Retro night...

Some funny pics to share... :) 2008 seems to be my lucky year and I won something at the lucky draw again! Unfortunately always win things I dun need, this time in form of Phillips mini hi fi set... It looks a bit obiang so though functions are better I'm still content with my own no-frills but chio hi fi set :P

Well, though I'm into geeky specs, no this is not mine :P I really like this pic though cos makes me fit right into the theme... Haha but wear already like even more obvious eyes are super tiny... haha.

Ph and I got bored towards end of dinner and decided to make full use of the roses lying around on our table... But er, the roses a bit oversized lah.

Fly -- my hairband twin for the night! I thought fly was the most retro-ish ERUsian for the night...Whole outfit yellow and white... very matching and retro :)

Er, this is supposed to be bimbo-pose picture... I obviously am not very well-trained for it (I dun mean the other colleague is :P) Hehe and nobody noticed my blue-black! Yay. Well though when browsing through pictures I spotted a somewhat powdery knee, dun think anyone else did nor would :)

Oops I did it again...

The clumsy woman did something stupid just before her D & D again... AARGH. Remb this Jan for HDB D & D I screwed up my nail polish cos the tissue paper got stuck on it?? Yest night, I hit my knee when climbing over low fence to get to Dad's car... and got like a huge blue black on knee. And I'm like going to wear short above-knee dress and bruise would totally show. Great. Dad was already shaking head on car disapprovingly at how careless her daughter could get ( right after I 'injured' myself) Seems like I have to do some cosmetic touch-up to the blue black patch on knee later, wasting some foundation and powder to cover up... :(

**Pulls hair**

After being largely muddle-headed the past 2 years with ppty sector jargon (but still managing to smoke way through), finally saw some light today (on one tiny aspect) after attending some seminar at URA on development control guidelines. Stuff is technically not directly related to what I do at work, but I was really keen to learn more about all these devt guidelines... Else everyone always use terms like DC, GFA blah blah and my understanding always half-baked. Well, not that I have turned expert overnight, but i mean, quite interesting to learn about existence of various guidelines. And listening to architects complain about why this this guideline must be like that :P

Most intriguing part of lecture today for me was intro on specific guidelines for landed housing/ strata and cluster housing... The setback requirements, defn of basement, attic and what-not was just very interesting to me... I suppose having lived in a HDB flat practically all my life has unwittingly given me a rather I-cannot-do-anything-funny-to-my-house mentality... When all these ppl living in bungalows and what-not seem to be able to make all kinds of modifications to their houses, "subject to approval":P . Oh well, I suppose when you're richer you also have the means to do so. Somehow after becoming more aware of resi devt guidelines in sg I feel like it will totally change how I look at houses next time! Though I also wonder if we are so strict, prim&proper (VS other countries) that overly creative proposals by owners always kena shot down...

Another morning of lecture tmr! Hopefully would not feel sleepy twds lunch though, like I did today... :P

had lunch with "long-lost" tennis coach today and am now somewhat psyched up to take up lessons again :) maybe I am just very imaginative and unrealistic, but somehow during lunch I was half picturing myself playing tennis decently some years down the road... And it was a pretty cool thought. Coach highlighted/ reminded me that it's quite possible for anyone to pick up tennis (I give him benefit of doubt that his comment was not corrupted by specks of moral hazard-ness ;P); it's more a matter of how much time and effort one wants to put into it to become good at it. The nice little chat about tennis led me to think about life in general. I suppose as with many things in life, if one is passionate enough about something, willing to put in effort and not impatient to just skip all the necessary steps to desired outcome, he/she would likely enjoy the sweet and hard-earned fruits of success. Though I kinda know this, at times it's still easy to be lazy and wish that your dreams come true without any sweat. Perhaps it's just human to want instant gratification...

Leona Lewis - Better in time

Thanks to 18-yr old cousin, I finally found out name of this song...! And was bluetoothed the mp3 hehe :P Was pretty surprised cousin was so willing to splurge money from part-time job on some sleek Samsung touch-screen phone that cost him over $300...

Anyway, here's the beautiful song and MTV if you are interested (somehow embedding is disabled for this video)... Leona Lewis has a great voice...

If all goes as planned, I might finally be getting some new cute curtains for my room in the next month or so :) However, home seems to be headed towards chaotic "personal-enclave" style of furnishing, since family members have pretty different tastes/ preferences and cannot come to consensus... And it's terribly difficult to create consistent, modern look for old place unless occupants want makeover badly enough to sink in the $$ for a drastic makeover... Since we rarely receive visitors, I suppose it's alright as long as I'm relatively happy with my part of the home... :P Have to give and take and cannot impose own preference on rest of family members (though I would love to haha). It's also cool that parents let me do what I want for own room, so I shall get my earthy tone colors... hehe. Dunno leh, will feel uncomfy if things dun look right to me. Amusing how sis is really a lot less particular in this aspect-- like ask her to buy nicer (in my opinion), non kid-print bedsheets befitting her age but she just not willing to fork out single cent... Though it's but a tiny detail in everyday life, falling asleep on pretty bedsheets also happy leh :)

Minshuku = Min + Shu + Khoo ;)

Past few days have been religiously spent researching for Japan trip and looking up accommo. Esp accommo for popular destinations, which was being snapped up pretty quickly (though I was rather doubtful abt everything being booked up so quickly and was quite slack initially... :P) Hardworking a bit and finish booking everything then can rest :) We're halfway there....

So anyway today the ingenious Shu asked if Jap style farmhouse = minshuku (BTW minshuku = hiragana pronunciation for 民宿 = something like homestyle lodging/inn) and highlighted its semblance to our names... It was so brilliant cos at that moment it just hit me that hey, we're so fated to stay at a minshuku together...!! Cos not as if we're being intentional abt fitting bits of our names in... Min is always min; shu has always been shu... Well, J you are a bit out, but hey, with a little twist you still fit in quite snugly... ;)

Alright, maybe all of you think I'm weird... But to me, it's just such a cute coincidence.

Lovely long weekend...

It was such a great long weekend :) Exercised, researched for trip, learnt (went for photography and jap class), explored (Little India & indian food with the family), chilled out and watched two movies (Tokyo!@The Picturehouse and I Capture The Castle at home :P) Though it's back to work tmr morning, I wun have too long a week since I'm on do-nothing-leave come Thurs and Fri. Life feels good...

The family was atypically adventurous on Sat and decided on a spontaneous outing to Little India. Mum has apparently never set foot in Little India proper all her life...! It was great that they chose to go down during the Deepavali festivities period... cos it was a lot more re4 nao4 than usual! However, I was almost smothered by the crowds... We brought home addictive crunchy muruku snacks... and have been unable to resist them the past few days... Now the sinful keropok-ish stuff is almost half gone.... :(

Alas, it was also an indulgent weekend. Need to jian3 fei2 in coming weeks...

Fun with reflections@Vivocity

Japan alas!

My holiday decisions this year have all been very 'chop chop'-ly made :P But it kinda makes life more exciting haha. One week ago I was just toying with idea of flying somewhere last week Dec... As at today, I've confirmed my flight to Tokyo!!! And so the Krabi trio shall meet somewhere in Japan for winter... all I know is that I am going to Kyoto for sure... hehe. Though one week ago none of us said anything abt gg to Japan in Dec, somehow we all ended up thinking about it and could all make it around the same time... it's so cool how things just 'happen'... :) Well, though J in Japan claims that Japan is an overrated destination, I refuse to be convinced hehe :P

Hmmm, I feel tempted to buy this... :P

I thought "I Survived A Japanese Game Show" currently showing on Channel 5 was pretty trashy... Am surprised that it's actually an American reality tv show... well, cos there's like all these Japanese gameshow audience (all super on and into the mood) totally enjoying themselves and laughing their heads off at the silly games the (poor? I added a question mark 'cos well, after all, they are voluntarily throwing away their pride on TV for the $250,000 prize money) American contestants are put through... And I am not sure why I felt strange, but suspect cos it was pretty unusual to have such an atypical asians-get-to-ridicule-caucasians scenario...

I feel like the show is intentionally humiliating... In the episode I just watched, the elimination game (the loser will have to leave the show) was unflatteringly titled "You Look Funny Stuck On A Wall"... The two participants had to like wear velcro suits and with the help of some trampoline pad, jump to fit the human outlines on this "velcro-compatible" wall... Before the participants proceeded with their game, the Japanese host actually turned to the audience and speaks to them in Japanese "Applaud if you think the Americans look silly!!" I mean, seriously... that was kinda mean... though it was probably intended to be funny. Now... somehow one of the participants was just super talented and managed to fit into the human outlines quite perfectly each time... whereas her fellow participant was just pretty off... And so at the end when they announced the winner, the game host like leaves the loser stuck on the wall for an excrutiatingly embarrassing 30 seconds or so (cos they are wearing velcro suits, they unfortunately can't get themselves unattached from the wall without external help) and then goes oops, XXX, how are you feeling up there...?! Seriously, I almost felt like strangling him...

This show made me cringe... By the end of the show I decided that one episode's enough.... :P Be warned... But i suppose you can catch it if you want some cheap, brainless entertainment... I just hope for your sake that not every episode's this bad... :P

I feel rather restless at work these days... It's not as if I have nothing to do; rather, there's nothing very exciting to do... :P The thing I have to do entails meticulously planning out implementation timeline, digging up old history... both of which I am terrible at! And DCF is just DCF. Aargh, but I suppose I have to grit my teeth and just get them done somehow. Deep down I know I am sitting on time bomb that can explode anytime... Maybe this time round I wun be so lucky... hai.

Hmmm, it appears that consultants (the reputable ones) earn good and easy money. Do half a job can earn almost $200k... And the recommendations made/ work produced don't even seem that solid/concrete. It appears that what matters most is to learn and master the art of persuasion, so that you can effortlessly convince your customers that your findings are credible... ;P

Floral beauties

Yesterday was photo outing to Sentosa, to put into practice the three most impt concepts- aperture, shutter and ISO... However, I wasn't too good/attentive a student and was instead was a little wandery, trying to get good shots of interesting subjects...

This is my favourite picture of the day. It didn't seem that lovely to me when I snapped it, but after cropping away the distracting elements, it usurped the following picture to be my favourite one. There's just something so inexplicably beautiful about this pair of flowers... And 'cos I took this pic across some leaves/stalks, there's this subtle green vignetting effect as well :)

A fallen flower I discovered on the steps... The shadow behind the flower somewhat framed it nicely for me. There's this poignancy amidst the beauty of the still-fresh flower... Due to bright sunlight, the flower petal still ended up slightly overexposed/ harsh... But it's alright :)

Somehow these flower reminded me of fairies! Perhaps due to the way the petals were "folded" behind...

There were a bunch of bright red ones too!

A pink congregation :)

Today my hairstylist managed to con me into dying my hair dark brown... he has been telling me that my jet black hair + short bob makes me look overly studious... Then coupled with specs that I usually wear I apparently look like I just graduated. What's wrong with looking decent right, why did i give in today... Hmph, though hair color actually isn't obvious from afar, I am now a little upset that now hair color doesn't go with color of any of my specs!!! But what is done is done, so I shall just wait for hair to grow out... and take consolation in fact that I at least look teeny bit different from usual. And self-deceive that yeah, I have succeeded in looking older than fresh graduate... :(

I'm going to bring the loveliest camera bag in the world out for the 3rd time tmr! Having three photography lessons on consecutive days is xiong1, but oh well... At least it's something I enjoy :) Compared to previous instructor, this instructor is certainly less ad-hoc and has proper lesson plan :P As at now, feel like he focuses more on technique whereas previous instructor was more into composition of pictures... Though I already know most of the stuff about aperture, shutter and ISO; it was good nonetheless to get some revision. And seriously I always trial and error to get a good exposure and am terrible when it comes to how many f-stops up or down, that sorta thing. Maybe it's time to work on better precision instead of perpetual "try again if this combi doesn't work'' :P

Yesterday I found myself the nicest-looking camera bag in the world for my Canon 40D... Haha ok I guess you can tell that I am exaggerating. But well, the reason I am so happy is cos all the camera bags floating around are mostly box-ey or weird-shaped with some stubbornly defined form and I would feel so 浑身不自在 if I had to carry them around ALL the time. So you can imagine my delight when I discovered T1oo (self invented acronym for my camera bag model)... cos it looks just like any outdoor sling bag... and is super env-friendly (95% made from recycled materials)... Well the only tiny flaw (big to some serious enthusiasts i guess) is that it actually has like non-existent cushioning for the camera... But it's ok if you are ultra-careful in handling the camera right (so I think :P) In any case, I now have something presentable to go to my new photography class with next week!
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For some strange reason, I have been stricken with sudden fever, sore throat and running nose over weekend... I wish myself a speedy speedy recovery!

Mamma Mia! The Movie

It was an enjoyable Hari Raya holiday... Woke up at 10am for first time in a very very long while; and actually successfully babysitted fly's girl at the playgrounds at colleague's housewarming gathering ;) Also braved bad reviews and had a girls' outing with mum and sis to watch the Mamma Mia! movie, since mum is a musical-movie fan and really wanted to watch it (though she always like say until watch or dun watch also ok... haha ok sometimes i also guilty of such things)

On the whole the movie was so-so, but the movie setting (I found out later that it was shot at some Greek Islands) was lovely. So was the hotel villa... And my favorite part of the movie was when Meryl Streep sang "The Winner Takes It All" with the beautiful sea and some cliff (with church at the peak) in the background... I tried very hard searching for a full version of it on Youtube, but only found a partial one. The beautiful song plus backdrop was really a lethal combination for me! But the song a bit the heartbreaking... Nonetheless, enjoy!

We are all human... :)

When I get arrowed to do something/ staff something/ attend a discussion not related to my immediate area of work, the most frequently cited reason given by the ppl shooting these arrows is "exposure". I am not even sure what that really means, but I suppose the outcome of the exposure is always to let me learn more about the organisation, things going on in the organisation, observe how decisions are made/ things get done etc... Given how slow I can be sometimes, am doubtful about my takeaways in those aspects... However, I have made a most intriguing but not so original discovery about fellow humans--- that we're not perfect. More specifically, I've observed that ppl in high ranking positions, ie. typically director level and above are not amazing/superhuman and can behave/feel just like you and me in certain settings...

For some reason it's quite easy to associate someone's accomplishments/ career success with his/her character. Esp when you know nothing about the person and have had no personal interactions with him/her. Like it's easy to go 'wow' when you first hear of someone being director of XXX in an organisation. But when you gradually observe that your bosses have their own insecurities as well, somehow they become a fair bit less intimidating... Eg. Bosses also have tendency to siam4 their own bosses by choping the least conspicuous seats at meeting table. They can also get bored/tired and doze off at dry meetings. When a certain female MP came for the EDC course last Fri, we asked her how she balanced work and life. Her honest answer was that it was a struggle for her too, just like many working mums... And just this afternoon after showing face at a corporate visit, I somehow felt a whole lot more comfortable with a certain director, cos after the visitors left, she confessed to us how 'scary' hosting visitors could be, how there's always the fear of screwing up when you dunno your facts... But I thought she handled the situation v well in spite of all that lah. I guess you become good at these things when you do it frequently enough. We also lingered on for a while to finish up the food and her candid banter with other attendees on certain individuals in the organisation also revealed her more human, "gossipy" side... I dun mean it in a bad way at all though (and btw, it's always cool when you get to be free-rider of information and eavesdrop for free, but my antennae always faulty)

Ok so after all the rambling, I guess what I really wanted to say is... I felt like no matter how successful you are in your career... somehow at the end of the day you can be just like any other human... need assurance/comforting when down... appreciate ppl to commiserate with when thrown irritating stuff to do... And in a way, being able to accept and embrace the fact that we are all imperfect in one way or another is like really "getting it" in life.

It's back to work for me tmr... :( I will miss the good free lunches that came along with the brainwashing.... But at least tmr should be a relatively peaceful last Mon of the month so no mad rush to write minutes and stuff! Cross my fingers that there will be no urgent/ immediate email sitting in the sea of red :P

I'm beginning to feel a little addicted to being on course... And somewhat dreading going back to work next Mon... This week's been relatively less intensive; I'm getting a bit more comfy with my coursemates, and though there are readings to do, I've grown really lazy and totally neglected doing any reading before the lectures for this week... While my group has this EDC challenge to do (final pdt is to have some visual cum oral presentation of ideas abt Sg in 2020) I am secretly loving how my team members are rather relaxed about it and not like seriously staying back to discuss the challenge, unlike some other teams... :P (Though we prob have to biah a bit tmr just so we are not totally outcome-less for Friday...) So yeah, life has actually been pretty good thus far this week! And cos we sometimes have to make our way to certain sites (eg. I visited a pri sch this afternoon) we kinda carpool among ourselves and dunno, it's just somewhat fun! Yest on way back from HDB to CSC, our 'driver' even dropped by Holland V for us to get the yummy frolick yogurt there...

This week I also found out a little bit more about my thinking styles and leadership qualities... According to the Emergenetics test (that analyses my thinking and behavioral attributes) I did, I have a tri-modal analytical/social/conceptual profile. Well, will not dwell at length on what that really means since I cannot imagine it being terribly interesting to anyone, but apparently the stress of having such profile comes from being "Jack of all trades but master of none".... Thought that was quite spot on... And such ppl are "not always able to sort out thoughts or feelings about an issue, since to him/her all sides of the issue make sense. Most likely, making a decision is difficult and time-consuming"... Seriously, sometimes I wished I were more extreme/ opinionated about issues, then it wun be so difficult for me to decide.... The brighter side of having my profile though (i'm tri-modal dominated by the conceptual part) is that I am a very intuitive about ideas, see big picture kinda person... And supposedly more imaginative and creative hehe. I suppose that kinda gels with the 360 degrees thingy which said that one of my weaknesses is with coming up with detailed plan/ strategy on how to execute my plans... Yeah man, seriously I am terrible at meticulously setting milestones/ interim deadlines for projects... The last min put out fire approach seems to get me to work better.... somehow i doubt my sec sch friends would believe me if I told them that... but yeah, I can be so ad hoc/ disorganised these days... But then I find my order in my own tiny chaos lah... :)

I can still drive!

This is but a self-glorifying post to declare that I can still drive decently, but given that it's such a pleasant discovery, pls at least allow me to indulge a little :P Haha and so yeah, after two refresher lessons over the weekend, I discovered that my driving skills are largely intact; and that it really isn't that difficult trying to get used to driving on the other side of the road! The only thing that kept happening during first lesson was that I kept switching on the wipers whenever I wanted to signal :P And well, I'd probably get honked at a lot by impatient drivers at multi-storey carparks; cos I seriously need to work on my parking. Prob also need GPS and better feel of roads in sg lah. That aside, I really enjoy the feeling of being in control of the car... and the feeling of cruising along the expressway. Yesterday's expressway driving was eeky cos of slight traffic congestion... but today I drove myself to the airport and traffic was pretty nice and smooth... Die, a bit addictive leh. Hmm, maybe it's time to psycho nice Dad to change car.... :P

TGIF!

Much as I complain about having to interact with people, I actually ought to also give some credit to the pretty decent and thought-provoking lectures we get :) Yesterday was econs crash course/revision for me, with overview of micro/macro econs in public sector condensed in single day... Was seriously info overload, but you know, I realised that I still like econs very much... though I am now incapable of really applying concepts learnt previously. Today was part social safety net overview part entrepreneurship stuff... and in fact I also liked the sessions very much (except some PS21 thingy at end of day). Though I was presented with more open-ended questions than answers, I was glad to be made aware of some very real social issues/problems... Eg. sometimes like if ppl are not able to self-help/work even if they are willing to, yet dun qualify for govt assistance, then HOW?? The highlight of the day was Q&A session with successful local entrepreneur Ivan Lee (owner of Thai Express, Xin wang cafe and a bunch of other brands) and his anecdote (i think it was intentionally crafted on the spot for our class) how the monthly profit at just one of his soya bean stalls (the more popular branch) was abt $20 to $25k or so, easily more than that of our higher ranking civil servants.... :P I mean, he was just so frank and open about a lot of stuff that it made the dialogue really interesting...
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TGIF! I think I've had enough brain exercise for the week... though I'd better mug my driving theory books a bit tmr morning, before my refresher driving lesson in afternoon.... :P

On 2-week course!

Today is Day 3 of my 2-week course at CSC and though it's been pretty interesting it's also rather tiring! 7 more days of full-time lectures, active participation (technically i cannot complain since i am like one of most passive) and absorbing new information! Well, I suppose it is a good opportunity to actually meet and interact with public sector officers from different ministries/ stat boards... But after a while, it becomes a tiny chore. Like too much new external stimuli for the like-to-be-AS me... I mean, class is also deviously designed to encourage interaction among participants, so want to be unsocial also a bit the difficult. I suppose have to admit though that most of them seem like decent ppl, aside from a handful of questionable (but cannot conclude yet that i confirm dun like) cases. There are at least 40 participants and I wonder if i'll manage to get everyone's names by end of course... And the thing is, when you meet someone you haven't spoken to (either at tea, lunch, organised outing etc) the conversation starter is almost always, oh so where are you from? What do you do? Feel a bit like broken tape recorder already... Maybe from tmr onwards I should just be unconventional and ask ppl, so what do you do in your free time? It's like, why am I so conditionedly treating every participant as merely a rep from his/her respective workplace...

[Afternote: Apparently Sarah Palin's rectangular frameless specs (by a Japanese designer hehe) are selling like hotcakes in the States now] Well, I do agree that it's pretty stylish and quite professional-looking, but I still prefer my geeky ones... For now :)

The geeky look is in vogue...

I recently collected my new pair of thick-rimmed plastico glasses! Sis says that I now look older, though shape of lenses isn't that different from existing one. Ever since my first pair of slightly thicker rimmed glasses a few years back, I kinda started liking the way thicker rimmed glasses look. And they make me feel learned and cool haha. So from then on subsequent spectacle rims just got increasingly thicker... I think i've almost reached the limit though. Any thicker nobody will be able to spot my eyes :P Coincidentally, the black thick-rimmed/ huge lenses look is supposedly very 'IN' now... And some even go to extent of making degree-less specs (dun recall the correct term to use) just to stand out. Ahh, feels good to know that I've always been 'in'.... :P

p/s: actually i haven't officiated them 'cos wearing plastic frame takes some getting used to. Glasses have to be very much closer to eyes. I've been trying to observe types of specs ppl wear and how plastic glasses suit different ppl. Good thing that there's quite a good sample of ppl with plastico glasses. Strange thing is, seems like not everyone has to wear very close to face... It's unfair that some guys with higher and more pronounced nose bridge can support glasses nicely without them slipping down and coming too close to face (disregarding level of nose oiliness). Also seems like level of incline btwn nose bridge and ear affects how low your specs can go before you get the lao3 hua1 kind of look.... Oh well, these are just some prelim findings... the subtle observation of unknowing MRT subjects remains ongoing :)

Life feels a bit surreal this week...

Sinema!

Yesterday evening I finally caught something at Sinema :P Bought tics for Jean Yeo's (director of The Leap Years) The Marriage Factor, starring Wong Li-Lin and Tay Ping Hui... Sinema is a tiny little place tucked away in an old MGS campus on a ulu little hill and despite it being a Sat evening, there were only about 10 ppl who came for the show... There were also hardly any ppl at the eateries/restaurants at Old Sch. So it was great, cos I hate crowded places!

The lil store where the spartan "box office" was located mainly sold various local movies, magazines and nostalgic snacks... I chanced upon the Monocle mag here and felt quite tempted to buy it, but decided in the end that I prob couldn't justify my forking out $19.90 just for one issue of a mag, given that I seldom read my mags cover to cover :P Another exciting discovery I made at the store were the nostalgic snacks on sale... eg. White Rabbit candy in packaging that had extremely dated look and the Hiro Choc Cake! (More on that later) So anyway, I was quite childishly thrilled to see those Hiro Choc Cakes after like what, 10 years, and asked for permission to take pics of them as well.

Turns out that the ppl at Sinema had bundled Marriage Factor with another Jean Yeo movie titled Ceciliation, as well as a director Q & A session. We didn't manage to finish watching Ceciliation due to unforeseen technical difficulties, but they were quite nice/apologetic about it and offered the audience another chance to go back to watch it. Marriage Factor was ok lah, though some dialogue bits were pretty witty. In the end, I think I enjoyed the impromptu director Q & A the most... 'cos it was quite interesting :) eg. how difficult it was to make commercially viable movies in sg, the Shanghainese audience's negative reaction towards casting Joan Chen in the Leap Years, among others. She also divulged that Tay Ping Hui was actually her schoolmate... And like in the movie she kinda gave him this geeky look, just to deflate his "I know I look good" ego a bit.. HAHA. Good one, cos with his terrible haircut and unflattering glasses, Tay Ping Hui did succeed in looking pretty nerdy :P

And now, I shall end this post with the star appearance of the HIRO choc cake....

Well, I dunno about you, but I used to see this all the time in my pri sch canteen, alongside the 20 cents red and yellow packaging animal biscuits, the 15 cents ladder-patterned yellow biscuit with peanut filling and what not :P And these used to cost 30 cents per piece, i think. I even had to paint this once (practice for still-life painting) for art class in RGS... I mean it was definitely not one of my favorite snacks, but hey... it kinda brings back fond memories of the good old carefree days ;)

Ting has always told me that I would love Pjt Runway, but I somehow never found the time to watch it. After seeing the TV ad on Channel 5 while on the treadmill the other day, I made it a point to remember to watch the Season 4 episode tonight... And I love the winning dress! The long ribbon, the 3/4 sleeves and the cute little vest...

I thought about hunting this down, since it eventually retailed in the stores at a pretty affordable price... but then like cannot really carry it off :(

Stiff necked

This morning I woke up with a most unexpected stiff neck. I really dun recall the last time I got a stiff neck, dunno what I did last night to deserve this :( Anyway, it was an uncanny coincidence, cos my DD apparently took MC on Monday for a stiff neck. Then, I was just thinking stiff neck also need MC one meh? Next time I had better think twice before thinking not so good thoughts about other ppl :P Ok lah, I am not so superstitious/irrational as to attribute my own stiff neck to frivolous reasons like this; but yeah, what a coincidence. I also realised having a stiff neck is so inconvenient (haha, surprise surprise!), in addition to being painful when you try to turn the way that's achey... Like, even when you see a friend/colleague from the left corner of your eye, you can't really like turn to say hi or smile! Surprisingly (this time for real) I found out that the stiff neck condition wasn't all that uncommon... Opposite neighbour shared that her husband frequently suffered from stiff neck and that his was stress-induced. Lhp had her cute conjecture that likelihood of stiff necks increased with age and her husband also suffered from this from time to time (wah, bad news for me if so... signs of ageing...?!) Somehow their anecdotes made me feel less unfortunate about my own stiff neck. It's always nice to know that there are ppl to commiserate with, even though it's merely deceptive wishful thinking/imagination on my part.

Siem Reap (4) - The luxury of idling

As you should be able to tell by now, I really liked the outdoor dining area of hotel lah... The first half of the day prior to airport transfer was pretty much spent eating, fiddling with camera and idling around, since Mum expressed preference not to explore any new places. We also ended up watching tv in hotel room and eventually, glued to some Korean drama on one of the cable tv channels :P


The leisurely breakfast... I'm trying to copy those food bloggers who take cool pics of partners eating, but without showing the face... I think I need to capture more of the food and less of the distracting/messy crockery on the table next time... :P

Hehe this is unposed pic taken while mum was eating. Erm, nothing particularly appetizing lah... but it shows.... eating in progress? :P

Beef noodles (tasted thai) for breakfast. It was pretty yummy :)

Cos we kinda overate and had a rather late breakfast (then like watch tv all morning), we didn't grow that hungry by lunchtime. So we turned to cakes for lunch.... Mum is cutting strawberry mousse cake... Tasted so-so only though :P Think can get better cakes in sg.

Some peach flan that also tasted so-so... After two cakes, sweet tooth me ordered ice-cream as well :P Hai, me wonders when my next trip would be.....

Siem Reap (3) - Of Angkor Wat, pillar-lined passageways and apsaras

In this post, I continue my pretty much history-less and backgroundless post of Angkor Wat. :P I mean, even if I attempt to pen down the things I learnt, it is at best incomplete and you would be very much better off reading Wikipedia or something. And much as I liked listening to stories and anecdotes my tour guide told us, I really can't regurgitate them... I get confused with kings with long names from different centuries. What I do remember though are the key and simple stuff -- eg. Angkor Wat means "City Temple" (Wat referring to temple or like monastery, according to TG). It was also initially built as a Hindu temple, but was subsequently converted into a Buddhist one later... Its origins also explain why the bas-reliefs (esp on the outer walls) are filled with Hindu gods/ battle scenes etc. The picture above is the causeway leading up to the 3rd (outermost) enclosure of Angkor Wat. "Thanks" to scorching afternoon sun (actually, think most ppl head to Angkor Wat early morning when it's cool and nice to walkabout), the "coast was clear"...

One of the side entrances leading into the inner enclosures...

Having entered the temple compounds (within 3rd enclosure), TG brought us to THE spot to take the picture-perfect shot of Angkor Wat. Was extremely thrilled with the symmetrical picture I could capture... So once I snapped this, excitedly showed it to TG (smugly trying to get some form of affirmation that yes! i did it!) However he was like.... not nice! The reason being that I had missed out the palm tree reflection on the left. So my palm tree was "beheaded"... So thanks to him, I took a few more pictures from slightly different angle and eventually got my picture-perfect shot. Somewhat... :P

It was really really hot and so before proceeding to tour the inner enclosures, we stopped by some drink stall for cooling coconut drinks. And not surprisingly, the child peddlers came over to sell their souvenirs... Though really young, they were pretty skilful at marketing their wares... Eventually I gave in and bought a set of postcards from one girl, since the pics were decent and only cost a total of US$1. That however led to more ppl flocking over... They looked so pitiful I felt bad ignoring the other two... Forgot what led to us taking this picture with them, but unfortunately the photo became an earned opportunity for one of the girls to get us to buy her stuff... Like she became a little cross and kept telling my mum, you take picture, never buy from me.... Oops.

One of the five towers in the innermost enclosure... They were undergoing restoration and so were unfortunately closed to visitors. I noticed that the steps leading up to the towers were extremely shallow and steep (at about 70 degrees incline)-- According to my TG, there are two explanations. The first (architectural) one is that somehow this made the whole structure more stable... The second (religious) one is that back then, this made it very difficult to scale for ppl who came to pray... And by having to carefully make their way up the impossible steps, they already had to like bow to the gods...

I also loved the many pillared passageways all over... I like gazing down the pillared passageway cos it gives an architecturally aesthetic sense of distance... This one's at the outermost enclosure of Angkor Wat.

This is similarly at the outermost enclosure and shows a Japanese-fluent tour guide explaining the carvings on the bas-relief....

Another beautiful passageway in Angkor Wat.

There were also numerous apsara (celestial beings) carvings everywhere -- not just in Angkor Wat itself but also in the other temples. This is my favorite picture taken at the Bayon temple. The intricate detail (there's like tiny figurines on the apsara's right!) is astounding. There are two more apsara ones below (last two). I cannot even imagine carving one panel. It would easily take me years... assuming that I had the patience and the talent to do it.



Actually I don't think any number of pictures can do justice to the grandeur of the place; it must have been pretty spectacular back in its 'heyday'... So that will be all I'm putting up for now. Do visit if you get the chance... though it might be a better idea to do it during the off-peak season (once again, according to my trusty TG, the causeway shown in the first pic can get jam-packed with tourists during the good months, say around Nov to early part of year) if you want to avoid the crowds and can endure the heat and rain :P

Siem Reap (2) - Ta Prohm and Bayon

The land tour I booked online was surprisingly exclusive. Little did mum and I expect that we would get a tour guide cum car all to ourselves... It was great though 'cos everything was still quite flexible despite the existence of a pre-planned itinerary for 2 out of 3 days. Tour guide was atypically burly for a Cambodian (most ppl I saw had like smaller built) and was frequently self-amused by things he told us (esp when he thought he told a good joke/ said something witty), breaking into this deep hearty laughter every now and then. That aside, TG was really knowledgeable and spoke good English, which certainly made communication a breeze. In addition to being fluent in English, he was also studying German and Spanish to improve his language capabilities! The many Japanese-fluent tour guides I encountered at Angkor Archaeological Park also put me to shame... :P

This post will be on two key attractions within the Angkor Archaelogical Park (Angkor Wat and other temple/city ruins are all housed within). Due to short stay, I only had one day to tour the park... If you really wanted to explore everything thoroughly, one day is definitely way too short... So this time round it really felt like a "touch and go" kinda tour for me. There were many interesting corners and spots I wanted to linger on at, to just soak in lost-civilisation kind of atmosphere, but perhaps company was not quite right hehe. Also hard to stay on for too long at a place when on guided tour. Though Mum was similarly awed by the structures, she got temple-fatigue by the end of the day, commenting that "after a while, all the temples look the same" :P

Though knowledgeable TG imparted us quite a bit of history and background of various temples, I prob only retained like 30% of what I was told. Hehe so my post will (as usual) focus on the visual aspects of the tour...

As you can see, Ta Prohm temple is famous for its overgrown/ intertwined trees... Apparently many of the temples, when first discovered, were covered by the jungles... Many of them had trees removed during restoration etc, but Ta Prohm was left pretty intact... I'm glad it was, 'cos this place was pretty amazing.

Algae/moss-covered slabs of stone... This temple really possessed this lost civilisation kind of atmosphere...

Beauty in chaos. Dunno how tree can survive with no soil..? But it seems to be thriving pretty well!

Close-up of tree roots in previous picture. Now, according to TG, this entrance was apparently featured in the Tomb Raider movie. Hmmm I can imagine why, cos it's pretty out of this world! Due to its movie fame, there were also like a tonne of tourists posing in front of it :P

A four-faced Buddha tower, with the faces pointing at the four cardinal directions. TG added that they also represented the four divine qualities or something in Buddhism... one of which was 'Charity'. Hehe, as you can tell, my memory not very good....

We also visited the Khmer city Angkor Thom... while walking through the sprawling compounds, I saw a temple near the Man and Woman ponds... In fact while driving through the park, there were several temples tourists could scale, mainly to like see the view from the top... Mum didn't want to scale it so I climbed up on my own... :) BTW, weather was baking, but I still preferred it to rainy weather (luckily it didn't rain v much those few days though it was rainy season in Siem Reap)

Me in some funny cube-like structure at top of temple hehe. Hopped into my ancient picture frame after setting self-timer on camera... :)

The beautiful Bayon temple within Angkor Thom. Famous for its many many four-faced Buddha towers. I think there are like 30 over towers....

Row of gods lining left side of bridge leading to south gate of Angkor Thom. There's like another row of 'devils' on the right...

Siem Reap (1) - Borei Angkor

I liked Siem Reap very much... The homely (but tastefully decorated) hotel I stayed in certainly contributed quite a bit. It was also the off-peak season (plus the most basic rooms were undergoing upgrading) so we got a free upgrade to their 'landmark' room, which was lovely and comfortable. Interestingly, there was always this light whiff of lemon scent in the lobby...

The lovely lovely outdoor dining area. I suddenly realised how beautiful dark wooden chairs with white cushions look. I think the lush greenery also contributed to the nice atmosphere. If i ever own a house with a nice big balcony/backyard of sorts, I'm so going to do something like that :P Perfect for reading/taking a leisurely breakfast...

After breakfast the first morning, I hung around the pool and discovered some fallen frangipani flowers on the ground (there was a frangipani tree by the pool) ... Don't they make such good props?

Another frangipani flower I picked up... It was great that the hotel was like so under-occupied, so it did feel like the whole place was mine to roam around... Such a refreshing change from the overcrowded sg hehe.

A swing by the pool! Isn't the structure cute? :)

Floating lotus flowers in main lobby, with petals all nicely folded...

The door linking outdoor dining areas to the hotel restaurant...

Another dining porch of sorts...

More lotus flowers! The whole place just felt so peaceful and nice... I'm already missing it despite having stayed there for merely two nights :P

Beautiful Angkor Wat

ps: pls pretend you didn't see the scaffolding... :P

It's finally Wed!

By lunchtime this afternoon, my mood was already much much better... and couldn't help beaming deep inside... Haven't felt so happy (technically over nothing, except fact that I was going on leave and returning to office only next Mon) in a while... Sigh, so deprived right. But it's really the first time I'm taking leave in what, nearly 4 months?? :( Life has been hard (ok lah, everything is relative) and I think I deserve a good break! :)

Now now... how should I nuah3 tomorrow.... :P