Langkawi (3) - Cable Car

The Langkawi Cable Car experience was somewhat scary ('cos you cruise right into the mountains and your continued existence depended 100% on the cable car system not failing you) but it was one of the highlights of my trip. You get really good view for 25 ringgit (15 if you're local), without having to really work for it (no sweat). Ok, maybe a bit of cold sweat :P Plus the chance to marvel at the enormity and beauty of the mountains around you. I thought this attraction was pretty underrated. Hehe, I've never heard of this before lah :P

We started out from the base station (the orangey buildings) and reached the middle station (that functioned as a lookout spot) about 5 min later. I was pretty overwhelmed by the view below me! We thought that was it, but no, there was another scary stretch bringing you across to the other tower cum suspended pedestrian bridge....

A cable car starting out from the middle station to the opposite peak... The station at the other tower reminded me of Hayao Miyazaki's Castle In the Sky. A more toned down, modern version :)

Taken from the 2nd tower while looking down at the middle station. I've never seen so many trees at any one time for a long, long while.

But of course, we had to return with some evidence of our 'conquest' :P

The suspended pedestrian bridge as seen from the tower. The engineers that built this are geniuses. You can literally walk through the fleeting clouds...

We slowly made our way down to the bridge... Picture taken from one end of the bridge.

You can look to your left....

Or look to your right... But you wun want to look down. I peeked a bit and my knees felt a little weak... Hee, but Ms Wong still complimented me for being somewhat brave haha.

Awesome view of surrounding mountain ranges awaiting at the end of the bridge. And you feel so insignificant in comparison. It's such a good spot to put things in perspective.

Though I just got back from a holiday (will resume my unfinished Langkawi posts in the next entry), I cannot wait to go on my next one... Gone case right. But forsee that the next one will be rather difficult to come by, despite having more than 20 days of leave for the rest of the year (Actually compared to most colleagues, that is already very little). What a sad state of affairs to have so much vacation leave and no luxury/ liberty to use them!! And dear J, I really really want to go to Japan late this year... Hai. But seems like I have prior 'engagements' that are likely to foil my travel plans. Nonetheless, I have made a resolution to go on more short getaways... And to try to get out of office by 7.30 pm everyday. Unfortunately on the first day of my resolution I overstayed by an hour. Aargh. I shall start again tmr.

I finally splurged on a new DSLR over the weekend... And I am now the proud owner of a powderful Canon 40D.... (while trying to ignore the fact that I also grew quite a bit poorer overnight) I dunno how to use it... YET. But hopefully by the end of the year I would be able to blog about having mastered some cool functions!

Langkawi (2) - Flora and Fauna

When you're not a botanist/zoologist/ornithologist, you are surrounded by other generic living things termed 'trees', 'monkeys' or 'birds' (just to name a few). But thanks to our nature walk tour guide (the resort offered a free nature walk within the resort premises, home to many diff species of plants & creatures) I was reminded of the rich variety of trees/plants & animals in our midst. And I witnessed the cool 'flight' of flying lemurs for the first time! And observed that they had flaps of skin sticking out from their butts... But yeah, felt rather ashamed of my ignorance and oblivion to the natural environment. Perhaps it's also a consequence of years of living in a concrete jungle, but yeah... will KIV such close-to-nature trips in the near future :)

The following are some "creatures" I encountered on this trip...

It took me a while to realise that this hideous red thing belonged to the banana plant. Ok, Ms Wong and I both guessed that it had to be a banana flower, but yeah, it seems to me a strange alien outgrowth from the plant leh. And for some strange reason, I have this impression that banana flowers are white (though I've never seen one...)

This was another plant that caught my eye during my afternoon walk... In contrast, I thought it really pretty. Esp the leaf in the middle-- the leaves were all quite equally spaced out! Have no idea what this is, but I have named it the wheel plant, for its pretty radial leaf spokes... :)

Catch me if you can -- one of many miniature transparent/sand-colored crabs I met along the beach. Before I left office my neighbour ycc had shared with me abt these; and how he used to catch them in bottles to play with them. He must have been a very agile kid; cos whenever I tried to go near these crabs, they just scuttled away really quickly. It also helps to have eight limbs when you need to dig a hole. It was quite fun though to chase after them, despite never managing to really keep up.

A family of... macaques (feels proud for being able to name them properly, instead of just 'monkeys' :P) loitering along the road. The tiny one right in front is nibbling on a piece of bread our taxi-driver threw out of the window. Miss Wong commented that their behavior was so similar to that of humans.... Indeed, with the hand-holding and hugging.... and the ever clingy babies. Notice how the third monkey from the left is holding on to the arm of another monkey? Another strategy to keep track of your fidgety offspring is to grab hold of their long tails. Thank goodness I have no tail :P

Ah, time to sit down to scratch my itchy toe...

These are supposed to be langurs... and according to our guide, one key difference between these and macaques is that the latter are capable of walking well on all fours...

A black bird walking on this floating deck by the beach. The floating deck is actually a 'launching point' for ppl interested in doing water sports, eg. skiing, banana boat etc etc. But the coast was free and Mr black bird cleverly used it as a platform for scooping fish from the waters. From time to time, it also took its evening stroll....

Langkawi Apr 08 (1)

Took many many pictures on this trip... Hope you'll enjoy them as much as I did taking them :) As usual, I am cheating and only showing the ones that turned out well. But hey, who ever said that photography was unbiased :P

Our "hotel"-- Berjaya Langkawi Beach & Spa Resort, a sprawling resort nestled in the midst of a lush tropical rainforest. You can get a chalet on stilts by the sea, if you're willing and able to fork out a huge premium. Of course we didn't splurge to that extent :P

Deck chairs for lazing by the beach...

A chalet with a sea view...

Bigger chalets in the 'forest' overlooking the sea...

Though we only had a humble chalet with a 'garden and partial sea view', it was still sufficiently comfy/cosy to satisfy me...

Path leading up to the Thai restaurant

I loved how there was absolutely nothing between the sea and the sky. Just so simple and beautiful. Snapped most of these pictures while taking a leisurely afternoon walk in the sprawling resort (ok I cheated and took the buggy to the Thai restaurant at the end, but walked back :P)

Imagine listening to the lovely sound of waves while taking your stroll...

And dining right by the sea....

This place felt even more peaceful at night, as the surroundings were totally dark. Except for stars in the sky... :) We eventually dined there the 2nd night... and though we didn't get to dine outdoors (since it was potentially drizzly) it was still quite nice.

I finally did it! I finally completed my resi profile in 2 days after 6 mths of procrastination! And I'm amazed at the last min worker I am :P

Though have been pretty much working half the weekend, still managed to squeeze some time for my new 偶像 Lin Yutang. Have started reading TIOL and though some bits are a little too philosophical for me, some other insightful/witty bits just kept me glued to this book. Let me share one part I really enjoyed:

On Passion

... Somewhere in our adult life, our sentimental nature is killed, strangled, chilled or atrophied by an unkind surrounding, largely through our own fault in neglecting to keep it alive, or our failure to keep clear of such surroundings. In the process of learning "world experience,", there is many a violence done to our original nature, when we learn to harden ourselves, to be artificial, and often to be cold-hearted and cruel, so thatas one prides oneself upon gaining more and more worldly experience, his nerves become more and more insensitive and benumbed - especially in a world of politics and commerce. As a result, we get the great "go-getter" pushing himself forward to the top and brushing everybody aside; we get the man of iron will and strong determination, with the last embers of sentiment, which he calls foolish idealism or sentimentality, gradually dying out in his breast. It is that sort of person who is beneath my contempt. The world has too many cold-hearted people. If sterilization of the unfit should be carried out as a state policy, it should begin with sterilizing the morally insensible, the artistically stale, the heavy of heart, the ruthlessly successful, the cold-heartedly determined and all those people who have lost the sense of fun in life- rather than the insane and the victims of tuberculosis. For it seems to me that while a man with passion and sentiment may do many foolish and precipitate things, a man without passion or sentiment is a joke and a caricature......

This section is too lengthy for me to continue typing, but I loved the bit in bold... Think he's cool :P

3 more days to my beach holiday! But unfortunately I have to work even on the very morning of my flight, since everyone's so caught up with work that it's simply impossible and paiseh to get ppl to do briefings on my behalf. So I shall have to leave for the airport on Tues from office. Nonetheless, am looking forward to having a few leisurely days for pampering myself/ relaxing/ leisure reading. A spa treat sounds like a good idea :) The past week has been pretty bad, with every workday ending no earlier than 8pm... and poor tph and I were back in office on a fine Sat morning. and poor tsm is likely to have to return tmr to turn in to boss the labour-intensive resi profile I owe for my briefing materials.

I've laid my hands on a copy of 'The Importance of Living' -- "The Classic Bestseller That Introduced Millions of the Noble Art of Leaving Things Undone". I like the italicised part of the title description, though having not read the book I am not entirely sure what this is all abt. But feels like something I need to master...

Today was quite a crap day at work. Aside from the fact that I wore my new pinafore work outfit and got complimented for being cute/retro. And aside from the fact that we returned the lunch treat our pjt team resource person gave us, in the form of an elegant Chomel brooch and travel shampoo/bath set from Crabtree & Evelyn... which made her very pleasantly surprised. The packaging at Crabtree & Evelyn is usually irresistably pretty so I love to buy things for others from there (esp when you have other ppls' money to spend too :P)

I think i'm beginning to learn how not to let other ppl get you down.

The Importance of Living

It's been weeks since I really stepped into a bookstore to browse books. And this afternoon, a copy of Lin Yutang's "The Importance of Living"(apparently a 1937 classic) in Kino caught my eye. Didn't have time to really look at contents in details; but did eyeball some interesting chapters such as the imptance of loafing etc. I didn't buy it 'cos was stingy and wanted to see if there were any discounts online... but then again, I might just go back and get it one of these days; cos sometimes certain titles just jump out at me and I'll feel an urge to get/own it. It's also an uncanny but timely reminder for myself... the importance of living and embracing all the other wonderful things I can possibly do with my life (and not slogging, not working most of the time :P) before I sink further into the routine, monotonous working life...

Hong Kong Apr 08 (2)

Though schedule was pretty tight, we still managed to squeeze out some time for shopping. To the extent that the two 'girls' opted shopping over an informal dinner with the rest one night hehe. I suspect that contributed to our 'bad reputation' cos the next day in the bus when my CEO asked for a map and I said I only had a not-so-gd one dunno who joked, "only showing the shopping areas ah"... *bleah* Is it such a crime to go shopping when official duties are over? Not really what. Sigh must learn to be more discreet next time.

Oh well, in any case, here are some of my shopping finds!

Clockwise from top left: Jasmine tea leaves that came prettily packaged in white tin box; lovely green and grey striped scarf that I found at the Esprit outlet (that I really have no use for but cannot resist buying); Lesportsac pouch with geometric print (this is the real thing, for once...); strawberry choc from Japanese snack chain Okashi Land; Green tea powder from Genki Sushi.

Hong Kong street snack called 鸡蛋仔. It's really just some kind of waffle shaped like a tray of eggs, then vendor folds up the whole sheet and tucks it into a brown bag... Not very yummy actually despite the long line, but fun to nibble on.

One of many life-sized Olympic mascot lanterns found at the promenade area near ferry terminal at Kowloon...

The rare occasion I decided to try strike a fun pose... :)

No time for a full post -- but I realised yest night when trying to produce some notes of meeting (I took notes, but not with intention of reproducing as NOM. Unfortunately was told to help with minutes for that session a day later) the importance of namecards at external meetings with unfamiliar faces....! Usually I hate to give out namecards (inferiority complex haha) and so sometimes due to reciprocity I dun collect them... but I am now suffering the consequences. Cos have to put together attendance list to go with minutes, am trying v hard to name two faces captured in a photo taken during one discussion session. Errr though I can console myself that I got the NUMBER of Hong Kong officials correct, I have NO IDEA who two of them are. Aaargh. I shall resort to circulating pic to colleague to seek help.... :( This is so embarrassing...

Hong Kong Apr 08 (1)- Work

The work trip to Hong Kong was a very educational one. Though the main purpose was to attend a housing conference for which our Minister was one of four keynote speakers, the delegation also toured various housing projects/ offices/ parks (respective stat board reps attended things relevant to our fields) Our various hosts from Hong Kong Housing Authority, Hong Kong Housing Society were all very hospitable and friendly; and were very willing to share what they have done, esp on the issues of rental and elderly housing. Particularly for elderly housing, Hong Kong seems to be quite a few steps ahead of sg, esp in terms of facilities and range of support services for this growing group of individuals.

Since work work is confidential and sometimes boring to other ppl, I shall instead talk a little bit about other work-related but not subject-specific things I discovered:

1) Work trip for big shots and medium shots basically means you work throughout the day; even after day's outings are over and everyone can technically retire to their rooms. And so perhaps only with the exception of a tiny fry like me with no working laptop (phew...), rest of the laptop-equipped ppl on trip were probably clearing mails, typing notes of minutes blah blah way into wee hours of the night. And so while colleague was clearing emails on laptop, I was amusing myself with reports of Olympic torch snatchers on BBC/NHK..... (experiencing 50% guilt 50% relief)

2) Punctuality is a golden rule for work trips. Though I must say that I am a pretty punctual person, I've learnt that small fries always ought to appear like 15 min b4 stipulated meeting time; else you will most certainly end up being last persons to arrive even if you're on the dot. Hai... This aspect me and hy dun have much 形象 left, since for some unfortunate reasons we both arrived last twice... And the 2nd time our CEO even suaned us for being like 3 min late... OOPS.

3) Logistics sucks... Though I was a free-rider on this trip, I quite empathised with the logistic guy from MND who had to take care of every single detail from group check-in to helping with last min flight changes etc... It's a skill I dun think I can ever really master... :(

4) Networking lunches/dinners are not really my cup of tea. Well, actually I had the good luck of sitting beside some really cool individuals (like the quite high ranking kind who maybe deep down wonder why got such tiny fry at same table but yet tries to engage you and dun make you feel uncomfortable); there were also some eeky ones who just bochap you and concentrate on the impt ppl at table (ok lah, it's understandable). The socialising part aside, two good things that came out of these though were i) reminder and renewed motivation to be updated on current affairs & ii) Lotsa delicious Chinese food!

Lastly, some random work-related shots:

Unlike in Singapore, public rental housing blocks in Hong Kong typically have names instead of block numbers. Apparently, these huge characters plastered to the side of the blocks also serve as a resting point for little sparrow guests :)

The magnifiying reader machine that allows elderly to magnify tiny text in books. Quite cool right. Apparently, you can also change the text cum background to different colors too; cos according to demonstrator some elderly cannot detect certain colors too well...

Cameramen awaiting arrival of Chief Executive Donald Tsang at a cocktail reception to celebrate HKHS's 60th anniversary.

Cute choir kids performing at the above ceremony. The lil boy on the top right looks so demure but shuai4 hor... :P

Am typing this from colleague's laptop... just taxied home from Kowloon after shopping till we conveniently forgot time and missed the last ferry departing for Wan Chai on Hong Kong Island (where hotel is situated)... :P Though I now have shoulder/arm/feet-aches from bia-ing shopping this evening/tonight, am nonetheless quite satisfied with my shopping finds hehe. It's back to sg tmr :)

The week continues to be lucky -- cos I won something at the AD Lucky Draw! 6th prize-- a WMF cutlery set that retailed at some $99. I've never really had any luck in lucky draws. Though while sorting out prizes in the storage room I had set my eyes on the Nintendo Wii (2nd prize) and thinking I most certainly would not want to win the cutlery set... during the Grand Lucky Draw announcement I had this uneasy premonition that I might just get the very thing I didn't need nor want... And true enough I did :P Aiyah but I shouldn't be complaining... since I can just keep it in the event that I'd have some use for it one day. Hope my good luck continues for the rest of the month.... (or the year! hehe. greedy)

AD's up tomorrow and unfortunately I didn't have the time to hunt for the perfect skirt. I had also intended to hunt for a black-and-white checked scarf belt or something to go with the theme... but sadly, no time! Nonetheless, this week has been a pretty lucky one for me and I just discovered that sis has a short white pleated skirt that I can pull off as those cheerleading skirts (And it's not THAT short, so still appropriate to wear for official purposes :P) When I excitedly pranced around in my fakeo Formula One outfit to mum, she once again commented I look like a ginah... aiyah ok lah; look young beats looking MATURE :) And so this ginah is also supposed to be primary hotel liaison person for tmr and though I am a little nervous (having NEVER done anything like that before) I will constantly remind myself to behave as if I am damn experienced... Hai, actually ECAs are rather fun. Unlike work. If I get the hang of this I can consider offering services as floor manager for friends' weddings...

Also wanted to hunt for more formal dinnerish dresses to bring for Hong Kong trip; but unfortunately this has been a hectic week. And tmr shall be burnt; so no opportunity to shop :(

No more pjt team + 1 work trip + 1 holiday!

Alas. The dreaded pjt team briefing is over! :) And I had some stroke of good luck and it actually went OK... Things that could have been picked on were surprisingly not picked on; and even when a director questioned certain findings senior management were really kind/lenient and somewhat supported our team. Hmm. Maybe they were just in a very good mood today but hey, I am not complaining....

Next two weeks will be somewhat happening. Our Formula One-themed Appreciation Dinner is coming up this Sat; and the guai1 Shi Min will be clad in a red/black Formula One shirt with huge Malboro iron-on behind... ahem, a bit not me and I wish I weren't "endorsing" cigarettes; but it was the nicest looking out of the designs available for me to choose from. And feels fun to be a rebel for one day :) Just need to find a matching short skirt to complete the look hehe... :P

Come next Tues, would be zipping off to Hong Kong for a few days with some 'delegates' to attend a housing conference. If I'm lucky, should be able to squeeze out half a day on the 12th to go shopping b4 flying home. And come 29th, I shall finally be able to indulge in a tiny nuah3-and-do-nothing 4D3N beach holiday in Langkawi. I love April.

I am usually not so open... :P but somehow I just felt like writing this down... somewhere. And because when ppl make me melt a bit, I want to remb it. Shi Min hardly gets such moments these days (esp with guys...)

This is really no big deal, but I was just very awww over a very tiny thing during photography class this Thursday. So I was just having class, and in the middle of class, I made a 'clear your nose' noise (you know, those a bit gross clear your blocked nose actions you do when you can't and dun really need to blow your nose). I suppose my instructor heard it; cos he instinctively asked the class (and maybe I very imaginative also lah, assume he was asking me) whether the air-con was too cold. OK, maybe after reading this you're like this Shi Min is CRAZY, this little insignificant thing also can feel melty... but I dunno; I just felt very aww that some stranger could be so sensitive... And then later in class our instructor showed us some of his works/ pictures and got quite excited when narrating to us why he took certain pictures... And though he's really a bit cannot-make-it at expressing himself, one could feel his passion and at times child-like excitement over this art of 'seeing things'... and me the silent student observer, just thought it was very cute.

Honestly I dun think I've learnt very much abt photography techniques in this class; but somehow the instructor feels so sincere and unfake that I dun have the heart to feedback any of that.

The early morning sky felt like a huge comforter today.
I wanted to jump in to lie among the fluffy clouds...

Having to climb out of bed when you just want to SLEEP is so hard.... :( Hai, and am down with sore-throat so shall aim to sleep early today.

While drearily preparing briefing materials in office today, received excited call from J who told me she got into Chicago... I felt really happy too, 'cos really good things are happening to my dear friends. The other J in my life is super happ in Japan too, despite having been there for less than 2 weeks :P I also want to learn how to make red bean and strawberry paste daifuku.... (though I have to admit this mixture of flavors, erm, does sound a little strange)

And my dreaded pjt team briefing is still not over. But at least we submitted a (mediocre) report... hehe. Now I just need to cross the final hurdle! One really good thing that came out of the pjt team though was getting to know one or two really decent folks better. Some of my pjt team members are just great and reliable workers... and they work real fast! It's really through 'going through thick and thin' that one really gets to know ppl better :) And you feel thankful that there are some really good people around.

Watched The Leap Years with mum over Good Friday, cos she wanted to catch it and also 'cos some colleagues somewhat recommended it. But I thought it was trying a little too hard to be a feel-good romantic kinda movie. And the plot was quite cliched... And the most unbelievable thing in the movie (tiny spoiler alert!) was how KS (played by Qi Yu Wu) and Suneetha (played by Nadya Hutagulung) ended up together... Nonetheless, I LOVED some of the scenes, esp those shot in Chinatown. Wong Li-Lin stays in a beautiful shophouse with her mum. Ananda Everingham is an Orlando Bloom lookalike. There were some interesting quotes from the movie, one of which has become my new blog quote haha. Think I've prob seen it somewhere else, it being so famous, but yeah, have adopted it to serve as some kinda personal reminder :)

Also went for a haircut yesterday but the guy cut my hair too short and now my mum keeps telling me I look like a sec sch girl with no 形象. Thanks.... Now i look ugly..... :( Feeling ugly makes it a lot harder to deal with all the stressful things coming up! Then I kept frowning at her and she says it makes me look even uglier. Hmph!! :(

Esplanade field trip

Rushed down to Esplande area for my photography class today; cos this was the 'night shot' field trip lesson. Was late cos had to settle some things at work... Then like took good 10 min trying to set up never-been-used-b4 tripod... When I was finally ready to shoot, ppl already like v into their pictures already. In any case, dunno maybe was too tired or dunno how to handle shooting with tripod, didn't really get many decent shots. However, instructor taught us some simple tricks; and I got a shot which was pretty cool:

The radiating durian...

The iconic Merlion at night

A random night shot; but for once, it's pretty clear!

The Singapore Flyer by night

Shot this along the link-Esplanade-to-One-Fullerton bridge. By then class had largely dispersed and I just wandered around on my own for a little while longer, since there was a nice breeze and atmosphere felt pretty nice. Sitting by the bridge to enjoy the night view is actually pretty therapeutic... Luckily it wasn't very crowded; but it would have been even more peaceful if it were quieter. When I finally decided to pack up and go home, was half-stalked by young girl carrying out 'Night life' survey for STB... Guess she was a bit desperate for respondents, since my face prob reads "I should be quite clueless abt night life in sg" :)

Little snippets of my week

Monday afternoon I got v frustrated trying to solve the mystery of the laser pointers after Board Room meeting (long story, so wun share)... and so when the very-bothered-with-temporarily-missing-laser-pointers me went to dabao lunch from foodcourt I was totally unaware that I had not brought along wallet. Only when I had to pay did I realise that I was penniless... But the foodstall ah-peh was really trusting and let me take away my packet of food without paying even though I wanted to go back to office to get money... He just said, you come back and pay me later lah. Doubt he recognises me since I dun buy from him that frequently, but yeah... no doubt I only owed him $2.70, somehow his being so trusting made me very touched...

This morning I also decided on a slightly mean way to deal with the sleeping member in my pjt team. Well knowing that she would be away till night b4 my briefing, I still put her down as one of the briefing officers for the day... Thought this was only fair to the other members who have been so helpful and cooperative with their frequently indecisive & inexperienced leader... I am also betting heavily on member not wanting to screw herself up in front of meeting on actual day and trusting that she would somehow find a way to familiarise with materials... Dunno if this is too big a risk to take :P Nevertheless, I hope I dun have to execute the back-up plan of activating myself...

I really thought these were irresistably cute. This pencilcase/pouch cum cardholder is a tiny farewell gift for j, who left for Japan early this morning. It was the most exciting send-off I've been to, really... And part of me wishes that I could go along, too. I suppose the thought of packing up to live elsewhere for a few years remains tempting for me, though not exactly executable. Oh well, I shall just plan instead to visit some time late this year :)

Incidents of injustice at work

I think it's a little disturbing how tolerant we have to be towards irresponsible ppl just for the sake of maintaining a "cordial" working relationship with another dept. This bad egg from another dept owed me something for a year... then when finance came and asked why we didn't incur the expenditure, after weeks of hounding bad egg finally responded with some smart reason as to why the piece of work was not done.... quoting high costs as an excuse... AND even that was so not the reason I had to take it as 'the explanation'... Well I guess I didn't have to take it if I really didn't want to, but deep down I knew if I didn't I prob would have a hard time getting this guy to cooperate with me next time... :( But yeah, feel so 心理不平衡!

Another somewhat disturbing person is fr pjt team... who has MIAed for the pjt, esp towards the 2nd half of pjt... And despite repeated emails/calls asking her to do assigned task; and to feedback if she had problems completing assigned things... I pretty much got ignored. Really dun understand why some ppl dun even have decency to tell me, Hey, I am too busy... I cannot cope; or simply 'Can you give me more time? I'll get to it as soon as I can". NOTHING heard. Then finally when pjt is ending then like agree to appear on day of briefing. And though assign her to brief apparently this lady will be on overseas leave all the way till weekend just b4 briefing. Win already lor. Thank goodness I have some really reliable folks in the team...

Bad day

This morning was just so bad that for the very first time at work I simply felt like sitting down at my desk to 痛痛快快地哭一场。。。It was just one of those why-all-the-difficult/tedious-issues-have-to-befall-my-town/sites days; one of those "your project team member tells you eh, the other team already bound their final report already" days.. And made infinitely worse by getting upset over not being able to manage time as well as experienced colleague; constantly comparing myself with competent individuals; refusing to really compromise on quality even when i'm at my wits' end... And then you can't help but feel so silly why want to be so miserable and stubborn.

Towards the end of the day when I talked to boss he shared some wise words (not his exact words) that I am well aware of but am terribly lousy at practising: Not to measure your self-worth using other ppls' standards. When can I master that...?

Was flipping through a Feb issue of The Economist on the way to gym this morning when I came across this article on Lakshmi Mittal (who owns the world's largest steel firm) And something towards the end caught my eye-- ArcelorMittal's new company motto "Boldness changes everything" I couldn't agree more... Frequently things dun happen 'cos we dun dare to do it? I mean, we'll worry... This thing could happen; that nasty situation is likely to come up; this is too difficult... and so we just dun have the courage to take that first step.... And we never find out 'cos we dun even try. I think I'm also guilty of it, but I hope to be more 'gutsy' with time :) since there might be more to lose if I give up something without even trying. But of course, need to couple guts with some brains lah. Else also no use :P

And just to clarify.... though my March motto is "Just get it over and done with", I actually dun think it's a very good motto to live by :P 'Cos it doesn't inspire one to put in his/her best at all and promotes shoddiness. Hai, but I guess sometimes one has to give and take a bit; and for the eeky things in life, I shall use this as a reminder that better days ought lie ahead :) And so, my new blog description shall read "Boldness changes everything", till I find something even more inspiring!

My personal motto for March is "Just get it over and done with"

Just get it over and done with
Just get it over and done with...
Just get it over and done with........

Above: The world in my colors

Below: Fallen

I actually dun recall seeing a dead bird before, but I stumbled upon this liveless mynah on the doorsteps of a bar (I think) along Ann Siang Hill. Though I felt sad for this little creature (I wonder what happened?) I also thought it looked really peaceful. And this weird coincidental death before a red door made it appear as if it were lying in a pool of red...

Field shoot at Chinatown

Forced myself out of bed at 7.30am this morning for my field shoot today. Unfortunately, the skies were really cloudy and by the time we were ready to hit the streets (about 9 am), it was pouring pretty badly.... Nonetheless, the gloomy weather made it possible for us to shoot dripping water, so it really wasn't that 扫兴 after all :) And after class, I wandered over to interesting little streets in the vicinity like Ann Siang Hill, Erskine Rd, Club St... I wanna own a conserved shophouse! And it felt so nice strolling down the 5-foot (10 foot?) way along Erskine Rd...

Anyway, this post is dedicated to the beautiful shophouses I saw today...

First half an hour or so was spent trying to play with shuttle speed, since we were instructed to be creative with apertures and shutter speeds... I got the above shot only after a few tries...

The red-window shophouse along Temple St... I loved the rich contrast...

A close-up of the dripping water. I am still not v good at manipulating shutter speeds, but good try for a beginner lah ;P

This is one of my fav pictures of the day, taken along Club Street... It was also intentionally un-focused by me, 'cos I thought it looked lovelier that way.

And after this outing I realised that my Olympus DSLR actually takes pretty decent pics... :) Unfortunately the rest of my weekend has to be mostly spent rushing out some report.... :(

It seems like after ppl have worked for a while, they know what ppl like to hear and they become good at giving politically correct answers... It's a skill I dun think I can really master. Not sure if I'd want to master it though. But today I learnt the hard way that next time if I dunno how to package nicely the not so pleasing-to-ear things I want to voice then I had better shut up. :( Buddy says sometimes knowing how to react appropriately in situations just comes with age, no need to get so upset... Hai, zuo4 ren2 so difficult.

My photography class saved the day though. Today our instructor demonstrated how we could 'paint with light'... and I am totally falling in love with light. Photography can be so cool...

Experimenting with shutter speeds in class...

I tried very hard to draw a heart.... Well, this was the best of my many amateurish attempts. A flyaway heart... Oh well, bit deformed, but hey, nothing is perfect.... :)

嬉しいの日。

I was happy 'cos I didn't have to work today. I was happy 'cos I watched an excellent film today. I was also happy... 'cos I found out on my birthday that I had passed my JLPT 2 exam! That was perhaps the best present ever! I mean, I seriously think I was just super lucky, but hey, it feels good.... ;)

The movie I watched today, that I really liked, was The Diving Bell and the Butterfly Would blog about this in a separate post... aargh, all these nice French films are tempting me to learn French...

I am also officially addicted to One Republic's Apologize:

Colbie Caillat- Bubbly

I know I am very slow, but yeah, I finally figured out the title cum singer of this song:


Think she's got a lovely voice. I like the feet-in-jeans-on-bed shot...

I've been awake for a while now
you've got me feelin like a child now
cause every time I see your bubbly face
I get the tinglies in a silly place

It starts in my toes
and I crinkle my nose
where ever it goes I always know
that you make me smile
please stay for a while now
just take your time
where ever you go

The rain is fallin on my window pane
but we are hidin in a safer place
under covers stayin safe and warm
you give me feelins that I adore

It starts in my toes
make me crinkle my nose
where ever it goes i always know
that you make me smile
please stay for a while now
just take your time
where ever you go

What am I gonna say
when you make me feel this way
I just........mmmmmm

It starts in my toes
make me crinkle my nose
where ever it goes i always know
that you make me smile
please stay for a while now
just take your time
where ever you go

I've been asleep for a while now
You tucked me in just like a child now
Cause every time you hold me in your arms
I'm comfortable enough to feel your warmth

It starts in my soul
And I lose all control
When you kiss my nose
The feelin shows
Cause you make me smile
Baby just take your time now
Holdin me tight

Where ever, where ever, where ever you go
Where ever, where ever, where ever you go
Where ever you go, I'll always know
Cause you make me smile here, just for a while

Sticky Notes

Yesterday I retrieved something real pretty from my letterbox:

The two lines read "480 decorated stickies in assorted sizes" and "Post Messages and Reminders in Style" :)

The sender hoped these would 'jazz up' my workstation. But who would waste such pretty things on ordinary documents :P

They really do come in assorted designs and sizes... :)

Afternote to earlier post: I realised earlier this afternoon while fiddling around with the 'spoiled' Olympus DSLR that it really wasn't spoiled at all... hahaha. Certain modes appeared spoiled 'cos the exposure settings had been set to like -5EV (which made everything come out black black) I guess it just goes to show that you need to get to know your camera well b4 you can tap on its functions! Yay can save some money and perhaps free-ride when Dad gets another DSLR... (yeah this Dad, always want to buy new gadgets then 80% of time dun really know how to use)

First photography class

Was really looking forward to this class all day and was like a bit kan cheong spider when I couldn't get off work till like 645pm... But luckily I still made it in time :)

My instructor is this pretty young chap in his late 20s maybe and he does some wedding photography as well as documentary photography. The first half of the session was somewhat haphazard and disappointing 'cos he didn't appear very prepared and several times during the class he openly told us he forgot what he wanted to say. I mean, imagine going through the history of photography, then like you forget the year this famous pic was taken, pause for long time and refer to your notes halfway... And he wasn't very articulate; or rather, he wasn't very good at expressing himself/ putting across clearly what he wanted to convey. Which in my opinion is an impt skill for an instructor to possess. Of course, not like I'm in a position to criticise him for that 'cos I know I've made ppl get real impatient with me for taking like super long to say certain things... But on the whole he appeared nice and approachable lah. And I shall not be too critical so soon, as long as the practical bits of the class are decent.

The people in my class seem pretty interesting. There are four teachers in the class - An Indian lady who teaches P5 English; a lady who teaches at Republic Polytechnic and two American guys who teach at the Singapore American School. And apparently both their wives bought them this class as a present. So sweet. I also got to interact with a girl who quit her accounting course to be a freelance videographer... And this 23-yr-old runs a few-wks-old company doing wedding videography for ppl... Out of curiosity I asked her what made her decide on such a bold decision... And she said, "Just do it lor". So brave.

Unfortunately, I didn't really learn much today 'cos Dad's DSLR was spoiled or something; some modes just didn't work. Then when instructor said to do this this this or that that that my camera just couldn't make it... Then like so sao3 xing4. And so I think I'm going to splurge and buy myself my very own DSLR... Even though it might easily cost me my whole month's pay... it might be a huge initial investment well worth it.... No pain no gain?

Poor Boss (II)

Hee just a status update from V-day episode. So yest morning, everyone received a pot of cactus + an artificial rose from you-know-who. And it turns out that the reason why roses weren't given on V-day itself was 'cos Boss had already ordered cacti for us... just that they didn't arrive in time (or he didn't manage to collect in time) Unfortunately, 'cos the 'mini flower pots' had diff designs; it still led to some behind-boss's-back comparisons....

Hai. Moral of story is women can be very petty creatures. Not bad lah; Boss already learnt that if got leftover roses give to the one and only guy in the unit then no one will complain. But next time he should perhaps also bear in mind to give all the ladies the same thing cos else they will still secretly xin1 li2 bu4 ping2 heng2. This bunch of ladies so hard to please, maybe that's why previous boss never give anything, hor ;)

The Kite Runner

If you read the book, think you'll enjoy the movie.
If you haven't read the book, you should still catch this!
If you studied at Berkeley, you HAVE TO watch this!

It was quite an emotional 2 hrs for me; and in particular this kite scene done at the Berkeley Marina made me feel very nostalgic... There are just some places you grow really attached to and know that you long to return to some day. I don't know if the Afghanistan bits were really shot in Afghanistan but I liked the movie for bringing to life the street scenes, the children, the kite-flying... and it made the 1970s Kabul seem like such a bustling and beautiful place. And I like places and buildings that feel old and historical...

Poor Boss

I suppose it's never easy to head a unit of ladies. 'Cos boss set precedent last year by giving everyone a stalk of rose for V-day, some of us were (jokingly) expecting similar treatment this year. That did not happen of course... so early in morning borrowed bouquets of flowers were placed in boss's workstation as hints to him. When he discovered that the lovely flowers were not meant for him; i bet he was secretly thinking... these subordinates damn difficult to please... But we sorta half made up for it by buying him a cake later in afternoon... which apparently made him v touched... but while cutting cake (and so he kept saying he v touched and wanted to share his heart) some ppl still couldn't get over fact this yr no flowers and like kept telling him places to get flowers from... I... erm... have no comments. haha. Our new DD was sympathetic of boss's plight and sent him an email with an animated bouquet of flowers, with the msg "hope this helps".

Later after proper office hours, Boss came over to convey some amendments he wanted me to make to a paper... (smthg like just adding one 's' to something). Then he walked away, self-proclaiming he very 'particular' hor... Then like he asked what's a better word to describe that... Then while he walked down the walkway, I suddenly shouted "anal"... Eh, then boss like got quite violent reaction... saying that it was 'uncouth'... Miss yy was like laughing v loud in her workstation... Hai, I very 'geh kiang' and dunno how to zuo4 ren2 right, but came home and verified with dictionary -- Anal merely means "showing too much concern with small details, especially in a way that annoys other people"... Where got uncouth :P

Past three days at work have been quite crazy... and two ten pms made me terribly, terribly eye-achey :( During times like this I really wish I were a taitai... Nonetheless, managed to squeeze out two lunches with two friends the past two days... and one was at Holland V, after attending a self-initiated lect at the CSC ;P Somehow whenever I'm out somewhere during office hours I feel like my surroundings are brimming with activity and life... perhaps I felt it more keenly after a lonely depressing night in the office... like it's just really refreshing to not be in office.. :P And I discovered a new, week-old yogurt bar at Holland V yest called 'Frolick'. It had good, plain yogurt and cute shop deco... Their walls were evenly polka-dotted with a variety of 'lil badges, with interesting texts like "I like it topless", "Cereal Killer".... And apparently their badges were as appealing as their yogurt -- to itchy fingers that pilfered them off the (street-facing) walls.

Colors of Haji Lane

I returned to Kampong Glam yest evening, this time to check out Haji Lane... 'cos recently heard many good things abt this little street and wanted to check out its quirky stores. Alas! Most of the stores were closed (guess ppl are still resting for CNY)... Instead, I took to photographing some of the shopfronts.

Nice blue gate.

While J was trying stuff, I scouted around outside for photo ops. Above: Shophouse with color-combi I really liked. Below: '46' was painted on one of the pillars outside an adjacent store... to mark the address '46 Haji Lane'.


This was not taken along Haji Lane but at the old Cat high sch. I thought the patterns were cute... and liked the weathering/decay going on on the left-hand side-- an indication that it has prob been around for a while! Wonder how old this wall is.

In the end we settled for dinner at a Turkish restaurant at Kampong Glam... After a very satisfying meal, we strolled to the pedestrianised Bussorah St... past the Morrocan Deli place I dined at the other time. This is prob one of the few nice spots in Sg that's not overly touristy/upmarket, with relatively affordable eating places. There seemed to be a substantial Caucasian crowd, but I couldn't really tell if they were tourists or expats. Prob more expats. We also discovered quite a few ppl smoking sheesha in relatively dark corners/five-foot ways along Haji Lane on our way back. Anyway, the alluring Sultan Mosque by night...

p/s: Actually Haji Lane is not a v colorful st. My pics might be misleading 'cos I only showed you things I chose to snap. As with many things in life, you are unlikely to get the full picture unless you experience it yourself... :)