India 22 Nov

Shots in the City: Dempsey Area

Images, like poems, complement each other; one brings out meaning in the other with the help of context. I hope it's the same for the photographs I have taken. The following images are shots from my own little exploration around certain places, and in this case it's the region around my church. Somehow it didn't feel like I was in Singapore. It was surreal, quiet, and completely out of character for a country that promotes itself as a lively city state.


This particular trip began at St George's Church Tanglin, an unassuming brick building located along Minden Road, where I attend church. Outside, the Singapore flag flies high. The date is August 9th, National Day, and it's about 4 in the afternoon.


Not far off, a place to sit and contemplate, part of a development project establishing Tanglin Village.


A few minutes walk brings me and a friend to an unused chapel. A board by the door states that the place is under camera surveillance, but we walked around anyway. This is the facade of the chapel from the road.


This is the interior of the chapel itself, empty save for dust and leaves, and whatever else is blown in by the wind. It's intriguing to think that this place once held pews and people, used for worship and bible study.


A little stone platform with a broken setting. I think it must have been a font once, in memory of a boy called John Bath, if you take a look at the inscription.


The silhouette of an old fashioned streetlamp, a little worse for the wear, but still in working order.


This area was left pretty much abandoned, with a few of the old buildings still left, while the rest (which were probably the old army barracks used by the Brits in colonial times) were turned into restaurants and cafes and even a gallery. This particular hut probably housed the telephone switchboards, and you can see a whole mass of wires and stuff inside.



A couple of fallen palm leaves in the rather interesting shape of a cross.


A large spider, which is probably spans the width of your palm.


Finally to close this post, a picture of something that wasn't taken on location, but in school on a rainy day. I'm not really sure why I posted it myself, but it was an attempt at capturing motion.


Clarence T, this is for you! You asked for photos, you get photos. I hope they live up to your expectations. ;) Enjoy.

Celefest 14 July

For once I am uploading images on time and not too late after the event! And another first is the fact that there are so many pictures of people. Which I am not too inclined to, but it was good practice with the new camera. Again, I used mainly P mode (and Auto when I got lazy), and I also tried out the multiburst function. I know that some of the images weren't composed very well or slightly blur, but I am breaking the camera in and getting used to holding a new weight.

So, to kick it all off, pictures of Mr Chew prior to Celefest (school funfair) ...with (yes that IS a cow! It was used to dispense beer but this time it was used to dispense milk to make milkshakes) his new room mate. It has a HUGE red cow bell that makes a resounding clang. You have to grow a pair in order to ring it in the middle of the school office.

And here's Mr Chew riding the cow, as instigated by Aunty Ivy. She brought him a little blue stool and got him to climb up. It looks rather painful. Hmm. Yes. Well I bet he could fit inside that cow!


Getting acquainted with his new best friend. Heigh Ho Patches!


Hooray for Combat Skirmish! My class was sponsored by a rather wealthy person. So we could afford to employ the company to come in and organize the game, which is basically outdoor laser tag for those of you who don't know what it is. Eh heh. We have big guns. Heh heh.


Here are a bunch of 6Y people posing for a shot...their stall offered a photography service, whereby costumed figures ran about the school to take photos with people. Free cookies! You can guess what costumes were rented...


And outside the office, Ms Ros and Aunty Liza selling books of coupons. There are so many. It's crazy.

Presenting...Superman (Aqeel) and Supergirl (Ria)! Heh.


Aaaand Venom (Mark) with his good pal Darth Vader (Jackson). Join the dark side...


...we have COOKIES! Yeah. Kams is looking very, very pleased indeed. But who could blame her? She's got aaaalll the cookies!


Kevin and LH aka Spidey acting as tough guys while messing with the Combat Skirmish guns.


Ria giving a supersmile! (Pardon the bad superjoke.)


Bryan is attempting to be scary. Uh, right.


Ms Loh due for dunking! Yes, revenge, at last...


There she goes! Arms in the air as a gesture of surrender...

Teachers are real good sports when they want to be. So besides agreeing to be dunked, they also played Combat Skirmish and attempted a second childhood. I do believe many succeeded. Here is Mr West, looking every bit the part of a soldier...complete with neon sunglasses and battle stance.

Mr Chew, the best sport of them all (especially for riding the cow!) with his winning, wrinkly smile. Not to mention those kickass glasses!

Yes, he's out to make a killing today (with colleague Mr Lim in the background), and he's not talking about money! We got a teacher's team to play against a student team, and the teachers won. Go figure.

Off he goes for a respawn...looking as cool as ever, and clearly having a very good time.


Well, you didn't think Combat Skirmish was for all the youngsters did you? Bring on Dad's Army!

Mr Teo, trying to look like Rambo.

But he is very good at this! There's Mr Chew in the background, battle-ready...

Good ol' Dr Barrett. Awfully good sport, what. (He was dunked too! There's pictorial evidence.)

Apparently he spent the 15 minute game staking out the alcove by the biology labs on this floor. Still, I'm sure he had a pretty good time. He looks just like a schoolboy! Give the old boy some credit, eh?

Here's the best of them all! Dear old Mr Chen aka CCC. The general of Dad's Army, reliving his childhood. He really does look the part!



Yessir, aim for the goal...this is by far my favourite image.

That hand in question belongs to Mr R. Lim, who finally admitted defeat to a couple of schoolkids...

They'll have a job finding Nemo when he's hiding like this...

There goes Mr Teh dashing up the stairs sharpish, with opponent team in hot pursuit!

Good ol' Mr Ramesh, with his unmistakeable red shorts. Gotta love the shorts.

Here's Mr Lim again, staking out the toilets, with one unfortunate Hian Lee camping out inside.

Brothers in arms: (almost) All in red from 6X: Kev, Munjen aka Kenneth and Jums aka Ameer.

Kevin. Showing off. "Boom! Headshot!"

The Year 6 boys team...

Kevin and Mr Clarence, looking very pro and Counterstrikish indeed.

And finally, Dr Barrett being dunked! Cheers all round, Ladies and Gentlemen, for Uncle Steven has dunked the great P!

Whew.That's it for Celefest! The rest of it wasn't all that interesting to photograph since I was taking them for personal use, so for once I could omit any other informative images that I would have had to take otherwise. That took such a job uploading, now my eyes hurt. Hope you enjoyed them. More photos to come, stay tuned!