Dinner with the UNGA Family

Mr E was in town (after taking a break from his job in New Delhi) and it was a good opportunity for the 60th UNGA gang to get together... complete with their families :). Dinner was good. Seafood at Jumbo Restaurant in Riverwalk Galleria. Loved the chilli crab.

Things have certainly moved on since we parted ways in Dec 2005. Since then, I got married and a daughter is on her way. KY is expecting his second child. By Dec 2006, we would have six kids in our number. I think we deserve a big pat on the back for not only serving our country on an 8:30am-to-6pm basis (plus many more hours of OT!) but also doing our part in alleviating the nation's population problem. (Caption: Not only are our nation's leaders perplexed, the kids don't know what to do as well :) ).

Time certainly does fly... and in barely three months, the next batch will leave for New York for the 61st UNGA. I wish them all the best and hope that they can leave with not just the experience of a lifetime working with the very best in the UN, but also with the kinship that I enjoyed. Good luck!



(PS: The shot above wasn't taken by me for obvious reasons :). Those of you at the dinner can download the pics from by photo albums. Pls click on the link on the right side of this blog.)

Troven goes to Ikea

It was the start of Ikea's annual sale today so we brought mom and Troven to Ikea. Didn't really buy anything but it was a good chance to look at some design ideas for the new home that's coming up.

Anyway, we left Troven at the kids play area while we went around. It looks like he had lots of fun while we where gone. :)
(Troven's mummy can view the pics from the outing at Picasa Albums from the link on the right)

Lunch with Megan

This week's theme is definitely "Kids". With two more months before Steph gives birth, its time for us new parents to get as much information from all those who have "been there", "done that" or "are still doing it". :)

Its been a while since I've seen Megan so when we learnt that Megan was going to the libary (clever gal!), we tagged along. Met up in the children's section (where else?!) and saw her happily running around among the books. Megan's a smart kid. Speaks excellent english (for a one-plus year old) although she speaks only in the royal third person... and always in affirmative, commanding sentences like "Megan sit", "Megan go there" or "Megan hungry, go eat". Such is life. We work for bosses who kick us around in order to raise kids who boss us about. Oh well... its sure worth it when one's boss has a smile like this one. :)

See you around Megan! You'll have a new playmate in a couple of months... lets hope the two princessess can get along!

(PS Megan's mommy can get all the pics for that afternoon from Picasa Albums from the link on the right)

Photosharing

I've been receiving emails asking when the shots from my first ever photoshoot were ready. My apologies Helios! I'm a real newbie when it comes to photography... I'm really just feeling my way around... and post-processing the shots were such a pain. Anyway, I decided to go for DxO for the basic image correction work and Picasa for the croping, resizing and posting aspect. I recommend both for ease of use and speed (esp if you have dual core PC!). However, I feel that the real pros will still prefer Photoshop. I can see why.

Picasa invited me a few weeks back to try out its new photo sharing service - Picasa Web. So why not? My first impressions - Its much faster than the others I've tried... including Flicker and Multiply (which I think is horribly clumsy for photo sharing). I also love the way it integrates into Picasa. Makes life so much easier for me. In short, I LIKE IT! I'll still post "event" photos to this blog site... but the art shots will go to Picasa Web.

I've uploaded two albums to the site, one of stray cats around my block (see earlier blog entry) and another on the Helios shoot on 1 Jul. Once again, my thanks to Lydia for helping put the shoot together and making space for a newbie like me and to all the models who bore with me while I learnt the basics. Thanks esp to Amber and Valerie who at some points, were even teaching me what to shoot! :p Special thanks to "old bird" John (pictured), who helped guide me with the basics.

http://picasaweb.google.com/Walter.Chia

Would love to work with Helios again... but I don't think my wife will be too happy about more bikini shoots! :p

(From left to right: Mel, Lydia, Asleigh, Lydia, Christina, Amber, Val and Valerie)

Enjoy the pics!

(PS. While I have full rights to the images, please respect Helios and the models themselves by not passing the shots around. Thanks!)