bubblegum ba dum ba dum

do you see the day when all your dreams come true?

2012-01-28T15:03:00.000-08:00

ten years from now.. where do you see yourself?

penangite in the red dot

2012-01-28T14:57:00.000-08:00

Happy days in singapore ^^

1. red dot museum's tupperware wonderland

2. level 3(?) of hide and seek. one floor down was a whole section of perfumes.. even had cute bottles with naughty sex pistols' graphics among other things

3. strawberry tart and rockmelon cheesecake at kki #soooo tiny :3 run by a husband and wife team. the man bakes and the wife handles the business side to things.. can it get any cuter?

4. sharing kki's rental space - that little drom store

5. how cute are these book covers?

6. right next door to kki around ann siang was this staircase that led to a basement store. it turned out to have all these racks of clothes that looked like something you'd find in hk's mongkok, disco lights, and a claw vending machine. had some good finds #happyshopper

7. post red dot museum trail - drinks at clark quay.

8. day 2: universal studios ! law breaking tourist ignorant of the surrounding rope :P

9. went on pretty much all the rides, played around in souvenir stores and took pictures with mascots... check check check ;]

10. amusement parks are always such fun :)

11. rushed and made it for dinner at holland village's everything with fries

12. met up with an old school friend

13. day 3: shopping at bugis ! had such neat stores c:

from a tourist's perspective, i've got such a love-hate thing for singapore.. hmm.. will settle with "like" for now ;]

like i've been there before

2012-01-23T16:51:00.000-08:00

back from paris, snuggled under covers listening to my ultimate feel good song :)

i'm running out of time, don't need no lines from a d-d-d-dinosaur

2012-01-13T00:18:00.000-08:00

back to a never ending load of unwashed laundry and unfinished tutorials.. but here's a little distraction ;) isn't she a gorgeous little thing? :P

twenty twelve

2012-01-03T21:42:00.000-08:00

the year was 2011, kate married a prince, ashton kutcher cheated on demi moore, iphone 4s was released and the number of rustic cafes in penang just about increased by about a dozen.

the year is 2012, russell brand and katy perry are getting a divorce, iphone 5 is to be released, and they say the world is going to end. .. but there are still 3248634872 more days till december so fingers crossed this year will be more of an adventure than the last :)

i sort of liked the old malaysian system school year - starting classes in january so everything feels or fresh and new.. a REAL new year. i mean.. what is this starting in september nonsense anyway? summer should like take place in january or something.. like in australia ! oh but then i guess there would be no chance of snow on christmas for the english. .. geez. okay nevermind #confused.

a few of my new year's resolutions.. these are always fun:

1. become more politically aware

2. figure out how to tie a side braid

3. don't procrastinate (very very important.. also most likely to fail. eh WHAT?)

4. be more organized (no leaving shit lying around.. even though it is all done rather artistically so in my humble opinion/don't leave things done halfway.. or like 5% of the way/don't slob around so much/don't arrange to do two things at the same time at two different places.. teleportation has not been made possible yet)

5. actually do the "essential reading" for classes. am in year two.. this probably matters. maybe venture into the "further reading".. i hear people actually read that.

6. actually keep to my new year's resolutions ^^

i am also learning how to ride a bicycle

2011-12-23T04:36:00.000-08:00

1. china house

2. fish spa

3. chong tian cultural hotel

4. sunday morning flea market

5. "our inner" mani and froyo after

people throw rocks at things that shine

2011-12-20T16:55:00.000-08:00

the video :)

here's a message from earth

2011-12-19T21:15:00.000-08:00

i guess in a pretty huge kind of way, this blog is like my little space. it exists essentially as a form of homework procrastination and partially for my sanity. to me, it's my little space that i picture exists in out of space :)

i spun around in circles and hit the floor

2011-12-19T19:42:00.000-08:00

fifth day back home and i've just had my first home-cooked meal. 0 words into both my EU and land essays but i will start. ..once i'm done with this entry. i think i've calmed down my restless self now. well somewhat. the part of me that was so pissed off i chose to do law and was just bursting to scream in the middle of a 5 o' clock monday evening tutorial. that would probably have been pretty embarrassing. but i'm once again at peace with my decision. i mean yea sure it's ridiculously boring and there are still more than a truckload's-worth of narrow-minded idiots who would look at me filled with skepticism whenever i voice aloud the possibility of not pursuing a law career, but i am at peace with it. I chose it on my own, with absolutely no influence by my parents or anyone else (besides maybe bits of legally blonde), and it's all fine really. i guess i just don't like people making presumptions all time. there is that saying about how geminis love to break the rules and hate the status quo. so one semester into year 2, here's the verdict: actually joining more than one society this year has proven pretty satisfying. i probably should have joined kickboxing instead of the rifle club but there's always year 3. movie and milkshake nights with the housemates among other things have made things a more homely for sure. it's pretty cozy.. even with people constantly coming into my room (sheesh invasion of privacy much? :P) the new year is coming up and i guess it's making me reflect a little on the past year. disgruntled emotions made me a little blind in some ways but life's okay. what's truly sad is when others seem to feel the need to scrutinize and over-analyzed your actions.. what's truly sad is when others seem to have nothing better to do with themselves that they need to focus on you. still feeling the need to do something insane and i am still at lost as to what that is, but i think i'll try and focus on some "priorities" for now. caught "you're the apple of my eye" yesterday at gsc and while it wasn't spectacular in the cheesey romantic sense, i thought it portrayed missed opportunities pretty well. i guess it struck the "live in the moment" chord in me. and i don't mean "live like it's your last day" cause i've always thought that saying was rubbish. if it was my last day, i'd be making phone calls to loved ones and a trip to disneyland or six flags..or something. and well i can't very well do that every single day now can i. so um yea.. peace? :)

what would you wish for if you had the chance?

2011-12-17T06:31:00.000-08:00

if i could make one wish and it was guaranteed to come true, i'd wish for the world to be coated with rainbow sprinkles. they would neither melt nor give you that icky sticky feeling. they'd just look pretty and make you happy.

bum bup bup

2011-12-17T00:17:00.001-08:00

cute :)

home to a tropical december

2011-12-15T11:47:00.000-08:00

and i left the uk and its brutally cold weather for 3 weeks :) where my packet of tiny marshmallows and tins of whittard hot chocolate still reside. almost forgot how awesomely sunny its is here. no chances of snow, no bundling up struggling to keep warm.. but bring on the wan tan mee and everything else drool-worthy ;)

so we set the world on fire

2011-12-09T19:59:00.000-08:00

bright lights in the dark night

2011-12-09T19:12:00.000-08:00

walked along bricked roads surrounded by pretty buildings, through endless christmas markets and beautiful christmas decorations. brussels and bruges were absolutely christmassy lovely. and to think it all began at 2am on a saturday morning. thank god for being able to sleep on buses and trains. tried ice-skating for the first time and fell in love with it, survived pickpocket attempts from creepy men, discussed "theories" as we tried to solve the mystery of boys and girls, ate yummalicious churros coated with sugar that fell all over like snow, managed to finally understand "bridge" though i am not so sure how long this knowledge will last, drank beer, ate mussels and plenty of fries which probably prolonged my cough spell, was enchanted by chocolate stores where we carefully selected truffles and pralines to place into pretty little boxes, and discovered the most amazing christmas store (kathe wohlfahrt=i need to go to germany)! reckon christmas coming up did add a touch of magic in the midst of winter :) tee hee laughing now that i recall how we practically ran back towards the elevator upon discovering we got the very last room in the hotel. damn those spooky horror stories.

..the belgium trip from two weekends ago.

remember when we were all doing ib? :)

1. 6am breakfast at st pancras' le pain quotidien

2. warm, sugary and amazing waffle

3. manneken pis - pissing boy all dressed up, near the stretch of chocolate stores that screamed chocolate heaven

4. a red nose, hot chocolate, and a little piece of truffle

5. second scoop of wonderful churros post-ice-skating

6. a merry go round looking pretty vintage

7. bruges and its lovely architecture

8. there's something wonderfully pretty about lit up window displays in the night

9. trying fruit beer on a sunny day. verdict: positive

10. mini europe: so apparently we're huge now

11. in front of the volcano display, there was a panel with a cool earth quake effect

12. us :)

13. we stopped by a haagen dazz stall

14. picture this: classical music, colourful flashing lights, pretty buildings, a christmas tree in the middle.. i really didn't wanna leave :P

wait till you see my christmas list

2011-12-04T09:25:00.001-08:00

the holiday, a warm bagel and cheap wine :) next up.. love actually ;] re-watching lovely christmassy movies ! hmm should probably throw in home alone and how the grinch stole christmas too :P .. guess the thing about being in england is it really does bring out the christmas spirit in you.. almost makes me wish i was celebrating christmas here.. almost ;] also on my movie list: 1. 50/50 (helloooo joseph gordon-levitt) 2. never let me go if i can get in the mood 3. ides of march may be a political movie but i'm feeling pretty ryan gosling-deprived right now 4. tin tin despite having heard not-so-good comments 5. 那些年 (that chinese movie everyone on fb had been going on about last month..? heard it just got realized yesterday) 6. footloose though i have got pretty low expectations since it's a remake .. 7. the help just because ... and 8. beginners looks pretty good :P ..think my list is long enough..

we're only young and naive still

2011-12-02T08:23:00.000-08:00

second trip to portsmouth of the week ! caught the naked and famous with little sis, met up with a former high school classmate, and returned to a box of dream cupcakes :] walked along albert road for a change.. reminded me a little of camden town in london, with the bicycles propped on the walls. as for the concert, it was amazing ! had to leave slightly earlier to catch the train back which kinda sucked but it was fun while it lasted.. got an oversized tee about 965 sizes too big but i didn't want another boys like girls the-t-shirt-i-never-got-scenario to reoccur. alisa xayalith looked quite pixie-like in her dreamlike state..or just plain high. eventually got quite lost in the hype, the music..and could not tell the difference. her voice much sweeter live when she spoke and not fused with the techno trance. there was the odd dancing dude upfront who kept whacking the poor girl behind him.. but i guess all he really wanted to do was dance. even if he was being pretty stupidly inconsiderate about. and in a way i felt like that too, like all i wanted to do was dance..and dance.

p.s: how awesomely girly was the victoria secret fashion show? :P not to mention with orlando bloom and adam levine being adorable boyfriends ! :) naww

maybe it's not too late to learn how to love and forget how to hate

2011-12-01T17:52:00.001-08:00

saturday daytrip to portsmouth's gunwharf quays with the housemates :) - japanese at wagamama, chocolate goodness (chocolate and baileys fudge probably made me like fudge just that little bit more), an attempt at self-restraint and doughnuts !

i just want to make nice memories and get enough sleep

2011-12-01T17:49:00.001-08:00

post hip hop call of duty, singing out loud and out of tune to taylor swift, a tea party with korean tea.. some things just bring about inexplicable happiness. going to sleep with a smile on my face, warm fuzziness.. just knowing it's all good.. and it is all about to get better

can't help myself but count the flaws, claw my way out through these walls

2011-11-19T15:35:00.000-08:00

"...just keep moving forward and don't give a shit what anybody thinks, you know? just keep moving forward and do what you do for you." - johnny depp :)

dumb blonde alert

2011-11-19T15:01:00.000-08:00

the perks of being an early riser

2011-11-16T08:09:00.000-08:00

sooo thanks to sleeping mega early last night (10:07pm say what?).. was awake by 6am.. (before sunrise !).. well, then spent about an hour lying in bed but hey not the point. another reason for being able to be awake at that hour was probably also partially due to leon pacing around outside along the hallway, having had a sudden urge to spring clean, then him barging into my unlocked room about 9 seconds after the smoke alarm went off due to some sort of ironing disaster. he pretty much concluded that we would all die if there really was a fire seeing that none of us could be bothered to get out of bed. (in my defense: he already stated the cause.. it did not sound severe.. i did not feel like getting out of bed). anyway waking up early is pretty awesome. by 10:17am, i felt as though i had done a bajillion things. felt very productive. was a good feeling. (bajillion things meaning - watched new episodes of glee and new girl, browsed through tumblr, fumbled around with phone, lost phone, found phone, cleared about 2GB worth of laptop space, filled about 3.5GB of laptop space, and managed to finish expiring cheddar cheese by attempting a mac n' cheese recipe. no one died. and by noon, playing dress up in formal office wear while drinking blue vodka could be thrown into the mix. )

con: energy level dies by about 4pm. my excuse is that it is unreasonably cold and the sun sets too early.

random foodie pics from last week:

not particularly pleased asda delivery substituted my cherry garcia and chocolate fudge with tubs of cookie dough.

we share the same birthday !

2011-11-13T03:30:00.000-08:00

saw this sometime ago, thought it was the cutest thing :) missing the days when i used to just sit or stand in times/mph speed reading through the mk&a books.

and this has got to be the cutest quiz i've ever taken :P

procrastination is an evil bitch, a very persuasive one at that

2011-11-13T03:08:00.000-08:00

i've got such productivity issues.. like how i can just bum around and do absolutely nothing or everything but what i am really suppose to do (namely work). was initially gonna go to town and look for that wonderland mag with charlotte free on the cover, and to that park to feed the ducks and swans (found a park yesterday with actual ducks and swans to feed !!) but instead, i'm now stuck here trying to get reading done for tomorrow's seminar... YAWN. such a bummer too cause the weather's lovely today. well as lovely as it can get mid-november. things i've discovered this week: 1. mindless chick flick can lift your spirits. i don't care what the reviews say.. 'what's your number?' was just what i needed. not much depth, but just silly and cute enough. anna faris was funny ! and it didn't hurt to look at chris evans either. 2. 'our idiot brother' beats watching a horror movie hands down. 3. passing the belay test at calshot was pretty satisfying.. even though it was such a small thing. probably should stop hogging van space though so i guess that means no indoor rock climbing for me this week. 4. i probably should not have joined the inns of court society since i'm really not making use of it at all :/ .. damn. 5. i really wanna join kickboxing but i think i'd be taking on too much..? and my budget isn't looking too good at the moment. 6. when the conversation gets really awkward, i have the tendency to just ignore them altogether. like "hey look there's a rabbit in your garden!" 7. staying up till 5am to skype someone physically far far away is worth it :) even though my hair was complete shit the next day during my presentation. hmm maybe i'll now bedroom dance like a retard since sheena has gone off to london for her placement so even if i thunder around like an elephant, i won't be disturbing anyone.. but i've got boring reading to do.. hmm.. life decisions. ..word of the day is delirium. okay bye bye.

p.s: why is it that the only links of "one day" i can find are in russian? :/

someday i'll be wonderful

2011-11-07T17:39:00.000-08:00

blunt, terrible cook, and anti-social

2011-11-06T07:22:00.000-08:00

it's a horrid thing to say but i'm going to say it anyway. generally speaking, i'm not bored because i can keep myself entertained. unfortunately, people have bored me. and in that sense, i'll admit, yes i'm bored. right now, i just need a blank page and plenty of inspiration. the truth hurts suckers.

p.s: i love how cowherds has an assortment of sauces for you to pick from.

so hey, guess what

2011-11-06T07:07:00.000-08:00

apparently there's an invisible line between:

being a loner and simply independent

judgmental and "observant"

easy going and a pushover

weird and quirky

strong willed and overly assertive etc.

last night's foggy memories, this morning's comforts

2011-11-03T03:57:00.000-07:00

peep hole.

Handed in my formative land essay which was probably just the tip of the iceberg that is my workload. i've got a list of cases to read by tomorrow for tort which i haven't even glanced at yet. the halloween horror craze phase has pretty much come to a close. good to know that i can now shower in peace. took a walk along mayflower park yesterday; there was a mini carnival with candy floss, cute games and rides that were more likely to scare you due to their flimsy-looking construction state than anything else. nevertheless, there's always something incredibly fun about carnivals. slightly mystical even. i took a walk on fair grounds and pictured myself up high on one of those spinning rides. spin spin, go up high, touch the sky. imagined cheeks flushed from the prolonged rush of cold breeze. wish everything was not so darn expensive. at about half past seven, saw fireworks light up the dark sky from the harbor. Trudged through the muddy ground, saw little girls with pink strands in their hair, thought the sparks made the night seem a little brighter. thought it felt like magic but pity there was no bonfire. took about 15minutes into v for vendetta later that night for me to realize that it is "guy fawkes" and not "guy fox"..i remember correcting myself about this last year too. yes i'm aware i'm a very clever girl with an impeccable memory, thank you. 10pm: set off fireworks in no. 44's backyard. one ran astray, another turned out to be a lighter in disguise. Loads of screaming and dodging later, we survived. spent the morning watching sixteen candles wrapped under the covers, smiled at the happy ending, and closed my eyes listening to the pretty reckless. i stand corrected about what i first said about their music. the week is about to begin again.

snippets

2011-11-01T16:22:00.000-07:00

a halloween night out, london, korean food in china town, funky bertie bott's every flavour beans (tried "booger".. was gross), box of rainbow pocky for free, one missed bus ride, mi goreng old town delivery :)

two pence: blame is such a pathetic form of escapism. in the end i guess, everyone has to remember that they're responsible for themselves and that's that.

it's all in the mind

2011-10-23T06:43:00.001-07:00

i am quite convinced that despite the above having been pistachio.. after talking about pandan and kaya.. i eventually thought that's what the above tasted like :|

autumn isn't being particularly kind, say hi to winter for me

2011-10-22T11:36:00.000-07:00

sometimes i feel like going someplace foreign completely on my own. ..but the weather's being mean and instead i now feel like huddling up wrapped in my duvet with ice-cream, hot chocolate and toasted waffles.

虽然一切都会过去

2011-10-16T00:06:00.001-07:00

someone posted the link fb, watching it made me feel sprinkles of magic :)

walking but so far away

2011-10-15T23:39:00.000-07:00

and i found myself here

2011-10-10T11:54:00.000-07:00

last weekend's ventures away from southampton :)

saturday's last minute decision to portsmouth.. began with oversleeping but ended with some very satisfying shopping :] 60% discounts say what? :P

sunday-trip to london with the penangites and medan girl. was lovely seeing everyone else again :3 plus had malaysian food ! more than decent too. lunch at the malaysian hall, watching the squirrels and hyper active dogs in hyde park, seeing the birds in the pond.. sadly without any bread (next time i'll be prepared), frozen yoghurt with awesome brownie toppings, maple leaves and the light breeze :]

malaysian yo

aw westie

bird party !

nibble nibble

furry brown thingis

froyo at frog's ! buy one get one free

have an infatuation with these half in the wall things :P was so tempted to get the half chair sticking out from the wall in ikea.

macaroons? or should i say macrons..? hmm

was a good day :) IB feels like forever away now.. i guess, this is now.. we're in uni.. a few years shy from (very real) job hunts and those weirdass things they call bills.. yet i don't feel all that different. i don't feel that different at all.

who knew furniture shopping was so so tempting

2011-10-05T10:10:00.000-07:00

weather getting all cold, random showers in the middle of nowhere, getting reprimanded for my severe lack of culinary skills, sales that.. aren't really sales, lots of reading, boring classes.. um yup i think i'm back :| 2 months and a week.. my bank account and i will get through this.

gossip girl s5 ep2,

b: what if i lose everything?

d: you'll still have me :)

*MELTS* :P

there's no place like home

2011-10-05T09:59:00.000-07:00

the last of the summer's foodie explorations :) hard to believe it was all over a week and bajillion miles away...

1. cafe 55, the new kopicine. sans crayons and blank white sheets, rearranged interior and voila.

complimentary tapas :)

leek and cheese !

king prawn..salad?

vanilla souffle :) all pretty and lovely

complimentary kahlua brownie :D

2. fruit juice after a quick catch up session at botanical gardens

3. la france, which really wasn't all that fab in terms of food but the outdoor-sy sitting place at the back was nice :] and i guess it was pretty cheap :/ ..chinese wife cooking french food in the kitchen, french husband teaching wu shu upstairs, what do you know :P

(so.. i think my iphone's cam is pretty awesome :P)

Close your eyes and count to three

2011-09-27T21:58:00.000-07:00

"I asked her if she was unhappy; she says it is not a question of happiness. She says she remembers another thing about when she was young - she remembers when the world was full of wonder-when life was a strand of magic moments strung together, a succession of mysterious revealed, leaving her feeling as though she was in a trance. She remembers back when all it took to make her feel like she was part of the stars was simply to talk about things like death and life and the universe. She doesn't know how to reclaim that sense of magic anymore." -Douglas coupland

..no wi-fi for 8 days.. Bummer

sitting under the sky trying to make out the clouds

2011-09-20T01:10:00.000-07:00

half dug out from june..

[veggie burger at kopicine, now renovated, renamed and something new altogether]

[salmon sandwich at coffee bean]

[woodstock on my mocha]

[four season and its pink lemonade]

[banana pancakes for when it was raining outside]

penangite explorations

2011-09-16T09:47:00.000-07:00

three places.

1. finally managed to have breakfast the other day at toh soon cafe where they toast bread over old-fashioned charcoal fire and make runny half-boiled eggs. a little coffee shop set up along a narrow alley between buildings, bustling with busy workers and a seemingly never ending flow of customers. and i loved the ambience! all for under 2 pounds too? :P i loved itttt !! urgh.. one more week away from that flight to gloomy england where everything's gonna seem so expensive all over again.. and i sort of wish this wasn't on campbell street, someplace in the inner city, but instead a 5 min walk away from my house so i could just have roti bakar, kopi o and eggs in a cup whenever i want. ..and no it wasn't just regular bread, eggs and coffee.

and speaking of campbell street..

2. il bacaro at campbell house taught me two things: white pizza is basically a tomato-free base.. and house wine isn't always bad (not that i know anything about wine at all really). with old pictures on the walls that my mac's sepia effect fails to really imitate, and its brown colour scheme that gives off the whole 19-- whatever vibe, there's a sort of subtle elegance about the place which helps it blend in nicely amongst the old shophouses :] also think it's way cute how they use those little char siew pao baskets to serve bread in. possibly my favourite italian place in penang although honestly i wasn't all that enthusiastic about going there a third time in two weeks at first. on the plus side, it turned out to still be lovely nevertheless :P could even walk over to the next street to get ham jim peng.. and i guess that's what i love about penang.. it's not a crazy huge vibrant city with a never ending series of broadway shows or the best concerts, but it's laid back yet not truly dull, and sometimes i feel as though it has everything i really need.. i mean it has its little quirks and charms, and not to mention an awesome food selection ;]

3. la boheme.. which i have yet to really figure out how to pronounce but for now am gonna just go with what i've heard in rent's "la vie boheme" :/ ..charming really :) even has a tiny cute black kitty cat with white paws. few tables but all nicely spread out so you don't feel at all claustrophobic + french pastries and a salad i don't actually get sick of mid-way. there seem to be so many of these rustic cafes now.. and i love them.. i love them all ! (tho' i admit maybe some a little more than others :P)

if i could do it over, i swear i'd do better

2011-09-15T03:53:00.000-07:00

i can almost picture myself at age 11, rather self-righteous and feeling very much as though i had a clear perspective on life when in fact i didn't know very much at all.

oh dear it slipped my mind

2011-09-12T11:27:00.001-07:00

it's almost as though i'm all over the place and things are turning into a replica of my bedroom. a dose of efficiency would be rather nice. and some macaroons. we could all do with some macaroons ;]

watch this movie. it is awesome.

2011-09-10T08:55:00.000-07:00

don't judge don't take the fun out of it

2011-09-05T07:38:00.000-07:00

finally back on track with my summer cooking/baking plan: i've got this list stuck behind a broccoli magnet on the fridge and i've basically worked out that i need to tick off at least one thing per day till the day i board that flight to england in order to complete it ^_____^

1. rolled omelette - eggs, dry white wine, soya sauce and sugar

2. pumpkin soup and pasta (a little too dry but could've been worse)

3. cinnamon (not quite) circles-second time try.. def not as near of a fail as the first time where everything actually fused into one gigantic chewy mess haha thank goodness for the right flour :P

..and now a little speech from calvin:

good plan

so raise your glass

2011-08-31T03:38:00.000-07:00

"this is collin but he has to go now"

"no i don't" hahaha .. and i think i like chris evans again.. his smile ! :D

kind strangers make things easier :P ..merdeka :D

always on the verge of erupting emotionally

2011-08-29T11:11:00.000-07:00

i wasn't running but i was walking really really fast

didja just make up a theme song for yourself?

2011-08-28T05:14:00.000-07:00

really hope this turns out awesome *fingers crossed* !

hazy skies and pretty city lights

2011-08-27T00:53:00.000-07:00

family trip to china :) first stops: hangzhou and huang shan. saw old villages, lakes, and hills. drank tea.. lots of tea. then shanghai where it was all city-like and less humid.. loved the pretty buildings in shanghai. still no sign of a blue sky there but then finally caught sight of that in hong kong which was just so vibrant and lively :] went to a teahouse for one last dimsum and it was on the plane back home. i honestly think i could just spend a week in shanghai or hong kong doing nothing in particular :P LOVE LOVE LOVE !!! problem is the lack of a blue sky in shanghai :/ ..rah hope the whole industrial phase will blow over.. or a genie appears to clear up the sky.. yea that sounds good.

dinner the first night at a restaurant in xi hu

watch the balloon man go

getting a name carving stamp like the one shown on that documentary dad made me translate :].. of course my mandarin is apparently so shit i couldn't even recognize the ancient writing of my name :/ hm.. really should go look that up in case it's complete nonsense -_-

xi xi the next day which basically involved boat rides along the lake and 4 stops..

eating while waiting at the bus station

hiked for a bit up huang shan from the cable car.. saw tents outside the hotel in a basketball court. thought it'd be pretty cool to try that sometime :P .. night in the tent i mean.. not necessarily there.

woke up at 5am the next morning to catch the sunrise. was already crowded by the time we got there.. pshh..some people..

more walks..down the great canyon

chinese tea party

follow the trend

hong cun, first old village of the day.. with old walls and way overly crowded.

okay i can't remember if this was at the first or second old village but there were all these students around sketching and painting :O .. okay i remember now that was in the first.. but there were also some in the second painting the lake.

then it started to pour.. but dad still wanted to check out the bamboo place a little.. where crouching tiger hidden dragon was filmed.. so we ended up wandering around in the rain for about 15min looking like a teletubby. .. or a digi ad.. complete wardrobe malfunction..well that's what i felt like anyway. lil sis just looked like a gnome :P

gotta love the pictures on the wall

din tai fung

xin tian di was pretty much just as lovely as i remembered.

had ice-cream at haagen dazz.. dad thinking we were ridiculous for taking pics of the menu

at the shanghai expo right before the moving painting (that was hogwarts-like)

jean-georges.. yumz !

melting raspberry

post-dinner at m on the bund

taking the hong kong mtr

tea at the peninsula

mango dessert in some underground place with leon and maggie

street stalls !

wandering around soho

smiling for hours at anything

2011-08-26T21:00:00.001-07:00

sometimes.. i like the thought of sitting alone in a room filled with unfamiliar faces,

standing amongst a sea of unfamiliar people :)

i suppose in a way this keeps me sane

2011-08-26T20:57:00.000-07:00

i believe that everything will always turn out okay :D everything always turns out okay :P ..what do you believe in?

watch me scream at the sea

2011-08-26T08:59:00.000-07:00

home.

how easily she could cut it off and feel nothing

2011-08-14T22:06:00.000-07:00

if i could only live off 3 things:

1. eggs

2. salmon (smoked salmon especially)

3. soba

.. damn i forgot to make room for sushi

i still think 1990 was 10 years ago sometimes

2011-08-14T03:27:00.000-07:00

family outing to balik pulau for durian and laksa, then dad drove pretty much around the island excluding georgetown and we were back home :)

little sister's plate of fruits (no durians)

and then the other day dad took little sis and i to get food at the ramadan bazaar :) camera ran out of battery though which sucked.. the chicken man wanted to strike some sort of pose. knew i should've bothered to look for that charger. and the fried egg roll was surprisingly quite nice.

what i saw last last sunday

2011-08-10T08:04:00.000-07:00

...at the tropfest showing in the middle of esplanade. well, this and another 9.

i'm the hero of the story don't need to be saved

2011-08-08T20:43:00.000-07:00

now having a mental debate in my head about how selfless charity work truly is :/ maybe it depends how much you're really willing to contribute? :S ..damn you t.o.k -.-

*edit* okay so i've given this 760.1 seconds of thought.. maybe it is selfless if...you're truly giving up a whole bunch of stuff... like you're a billionaire who donates so much that you're pretty much living like a regular person..with just enough to get by.. -____- but then it's like.. charity work=selfish simply because it supposedly makes you feel better about yourself. so like even giving up every single thing you own might actually be considered selfish nevertheless because it makes you feel good to do good. say.. what if you see household chores as making you feel better about yourself cause you've been cleaning up after everyone without complaint all day.. does that mean doing household chores=selfish too..? :| and for that matter does anything considered as rewarding=selfish? ..urgh whyyyy did mr newton have to question mother theresa's good deeds. ..maybe i'll just go back to my 6 year old belief that charity=selfless. yea that sounds easier. little voice in my head: but that's POTENTIALLY not true.. -.- okay you can shut up now. um yea.. this is why i can't do philosophical shit. i'd just end up with my mind all over the place. but with all that said.. i still think charity work is amazing and obviously for the better good of humanity.

*edit**edit* i think with charity.. selfishness is involved to a certain extent but ultimately, selflessness outweighs selfishness even if it is just marginally so.. *shutting up my brain before i further confuse myself*

charm > hotness anytime.. but apparently ryan gosling has both so.. jksdfjhsd !

if i seem a little strange, that's because i am

2011-08-07T00:43:00.000-07:00

wouldn't it be cool if...

? :)

blank pages staring back at me

2011-08-06T09:55:00.000-07:00

" i don't want money, i just want to be wonderful"-marilyn monroe

less than two months. had this dream while napping in which i was already back in southampton. i was horrified. such a nightmare really.. thank goodness it was only just a dream *cue the nelly song* haha okay that was lame :|

don't you want me

2011-08-03T01:49:00.001-07:00

soooo i've got "don't you want me" stuck in my head. y'know the song with "i was working as a waitress at a cocktail bar.." :P probably cause i've been listening to it so many times this past week. even after listening to the original version and cover versions over and over and over again though i'm still undecided as to which one i like best :/ usually i'd pick the original b-b-b-ut the atomic tom cover is so likeable ! (even the darren criss & lea michele one is pretty good)

anyway this mv's pretty cool with the 80's references and is actually making me wanna watch "take me home tonight" (also, i swear the blonde girl who's not anna faris looks like kristen stewart in the trailer.. if it hadn't been for the fact i googled and she had all these different facial expressions.. i'd totally have thought it was a blonde kristen stewart) :P

you've been running around in circles but you're looking for love

2011-08-02T05:12:00.000-07:00

:( cameron mitchell

walked down a street drinking ribena from a box. i'm a child, let me be.

2011-08-01T04:24:00.000-07:00

singapore in less than 48 hours :)

"Like I'm made of glass, Like I'm made of paper"

nom nom nom (makes me picture a hamster eating)

2011-07-31T02:41:00.000-07:00

muntri mews !

mango with sticky rice-ice-cream had some funky taste, some hazelnut(?) coffee drink-yum,

vietnamese springroll-looked good

laksa-left a little more to be desired :/

indonesian salad thing-really wanted this the next time i went but they didn't have it.. meh

koay teow :)

it's always teatime here

2011-07-25T21:22:00.000-07:00

day trip to cameron highlands with the family on saturday :)

first stop, bought strawberries, drank strawberry coffee from a teddy bear mug and played with the camera while everyone else ate fried noodles with cabbage :)

lunch at ye olde smokehouse :D

it rained but we managed to take a couple of pictures when the rain stopped for a bit

it has a cute little flower garden too !

tummy ! :P

then headed up to the boh tea factory. and later one of those tea time coffee shops for the view.

thought the green looked very much like a maze out of an alice in wonderland illustration. dad thought it looked like a carpet.. quite true

then it was time tea at the jim thompson tea room

not much of a tea person and i'd def pick coffee over tea any day but thought it was not bad :)

and of course there were the little cakes and scones

finally, curry mee and seafood at butterworth on the way back.. supposedly the best.. hmm

civilisation.. hmm ain't this familiar

2011-07-24T00:15:00.000-07:00

2 weeks at the waterberg biosphere went by so quickly ! and my isv volunteering project is now complete! of winter cold mornings and relatively warm afternoons under the sun, i'm missing it already. from the 2 hour long hikes to waking up before dawn. i guess it's true that isolation can be fun :P hikes were actually quite fun.. that is when i wasn't busy being tired and pulling myself away from sickle bushes and climbing up/down one too many rocky edges. taking in the foreign picture-esque scenery, the friendly cleaning ladies, animal spotting, creeping up as quietly as possible behind a tree to watch rhinos grazing with fingers crossed that the wind is in our favour, adventures in the "danger ranger" over rocky roads and while avoiding incoming bitchslaps from low tree branches, sitting by the fire place after dinner and just being away from everything else in the world. Watching warthogs run was like the cutest thing ever haha they'd just run off like scared little pigs with their tails all pointed up as they skitter off :) aww :) there may be cuts and scratches all over my legs and ity bity splinters stuck in my palm but i saw a cloud rainbow, wished on a shooting star and experienced more than i could possibly explain or pen down. dad asked if it was worth it, and the fact is it was :) it really really was. i kinda wish i got to go for that 2 week adventure tour everyone else went on after the 2 weeks at lapalala but there's always next time I suppose :) skydiving can wait a little longer..and okay, now to find someone to watch harry potter with me.

(btw apparently northern english call it "breakfast, dinner and tea" as opposed to "breakfast, lunch and dinner".. hmm.. of all the things to make confusing :P.. )

rafiki knows the way !

2011-07-23T09:01:00.000-07:00

Day 1

after a four hour + bus drive from johannesburg, we arrived at kolobe camp on the lapalala wilderness reserve. the beginning of a two week getaway :) saw a family of warthogs (pumba !) and two white rhinos on our way in. p.s: there's absolutely no phone service here. ..none. it is in fact necessary to hike up a hill (app 15min to the top) to make phone calls.

Day 2

Meeting time was at 9am after breakfast. Listened to a sorta intro-talk by the director at the Lapalala Wilderness Reserve who basically mentioned how conservation's important (to ensure that the ecosystem's all balanced and it's difficult with reserves cause there can't be too many animals in ratio with the amount of land. when there are too many elephants for example, there's the debate as to whether the animals should be killed which is absolutely horrid with the helicopters and nets.. and when the baby elephants are left behind they end up being scarred for life according to animal psychologists..awful. the problem is when there are more animals, they can't exactly continuously expand the land forever.. there's always a limit. especially with communities living on the outside. Lapalala had been looking into introducing elephants and lions but are currently facing some land claim issues so that's on standby. Currently lacking to have the complete big 5 (rhinos, leopards, buffalos, elephants and lions). Also apparently fencing is not full proof.. especially with animals such as warthogs digging holes beneath it. The holes could be used by bigger animals and more dangerous animals in the future and dum dum dum then they could escape to outside communities. um yea. After a quick briefing, we walked a bit (past the mysterious owner's house which looks like a pretty cool summer home) to this area filled with twigs and dried leaves for weed plucking (the mother of millions or whatever it's called was EVERYWHERE).

..plus i kept getting dead leaves in my hair and tights.. it was like i was turning into a tree. Also saw monkey prints in the sand on the way. After that we were split into 3 groups (6-7 per group) - teams rhino, giraffe and zebra. it was to decide when we cook and head out for volunteer work. Was sorted into team rhino and in charge of food duty of the day (once volunteer tasks began, if you're in charge of cooking that day you don't head out for work). Set out lunch which was basically bread PB&J and tuna salad. Oh and random fact from earlier - snakes don't come out during winter so guess we won't be seeing any. After lunch we went for a hike and well, it turned out to REALLY be a hike - complete with twigs in my hair, rocky surfaces and hard to climb parts...rahh. doesn't help that i don't feel fit at all since being away in uni. anyway had amazing views :) saw a scorpion under a rock (with hair supposedly sticking out when sensing danger.. and well there's supposedly a difference between the more venemous ones which basically rely on their venom - these have wider tails and smaller pincirs). Had to walk in single file to reduce the impact on the ecosystem. Supposedly some zebras ran past in front but most of us missed that. Saw a giraffe though which was cool :) really like how it's all calm up there and like curiously looking at us :P Also saw these caterpillar things which were basically small but joined together so they'd look like one long one. Samir (field guide person) passed us hare poop and told us about this s. african game which involved putting it into your mouth then spitting it to see who could spit the furthest.. almost tried it.. al-most.. :| In the evening, team rhino prepared dinner - baked potatoes, stir fried veg and steak. Planned to eat meat this trip but after two dinners I don't think I wanna go back to eating meat now to be honest :/ Couldn't quite finish it.. which was pretty ironic (is that the right word?) cause of the "starving children in Africa" thought. Had to clean up after which was pretty gross cause of the pure oily-ness on my fingers.. I am so not the domestic goddess but cooking didn't go badly at all so phew! ;)

Day 3

Days 2 and 3 are pretty much meant to be an intro for what we'd be doing during the rest of the two weeks. This morning we had to be up and ready by 6 45am for bird point counts. Team rhino and half of team zebra went with Samir and Dave while the rest went with Eddie and Carly. Took the game vehicle, a blanket for warmth and we were off. Stopped at 2 spots. Heard some birds but pity we didn't really get to see anything... probably cause of the drizzling weather. On the plus side we got to see animals along the way - zebras, wildebeests, warthogs, impalas, kudus, monkeys and red hartebeests :)

Zebras and wildebeests tend to be around each other quite a lot cause they feed off different things (zebras eat anything which tends to reveal the good stuff for wildebeests). and they rely on different senses, with zebras have really good eyesight. (btw after a little thought, i realized that the wildebeests were the ones who stampeded and killed mufasa during the stampede in the lion king T_T). Was really hard to get decent pics sometimes cause of the other people on the game vehicle/animals moving etc :( The warthogs are mad cute. I. want. one !! Impalas are fairly common. Apparently they're like McDs cause of the M shaped on their butts and are fast food for predators (Har har -_-).

We crossed the stream leading towards the pool with crocs and hippos. Can't wait to see hippos (DANCING HIPPOS) :P

Saw hippo poop... and rhino poop... and impala poop :| Poop's a common sighting alright. Oh and thorns. Thorns suck. Saw a termite hill where snakes and lizards hibernate in during the winter cause the climate underground can be controlled. It's like an iceberg in the sense that there's more than what can be seen from up above. Saw a lead tree too which is supposedly so dense it can sink and one of the strongest woods in the world.. other trees can also rely on it for support. Also saw a piece of land where a community once lived in. Even after 30-40 years, you could still see traces of the previous habitants. Having owned livestock too, the land was subject to overgrazing and thus quite useless now :/ It has been subjected to land claim now. The past tenants apparently just need to prove they stayed there for years within a built community but I guess the game park needs it as part of the conserved land for animals...? :/

In the afternoon, we were briefed on keying in data and the habitat assessment.transaction. Then we went for a hike up a hill, passing by some ancient pieces left behind when communities lived there. There was this one area that was lived in 150 years ago. Supposedly it was ideal up the hill cause then you could oversea everything else. There were LOTS of thorns and rocks though. It was like just as you're looking down for rocks and uneven surfaces (which was pretty much everywhere), it's like THORN BRANCH IN YOUR FACE !! D: Doesn't help when your hair/clothes get caught either. The area was black rhino territory. Wish we had seen one but I guess that would've been pretty dangerous :/ Lots of poop (as usual), and you could see that some people had stepped on it.. not sure if it's cause they hadn't noticed it or avoiding it simply wasn't a priority with all the shaky rocks about. Since we were up a hill, I managed to get cellphone service so yay ! Even if it was just for a bit.. Samir climbed up a tree and then the males in the group.. (as valarie pointed out, males being males.. in the middle of nature no less) just had to do the same. When we reached the top(-ish?), we got to rest for a bit with biscuits and chips. tee hee :) On the way back, we uh got lost, took a detour, but made it back to the game vehicles alright :P Spotted a couple of birds too... same with just now on the way back from the morning's field work.. funny how they seem to come out only when we're NOT doing the bird count... conveniently -.- Spotted a honey bird on the way up the hill. It's apparently a culture-sorta thing that they lead people/honey badgers to honey but if not passed on, it can be forgotten :/ The hike was pretty awesome. Quite the adventure with the little detour :P I'm such a nature girl now :D .. har har. Was wayyy tired when we got back though. Glad I wasn't on kitchen duty.

Day 4

Woke up at the ungodly hour of something like a quarter to 6am this morning to get ready for departure at 6 30am. ..joy. Have been experiencing some pretty weird dreams lately. It's always a whole sequence of random things. Claire said that there are 3 kinds, one that gives you hallucinations and nightmares (no TQ!), another that makes you burn faster, and another that's 3 times more expensive $. Both of us are taking malarone (the third i think) which isn't meant to do anything to you.. but really her dreams were probably even weirder than mine. Eventually everyone concluded that it was probably just lapalala itself that induced weird dreams and random sleep talking :P . Team rhino went with Samir today and he told us a lil' about "African time" which basically is that by saying we meet at 6 30am, it really means 6 30am-6 40am and not 6 25am xD We started off with bird point counts which was basically a record of the bird species seen/heard, how far from the center point etc (necessary in assuring balance in the ecosystem or something cause if anything goes wrong the birds would be the first to disappear). We passed by this enclosure where there were two black rhinos - one big female which is overly aggressive and a young male which has supposedly gotten to used to humans :/After that we did our very first habitat assessment (measuring biomass with the UFO, woodie touches with a woodie touch pole (yes this does sound wrong..all the time) etc).

There we saw hugeeee hippo prints..and their poop (like i said.. poop's everywhere) and later 2 hippos and a baby in the river. We got pretty close to them too ! Pity I didn't have my camera with me (was on the game vehicle)... will probably end up stealing a pic off one of the others eventually. The rest of the "square" recording went well. The other team had to go up a hill with their half of the grid.. hmm I'd rather stay close to the water and hippos :P. Next was game counting - basically sat in the game vehicle and for 5km we'd have to record the number of game we saw+their gender+sub-adult/adult/juvenile)+distance+bearing etc.... spotted impalas, baboons(very skittish), kudus and monkeys.

In the afternoon, we ended up going on another hike cause the researcher wasn't done with looking for new sites yet (apparently the previous batches of volunteers finished the work quicker than expected). Hiking 3 days in a row. This time definately exceeding 2 hours and without tea breaks :| The beginning was way rocky but it got somewhat better (albeit tiring). Got one or two nice landscape shots I think thought it wasn't easy, having to take some without stopping. Spotted a zebra, snake eagle and stork, something left behind by a dung beetle, more poop and burnt areas.

Day 5

Today's rest/kitchen duty day for team rhino so we got to get up at 9am :P Had an informal lecture with Dave showing us a presentation on the ecosystem, rhinos being hunted for their horns, a cheetah mascot etc. Basically conservation is an issue in S.Africa with its biodiversity but the government does not see it as one of the top 20 priorities even, due to all the other problems in regard to the community... so this leads to NGOs working on their own to prevent wildlife extinction with the support of businesses. Problems with the ecosystem include:1) Alien invasion (e.g: prickly pear draining water which is already scarce enough as it is. 2) Community development - if there's a starving community and a species found in the area.. which is to come first? Besides there are the regular issues such as pollution and the lack of education is a disadvantage cause many of the locals just don't understand the importance of conservation :/ Don't support conservation= no donations, yes pouching etc. So for example there's this cheetah mascot which is trained to be around children who can then pass on the message back home. Arguably, it's not fair that this cheetah doesn't get to live in the wild and has to be around humans all the time. Then again it could be a good thing if all goes well and the rest of it's kind can benefit in the future. And this one seems to be doing alright (no signs of not eating :/). Tourism is a main source of income for conservation but at the same time it is a detriment cause it influences the natural habitat with buildings and the necessary facilities. Perhaps this is why exclusive high end tourism is seen as attractive. A huge problem that persists would be the syndicates who shoot animals (e.g: rhino) and cut off their horn. The thing is they don't even kill them cause it's always easier to use darts (randomy aim) as opposed to bullets which must hit the head (not horn)/heart to prevent it from running away. So with the tranquilizers, they knock out the animal, get what they want.. and often enough half its face is gone -.- it.is.disgusting. absolutely awful. bleeding and exposed, it'd just be suffering. if it's fortunate enough it dies without waking up -.- they can't even be treated cause with such a grievous wound, it's exposed to cancer and all kinds of infection.. it's just too much. They end up having to be put to death if found. Some people are just ridiculously despicable. A man was tried last year(?) for running one of the biggest syndicates. He employs more than 10 vets who have access to tranquilizers.. buys rhinos and then employs pouchers to cut off their horns.. like a meat factory/slaughter house. As a vet he should earn a lot over here yet he does this -_- Rhino horns in the black market are apparently worth more than a rhino itself at a game auction. Pouchers found on reserves with weapons can apparently be shot and the government by right shouldn't be able to do anything about it. It's quite devastating cause pouchers are sometimes found to be rangers meant to look after the animals. Thing is the syndicates will eventually approach them and just by getting hold of one horn, they earn two year's worth of their salary. Apparently they earn even less than the cleaning ladies and especially if their wives don't have jobs as cleaning ladies or something on the same reserve and simply sit at home, the last thing on their mind would be protecting the rhinos. Ensuring that their family has food and can afford to pay school fees would be a priority. It's very sad. The jail sentence for pouchers is not very much - either a fine which they can earn back easily or 6 months in jail. Neither seen as great losses and the chances of even going to trial is extremely small. Also horns are sold in countries such as vietnam to make medicine and it's difficult to stamp out beliefs once they have been cemented into people's heads no matter how untrue it is. Out of desperation, some people place poison on rhino horns so that although the animal won't be harmed by it, should they be hunted, those who come into contact with it (even the vietnamese women making the medicine/those who consume it) die. Thus creating a ripple effect and it's just controversial cause more people end up harmed. Anyway enough of the depressing stuff.. animal sightings; family of warthogs that came into the camp site while we had breakfast. and towards the end of the "lecture", we saw monkeys and a baboon with a lemon from the lemon tree. We did our laundry, hung out in bungalow 2 and had grilled cheese on grilled bread for lunch.

After lunch, we went for a 9-10km walk on flat ground searching for white rhino but had no luck. Did see running giraffes though.. looking all lanky and adorably awkward. Also passed by the impala carcass left in a cage for some sort of insect decomposition experiment by the researcher woman. After dinner, sat around the fire and lol-ed at funky anti-malaria pill-induced dreams and soon malaria pills became the new lol-worthy thing associated to everything diff from the norm :P

Day 6

2 bird sites with lots of birds (actually visible ones) and a habitat transaction with like 100monkeys.. also saw a pygmy mouse which was way cute. After lunch, did a game count which really consisted of twigs, constant ducking from low branches and leaves in pants more than anything else. Whew ! Dave mentioned how after our time here we won't wanna return to the real world (cause yes we were all in some virtual state complete with a LSD drip :P). Will see :)

Day 7

Tired to the max. Basically this was a free day for everyone. Met up at 10am for a 15min hike up the hill nearby to send texts/call back home. Then did a 45 min walk. After 2pm, we started on the crazy long hike ad that was an understatement -_- it was EXHAUSTING -.- Was pretty much a 4hr+ hike. Learned three things: 1. walking uphill is a killer when you've been walking for seemingly forever. 2. stepping into sickle bushes=pain. 3. bouldering is not camera-carrying-friendly. particularly when the camera is quite big. On the plus side we saw a mommy and baby rhino. And yes that makes me feel all the more better :)

Day 8

This morning, got ready and everything by about 6 35am and we were off. Bird counting went alright.. the habitat assessment site on the other hand was just awful.. AWFUL. It was cold in the morning (as usual) - we pretty much looked like bandits with scarves, hoodies, blankets and all.. and then we arrived at the prickliest tree filled site ever. But we had lunch at this nice place outside a house with wasps and a pretty view overlooking a stream. Animal sighting: klipspringers. So cute, they move around on tip toes too.. like little ballerinas haha. Saw 35 impalas, warthogs scurrying off as usual, a male giraffe eating leaves, a monkey and a waterbuck. When we got back, keyed in the data with Kate which was simple enough.

Day 9

Day off for our team today but apparently the laundry room closes over the weekend so we ended up having to handwash stuff in bath tubs. Quite fun... but i can't imagine handwashing every single day really.. Lazed by the pool for a bit then headed out in search of white rhinos. sad attempt to beat one of the team's 8 rhino count the day before -_- the other two teams who came back from lunch yesterday reported such jealous-worthy sightings -hippos running into the water.. so loud it sounded like a train, crocs and an easier site? what the what :| ended up seeing 5 white rhinos though so at least that was something :) two of the basically ran past us about 20m away but was so not quick enough to catch a shot cause we so did not expect that. Chutneye sauce, knock knock jokes and slimey grease-cleaning later, it was alcohol time at the bar. Much to the delight of easily more than half the volunteers :P After that we roasted marshmallows using actual tree sticks (very survivor-esque) :P Apparently the trick to making them professionally golden brown is to rotate them slowly above coal and not set them on fire (which some people basically did.. shoving sticks into flames :P). Then guessed dead man riddles - one being: a dead body and wood shavings.. why did he die. This just reminded me of detective conan mysteries that never.seem.to.end.

Day 10

...was a boring day that basically consisted of sitting by the pool. Enough said. ..oh and monkeys apparently got into bungalow 2. It was pretty cute when you could see one of them just peering in through the glass door after that from the pool. Well cute when they're not actually pooping all over your sleeping bags/stealing your food anyway :P

Day 11

their ears reminded me of dopey (snow white) :P

Today was good in terms of animal sightings !! Best.day.ever !! Although there were the unfortunate accidents close to noon with the forehead bump which looked pretty bad and cheek bruise. ..So from the start, got up freakishly early (as usual).. was fuh-reezing. Ducked under the blanket half the time. Shared a habitat assessment with Team Zebra.. finished it pretty quickly despite the gah-awful "african thorn bush cat" and its deadly thorns. Went to the dam in search for crocs. No luck there but we did see 4 hippos having a little water party. Could actually see bubbles as they moved underwater. Lunch-ed then went for an adventure-filled drive. 8 rhinos(and a baby), 16 zebras(and a baby), 6 kudus, 30 wildebeests, 1 jackal, 28 impalas, several monkeys, lots of 'zazoos' and pretty birds, 2 klipspringers and 6+ warthogs(with babies).. Was awesome. Plus incredibly rocky roads. roller coasters? pshh :P

(went down across the shallow waters then accelerated up the road ahead :P)

Day 12

3 bird point counts, a habitat assessment and a picnic on a cliff later.. saw 3 rock hyrax which were mega cute. i want one !! or two :P Just realized I never got around to rearing chipmunks. Saw a hugeass giraffe stallion in the middle of the road,

then a pretty young female one later behind a tree on the way back. Trees are so not camera-friendly. Sometimes I wonder if they're like "I'm behind a tree, they can't see me" and it's like us looking at rhinos thinking they can't sense that we're there but really they're just "i can totally tell you're there but i don't care -_-" haha then went to the buffalo camp (there's a fence to separate this are from the rest.. something about preventing TB from spreading or something.. was busy falling asleep :| Saw about 6 of them and they actually came up pretty close to us but we were behind a tree so.. rahhh trees are mean. more than half the time my cam would be focusing on the tree.. Returned to the camp site, had lunch, then went out again to the dam with hopes of seeing a croc but once again no luck.

did see a close up giraffe though which was cute and in picture perfect view. It was probably just standing there looking at us while we looked for crocs in the water cause when the vehicle turned around it was like "giraffe !" (only no actually screaming cause y'know.. we have to be like.. mega quiet and stuff). Then went to the black rhino and buffalo enclosure again.. came back, had an awesome chicken potjie dinner which took forever to cook in the hotpot by the fire but was so so very yum.

The americans made an apple thing for Pan's birthday. And then we headed out for the nightdrive. Was cold and I (along with almost half the rest apparently) were pretty sleepy at this point. but everytime the car stopped it was like *SIT UP there's an animal somewhere!* we saw impalas, a civit cat, a white tailed mongoose, wildebeest, bushbabies, waterbucks and an unidentified fox-like thing. Did a little stargazing too looking at the winter sky. Saw the southern cross, scorpio, sagittarius and a shooting star ! Was pretty cool. Kinda felt like one of those night safaris that travels along rails on theme parks cause we were going so slowly..only it was real.

Day 13

At 3pm, we headed for the bushmen paintings. Was pretty neat how the bushmen used ostrich eggs+other natural stuff to paint on rocks :) also there were spirit hands or something.. which.. hmm.. and you wonder why rocks are mean during our hikes :P Drove into the sunset, passing by impalas, wildebeests, zebras, warthogs and white rhinos along the way. Oh apparently there was a black mamba sighting today and if you get poisoned (striked? whatever it is that you call an attack), you've only got 20min to live... meaning you'd die cause we're in the middle of nowhere and 20min isn't gonna get you anywhere. On the plus side, the bigger the snake the less venemous it is.. and this was supposedly 8feet. ..so maybe you'd have 30-40min.. but really.. in the middle of nowhere... we're like an hour away from the closest little town. um not so safe.

And that is pretty much all :) and apparently I don't detest planes so much anymore. Or maybe it's just traveling alone :/ Besides the icky cold cutlery..that's still icky. Oh and julie(julie and julia)'s totally right about butter. it's amazing and margarine (what i had been eating for the past two weeks) cannot even begin to compare. I mean I've always thought so.. I was just reminded :P

and we would've knocked out guards if there weren't so many

2011-07-03T19:09:00.000-07:00

straights quay staring out at the sea :) so fun and i can't even remember what we talked about

how hawaiian is this?

frooze yoghurt with rainbow sprinkles !

also bought crazily overpriced paper but they're uber cute and i suppose that is meant to justify it .. and the "discount card" is quite useless cause you probably need to spend like thousands before getting a measly 10% off .. but like i said, the papers are awfully pretty

step one you say we need to talk

2011-07-03T05:31:00.000-07:00

i'm not talking weeks.. i'm talking pushing everything else aside,

A: why should you put so much effort into trying to save people who can't be bothered to even try and save themselves?

B: because they're the ones who need saving the most

..debatable

one day

2011-07-02T09:23:00.000-07:00

i want the book :]

comme si comme ca

2011-07-01T19:54:00.000-07:00

geography has never been a strong suit of mine.. in fact i kinda sucked at it. i'm not even entirely sure how the seabreeze thing works. but it has never really bothered me.. until now when i mentally chide myself during commercial breaks while watching saturday morning tv- "why i did not bring back my jumpers?!" T___T "what am i going to wear?!" "how was i suppose to know s.africa has zero degree-winters?!?!?" i didn't even know they have winters. frankly, with all my warm snuggly winter wear locked up in some storage in southampton, anything below 20 would be bad with the kinda clothing i have right now. five days left, believe it or not (i find it hard to) till i'll be tracking, researching and learning about the ecosystem (hopefully with some cute african elephants involved). so unprepared. i don't even know if i really want to use that rucksack dad dug out from the storage and it probably doesn't help that i spent the past 3 days playing pokemon red on my mac. on the plus side i finally completed the game. i felt like i just wasted 3 days after that.. like that was the lamest thing i've ever done then i spent the entire night repeatedly dreaming of catching pokemon with my charizard. .. yes it was quite sad. but i kinda felt like i had to do it when i came across the link on one of my new fave blogs cause it was one of those things that i never finished as a child (childhood issues wtf i can hear freud in my head) cause my gameboy cartridge kept dying on me (really, it'd just RESTART the whole damn thing.. and this other time my cousin played 1/3 of the game for me which was so not what i wanted him to do :| ). .. also back then i was not awesome enough to strategize and complete the game in 3 days.

also sister and i are trying to do this "speak only in french" thing with each other which basically means i don't talk. haha. i really need to find that dictionary. am now listening to merzhin in hopes that helps :P (..it does not)

they were pretty awesome at hard rock. pity the crowd wasn't a little more.. enthusiastic. i mean it wasn't bad at all (the crowd).. but ah well.. anyway the grandma next to me was all clappity-clap clap. that was quite cute.

anddd c'est tout ! :]

awkward turtle ! oh and the picture is irrelevant

2011-06-27T17:43:00.000-07:00

1. it is nice when you feel that burst of non-stop happy chattiness and have so much to tell the other person

2. it is nice when you're so comfortable with another person that you can sit around in absolute silence without feeling the least bit awkward

3. it is not nice when there is an awkward silence and you're struggling to find random shit to say just to fill the void it creates

perhaps one day you will join us

2011-06-26T02:03:00.000-07:00

John Cage: You’re probably just less afraid of being alone than everyone else.

Ally Mcbeal: What are you talking about? I’m terrified of being alone!

John: That is your biggest fantasy of all. The truth is you’re probably happier being alone.

Ally: Excuse me?

John: Sad as it is to want something you don’t have, it’s much worse to have something you don’t want. If you do get married,ultimately he’ll end up being something you don’t want.

Ally: Why do you say that?

John: Because what you do want, Ally, he isn’t out there… And secretly, I think you know that. That’s why you have developed this ability to look at a judge and see Al Green. To look at a cloud and see cotton candy. At some unconscious level, I think you know the only world that won’t disappoint is the one you make up.

Ally: That isn’t true. I do these things because I’m nuts. Because I’m crazy. But I love this world, John. I love this world.

John: Fine. Then, perhaps one day, you’ll choose to live in it with the rest of us.

cause y'know, obviously

2011-06-24T07:45:00.000-07:00

just watched the adjustment bureau and i loved it. i love love loved it ! which was awesome cause i didn't expect to love it at all. in fact i mostly watched it cause dad wanted to watch it and well.. mommy and i were initially planning to watch some french film. the fact that emily blunt was in it was pretty far off in my mind (months ago i would have thought it impossible cause 1. i saw the movie posters seemingly everywhere.. 2. i think emily blunt is pretty cool). it could have been a little more complex but anyway it turned out to be much better than that source code movie i watched the other night (that was alright but a little too gloomy for me). so yay ! i guess it's cause i don't believe in fate and i agree with that internet quote that "destiny's for losers" :P .. i think we all have choices.. it's just so difficult cause we're all obsessed with making the "right ones".

also: keira knightley was so charming in last night, i think i like her again.. in a non-lesbianic kinda way ;]

"they're playing michael jackson so i OBVIOUSLY want to dance, but that would be weird, so i just dance in my mind, and dancing in my mind takes serious concentration." - zooey deschanel :] and yay ! i've successfully inserted three of my fave actresses in one post :D .. my list of fave actresses really does outweigh the number of fave actors i have.. :| hmm.. doesn't help i've lost interest in one or two.. hugh jackman i'm looking at you >:|

cooking experiments

2011-06-22T22:06:00.001-07:00

caught a bit julie and julia on tv the other night while dad was channel surfing. and was reminded of one of my summer plans - to experiment with cooking and i just knew i needed to get started on it right away before i completely lost interest (very likely.. dad was the first to agree). this was about a week ago. and apparently that statement's quite true seeing that i haven't exactly been in the kitchen to do anything besides open the fridges and cupboards scouting for ready-to-eatfood. nothing that'd take longer than half a minute to prepare. on the plus side, i've bookmarked some martha stewart recipes so hopefully i'll try that soon enough. (don't count on it).

on sunday though i did attempt to make a quiche with help from mom (not that i needed it really..pshh) :) ..not quite as cheesy as i would have liked (that little wine bar does cheesy quiche so well !) and adding broccoli probably wasn't the best idea since it gets burnt so easily but it was a start.

also tried this yoghurt-trifle-decorating sort of thing earlier in the afternoon. remember coming across something like it in one of jing min's fb albums. always toyed with the idea since i love adding digestive biscuits to my plain yoghurt anyway (much too plain and unsweet on its own). used this australian-made european yoghurt mom has been buying. australian/european..go figure. tastes the same as home-made yoghurt really. probably should have added more of it but was feeling quite full since i was doing this right after having come back from lunch. also kinda wish i bought those strawberries now that i'm looking at the pictures. ..or cherries.. cherries are always a favourite. and no, not the artificially sweetened bright red ones.

trust me to get inspiration from a movie.

no, and thank you, please madam, i ain't lost, just wandering

2011-06-21T23:21:00.000-07:00

it was probably almost a week ago when shing yee was asking me if i'd be free on sunday night. 'it's father's day.' was my reply at first but after a little shifting i was free and i had a father's day lunch with the fam instead. dinner would've been the norm but frankly it wouldn't have made much of a difference to my dad or my grandfather really. and so we ended up at the wailers concert at hard rock. was greeted by all the smoke in the lobby.. i don't ever remember hating smokers quite so much, in fact i normally wouldn't be able to care less, but just then it was pretty awful. 'the dying group' i could picture kylie calling them :P . i found out a little too late that (5 minutes to going out) that it was a sand stage, a poolside concert so my outfit was quite wrong but at least i was wearing shorts. we had a slice of pizza, drank coke and beer, and commented on how if only the stage was facing the other way we'd be able to sit on the slide set. we arrived pretty late so it was a bit hard to get the perfect view. in between wandering, sy'd point out the couples and we briefly tried to distinguish the couples from the hook ups for a second or two. eventually we just gave up searching for the perfect spot and decided to enjoy the concert regardless. in that moment, i was kinda reminded why i love penang, the beach and the laidback-ness of it all.. and i swear i loved it. feet in the sand/water (we tried out both spots) - it may not have been one of the craziest concerts but i've always liked a little reggae, and as they sang, the words ran through my mind.. "everything's gonna be alright". i believed it :)

7.2163 seconds of unclarity

2011-06-20T00:13:00.000-07:00

candid.. well close enough :)

i've been walking in the same way i did, missing out the cracks in the pavement

2011-06-17T20:33:00.000-07:00

lok lok

wonder what this will turn into x years later

had coffee at the yeng keng hotel, another one of those boutique hotels. had lunch at muntri mews the other day which is a lot more minimalistic with it's white walls and dark brown. both probably aren't all that fab for food but they're nice enough to hang around and def picturesque.

it's pretty cool the chinese-y art art, wooden blinds and dim lights

saw another on the way back to the car. seriously, these heritage boutique hotels are popping up everywhere

on another note - quite annoying how i need to constantly think about how snatch thieves might just grab my bag and immobilize me in the process. such joy really.

and i really want something from souzoucreations' etsy now. so bloody cute !! with the little confectioneries and japanese foodie things.. well.. i'd probably break the coffee ring within a week but the concept and everything's just too cute :P ♥

give me something to believe in

2011-06-16T23:51:00.000-07:00

one movie and a half (andy lau and gong li's what woman want and gnomeo and juliet), three meals and lots of sleep later + one sunday, and then i turned two-o

feels pretty good to be back home. just started reading my first book in forever - allison pearson's i think i love you. mindless chick-lit, uber fave :P

pasta at delicious, straits quay with the pcghs girls. being in the new foodie mall for the first time was pretty foreign :P

lasagne

four cheese macaroni

salmon !

awesome cake

with boats and a lighthouse :)

that charlie brown place everyone seems to be taking pictures with

and that was the beginning of summer back home :]

also attempted to get mua chi the other day but that was a fail -___- none of them seemed to be open.. but ate lots anyway so didn't really matter :P

shing yee's without the nuts

mango with shaved ice from this new japanese store.

shing yee was just waiting for me to comment all the changes in penang :P

tee hee she had much to say

cream puff

and then we moved on to gurney drive for wan tan mee, fried octopus and chestnuts

aaaand i just got back from roti lunch with luo yi.. gotta make up for lost time :P now craving: nasi lemak

oh gosh oh golly gee

2011-06-12T07:15:00.000-07:00

the best thing about turning twenty is having two candles on my cakes making me feel like i'm turning two tee hee *deluded*. okay so i'm twenty and there have been some "transactions" since my last birthday like heading off to uni for nine months away from home, doing my own laundry, not being able to drive due to the lack of a car overseas (okay this kinda just makes me sound like i moved backwards lol), buying uk vogue instead of teenvogue (this really just began when i could only find the former in southampton).. and great now i can no longer look at those "teenage quotes" on the net thinking that "ooo yea those totally apply to me" -.- joy. to be honest i think birthdays aren't very much fun anymore (understatement). i mean when i was 6, i could look forward to being 16. now what am i gonna look forward to? turning 200?! =.= hmm meh.. quarter life crisis in the making. ah well will see.. for now, two weeks and a day + into june.. summer freedom and back on the island of heat and humidity. so far i've basically been.. sleeping a lot.. on the verge of throwing a tantrum due to the lack of a working local sim card (now fixed.. thank god) and trying out new places (have been to muntri mews, straits quay, that foodie places below a saloon..etc) .. okay so not very productive but i've got south africa to prep for and projects to resume.. productivity level really should rise tomorrow -___- *lazy bug*

p.s: oreo+crepe cake=yum ♥

just a little bit ho-hum

2011-06-08T15:09:00.000-07:00

uninspired.

on the plus side, i'm two days away from that 13hour plane journey, waffles, beaches, wrap around skirts, a car and sunshine.. lots of sunshine :]

an eye for an eye only ends up making the whole world blind

2011-06-03T12:50:00.000-07:00

soooo i've figured it out - i just need to find my inner peace :D ooo maybe i'll throw in yoga to my list of things to do over summer. i'm so set on my path to self-actualization.. maslow would be proud :P

oh and i quote gandhi now (^_____^) v peace

"be the change that you want to see in the world"

lost on a carousel, the world doesn't stop moving

2011-06-03T10:01:00.000-07:00

you can't take back the words you say. no matter how much you believe you don't mean it, you can't take it back. no matter how much you regret it, you can't just erase everyone else's memories. like with words, life's like that too. what's done is done and you can't turn back time..and i think i'm gonna choose to forget everything that has happened till now. for real this time, i'm choosing to forget everything. the pettiness, the stupidity of it all.. it's everywhere, it's pathetic. i feel like i just want to run away but i'm always feeling like i want to run away and i never feel like i truly manage to escape from everything. i'm rambling now but point is, i'm gonna just seal everything in the past and open a new page for real starting NOW :] i'll finish reading my pile of magazines, get started on my little-big projects, watch pirates of the caribbean, laze around, borrow a psychology book or two..7 more days and i'll be back on the island where i'll camwhore in the fishing village, paint tees, go back to kickboxing, write and drink coffee in starbucks, have lunch in coffee shops, go to the gym and run till i can't feel anything, revise french and maybe go back for a couple of classes, check out the new places, spend time with old friends, prep for south africa and with fingers crossed get a job. .. summer's looking so much brighter :)

time i won't be getting back

2011-06-03T09:03:00.000-07:00

"transitions in life are usually marked by major events, birthdays, graduations, weddings; but the greater transition often come out of smaller moments, when we stop and look at who we are, because each time we see how far we have come, we also see how far we still have to go. in order to fully transform, we might need to free ourselves of everything we've been holding on to, to send us on our new path, the right one. but if at the end, you find the person you have become is not the person you want to be. you can always turn around and try again. and maybe the next time you won't be so alone when it's over."

came here in september and i guess.. with uni.. i was kinda hoping that life would turn out how i imagined it to be. but really it didn't. if anything, i'm now looking at it all as a complete bore. one big whole chunk of boredom. and okay so i do get bored easily. i always have. it made me do things halfway and redirect what little focus i have onto something else. at this point though, all i really wanna say is i'm bored of this stupid game. everyone looks like such a fool and any 1 of my 20 assorted flavours of jelly beans is far more interesting than anyone of you. and that is all :)

paperchase happiness

2011-06-02T05:26:00.000-07:00

the elephant project

so i bought a little album from paperchase in town yesterday. planning to make a little album out of memories from my first year in uni :) photo selecting sucks due to the 20page limit but this should be fun (provided i don't get bored of the idea too quickly) :P and it's really pretty surreal looking back at the pictures taken during the first few weeks.. thinking about how things turned out and how they were at one point.

stickers make me happy :] and a new uber cute passport holder helps too (dim sum, sushi and a panda.. what's not to like?) :P

cracks on the ground

2011-06-02T02:31:00.001-07:00

28/6/10

we were in the comic store when a man accidentally knocked over a box of badges. janice helped him pick them up and i.. i sorta just stood there. like i didn't know how to help. there weren't that many tho so i guess my help wasn't exactly necessary but that moment of not knowing how to help.. sorta reminded me of life. how there are some pieces i'm not quite sure how to fix. and i just stood there like i'm standing here... watching.

2/6/11

but now i feel like it'll all be okay.. and i think everything's okay.. cause it just has to be :D

an afternoon of crisps and other nonsense

2011-05-31T07:09:00.000-07:00

1. drawing i got from covent garden that i still have yet to put up and probably won't seeing that i'll be leaving this room in a bit

2. overpriced penang hokkien noodles (prawn mee which is apparently diff from kl's hokkien mee) at noodle fusion bar last weekend. probably eight times the price of what you'd get in penang+ overpriced teh tarik :P

3. boyce avenue for gen's birthday ! the concert was awesome despite the pushy bitches, the cake tasted amazing, met with mitchie and had yummy mango and grapefruit sago dessert in chinatown ♥

'cause when i needed a place to hang my heart

you were there to wear it from the start

it sounds like this is nothing new and that it hasn't been for awhile

you wake up on the other side and you strain to force a smile

the fairytale inside your head has become your new best friend

but i can assure you, that i'll be there before the story ends

best song of the moment :)

ooo and daniel (the bassist-slash-percussionist+writer of this song) graduated from harvard law school ! what the what? :O

oh and exams are over so um yay? :]

it's like tomorrow, well almost

2011-05-07T02:25:00.000-07:00

a couple of thingamabobs:

1. fred perry checkered shoes i've been looking for and finally found :)

2. sinful but uber cutely packaged chocolates from jamie oliver's recipease

3. spoon choc meant to go with warm milk which i realized doesn't really work with cold milk

4. happy purchase from yumi :)

exams in 2 weeks.. time to focus :|

diary of the week plus one

2011-05-05T08:53:00.000-07:00

third week of easter in april (which i can't believe is over already. fastest month of the year thus far that went by just like that :|) from lunches and dinners in southampton with mom to the beach in brighton and then finally two days in london. 8 days with mom :) listening to funny stories, talking about some book she just read and exploring more foodie outlets than i normally wouldn't have within a week in my past 7-8 months here (overpriced nasi goreng and sushi deliveries from old town tends to do that)

walked along oxford street before finally deciding on oxfords:

the second night, it was indian food at coriander lounge :)

actually went to the docks area first but wasn't too impressed :/ ennio's was probably

the best looking but i've been there before and it wasn't thaaat impressive,

so thought we'd try something new :) the indian place was packed ! :|

lunch at hamptons :)

i like quiet streets at night :)

the lack of moving vehicles remind me of a move set haha

pizza at prezzo

and then the next day it was off to brighton :)

where the stores are nicer and the people are better dressed (i've concluded that better stores basically=more variety=better dressed people.. okay i know it's a very obvious deduction)

lunch at jamie oliver's recipease

went to the beach where i attempted to revise contract..

was so breezy that day i'm not quite sure how people could stand just wearing tank tops

i really like the cute little bohemian-esque stores :P

dinner at jamie oliver's italian :P

um carbonara? haha can't remember :x

have started taking a liking to rocket salad (well more so than before.. used to disgust me)

as long as i take it with something else

puttanesca

tiramisu ! the cream which looks deceivingly like ice-cream in this picture was really quite diff.. not very sweet but thick

was taking pictures of the pink flowers when some guy came up to sis and i to tell us how uh.. ok clearly i've forgotten my lesson of the day.. but it was something about pink flowers=apple trees? and uh white flowers=something else.. cherries maybe? :| haha okay should google :P

lunch at terre a terre, some vegetarian restaurant

was YUM!

went into an alice in wonderland store :) too cute

and aubin&wills which i now love tho' like hollister and jack willis.. it's just not very price-friendly -_- lovely heather marks pictures tho :D

dinner at some greek place :]

left brighton for london on saturday and had lunch at hakasan which lil' sis clearly thinks is way too pretentious and overrated haha

then we went to tate modern along south bank :D had been meaning to go for a while so yay ! :] there was this sunflower seed exhibition by ai wei wei

picasso painting !

my little model *loveees*

dinner near the tower bridge :P

outside buckingham palace like a week before the royal wedding :)

covent garden which was packed as usual

there was a guy singing iris which was O_O *LOVE* haha

covent garden might just be my fave spot to hangout in london at the moment..

smoke salmon craze in le pain

WANT TO GOOO !! :O

would you say you know me? do you know me well? :)

2011-05-03T06:52:00.001-07:00

if i crashed and burned

even just for a moment

2011-04-30T02:25:00.000-07:00

:) ♥

where no one knows your name

2011-04-27T09:45:00.000-07:00

there's something strangely liberating about wandering around on your own in a foreign city :)