Had our late lunch at the La Chat Noir and it was exquisitely yummy! The cheesy jambon omelette was just out of this world! But my salmon in white sauce and pasta was just as good!

The streets heading back to our car close to the metro station

last but not least,
Yours trully
C & R

Melaka Encore! :)

I must say, i can never tire of visiting Melaka or just post stuff on Melaka. I had the opportunity to try out my new camera the other day and here are the shots i took of Melaka and really love it there and plus the weather was super fine so picture taking was really good. Not that i know much about photography...but i'm learning and trying my best to improve myself at all times. I will try to name the places featured in here
...like i said..i will try to point out exactly where is everywhere in this picture :)

Melaka City Centre is the commercial centre of Melaka, however the landscape is dominated by old 3 storey shophouses, churches and forts that gives Melaka its charm and ambiance.

Church of St Francis Xavier, The first thing you see when you reach Melaka city Centre is this creamy caramel coloured church :)

And this big sign tells you, you are really am in Melaka!

As you proceed down the river side this is what you will see on ur left side

then this cafe is on teh side of the river...all along the river you can see cafe such as this...i like it very much

and here is the view on the right side

another small cafe around the riverside

oh yes! what is Melaka without the trishaws! :)

and apparently this one has become home to some animals hehehe :)

The red building built by the dutch

I didnt get to find out about this one coz it was too far away but i reckon its some olden day ship that came to melaka for trading and such during those days.

St. Paul's Church

St. Paul in front of St. Paul Church

Close up view of one of the tombstone.

from one of the window from the inside of St. Paul's Church

landscape from around the Fort

In 1808, Porta de Santiago was nearly lost forever to history as orders were given by the British Governor of Pahang to demolish it, along with the fortress at the mouth of the river. Unfortunately for the locals ( and luckily for us ), their spades, picks and crowbars were useless against a fortress which reportedly had walls fifteen feet thick! But before they could use gunpowder, Stamford Raffles stepped in and saved what tourists can see today! Thanks to him, we can see the grand construction of the fort and the Dutch logo that the sods imprinted on the Portuguese fort after seizing control

Besides the ruined church on the hill, those Portuguese masters also left behind a solid fort gate at the base of the hill in Melaka. Now, you may know this famous symbol of Melaka as A' Farmosa but that is as far removed from the truth as Melaka is from Timbuktu. The gate is called Porta de Santiago. Though nothing more that a ruin with a modern cannon, it's still worth taking a look.

stop by for a cuppa at the nearby Melaka Mall and found this :)

Here is the ride up to the Taming Sari Tower

Menara Taming Sari

here is one of the 360° view that you get to see when you get up to the taming sari ride up to the top

I just took this picture coz i like the purple colour flower its really nice against the blue of the sky..hehehe

Another one of the dutch buildings around the red square area

Ah...the yellow paper Umbrella :) One of the famous baba and nyonya paper umbrella :)

The famous red or pink coloured church,
Christ Church

A view of the red square


The victoria Regina Fountain Monument built in 1904

See, I just cant get enough of this church...it looks really serene and pure this church...looks really clean and nice indeed :)

A side view of the Discovery Cafe

a wide angle view of the church again from another angle :)

I found this plate at the middle of the bridge, fasten on one of the pilars and i guess its an old bridge :)

i love these wooden old shophouses :)

more olden aged shophouses

went to an antique store

I guess there were plenty of tukang besi in this street during the olden days

very nice painting of a big orang utan on the side of the yellow building...cute??

This one is really hillarious...hehehe just funny painting and scribblings on the wall that made me laugh when i was walking pass by it :)

A must visit for everyone who comes to Melaka is the Cheng Ho Tea House

They have a very beautiful garden with lots of frangy pangy fragrance alluring ur nose to feel calm there while seeping your wonderful chrisentinum or jasmine tea after a long walk its a blessing indeed.

The Tea Set

The lantern

the direction of you going in and coming out of the Cheng Ho Tea House is sure is different...so here is the very nice back exit alley..it was worth it indeed!

The as you venture out from the small alley you will see jonker streets which comes alive just after 4.30pm and above. here you can find the antique treasures of Jonker Street.

Beautiful squeezed tight wooden shops that hid a lot of treasures :)

and fnally my search reaches the end.....

I got what i came for and you have to come to my house to know what i got from Melaka that i went to search high and low and finally got it and loving every minute of it :)

my historical Melaka, i will never get bore seeing you and i will come again to macrofied the hidden treasures of what Jonker streets and all the beautiful streets in Melaka is hidding!
Hope you guys enjoy this much as i do talking about Melaka :)

history!
Clarity!