Hello, I blog!

When I first started blogging in 2001, I always thought that it was just an outlet to vent and basically talk about my day. Blogging wasn’t big back then, but existed within what we called the “teen web scene”. Within this “scene”, blogging was big – although it was mostly filled with angst-filled teenage whims and ramblings. It was totally different back then as compared to now.

I received my first comment in November 2001 and it made me shout aloud with glee. It was the “wow, there are people listening to me?!” kind of feeling, and it just spurred me on to write more.

So, write more I did. I started writing about my day in full detail, emphasizing on the funny and interesting bits. The number of comments and readership grew. Soon, I began to spot a few familiar names appearing over and over again in my comments. Out of curiosity, I checked out their sites and was hooked.

We became blogging pals, familiar to one another on the web but still strangers offline. Some were based in Singapore and some, overseas. They knew almost every bit of information about me (thanks to my blog entries). Likewise, so did I.

One thing for sure, I didn’t expect back then that we’d actually meet in real life.

Dayna, Cherlynn, Terry and I meet regularly now. And just last weekend, Chien Yee from Brunei happened to be in Singapore and we all decided to meet up.

First stop, Chinatown. Terry, Chien Yee, Dayna and I.

I live at a really awesome district. Low traffic flow and with quiet streets.

Some streets are filled with normal houses, mostly landed properties with the occasional low-rise condominiums. Whereas the main street is olden-style shophouses galore. Most of these shophouses have been restored, in a bid to preserve the Malay/Perenakan culture prevalent in the area.

Plus, there’s an awesome view of the sky.

Needless to say, I live in a pretty conducive place for the occasional exploration and photography stints. The latter of which I haven’t actually gotten round to doing despite having lived here for almost three years. No thanks to my hectic schedule.

The view that greeted me upon reaching the bus stop at 6pm.

I captured the above en route to meet a friend. Amazed at the first sight of a clear blue sky in weeks (we were plagued with hazy skies and thunderstorms for several weeks on end), I whipped out my phone camera and aimed in the general direction of the sun.

Prior to capturing this photo, it was unfortunate that a truck driver happened to be parked within my line of sight. He spotted me with my camera, honked and flashed the finger in my general direction before driving closer (but out of my camera view finder) to glower at me.

I ignored him and proceeded to capture the photo. No form of ugly behaviour is going to spoil the moment. (Besides – considering his reaction, he must have been doing something fishy in that truck for him to be so suspicious of my camera. Hmm. Anyone wants to speculate what?)

The scene at my previous place was much more scenic. I used to live right next to a reservoir lined with rocky banks and green fields. But every place has it’s own beauty, I guess.