Disneyland, Anaheim

I think the most memorable trip of my life so far is my trip to the original Disneyland in Anaheim, LA. Growing up as an only child with little freedom and only my mum as a companion, Disney cartoons played a large part in entertaining me. I loved the quirkiness of Mickey Mouse, Goofy, and Donald Duck and would never pass a chance to watch them on TV. I have only ever had public broadcast TV and that one hour of classic Disney cartoon would be my day’s treat. As I grew older, things didn’t change and I loved Disney even more though it was starting to be out of my age group. It is a testament to Walt Disney’s creativity and charm that his characters are some of the most classic and iconic ones in history with masses of fans of all ages.

I took these photos last December with my GF1 at Anaheim.

Recently | of red bean mochi and hawker shops

This weekend my mum had her stitches removed, so she is well on her road to recovery. She’s been stuck at home for weeks and is seriously missing the freedom of being able to drive anywhere she likes to run her errands, meet her friends, have her favourite food and of course her unforgettable Santouka ramen.

Yesterday we dropped by Jaya 33 to just look at one of my coveted lens additions, the Canon 100mm f2.8 L Macro lens. We were supposed to just look at it but somehow I managed to be persuaded (or maybe coerced) by the boo to place a deposit for a used copy of the lens. He was all for getting a lens that served two purposes, medium telephoto and macro capabilities. But seriously, if I do end up getting this lens, this has got to be my last investment in camera gear for the next 8 months or something.

#1 Lunch at Kompassion

Beautifully unique coconut cheesecake with cendol topping, cookie base and drizzle of gula melaka.

#2 The supermarkets of my childhood.

#3 So I tried to make red bean mochi on Saturday… and failed miserably. The beans took ages to soften and absorb moisture (didn’t soak them overnight) and the dough was so sticky that I almost cried trying to gouge it away from the bowl I used to microwave it in. It was so unbelievably sticky that once it got on my fingers no amount of washing could take it off short of using a scrub cloth to scrub at it. I started the whole project at 2 and ended up miserably giving up at about 6.

The only two pieces that were reasonably nice enough to photograph. Don’t worry, it tasted good and was perfectly edible, just that the process was a bit of a fail.

#4 Randomly stumbling around in PJ Old Town until we came across a hawker shop that looked popular.

There is so much character in hawker shops, especially early in the morning on a weekend where people meet up with their families or bring their mothers or fathers or children out for breakfast. The hawkers are busy serving up piping hot meals, everything is chaotic, the floors are wet, the pots are steaming and hot; but this type of chaos is exactly what makes the hawker shop experience so wonderful.

Snapshots of London | Part 2, and the British Museum

I’m making Red Bean Mochi today from the Ode to Japan volume of Kinfolk. While I’m waiting for my red beans to simmer and absorb all the water (hopefully it will, as right now there’s still a lot of water sloshing about in the pot) here are the rest of the photos from the boo’s trip to London. Let me just put on the record that Kinfolk volume 8 is my favourite Kinfolk volume so far; there’s just something about Japanese language, food and culture that is just so softspoken and gentle.

Snapshots from London | Part 1

I’m having a little bit of a writer’s block today on account of going through a bout of mid-week blues and so I can hardly wrack my brain for anything to write. Which is a shame because London is such a wonderful place; and the United Kingdom in general is such a beautiful place. I suppose I’ll let the pictures speak for themselves then.

Being schooled on a British curriculum for most of my education, we did our math in pounds and pennies and learned more about English history than our own home country’s history (blasphemy I know), and therefore the UK has always held an intense draw for me. I wanted to see all the places I read about and experience the whole British culture for myself. UK is the boo’s favourite country in the whole wide world and he’s lucky for having visited it. This is London through his eye and through his camera lens.

Recently: Shooting on the street

Last Saturday, I spent half an hour standing at the junction in front of Pavilion trying to pluck up some courage to approach interestingly dressed/looking people to ask whether I could take their picture. I ended up wandering around trying to point my camera discreetly in their general direction to quickly snap a shot before they noticed what I was doing.

I’ve been looking at a lot of street photography projects recently, more noticeably the Humans of New York project which really inspired me. It wasn’t only the great photography that resonated with me, soundbites and mini-interviews attached to those photos. Some told stories of their country of origin, others told of their saddest or most frightening experiences in their lifetime and couples told of how they met, or how their significant others proposed to them. This project to me is so meaningful because it emphasizes on how everyone in the street, even the ones you meet in passing or even foreigners who are working hard making their living in your country/city; have a story within them. A story that sometimes belies the way they look.

The first step would be for me I think would be to come up with an idea for a photo essay. Second would be to actually learn and adopt the confidence for approaching people on the streets for their photograph. I don’t know whether Malaysians in general are comfortable with strangers going up and photographing them so that’s definitely another thing to find out. But I suppose if you don’t try you’ll never know eh?
I would also like to go to more interesting parts of KL, but I am no longer confident in the level of safety in roaming around the streets. Maybe it’s just me, but I consistently feel more paranoid than I should be when I’m carrying my camera out.