Melbourne on film,

Nostalgia is the best seasoning, they say. Taking a chance with the secondhand SLR, it is with sheer delight that these two roll of films were developed ☀ Snippets of my recent Melbourne trip through the lens of the Canon EOS for your viewing pleasure. Missing the refreshing, albeit sometimes stinging cold, ocean breeze and sunshine. Enjoy the berserk hair or palish states (if any), typical Tropical beings don't belong to Winter.

I would say that the pictures turned out pretty well, not too grainy or overexposed. Of course accounting in the fact that I took a chance with its virgin shoot during the trip itself, and being such an amateur at film! Everything seemed like an excellent photograph opportunity, with the picturesque scenery to the blooming daisies and cute beyond words caucasian kids ascending roadside trees.

Captured most of the scenery in digital form though, since there was too much backlight from the glaring sun. A paranoma stitch of the gorge would have been amazing but my camera wasn't up to the challenge. (Broke down while playing fetch with the Border collie along Anglesea beach) The twelve apostles were gorgeous, except that there are only 6 left standing because of weathering and erosion. Nonetheless, they stood majestic against the glaring skylight.

The last picture is really just for comic reliefs; think coastal sea breezes and beckoning an overly-friendly Border collie. Love candid frames, even though it doesn't really depict the full picture (pardon the pun haha) These are really just minute glimpses of the trip, digital pictures soon hopefully!

Washed up,

It's yet another lazy Sunday, without the alarm interrupting my peaceful sleep. Finally found time to handwash my soft white shawl (which has been thoroughly abused throughout the summer holidays I'm afraid) and seeing the tail ends flutter in the breeze is oddly therapeutic. Comfort food never fails to cheer me up, I present to you my childhood feast of plain crackers with cheese slices and green apple Yakult. The past week hasn't been an easy, be it turning 20 or having staying up with puffy eyes on a Sunday night on the phone with a close friend or missing the Module Preference Exercise or the revelation on how much a certain someone was needed through my darkest moments. This 20th birthday, I finally realized how much words can dig up the ugly past and I really hope my single wish will come true. 

But of course, I had my sunshine moments too - awesome clean fun at Union camp with the Cornflakes! And to those who sent their encouragement and love and/or birthday regards, I really appreciate them and I can't thank you enough ♥ 

Plus the birthday surprises and cakes I'm extremely grateful for, the only day out of 365 days I can uncover the princess side of thyself ♕ 

And of course, Kudos to my trusty furry companion throughout, I love you very much ♥♥♥

On a side note, my film camera is itching to bask in the glory of the sunlight heehee.

Off to afternoon retail wonders (hopefully) and meeting the cornflake mates in the evening, sounds like a spell for a great day ahead, can't wait ☺ 

Serendipity happens,

"There is only one you for all time. Fearlessly be yourself." (It's not in my nature to start off with a quote but it stared at me on my brand new page of July on my calendar) And when I'm being myself, I sit on the window beam and take out my marker to doodle on windows, it's therapeutic in a very badass but non-badass way. This week has been a whirlwind of happenings, but I'm really just waiting to chance upon a serendipity. July has always been the month and I'm praying it's joy doesn't fail, just like every year ♥

I'm not trying to be cryptic or anything, just need a space to write down my thoughts. Rational thoughts I hope, because I don't really edit my stream of thoughts - they seem very scattered and empty when you look back and correct words to fit the eyes of the world. (And to pardon you from the torture of my rants, hence the second half locked) Believe it or not, I like them raw so that when I crawl through my posts, scratches of that exact feeling falls back in place and time rewinds.

Sometimes oblivion may be bliss.

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P.S. Caught melbourne on film, will upload soon ☺

Romance, murdered ♡

"The power of a hand-written letter is greater than ever. It’s personal, deliberate, and means more than an email or text ever will. It has a unique scent. It requires deciphering. But, most importantly, it’s flawed. There are errors in handwriting, punctuation, grammar, and spelling that show our vulnerability. And vulnerability is the essence of romance. It’s the art of being uncalculated, the willingness to look foolish, the courage to say, “This is me, and I’m interested in you enough to show you my flaws with the hope that you may embrace me for all that I am but, more importantly, all that I am not.” "

A quote from No Strings attached, which I found somewhat meaningful in this modern age where we clearly cast our lives to social media; which ironically casts shadows unto our true selves. Going to shower Cathy and snuggle up in bed with freshly brewed Chrysanthemum tea to nurse myself back to the pink of health, even though I'm still drunk with that laidback Aussie holiday mood.

Really thankful for the trip (except maybe for the cold drafts) with my family, to take in the sights and sounds of what Nature had to offer like a sunburn on the way to Queen Victoria market and a cold during lunch. Winter makes my hair and nails go awry, but winter never did sap the warmth that lied within the city - passion burning in an Artist, connections in an aged couple and the rays of sunshine of the afternoon Sun. Never did I had such a complex love-hate relationship with the Sun!

Preparing to develop the two rolls of film I brought along, secretly praying they weren't overexposed/affected by the X-rays through customs. The EOS650 proved to be a lovely companion this trip nonetheless! Just a glimpse of some of the picturesque landscapes peppered throughout the trip:

All in all, the outskirts were gorgeous and I was in awe in the presence of His creations ♥ So here I am thrown back into life, grappling on the pieces of reality I left behind. Missed some, didn't miss some. Barely two months of college holiday left, and so many more dreams in the baking. Home sweet home.

More than just an old stack of pictures,

It's a crisp morning perfect for snuggling under the warm embrace of my bed sheets 

but I'm sieving through old pictures - nostalgia much.

I miss how we could just spend the whole night in Hilton taking silly pictures

 and (attempting) to be demure but honestly we're really full of crap.

Contrast it against this very clumsy picture of me and my Primary 1 best friend doing the tambourine dance during Teacher's day for your viewing pleasure (I'm obviously not very skillful hahaha and that's not my hair, it's a black bandana I think)

 Looking through all of them, it dawned on me on how fast youth flies past. Soon, I'll be way past the teens and the next thing we know is that we're gonna party without teeth. (Edit: Awkward expression I know heehee)
Nonetheless, they really make me smile, time to really cherish and be thankful for these memories ♥ 

Blind as a wombat,

It's a beautiful day outside but there's not really anyone to spend the day with unfortunately - anyway I've been spending so much time out that I'm starting to miss the familiarity of home. So here I am sitting on my bed lazing around like any afternoon with a half-read book tagged with dog ears by my side, and Cathy curled up like a furball on my right. And work emails opened up in a separate window on Safari (most of which are dropping out from the food bazaar commitment, ohmygawd someone kill me now) Modernity has somewhat killed the perfect touch of human interaction but you could argue otherwise, our lives are now defined by words sprawling across the screen.

As much I love this public space, some things should always be left private ♥ 

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Pretty please with icing on top,

With an outburst of baking creativity, Felicia and I decided to spend an afternoon fiddling with coloured cupcake frosting (which we spent hours looking for inspiration on the net, talk about cupcake porn)

Popped by the nearby NTUC @ Dawson place to get the necessary ingredients ☺  

My favourite bit about baking is that you get to modify the recipe, like stuffing marmalade into pastries or in this case, we had strawberry jam fillings in the cupcakes which tasted really good with the vanilla. (which I just remembered that we forgot to add haha) Even the batter looked good enough to eat!

If you look really closely, we used triple cupcake holders for each because I don't like them too flimsy and they tend to get out of shape very easily. It gets a bit tricky if they come apart though.

Goodness bakin' in the oven

The frosting was the trickiest part; we slapped in tons of icing and egg white whilst beating for our lives (which was really quite fun) and seeing how the frosting took its consistency texture was really satisfying. It's also a tad scary on seeing how much sugar goes into those sweet treats from the confectionery, eek.

The piping bit was extremely entertaining because we tried beautifying the cupcakes with the various piping tips (some in vain) and it was a race against time because the frosting was slowly becoming runny (I blame the humid weather) Some of our cupcakes were successful, though some turned out a bit disastrous but really cute all the same.

Piping flowers didn't really work out

Playing around with the dyes

A dash of colour sprinkles was sufficient to transform them into drops of heaven (pardon the amateur piping though) Putting them in the fridge really helped to harden the frosting and they turned out really well, even though by the time I brought them to school for the gang to savour, they were half smooshed.
Had great fun talking to Feli too ☺

Failed attempt at creativity

Glad that the pictures turned out well, even though I was using my half-alive Canon Ixus digital camera ☺It's Friday but with Pre-camp greeting me at the start of the weekends, I'm feeling pretty disoriented. Nonetheless, the past week has so loving, with ice cream and rag work and baking and badminton and silly camwhoring and suppers and dinners (which has rendered me broke)

Broke, but happy.

P.S. Just received confirmation for my trip in Melbourne, everything has been booked and I'm bounded for Down Under in 8 days, very excited and hopefully promises of picturesque photographs ♥