.: ShaolinTiger - Kung-Fu Geekery :.

So in September the lovely Eiling invited a bunch of us to head to the Fidani Chocolate factory in Shah Alam where they make premium hand made chocolates under the watchful eye of the skillful chocolate master-chef Amer.

So let's see...there was - Kimberlycun, Suanie, FA, Ringo, KY, Rach, HornyBaldyNicholas, Grace, Jen, David, Ziling and Yiling (the last two being Eilings sisters!).

Eiling briefed us on what was going to happen and told us a bit about the company and what they did there, basically they make higher end handmade chocolates under the luxury brand Fidani.

You can get these chocolates in the duty free chocolates shops at KLIA and various other locations.

Then we were introduced to Chef Amer, a highly trained confectionary chef who masterminds the recipes and construction of the chocolates for Fidani using only the highest quality ingredients from around the world.

Before he really got started though we were already demolishing this HUGE box of chocolates, chocolate for breakfast - yum!

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So after the lovely carvery lunch we headed off to the quaint village of Broadway for a wonder round - one of the favourite stops for coach tours and you can always see hoards of yanks and europeans wondering up and down the main street (depending on the season). It's one of the more famous villages in the Cotswolds (which is an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty).

When we arrived the weather was pretty nice, blue skies and fluffy white clouds lining the famous wide main street.

The place was fairly busy, mostly with Europeans at that time of year and I guess a few septic tanks thrown in for good measure

Broadway has many tiny boutique hotels like this - Broadway Hotel.

There are also many old fashioned Thatched cottages.

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So it may sound weird to some people, but it's common in UK for people to hang out at the garden center - especially on Sunday afternoons.

The one we went to was called Evesham Country Park which contained Evesham Garden Center and the delicious AppleBarn Restaurant.

In basic terms a Garden Center is a place that sells plants and things to go in your garden like statues, pagodas and so on. Generally however they also contain decent restaurants, usually some kind of factory outlet and a few other shops.

And of course because it's Sunday we had to have the traditional Sunday Roast Dinner! In this case and in most pubs on a Sunday something called 'Carvery' is served. Basically there are fresh joints of roast meet (usually pork, lamb and beef) and a mixture of vegetables and side dishes (stuffing, carrots, peas, sprouts, cabbage, cauliflower cheese and so on). And you choose which meat and veg you want, add some gravy and sauce (apple sauce for pork, horseradish sauce for beef and so on) and off you go!

The delicious roast beef with yorkshire pudding, cauliflower cheese and the full works.

And even better, roast pork! Salty and delicious with a big dollop of apple sauce and a lump of crackling.

It was absolutely fantastic! Carvery is not cheap though, but not too expensive either at about £9-11 per plate depending which meat you choose, yes that is RM60-70 but in economic terms it's about RM30 if you are earning in pounds so it's not too bad.

It was actually a pretty nice day so we had a walk around the garden center, this is basically what it looks like. It's a very relaxing place just to hang out and mooch around checking out the flowers.

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After a good long sleep and getting adjusted back to UK time it was off down to Worcester Cathedral for a walk around. We happened to be in town during the Three Choirs Festival, so there were lots of events going on.

This part of the Cathedral (the altar) always strikes me as odd, with the very classical architecture and the garish 'modern' stitchery below.

The ceiling is simply spectacular.

There is even a little cart you can push around with an angled mirror on it so you can view the ceiling without craning your neck.

The glorious East Window.

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So a while back I got an awesome phone call saying that I'd be shooting the Red Bull Rookies for FHM Malaysia!

Red Bull is very active in community events and various activities and the next female driver search is on, so do check them out at http://www.redbull.com.my/.

As you've seen in my previous post - the pics were featured in a 3 page spread in the August edition of FHM.

So say hello to the lovely Red Bull Rookies.

From left to right Leona Chin, Puteri Ayu Jasmin, Norlina Johor & Baizura Ruslan.

It was a fun shoot, all done on location in Sunway, some in a car tuning shop and some at a grimy old workshop. All strobist style with portable speedlights and some gels thrown in for good measure. These were shot out the back of the workshop as the sun was going down.

Norlina Johor

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Finally my first proper magazine spread, I was so excited to get the mag from the shop - it's a good issue too with the 100 most wanted women.

FHM Malaysia may not be as racy as some of the other publications in Thailand, Singapore and Indonesia but they are doing what they can and the new editor Joe Balan is trying to push the boundaries and be a bit more creative with the content.

I did a photoshoot recently for the Red Bull Rookies for publication in FHM and it came out with 3 whole pages!

With proper photo accreditation - woo!

The following 2 pages are like this..

It was all shot strobist style on location, it was a challenging and fun shoot. I hope to get the chance to do more stuff like that in the future.

I suggest you grab the mag and check it out now - support FHM Malaysia!

Sorry, more of the same facial expressions - but I gotta finish up after Part 1!

I tried for a little bit of variety with the last 3 sets, the first one continues after the last picture, when I've added some colour to the situation. These are more beauty/mag/FHM kinda shots that I was going for.

Trying to get a bit of a sexy look going on, seen as people seem to fixate on the names I give pictures (when the names don't mean anything...) I'm going to stick to numbers.

#1

#2

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Here is the first proper set of the Urban Decay shoot, these are the first 3.5 sets, another 3.5 to come after this. As you know what I did this weekend....here are the rest!

The first set was out front with all the broken glass, I went for an xpro oldskool kind of look, I thought the green tint fits well with the environment and the decay.

Twisted

Dreams

Smashed

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I shot Val, it was good!

Look out for more soon

After Pop Shuvit & Machi had played, it was time for Flo Rida. You could see the crowd were eager with anticipation of the big act of the night coming out.

DJ Latin Prince hit the decks for a while before the main act came on stage and warmed the crowd up a little.

Flo Rida (Famous for Low) himself rocked onto the stage shortly before midnight with a huge reaction from the crowd, you can see people were truly excited to see him up there. Girls especially were going WILD!

The crowd was pumped up!

This was his partner in crime on the stage working the party people.

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