let's. live. fast

Less than 24 hours since I've touched down back on home soil and I'm already feeling the ache of leaving someplace awesome.

(Causeway Bay, Hong Kong, December, 2009)

This was just about the best holiday I've ever had so far. A week's too short. I could have gone on for a much longer time... but reality always has to be such a biaaatch. The entire trip was really all about eating eating eating, walking walking walking even more and... the occasional shopping :) HONEST! Haha this time there really wasn't much to get because it was all winter sales and while I swooned over many woollen cardigans, gorgeous scarves and boots, I had to remind myself every 2 seconds that I do stay for majority of the year in a place that does not entertain those who love wool/layers. The food was sooo good though. Ate a ton of snacks. :D I can feel another layer of tummy fat forming. :X

(I love the lights)

(scary Santa!! but I couldn't resist taking a photo with him since there was actually a sign (i'm covering it) saying TAKE PHOTO HERE!! (in Chinese lulz) This is the other side of Santa. The one who eats kids and only climbs into houses through chimneys in order to kidnap 'em for a bite at night)

I LOOOVE maggi noodles. Before the trip, I hadn't eaten maggi mee in forever... I know it's not the healthiest thing to eat so I never ever buy any from the supermarket. But I love how holidays are a time for indulgence. The boy was soooo scandalised when I told him I wanted this for breakfast. Apparently it's very un-Hong Kongish to even order these noodles but wth I just wanna fulfill my cravings!

So I have less than 20 hours before I need to get my bags packed for a trip to Korea. :) Some of my oldest friends and I will be going on a week long 'ski escapade' to Korea. Apparently the warmest temperature in Seoul now is -7. FARRCKK. I like cold weather but this is really pushing it!! O_O I've no idea how to pack for sub zero weather. Need my sis to come back from ermm Sri Lanka asap so she can lend me all the warm clothes that she used in college to weather off snow storms.

It wasn't supposed to be so rushed. The trip was supposed to be in May of this year but one of my friends came down with swine flu so it got pushed to Dec. But I don't mind the rushing from place to place. I think of it as a blessing. I need to squeeze in as much travel as I can before the next few years descend and school holidays become nothing more than week long STUDY BREAKs.

(source: http://fuckyeahmarykateashley.tumblr.com/page/6)

Such a nice long cardigan. It would be pretty darn perfect right about now. If only I had it in my closet and if only I had the legs eh? :) I think I'm going to start checking out more photos of MKA. I know they've been style icons for ages but i've never religiously followed sites dedicated to them... it'd be nice to get ideas on 'how to dress if you're a midget'.

School starts on January 4 for me. I'll be missing probably 4 days and depending on what time I get back to SG next Thursday, I'll probably end up missing the afternoon practical sessions which seem pretty important. ARGH. It was so easy to just say who cares, i'll play first and then worry!! but that was under exam stress and now that I'm faced with the upcoming term's schedule, I'm really starting to get worried.

I wish I were fervent about becoming a doctor. I wish I knew for a fact that this was my calling and that I had the strength to dedicate all my time towards furthering my knowledge in this area. I have seniors who are so into the whole med school thing and wish for us too to be 'fervent and enthusiastic'. Those words just make me very very uneasy because I should be that way but I'm not.

Times like this when I wish my retardo Maro pie were here to talk some sense into me. I always need wake up calls from him but he's off, probably uncontactable at the moment in wintry Xi An in China. At least we'll both be in sub-zero climates for the next week.

I should probably start thinking up some resolutions for the New Year. I'm always big on change but 20 years has passed and have I really become anything better than what I've always known I'd be?

always love

I guess the next best thing after not having a UO outlet where I live/not living in a place that UO offers shipping to would be having friends who do (and who are willing to bring them items back with them as they return home for the holidays) :))).

(cardigan and dress: Urban Outfitters)

I'm really loving the print of this dress and am just bowled over by how incredible the designers at Kimchi & Blue are for having designed a dress with button-adjustable straps! This baby was 9.99 pounds from the UK site. :)) LOVE LOVE LOVE. I'm actually rather worried about losing my suitcase on the way to Hong Kong. After all, those things do happen eh? I'd just be pretty darn crushed. But then I suppose I'd get over it slowly and painfully by thinking that there has to be a reason for the way things turn out. Am putting all sorts of lovely items in there to wear in HK over the Christmas holiday there. Oh yeah, I forgot to mention that I'll be in HK for the next week! Soooo excited. 9 more hours to go! :) I hope it won't be too cold there though it would be such a relief to get away from the heat in Singapore.

And I can FINALLY wear these boots that I got ages ago in anticipation of eventually going to someplace cold enough to wear them. Well I was supposed to wear them out in Sg but I never managed to muster up enough guts to do so...

(Notice something new? THE BED. I finally have a bed to sleep on at night. It's quite a nice feeling being able to sit on something with my legs dangling and not simply collapsing onto a mattress at night)

I totally miss Christmas in Seattle. It's the only time when Christmas really does feel like Christmas. My Aunt is just the nicest, most bubbly and Christmas-loving aunt ever and there's always a whole lot of xmassy things to be done such as baking xmas cookies (i feel really hungry now and it's 3 a.m. aghh.), decorating the porch and the tree in the living room, playing the same xmas cd which begins with my fav song "The Christmas Song" by the inimitable Nat King Cole over and over again...

It's kinda hard being the only one in my immediate family remotely interested in and excited about Christmas. My dad (the Buddhist), scoffs and goes, "Christmas? Who's celebrating it?". My older sis, the biggest scrooge on the planet, gives me a look just short of "Bah Humbug". To my mum, it makes no difference whether we celebrate it or not but she does enjoy some festive cheer. Heh well to cut a long story short, it always never seems xmassy enough over here... I'd love to go back there again. :)

It's always the littlest things that jog up my memories of Seattle... such as the smell of cinammon in stores. It seemed as if all the little stores/even supermarkets or places like Walmart always seemed to smell of cinammon.




(the two cutest cousins ever. :) I can't actually remember how old they are now. Probably 6 and 9? These photos were taken just about a year ago when I spent Christmas with them in Seattle. They are such tykes.)

(Seattle, December 2008)

Probably the best memory I have of my time over there. Late nights spent bathed in a shower of coloured lights, huddled underneath a quilt, lapping up each second, each breath of cold air, settling into dreams.

P.S. In case I don't get to eventually, MERRY MERRY CHRISTMAS. :)

my Christmas tree

So many Urban Outfitters videos to get through... I'll probably save them all for when I'm bored to death with studying for the next exam. :)



I loved everything about this one, except for the fact that it was so short! But the quirky, upbeat music and frantic movements just get me in a chipper (chippy? chipmunky??) mood each time.

Obviously this was UO inspired. :)

I shall be sleeping beneath my very own Christmas tree tonight. Let's cross our fingers in the hopes that it doesn't come crashing down in the middle of the night. That green industrial duct tape should hold.

2 more days till my bed arrives! I've been sleeping on a futon (Japanese style mattress) for the past year since we moved house and while it's been comfortable enough, I can't help but feel my back's been moulded to the gradually sinking mattress in a rather unhealthy, hunched manner. Once the bed comes, at least i'll have something to step on to adjust the lights. It's looking rather lopsided now.

(Oh and contrary to popular belief, the Christmas tree in the previous post isn't a fixture of my living room sadly. It was one of the trees on display in Ikea! :p)

god only knows what i'd be without you

Whoooo long absence here...! As always the case, I had to take time away in order to study for my exams which THANKFULLY, THANKFULLY, BLESS THE LORD I SURVIVED-ly is OVER. The exam was on friday and the time I spent since then till now has just been... the most fun ever. :) I know some people who get quoted in those 'words of wisdom' books often say stuff like you need to get through hardship before you can truly taste the sweetness of success or something to that extent. Normally I'd just scoff and say, give me life without the hardship please! I don't really need to know how incredible freedom/success is as long as I lead a blissfully ignorant and uneventful life. But times like these when I do sort of think there might be a shred of truth to that statement... ;) it just feels sooo good. To not have to dread waking up in the morning to a full day of studying.



(Yummy yummy Strawberry Cheesecake from a Japanese fusion food restaurant called Sun with Moon at Wheelock Place. I had a really nice chat with my former Japanese teacher who'll be going back to Japan soon and I actually managed to conduct a conversation with her in Japanese that lasted all the way through lunch. She's just good at understanding her students' broken Japanese.)

As always, Ikea is just lovely and even more so now at Christmas!!! Had meatballs, ice cream, fruit and shrimp salad (all Ikea staples) and tried searching the store for Christmas decorations but surprisingly they didn't have a 'tree trims' section...I did buy some cinammon-scented candles though which remind me so much of Seattle. :)

(Heh well I couldn't help but snigger)

I'm so excited for Christmas. :) I love love love love love Christmas. It's my absolute favorite time of the year. I love everything about it... the presents, beautiful wrapping paper, gorgeous shiny decorations, the feeling of people going out and about meeting up/shopping/just getting a whole lot livelier... I could go on and on about this. But i'll save it for another post.

(I'd LOVE to hear what everyone's got in store for Christmas though!)

Yayy to another night of restful sleep. It doesn't get better than this.

P.S. Oh noooo that terrible Miley Cyrus song, "Party in the U.S.A" is just stuck in my head because I heard it in the store. How could it have been top on the U.S. Billboard charts???? UGH.

my love runs deep

Ever since I found out about the existence of the UK edition of the Urban Outfitters website, I've had an immense, IMMENSE craving to go to London...

(the incredible edifice that is the Urban Outfitters BUILDING at Covent Garden)

Looking at this beautiful building brings back memories. =)) I can't believe in the 3 days that I was in London over the summer I very nearly missed it!! It was sometime in the evening when my friends and I were walking to a show at the covent garden area when I happened to turn my head to the left and the sight of it completely stopped me dead in my tracks and elicited an almighty shriek. Thank goodness I spotted it because none of my travel mates had even heard about UO ;p that was the only tough bit about traveling with non-shoppers. I felt like a crazed, obsessive woman half the time.

I love the UK Urban Outfitters site so much more than the U.S one! ;p The items for sale just seem so much prettier... a lot more refined...dressy... just a personal preference I suppose. And the best thing is, there are all these GORGEOUS photos available for downloading.

(UrbanOutfitters.co.uk)

I've never seen a prettier dress than the very first floral one. I would get it in a heartbeat if it wasn't so expensive and if not for the fact that UO.co.uk doesn't allow billing addresses to come from anywhere outside the UK region! Why why whyyy do they insist on coming up with things like that that are merely curtailing the millions more they could make?! I'm praying that the price of this item will eventually be whittled down to a mere 9.99 pounds... in the meantime, I'll be watching diligently.

(View from my friend's room in her apartment in London.)

I miss the feeling of exploring a new place. I miss the feeling of London. The excitement, the feeling that there are sooo many incredible places to step into, sights to see, things to eat... This is what photos and the stress of impending exams does to you I suppose. I've got about a week and a half more before an exam. Yelp.

I can imagine being absolutely happy even by myself in London because all I'd do all day is walk walk walk... step in shop after shop after shop... rest at a cafe and people watch...go for a musical/play at night... and repeat the same sequence of events the next day. :) so the only thing missing from that equation is money hmm....

Strawberry yoghurt from Sainsburys :D I LOVE.

never settle

This is my 3rd blog in a year. I find myself a bit of a walking contradiction. I love it when things are constant, when nothing changes. But then once I settle into something and realize it's just not what I want, I have to up and go for something new.

It reminds me a little of Steve Jobs' commencement speech. Don't settle. Keep searching till you find what you need. I wish life was all about living the way we want and not about always striving and searching until we get to that stage... but it never works that way does it?

I'm happy with the way things are now.

favorites

(Heidelberg, June 2009)

I'm finally started to dig out all my Europe photos taken during the summer! I've a ton of stories to tell but I guess this one will be first since chronologically it happened first too.

First stop on my trip was Heidelberg, Germany, to visit my best friend whom I hadn't seen in agesss. I was supposed to get off at Heidelberg Hauptbanhoff (the main station) and since I'd gotten everything right before that (getting on the right plane by myself, getting the right train ticket, all that tough stuff ;p) I was feeling absolutely proud. I knew based on the schedule given that I'd be reaching the Hauptbanhoff soon so when I heard the announcement "fjkaljdsfklajklsdjfkljskHEIDELBERG-HAUPTBANHOFFfjklsjfkdljfa" I immediately stood up from my seat, struggled a bit with a backpack 1.5 times my height (am sure the Germans were sniggering), waited at the door and when it reached the platform, promptly got off.

It was so peaceful and quiet and there were hardly any people on the platform it took about a second (and that's the length of time it took for the train doors to whooosh close behind me) to realize that I was definitely at the WRONG STOP. I was at PFAFFENGRUND station, the station right before the Hauptbanhoff. Way to travel by myself eh? :)

I love how I the name is so unpronounceable. It just makes the story more exciting to tell.

No worries, I called my friend and managed to get onto the next train within a few minutes and the next time, I got off at the right stop.

(my favorite sandwich EVER! hands down! :) smoked salmon sandwich at The Soup Spoon. go treat yourself)

500 Days of Summer seems like such a long time ago... I remember feeling moody and pensive a week after that with songs from the movie playing in my head. I've a new favorite band now though. Listen to Sweet Disposition by The Temper Trap. :)) It's my current cell phone ring tone now.

(the best soft ice cream ever! i love how it's Soya Bean ice cream hence you don't really feel guilty eating it since Soya Bean's supposed to be superbly healthy.)

Feels like I've neglected this blog for quite awhile... Have been busy with so many random things. There's so much stuff to study now I'm not too sure how I'm going to remember everything for my next exam in december...boo.

Cleared out my closet and have started selling my old clothes/even new items that I just can't wear now on livejournal. I get sooo frustrated whenever I see the hugeass pile of decent yet unused clothes in front of my closet. Making clothes look nice on photos is hard work though...Cumulatively I think it's a hell lot of time spent on that lj shop... but I definitely get a high when I'm able to get rid of one more item. And I'm just amazed at the colossal amount of crap I have in my closet.

It's been so long since I last clicked on style.com.

(Phi, Spring RTW, 2007)
(love love love this V-neck design!)

(Phi, Resort, 2009)

source: style.com

I love the versatility between seasons.

(go get some sleep, you)

today's as good day as any

(i know, i wish this were a corner of my room too. unfortunately, it's from Ikea ;p)

Recently I've been having a bit of a funny rollar coaster ride of emotions inside of me. It gets me when I least expect it and then at those moments I just feel like I don't really know what to do about things in life.

I borrowed a book from the library entitled 14,000 Things To Be Happy About. It's basically an extended, 611 page list of things the author's happy about. Things that she's noticed since she was in grade school and has kept a note of. I'm such a sucker for books like these. :) I know some people would rather... do something really extreme than to open up the pages of a self-help book/inspirational book but I runnnnn to these things the minute I feel I need some kind of direction in life. Most of the time I think these things actually work! Heh but maybe it's also because I start of being open and receptive and words can only work their power on malleable minds.

I'll start on a couple of things today:

crisp, white bedsheets to snuggle into
cold, fresh, ripe pieces of mango
holding my grandma's hand as we walked out of the restaurant after lunch
eating year old fruit cake (cousin's 1st wedding anniversary)(apparently it's tradition?)
afternoon nap
11.30p.m jog under the watchful eye of the moon and clouds
looking through photos taken over the past few weeks

What are some things on your list? :)

P.S. Am really really craving some good ol' popcorn... crunchy, hot popcorn perhaps tinged with a hint of cinnamon spice... not sure why I thought about Christmas with my uncle,aunt and my little cousins last year but i remembered us walking in a little Christmas village at night. it was so cold and their was mushy snow around and my uncle bought the hugest bag of fresh popcorn i'd ever seen from a stall and we all dug our hands into it with relish...

so please please please, let me get what I want

(Maggie Gyllenhal. I love her eyes in this photo. source: fffound)

A couple of things I ordered 2 weeks back possibly the day before my mid-term exam(sans a few more that I couldn't find pictures of). :D Yes, I was that focused. My number of online shopping purchases also seem to increase exponentially during any exam period. I ordered quite a bit at one go this time but couldn't help it. Even with shipping it each adds up to less than what I'd get the item for over here (on average) XD (hopefully i didn't calculate in blissful denial) Can't wait for them to arrive!


Went to the hairdresser today to get a much needed trim. I got my hair curled two months or so back but only a few people realized and asked about it. I have trouble maintaining the curls. Probably just due to the nature of my hair. Dry. Big. With a life of its own. Today I learnt the secret though which my dear hair dresser did not divulge the first time. Hair spritzer (or whachamacallit) that's necessary a couple times a week each time after I wash my hair. Why did he not tell me that before???

My dad's friend has been spending the past couple of months making his own gourmet ice cream at home. This one's Cherry flavoured with rum in it and the cherries are sooo juicy. I love how he's so generous with the cherries and how he's such good friends with my dad he gave us an entire tub for free. :)

Obviously, the Smiths are still in my head. :) (hint: song title)

i'd like for there to be a reason

(ANTON ANTON ANTON! source: weheartit.com)

I spent my night doing absolutely nothing productive in the conventional sense. In my post-500 Days of Summer reverie, I've started rethinking my wardrobe. Zoey Deschanel made vintage dresses look so versatile and wearable and...pretty. I can't help but love pretty things. An hour or more of this night was spent on etsy clicking on link after link following the lead of 'vintage tulip dress'. Nothing yet of course. I don't know why I get so fixated on some things. It's at if the search is all that matters and as long as I'm blindly doing something... I don't have to think about anything else in life. I think it's time to invest more effort into building up my wardrobe for the future though. I should stop buying printed tanks and short skirts (esp the latter) because how many more years can I actually wear them? Wrinkly knees will probably start to appear at age 30... which gives about a 10 year lease on majority of my current clothes? I probably think too much.

($127 dress that makes me go sighhhh. source: stantonjames.com)

On a brighter note, I did spend time writing a letter to my dear penpal, Emily, while listening to the great mixed cd she sent over. :DD (thanks so much, Emily! the songs are totally my kind of songs) It was probably the highlight of my day. I'd live for moments of music and quiet and writing...

Anton Yelchin is gorgeous. And he's the same age as me. :D That's gotta say something huh???

i so bloody love this outfit <3<3<3

(I can't help but think that the layering effect is genius.)

And those eyes... I feel a girl-crush coming up...!! :)))

i just couldn't resist

Meet Domo, my new pencil case. He was going for $5 and since my old pencil case has been with me since I was about 10 (yeahh i'm an old fart) and is ink and pencil-shavings stained and tiinyy (and also to do with a random Japanese cartoon character), I thought there was no better time than this. ;) Besides, it's DOMO. How can anyone resist his indolent charm?


(Haarto ice-cream. The boy and I always end up getting black sesame and green tea with red bean. YUM.)





Have a new favorite item in my closet now. My heart melted when I saw that floral tank a couple of weeks back in the store but my really close girlfriend and the boy both unanimously said "NO" when I picked it up. My friend actually used the phrase "Ah Mah" when she saw it (which is colloquial speak for "Aunty" i.e. something that a middle aged mama with gaudy fashion sense would pick up). So just to appear considerate of their opinions, I decided to distance myself from it and try to see if I could live without it. Naturally I failed (especially after I saw how nice it looked on a girl in class too). I'm starting to get rather attuned to my instinctive emotions nowadays. Sometimes if you know from the start you're going to go back to something you might else well give in to the feeling now.

Tomorrow is monday again whyyy. Yesterday I had a crash course in rock climbing and it was awesome fun. :) Would've climbed a lot better if I'd cut my nails beforehand. Back and arm muscles are still aching like crazy. Today I finally watched 500 Days of Summer and it fulfilled my expectations and beyond. JGL's the LOVE. I'm sooo dedicated an entire post to that movie.

catch that banana

One place that gives me an incredible amount of comfort (when it's needed the most) would have to be the supermarket near my house.



(check out the cute-ass Japanese candy! used to eat a ton of them when I was younger. it's the sort that melts into a sugary mass on your tongue almost instantaneously. grape-flavour's no doubt the best! ;p)

When I was up to here in pre-exam frustration and general lassitude towards life (last week. muaha all over now!), I just felt sooo much better after walking in and grabbing all sorts of snacks that I could lay my hands on. It's the one type of shopping that you can never feel guilty about since, how can anyone ever stinge on necessities?? Then there's the bright lights, the background buzz of (noisy)strangers coming together in the same place for a similar purpose, rows and rows of stacked foodstuffs and the colours...

In other random news, today as I was leaving the house in my dad's car (my sis and I were running late as usual) my dad all-knowingly asked if anyone had forgotten anything. Of course, I'd left my cell phone in the house. Made a quick dash back to the house in the light rain to retrieve it. All was well till I was dropped off at school. Not 10 seconds after my dad drove off, I fished into my bag for that blasted cell phone and surprise surprise -- I'd left it in the car. Somehow. Took me quite awhile to get over the inital agitation (kinda wish I wasn't so dependent on devices that allow me to channel my neuroses into the world 24/7). I have to accept that it was just fate. Pure and simple as that.

i hate the way i don't hate you. not even a little bit, not even at all

(photo source: weheartit.com)

Watched 10 Things I Hate About You last night while still on a post-mid term exam high. Initially I watched it for JGL and while his adolescent awkwardness was purrrfect for the role, it was Heath Ledger who completely stole everything from the movie (including my heart <3!).

Needless to say, I wish he were still here, making epic movie after indie movie after epic movie and bringing his craft to the world. So many things one could say about the way it ended. But for me, I'm just grateful for moving pictures, movie star paraphernalia and truckloads of photos on weheartit.

(this one's for the road!)