Yay daisies!
He loves me, he loves me not, he loves me, he loves me not, he loves me...
The new Pocky Girl! It's Pocky...
Look Mommy, a red leaf!
Ok, not the wrong thing in the mouth...
This is my lipstick, Mommy!
Pocky, yay!
Saturday, October 11, 2008
missing germany #8
This Friday was quite special. Bryan was off to his friend Ryan's home for a play date - not the special part. It's a perfect autumn day with 18 centigrade and a clear blue sky, thus I decided to ride a bike to school to pick Kristin up - I can only manage biking with one kid, however. Yep, picking Kristin up with the bike was the special part. Besides being a great workout, the ride also allowed me to take some exciting pictures along the way to school... yep, I will certainly do this again, if I only have one kid to pick up from the preschool.
Instead of allowing me to make a pit stop at Grueneburgpark (a public park), Kristin wanted to take a walk in Palmengarten (one that requires an entrance fee, though it doesn't really matter since we have a season ticket, just that I had to go home first to fish out the ticket from my bag). She was exceedingly well-behaved today. Or maybe it's the weather... it was so good, I felt so good... I didn't care if she was whining a little, errm, actually, I can't remember if she did whine, did she?
By the time we came to this pond in Palmengarten (there are several in Palmengarten), Kristin refused to move. So I decided to start taking a few photos since I couldn't tear her away from the pond and its little drain...
Anyway, it has been pretty warm the whole day. I saw no harm letting her play with the running water:
In between, I thought I could make a few photos to send in as a photo assignment to Digital Photography School (DPS) which has the theme of "bubbles" for the week.
I took over a couple of dozens, deleted many... and am still having problems deliberating on which one to send in...
These are the shots I'm happy with:
Shot 1, shutter@1/60, aperture@6.3, ISO@400, on sub-auto at aperture priority mode :
Shot 2, shutter@1/60, aperture@5.6, ISO@400, on manual mode:
Shot 3, shutter@1/60, aperture@5.6, ISO@400, on manual:
Shot 4 on manual with shutter@1/60, aperture@5.6, ISO@400 :
Shot 5 on manual with shutter@1/60, aperture@5.6, ISO@400 :
So which one, my friends? Will appreciate some critiques... :)
missing germany #7
Remembering Frankfurt, this is Alte Oper (the old opera house):
The fountain:
The water:
Remembering Grueneburgpark, this is the Korean House (built to commemorate Frankfurter Book Fair 2005 during which Korea was the country featured). Looks like I was in the Far East...
The Japanese Wall:
I wanted to return to take more shots. But on our way home (on bike), Kristin refused to let me make a pit stop for more photos... sigh!
Biking and taking photos in this wonderful weather... that's something I'll surely miss...
Friday, October 10, 2008
for casting purposes... :)
This cool dude says hello!
This is another great piece of work from Miss McKenna @ Make Photographie.
Does anyone know any casting agencies? ;)
oct weekend getaways 2
If anyone's looking for hotel accommodation in Europe, I'll recommend www.booking.com. You will always be guaranteed the best deals, sometimes even better than what the hotel websites offer you!
As usual, booking.com did not disappoint us. We booked two nights with this business hotel, Hotel Bloom of funky and modern designs. The best part was we paid only 88 Euros per night, with breakfast and tax included! Our usual French chain Novotel was charging 120+ Euros/night for the weekend, without breakfast!
The kids were greeted by beads in the retro lobby when we arrived:
Bryan tucked in a scrumptious breakfast amidst a hall filled with designer pieces of furniture, just look at that spider-web-chair at the table behind Bryan:
The room is newly renovated, spacious, clean and quiet, even though the hotel is along the main street where the trams run:
Oh... these two bubble swings are the pure highlight! It's like THE playground for the kids. When we arrived on Friday evening, there were models and photographers working in this area:
Oct weekend getaways 1
Over the weekend, we were at a place where we could see this:
climb through a shaft like this one:
stay in a place as funky as this one:
have a caricature of ourselves like this one:
Oh yes, you guessed it! We were in Brussels.
More to follow...
more walnut shots... aka more "warts"
1st shot with shutter @1/10, aperture @ 5.6, ISO @1600, WB @ tungsten.
Pretty happy with it in general, although the top shell of nut looks a little too exposed. Also, my ceramic hob has speckles of dust on it!
2nd shot with shutter @ 1/13, aperture @ 5.6, ISO 1600, WB @ tungsten. Like this one better... a less dusty hob! :)
Another practice shot after dinner, shutter @ 1/13, aperture @ 5.0, ISO 1600 and WB @ tungsten. Like the composition in this one, with the circular ring separating nut and reflection. However, the nut is not in focus, while the reflection turns out sharp.
Last practice shot... shutter @ 1/15, aperture @4.5, ISO 1600, WB @tungsten.
Still top shell looks too over-exposed.
Sigh... shooting manual is very tough... lots of trial and error.
After note:
Warts = (W)alnuts + (art) = lots of imperfections lah...
(inserted after comments... )
schwarz gefahren!
Walnuts... fresh ones below walnut trees... sweet!
In the area around the kids' preschool, there are plenty of chestnut, walnut and oak trees. Every autumn we see many unfamiliar faces in the neighbourhood and these people have come to gather bags and bags of chestnuts and walnuts.
Today, being the warmest day of this week, I thought I could join the crowd and pick some nuts, when I picked the kids up at the preschool. After 5 walnuts, my handphone started to ring. It was my Polish cleaning lady. In her few words of German, I realised that I had unwittingly locked her up in my apartment when I rushed out to pick up the kids. It would have been too tedious to explain to her that I had another set of key in one of the drawers and that she could still let herself out - my Polish Putzfrau doesn't understand much German, while I can't speak any Polish! So, in the simplest sentence I could tell her, "Bitte warten. Ich komme sofort zurueck!" (Please wait, I'll be right back.)
Luckily for me, I managed to evoke some empathy with the kids: I told them Oma Halina was trapped in our house and we had to go back to rescue her immediately. It was the fastest walk we ever made to the bus-stop and within 15 minutes, we were back home to save Oma Halina.
In our hurry to execute our rescue mission, I forgot to pay for my bus ride home. In Germany, it's a trust system. People usually get their tickets if necessary with the bus driver at boarding. The bus driver will not question if one already has a valid ticket. Once in a while, spot checks will be conducted. And passengers caught without a valid ticket will have to pay a fine of 40 Euro. So I schwarz gefahren i.e. travelling without a valid ticket, with absolute no intention on my part. Thank goodness there was no one conducting a spot check. Else, I would have ended up paying another 40 Euro, which is the amount I pay my cleaning lady every week!
So our walnut picking was cut short... Hopefully, Kristin and I will return to pick some more walnuts/chestnuts tomorrow, while Bryan will be heading over to his best friend's place for a playdate after school.
Thursday, October 09, 2008
missing germany #6
I joined another of Bryan's field trips again. It was an excursion to a pumpkin patch.
I don't think I'd have so much to time to join my kids on field trips once I'm back in Singapore. Though I'll only be working part-time, how busy my weekly schedule is still remains to be seen, esp when I need to be back at work for not more than 3 times a week. I'm still hoping for not more than twice a week, fingers crossed on that one.
Bryan with a huge pumpkin.
Bryan running down the plum orchard, adjacent to pumpkin patch. The plums were sugar sweet! Nothing is indeed fresher than when it's from the source, directly!
Wednesday, October 08, 2008
missing germany #5
This is our subway stop, Bockenheimer Warte.
Platform for U4.
A pretty platform, I would say. You have billboards featuring the Senckenberg Museum on one side:
And on the other side, Palmengarten is featured. We live among these tourist attractions of Frankfurt city:
U4 riding in... aiyah... if only the man in black suit stood still...
TV @ 1/4, AV @ 6.3, WB on auto, ISO @ 800.
Nonetheless, I still like this shot a lot. The idea was to freeze the men at the platform with the moving train. And of course, you see "Bockenheimer Warte" in the background at the left hand side. Here's giving it a more nostalgic look:
the best cure for a cold...
Isn't a cocktail of paracetamol and pheniramine. It's curry! Even though curry noodle wasn't exactly on my mind as I set out for my lunch date with Alan, Jas and Jacq.
We have been talking about having laksa for lunch for a really really long time. The first time Alan discovered Magic Wok serve laksa was about 2.5 years ago. What he had in mind was to pre-order assam laksa with the lady boss, Kim. Unfortunately for us, Kim wasn't around last night to take the call. So it was my husband and her husband Wah on the phone. And the result turned out to be curry noodle!
Anyway, we were pleasantly surprised.
This evening we had another bowl of soupy udon.
The kids enjoyed it, while Alan and I were still too full from lunch to eat...
After two big bowls, I think I'd be rid of my cold by tomorrow morning???
Tuesday, October 07, 2008
missing germany #4
A short weekend getaway is just about 3-4 hours' drive away from Frankfurt. This is something we will definitely miss when we're back in Sg.
3-4 hours away from Frankfurt, we have a choice of fanciful destinations:
e.g. Brussels, Antwerp, Amsterdam, Rotterdam, Den Haag, Luxembourg, Strasbourg, Colmar, Mullhouse, Lichtenstein, and of course, many cities in Germany and many places in Switzerland.
5 hours will get us to Paris, Berlin or Prague.
Oh... I'm already missing the long road trips.
make photographie
Kristin's daycare teacher loves photography and this is her blog. She takes beautiful shots! Check out her photos here.
Tell me a joke, please!
Bryan to Daddy: I'll say "boo" and you'll say "who", ok? Boo!
Daddy: Who?
Bryan: Don't cry, Daddy. It's just a joke!
We were pretty tickled, even though it's a joke he copied off Dora.
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Daddy: Now it's your turn. Knock, knock!
Bryan: Knock, knock, who?
Daddy: Who who who... owl hoo!
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Over the weekend, Daddy and Bryan had a great time telling each other about the pink panther's jokes...
It's so good to hear chatter and laughter!
Thanks Alan for the time tonight. The kids really missed Daddy for the past weeks: the evenings and nights when you were travelling!
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