Malacca On Christmas 2004

Here are some shots I took from my beloved hometown of Malacca on Christmas Day. It doesn't reflect the spirit of Christmas but showcases what my new Tamron lense can do.



Click HERE for the full gallery.

Eventful Christmas

Well I'm back... went back to hometown Melaka for Christmas with my family and relatives. It's a yearly thing and we never fail to have turkey, shepherd's pie and curry devil! Also took a ton of photos with my new lense. Shots to come.

That said, this morning, our house got burgled. The guy didn't take much... a bit of cash and a couple of handphones but we are still rattled by it. Sigh... we'll get over it. The police weren't much help!

Daredevil Santa

This is in relation to my earlier post on the Dancing Santa in 1Utama...

Last Sunday, Santa is seen insanely repelling from the roof of the oval at 1Utama new wing... quite cool - complete with fake foamy snow from the top...

Copyright (c) Kelvin Tan

Then as he lands, he goes into a twirl around the stage...

Copyright (c) Kelvin Tan

Here you see evil Santa scaring the kids (or offering them ciggies)... no, I'm just bluffing ^_^

Copyright (c) Kelvin Tan

Then we also have a talented group of singers giving us Xmas carols when Xmas is just around the corner.

Copyright (c) Kelvin Tan

Kamsa Hamnida For The CDs (And Memories)

One of my dearest friends in Korea sent me these 2 CDs for my birthday and the timing was perfect as I received it on the 22nd itself. The first one has the soothing and melancholic voice of Lee So Ra and the second, the soulful songs of Tei... excellent stuff!

Copyright (c) Kelvin Tan

This is Tei

Copyright (c) Kelvin Tan

LOTR - ROTK EE

Return Of The King special edition... finally we're at the end of the road of the greatest trilogy in cinematic history. Got it from AOE itself at a great discount. Haven't got around to finishing the movie yet but I ran thru the specials... boy, they were excellent!

New camera gear

For my birthday, I bought myself the Tamron 17-35mm f2.8-4 Di lense and also the new Canon 580EX Speedlite. I wanted to give myself a boost in photography and the new lense and flash will give me tons of added opportunity. I also wanted to steer away from Canon options this time round especially since Canon tends to shortchange their customers in their mid range lenses.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY...

... to me! I turn 32 today.

Saeng-il chukka hamnida! Tanjobi omedeto!

Yay! Looking forward to 33 now! ^_^

Thank you everyone for your most gracious wishes!

Movie news

Nicholas Cage to star in the remake of Park Chan Wook's Oldboy ?!?!?! HERE!

Chow Yuen Fat in Pirates Of the Caribbean 2 ?!?!?! HERE!

Zen in Pyramid

The interior of Zen, Sunway Pyramid and my 2nd Japanese dinner in a row. Was in a celebratory mode tonight so I had some nice inaniwa udon (cold) plus some beef sashimi and unagi kabayaki. The place is nice and the food is very good but a little pricey. The hot sake for 2 is really insufficient. Lovely ambience though.

Copyright (c) Kelvin Tan

Omitsu Koshi in DJ

The interior of Omitsu Koshi in Damansara Jaya. Decided to have dinner there today after several days of eating my own cooking at home. As always, I would recommend this place because the food is good and the prices are among the cheapest you can find.

Copyright (c) Kelvin Tan

Blue Blue Skies...

On Sunday, I got up early at 7am with the sole purpose of taking some photos. As photographers, we normally expect a clear blue sky the day after rain. As it was raining profusely on Saturday, I had expected great results on Sunday - to my disappointment. To rub salt to the wound, yesterday, the sky was as shown in these pictures... azure blue with fine cottony clouds that seemed to be painted onto blue canvas. Of course, being at work, I didn't bother to pull out the DSLR. Sigh.

Copyright (c) Kelvin Tan

Another shot...

Copyright (c) Kelvin Tan

De Chiengmai Sg Buloh

The quaint but picturesque view from outside De Chiengmai, famed Thai restaurant at Sungai Buloh. I had a deep craving for their superb siakap kukus so I went there for dinner today. It's something I recommend to everyone... I think it's even better than their tomyam goong! You'll be slurping their strong pungent ginger-laced gravy until the hotplate is dry!

Copyright (c) Kelvin Tan

Instant Tempura Udon

Udon I just cooked for lunch fogging up my lense with steam. This cheap fast cooking udon bought from Isetan for RM3.30 is actually pretty good and excellent value for money. The udon pack is fresh and made in Malaysia but tastes authentic. The prawn cracker you see is supposed to be the ebi tempura... no big deal but even Japanese imported ones are the same.

Copyright (c) Kelvin Tan

I'm glad about Korean movies

I was bored on this lonely Saturday night so I decided to drop by the DVD shop beside Murni in SS2 to find some new movies to watch. Lo and behold, a copy of Oldboy caught my eye.

Those who know me, know of my deep love for Korean movies. Someone once said that the Koreans now do better Hollywood movies than Hollywood itself and I cannot disagree. See The Big Swindle as an example of a great Hollywood-styled heist movie. That said, Hollywood does not have the balls to make a movie like Oldboy. Oldboy is a movie unlike any other... and is not only one of my alltime fave Korean movies, it's also one of my alltime fave movie in ANY language. I dare you to find another movie with as much talent in it as the ferocious performance by the great Choi Min Sik and the divine direction of Park Chan Wook. Oldboy is actually the 2nd movie in a trilogy of vengeance themed movies by Park. The first was the insane Sympathy For Mr Vengeance (by the enigmatic Song Kang Ho - another fave actor of mine) and the 3rd, hopefully to be released in 2005, will star Lee Young Ae, last seen working with Park in JSA.

That said, those who know me, also know that I already have the original DVD of Oldboy which I ordered from Korea when it first came out.



From my previous posting, you would also know that Oldboy won the Grand Prix at Cannes this year.

Which brings me to my topic of discussion tonight. As I was browsing for DVDs in SS2 tonight, I spied a couple deciding whether or not to get the copy of Oldboy. As they were deciding, I took the last copy and commented to the boss of the shop that he should be getting more copies to sell because the movie is excellent. I also told him and the couple that I was getting the extra copy to lend out to my friends just to convince them of the greatness of this movie. The couple was of course disappointed that I took the last copy but the boss quickly added that more copies would arrive the day after.

That said, I'm glad that Korean movies are finally finding a decent market in Malaysia (albeit pirated). Nevertheless, it's a good start and I hope that the Malaysian audience will finally realize that Korea is now the king of East Asia when it comes to movies (and that it's not only just good for horror movies). Hongkong has gone down the drain especially with its adoption for the intolerable Twins (thank god for Johnny To Kei Fung) and Japan's movies are simply too quirky for the mainstream (although Takeshi Kitano has agreed to do another Zatoichi and Azumi 2 is coming). I'm also glad to see the shelves filled with the latest Korean releases (Everybody Has A Secret, Fighter In The Wind, R-Point, etc).

I get a tingle down my spine thinking of Choi Min Sik in his role in Oldboy... if you haven't seen it, for the sake of all that is good, please PLEASE RUN and get a copy now. You no longer have an excuse.

Avenue K petting zoo

Avenue K has a new petting zoo... here you see a nice fat iguana. They also have a very lively monkey, a fat albino python, a cute albinon hedgehog, a lemur (I think), a big old tortoise, rabbits, guinea pigs, parrots, some flightless pigeons, some scaly big lizard among other things.

Copyright (c) Kelvin Tan

The ultra lively monkey brings new meaning to 'monyet kena belacan'. The cute bugger is seen chewing on a banana. Impossible to capture a non blurry shot of this guy. The other creatures are incredibly cute as well. I can imagine it will be a management hell as the place becomes crowded with screaming children with frigging Heelys (I'd rather have monkeys).

Copyright (c) Kelvin Tan

Panerai Publicity Event

I attended the Panerai publicity event organized by Sincere Watches tonight at Passion. Definitely not as interesting as the JLC and Vacheron events I attended in the past fortnight but still worth a mention. Too many well dressed people who have no idea about the heritage that Panerai brings or what the brand truly is. Food was light... mostly finger and there was free flow of red/white wines as well as a blue cocktail (no idea). Here you see a model posing with a Panerai (effectively an alarm clock on the wrist).

Copyright (c) Kelvin Tan

Here you see a shot of the 3 models hired to do the posing. Invisible man on the right is actually some Caucasian-mixed-blood-looking guy.

Copyright (c) Kelvin Tan

Dancing Santa Again!

Suria KLCC's answer to 1 Utama's Xmas display. There's another Santa hiding behind the huge display. They also recycled last year's ginourmous tree.

Copyright (c) Kelvin Tan

Harry Connick Jr at Petronas Philharmonic!

Don't say I didn't inform you... the guy's gonna perform at Petronas Philharmonic from 3-5 February 2005. Get your money ready... tickets at a hefty RM295 and RM225 respectively,

Painting For Joy

What a cool painting exhibition currently happening at the Petronas Galeri in Suria KLCC. Titled, "Painting For Joy", it showcases artwork from various Japanese artists from the 90s. Drop by if you're in the vicinity to appreciate these quirky and sometimes eerie works of art.

Sweet And Sour Pork Rice

Koulouyuk fan kar hor-pau-tahn aka sweet and sour pork rice with a side order of fried egg... yum! It's my budget dinner today... and I ended it with a bowl of wong lou kat foo char (bitter herbal tea).

Copyright (c) Kelvin Tan

The pork was crispy and the egg was fried to perfection!

Dinner was at one of my favourite tai chow - Lucky Restaurant at Section 17, PJ.

Dancing Santa

Christmas is coming. Here you see Santa prancing on stage at the new wing of 1Utama. You can almost taste the snowflakes...

Copyright (c) Kelvin Tan

Winner At Shutterfreaks!

Woohoo! I won the November 2004 photo of the month contest at Shutterfreaks, a photo website that I deeply admire and respect. So now my name is engraved onto the honoured list of winners and my photo is on Shutterfreaks' homepage for a month. I'm deeply honoured and thankful.



The title of the photo is "Dialogue In Skin" aka "Stillness In Motion".

A larger version of the photo can be viewed HERE.
You can read the actual announcement and responses HERE.

Coach In KLCC

Coach makes an appeareance in KLCC. Already, I saw a few ladies peeking at the insides and discussing heavily about their experiences with the monogram.

Copyright (c) Kelvin Tan

KL Vacheron Constantin Overseas Launch

What a wonderful evening! I needed it especially after my horrid week. The endless wine and booze, gorgeous women, fine food (there was duck leg and foie gras with truffles too!) and warm company made the event hard to forget.



You can view my report here at The Purists.

The event was also reported by The Edge.

You can view all the photos HERE.

Movie news

One of my fave korean actresses won a Blue Dragon award for her performance in Someone Special (Aniyun Yeoja) - a really cute romcom.

Read about it HERE!

On another note, Godzilla gets his star on the Hollywood Walk Of Fame!

Read about it at KFCC and Yahoo.

Seiko 5 40th Anniversary Titanium impressions

Remember my mention about this model a few days back?

Someone got a hold of one... read about it HERE!

Life is hard for now...

As some of you may know, I have just completed moving house. It's a harrowing experience even though I'm quite versed in the process. This is because, for the past week, I've been through a lot! Let's see at the end of last week, I fell ill. What a coincidence. It was a full blown flu and cough and I was feeling feverish too. Still I pressed on. The going was tough especially considering the amount of items to be moved, the cleanup to be done and the stuff to be sent to the recycle centre.

Then on the day when my mover truck was supposed to turn up, they decided not to bother to do so! I tried calling the bastards. At the first call, the boss said, "Yes I am on my way". 5 hours later and I was still waiting. Calls to his handset went unheeded. Bastards to the core. Expectedly, I decided to get another mover instead.

On the same day itself, my car decided not to start on me. This phenomena went on for about 5 times throughout the weekend. AAM, on 2 different occasions when I was stranded, could not fix it. My normal mechanic took the car away from me for an entire day and still could not find the remedy. Finally I had another mechanic look at it and he found the ignition circuit to be fried. Another bombastic bill there. Sigh.

At the end of it all, I still have my flu but all my stuff is finally at the new place. It's still in a mess though.

The journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.