So I'm back at practicing Kendo since April 2012. While trying to re-coordinate my body to the mechanics of Kendo and reacquire all the old approaches that were taught to me, most of all re-learning kata from 1 onwards, I have been reading some Kendo blogs.
A lot of these are written by high-level practitioners like Geoff sensei from the UK, who has been practicing for ages. Here're 2 good links:
Shugo contains articles that reinforce ideas and concepts presented during training at Nanseikan Kendo Club. Well written, and very informative.
http://shugo-nanseikan.blogspot.sg/
Kendo Info .Net is a personal blog of a seasoned practitioner, Geoff Sensei, where he shares various aspects of kendo.
http://kendoinfo.wordpress.com/
Wednesday, December 5, 2012
Wednesday, September 12, 2012
Will & Kate Visit Singapore
This image is just so full of win I had to post it to keep a historical record of it. Prince William and his beautiful wife Kate came to Singapore. They visited Queenstown to see the typical Singaporean street scene. Not that this scene was incorrect, you do see the above activities within a day, just not all at once at 3:45pm. Super wayang! =D
Thursday, July 26, 2012
Bangkok Holiday - July 2012
The Missus and I went to Bangkok over the weekend, spending 4 days there shopping, eating and watching Muay Thai. It was a great holiday, our first since Jan's European honeymoon, and my first time to Bangkok.
The Missus planned the entire holiday, scheduling the shopping, eating and transitting with information from our hotel location and even to the point of finding a little-known locale where you can watch broadcast quality Muay Thai with the locals live! Thank you dear, it was well-planned and we didn't waste any money going back and forth, or get lost even =)
We managed to get a room at the new Holiday Inn Express Siam, which is less than 5 minutes from the National Stadium BTS station. That connected us to all the main sights. The hotel itself was plush but devoid of amenities. However, it suited our needs perfectly and provided a level of comfort that made our respite from the shopping enviable. Cable TV after a tiring day is great for winding down by.
Chatuchak market - where you sweat till you think you can't sweat anymore.. then you sweat some more. Shopping in Chatuchak Weekend market was fun, its a huge place that is actually categorised, so you can choose to go direct to the pets and animals section, or the eating section. Most of the other sections are fashion and apparel. But what a bargain they can be gotten for! Beware of the heat though, its sweltering in there. Thank God for fresh Tangerine juice, coconut juice/ice cream and Thai tea with ice cream! Missus noted that in the 3 years since she last came here, there are now more and more "boutiques" being set up here. These set themselves up as more inviting, specializing in niche areas, less chaotic, some even have external air-blowers to make you more comfortable. Also, the previously ubiquitous fake tee-shirts that could be bought from every shop previously are no longer so. We were quite excited when we stumbled upon a shop selling tees that had hand-painted style prints that we hadn't come across before - quite original we thought!
Of the myriad of shopping malls there, we hit up Platinum Mall, MBK and Siam Paragon. Platinum and MBK is quite like Far East Shopping Centre and Sim Lim Square in Singapore, price-wise. You can get some discounts, and most things are affordable. Siam Paragon is just like Paragon Shopping Mall in Singapore, more up market with the luxury labels having an entire floor to themselves (though the other floors still contained branded labels). What we loved about Siam Paragon though was the food! There is an entire floor for food! You can find Ramen, Pasta, Viet food, Krispy Kreme, Beard Papa and so on! Krispy Kreme got our money a few times haha.. And then there's the cineplex and IMAX screens at Siam Paragon. We caught The Dark Knight Rises as a break to the shopping (and just coincidentally when the Missus was going through a bout of food poisoning), in a theatre that had well-spaced reclining seats. The Thai audience was very quiet, unlike in Singapore, and the only noise-maker was.... ME haha.. with my in-movie comments regarding the comic-based movie. The only downside was sitting through a ridiculously long 30 mins of adverts prior to the actual screening. We like Thai ads, cos they're quirky, cute and funny. But wow.. 30 mins is a tad too long.
From the tourists' point of view, most will go to Lumpini Stadium to catch Muay Thai fights. Entrance fees cost between 1500baht to US$65 per person. That's not cheap at all, and watching the bouts via TV from the Twins Specialist shop there, I didn't think the fights were very exciting either. Enter Muay Thai at Channel 7. The wife found out about this TV Station BBTV (Channel 7) that has a ring in a studio which hosts fights every Sunday. The locals and bookies will go there for the live action and the betting, the cameras will be set up all around, and the fighters get cash incentives to cause maximum damage. The fights were definitely a notch better than what I saw on screen earlier. Vicious, fast, and impacful. I love the fighters taunting each other with raised eyebrows, and we actually witnessed a knockout blow right in front of our eyes! Our experience was further heightened by a curious little man who asked us to follow him. He found us prime seats high up in the stands where (after a precarious climb) we were able to fully enjoy the view - from the camera's crow's nest! Awesome!
The half-day city tour which came with our package was almost a complete waste of time. Thank goodness the Missus had done this tour before so she could actually point out the sights for me. The tour guide was too busy showing off his Mandarin and selling his other tours to bother explaining what could be seen on our river cruise. The stop at Wat Arun was impressive, and we got a close-up of a place where monks roam freely, a change of pace and sound compared to the big city. If given a chance, I'd skip the jewelry stop and thank goodness we managed to skip the Honey shop tour and lecture too. Bah.
Bangkok is a built up city, very different from Phuket and Krabi, I feel. Tourists aplenty, bargains still possible (though the opening price and discounts are not as much as I was expecting), I'd highly recommend going there for cheap shopping and massages (I hear they're cheap and good). The Missus and I might come back here every few years for a spot of good shopping, but we'll probably stay for 3 days at most next time.
One night in Bangkok and the world's your oyster
The bars are temples but the pearls ain't free
You'll find a god in every golden cloister
And if you're lucky then the god's a she
I can feel an angel sliding up to me
The Missus planned the entire holiday, scheduling the shopping, eating and transitting with information from our hotel location and even to the point of finding a little-known locale where you can watch broadcast quality Muay Thai with the locals live! Thank you dear, it was well-planned and we didn't waste any money going back and forth, or get lost even =)
We managed to get a room at the new Holiday Inn Express Siam, which is less than 5 minutes from the National Stadium BTS station. That connected us to all the main sights. The hotel itself was plush but devoid of amenities. However, it suited our needs perfectly and provided a level of comfort that made our respite from the shopping enviable. Cable TV after a tiring day is great for winding down by.
Chatuchak market - where you sweat till you think you can't sweat anymore.. then you sweat some more. Shopping in Chatuchak Weekend market was fun, its a huge place that is actually categorised, so you can choose to go direct to the pets and animals section, or the eating section. Most of the other sections are fashion and apparel. But what a bargain they can be gotten for! Beware of the heat though, its sweltering in there. Thank God for fresh Tangerine juice, coconut juice/ice cream and Thai tea with ice cream! Missus noted that in the 3 years since she last came here, there are now more and more "boutiques" being set up here. These set themselves up as more inviting, specializing in niche areas, less chaotic, some even have external air-blowers to make you more comfortable. Also, the previously ubiquitous fake tee-shirts that could be bought from every shop previously are no longer so. We were quite excited when we stumbled upon a shop selling tees that had hand-painted style prints that we hadn't come across before - quite original we thought!
Of the myriad of shopping malls there, we hit up Platinum Mall, MBK and Siam Paragon. Platinum and MBK is quite like Far East Shopping Centre and Sim Lim Square in Singapore, price-wise. You can get some discounts, and most things are affordable. Siam Paragon is just like Paragon Shopping Mall in Singapore, more up market with the luxury labels having an entire floor to themselves (though the other floors still contained branded labels). What we loved about Siam Paragon though was the food! There is an entire floor for food! You can find Ramen, Pasta, Viet food, Krispy Kreme, Beard Papa and so on! Krispy Kreme got our money a few times haha.. And then there's the cineplex and IMAX screens at Siam Paragon. We caught The Dark Knight Rises as a break to the shopping (and just coincidentally when the Missus was going through a bout of food poisoning), in a theatre that had well-spaced reclining seats. The Thai audience was very quiet, unlike in Singapore, and the only noise-maker was.... ME haha.. with my in-movie comments regarding the comic-based movie. The only downside was sitting through a ridiculously long 30 mins of adverts prior to the actual screening. We like Thai ads, cos they're quirky, cute and funny. But wow.. 30 mins is a tad too long.
From the tourists' point of view, most will go to Lumpini Stadium to catch Muay Thai fights. Entrance fees cost between 1500baht to US$65 per person. That's not cheap at all, and watching the bouts via TV from the Twins Specialist shop there, I didn't think the fights were very exciting either. Enter Muay Thai at Channel 7. The wife found out about this TV Station BBTV (Channel 7) that has a ring in a studio which hosts fights every Sunday. The locals and bookies will go there for the live action and the betting, the cameras will be set up all around, and the fighters get cash incentives to cause maximum damage. The fights were definitely a notch better than what I saw on screen earlier. Vicious, fast, and impacful. I love the fighters taunting each other with raised eyebrows, and we actually witnessed a knockout blow right in front of our eyes! Our experience was further heightened by a curious little man who asked us to follow him. He found us prime seats high up in the stands where (after a precarious climb) we were able to fully enjoy the view - from the camera's crow's nest! Awesome!
The half-day city tour which came with our package was almost a complete waste of time. Thank goodness the Missus had done this tour before so she could actually point out the sights for me. The tour guide was too busy showing off his Mandarin and selling his other tours to bother explaining what could be seen on our river cruise. The stop at Wat Arun was impressive, and we got a close-up of a place where monks roam freely, a change of pace and sound compared to the big city. If given a chance, I'd skip the jewelry stop and thank goodness we managed to skip the Honey shop tour and lecture too. Bah.
Bangkok is a built up city, very different from Phuket and Krabi, I feel. Tourists aplenty, bargains still possible (though the opening price and discounts are not as much as I was expecting), I'd highly recommend going there for cheap shopping and massages (I hear they're cheap and good). The Missus and I might come back here every few years for a spot of good shopping, but we'll probably stay for 3 days at most next time.
One night in Bangkok and the world's your oyster
The bars are temples but the pearls ain't free
You'll find a god in every golden cloister
And if you're lucky then the god's a she
I can feel an angel sliding up to me
Friday, April 27, 2012
High Contrast Black & White
So I've been into photography for over a year now, with the turning point where I became really serious when I plonked down some cash for a Sony NEX-3 to use with some classic manual focus Nikon lenses that my sister has.
One of the themes that has really gotten my interest is black & white photography. Ever since I discovered the B&W setting, trying tips to shoot in B&W, and using Lightroom's B&W filters, I started looking up books on the masters such as Ansel Adams and Henri Cartier-Bresson. Those are still great starting references - learning about shooting simply, street photography, the rules of photography, learning about details and so on.
The thing about black & white is that you have only 2 colours and the various shades of grey to make an impact. And perhaps because of that, it can evoke very strong emotions in the viewer. I've since come to learn that contrast and composition are key to strong B&W images. This topic is further expounded here.
Today, I stumbled across this website that shortlisted 40 awesome high contrast black & white images. I took a step back to breathe.. I realize the masters were great, but you don't have to look so far back in time to find brilliant images such as these. Fantastic.
Check them out at wowitsalightbulb.com.
Breath-taking.
One of the themes that has really gotten my interest is black & white photography. Ever since I discovered the B&W setting, trying tips to shoot in B&W, and using Lightroom's B&W filters, I started looking up books on the masters such as Ansel Adams and Henri Cartier-Bresson. Those are still great starting references - learning about shooting simply, street photography, the rules of photography, learning about details and so on.
The thing about black & white is that you have only 2 colours and the various shades of grey to make an impact. And perhaps because of that, it can evoke very strong emotions in the viewer. I've since come to learn that contrast and composition are key to strong B&W images. This topic is further expounded here.
Today, I stumbled across this website that shortlisted 40 awesome high contrast black & white images. I took a step back to breathe.. I realize the masters were great, but you don't have to look so far back in time to find brilliant images such as these. Fantastic.
Check them out at wowitsalightbulb.com.
Breath-taking.
Sunday, February 12, 2012
Pre-Valentine's Day Breakfast by the Missus!
This breakfast lovingly prepared by the Missus! Scrambled eggs with truffle oil, German sausages, and semi-instant rosti - delicious! I love my wife! Thanks for putting in the effort to make this weekend special!
Tuesday, January 31, 2012
1st day back at work
Back from our enjoyable Honeymoon! Italy and Amsterdam. The eating was such a joy. Thanks to the Missus for opening up my appreciation of food =)
