Life goes on....

I started my calling as a seminary teacher on 7th July 2009. I thought waking up at 4.15am every weekday is a tough deal for me, but surprisingly, it was not so bad after all....It was terrible in the beginning, i tried to get my body to get used to wake up early by doing so a week earlier before my calling start...and i was glad that I did that. For the first two days, i could only wake up the mind, but my body didnt want to get out of bed at all....now, it is okay...i could even wake up early in weekends!

something that i have never been able to achieve in my annual resolution for years "go to bed early and wake up early" using my own strength & resolution - but with the calling and the blessing, i finally able to tick off as "yes, i am doing it now.."

Another of my resolution is to do regular exercise. Well, hopefully, after I leave my company, I will have more time to do birding, and that would be considered "exercise". That would be a fun exercise! ha ha...

A shot of a sunbird in Singapore Botanical Garden with a group of photography students. I was invited to attend along although I have not signed up for the class. I was grateful for the opportunity. I was also very excited because the teacher gave me a grade of "A" for this shot (on the condition that I did some more post-processing) but nevertheless, i was excited. This was shot with D300 camera with a 300mmf4 lens.

Yesterday, I went for my morning photography walk again in Chinese Garden. I met a colleague there which I have never chat with in the office, but yesterday, we had a nice chit chat on camera equipment. Later, I saw another man with long lens, and I greeted him to ask him how his day was. This was followed by another interesting chat on bird photography - but most interesting was, because I chatted him up, he was able to tell me of places where he has seen birds in the Garden. He told me of a resident stork-billed kingfisher nearby. He told me of some less friendly photographers there too. With this additional information, I make my way to the place where the stork-billed KF was sighted. And truly, it was there. I take a few shots of the bird, and saw that a group of photographers have also gathered opposite the small brook and waiting to shoot the bird. I inched closer to the bird and it flew off to another perch. I wanted to inch closer again, but the photographers gave me warning not to get close. Later the bird flew again to a further away from their side of perch, over to my side...And again, I wanted to go closer to the bird (you cant shoot if the bird is too far away!), and i could hear shouts from the other photographers saying "tell her dont go near to the bird". So I stopped in my tracks and just relax...No point shooting from so far away anyway. One guy crossed the brook and came over to me and I greeted him and we chit chat....He apologised for the behavior of the person who shouted at me....what surprised me that as I am being friendly and chit chat with him (these are a group of elderly senior man who were now interested in bird photography), he too started sharing with me things he knew about this bird...its behavior and the time that it would showed up. Another guy came over, and the first guy asked this guy to show his pictures. He took out a clear folder and there were plenty of bird pictures there. Many pictures were birds with fish in their beak. That was what these guys were going after. I complimented the pictures, telling him how good it was...(some were really good)...and soon, he was telling me where I could find these birds - some were eagles even.... Wow...these tips are valuable! ha ha.

They were interested at my camera setup (probably curiosity is what started them to approach me anyway as I was carrying my full 500mm setup, whilst they were handholding 300mm and 400mm...). Soon the place we were standing was rather hot as the sun was right over our heads, and the men tell me to go over to their little island across the brook where it was shady (and where the bird appeared more often). Inside me, I was amazed - by just being friendly and not offended by their initial objection to my presence, I am now even invited to their circle and again they told me of the things that they have observed and shot.....It is just amazing to me. I couldnt find out all these things by myself. I was glad that I spoke to all the three group of people that I met yesterday - speaking to people is new & uncomfortable to me, i dont like to speak much or draw attention..........but i am finding it is quite fun too to speak with people of same interest & I could learn lots! I will try to greet people more often, rather than shying away.

I didnt get a good shot of the stork-billed Kingfisher, but I have had a great day and experience learnt. So, overall, it was a great day for me.

Stork-billed King fisher (above) & Yellow-vented bulbul (below)

Catch up time....

Lallang grass at the fringe of paddy field...shot while waiting for birds to appear...

Oh dear...time moves so fast......What have i been busy about lately? Plenty!! Let me start from the earliest that I could recall.....

End of May - My employer issued me the letter of retrenchment, making it official. My last day with BP is 31 August 2009. Though I have known this fact for quite many months, I still felt "sad" & "down" on the day that I had to sign the letter.... Anyway, sister Brown said it is normal to feel that way after being with BP for 9 years...so I am fine again. Now, I am looking forward to my retirement...ha ha. I signed up for a job placement program (paid by BP) and I was shocked at how some are being retrenched - he worked for a bank - he was called into a meeting room one day, he was handed a letter and was asked to pack immediately and leave the office premise! my gosh...how prepared one could be in this situation??? I am counting my blessings....

In that sense, I am grateful that I can go to the Manila temple on 26 May 2009 for some quiet time, and also to take some photos....A new publisher has approached me for some temple photos for their new temple book - hopefully, one or two will be chosen again....

I have kept myself more than 100% busy on my bird photography - to the extent I think I am now addicted to the bird npss forum...oh dear!! I had spent much time on computer, either to learn of a photo processing software, or learn new photography techniques etc....there are just too many things to learn and I want to learn them all at once...instead of the wiser counsel of line by line..... I hope to start a business in bird photography tours...I dont know how I can do it, but that is my dream........

Two pictures of birds to share - white throated kingfisher from spore botanical garden, and a Scaly-breasted Munia shot outside my home in Malaysia.

So, what do you think Heavenly Father's answer to my addiction? He gave me a new calling, sent through his servants. I have this impression that I should let my stake presidency know that I am leaving Singapore soon, so that they have the time to consider new people to replace my calling with the singles. I somehow added my bishop in the email. To cut story short, my bishop believed the email is his answer to his prayer for a name to a calling....I was called to the stake presidency office...i am waiting to hear the word "you are now released......." instead, i heard the word "we would like to extend a call to you....." That woke me up! ha ha...

Who wants to take a guess what my additional calling is? It is very very engaging that now my time is more balanced btw church and bird photography.....hee hee...