Here we go again,

Happy blessed 23rd birthday Yiangmeng! Headed down to The Icing room to decorate him a cake, which turned out quite creative (props to Delvin's SNAG skills hehe) I thought it was quite an enterprising venture, since the materials themselves are pretty inexpensive.

Favourite picture out of the lot - everyone in their own respective worlds ♥  (Except that my Mango dress looks like a romper here)

Dinner @ Food for thought!

Hot fries and a slice of chocolate rum cake on the house ^^

"I wish for CAP5 and to eat Nutella for the rest of my life...."

Sinful desserts for the day

Group shots and food - credits to Xiner

Headed down to Singapore Arts museum whilst waiting for the restaurant to be opened in hope of escaping the heat - interesting exhibits going on.

I was terribly fascinated by the clocks installation, where clocks of differing speed were erected on the walls - signifying the time taken for a person to die from the inscribed illness. When the needle spins a full circle, their melodious chimes creeps up on you at first but you start getting accustomed to the harmony after a while, devoid of the initial intense emotions. (Which reflects the clinical nature of new age information because we're so overexposed to stimuli around, startling but true) Infusing a bit of social psychology here, the reflective surface of the clocks also made us more vulnerable to being self-aware in the situation. "Each statistic becomes but a lone number in an endless sea of data we no longer react to, this installation tries to humanize this anonymous sea of data, injecting some of that life back into the idea of information by engaging us on a personal level, encouraging viewers to reflect upon the nature of the knowledge we receive."

Another exhibit that caught me off guard was "The Need of an Alteration" by Andree Weschler. It was hard to stomach at first, but it became oddly mesmerizing and we had our eyes fixated on the clip (which was on loop and playing backwards) for a good 15 minutes. The artist is the actress herself, and the clip shows her belching out black ink from her mouth; and sucking it back up in the parallel screen (played on reverse). All I remembered was that the performance was about the symbolism of the black chinese ink, possibly juxtaposed against her white fair complexion, and it being the metaphor for release or burden; or clean VS dirty.

This particular installation was mind boggling too, but I can't recall the artist name nor the explication for it whoops.

The Singapore Show: Future Proof 
14 January – 15 April 2012 
Singapore Art Museum @ 8Q 


The Icing room 313@Somerset 
Orchard Road #B2-52 Singapore 233895 


Food for thought 
8 Queen Street Singapore 188535

Chinese new year,

As the title suggests, some sights from the traditional annual festive season, all clad in auspicious red. (Last minute dress and accessories hunting, and my virgin time being armored in full red - the cutting of the dress was just too gorgeous to resist!) And a steer away from tacky shiny decorations, hand inked calligraphy couplets which costed me two hours and a three quarters of my Uni-ball signo refill; this gives me yet another reason to love ink and its simple charms. It's very much different just colouring it in with a felt tip or a blunt marker! Not to mention, fresh daisies and flowers around to brighten up the house.

Unfortunately, I didn't bring my camera out so there aren't any pictures taken during the festive get-togethers and gatherings! Just think tons of goodies (nomnom), lovely company and mahjong ^^ Will get about to updating this space soon, too many items in my perpetual mountain of work. Yet so many peripheral dreams waiting to be realized sigh. Ciao!

à la carte,

Nothing says comfort like a bowl of brown rice porridge and morning warmth peeking in (I do not like the intense sun rays). This was taken during one of my hell weeks, or so I claim. As you can tell by now, I spend a lot of my time by the window sill (when my family's out) with Cathy sleeping intimately next to me. It's really pretty outside when the trees are all abloom, feels like Spring! Way before the afternoon heat comes basking in its full glory of course. 

The past week has been a good break from the previous - a bit of retail therapy, fries and froyo after a (not so) relaxing run, Fosters tea and laughing till teary eyed, setting up of fairy lights and gorgeous lanterns by my bedside, mint coloured nails and catching up with some old friends (My favourite Punjabi friend owes me a whole meal by now). And a bit of the bad, like parting with suede boots that caught my eyes at Pull and Bear. Midterm results aren't looking so hopeful though haha. 

To do list:

1. Multicultural team meta-analysis IO psych research paper

2. Cognitive psych tutorial research paper reading

3. Gdocs project meeting

4. Soci tutorial (To print)

5. Pack avalanche of clothes in wardrobe

6. Nominate phone line for MIO plan

7. Take passport photograph

8. Renew passport

9. 21st planning

10. BACKLOG

And there you go, my beautiful to-do list. They say "Fate is like a strange cafe filled with odd little waiters serving you things you never asked for and don't always like" Sometimes I stare at the items and pretend like I'm ordering food, oh the cheap thrills of picking them out one by one à la carte before scratching them off with a wooden pencil. 

Minus the appetizing bit, but of course.

Red wine in plastic cups,

The day we had barbecued steak with our hands and red wine in plastic cups @ Sommerville park (Thanks David for being such a lovely host) We were lucky that the skies were clear and the air was cool since the place was in the open. Pigged out a lot (Thanks Xuankai for preparing all the food) and 'twas good catching up with the classies before many of them fly away :) Headed up to David's for some card games + chocolates, unfortunately I left Balderdash in the car! And of course, nothing better to complete the day with our usual multi-shot pictures hahaha us three girls are so good at this, the guys just got so lost halfway....

Some stills showing how the 2 of them behind tried to jeopardize our shots with a sofa cushion but failed:

Ciao!

That's faith,

"We sleep each night without the assurance of waking up alive but we always make plans for tomorrow. That's hope."Just sharing some one-liner stories I've read, and thought that some invoked pretty meaningful worth and tied in aptly with today's sermon on dry valleys. Especially with the Christian faith, many of us preach a lot about entrusting it all to Him but do they really translate to actions? What an unfortunate food for thought. So what is faith: "The entire village prayed for the rain, all but a boy failed to bring their umbrella." That's faith.

Days undone,

Whipped out my SLR on a sunny afternoon when my nephew came over for a carnival @ Queens - these film pictures were taken back in 2011 so please pardon the tardiness! They really brought about bouts of glee as I looked through the stash of archives in my iPhoto library, you can't really compartmentalize memories like a Mac - can anyone? Especially looking through pictures of his cheeky cotton candy filled smiles. Nothing like empty yoghurt boxes (yes, if you look closely at the pictures) and pink cotton candy clouds to make a 3 year old's day. Such a joy to shoot!

Film: Kodak max GC (ISO 400)

Camera: Canon SLR EOS 650 (2nd hand)

Silence speaks when words can't,

Song of the moment: Santa Fe - Beirut

My most intensive midterms are finally over! And the weekend also marks the end of yet another week of frenzy. Hallelujah for a sojourn in the comfort zone once again or rather a lull period before the next few weeks of hectic project deadlines. On the part of updates, new or not so recent additions to my life: a much needed watch (spy the heartaching scratch on the surface) and new literature to the shelf which I'm finally to chalk up some time to sit down, relax and read through the weekend. Classics are always a score. And also, new insights as to how sometimes silence really speaks when words can't really encapsulate emotions, breathing a whole new meaning to empty vessels making the most noise. Are we really able to pay no heed to labels only in the dark?

Hope everyone's having a lovely weekend, ciao!

Sandypanty's 21st ♥

I rarely take my camera out for a spin nowadays, especially at parties where I usually try to carry as little as possible or just being plain lazy and leaving it in the security of my handbag. Glad that I brought it along for Sand's 21st party @ Food for thought a few weeks back! Sorry for the different filters that I was experimenting with haha.

Proud letters S and I cut out a few days before

Birthday girl opening her present

We got her a pair of Dr Martens 1460 Boots in Cherry red and they look really gorgeous! Hope you loved it, now you can roam Costa Rica in style with love from the three of us ♥ 

Free flow of beer and tons of polariods! We missed you Karen :'( Shiany and I kept wishing you were there so we drowned our sorrows in the best butterscotch profiteroles ever (I think we ate like 20 in total)

"Maybe this can help reduce our inhibitions to talk to people we don't know"

"Pick us, pick us!"

And of course presenting to you our true selves:

 

Looking blur as usual hahaha

We love you, 8 years and counting ♥♥♥ 

I'd sooner buy defying gravity,

Photograph taken by the windy coastal area of the Great Ocean Road, Melbourne, 2011

Song of the moment: Wicked - Defying gravity

This song really makes me want to watch Wicked sigh I'm sucha weakling for musicals; I thought the Glee duet with Kurt and Rachel was a lot more emotional though. Been singing it since breakfast (Hello gorgeous mood) despite the cold dreary morning. Cathy's perfect for this snuggle weather ♥ Don't you sometimes feel like your life's a musical where you can suddenly burst out in song and the world's your oyster? I love the feeling it empowers you with. Anyhow, the sun's alive again, amen! My apologies for the dry spell here, I'm having my midterms in a week so I'm aware of all these fillers here and there.... bought some baking decorations from Chip Bee gardens near Holland village a few weeks back to add to my collection hehe I can't wait to use them. On a side note, this photograph (you can tell that we were freezing) reminds me of how much I could use a vacation or a staycation right now.

Ciao!

Beauty in the breakdown,

Private post: Click to enter password

Photograph taken by: Canon IXUS 1000 HS

Kisses are a far better fate,

Ain't no better other way to seal this post with an E.E. Cummings poem (if you recognize it from the title) this early Valentine's morning. Loving hints of the inadequate nature of intellect and language in the expression of love or the depth of life, and the subtle thought that perhaps death can't interrupt love. Don't be deterred by the perceived verbosity, for it's the ambiguity that brings out the beauty and mystery ♥ Not to mention the clumsy use of syntax - the illogical disarray of the emotion maybe?

Since feeling is first

who pays any attention

to the syntax of things

will never wholly kiss you;

wholly to be a fool

while Spring is in the world

my blood approves,

and kisses are a far better fate

than wisdom

lady i swear by all flowers. Don't cry

--the best gesture of my brain is less than

your eyelids' flutter which says

we are for each other: then

laugh, leaning back in my arms

for life's not a paragraph

And death i think is no parenthesis

Shall scuttle off to grab some breakfast and polish off some tutorial work....a picnic shall be my motivation. What can you say, I adore evening picnics. Have a blessed Valentine's with your loved ones this year everyone, ciao!