Sunday, November 23, 2008

the big move

well im busy moving house now. the old house which i am currently in, is in a huge mess. everything is everywhere!!

whats worst is that there is only another 7 days more before we have to hand over this house to the land owner.

that means we have about 5 days to move!!! GAHH!! good thing im moving about 50 meters away :D

Sunday, November 9, 2008

it just struck me.

christmas is just around the corner!

the day that i look forward to every year. not only because its my birthday, but because its just christmas. so hang on thight, christmas carrols and christmas trees will be heard and seen soon :D

Thursday, November 6, 2008

An Article

no idea if i have posted it before, but this is an article which was writen quite a while ago in the star newspaper. me and boss jeremy took some of the camp5 memebrs for climbing, i took some photos and they were used in the article. quite crappy photos if you ask me. anyway here goes.

Saturday July 12, 2008
Climbing at Batu Caves
By LEONG SIOK HUI


Bored of the climbing gym? Go for nature’s own at Batu Caves.

Clammy, my hand thrashes desperately about to find a hold. The other one is jammed into a crack and clinging on for dear life, and my legs are beginning to wobble like jelly on the tiny ledge.

Suddenly, I lose my balance and — whoa!— I’m airborne and falling.

Luckily, I am tethered. Sitting on my harness and swinging like a pendulum, I take in the hills yonder which are like dots on the horizon. Yeah, it’s great to be outdoors again.

My friends and I are at the Nyamuk climbing site near Batu Caves, Selangor. Camp5, the largest climbing gym in Asia, runs an outdoor climb every third Sunday of the month for members.


Regular Camp5 climbers at Nyamuk climbing site.

A mere 15 minutes’ drive from the city centre will take you to these craggy limestone hills in Kg Melayu Wira Damai, Gombak. On weekends, you’ll see human spiders clinging onto the rock faces 30m high. The cliffs are popular with local and Singaporean climbers.

Camp5 director Jeremy Peet and staff Noel Yung set up the routes for us on the day of our climb. Today, there are 11 climbers, most of whom are familiar faces from the gym. It is like a picnic outing with time enough for socialising and lunch breaks in between climbing.

There are more than 60 climbing routes in Nyamuk, ranging from beginner-friendly 5B to expert-level 8A — the hardest route found in West Malaysia. This is based on the French grading system, which starts at 4 (beginner’s level) to 9B+, currently the world’s most difficult routes, located in Spain and Mexico.

The Camp5 pioneers make it a point to preserve the rocks and natural environment as well as respect the rocks’ natural lines. That was why we had to scramble over rocks and lush vegetation just to get to the climbing site.

Nyamuk’s long, steep routes vary between 12m and 33m. You get a good blend of jagged edges, cracks, overhangs and big rock slabs.

“The outdoor climb is an extension of Camp5 and gives our members an opportunity to enjoy the natural climbing sites in KL,” says Peet, 35, a climbing instructor and outdoor guide from New Zealand.

The climb here is free for term members while “casual” members pay RM24 a day (general entrance rate at Camp5).

“It’s more like a social club’s atmosphere as opposed to an instructional course or guided climb. We expect the climbers to have the prerequisite skills to look after themselves,” says Peet.

Since Camp5 opened about three years ago, the gym has trained thousands of beginner climbers.

Jeremy Peet, operations director of Camp5.


“You get a more well-rounded climbing ability by combining indoor and outdoor climbing,” explains Peet, who has more than a decade of mountaineering experience behind him.

“The techniques differ. For indoor walls, the holds stick out from the wall. On an outdoor rock face, it’s the opposite — the crack or ledge goes into the wall. You can easily tell if a person is an indoor or outdoor climber from his climbing style.’’

If the popularity of the outdoor climb increases, Peet says, Camp5 will consider doing it a couple of times a month.

A family affair

On our climb, we meet a family of Dutch expatriates, the Latours. Though the family are regulars at Camp5, this is the first outdoor climb for Marc, 13, his sister, Sophie, 11 and their mom, Ineke. Father, Henk, is an experienced climber who has scaled Mont Blanc in France.

“It’s a pity there weren’t many children climbing, it would have been more encouraging for our kids,” says Ineke, 48.

“Yeah, it’s boring because I had no one to talk to,” Marc agrees. Despite his first time on a rock wall, Marc found it “pretty easy.”

“You don’t always have to find the same colour footholds (like in a climbing wall); you can choose from hundreds of possibilities,” says Marc who also surfs, scuba-dives, plays golf, baseball, soccer and softball.

“It challenges you to do more with your strength and tactics. I have to find the easiest ways to get to the top without tiring myself out. I guess you have to have the right people in the group to make it fun, but overall I like it because I get to be very strong,” he adds.

“It was tricky finding the holds and scary to climb a real rock,” his mother chips in. “But I felt safe because the route was set up by Camp5 staff, and my husband was belaying me.”

Yup, for those of us who have yet to learn lead climbing and how to set up our own routes, Camp5’s outdoor jaunt is the next best thing for now.

o Camp5’s next outdoor climb is on July 20. Early reservation is advised as space is limited to 20 people.

-End-

kinda sucky that they didnt credit me. damn...

just some pictures

well since ive got no idea what to blog about and actually feel quite lazy but bored, im going to entertain you guys with some pictures...

with comments of course. :D

so some of the photos i might have uploaded it before, or maybe its new on the blog, i dont know. this computer doesnt have the software to properly edit new photos and im actually feeling quite lazy to do so right now. but anyway i just picked them out from an already edited library of photos, or photos which are unedited and look good as it is.

ok la, actually its not that they have to be edited, its just that they are in the wrong format, and i cant convert them on this computer. so anyway back to the pictures.

gahhh!! ok so those that i tried to upload didnt managed to get uploaded onto flickr. oh well.

P8104501

so this one was taken during the summit climbing gyms last competition titled "the last summit" it was also the last day that they would be open. quite a sad thing to happen for the first climbing gym to ever open in malaysia.

P8104510

this one is of the well missed mr thomas deiny. the crazy french dude that proved to us that french people in general are pretty crazy people. this photo was taken of him in the summit competition.

PA221253

this one was taken quite a while ago from the huge glass enclosure of camp5. this was probably taken during my first few months with my new olympus E 510 DSLR camera. i quite like this shot. click on the photo if you want to view a bigger picture, same goes for the other photos too.

Street shoot KL

i have a feeling that i've posted this before, but oh well. this picture was taken during a walkabout around petaling street. happened to pass by this dude with the crutches, so i just snapped a picture. i feel that this picture would look better if it was converted to B&W to reduce the distractions and also maybe add some vignetting. will experiment with that some time.

oh i think thats it. enjoy

Monday, November 3, 2008

hmm...

its been a while hasn't it?




well let me try to sum up everything that has been happening lately.




so just last night i had an all-nighter with a take home test. gahhh!! only got like 3 hours sleep and i cant believe that im still awake 12 hours later. anyway, semmester is ending :D only have 3 more papers to sit for before im free till february.




hmm lets see, what else... ohh!! ohh!!! i've suddenly got into the crazy of wanting a LOMO camera! all thanks to sister christobel which got me to do some reasearch on them.




so lets see, the camera which i want is the LOMO LC-A+






looks like a crap camera doesn't it? but its just so freaking cool!! dont know if i can afford one of these. searched online and the price for one is about 900 ringgit. crap... gonna go to wondermilk some time soon to check out the price for this camera and other LOMO cameras that they have.


so if you guys are thinking of what kinda present to get me for my birthday, a LOMO LC-A+ would be great. my birthday is on christmas btw, loads of time to save up cash :D



hmmm... lets see... oh yeah, my new abode is almost ready. will be moving in at the end of nov. shitty thing is that we have to move out of the current house by the 30th of nov. thats cause the new tenants are moving in on the 1st. well thats not that shitty part yet. shitty thing is that the house isnt even ready yet. and by the looks of it it will only be ready around the 20th or later of november. so that leaves us with very little time to move out.



so if anyone wants some free junk which my house seems to have plenty of, you can come help me with the move. there is sure to be something interesting for you to take home as my home is filled with things in the store room.



ok i think im bored now. bye!