Rejected.

I miss diving so much. In fact, I just feel like getting out of the country.

Timetable is so harsh on me, with terrible Monday blues with lessons starting from 9am-9pm.

Homework is piling up, and the worst thing is getting your work rejected.

Remember this particular handshake?

I went to extreme measures to get these images, only to be told:

"I think there are some people who doesn't care about animals, so your target audience is quite small. Your target audience should be larger."

With these words, the whole concept and the hard work I put in were totally rejected, and had to think of another concept again. It's fine to redo, since it's not favourable. But do I have to remind myself that the deadline is next Monday, with around 4 days left?

I've got another project which was the stamp design which has to be handed up next Monday as well, and guess what? After the original piece, which was drawn using pencil and markers and paint, it was sort of like "rejected" after 3 weeks, even though she has seen it before and didn't ask me to change the whole thing.

Today, she then teach me how to draw one using photoshop withing 10 mins. It just made my work look cheap.

I'll never forget the words she said:

"I wonder how you pass your drawing lesson?"

"Even my niece in primary school can do better than this."

Sometimes, I really wonder if I am in the right course. I ponder if I should quit this course, but the next, I tell myself I'll never leave this course because I don't want to give up halfway.

My birthday is coming up in a week's time, and to be honest I don't really look forward to the celebration. I just don't know why. Sigh..

Anyway, here are some of the remaining diving pictures:

Fishes..

Moray Eel..

More fishes..

Below the jetty, you can see alot of fishes. I heard they gather because it is cooler in the shade.

Oh, and when I mean alot, I mean...

HUNDREDS OR EVEN THOUSANDS.

.

Beautiful..

However, these aren't the only fishes.. There are big batfishes, lionfishes and even big hermit crabs living below. Some qualified divers go there for night diving. Awesome.

I shall end here for now..

Celebrating Jia Yi's birthday.

It was Jia Yi's 18th birthday on September 27, and the group of 5 decided to celebrate it at the Singapore Zoological Gardens.

I haven't been to the Zoo for more than a decade, and it certainly felt fresh going there.

The tickets were expensive; priced at $16.50 each.

The 3 ladies.

The 2 guys.

Walking around the zoo is quite tiring, because of the weather and the paths.

Nevertheless, I've taken photos of animals.

Sleeping otters.

Penguins.

We came over to the Orang Utans section, and we saw this cute little baby orang utan which was eating riceball.

I was amazed at their intelligence, no wonder they say human beings are evolved from them!

Next, we went to see zebras..

Zebras..

Giant turtles..

They were walking slowly, as if their shell weighs a tonne.

We walked into this enclosure, and were expected to see snakes. But no, we saw fierce-looking monkeys!

This small monkey growled at me.

I love cheetahs, and their skins are so beautiful!

This cheetah is still sleeping though it's daytime.

Lazy animal.

Giraffe!

We didn't watch any animal shows except for the feeding of polar bears. Though it is considered entertaining, I felt sad that these polar bears had to be trained to do things like waving to the audience.

Something which you will never see in the wild. It just didn't felt natural to me.

I seriously do not know how these animals can adapt to the weather.

It's like asking an Eskimo from the Artic region to live the desert.

Polar bear..

And their diet consists of watermelons too. Hmm..

The only animal that I liked throughout was the beautiful white tiger.

I think these are beautiful creatures.

They were "swimming" in the water, and schools of fishes kept following them.

By the way, it's impossible to find white tigers in the wild.

Besides going to the zoo just for entertainment purposes, I also had to take pictures for my assignment.

I had a concept about having a monkey holding a piece of paper. While I was willing to pay the fee of taking photos with the monkey, the zookeeper blatantly refused.

In the end, I decided to use the concept of shaking hands with the monkey.

The zookeeper refused again, because he said that no visitors are allowed to have physical contact with animals.

On a desperate attempt, I tried to shake hands with AN ORANG UTAN SOFT TOY, and take a picture of it.

I also even tried to grab a display moulded hand of an orang utan and took a picture with it.

Why go through all that trouble, you say? It's because of copyright issues. I had to submit my work for this particular competition, and should my work be published by Nanyang Polytechnic (though the possibility is 0.1%), I cannot face any copyright issues. What if I use some pictures off the internet, and get accused of plagiarism?

Finally, I managed to ask the zookeeper to shake hands with the zookeeper while I take photo.

For once, I'm so proud of my camera. THE BATTERY DIED ON ME.

Thankfully, I have friends who had 2 more cameras which could back me up.

I hope this picture will work.

Also speaking of orang utans, the girls were totally obessed with this caucasian boy whom they saw at the orang utans section.

I would like to compare it with bees to honey. The boy is probably 10 years old, and the girls were saying how handsome he is, and that in years to come, he will be the next Brad Pitt.

They took several photos of him:

Come on, let him off. He's just a kid.

They later commented that all caucasians are good-looking people.

Speaking of caucasians, my friends have been telling me how good-looking Dean is. I thought he was average-looking. But too bad, he's already got a girlfriend!

Anyway, after the zoo we went to AMK Hub to play pool, and dined at Pepper Lunch. Though I didn't eat, I thought their food was abit overpriced.

I'm sorry I didn't mention alot about the birthday girl in this post because I didn't take many photos.

Nevertheless Jia Yi, I do hope you enjoy it yesterday!

Happy 18th Birthday, Jia Yi!

Hope you like our present, and hope you stay happy as always!

A new camera.

More than 2 years ago, I bought my first camera, the Canon PowerShot A410. Now, because it starts to get faulty with its processor, the images produced were unfavourable.

I still love that camera, and it will be kept aside in a nice place despite serving me for more than 2 years.

Unlike some people who doesn't research on cameras, I did mine intensively and limited myself with various models.

However, due to budget constraint and certain models which are discontinued, I find myself owning the model Fujifilm FinePix F50fd.

I figured out that I should buy this camera for myself as a 18th birthday present, and that this camera will last me for a long time I believe.

And so, welcome to the family, the Fujifilm FinePix F50fd.

I'm still trying to figure out how to fully use the camera as there are manual controls.

And so, here are some of the pictures that was taken with my camera:

Ok, I'm going to end here.

On another side of note, I will tell myself this. Whenever insults and criticisms are being spewed from lecturers towards me, I will listen to whatever they say, but tolerate whatever insignificant bullshit they throw at me.

My embarassing moments.

There are some embarassing moments which I had in the dive trip. And some of my friends even took pictures of it.

On the first day of the dive trip, I was sleeping like a pig.

Except that I had my mouth opened.

I only woke up when Wei Chong put some snack bits in my mouth, when I thought it was his finger.

Then on the second day, I felt like vomitting after the second dive, so I ate some sour prunes that Wei Chong brought along. It is INDEED SOUR.

I think it was so sour that I nearly curled up like a porcupine and shivered.

Besides that, I do believe that I look good in skinny jeans. Why? I'll show you.

I wore Wei Qi's small-sized Converse Jacket, and I miraculously fit in. Look at my arms!

Trying to pose, but failed badly.

On the final day, I finally slept with my mouth CLOSED!

I'm going to end this post for now, and there will be alot more pictures this week.

And now, I'm going to do what I did above.

Sleep!

The diving trip in Salang, Pulau Tioman. (Long Post)

I haven't been blogging much this week, because I was busy with school work and other stuff; I've been researching alot about buying cameras for the past few days and I finally bought one, but that's another post altogether.

Let's get back to Pulau Tioman, and what happened during the 3 days.

THE FIRST DAY

Basically on the first day, we spent the time travelling to Malaysia. And I like the first day, except for the travelling.

Thankfully, Han Wen brought his laptop along, and I brought my S.H.E concert DVD to watch!

Wei Chong is supporting the laptop while we watch it! Ella's cute!

The others who wasn't watching were sleeping, except for Dean.

We finally reached Mersing!

We reached there around 7.30pm, so we started to explore Mersing, and I do quite like the place! The others were buying some necessities while I just bought some food.

And the food there is GOOD and CHEAP! We all settled at a restaurant, and ordered alot of food, and each of us just coughed up only RM10+! I miss the cuttlefish with salted eggs dish..

I must say that although things there are relatively cheap compared with Singapore currency, the handphones aren't! It's way more expensive than Singapore I guess..I saw this particular Nike Shoe selling at RM99, which I quite like it. But I thought it might be fake, so I gave it a miss.

SECOND DAY

I had an awesome day today, except for a bad start.

First, I had Wei Chong pouncing on me while I was asleep.

Ahhh!!!

Then, I had to sit on the laps of the 2 guys, because of insufficient space, and it was a bumpy ride.

But before the bumpy ride was having breakfast at Timotel!

The food is quite nice!

Yum yum..

Leaving for Tioman!

This time, the trip is pretty special, because we did all our 3 dives before arriving to Pulau Tioman.

I will only post some underwater photos here, as I haven't get all the photos from my divemaster yet.

Ok back to the dives, I must say that we were rewarded with a spectacular view of the beautiful underwater world. It was BREATHTAKING.

Marine life was rich in the spots we went to today(in order):

1. Bahara Rock

2.Renggis

3.Soyak

Note: Photos shown are of average quality because of the film camera.

A beautiful coral.

Clownfishes staying close to sea anemones.

A common species of clownfishes.

Various types of fishes.

However, one of the most unforgettable sights were the sighting of cuttlefishes, and they were beautiful!

If you can't see the cuttlefish from the photo below, look at the direction which is pointing from the hand. Or click on the picture to zoom in.

After finishing the 3 dives, we headed back to Pulau Tioman, and we were hungry from the activity! So the Fishermen Dive Team went to Salang Restaurant to dine!

We nearly finished all the food.

The food is really great except for the vegetables. Again, the price was cheap and well-spent!

And after that, most of us did something we never done before.

PLAYING FIRECRACKERS.

I've never played with firecrackers during my 18 years of existence (and still counting), and when I heard that Alex bought firecrackers, I felt really excited!

Other people were playing with firecrackers as well, because it was the day of Hari Raya Puasa.

Gathering to lit up the firecrackers!

Nice!

THIRD DAY

The third and final day at Pulau Tioman before going back to Singapore.

In the morning..

I think they can finish the whole of Milo if they wanted. We had roti prata and Milo for breakfast.

And I must say that at Salang, there are humongous lizards.

Big and disgusting ones lurking around.

Anyway, we headed out to sea to dive again, and the 2 dive sites are:

1. Fan Canyon

2. Malang Rock

And these are some underwater pictures from the camera we rented, and taken by Han Wen:

Wrasse..

Beautiful shot of the clownfish and anemone!

Cute pufferfish!

Blue-spotted stingray!

Not only do we see these creatures, we also saw sea cucumbers, crown-of-thorns, sea turtles, nudibranchs, remoray fish, batfish AND ALOT ALOT MORE.

After diving, we packed up and went back to Singapore...

I will be continuing with the Pulau Tioman Trip with more posts, with my personal comments and more underwater photos coming soon!