There's this thing being passed around on Facebook where everyone's starting to share 25 little tidbits about themselves and getting to know each other better.

I won't tag anyone here since I'd already done it over at my Facebook notes, but do feel free to write 25 random stuff about yourself in your own blog too!

I didn't expect to get so longwinded in my entry, but it ended up looking like a summary of my life story... oh well! LOL

So anyway, for anyone who's interested in such things, here's...


01] Some people still call me "Eddie", or "Ed" for short, and it's the name my Mum gave me when I was born.

02] I became "Edric" after secondary school, as I didn't like my old timid self before that, and I wanted to have a "different" future. ("Edric" apparently means "a rich king" in Olde English).

03] I was a talkative baby, so to shut me up during mealtimes, my late Granny would feed me little spoonfuls of her brandy.

04] I've always been fair, but as a kid, I also had brown eyes, fine brown hair and lots of freckles, and my neighbours would call me the "Angmoh Kia" ("Caucasian kid").

05] I had my first kiss and puppy love in primary school, with a pretty talented girl from my class. We were too shy to do anything. Zzz...

06] I almost died in a high fever when I was about four, after being bitten by a huge red ant while taking photos at the Haw Par Villa (I was posing on top of a statue of a giant red ant, go figure). After that I started "seeing things"...

07] People thought I used to behave weirdly and talk to myself a lot as a kid, but I was actually having conversations with "spirits". I didn't even know they were "spirits" until later.

08] So yeah, I "could see dead people". Thankfully, not anymore. But I could still feel their presence sometimes.

09] It might also have something to do with my eyes, for after the fever incident, I started to develop these weird divergent eyes (also called the "lazy eye syndrome"), and had to undergo three separate surgeries to correct this. If not I would eventually go blind.

10] But because of my divergent eyes, I could see a wider peripheral vision than normal kids, giving me a huge advantage when playing hide-and-seek, or other such events. That's how I could see the weird spirit stuff that goes on from the corner of my eyes.

11] During one of my eye surgeries (I think I was in Sec 1), I actually slipped at the hospital's shower and hit my nose on the tap. As a result, I had a deviated nasal septum and a higher nose bridge!

12] I chose to "celebrate" my 21st birthday in hospital to correct the above-mentioned deviated nasal septum, so that I could breathe easier, and also to take a break from my army training.

13] All through my teenage years, I harboured thoughts of killing myself in different ways, but I'm still alive because I just couldn't decide on the best method. I think it's something to do with my being a Scorpio.

14] I was a terribly shy kid, but the only time I wasn't shy, was when I sing. So I joined school choirs, competed in and won various singing competitions as a way to get rid of my stage fright.

15] I also started working part-time, not only to earn extra cash for my studies, but to boost my own self confidence and courage. My first job was at Burger King, and I helped set up the outlet at the then new OUB Centre in 1986. I remember memorizing my schoolwork while packing burgers. My counter sales was excellent; my school results not so much...

16] I had a very wide vocal range during my school days, and I could sing all the parts from bass to second soprano.

17] But after all that shouting of commands during my Basic Military Training (BMT), I became a baritone-tenor. I could still do a mean falsetto though.

18] During BMT, I also encountered another horrific incident with the supernatural world, and it gave me my second high fever and I had to be sent to the hospital via the army medical centre's mini-bus.

19] On the way to the hospital, the above mini-bus broke down while collecting blood samples at the Central Manpower Base (CMPB), and I was asked to wait an hour while the driver repaired the punctured tyre. During that hour, I bumped into Babes Conde, who's the musical director of the SAF Music & Drama Company (MDC), and she asked me to audition for her there and then.

20] Despite my high fever, I passed the audition by singing "Memory" from "Cats", although I was actually singing the Chyi Yu version. LOL

21] I only got posted into the MDC as a full time artiste a year later, after learning how to drive a three-tonner truck at the transport camp, and spending half a year as a service medic.

22] At the transport camp and medical centre, and even in MDC, I was asked to help design posters and create comic strips and illustrations for them. Those were generally well received, and it became my other passion. It's funny how Fate works, but that's how I "trained" to be doing what I'm doing right now.

23] After the army, I worked a couple of years at the Housing Development Board of Singapore as a draftsman, and singing at gigs on the side, and eventually saved up enough to get myself into Queensland University of Technology, in Brisbane, Australia. It was the best time of my life, and definitely a life-changing experience, and that's also when I got bitten by the travel bug.

24] For a decade, I'd paid my dues working day jobs in Architecture, and later on, an IT firm, all the while acting, singing and dancing in the nights and during weekends.

25] I wish to retire early, either in Australia, or in one of the lovely islands of Greece, such as Corfu.

:-)

梦

我爱做梦

在我的梦境里
我也许是老鹰
无忧无虑，飞扬在天边云间
我也许是骏马
无拘无束，奔驰在辽阔原野
我也许是海豚
自由自在，游乐于浩瀚海底

我爱幻想

在我的想像中
我可以当歌手
弹着吉它，以歌声扣人心弦
我可以当画家
天马行空，绘画出心中所愿
或是旅游作家
相机与笔，陪伴到海角天涯

在我所有的梦境里
我都是一个独行侠
从来不曾有人相伴

可是我从不觉孤单
也不怕独自游走
只求有朝一日
能脱离尘土
找到自己
梦中的
天堂

26th January 2009 was a special day indeed, not just because it was the first day of the Chinese New Year, but also my sister Alain's birthday...

On top of that, we witnessed the partial solar eclipse that occured during the late afternoon!

Although this certainly wasn't the first solar eclipse in our lifetime, it was the first time we were able to see something...

I wasn't able to capture any photos of the actual eclipsed sun directly with just my usual camera equipment, but I had learned that by using the "Pinhole" projection method - using a piece of paper with a hole in it to "project" the image of the eclipse onto another piece of paper, we could view the eclipse safely without injuring our eyes in the process...

And here are the photos I took of my nieces, Sheryl and Shermaine, trying out this method, while my brother Eric held the "Pinholes"...

The above photos were taken around 4.45pm to 4.50pm (Singapore time), which was a whole hour before the supposed full effect of the eclipse, by which time the sun was not only 72% covered by the moon, the whole thing was obscured by thick clouds...

Still, it was a lot of fun!

Will post more about the food we ate for the Chinese New Year in the upcoming posts, so do stay tuned... :-)

Finally, the Happy Ox has arrived!!!





I wish everyone reading this will enjoy...


The above image was created for Bryan's Omhealth blog: http://bryanomhealth.blogspot.com/
Click on the pics to access the bigger versions through my Flickr pages!

After having fun taking photos with the two Jelly Lenses I bought off the web, and having known that Action City is selling it too (cheaper!), I decided to add a couple more Jelly Lenses to my collection...

So when squido was out shopping for these cool little gadgets the other day, I asked him to help me buy too...

Here's what I got...

Above are shots taken with the 3 Image Mirage and Starburst Jelly Lenses, at the Church of Sacred Heart...

My verdict:

These ones bought from Action City seemed to be less "sticky" than the ones I got from grannysnaps. But still great for providing more fun options in photo-taking. Pretty cool effects despite the strong tunnel-like vignetting caused by the lenses' translucent plastic bodies... which could be cropped off or eliminated by zooming...

I like!!!