Happy Times During BB Fiesta

I ran through some not so old pics of good ole times with friends during the BB Fiesta at Sunway Pyramid. I think, this was the final, last time ever we would wear our tmnet t-shirts bcoz, as of Jan 1st 2007, we had said "sayonara" to our beloved tmnet. Sob! Sob!

Me and my buddy, Zaina

Alamak! Tak masuk! Benda ni senget la...

Backstage with Zaina

Me and my favourite One in A Million contestant, Faizal. He should have won!

Backstage with Faizal, Zaina, Alif, Farah and Simon of 8TV

Cherating Get Together.

Last year, 31st December we celebrated New Year in Cherating, Kuantan. It was 5 days of funfilled activities from swimming, eating, photography, eating, ghost story telling, eating, horse riding, eating and boat rides through the kampung cherating swamp.
The boys by the sea


The boys in the pool


The boys playing with the sand


The cowboy wannabes

The clan having pisang goreng

The beach early in the morning

Little Hairy and the beach ball

Yoga by the sea - the boys and their uncle

Little Emma pulling up her pants - so cute..hehehe

The mangrove tree

Where the swamp water meets the sea water

The tiny jetty

Mieng Kam Time!!!

We did this makan2 thing few moons ago but I never get to upload it to my blog (much to the chagrin of the Mieng Kam Feast participants!) heheheh...thousand apologies. I couldn't find the recipe to be uploaded together with this post but I'm sure if you googled it you will find it. To those not acquainted to Mieng Kam, it is a type of Siamese delicacy normally served as appetiser. We wrap peanuts, ginger slices, coconut bits, lime slices, onion slices, cili padi and udang kering with a daun kaduk (looks like sireh but tastes better). Oh! Don't forget the special Mieng Kam sauce too. It looks funny but tastes yummy! Try it.

Back to our Mieng Kam project, we all chipped in in preparing the ingredients. Zaina prepared the coconut (which I grated for her in the end due to her inefficiency with the grater!), Sity brought the onions,udang kering and lime, Mimi brought the cili padi and she actually cut it in the pantry (tears and all!), Darlene brought the daun kaduk that grows abundantly in her backyard and I, I prepared the sauce (tough job but hey! next time, I will pass this task to Zaina!)

It was loads of fun and here are some pics to be shared...


Me and Zaina preparing the sauce and grated coconut at the back kitchen



Mimi slicing the cili padi in the office pantry



The Mieng Kam Dish



The girls...

and the boys.

Trip to Malaqa again!

Last couple of days before school holidays ended, we managed to make ammends with the kids (who were stranded at home during the hols due to their parents' hectic work schedules) and took them for a short trip to Melaka. We were basically hotel hopping there. From Shah's Beach Resort (nice cottage environment near the sea) to Hotel Puri (right smack in the middle of Melaka town near Jonker Street). We got there, I got sick (nice timing huh? And at this moment of writing this blog, I'm still having bouts of fever and migraine. I forced myself out of bed today), the kids went swimming and S with his camera as usual. I brought mine but because I was feeling lousy through out the trip, I only managed a few lousy snapshots.

Dusk at Shah's Beach Resort

Ditto

The chalets - Nice clean place but service and facilities not so good though

Sleeping swallows in one of the lobby rooms at Hotel Puri

The serene courtyard at Hotel Puri where we had our meals

Looking up - old style windows on 2nd floor of Hotel Puri

Night time shots of flowers in the courtyard

Ditto

Ditto

Puri Padi - Old shop house

Hakim and Arif savouring satay at the courtyard

S and Me

Pencil sketch of S sleeping


Pencil sketch of me by Amirul Arif. (I had to pose for nearly an hour and had body cramps because of it!)

Exploring Different Styles

These 2 latest paintings of mine is actually some sort of an exercise to explore my capabilities in handling different medium of paints.


Untitled - Oil paint - with use of texture paste


"Bunga Anis" in acrylic paint. Using outlines on the flowers and foreground leaves.

Note: Picture quality and angle not so good as these were taken with my camera phone. Double click on the images to enlarge picture.

Down In The Dumps

I am not in a cheery mood of late. Something to do with my paintings. Yeah, I managed to produce 2 paintings perhaps 3 in between my last charcoal posting and this, but somehow I am just not jumping with joy about the results. I know they are not that bad (by kids' standard I suppose : ( ) but I feel that I am simply not progressing. I need to do more, I need to do better but somehow I feel stuck. Now I am so into Van Gogh's paintings and his techniques and use of colours. His work is so striking and captivating. To me some of them look childlike but powerful. I read a lot about him too and about his sad life. But even so, he managed to produce about 200 paintings within months. Imagine. I just admire his brush strokes, his intense colours and the simplicity of his subjects. Even a chair painted by him is seen as something extraordinary...

Well, back to me. Yeah..I don't think I can ever express it in words but simply put, if i had the magical talent of Van Gogh I would be in 7th heaven as I have a lot to express which I simply can't do in writing (not good at this) . Neither can I do it through art if I do not overcome this stumbling block ie better skills in drawing and paint execution. I am learning, I am working on it but it's a really long, difficult and lonely road especially when I am doing this on my own.

But I, for once, told myself "If you are passionate about this, then persevere." To my loved ones and friends, I thank you for your support and encouragement.

"The only time I feel alive is when I am painting" - Vincent Van Gogh