you've been there

ever had one of those days when you have just so much to write about and yet have no energy to even think of composing a lengthy narrative of your uber-interesting day?

today's one of those days.

one long day

i was supposed to be off. couple of errands on the slate, and a free lunch at the office for those of us who covered the tsunami disaster, but not much else.

it was not to be.

ended up trying to get my stuff at work together, the saturday feature commemorating the 2nd month anniversary of the tsunami turns out to be 7 pages, and the pictures needed to be in. so after editing, color correcting and uploading over 40 images for the selection process, i find out a last minute decision has decreed that all the images are to be in black and white.

back to the drawing board.

many hours, two cans of diet coke, and an iced tea later, i am back home at 4:30am. this evening's agenda not only included refixing the many images, comforting a close friend, and a thirty minute supper at jalan kayu, but also a theraputic ride back home. beginning to wonder if she is right about my having too much on my plate. i really need to be spending more time with the one i love.

there, i said it. let's hope it's the first step to recovery.

we were there

most of us physically, but a couple in spirit too.

the tsunami saw most of us packing up and jetting over to the various affected countries to cover the event for various publications and organizations. darren, ernest, ming and kay chin contributed to mercy relief's aid efforts. terence, chin hon, joyce, chin kai, aziz, hui fen, steph, des foo, des wee, seng kim and myself covered it for the straits times. maye-e and hwee young were also in the thick of it covering the news for AP and EPA respectively. we were contributing the way we knew best, by providing photographic coverage of the disaster to bring awareness to the local populace of it's mind-numbing severity.

following ernest's glimpses of light exhibit at the gallery hotel, darren's show of the same name went up, featuring life sized hasselblad prints of post tsunami sri lanka. with all of us finally back in singapore after a month of disaster coverage, we didn't waste time getting up to our old antics. against the backdrop of darren's pictures, we were transported back to the devastated areas from which we had just returned. trying to keep the mood light-hearted, we posed with some of the pictures, often forgetting the other people who had come to view the exhibit.





"are those friends of yours?" a female friend asked darren, with obvious distaste. "yes," he replied, "and they have been to far worse places and seen far worse things, so leave them alone."

damn straight boy.

for no reason

other than my promising ah seng that i'd find a way to publish this picture of him playing with sparklers somewhere.

a genuine excuse

i've used my trip to sri lanka and the lack of a decent internet connection as an excuse...
i've used post tsunami-coverage recuperation as and excuse...
i've used being tired as an excuse...
i've used my being busy with friends as an excuse...

but i am going to be really honest, this is my main reason for having gone MIA.





believe it or not, i passed my riding test after not having touched a bike in two months. i touched down from sri lanka on a wednesday morning (jan 26th), passed on a thursday, bought my x9 on a friday, received it the following tuesday and been roaming the island ever since.

the old adage holds true; have wheels... will travel.