Focal B&W

Most of you probably already know this. I just found out how to do this with Picasa and I like it!

A Little Love Drama (part I)

Disclaimer:
This is a fiction, the story and all characters are merely the author's imagination during one of his many day dreams. Parents of the characters please don't kill me. 本故事純屬虛構，如有雷同，實屬巧合。

Long long time ago in a kingdom far far away...there was a little princess who loved to eat pau (for non-Hokkien speakers, pau is the flour-made bun in her hand).
One day, she met a young price who was holding a delicious bak pau in his hand (Hokkien: bak = meat).
Almost immediately, she set her eyes intensely on the bak pau, and fell in love with it.
Little princess:"Oh is that the famous Aunt P's bak pau you are holding?"
Little prince:"Well yes my dear, how do you know this is an Aunt's P bak pau?"
Little princess:"Because it is my favorite of all the paus!"
Little prince:"Really? Me too! Hey, would you like visit the pau store with me?"
Little pricess:"I would be delighted!"
.......
And then from there on they started their little friendship through their mutual love for the pau.
Day and night, the little prince and princess spent a lot of time together, visiting various types of pau stores and discussing about the paus. Slowly they got to know better of each other, and their conversation went beyond the paus.
They started to discovered other common interests they had, such as their love for drum, police car and dismantled wooden car.
Before they knew it, the seeds of love had been planted in their little hearts.
One day, the little prince thought of a brilliant idea.
Little Prince:"My dear lady, I had suddenly conjured up an excellent idea!"
Little Princess:"Oh tell me! Tell me! My dear prince!"
Little Prince:"Why don't we hop onto my red little sports car and we'll drive to the end of the world while enjoying our pau?"
Little Princess:"Oh that is such a wonderful idea! I am really looking forward to that never-ending road trip now!"
So there they went, hopped onto the little prince's red little sports car. The flashy sports car was bought by the prince's father for his birthday. It was a very expensive car indeed, with a steep price tag of $85 after discount from Walmart. After the King got the car for the prince, his highness got a scolding from her majesty the Queen, who also happened to be the financial minister, for spending too much from their royal budget.
Anyway, back to the little prince and princess...
They were very excited and happy about taking their first ever road trip together, and they dreamed of many places to visit. To prepare for the long journey, the little princess had even brought a long a water bottle in case they were thirsty.There they went passing by many famous landmarks within the prince's kingdom, such as the mysterious fireplace and the white study table.
In fact they were so happy that the little prices started to sing many love songs to his little princess.


One day during their road trip, they came upon an ancient sacred church. Feeling shy yet excited, the little princess invited the little prince into the holy church for a little prayer.
Little Princess:"My dear prince, would you come with me to the church and pray alongside with me?"
Little Prince:"Why yes my dear...but may I know what are you praying for?"
Little Princess:"Before answering your question, let me ask you this...do you love me?"
Little Prince:"Yes of course, my dear, with all of my heart! In fact I blame my love for you on your dad, who is a thief!"
Little Princess:"What nonsense! My dad is a KING!"
Little Prince:"Why then had he stolen all the stars in the sky and put them into your lovely eyes?"
Little Princess (shy):"Oh my lovely prince...Alright then, if you really love me, let's go into this church now, and we shall ask for the pastor to bless our love and...and our marriage..."
Little Prince (startled):"WHAT?! MARRIAGE?! What do you mean?"
Little Princess (shocked):"What do you mean WHAT MARRIAGE?! OUR Marriage!! I knew it! I knew it! You don't love me anymore!"
Little Prince:"Oh no, that's not what I mean...just that I think we have just started, and we are not really there yet...I mean...I mean we are too young to talk about that right? I am barely two!"
Little Princess (growling):"All men are the same! I HATE you!! Wah...."
And with that the crying little princess ran away from the little prince...leaving the little prince stunned and wondered what had just happened.
Slowly, the little prince started to understand what had happened, and remorsed deeply for his stupidity and harsh response towards the love of his life.
Realizing that he could not possibly let go of the only princess he found to share all his love for paus, and to whom he had given all his love, the little prince rushed out frantically to look for his little princess...
"Go away paparazzi!" Shouted the panic little prince, annoyed by the paparazi who had found out about their break up.
The little prince ran all around in search of his beloved little princess, yet the little princess was no where to be seen...the little prince started to fear that he might have lost the love of his life forever, and tears of regret started to flow down his cheeks.
Then all of a sudden, the sky brightened up and the little prince saw his beautiful princess standing right before his eyes!
"My dear...." The little prince wanted to shout his heart out for his love, however now he noticed that beside his love stand a dashing, tall, dark and handsome Prince of the Yee Kingdom. And to his absolute dismay, the little prince noticed that the little princess was holding onto his hand!!
Shocked beyond words, the little prince fell short of calling out to his little princess, while the little princess seemed ignorant of his presence, and apparently had her eyes focused entirely on the little Prince of Yee.
"What should I do now?" Wondered the heart-broken little prince.
Would the little prince give up? Would he win back the love of his life?
A Little Love Drama shall be continued...Till then, stay tuned!

Sleepmore in Seattle, Sleepless in Houston

So we are finally back from the picturistic Northwest region of Puget Sound-Seattle. I had a chance to travel to our Puget Sound refinery for a few days work, and Pearl and Ian joined me for a short weekend trip. The Northwest region is an amazing place to visit. It has a great variety of landscapes to fulfill the travel needs of most tourists. We went at the right time I suppose, since we were in the middle of the berries/cherries season, and the weather was of course at its most pleasant, utterly different from what I had expected - a rainy Seattle! I was told that another prime season to visit is during mid April, where the blossoming tulips attract thousands of tourists to the otherwise tranquil country site.

As indicated in the title, we were surprised to find that Ian actually sleeps better during the travel! We were half expecting him to "sleep-less in Seattle" due to the unfamiliar environment. It turned out that Ian actually slept better, and we suspected that it could be the cooler room at night. So now we are trying out a new strategy at home - all three of us to sleep in the play room where the temperature is cooler than our bedroom. So far it seems to work, and we are keeping our fingers crossed.

Ok, back to our trip...

Day 1: Welcome to La Conner, and What a Beautiful Day for Strawberry Picking!

As recommended by colleagues, I stayed at the rustic La Conner Inn, in a small town called La Conner about 6 miles away from the refinery. No it wasn't a European town as you might have guessed from the name. The town was founded when Mr. Conner apparently bought a trader house from the native Indians, and named the shop after his wife, Louisa Ann Conner. The town is situated in the Skagit Valley, a fertile land filled with a great variety of agricultural farm land. From corns, vegetables to tulips, cherries and berries, they have almost everything.

La Conner Inn

The wife and kid arrived on Wed night, fully loaded with car seat, ice chest full of Ian's food and an umbrella stroller. It wasn't an easy 4.5 hours trip but eventually they arrived at the innl safe and snug. So in the morning after dropping me off to work, Pearl brought little Ian to his very first strawberry picking experience. From the pictures taken, I am convinced that Ian really had a blast at the strawberry farm. And he can now say "skawbezzi", one of his favorite fruits!

Ian's first encounter with the thorny raspberry plant...

The fresh raspberries!

A bite at the freshest "skawbezzi" he had ever tasted...

Mmm....skawbezzi is good...

Now I see it...

Now I don't!

EAT ME!!

A Satisfied Look...

Satisfied beyond words, the little star is on his way back...

Pearl also bought some raspberries and blueberries...

So the little finger wanted to try the "boobezzies"

Hmm...the raspberries looks more delicious...

Oh well, I think the boobezzies are still better...

1 minute later...And again!

Before making this trip, we have sold off the very good yet bulky Nikon 8400, and we replaced it with the sleek and slim Panasonic Lumix TZ-5, which we are very happy with! We especially like the 28mm Leica wide angle, 10x zoom, high definition unlimited time video, and now Pearl can fit the camera in her handbag wherever she goes!

Later in the afternoon we went to one of the local attractions, the Deception Pass. The bridge across the pass was built in 1935, and the highest bridge at the time it was built.

A view from the bridge

In the evening we went back to the town, and explored the town on foot. At the time there were few tourists on the street, and the blooming flowers all around the picturistic little town blown us away.

The town is also located along a channel, and strolling along the pier makes us wonder if we should move here after we retire.

Little Ian enjoying the beautiful sunset along the pier

Day 2: Whale Watching...with no whales

One of the attractions in Puget Sound is whale watching. We have taught little Ian about "whale-whale", and I thought it was the time for him to watch the whales for real. So happily I paid for the expensive whale watching trip at the Anacortes tour office. It was advertised at their website that the success rate was 97%. So I was thinking what are the chances that we will be THAT 3% losers? We can't be THAT unlucky right? WRONG. For the entire tour the only living things we saw, other than the tourists on board and the crews who grew more and more anxious by the minutes, were some unknown sea birds, a few bald eagle visible only with super binoculars, and a few sea lions lazying on the rocks. So we were given the "fluke card" to come back to a free second trip...they must have known that most of us on board came from thousands of miles away and chances of us using the free trip would be very slim!

Anyway, disappointment aside (and I had to carry the heavy Carl Zeiss 80-200 zoom all the while!), we were still quite awed with the beauty of the Puget Sound...except that Pearl got sea sick and slept through most of the trip, and Ian slept through half of the trip as well. Oh well, they would have missed any Orca whales anyway!

It was cold out at the sea, so Ian was dressed like little Jay Chou!

And here's the cool mama of the little Jay Chou

Baker Mountain at the backgroundWouldn't you wanna retire in this town?

Another spectacular view of Mt. Baker at Puget Sound

After the failed whale watching trip, we went back to the inn to pack up and left for Tacoma, a suburb south of Seattle. We chose Tacoma because it is close to where we planned to go for the next few days, and also I've got the free stay points with Hampton Inn...heh heh true blue Penangites :)

All in all we found the stay at La Conner very memorable, especially so with the friendly local staffs at the inn. We had carried with us a whole huge ice box of home cooked food for Ian, and the hotel staff was nice enough to let us use their freezer, and later on allowed us to stow our things at their own bed room!

On the trip to Tacoma, we stopped by Bruce Lee and son's graves, located at the Lakeview cemetery in Seattle. I had to plea to da boss to stop at the grave yard, because Bruce Lee is a hero to me as a Chinese descendant. I remembered when I first left Singapore to the states, one of my church mates gave me a Bruce Lee's Jit Kun Do VCD, in hope that I can shine like Bruce Lee in the western world (and of course I failed miserably!). Visiting their graves kinda made me felt sad and sorry for the mother/wife and daughter/sister they left behind.

Bruce Lee & Brandon Lee

The essence of Jit Kun Do: 以無法為有法，以無限為有限

A great loss to both the family and the society

Day 3: The magnificent Mount Rainier

The next day we visited the magnificent Mt Rainier with a fellow Malaysian I met at the refinery, Choo Weng. On my flight to Seattle, I saw Mt Rainier from the airplane, and it was one of the most unforgettable picture I had ever seen. The gigantic mountain was standing tall with a sea of clouds underneath it - too bad I was too slow to grab my camera, I think it might as well be my greatest photog regret!

Anyway, we were very lucky indeed to be here in July, the weather was superb and the sky was very clear - from miles away we could see Mt. Rainier! We were told that most of the time the mountain were shrouded by the ever clouded Northwest sky. Once we reached the visitor center, I discovered the real reason behind the mountain's name. All the long I had thought that Mt. Rainier must be quite a wet and rainy place, so basis for its name: "You thought Seattle very rainy ah, I lagi more Rainier you know...". Of course I was wrong, thankfully. The reason behind the name is none simpler than the first European who saw the mountain named it after his friend. What an appropriate coincidence with the local weather.

Mount Rainier, on a Sunnier day

A Close Up view with Rainier

"Shaped by Fire and Ice", because Rainier is actually a live volcano! Just like the nearby Mt St Helens...

Too bad the Mirror Lake was still frozen up, the reflection picture was shown on a lot of tour books already...

Yet Another Rainier

With the TZ-5 10x teleview, you can almost see the remnants of the lava

The visitor center, soon to be renovated

Ian had fun with his second encounter with snow, xue-xueWOO-HOO!

We spotted a curios Hoary Marmot on the way...

July was the season where the meadows are blossoming around the highlands, so we brought Ian to look for the meadows...and this is little Ian munching at "mi-mi" a.k.a. the home made flour "pau" along the meadow trail.

All the little wild flowers decorating the beautiful scenery

One way to achieve the SLR-like effect with a point and shoot is with the macro mode...and Pearly is already very good at it!

On our way back Ian is munching on his goodies again...and putting on the "scary" looks trying to scare us, hee hee...

On our way to Mt Rainier National Park we saw some road side stalls (akin to Malaysia's road side durian or rambutan stalls) selling bing and rainier cherries...and boy they are much more delicious and cheaper than those we found in Houston!

Day 4: Hiking among the Olympics

Day 4 was spent visiting yet another nearby national park - the Olympic NP...or as the true blue Msian would say, Olampeek national park. Unlike Mt Rainier NP, the Olympic NP is actually a range of mountains sitting on the Olympic Peninsula. The Olympic NP is unique because it has the most diversed flora and landscape in this region ranging from snow peaked mountains and glaciers to beaches and temperate rain forests.

Just like the Mt Rainier, the Olympic mountains are nicely decorated with the scattered wild flowers as well. Comparing to Rainier however, we felt that we liked the Olympics better may be because the meadows here blossomed more at the time of our visit.

Ian and I were looking at the hiking trail map, discussing about where to hike next...yeah right, another 5 years, may be :)

View from atop the Hurricane Ridge

Uh oh...flower thief 採花賊！

The deers here seem not at all afraid of the crowds of tourists...if this were Malaysia, we would have set up stalls selling delicious deer meat satay and deer horn chinese herb already ;p

Some panaromic shots of the Olympic mountain range (stitched with Arcsoft and Canon's softwares)

Back to the hotel, Ian looked tired and asked for a nen-nen (his beloved SILK soy milk!)

And of course, that was just the parents' illusions that the toddler was sleepy and the parents could finally have some time to rest. The truth was of course Ian became hyper and filled with renewed energy after his superpower drink, so we brought him to the pool with the hope that he could spend off his energy...

Since we forgot to bring the swim diaper, we had to resort to using just the regular diaper...and the super absorbent diaper became heavy with water at once, and as a result poor Ian had to expose his butt crack...here's Ian first ever butt crack picture, courtesy of mama.

So eventually the diaper got so heavy that we had to take it off. And as true as the Murphy theory goes, just as soon as we did that, the little rascal peed onto the ground, while smiling sheepishly at us...and this had to be witnessed by other Americans at the pool...yet another unsightly things done by Asians added to their list I suppose!

Day 5: A Short rendezvous with Seattle

This was our last day, though tired, we were happy that the trip went so well thus far, especially with Ian sleeping much better at night in the cool, full-blast air-con room. Before heading back to the airport, we did a quick side trip to the famed Pike Place wet market close to downtown Seattle. Seattle has a good size downtown, filled with sky scrappers and the famous space needle tower. Too bad we did not have enough time to visit the tower, nor the hill with the overview of Seattle...hopefully we will get another chance to do this!

We didn't know that Seattle has a good size sea port as well...
We went to the very first Starbucks cafe located right across the Pike Place market. Notice how different is the mermaid logo?

1912 Pike Place, is this THE original Starbucks store? Many says so, but apparently not according to some...The ORIGINAL blend...

Pike Place wet market, i.e. pasar. Any Msian auntie would have found this place familiar, but too bad the prices are fixed, and no, you can't take some gingers away with you after you paid for your bargained vegetables.

In the market, there were fresh flowers,

fresh berries,

more fresh cherries and berries,

fresh vegetables,

fresh fruits,

fresh tomatoes,

fresh Alaskan wild salmon,

more fresh fishes,fresh seafood,

more fresh seafoods,

and a skinny freshman trying to earn his tuition fees by hulahooping while playing on the guitar!

Note: this amazing guy is on the wiki!