Hello, I blog!
I share all my sporadic and toilet thoughts in here, because I am random like that.
I miss this, very much
What I really miss – driving further South on the motorways (and occasional, off the beaten tracks), going through small towns, watching the rolling hills dotted with flocks of sheep from the car’s window, and seeing the occasional snow-capped mountain range.
Snow mountains spotted while driving down the motorway to Wellington.
I love long and scenic drives, and last week’s New Zealand trip involved intensive driving. Plus one for me, but unfortunate for the drivers. The drives were long, winding and extremely tiring. I have no idea how they did it, but I have much respect for them.
I’m now back in Singapore. The concrete jungle. Where the only “mountain” we have is actually a hill standing at a mere 105 metres tall (Mount Faber), and the tallest point is only a mere 163 metres (Bukit Timah Hill) – and please don’t ask why our ‘mount’ is actually shorter than a ‘hill’. Where we find ourselves having to squeeze past folks all the time and be stuck in traffic jams, all while considering it ‘normal’. It’s suffocating.
I’m longing for fresh air – particularly New Zealand’s air. I really miss the place. The trip just went by too quickly.
Laughter – what this trip is defined by
(This is a backdated entry written offline, and published when I – finally – had wireless access.)
The ongoing vacation in New Zealand has been full of amusing happenings (and merry mishaps) thus far. It’s been about;
1. A GPS named Nicolette, christened by my younger cousin J. Apparently, Nicolette was not very accurate. She led us to an abandoned shack once when we wanted to go to the Geothermal Park, and let us off-track to an unmaintained gravel road in the mountains when we wanted to drive to Wellington. Bottom line is, don’t expect 100% accuracy from a GPS. Needless to say, Nicolette received a fair amount of verbal abuse.
2. My uncle flirting with the lady behind the counter at Subway, Hutt Valley (Wellington) … right in front of his wife. And the lady flirted back. Even gave him a free foot-long piece of bread too.
3. Receiving our rental MPV cars on our first day at Auckland and realizing we had no idea how to operate it, right down to the most basic operation of opening the car doors. We’d punch a button (e.g. to open the door) and something else (e.g. the lights coming on) will happen instead. Imagine that happening ten times in a row. It took us half an hour to figure out the basics, and a further 5 days to get used to it.
4. Merry mishaps such as us causing the curtain rod at our Wellington motel to crash onto the floor when we overloaded it with our wet laundry.
5. Playing silly games such as “guess what Brenda will say when she returns to meet us”, “guess what Jillian will say when she comes out of Subway” and “guess which auntie is awake when we reach the motel”. And the loser has to drink some vile concoction.
6. Playing pranks on one another in the car. Such as putting the air conditioning at full blast when it was already dead cold outside, letting farts rip when everyone least expects it, and pretending to drive off when the last few people are still walking towards the car.
7. Putting the two top snorers in the same room and listening to them PK in the middle of the night. (It sounded like an orchestra in there.)
8. Conversations loaded with too much information.
In the car, on the way back to our motel in Wellington.
J – “Can I bathe first?”
Me – “Sure!”
J – “My backside’s itchy.”
Me – “Okay, too much information.”
J – “I think it’s growing fungus!”
Me – “…”
9. The drives around town with the cousins in the MPV with the windows down, with Black Eyed Peas’ “I Gotta Feeling” playing at full blast on the radio with us singing along at the top of our voices.
“I gotta feeling, that tonight’s gonna be a good night,
That tonight’s gonna be a good night,
That tonight’s gonna be a good good night.”
– The Black Eyed Peas
Among many others. Thanks for keeping the smile on my face.
Solar eclipse preparations
Standby and counting … less than 10 hours to the eclipse.
For the benefit of my fellow sky-watchers who have scooted all the way to Shanghai for this once-in-a-lifetime phenomena (a total solar eclipse that lasts almost 6 minutes during totality is definitely a big deal!), here are some timings to take note of:
First contact: 08:23 (Start of eclipse)
Second contact: 09:36 (Beginning of totality)
Third contact: 09:42 (End of totality)
Fourth contact: 11:01 (End of eclipse)All timings stated are Shanghai local time (GMT +8).
I’ve finally gotten the chance to test out the makeshift solar filter (made from filter film) on my DSLR yesterday evening when the sun peeked out from the (rather overcast) sky.
Pointed the camera directly at the sun and obtained the following result. (Warning: Do not try this at home unless you have a solar filter or filter film safely protecting your lens! You do not want to risk damaging your camera and your eyes.)
The sun through my filter and lens.
Awesome possums!
I am presently in the midst of packing a duffel bag for tomorrow’s road trip. Will be heading further south from the city to catch the eclipse as meteorologists had forecasted bad weather in Shanghai tomorrow morning. I believe more than half of the eclipse-watchers here will be doing the same thing and thus we’d be setting off early … at 5.30 A.M.
The sky is still pretty overcast right now and it rained quite a few times today. It’s quite depressing really, although I am keeping my fingers crossed for clear weather during the eclipse.
Meanwhile, packing awaits!
Excitement is mounting. Oh, woweeeeeeeee!
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