Dragon Boat Race

It was a lovely Sunday (2-Sept-07) morning and my aunt was suggesting the previous night that we go to the dragon boat race held at Hanningfield Reservoir nearby. It is an event for the 50th anniversary celebration of Essex & Suffolk Water. Before going out, aunt's friend called to ask for extra hand for her team as their drummer was injured and was unable to attend. Aunt suggested me....

I was shocked and surprised that me, a spectator, suddenly turn into a participant!! So we head out. It was amazing seeing so many people at the lakeside waiting for the event to start off. The main control tent of the event

There were actually 16 teams participating but one of them pulled out... or chickened out? So this is aunt's friend, Caroline, who's very friendly. Our team members were all wearing viking horns.

And this is our team... named "Hidden Tiger Crouching Dragon Boat" What do you think about that name? cool? Soon it's our turn... and there we are listening to the briefing and preparing ourselves. That white t-shirt guy with 2 hands stretching is me. I'm standing in front as I'm their drummer.. We compete against the green shirt guys who were beside us.
So we went off... and this is the first round...
Crossing the finishing line, just a close win, with our time nearly at the bottom of the chart. LOL~~
This were other teams competing...
This is the second round for our team and we had a great win over the same team in first round... but sadly our time only improved 0.21 seconds... we had fun though.
Then it's time to have lunch and I had this. Chinese stir fry with sweet & sour chicken, costing £4.50. The other choices are with vegetables or curry. There were other food around as well. After that, it was our final round but sadly we failed badly as we even lose to the previous team which we won twice.
So this is the winning trophy. What do you think? I think they were stunning.
This is the time chart in the end of the qualifying rounds. The fastest 4 teams compete in the final round. Here is the video of the final round.

In the end, the winning team is "Super Heroes"!! How great were their costumes...

This is the announcer's car. He had been in Dragon Boat events for many years, so his car's number... DRA66ON = DRAGON. This registered number must had cost him a bomb.

For more official photos, go to www.dragonboatevents.com and click for Events > September - Oct > Sunday 2nd September - Billericay, Essex - camera icon and look at the photos. You can spot me in 2 of the photos. Sorry that I can't provide the direct link of the photo page as the page is in Flash format.

The Orsett Show

First day of September, that's last Saturday, I went to The Orsett Show with aunt and granny. The Orsett show is a traditional agricultural town show held in Orsett since 1895. The show provides a mix of both town and country attractions to provide a great family day out with plenty for all the family to see and do.
The weather was fine that day, sunny, windy but not freezing. The entrance cost £9 per person but you can stay there for whole day and watch any shows. Too many shows to see though. You can even go out the show ground and come back again whenever you want.
I didn't took many photos of the crowds, more focussed on the events. The first event which caught my attention was the motorcycle show. They really got guts to do that. There are 2 riders taking turns to showoff their skills and in the end, they both 'fly' together...

Sorry about the video, it was not taken properly as I can't see the screen of my camera.

After that, I went around the tents... and I saw this...
Our very own Proton Satria Neo on display... this is the basic 1.3L version, selling at £7995. I wonder how are the sales figures....

Agriculture Tent

It was very interesting seeing that there are competitions going on. Contestants brought their best harvested fruits or vegetables to enter the competition and the judges will judge the best of all.

Potatoes

Cacti

Carrots

Tomatoes

Home-made Wine

Flowers

The Heaviest: pumpkins and marrows

other categories are like cabbage, onions, turnips and etc. That's for the agriculture tent...

Arts & Crafts tent

Basically I didn't took many photos as most of them were arts. This is the baking contest where the concept is basically similar to the one above.

This is the one which impressed me. How are the ships look? Nice? Printed? Postcard? No. They were painted by hands on a piece of stone!! This marine artist really impressed me. He can draw every ship in the world as he has all of the ships' informations.
So much for the art & craft tent... we move on to the outdoors...

Steam engines

So here is the steam engines' show. As you can see, this one below is huge, and it's the biggest in all others.
while this one.... is the smallest... cute eh? even the whistle sounds so cute..
This is 1 of the 2 early steam rollers in the show...
and this... is the oldest engine. And it's my favourite. It looks like a sports car design though.. Long wheel base and low central of gravity.
Coming up next is the classic cars' show. As of space reason, and I know readers are not fan of cars, I just show you this picture. Behind the classic cars are the steam engines earlier on.
That's all the shows that I was able to watch. Some random photos below to share with you all...
This wooden cow here is for you to milk it. Of course, brown fake wooden cow comes with brown fake milk...
This is one of the horse in the stables. There was a horse race later in the afternoon which I was unable to watch due to time limit.
Horse shoe making... which is interesting to see. I think this industry is becoming rarer nowadays.
And this is the photo which I like the most in all the photos which I took that day. I don't really know the reasons though. Just like it.

Anyway, other than the above events, there are still dog shows, donkey rides, amusement park, terrier racing and etc which I was unable to see. Farm rare breeds were available as well. There was also helicopter rides which cost £25 per person for don't know how long is the ride.

That's the Orsett Show.

Sunday gathering

It is a boring Sunday morning that I didn't really enjoyed much. At around 2p.m., the clouds suddenly covered the sky and made me sleepy suddenly...

But then, there was a gathering of my uncle and aunt's friends in late afternoon. I hid in the room until uncle and aunt came back from the 4 year old girl's birthday party. When I went out... Holy crap!!! Why all the upmarket cars!!!!!
As you can see, this is an Audi A4 Convertible which is cool enough for me to have one. That 'botak' man, Daze, owns it and as I asked him, he said that he would change his car to new Audi A5 coupe when he gets back from holiday next week. It's only a 3 years old car!!!
These are some of the food on the table. We got burgers, drumsticks which is extremely tender and just nice, with juice pouring out from the meat when bitten, lamb, steak, pasta which I don't really fancy, boiled new potatoes, fried rice which I didn't taste and sausages. Sorry that I didn't took photo of all those yummy food as I was really enjoying the food that I forgotten to take photo. Usual me though.

As you can see from the background above, the kids are all playing golf... all under age of 12 and were all playing golf!!! What a life they have...

So what do they drive? Apart from the Audi A4....
Chris drives the Mercedes CLK230 sports convertible while another lady whom I forgot the name drives a Bimmer (BMW), that's the silver one at the back. The front firey red one is my uncle's TT.
BMW 530!!!! model code:E39!!! My favourite BMW 5 series!!!

A gathering turning out to be a gathering of fine upmarket German cars: Audi, BMW, Mercedes.

My goodness....

Day-out to Basildon

Last Saturday I went to Basildon, the heart of Essex. The weather is extra fine that I felt like eaten by the sun.
This is the Westgate Shopping Park that my aunt and I went. It's quite a huge place that it has an Eastgate Shopping Park that connected to it, but we didn't go due to lack of time.
This tower here, I don't know what it is. It just have huge bells at the top of the transparent building and you can see it functioning. I was lucky enough to hear those huge bells ding-donging. Surprised that it doesn't sound nice at all.. no melody at all and it's just disturbing and noisy. Damn it. Even the bells that the monks hit in the temple sounds better. And how the hell is it for? It's not a clock tower as well!! It's just simply annoying. I'll go nuts if I live nearby.
Anyway, we're back to the complex and the bells still ding-donging... That Toni & Guy building is an individual building which I found quite special. Behind it is Costa Coffee, also an individual building. As we can see from the blue banners, there is a motorshow happening this coming weekend. Not sure will I be able to get there or not as I depend on other people's transport.. Hope I can get there to have a walk this coming weekend.

Well, we walk straight to Primark, choose and there I go... a set of suit. Sorry about the picture though. Of all the photos I took in the changing room, this one is the best one to show even though it's still lousy. I look totally like a jerk in other pictures. £25 for the suit and £10 for the pants. I grab myself a bargain!!
We went to Woolsworth to get some birthday presents for a 4 year old kid after that. I get myself a bar of Guylian Chocolate!!!! Costing only around more than £1 but less than £1.50.
I just tried it yesterday. It tasted marvelous. Melted in mouth but not sticking on teeth, leaving the fragrant and taste of cocoa in mouth... MmmMmMmmMm.....

That's my day-out last Saturday.

My House

Ever thought of how the house I live now looks like?

Well, not very big, not small for a bachelor, studio type, super huge front door, tiny windows.

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This is my house, single storey with an attic, drive in studio type, everything under one roof. Cool during summer, cold during winter. The plants beside the main door provide fresh air to me when I walk out the door.

Let me introduce the interior. I beg your pardon for the messiness in the house as I just finished a project yesterday.
This is my working desk. I got everything I needed on the desk, under the desk and beside the desk.
These are my refrigerators. I got food and drinks stored inside. I got some wine on top there to serve my customers and friends when visiting.
So here are my other supplies of drinks, I got milk, still water, and some lemonade. Some fruits back there as well. The black thing down right is the wine freezer. Got some wine inside though.

So now, let me introduce my transportation, i got a car and a bike. cool eh?
It's a roadster, model: lawnmower. Single seater with big wide rear wheels, sporty. Easy to drive, easy to park, easy to maintain. It has a function of cutting grass in big lawns fast.
This is my bike. Sporty yellow, 65mph top speed, 2-stroke engine, one speed, front & rear disc breaks. Uses only petrol with 2-stroke oil mixture, and engine coolant.

Finally, you people might be wondering where do I sleep. Now I'm gonna introduce my room. My room of course is on the attic.
That's my house. You are welcome to visit at any time when I'm in. Please contact me before coming to visit yea.


*aiya, just my uncle's garage la...*