These questions have always been in my mind since the moment I read the book Crazy Rich Asians: Is there a real-life Tyersall Park? Will I ever get to see the long winding secret road to an old mansion hidden within the vicinity of the Singapore Botanic Gardens? Was Kevin Kwan making it all up?

Naturally, I did what every curious millennial would do-- I Googled "where is tyersall park located."



There were search results varying from historic accounts that there was a Tyersall Park and there are actual mansion ruins - to - news bits where Kevin Kwan vaguely said he based it on a real life compound. Result after result, I just ended up getting more confused as they showed different location markers all around the place. And that was it. I've had enough. I had to find it for myself.

I immediately texted my friend Santy, also a fan of the Crazy Rich Asians book series.

"Hey, do you have plans for tomorrow? If none, can we go find Tyersall Park? See you at 2PM?"

I wasn't actually asking. With or without Santy, I was going to go anyway. Thankfully, he said yes because in hindsight, this was not an activity I would have enjoyed doing alone. (It was so hot and humid that day, we were bathing in our own sweat all afternoon! You'd want to have a close friend with you for this so it's less dyahe to other people!)

The gameplan was to show up at the Botanic Gardens MRT station, and follow the map side by side with Google Maps and some personal accounts from Google, and that's it. Pretty sound plan, huh? It became a scavenger hunt, map-reading test, photowalk and fail-blogger-poses-pero-mukha-namang-candid-shots-so-pagbigyan-na shoot, all rolled into one.














As much as I want to write here how surreal the experience was when we found it, no, we didn't find it!

SO WE DIDN'T FIND TYERSALL PARK, WHAT NOW?

I was initially not planning on bringing my Spotmatic during this trip but now I'm VERY glad I came back to the flat at the last minute, as soon as I realized inside the elevator that it would be a mistake not to take it with me.

I'd like to thank my friends Kriz and Matt for reintroducing this medium of photography to me. To say I'm currently in love with film photography is an understatement. I'm seriously gushing over how the shots turned out. They are not brilliant and most likely not the best you will see, but they're mine. And that alone is very special. Haha I am getting too emotional about this!

Click on the photo below to view the full set on Flickr!

Dance Break from Jennever Pelaez on Vimeo.

Cleaned my phone's storage last night to make way for new memories. (pun!)

Thanks to my friends for always visiting, we now have a short compilation of the captured silly dance breaks! (Read: There is more you are not seeing!)

Singapore In Film I. Click the photo to see the set on Flickr.

After many days of "will I finally get to claim the package or will I once again have to wait the next day because I cannot go home early enough before the Post Office closes?", I finally got my scans and some new rolls from Triple D. I chose the to have them delivered at home but maybe I should have just put my office address instead since I'm here more than 12 hours a day anyway.

I have already set aside quite a few fresh rolls for my next solo trip. Hopefully, I can finally do it, but I won't even dare post about it here or in any social media platform again, because this trip has already been rescheduled three times now due to work. Because I keep on choosing money, that's why!* 

In case you're interested to know, I'm using a Pentax Spotmatic with Kodak Max 400 film for the photos in this set. Like what I said here, finding film here in Singapore is relatively easy. This particular film I was using, I bought at the Fairprice in Ang Mo Kio Hub.

Not a lot of good photos yet since my light meter is still not working, at least not until Kriz gets here this weekend for his layover. (I asked him to get me the phased out batteries, the Energizer 387S, from the US! I cannot wait!)

*I was kidding! I actually like my work and the people I work with in this current project. They're the best! More importantly, I don't want to leave the project without seeing to it that I finished what I started. 

AKA THE DEFINING MOMENT YOU DIDN'T GET TO SEE

Sinulog 2016

This year I really wanted to wake up early to take photos of the Grand Parade, unlike last year when all of our days started at 2PM. So even with the injury, I made a very irrational decision to bring a camera on the way to the hospital in case I run into the parade.

Of course, I did! I specifically booked that guesthouse because it was near Gen. Maxilom Avenue. I was clicking away in RAW for an hour and most of the time lined up with the pros covering the event. Because makapal ang mukha!

What can I say? I was injured and I REALLY wanted to get at least one good photo out of this holiday despite everything bad that happened.