2012

Have you got a billion euro to spare or two? Because that is how much you have to pay to reserve a seat to live beyond 2012!

From the director that brought you "Independence Day" and "The Day after Tomorrow", 2012 brought disaster movie to a new height! Everything is epic in this movie and almost everything is destroyed beyond imagination and to an epic proportion. The movie started a little bit slow but I was at the edge of my seat for most part of the movie.

As giant tsunamis and earthquakes escalate around the world, the rich and famous secretly embarking on their secret journeys to some giant heavy-duty ships in China while ordinary citizens of the world just go about their normal lives, seemingly oblivious of what lies ahead.

The dialogues and logic might be a little thin but I am a junkie for disaster flicks, so there are plenty to satisfy my craze and more than enough to compensate for the shortcomings.

It may not be as good as "The Day after Tomorrow", may be a bit cheesy at point and down right silly but it was a perfect movie for a mindless Friday night!

I give it a 3/5!

Big Brother is here!

Yesterday I got my long awaited Canon 580exii, the Canon flagship flash accessory. Compared to my old 430ex, the biggest noticeable difference is its size and weight, and of course, the build quality. Do doubt this is a Canon professional flash unit built for tough life ahead. It has a metal footing at the bottom and all the switches, buttons and covers are water sealed. Of course, the only part that is not water-sealed when fitted onto my current cameras is the hot-shoe footing, which is only available on Canon 1d Mark III or newer. Well, not that I am going to shoot in the shower or anything like that, but I suppose it is nice to know :)

It is also a lot more quieter than 430ex and in my brief experiment last night, a hell lot stronger and faster. Not that 430ex is inadequate my any mean, I love my 430ex for its compact size but when you have flash modifier fitted on, such as a diffuser; or bouncing off higher roof, 430ex in some situations, could be a little under-powered.

Just another year...

Not only a year is approaching the end, I suddenly found myself a year older as well. Well, actually I have stop counting since I clocked past 30 and I virtually lost count since (intentionally of course)! This year, we had a great dinner at Saowanee's Place in North Perth, not only a local award winning Thai restaurant, but also a kitchen headed by Dao, Jin's long time friend from tafe. We had an enticing entrée followed by paw paw salad, red beef curry, red duck curry with rambutan, beef salad and concluded with a marvelous mud cake from Cafe Mozart. Not only I am getting older a year, I think I also put on another kilo onto my expanding waist line too lol!

Eating and taking picture at the same time would be a skill worth learning :) Here is David with his new baby, a brand new Canon 7D with 50mm f1.4.

Thank you Dao, Lisa, David, Benna and my dearest Jin for the wonderful night.

유부초밥

Originally from Japan, 유부초밥 (yu-bu-cho-bab) is a Korean version of Inari sushi which basically is vinegar-ed rice stuffed in fried marinated tofu skin.

The steamed rice is mixed with a boiled mixture made of vinegar, sugar, salt and kelp (for flavouring only, removed before mixing with rice). The rice is then mixed with the rest of the ingredients which consist of
finely diced carrot, beef, crab meat and furikake.

This was my dinner and will be my lunch tomorrow at work :)

Hartland Camera Repairs

I am a person that always expect things to turn out the worse way possible, you can call me pessimistic but I think it has its advantages. Well, if things do turn out the bad way, at least I am not surprised :) Our trip to Europe was fantastic in many ways, but we also had a few hiccups along the way. My beloved camera 50D was one of them! Well, simply it just decided to pack up on my first shot in London! What could be worse? I felt like loosing my eyes!

The good news is, I returned it to Hartland Camera Repairs in Northbridge as soon as we came back and it was sent over to NSW for a warranty repair. To my surprise, I received an SMS from the Hartland Camera Repairs in about a week saying that my 50D had been repaired and was ready to be collected! What really surprises me is, there was no charge for the service, not even the postage and handling, not a cent! Well, it did state on the Canon's warranty card that Canon Australia is not responsible for any associated cost of postage and handling.

Thank you Hartland Camera Repairs! By the way, they are Nikon authorised service agent too, so you know where you should go for your next camera service! Service with a smile!

Escargot

Finally I got to eat snails! :) Actually I have tried a few variant of cooked snails before in various places but this by far I think is the best. Jin didn't quite like it because she reckoned it was a touch too oily or cheesy for her.

They look like your typical garden snails, hymm...I wonder how they will taste like lol! The restaurant that we had this was called George V on the famed Avenue des Champs-Élysées. Unfortunately, the main dish that I ordered, a steak burger, was virtually uncooked and tasteless. To add insult to the injury, I was charged 7 euro for a small glass of orange juice! I missed Hungry Jack or Burger King all of a sudden then lol!