Private Pool

Went to the outdoor pool of our clubhouse for a swim. Turns out I was the only one there and I had the whole pool to myself. The lifeguards were looking at me like "Are you serious?" I figured out why the moment I dove in. According to the pool thermometer, the water was 23C.

Luckily the sun was shining so I got used to the cold pretty quickly. It was fun swimming around in an empty pool. I'll have to take advantage of the coming 10 days before the pool closes for the season.

Hong Kong Park

Didn't want to waste the sunny day but couldn't really think of anything to do, so I went to Hong Kong Park.

Love is in the air



First time visiting the Bird Aviary. Seems everytime I visited before, it was always closed.







I'm not a Gear Freak and I still firmly believe that it's the Man not the Machine that makes a good photo. However, Bird Photography is one of the very few exceptions where gear really does matter. Those 4-figure priced lenses really do make a difference, especially with their large max apertures and VR/IS capabilities. Since I don't have any of those in my arsenal, I had to make due with my 18-200mm VR and 70-300mm G (hence the high noise levels from the high ISO settings and fuzzy focus).

While I was panning around with my lens, I happend to see this. What the Hell?

Ah, turns out some guy was recording bird calls.

Cool. While everyone else was busy capturing visuals, it was refreshing to see someone capturing his aural experience.

MegaBox

Finally visited MegaBox today. Nothing special I guess, just about APM-type mall.

I was happy find a California Pizza Kitchen there. It was fate, so naturally I had to go in for a big ass Caramel Sundae



The vibe of MegaBox is very retro-cool.

The place is so big, so my Casio's 38mm wasn't nearly wide enough to do a decent job. Maybe I'll go back again with my D80 + 10-20mm.

Dinner at the HKJC. Turns out, they're holding an Octoberfest month. Check out this heaping plate of Pork Knuckle & Sausages. With saurkraut and mash potatoes too! Das Gute!

The Boat Man and the Sea

Saw this scene and took a quick snap. I used a Circular Polarizer filter, so the water became an amazing cobalt blue:


Actually, which version is more effective, the color one or the B&W? The color shows a great contrast of the small red boat surrounded by a deep blue sea, but the monotone version seems more fitting with the feel of the shot:

Sigh, with work and study, it'd been ages since I picked up my D80. Using it again this morning, it felt like meeting up with an old friend...

Banana nana rama

Back in August, 2 friends and I discovered a bar in Stanley that served an exquisite Banana Crumble dessert. The crunchy toffee and smooth vanilla ice cream garnish were a perfect match to the light cinnnamon crumble topping and warm banana filling.

Finally went back tonight (I can't believe I was able to resist going back for so long) .

And what's better than having a Banana Crumble?


Having TWO crumbles

and a Creme Brule!

Sigh...happiness is so fleeting...

EDIT: Oops, I forgot to give a big THANK YOU to Gingie for treating me to this wonderful culinary experience.

YEAH! It's official!!!

It's funny the amount of work you need to go through just to add some letters to the end of your name. PMP; not as illustrious as MBA or Ph.D but it's a start.

Man, that certification exam was so frickin' hard! It was nothing like the sample questions in the PMP Prep book or in the lecture notes. Whereas those questions are usually specific and clear cut, the questions in the exam were very abstract and open ended. I've never taken a test where so may of the answer choices were potentially right. So I had no way to be confident that the answers I considered the best were really the accepted answers. By question 100 I was already drained and was so tempted to throw in the towel. After finishing the 200 questions, I had to take a break to clear my mind. Luckily, I had over an hour left so I went to the locker for a drink and quick snack (they don't let you bring anything into the testing room except your ID). Then I went to the bathroom to splash some water on my face. Felt a lot better. Went back into exam room and reviewed some of the questions and actually noticed some keywords that I missed the first time (the sugar from the chocolate bar paid off...hooray for Snickers).

After combing through my answers a second time, I finally clicked on the End Test button. Man, the 10~15 seconds it took to process my answers felt like an eternity. I can't express the feeling I got when I saw the words "Congratulations, your overall score is a pass..."

Too bad they don't give the actual score because I really would have liked to know how well I did and which questions I missed. But anyways, I'm just ecstatic that it's all over. Tonight was the first night in a long, long time that I didn't have to pick up a book to study and it felt gooood.

Gonna sleep well tonight.

Kitties

Went to the Cat Cafe again. A lot more cats than last time.

Wanna come home with me?




I love the look on his face. It's like "Hey, what the hell are you looking at? Never saw someone clean themselves before?!"

Here's a video of Mr. Licky claiming his seat from a curious but ugly kitten:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3eOEhKT2L0s

Again with the look. Like he's king of the castle.

Speaking of which, this beauty looked like a white lion. Look at those blue eyes.

Time Flies

I can't believe that 10 weeks have already gone by. Today was the last day of my PMP training. Seems like just yesterday that I signed up for the course and now it's already finished. 42 hours worth of information all crammed into my head.

My certification exam is just over a week from now. It's been ages since my last exam and my brain is so not used to that kind of stimuli. I've been testing myself daily, but the actual exam is 4 hours long. I think the longest exam I ever sat was 3 hours, way back in college.

Of course, this is probably just the first of many exams that I'll be taking to better my resume...