Sofeah Wants to Balik Kampung

Me and wife (and of course Sofeah) are planning on going back to Rompin-Pekan-NZ this weekend. It has been a long time since we’ve made that trip and so we are excited. Of course this would be the first time we do it on our own accord and also the first time Sofeah will travel that far.

We really are excited to show Sofeah our kampung and also to show our kampung, Sofeah. It really cannot come at a better time. She is so cute now as she is able to grasp the surroundings and react.

She is one talkative girl. If we say something to her she will answer back with long sentences that obviously won’t make sense, but cute. She now speaks with expressions. Sometimes she would say something with a serious face but most of the time she would smile and talk and also giggle at the end of her sentences. I just cannot get her jokes though.

Running up to the balik kampung this weekend hon bun caught a fever. Initially she only felt her body aching and also dizziness. But then she started to shiver and my mum brought her to the doctor. Since there are a lot of Dengue and Chikungunya cases in recent months, we were quite afraid of the outcome of her checkup. But good news, it’s just a fever. Pheeeww~ (well not that good, because she’s still sick…)

So anyway, another reason why we can’t wait to show our grannies Sofeah is because she just learned to roll over! The thing is she doesn’t even know how she did it. The first time she did it was in front of my eyes. She kicked her legs several time (as she always does because she is quite aggressive), and before you know it she jolted and rolled over. Her right hand got stuck under her body because she still hasn’t figured out the proper method yet. Her expression though is the funniest I’ve ever seen - she was surprised with her own ability. Then of course she did it again today while I was at work. Don’t know how it happened this time since my wife only saw her when she has already turned over.

Something that happened at the end of last week and still is the case today, i.e. the rashes on her face, is something that we are not too proud of. You see, if a child drinks from her mother’s milk, there is a chance that they will develop rashes if the milk is not cleaned off her face properly. Since Sofeah is an aggressive drinker, always smothering her face with milk, it’s kinda hard to keep it clean. So she got a bit of a rash but now it’s subsiding. I think she will be back to looking her cutest by Friday night.

Here's hoping that we would balik kampung and come back from kampung safely.

I Like Photography...But It's Expensive

I used to have a hobby. Photography. It's an expensive hobby and at that time when I was into it, I didn't have money to spare. I wasn't making money at all and didn't look to have any source of income.

Now that I do have an income, I find that my priority lies away from any hobby. Even though I am still interested in photography, I don't think it's worth the expenses.

But! I'm slowly getting into it again. The thing is, I don't have those fancy DSLRs and expensive cameras. I only have my Yashica. My faithful Yashica FX-3. Here's a little known fact about that particular camera, it was produced in 1979! Therefore it is a manual SLR that requires films.

Films my friends, are expensive. Buying it is one thing, developing it is another. It's expensive!

Furthermore, with SLRs, you don't get to see your product until it is done. Thus, if you don't have the correct lighting, you set the whole thing wrong, you get the shutter speed or the aperture wrong, then you're screwed.

If for example you go to an event with the camera in your hand, eager and excited to take a picture, and have raised your hopes up high in taking beautiful pictures, but mistakenly you set the whole thing wrong - then that's it. The whole event might well be captured in a dark, gloomy and under exposed still images. Sad.

Nonetheless, I am still quite excited to take pictures. I see it as something that I can be passionate about. It is something that would take me away from all the troubles of the past, present and future. Something that hides me from the monstrosity of recent global events. With pictures, the images are still. Every detail can be scrutinized and every inch of a single beautiful image can be appreciated.

I've recently taken new pictures of my wife, my daughter, events and sights. Another problem with films is that, the pictures have to be scanned and saved into the computer before I can actually upload it. Since I don't have a scanner I have to do it at my mum's. But, passion should be followed up with sacrifice and hardwork right?

Well, here are some of my older pictures (taken 2-3 years ago).




Some of my other pics can be viewed at http://www.flickr.com/photos/wunr/

I haven't updated it for quite awhile (same with my blogs...just no time no more!!). But I can assure newer pictures are available, just not scanned yet.