Greens & browns

Last Thursday, I headed to the Botanic Gardens for some nature's therapy. Had late, late brunch (3ish in the afternoon) at Group Therapy and walked about snapping photos and enjoying the scenery. Lazy days like these are the best! I had a similar day out back in 2010, except that this time round I had company which made everything more fun. If only Singapore had cooler weather.. I would make it a point to take strolls in gardens much more frequently!

true blue

People say that you shouldn't look back to the past too often and I guess they're right. Sometimes I wonder how I managed to make myself believe that I was truly happy then. Looking back, I think that when one's in the situation, you just get so caught up by whatever's going on (emotions, new things happening, etc) that you get blinded and lose your sense of judgement. This is probably why it's important for those around you who aren't looking at things through rose-tinted glasses like you are, to keep you grounded and to remind you of who you really are.

Do I regret it? Yes, and no. Yes because I find that I had spent a good amount of my time, efforts and emotions on something that wasn't worth it in the end and that I did not realize it at that time. There are many things which cannot be undone and experiences which could have been much, much better. But oh well.

And no, because it at least taught me a very valuable lesson or I may otherwise commit the same mistakes again. I would also be lying if I said that there weren't times when the emotions weren't real.

Anyway, it's high time that I move and forgive myself and others. I can only hope that my heart doesn't allow history to repeat itself and that my brain makes better decisions this time around. :) Can't say that I'm not still afraid of making a mistake though.

빅뱅 ♥

Cab and I at Big Bang's Alive 2012 concert! :D :D

Belated National Day

Was initially thinking of posting a huge bunch of pictures from all over the place but decided against it. I should learn to categorize my photos and memories properly! Am supposed to be working on my assignment now but the blogging bug bit and I couldn't resist.

Anyway, this is about 3 weeks belated but here's what I did on National Day this year. Got dressed in red + white and enjoyed a homely steamboat with the nuns at Fion's place! It was a good catching up session and also an opportunity for them to panic about school which was going to resume, haha.

With this group of friends, the phrase "simple joys" comes to mind. We're a bunch of girls who get along easily but still have our awkward moments and such :) Looking back at old photos and past trips where we travelled  together to places such as Zhuhai for OIP and BKK for the grad trip, I'm reminded of how we've matured since we first met and of the experiences we've gone through together. So thankful to have you all in my life ♡

If any of you see this, please don't forget to ask me out! Be it for studying, meals, fleas, I'll be up for it :D

P.S. Gladys, I miss studying with you together in school!!!

the flags~

:D

bboing bboing~

From yesterday's outing with the TR03 girls. It's always nice to catch up over a meal and find out what's going on in other's lives. While working does open one's eyes to the "real world", I still very much prefer studying! :D Guess Elle, after listening to us yesterday, would agree too!

Also, just went for a badminton session with the uni mates after school and it's rather fruitful! Been a long while since I managed to really sweat it out. Pretty sure that I'll sleep very well tonight. :)

Books, friends & more

XIU HAO!!!!!

After missing out on my brother's shore leave visits for two weeks in a row due to long working hours, I finally got to meet up with him on Tuesday! His face has grown a little more chubby and his arms are now thicker (more muscular), hehe. I guess he's really spending lots of time in the sun out at sea cause he's reallyyyy dark. My brother's the easiest person to get along with cause he's super easy going and doesn't have a temper at all. Aw, I miss the skinny boy already.  :(

FION and GLA GLA.

With Cab, plus our yummy red velvet cuppies!

To the girls: has it really been 5 years since we've met? I still recall how Fion and Gladys used to stick together all the time and I couldn't tell you two apart. And Cab used to be part of the DPA group although she didn't enter via direct poly admission. Haha. If I had any regrets about entering poly or choosing poly, it definitely would not be the friends I've made cause you girls are awesome. (:

And... to prove that I'm still a normal person and not turning into a psycho after reading all the non-fiction crime books, here's some images from the Kung Fu Panda illustration book I read the other day!

Po's parents. The scene where his mother left him in the crate left me in tears. :'(

Mr Shi feeding baby Po. Awwwwww.

There's an incredible amount of hard work invested in this film and so much details that I missed when watching the movie. The crew from Dreamworks even flew to China in order to get a better understanding of the chinese architecture and scenery so that the movie would portray ancient China in an accurate light.

If you've got time to spare or are looking out for some inspiring art work, look out for the Dreamwork's Kung Fu Panda 2 book in the biography section of the library!

belated birthdays

Calico Keds!!! The most pretty sneakers a girl can ask for :D

My first proper pencil case since graduating from secondary school!

Hello, Owl. <3

Thanks so much for the 3-months belated birthday pressies, Fion & Gladys!! It's the first time I've received a "gift pack" like this and I love everything! From the hand-painted owl canvas tote, pencil box, floral sneakers, owl bottle, to the gorgeous x2 fairy light lanterns. I feel like my life is now filled with much more pretty things which makes me really happy. Once again, I loveeee it.

Seeing and talking to a bunch of familiar faces after my first (new) week at school felt really refreshing and comforting. It's nice to still know that I have this lovely bunch of friends with whom I can talk about anything under the sun. :>

Oh and I've finally finished using up my second roll of film! Time to send it for photo printing!!!! Also, uni orientation's tomorrow. Felt rather enthusiatic about it and about the prospect of making new friends when I had first signed up for it on Monday. But now I feel so lazy to attend and to go through the awkward motions of trying to make new friends.The sadder thing is, all the people I've managed to befriend aren't even attending. Ah well. Time to get ready for bed and to get my game face on for tmr. Night night!

Ongoings

Endured a crazy long queue for 鸡蛋仔!

Was at JP the other day and spotted 鸡蛋仔!! We happily went to pay for them at the cashier only to receive a queue number on the receipt ala bubble tea style. Our queue number was 142 and the number on the screen then was... 113!?!! It took a grand total of 45min waiting plus walking about on the same level before we finally got our snacks. The verdict? Not quite worth the wait cause it tasted pretty ordinary. The ones in HK somehow were more yummy.

CG - Up All Night

Oh, and on a totally seperate topic, after purchasing China Glaze nail polish from Gmarket, I don't think I can ever buy regular nail polishes again. The formula's a dream to work with and it's not streaky in a way lots of cheap polishes are. Plus, loads of gorgeous colours and types (think: glitter, foil, holographic, etc) are available for you to pick! Yummm. Think I'll try out OPI very soon too. If only money isn't an issue!

Mother & daughter.

And yes, speaking of money. I guess you guys might know that I had my hair permed in Taiwan 2 months back for appx SGD100. Here's a latest photo of my curly wurlies. So... I stepped into a hair salon today planning to get a trim for my fringe and maybe for the rest of my hair as well. You know, something quick and cheap.

Somehow the hair stylist managed to convince me to get a hair treatment done. Cheapo binbin does not usually do anything which is exceptionally costly but smth got into me today and in the end, my haircut plus treatment actually costed more than the perm I did in Taiwan!! O___O

My poor hair needed it though. After dying it with the Etude House Bubble Colouring (my hair stylist couldn't believe that it only costed $7! Haha), the ends were kinda dead already. It's super smooth and silky now. ♡♡♡ 

KFC Breakfast platter!

Have been spending more time with my family nowadays! Went to KFC for brekkie last Sunday with my dad and sis to try out their new breakfast menu.

Anyway, school has begun and I couldn't be happier. Can't wait till everything starts falling into place and for the orientation on Saturday, which will be the time to start making new friends :}

where am I headed to?

Fake specs are great for small-eyed folks!

These couple of days, I've been going about my life wondering if things could be better. Many things that I do nowadays are based on a routine and I'm not too sure if I particularly enjoy it. I even believe I could possibly have forgotten what real excitement and happiness is like. :(

To add on to this feeling of detachment, there have been those dreams. Odd dreams so real, you wish that they are reality and somehow even start believing that they can be real. I wonder if it's my subconscious signalling that I'm not truly happy with the way I'm running my life at the moment or if it's a matter of simply thing too much while I'm awake and conscious. One thing's for sure, I can't keep letting these odd emotions rule my head.

Oh and school's gonna start in a month. It took me an entire year to decide on taking up this course of studies and I sure hope that this decision's the right one. I am looking forward to it though, and to put a stop to my work life for now. It's really tiring to handle trouble customers when all you can think about is how the matter shouldn't even have arisen in the first place.

Please pardon my "Bah, humbug" mood. Have been too much of a scrooge recently. And I hate it! :(

LLAMAS!

They're the cutest things ever. They wrestle with their necks and spit at one another. Haha. Check out the dude in the top-middle still chewing on grass!

toy cameras + film photography!

My sister and her bf gifted a silver toy camera to me for my twenty first birthday and I absolutely love it! It's the Silver Kumagin from the Superheadz Ultra Wide and Slim series.

Light, plasticky and shiny, it wasn't my first choice actually. I had first fallen in love with the Usagi Colourful (and still think it's the most gorgeous thing ever) after setting my sights on a couple of these cameras at Page One in Vivocity many months back. That evening, I returned home raving to my sister about the pretty lomos I saw.

Usagi Colourful

But when searching for a picture of these cams online just now, I found out that my Kumajin is a limited edition version with only 2000 sets available worldwide. Oh wow. *Cries tears of happiness* T_____T

Kumajin (Silver)

So anyway, I took the Kumajin along on my trip to Taiwan and it's the first film camera that I have personally owned and handled. It's surprisingly easy to use, which is why calling it a "toy camera" is really apt. To take a photo, you simply point and shoot. There's really no other buttons for you to make use of other than the shutter button. Haha.

As I had brought the film overseas with me, they were subjected to security checks and scanning at the airports. Some of the images (1/4 of them) got affected by fogging and were unusable, which is pretty sad. But I'm sure the next roll I take and develop will turn out a-okay.

Here are some of my favourites from this batch. I think they look better IRL though. Scanning does funny things to the photos and the quality was compromised. Take a look through 'em and enjoy!

At the fishing port in Ye Liu.

Random shrub of grass by a hillside.

Used taxis for sale- spotted while on the local bus!

Manicured grass depicting the name of the area.

Cheap ice-cream in Dan Tsui!

Families taking photos by the Taipei Zoo sign

Candid shot of me using the digicam.

Beloved stuffed llama enjoying the view.

welcome 2 taiwan~

Here's a look at the highlights of my trip to Taipei, Taiwan.
From 26 Apr - 1 May :)

台幣!

Unlike other overseas trips I've embarked with my friends or family, this trip with the dino saw us pooling all our money into a single purple pouch. All expenditures such as gifts for our family memberes and collegues were thus shared. And this system actually worked!

Birdwatching spot atop a hill

Had to climb the monstrously-long stairs up this hill which was meant for birdwatching. But in the end we didn't even see any birds, just other old people. Haha. The breeze from the ocean was lovely though. Made it all worthwhile in the end.

Us with Taipei 101

This was during the second day of the trip while the weather was still deliciously cool at below 20 degrees celcius. Didn't want to enter the Taipei 101 building so we took a picture with it instead and walked around the area.

Sightseeing at 野柳

Daringly took a public bus (1.5hr ride) to this tourist attraction. Was pretty clueless throughout the entire journey there but it turned out well in the end. Lots of pretty scenery along the way and when we headed to Dan Shui on another public bus (1hr ride) after that. Even saw a lady who boarded the bus with a big rabbit in her bag :)

鬍鬚張魯肉飯

For most proper meals I had, it was eaten with 魯肉飯. As a person who enjys gravy on my rice, I was a really happy camper during mealtime! Formosa Chang's is my favourite. This picture was taken near 五分埔, a commercial shopping area similar to Bugis street. 

Microwave lunch from 7-11

This picture of our lunch comes with a funny story. For some reason, we decided to venture out to look for a popular biscuit store in an area we've not been to before. And so we had no idea there wasn't any proper food around there. During that particularly hot day, we decided to stop by a small 7-11 to grab a quick lunch which came in this microwavable box.

We took the container and tried devoured its piping hot contents. All whilst standing by the roadside in the hot sun! You can imagine the scenario: One person holding the container and the other person feeding two mouths.. A young couple got on their scooter near us and drove off, but not before commenting, “好恩爱啊！” I wanted to dig a hole and hide in embarrassment..

Random snapshots

Caught from the prawning session previously~

King of the catch, the largest prawn! I caught it :D

And yes, it's instant noodles cooked in a saucepan. Hardest thing to cook in, ever.

Hellooooo owl phone casing!! <3

twenty one years

Hello, hello. Life has been really hectic lately and all I've been looking forward to is for a break to relax and unwind. This weekend.. I did have the opportunity to and boy, it feels great (:

It honestly didn't feel like a long time ago since my twentieth birthday. As the years go by, you'll start to wonder what makes birthdays so special. Judging by holidays & festivals, people like having a reason to celebrate. And birthdays are unique to oneself. A particular birth date to a person. Doesn't matter if you share it with millions others, or if it's simply one out of the other 364 days in a year out there.

That being said, happy birthday to me! I'm having a good one so far; it consists of balloons, jumbo cupcakes, friends and my family. Am off to get ready to prepare for time with another one of my loves- seafood (dinner!). Bye for now, I hope to update again soon!

a new year! two months late...

No wonder birthdays feel less special as the years go by..

Haven't been to this blog in a long, long while.

Similarly, I feel like I haven't done much for myself in quite some time either. Since my last post, New Year has passed (it's the second month of 2012 now!) and the Lunar New Year has passed as well.

Let's not talk about the past and focus on what's happening now, shall we?

I've finally upgraded my phone's OS to a much more updated version- I was living with iOs 4. 3.5 for a really long time, and just jailbroke it. Looking forward to rediscovering my mobile device again!

And for the next few weeks to come, Friday evenings will be interesting affairs. Am taking up Lyrical Jazz classes with Cab and it's been something I've always wanted to do, since stopping my previous drama & dance classes in primary school. Hur hur..

Something else to look forward to is my Taiwan trip in late April! The previous time I visited Taipei, the temperature went up to a soaring 37 degrees celcius. Plus, my recent vacations were to places like Thailand and Vietnam which happened to be as hot as, or even warmer than the sunny island of Singapore -__-