Somehow I got invited to a dessert tasting event, and invited the rest of the Team Blues along. It was not bad, considering it's $25 for 5 courses of dessert. They were interesting, but not fantastic. A little too sweet even for someone with a sweet tooth like me. Still, it's nice to have a social gathering after office hours!

Been wanting to have a nice dinner with Shihui, and it was a good opportunity to introduce a new place to the SIS people as well. So we went for dinner at Covo! The food was good, and Oliver made the dinner a pleasant experience for everyone that night. They enjoyed the food so much that Karen was back less than 2 weeks later!

We had the first TeamBlue social event after only 1 week of training, and had some drinks at Harry's just by the office. It wasn't much, since the food was expensive (and ghastly), drinks were watered down, and ambience isn't much to speak of. What made it enjoyable was the company, and some alcohol sure brought out the fun in everyone.

Had a good time with my new acquisition, although the pictures didn't turn out as sharp as they should be due to the poor lighting. But the creamy-smooth bokeh and shallow DOF was a pleasure to behold. Looking forward to using it more often!

We had a little meet-up for dinner at Bugis and it was the same few people with the same few missing. I'm glad we still manage to find the time to meet every once in a while. It was nice seeing how everyone was complaining about work, comparing the good and bad, and still playing the same pranks and the same person.

Congrats to Eldwin and Julie! It was good to see all the 'legends' from Trekkers again, as well as the new guys too.

Definitely one of my busiest nights, I had to be at 5 places from 7pm onwards. Nevertheless, I made it in time for the 3rd dish.

The food was good, company excellent. Only thing missing were my buddies Martell, Chivas, and Johnny! Smart move on Eldwin's part...haha

First time meeting Shihui's classmates, and they decided to chill out at Villa Bali.

Happened to have the 5D with me, and managed to get some snaps of everyone (almost everyone!) having fun. We had a bottle of Macallan (not bad), a bottle of red, and some complimentary jugs of tiger beer. Lots of fun with drinking games and finding out dirty little secrets with "I Never".

Nice to meet everyone, and take care of Shihui! She drinks like a fish!

My first gathering with the people over at SGscuba. The BBQ was held at Jeli's place, and we had lots of fun moving the BBQ back and forth due to the rain.

It was good to finally be able to put a face to the wacky personae on screen and chat about diving and photography.

The highlight of the night was definitely Pluto's birthday celebrations and the main instigator was none other than rasberry!

Good to meet all of you, and here's to more outings!

Our last school event. A little celebration to mark the next phase of our lives.

We had a little dinner at the Ritz Carlton with about 200 other graduates. The turn-out was a little disappointing with half the ballroom empty.

Still, it was nice to see everyone all dressed up and ready to have a good time. The MCs were really entertaining, and it was good to see Lavinia back with us again.

Good luck everyone, and don't be a stranger!

Just bought my first CZ lens for $150 off Clubsnap. The lens was already converted to the EF mount, so an adapter wasn't needed. However, it might have been better if a adapter is used, so at least I can get AF confirmation. It's a little hard to guess focus beyond 1m away without a split-focus screen!

Colours were contrasty out of the camera, and sharpness is reasonable when I get lucky. It's a nice focal length to work with for people shots across the table and other snapshots.

Next: More CZ lenses with AF-confirm chips? Or a split focus screen? Or both?

*Update: Have since sold this lens, and got the EF 24 f2.8 instead. A little noisy, but there's AF! 27th Mar '07

We assembled at 0630 at Newton on a Saturday morning for the field trip to visit palm oil plantations and an oil mill in Negri Sembilan.

We saw how palm oil is produced from seedlings to the final golden liquid to be sold at RM$2000 a ton. The tour through the oil mill was filled with strange sounds, intense smells, and terrifying heat. Really have to respect the people working in there every day. The oil mill is a self-contained facility that generates its own power for producing palm oil.

We spent the night at the Renaissance Hotel with lots of fun and laughter accompanied by an 8-course chinese dinner. The 5-star hotel was comfy and well-furnished. We had the best popiah in the world for RM2.20 which was monstrous, and had fried pork lard in it. Totally sinful, but fantastic.

A good experience and a chance to get out of the hustle and bustle of the city. Learning something not in the textbooks is always best done through first-hand experience.

We went to visit the Malay Heritage Centre near Arab Street as part of our Melayu course.

It was nice to look at all the artifacts and trying to read the old letters of appointment to the Temenggongs. The performances were rather interesting as well, and they dragged some people up to perform the dikir barat and traditional dance as well.

Lunch was eventful, to say the least. The food was good albeit a little pricey, and don't go there with an empty wallet!

Took my 300D for a last dive at Yikai's house. Best shots were from the 50mm at f2.8. Farewell to my 300D!

Wanted to send these in for the NUS sub-aquatic club photo competition, but I think we sort of missed the deadline. Ah, whatever.