Netmoirs of A Solemn Rover

Mood: Creative
Current Jam: Closure [Gerald Levert]
Company: Iacon-1
Prologue: Raymond, Yi Duan & Visha to Plymouth. It was Mid-Autumn Festival

Raymond brought along Yi Duan, his buddy from London to Plymouth for the first time. Yi Duan..well, what I can say is she is a mysterious + smart + intelligent girl. She is one hella lass in LSE that make Malaysians, yeah, Malaysian government proud. A model student with brains. Learn something ya’ll.

Mid-Autumn outing 2005. Happy Mid-Autumn Festival for the chinese!

Session One: The Arrival + Lunch

The first spot is Zeus, where we had a decent lunch with the hyperactive Ray & cheeky Yi Duan + the wise Hoong & crappy me. Ray assigned us to accompany YD around Plymouth while he go ‘work’ - watching matches. And there we go, accompanying one hella brainy + cheeky LSE lass with us from the Sutton to the Promenade, & guess what you’ll never miss an inch of Miss YD’s humble teethy smile. And here are the pics of what’s going on that lovely Mid-Autumn afternoon, with a magnificent individual, a new friend & some good laughs.

The odd couple

YD: When you gonna stop shooting?
Me: Ala..perasan la you.

The stuff i had.

Blossom in autumn

Strike a pose.

Overlooking the Grand Parade.

Hoe.

Plymouth dome on it’s summery spectre.

Historic Sutton. Pic taken from Medeira Road, The Hoe.

Session Two: The Dinner in NCG

Visha arrived from London & managed to join us for our humble lil’ Mid-Autumn outing. Ray was so darn happy that he was reuinited with his old boss, the bitchy Shallyn the lieutenant-commander of NCG. She is a good sharp shooter & an excellent spy. She should have been in the MI. Oh yes, military I am saying. She had parabola beter than your momma’s (*hard diss*). LOL.

Dinner at NCG. Hoong looks fedup..& Ray nears ‘close collision’

The ever fotogenik Visha.

Session Three: Mooncake?

We are indeed a bunch of saddos..only manage to get 2 moon cake chip-in by Visha, & that one also from her mom. Imagine having 2 of those shared with 3 of us homesick monsters? The answer is ‘insufficiency’.

Moon munchies for the home sick saddos.

Best buds. Damn again?

Altogether now. Happy Mid-Autumn Festival!

Session Four: Morning Outing on Mid-Autumn festival
Debenhams that is. Some cap & some ice-smoothie.

Fancy Ay drink?

YD: Wey, I had enough sleep ya know?

Hoong: With Wong’s crappy cam, i might just be invinsible in his next pic.

Choc cake anyone?

Mood: Plain
Current Jam: Dot To Tha Dot [Skoop On Somebody]
Company: Kok Hooi, Kok Hoong, Ping, Teh, Seon, CK & Yang Li
Prologue: So, Malaysians in Plymouth suffered another casualty in statistics - another dude is leaving UK, not a stranger to us, is our very own buddy, Kok Hooi.

The Leaving Fella - Kok Hooi

So, he left after being in the Uk for more than 3 years as student & as a holiday maker. This Kuala Kurau homeboy misses his hometown very much that he decided to leave his undecided UK life. And today we had a small but humble farewell gathering for him, among fellow Malaysians & his work colleagues. We had food, had a good laugh, had some shots & bids of farewell & hopes of goodwill in his future undertakings.

The final supper.

Aww, you are breakin them hearts la KH. *lols*

You aint forgettin us.

Mood: Satisfied
Current Jam: Gently [Toshinobu Kubota]
Company: Joerg, Soomi, Kok Hoong, & Dave
Event: Moscow State Circus at Central Park, Plymouth
Date: 11th Sept 2005
Prologue: The most famous circus troupe is in town again, hosting performances in Central Park, Peverell.

From Russia with Laughter (not the Bond flick aight)

To tell you the truth, I have missed this circus for 4 years! And guess what this year, I’m gonna watch it no matter what! I got the flyers like 3 weeks before the event starts, and called to book tickets a week before the event, and luckily though I got through and eventually got 5 seats reserved on my behalf. Joerg, Soomi, Dave & Kok Hoong agreed to join. Therefore, I had enough quota of kakis for this event.

It is a nostalgic moment as my last circus that I had ever been before was with my grandparents in KL when I was around 5 (I guess). Always wanted to see one whenever there’s a troupe coming to town but missed it way to often cos of work committments. Sadly though the Moscow State Circus (MSC) doesn’t involve any animals. So its a 100% human thang’. At least the Russian babes make up towards my disappointment though *lol

The show kick start with some intro from the host, then some clowns - merely lite stuff to start with. Then followed by the babes, babes and more babes, strong man, cross-dressers, acrobats, stuntmans, stuntwomans, clowns, more clowns and even more clowns.

I managed to put my A95 to the test as this is a rare occassion to test your cam to the fullest extent. I tried fireworks and now - circus! Most of the time when shooting, I had to place the cam on my thighs elevated. Set as the slowest shutter and fast to medium apature, I captured the moments like the lame Konica advert did, and yes with some trial & errors of course *doh*.

Here are some ‘artwork’ from the moments:

Clowny tryina be funny

The peeps with me

The crowd

Some lite stuff to begin with

Vector regeneration. Can you do it? The Russos can.

Clown act - they ain’t funny, they are the Russ.

Strong man needs support too, wuddaya think?

Shock ballin’

Loop shock.

Director: Louis Leterrier
Genre: Action/Crime/Drama/Thriller
Starring: Jet Li (Danny), Morgan Freeman (Sam), Bob Hoskins (Bart), Kerry Condon (Victoria) & Vincent Regan (Raffles).
Plot: Also known as ‘Danny The Dog’, this movie is about a man raised into behaving like a dog, escapes from his captor to start a new life, who seeks to reclaim him because of his unnatural martial arts skills that are triggered when unleashed. More info here .

Spoiler: They lived happily ever after.
My rating:

Mood: Overjoyed
Current Jam: No Limit [Sowelu]
Company: May Tan, Seon Tan, Dave, & Cherry Li
Prologue: A walk, a ride & get neigh’ed!

Plymbridge Wood (NT)

So, it was another British bank holiday. The day was sunny and bright. I woke up at 8am, get my gears ready and set. As May planned, today we gonna go out for a walk in Plymbridge Woods and a horse ride in Fitzworthy, Cornwood.

We rendezvoused at May & Seon’s place waiting for Dave to arrive. His Tauran never fails to impress. And there we go for a ride to the woods - yeah, the woods at Dave’s backyard called Plymbridge. Plymbridge is actually a small forest reserve in Glenholt used to be a coal-mining area during the pre-war up to the post-war. As we walk, we could spot remnants of old mines & railway ruins that headed to the mines.

For Da Pose - bridge at background (pic courtesy of Seon)

Many dog-walkers & mountainbikers enjoying the sunny weather for a cool & fresh stroll on a lovely Sunday along with us.

Makro butterfly (courtesy of Seon)

Seon as usual, took the opportunity of this lengthy walk to shoot some awesome pics such as insects & floras that flourished around the park. The butterfly above was one of my favorites.

Bridge shot

Our journey ended at this bridge cos we gotta be hurry to Cornwood for the booked horseride. Behind us is the beautiful lush scenery of the serene pine woods. We would love to continue, but the horseride stable was some miles away from here and we need to be there early for some briefing.

Bug life

One of Seon’s final masterpiece moments before leaving the woods - its a BUG LIFE. We had few popsicles before driving away from the park.

No, not Lee Mill, not Smithaleigh its Cornwood ya - Jagung Kayu.

So, we arrived at Fitzworthy in Cornwood around half an hour later. The stable smell welcomed us (you know what I mean). Its quiet at the stable as we are booked for that afternoon session which was an hour stroll around the edge of the moors. The instructors are fairly young like our aged, very experienced and they guide us pretty well.

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My name is (WHAT?), my name is chikichikichiki Slim Rollie!

That was Rollie above, shot by me. Ya, Rollie the Horsie not to be confused with Rollie Fingers aka Method Man of Wu-Tang Clan yo. She doesn’t smoke weed. I think one of the ladies had Rollie as I was confused ’shei ta shei’ (who is who) cos for me all horsey look the same, and thats lame.

A horse handler and her babe.

Us in our gears. Which is compulsory. DAMN.

May go trotty. What a stallion!

The ride took us an hour. The journey starts at the stable towards the foot path of the woods nearby passing by some fields, train underpass, farms & orchards. The horse handlers are very professional, chatty and friendly as all of us chatted during the ride, the herd have been very obedient and the weather was excellent. Not regretting a single bit of making out today.

Horseplay before leaving. Everyone neighs joyously.

A Plympton treat.

We reached home around 5.30pm. Tired but overwhelmed.