Heh, half a year has gone by. It’s June already.

Was just reading back to a year ago, and I do distinctly remember pulling my hair out trying to get a job. It’s one of those moments in life that make you feel really insecure about yourself.

This post is supposed to include stuff that would have fitted a separate post yesterday, but I was busy reading stuff and KO’ed before I had time to write it. Yesterday was ‘Bak Zhang Day’, or rather Duan Wu Jie. It is a day to commemorate a Chinese minister Qu Yuan, would committed suicide by tying himself to a rock and drowning himself in the river (can’t remember why). The local folk were so distressed by his suicide they frantically started a search for his body. In order to prevent the fish from eating his body, they make dumplings and threw them into the river so that the fish would eat that instead of his body. They never found his body but that is how the tradition goes on. Not sure where all the dragonboat races fit into this tradition. Heh.

The above was something I learnt in primary school. These are the little things they teach you, and it was still fun back then, not trying to outdo everyone else with stellar results (more on this at the bottom). Was talking to several people over the last few days about Bak Zhang and my cousin promptly corrected me for my Cantonese pronunciation of the works (typical of me to make words sound funny). The words are actually Hokkien, with Bak meaning meat, and Zhang just being the dumpling itself.

Vyanne made dumplings wrapped in leaves that had glutinous rice, pork, mushrooms, chestnuts and salted eggs. I used to take these things for granted, eating them if they were available. All my friends seem enamoured of the idea of having Bak Zhang (they like to eat it more than value it for its cultural/traditional significance). Heh, Vyanne is fond of traditions and while Bak Zhangs require quite a bit of effort, she managed to pull it off quite spectacularly. The ones she made tasted authentic and really good (I gobbled down 3 for dinner).

I was never one for traditions, as I only remember my family doing these things when I was still in preschool. I can distinctly remember people making them when I was young, with a stand to hold the ingredients and I was watching someone sitting down and just scooping ingredients into folded leaves. Now that I’m no longer at home very much, I’m rather appreciative of the things we do to remind us of where we come from.

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Winter is coming, and I’m a little annoyed that there aren’t too many flowers to test my macro lens on. Annoyingly, everything seems to be half dying or already dead (the plants and leaves). Still find my 105mm a difficult lens to use and you need inanimate objects to get the right composition, exposure. Heh, rather into photography of late, it seems like a whole world out there to be explored. Looking at various lenses, from the Nikon 12-24mm (or the Tokina equivalent) and wondering what shots I could take with such a wide angled lens. Scenery and buildings will definitely fit right into the frame. The Nikon lens would set me back a cool AUD$1350 (locally they cost about $400 more). The Tokina one can be had off eBay at $600, and is almost as good. I can only get the Nikon one in Malaysia at that price, the Tokina one will be off eBay from Hong Kong and while the ratings for the seller are good, I’m a little hesitant importing anything at all from there. So no new lenses for me. Then there are also the ultra zoom lenses. Friend recommended the Sigma 50-500mm lens. Quite a long focal length and definitely good for zoos and birds. Heh, makes me want to go on an African safari and shoot lions or elephants. Then there is also the Tokina 80-400mm which is pretty light and still reasonable at AUD$780 (again off eBay, but from an Australian supplier). Heh, without personal transportation, these lenses will not do much in Melbourne city alone. Save the money and buy a car but go travelling without good lenses or buy lenses that I’ll never really get to use? Again, no lenses for me. Heh, life is really having your pie but not being able to eat it.

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Briefly for this month. World Cup starting at the beginning, one assignment due at the end of it, some hefty work in the middle. Seems pretty planned out I think.