.誕生日2010年

the birthday cake.

Another year has gone by....just like that. Let's hope I've at least matured a little bit over the past 365 days.

The past year consisted of loads of ups and downs.. Not everything went well, but now, I kind of have this feeling that we're wrapping up all the uncertainties in life...that everything will stabilize soon enough..

But then again, maybe not – I don't want to jinx this.

The best birthday present this year is that SF is spending the whole month with me! In Melbourne! Yes, he brought his work along with him but he will finish up this weekend and we'll spend the remaining 21 days traveling around Victoria. All I want is for us to spend quality time with each other the whole of this month since we don't know how long this LDR thing is staying.

Part of me feels old.. But part of me have to spend a few seconds recalling how old I am exactly.

Anyway, here are the two other birthday presents I have received:

Fujifilm Instax 7s – from SF!

Free Edge Ticket from Eureka Skydeck 88!

And for those of you who are also birthday-ing this month, Happy birthday and eat more cake!

Once again, I'd like to say thank you to those who sent birthday greetings and wishes through E-mail/Facebook/Text Messages. :)

.double joy

dual celebration.

Here's a fact for those of you who don't already know – Lunar New Year and St. Valentines Day happened to be on the same day this year. Yup, 14/02/2010.

For Chinese families, Lunar New Year is one of the biggest celebration of the year.. It's definitely a lot more important than Christmas, at least for my family, since we don't really do anything on 25th December every year.

It is mandatory for everyone to get together on Lunar New Year eve for a reunion dinner – no excuses.

My dad likes to have an open house party every year on the first day of Lunar New Year.. So instead of us going out to visit friends/relatives, people would come over instead.. And one of the chores my sister and I were given is to prepare the red envelopes – RM10 in each one.

red envelope preparation.

As for Valentines Day, it doesn't really effect SF and myself since we don't really do Vday stuff (I wouldn't mind if we do though).. And for the others, I guess they would have to celebrate sometime before or after Lunar New Year.

Sooo.. Happy Lunar New Year everyone, and for those of you who managed to celebrate Vday, hope you guys had a great time!

Feel free to check out more Lunar New Year photos over the next couple of weeks on my Flickr!

.hs for life

The symbol of love.

Congratulations bro! And welcome to the family, sister-in-law!

.an hour of darkness

Earth Hour Celebration.

And so that was how it felt like before electricity came along... :O

.interesting shots from moomba 09 part I

Remember last week when I woke up early, like, at 10am, just to attend the Moomba parade? Here's some more photographs that I think are interesting and would like to share with y'all. Enjoy. :)

Father and daughter waiting for the parade to begin.

It is impossible for anyone to hide a camera like the Canon EOS 5D Mark II. A few teenagers thought I was a reporter from some newspaper companies and posed for the camera. I think they want their photos up in the news or something, which is not likely to happen.. So the best I can do is to put their photos wherever I can, like on Flickr groups, blogs or even facebook.

My attempt to take photos of this boy without his mom discovering was pretty successful - all I did was pretend to take photos of the people in the parade. :D Anyways, do you think point-and-shoots (those regular digital cameras) will make good antiques next time? Just like how traditional Leica cameras are today?

Children - just what is it that makes them so annoying yet adorable (or adorable yet annoying) at the same time? I hope that there will be more opportunities to take portraits, especially candid shots, of kids in the near future. :)

That's it for now people! I'll upload more of these soon!

.children I

The Macedonian Kids @ Moomba Parade.

Such innocent looking children... :)

.the lunar celebration

Pixels in the Air.

Mom's Special Day

Initially, I was about to submit Pixels in the Air into the 2009:A Year in Pictures pool*.. And that was before we had the cake.

Then, I decided to take some good photos when my mom sat in front of the cake. I reckon Mom's Special Day is much more significant than the bokeh (1st image) one and hence, decided to post it up in 2009YIP.

It was fun.. And seeing everyone's laughter makes me really happy.. :) I hope that there will always be joy in this house!

お母さん、誕生日おめでとう! Happy birthday Mom!

* Check out my 2009YIP set here!