a cloud's fear of kites

e.t.a. hoffman's "the sandman"

2009-07-15T08:43:06Z

this is a puppet version of e.t.a. hoffman's short story 'the sandman'. i've only just recently tracked it down, having been haunted in my childhood from it!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UjgHbRrnjhU

chie mihara

2009-07-04T06:58:40Z

beautiful shoes.

atame

titzi

borges

from down under

2009-06-14T07:54:48Z

flinders station

river bank

melanzane pizza

st kilda's beach

sticky date pudding cupcake

cityscape from the top of the shrine of remembrance

obese kwally we woke up with the clamour of photo-taking from the roadside

waves from the lighthouse

some of the now less than twelve apostles

deceptively calm waves on logan's beach

dinner on my last night

Re:

2009-06-10T08:02:55Z

http://www.straitstimes.com/Breaking+News/Singapore/Story/STIStory_387886.html

wonderful! we're up to two documented swine flu cases on EK405, the same flight number I took on my return flight yesterday. the body aches i woke up with this morning do not help my paranoia.

more on my wonderful grad trip to melbourne soon! (if anyone still even reads this, that is)

get to know yourself better?

2009-03-04T10:48:33Z

taken from lisette

Your view on yourself:
You are down-to-earth and people like you because you are so straightforward. You are an efficient problem solver because you will listen to both sides of an argument before making a decision that usually appeals to both parties.

The type of girlfriend/boyfriend you are looking for:
You like serious, smart and determined people. You don't judge a book by its cover, so good-looking people aren't necessarily your style. This makes you an attractive person in many people's eyes.

Your readiness to commit to a relationship:
You are ready to commit as soon as you meet the right person. And you believe you will pretty much know as soon as you might that person.

The seriousness of your love:
You are very serious about relationships and aren't interested in wasting time with people you don't really like. If you meet the right person, you will fall deeply and beautifully in love.

Your views on education
Education is very important in life. You want to study hard and learn as much as you can.

The right job for you:
You have plenty of dream jobs but have little chance of doing any of them if you don't focus on something in particular. You need to choose something and go for it to be happy and achieve success.

How do you view success:
You are confident that you will be successful in your chosen career and nothing will stop you from trying.

What are you most afraid of:
You are afraid of having no one to rely on in times of trouble. You don't ever want to be unable to take care of yourself. Independence is important to you.

Who is your true self:
You are mature, reasonable, honest and give good advice. People ask for your comments on all sorts of different issues. Sometimes you might find yourself in a dilemma when trapped with a problem, which your heart rather than your head needs to solve.

The results make me out to a far more mature person than I am. o_O Take it yourself here.

take care of my cat

2009-01-18T06:13:57Z

one for the year

2009-01-04T03:43:22Z

i just have one new years' resolution this year: to be a more motivated person.

more fashion procrastination

2008-10-14T05:48:16Z

woody allen and japanese fashion

2008-10-01T07:02:34Z

i got so bored trying to distract myself from my essay due tomorrow that i'm watching woody allen films while looking through japanese magazine scans (courtesy of jmagazinescans). so i made a wallpaper collage of outfits that i like, and most of them include blazers. another trend that's not wearable in sg :/ after the cut if you're interested - 1024x768 sized.

images courtesy of vivi, non-no and pinky magazines

touristy things in sg (and ikea)

2008-08-11T13:20:26Z

today was the first day of uni...man it was a total brain drain! really forgot how to concentrate in class and have really intellectual lecturers unload 3 hours of literary analysis and ramblings on me.

i spent the weekend (and today) well tho! on saturday i had dinner with kl and joel and just hung out after that, with supper. guys sure can eat a lot! i was so stuffed after our cafe cartel dinner, but the boys had space in their stomachs for maggie goreng!

on sunday i showed 2 japanese exchange students around. we visited the national museum, chinatown and the esplanade. as promised,

the national museum has these moving chandeliers.

ho ho.

meat on a plate waiting to be boiled in our yummy chinatown hot pot! :9

ryoma happily dumping everything into our soups!

a huge gathering of old men playing chinese chess in chinatown.

dodgy pics of a new huge temple...it was so big i simply could not accomodate it all in my photos. our suspicions of it being a tourist trap were confirmed when we saw a built-in carpark in the back.

chinatown food carts

a view of our city skyline from the top of the esplanade.

----

then i visited ikea with ahmad today! we didn't end up getting anything, but we found lots of potential "Storage solutions" and will go around measuring stuff before we go back to make actual purchases. the major draw was in fact the swedish meatballs.

nasty pasta with horrible watery sauce (a la secondary school canteen food style) but with divine meatballs. heaven and hell!

our salmon salad. fresh and delicious!

the tampines ikea is far larger than the queensway one! they have this huge warehouse space which you walk through for a bit before paying, and i thought it was pretty cool.

ok that's all! i'm glad i do touristy things in singapore too, and not just being touristy overseas. ok...reading now. being a student is serious business.

these days

2008-08-09T18:31:11Z

i'm sort of happy these days...last week before a new school term starts! i am super rusty with actually concentrating in class (and showing up in class) and writing essays...it feels like i haven't done that in ages, as canada was one big vacation.

i have been keeping busy doing nonsense such as rereading all my banana yoshimoto books (NP, asleep, lizard, goodbye tsugumi, amrita - which is my favourite), playing katamari damacy and ookami, and just hanging out with people doing comfortable, familiar things.

but i miss having my own place so much...i miss having tea when i want to, reading in complete silence, being able to do anything i want in my own time. i really miss canada and travelling. sometimes i am so tired of being repressed by social and financial circumstance. although i want to make the best of what i can with what i have, it can be really frustrating once you've experienced something different. but like i said, i am mostly happy these days, and cannot wait to be a student again.

oh and by the way, i am selling my old manga and artbooks right here so please drop by and have a look if you are interested!

god of war!!! redux

2008-08-02T14:59:30Z

omgosh...i turned down 3 separate invitations to club, drink and go to sentosa (not in that order) in order to watch ahmad play god of war 2! second round tomorrow!! i think this means i have officially reached true geekdom. well, not really. but i do so love the bloody gory bashing!!

also, i realize i have not updated in damn long...i promise to write more! with pictures! yeah! :D

LOL

2008-03-15T22:06:15Z

"In a furious response, the government put the entire country on alert, setting up checkpoints, sealing its borders, patrolling its parks and its shores, even urging people to keep an eye on their bicycles in case the wanted man decided to pedal to freedom."

INFP 2

2008-03-10T22:35:29Z

right. i probably need to reconsider bolding "loses things easily" in the previous entry cos i just lost my phone and credit cards over the weekend. also, one glove and 2 lipglosses. go me!

INFP

2008-03-05T01:05:43Z

interesting test..i like that i'm only 4.4% of the population, but my friend told me he's getting sick of people wanting to be different all the time. is nothing new?!

INFP - "Questor". High capacity for caring. Emotional face to the world. High sense of honor derived from internal values. 4.4% of total population.

Free Jung Personality Test (similar to Myers-Briggs/MBTI)

INFP
creative, smart, idealist, loner, attracted to sad things, disorganized, avoidant, can be overwhelmed by unpleasant feelings, prone to quitting, prone to feelings of loneliness, ambivalent of the rules, solitary, daydreams about people to maintain a sense of closeness, focus on fantasies, acts without planning, low self confidence, emotionally moody, can feel defective, prone to lateness, likes esoteric things, wounded at the core, feels shame, frequently losing things, prone to sadness, prone to dreaming about a rescuer, disorderly, observer, easily distracted, does not like crowds, can act without thinking, private, can feel uncomfortable around others, familiar with the darkside (!?!?!), hermit, more likely to support marijuana legalization, can sabotage self, likes the rain, sometimes can't control fearful thoughts, prone to crying, prone to regret, attracted to the counter culture, can be submissive, prone to feeling discouraged, frequently second guesses self, not punctual, not always prepared, can feel victimized, prone to confusion, prone to irresponsibility, can be pessimistic

favored careers:
poet, painter, freelance artist, musician, writer, art therapist, teacher (art, music, drama), songwriter, art historian, library assistant, composer, work in the perfoming arts, art curator, playwrite, bookseller, cartoonist, video editor, photographer, philosopher, record store owner, digital artist, cinematographer, costume designer, film producer, philosophy professor, librarian, music therapist, enviromentalist, movie director, activist, bookstore owner, filmmaker

disfavored careers:
business professional, manager, executive, administrator, business owner, supervisor, office manager, business analyst, financial analyst, public relations manager, ceo, executive assistant, judge, event coordinator, lawyer, office worker

omg...can we say stereotype!?

[edit]: because i'm so bored trying to procrastinate from work, i've bolded the ones i think are right...immodestly. i've never really wanted to be any of the favoured careers so i'll just leave those out.

the skinny

2008-02-29T05:05:46Z

and disgusting.

chinese night

2008-01-12T07:59:21Z

wow...after a week here, i can say that this is the life i wish i'd been living all along! it's a great feeling when you feel like you've found something that's right for you but that you never knew existed...i love life overseas, and studying overseas! everything is so incredibly different from singapore and though there are parts of sg i do love, most others i would much rather change and have changed.

anyway, classes here have been alright so far...the study system and workload is pretty much similar to singapore so it doesn't differ that much really. people are very friendly though, and i've made friends even in my classes...which isn't that common in sg really. or maybe cos i'm in a foreign country and feel like i have to put myself out there and get to know people while i have the chance... i made a lot of friends in orientation and everyone is amazing and enthusiastic and really cool to hang out with.

on thursday night (pub night in toronto apparently) i went out with a russian guy named moshe and his friends, and it was sooo fun even though it was just a short chill night. we had a beer at a pub basically in the middle of nowhere and then hung out at moshe's house for a bit before he sent us home. the guy next to me in the car was completely stoned and he couldn't stop touching the faux fur on my hood half the time...super funny!

and tonight, we were supposed to have a brazilian night where our brazilian friends would take us to a brazilian restaurant and everything, but in the end things didn't go as planned and it became chinese night. we went to chinatown, had some chinese food (not bad and cheap for the amount!) and then karaoke-d for an hour before we had to leave to catch the last train back. on the way back i realized i'd left my camera at the karaoke place and guga and suhaymath were super nice to accompany me all the way back there.

some important lessons i've learned in the past week...first impressions really aren't accurate and one should always withhold judgement and bias before one really gets to know a person because the most unseeming people can be the nicest and coolest. also, music is truly a language that unites all cultures :)

do check my facebook for pics if you're keen...i'm too lazy to resize them! ^^

cold cold cold

2008-01-04T12:11:14Z

i don't think i was adequately mentally or physically prepared for the freezing temperatures and conditions here! these are my new bestfriends.

so far things have been really crazy...a day and a half flight due to delays, puking during one of my three flights :(, making friends with this amazingly kind, intelligent and really hot black nba player lookalike guy who paid my entire taxi fare like 40 or 50 canadian to naren's apartment (I FUCKING LOST HIS NUMBER I AM SO PISSED OFF AND SAD COS I CAN'T THANK HIM PROPERLY OR MEET HIM AGAIN LIKE HE WANTED BEFORE HE FLIES BACK TO MINNESOTA), staying at naren's for the night, walking about an hour's walk including detours to dufferin mall and having my first real taste of american fastfood since i was like 14 or something, buying so many things in these huge cheapo supermarkets (think mustafa), cabbing down to my apartment and being really lost about things, being helped by this awesome guy on my floor who helped me bring up my things and then showed me around the nearby food places, spending the night without a blanket and bundled up in 3 layers, mitts, scarf, chemical warmers and 2 parkas. and still having to adjust my body clock to the time. day lasts only about 10 hours here :((((

it's only been the second day but i'm already having the best time of my life ever. like ever ever. how can i go back to sg happy again (except about the cheap great food - the food here is pretty disgusting - and taxi rides?)

every walk out here is like an adventure cos of the snow, slush and wind - a 5 minute walk can be more physically challenging than a 15 or 20 minute walk in sg. and i experienced snowing!!! AAAH it's as pretty as i imagined and a lot less cold. everything here is so much more expensive, but the service you get seems proportional to the increase in tax and tips. and everyone is so individual and independent - it's really a completely different culture here from asian societies! but still, everyone is incredibly friendly and polite. and people here are used to diverse cultures and ethnic minorities, so that's always nice. people keep commenting that my english is great though, and that really annoys me!

i'll update with more pics when i can be bothered resizing them. toooodelooos!

leaving for toronto...

2008-01-01T14:02:22Z

...in 8 hrs! i'm so excited and so nervous at the same time - it'll be my first solo flight ever. i can't believe that in a bit more than 24 hrs i'll be from humid warm singapore to freezing biting torontonian weather. i'm looking forward to it! thanks everyone for your well wishes! xoxo

omg

2007-12-17T13:03:23Z

i just came home from work and shopping for stuff to make choc rum balls this xmas, stepped out of the cab, and the bottle of rum i'd just bought fell through the paperbag and smashed into the ground right next to my left foot! i think i was like 10cm away from a totally cut up foot...kind of really shaken and shocked right now O_O

first night "out" in ages!

2007-11-24T19:49:24Z

gosh..after what feels like ages being camped at home studying and distracting myself from study (but mostly working on inane assignments - that moby dick one being the worst of it all), i've finally enjoyed a pretty fun night out with kl and joel. we had a huge party plate of sushi at sakae, then saw beowulf without having any prior knowledge of it, except i remembered it as an important text in the gothic genre or somesuch thing...but was pleasantly surprised by how cool a movie it was. yes, i'm pretty much e typical audience hollywood targets, and i love graphics and CGI costing millions to make and otherwise mindless straightforward plots starring blockbuster actors, and particularly when executed in a lord of the rings style. love it. grendel was like a huge oversized and more pathetic version of gollum, and the dragon was simply awesome. the expressions on the characters did seem kinda plastic and fake but when the movie first started, i was confused momentarily as to whether it was real-life or CGI till kl confirmed that it was. so i guess that says something about how real the graphics look. it makes me wanna read the original text!

anyways we had a drink at the newly partitioned off part of pool junction which has become a bar cum soccer viewing chillout spot, and then some pool. and then finished the night off with the usual maggie goreng and teh aliah. mmm love it. meeting up with the boys was so fun! they can make me laugh so much at the dumbest things. boys.

exams are hardly on my mind now as i'm rewatching old simpsons episodes online to pass the time when i'm home...i guess after the hell i've been put through this semester, the exams seem more like a reprieve than anything else!

smile on my face

2007-11-06T15:30:29Z

this really put a smile on my face, on an otherwise just awful awful day. do spread the word if you think it'll make someone's day :)

♥ my daddy

2007-11-03T15:24:02Z

my daddy's been on two business trips in the past month...on the first one, he bought me a thick 100% cotton knee-length coat with a detachable hoodie for toronto weather (though perhaps more for early winter and when spring comes by) from mango! how great of him. the sizing and all was perfect too. he just got back from his second trip today and here's what he got me - ysl foundation! in the perfect shade too. amazing papa!

my guilty pleasures

2007-11-02T07:09:13Z

inspired by this post, i decided to make a list of my own guilty pleasures especially since it's such a stormy day today, it's the perfect time to mooch around and make these sorts of lists :)

1. sleep
i love sleep...can't do without it. 8 hours is my absolute minmimum - anything below that and i'm usually grumpy, headachey and zombie-like for the rest of the day. i can sleep 10-12 hours on weekends and holidays, and still have space in between for 2-3 hour naps!

2. food-induced coma sleep
like barneys girl, i think the best kind of sleep is food-induced. after having a heavy lunch, the next perfectly logical and most comfortable thing for me to do is have a nice nap. this is especially nice in rainy weather (like today) or extremely hot afternoons which make one so drowsy.

3. snacking
i snack a lot - life just wouldn't be complete without it! i love lay's sour cream and onion, most marks and spencers chips, and ruffles cheddar and sour cream. ice cream is good too - ben and jerry's make my favourite (chubby hubby).

4. rewatching movies / doing work with movies as background noise
well this is sort of a guilty pleasure, given how much of a waste of time it can be. there's nothing better i like than rewatching old movies over and over, or listening to them while i do work. one of my favourites to do this to is amelie of montmartre which has a great soundtrack.

5. buying mac
not the computer, but the makeup. one of the main agendas on my list when at a mall is usually to head into the nearest mac store and see if the new collections have come in. my favourites are the lipglasses and eyeshadows, as they are inexpensive enough to buy without hemming and hawing a great deal (like i would with their full-sized brushes - $90 for one! phooey!) and i use them the most - not to mention they look so pretty lined up on my table :D

6. disney films
i have a great weakness for the old disney films...bambi, beauty and the beast, the little mermaid, etc. the even older ones like cinderella and sleeping beauty are of course classics as well which i could just watch over and over.

7. homely weekends
one of my favourite indulgences is to have a completely appointment-free weekend to stay at home, usually with a book or movie and just be alone with nobody but myself. bliss.

8. hot chocolate
nothing better than a steaming mug of hot chocolate with marshmallows to keep you warm and happy. my current addiction is swiss miss which has separate sachets filled with tiny marshmallows which melt in your mouth. mmmm!

well, that's all i can think of right now. what are some of your favourite indulgences?

winterwear for toronto

2007-10-18T03:04:11Z

since i am going on exchange to toronto during the winter semester next year, i was looking at some winterwear ideas...so far i love delias the most! has anyone been to toronto during the winter and any ideas and advice on what's appropriate/fashionable?

i love this jacket hoodie for school! i was really going to get this, but i thought i should see how cold it is there first and also hopefully see if there are cheaper options there.

i like this one too - not as much as the first, but it's so expensive for what it is :( i really hope to be able to find something like this that has lots of lining and layers and still looks as good!

one of the trenches i looked at. i love checked designs!

this is the one i ended up getting, with mom's approval. everyone i showed it to loved it! i thought it would be more practical to get something in a no-frills and functional design that i can match with everything. i'm excited to check out the 2nd hand stores/flea markets over there for cuter options. i also -love- that scarf she is wearing, and it's also retailing at delias here. it's 66" though - that's way long!

does anyone have recommendations on what kind of scarves, mittens, hats and other things i might need? i need something that does not shed...so i think acrylic is a safe bet. also, random, but i wish singapore had winter so we could all wear trenches and scarves!