Hello Again, Kitty

The "Lantern Fantasy 2008" exhibition was held at the Chinese Gardens for an entire month from 28 Aug 08 till 28 Sep 08. It literally spanned across both the Olympics and the Formula 1 events. That was why they cleverly put up lantern displays featuring the various Olympic sports, and also Hello Kitty and her many adorable friends in multicoloured F1 racers.

On each of the Saturdays (and also the first and final Fridays) during this period, there were even fireworks displays. These were actually really small-scale affairs and frankly speaking quite pathetic (especially since it wasn't too long ago that we have been wowed by the spectacle that was the Beijing Olympics opening). Nevertheless, every Saturday, Jaimie would still be thrilled whenever I bring her to the bedroom window at 8:30pm, to gaze across Jurong Lake at the mini pyrotechnics flashing and popping in the darkened skies. At the end of each session, Jae would, without fail, ask that we bring her to see Hello Kitty again.

"要看Hello Kitty! Please..."
"喏。Hello Kitty就在那里啰。"
"要进去！"
"爸爸妈妈不是已经带你进去去看过了吗？"
"要再去看！Please..."
"Ok, ok....如果你乖乖的话，爸爸妈妈就带你去。好吗？"
"好！"

So, when I realised that yesterday was the final day of the lantern exhibition, and that tickets would be sold at half price (!!), I decided to make good of the promises I have made. Nick came by in the afternoon for some jamming (he brought along the PS3 "Rock Band" game, with guitar and mic!), and decided to also come along since his boy Ayden has never visited the Chinese Gardens.

The photos turned out fairly nicely. I attribute this to the lens upgrade I'd gotten recently, when I found that my EFS 18-35mm kit lens had signs of fungal growth - no doubt due to my extended procrastination over the purchase of a proper dry cabinet for my camera equipment. The lens I bought is a second-hand EF 28-135mm lens. This is an ultrasonic lens. with image stabilisation feature. I find that it is working pretty well, delivering faster focus and sharper pics than my previous kit lens. Of course, immediately after procuring the new lens, I also went ahead to get that long overdue dry cabinet to make sure history would not repeat itself.

Alright, enough of talk.