Another tumultuous year has zipped by and before I knew it Mazeta was asking me to accompany the E & O Nightingales for the annual Christmas Tree lighting ceremony on December 1. Of course there were a few changes—we have a new boss, signor Marco Battistotti (who gave a rousing welcoming speech), we had the Chief Minister of Penang pay a surprise visit and he also gave a brief speech. The Nightingales had different personnel from last year, and the guests adjourned to the new Sarkies in the new Victory Annex after the choir thingy was over. I would like to thank Mrs. Fong for kindly loaning me a Yamaha PSR-E423 keyboard, because I can guarantee you one thing never changes as far as this event is concerned—the cacophony produced by the guests reaches stratospheric levels. It’s all in good fun and this event does herald the beginning of the festive season for the hotel. I lugged along my Canon 550D and Speedlite 580EX II to take some pictures. The first picture above is of the glorious Christmas tree on the morning of December 1. I shot this using bounce flash from the 580EX II and again words fail me—I love my 580EX II.
(Below) Here I am, posing with my Yamaha. I’m a wee bit underexposed because Eugene (the photographer) doesn’t know how to use AE-Lock on my Canon. He’s a Lumix guy, duh!
(Photos below) As usual I snuck into the Bombay Shop before the choir sang and took some pictures of the beautiful items on sale. Setting the 580EX II to bounce flash gives all these pictures a soft, natural look.
(Above) This year’s choir was splendid—they belted their hearts out and had a good time. A guy with an EOS 60D was present so I asked him to take some pictures of us. Fill-in flash saves the day, otherwise our faces would be in shadow.
(Below) Another picture of some choir members and myself. We were in a more relaxed mood now that the ceremony was over, ha ha.
(Photos below) No lack of beautiful women either, heh heh. The shot immediately below was taken with the ever-beautiful Beatrice (aka Mrs. Saxon. Mike, don’t come after me) and the following shot was taken with the lovely Marilyn and Mazeta.
After the event was over the choir members and myself adjourned to a restaurant for some dinner. It was fun and here’s looking forward to the next December 1!
