Quiet Resplendance

江西is really a beautiful place. It's like everywhere we went there would be something interesting that captures one’s attention - breathtaking sceneries, magnificent architectures, many of them hundreds of years old, the myriad of people, young and old, going about their daily chores, and of course magnificent flora and fauna.

Here are some miscellaneous shots taken during our trip there.

Innocence

At the other end of the spectrum, I found kids and babies really fun subjects to photo shoot too.

The Chinese Elders

I realised during this trip that faces showing the effects of time makes very intriguing photography subjects. Here are some of them.

The Many Surprises of China

This was taken in a rural village in the city of 婺源.

Found a very scenic spot along the river by 龙虎山.

Got permission to take a picture with this very interesting couple.

You'd never know who you would bump into while globe trotting. It IS really a small world, after all.

The China Experience

YP and I went for our holiday trip from 4th to 10th Dec 05. This trip was sponsored by SPH, under the 模范华文教师 programme. Of course accompanying family members would have to pay for our own expenses.

What was ^%##!%&* about this trip was that during the pre-trip briefing a week before setting off, the tour agency told the group that temperature over at southern China was going to be relatatively cool, ranging between 5 to 15 degC. Long johns inside and a decent jacket outside would more than do the job of keeping you guys comfortably warm, they said.

Comfortably warm my foot! Temp while we were on 庐山 plunged to sub-zero levels, and we all froze our butts off. Adding salt to the wounds, the hotel floors weren't carpetted. NB! I don't think any of us in the group bathed that nite on the mountains. Most if not all could barely fall asleep at all, despite the two layers of blanket beneath which we coiled ourselves.

Besides the above gripe, everything else was fine and dandy. Scenary was breathtaking. It was a photographer's dreamland. Lots of interesting subjects to frame, shoot and eternalise as megabytes in our digicams. Will post some of these pics up on the blog soon.

The Cherubic Seraphine

Look at my inflatable playhouse, all filled up with my baba Yeow Seng's breath!

Netball prodigy

YS : No no no...what mama and the aunties are making have not been certified fit for children consumption. 上刀山,下火海 leave it to baba and uncle Shu Herng. You stick to your porridge. 乖....

The Contingency Plan

Yes, like all well-trained chefs, the girls did come up with a contingency effort as insurance against utter and absolute failure to produce edible pastries. After some deliberation, they opted for the fail-safe Betty Crocker choc cake-mix. Wise choice.

Well-calibrated equipment and fully scientific instruments were employed in this exercise. The ingredients had to be prepared in exact mass portions in order to obtain the perfect mixture. Measurements of volume and mass were made to three decimel places.

The impressive concoction is then carefully placed into the highly sophisticated incubation machinery. Just look at those knobs and gauges...you'd know this is no child's play.

Wow. 果然香味十足！外脆内嫩！Looked good and tasted even better. Good job, girls!

(Note : author feels obliged to end on a positive note after putting in some dubious comments in previous post)

Cornish Pastries

The girls started out with Cornwall receipe. Ended up adding Maggi chicken cubes and sesame oil and god-knows-what in this stuff. Yeew.

Finsihed product. Aesthetics - 7.2/10. Taste - 4.8/10. Expectations* - met.

(*Expectations - upon consumption, would not need to follow up with doctor consultation and/or eating carbon pills.)

果然是皮厚，馅少！No...thankfully, that is not blood coughed up after eating the oversized curry-pok....it's actually chilli sauce, served together with the dish by the chefs. Yes, the sauce did help in masking the otherwise blandness. Good job!

The Return Of The Chefs

Atfer 2 years of kitchen-free days, the girls of Watchfield & Highworth re-donned their aprons and stepped back into the realm of food creation. The challenge - Cornish Pastries (Cornwall receipe). Level of difficulty - 5.6/10. Guinae pigs - SH & YS. :-(