Brooklyn Flea: Part 1

One of the best weekends I had in New York City was the one when I traveled to Brooklyn with my friend, Stephanie, to check out the Brooklyn Flea. I'd heard so much about it and was sooo excited to check it out and visit Brooklyn for the first time!

Steph and I started out the day with a DELICIOUS Rio Bowl from Juicy Lucy, a teeny little coffee shop tucked away in the heart of the East Village.

Juicy Lucy

85 Ave A

New York, NY 10009

The Rio Bowl is a MUST HAVE if you're ever able to pop by the shop. It's an absolutely phenomenal bowl of yummy granola and sliced bananas, topped off with a refreshing blend of acai berry smoothie. It was SOSOSO refreshing; every bite felt like a fresh burst of healthy goodness and it was the perfect start to a Sunday morning. I could eat that every day of the week (just that I was too lazy to wake up early for breakfast. SIGH!). I miss it so much now!

Funnily enough on that day, the L subway to Brooklyn wasn't in operation (it's the most direct way to get to Bedford Avenue and just ONE stop away from my dorm!) so we had to take long arduous route which included switching a couple of times on the subway and then eventually taking a shuttle bus to our destination. It was funny how we waited at what we hope was the shuttle bus stop and the longer we waited, the more people came along asking us if we were also waiting for the shuttle to Bedford Ave so we weren't the only clueless souls there.

One the bus, we sat behind the sweetest little pup and his owner. That doggy was just the best-behaved dog ever! Not a barf, pip or squeak; just doeful curious eyes that stared right back at you. If I ever had a dog, I'd want one like him... just so I could bring him along with me when I go shopping and he wouldn't cause any trouble or attract any unwanted attention.

PEEK-A-BOO~~!

So happy when I saw this sight. :D What could be more perfect that people lounging on a field beside the flea market enjoying the gorgeous spring weather, munching on their lunches and having a good chat with each other? A sight like this just calms me down.

There were so many incredible stalls at the flea market, selling all sorts of items ranging from conventional ones such as jewelry/vintage clothes... to really niche-market items such as well... LIGHTBULBS for one, wacky furniture... BOTTLES... type stamps... you name it, there was probably a stall that had it.

How cute are these scrabble rings! :D Probably highly DIY-able too.

Steph at the lightbulb stall!

GRUNGE-Y SESAME STREET LAMP COVER!! I took this pic really to show my sis since we're both mega fans of Sesame Street. Cookie Monster and Ernie FTW!! Not an Elmo fan at all. (Sorry, just had to get that off my chest. Why does everyone like Elmo?!? He's small and whiny. Like the kind of guy you'd never want to date.)

Lunch was a delicious grilled cheese sandwich! Oh did I forget to mention? There were also a ton of food stalls! Some sold drinks like Lemonade amongst other more unique concoctions... others sold sandwiches...burgers...fries...pizzas... and I think there were frozen bananas/chocolate covered bananas being sold. YUMM.

I'm not usually a fan of cheese but I happen to LOVE grilled cheese sandwiches! Maybe because they add in other stuff like onions and herbs that flavor the cheese such that the original cheese flavor isn't so strong and all you really taste is a gooey salty crispy goodness.

We sat on the field by the side of the market and LOUNGED. :)

Me and my dear friend, Steph. She's one of my classmates from the Graphic Design course and I'm soso happy I met her! :) We both ended up walking around the quaint and quiet(er) streets of Brooklyn but that'll be for the next post.

I know this is a little voyeuristic of me but really, I just wanted to capture the feeling that was presented by this scene at that particular moment in time. It would be nice to live in Brooklyn next time. :) Something to work towards in the future.

I just think that every Sunday should be like this.

ha-ha-ha-haaallelujah!

Ohhmygosh I'm so tired. As I'm typing this now my head's just feeling all heavy and foggy and I really wanna crash into my pillows and not get up but what a waste of a free night for once eh?? Finished my final exams today!!!! Sooo relieved that it's over but it's only going to be another month until I have a practical exam and then it's the real vacation. Am gonna treasure this weekend like anything because it's going to be the only real break I have between now and starting to prepare for the practical exam. Bleaghh.

Just a little of what I did today:

(chambray top: Massimo Dutti, pants: Amisu, bag: mum's (bought in some random discounted goods market in Shanghai if i remember correctly hehehe XD)

(That was probably me going, "MUMMMEEEEE the lights have turned greeeeeeen!!")

(point form since my brain's pretty fried up!)

• had lunch with my mum for the first time in agessss. :D and we had really yummy minced meat/dumpling mini hot pot with meepok and meekia noodles at a random food court. sooooo tasty especially with the tomato ketchup. :) I'm definitely taking a photo the next time. I just realised how odd it is that one of the variations of minced meat/fishball noodles is mixing the noodles in tomato ketchup. I mean, where did they get that idea from???

• grocery shopping for drinks and snacks for my sister's junior college class gathering at night. i'm always my mum's camel. ALWAYS. =______=

• got stuck in terrible terrible traffic. but then again time passes a lot easier when you have a camera! :)

• picked up the most GARGANTUAN PIZZA from Pepperoni Pizzeria at Greenwood! I used to go there so often with my family for lunch for the most amazing pizza/pasta/salad deal but we haven't gone there in a long time... We ordered the giant 'family sized' pizza once before for a birthday party of mine and my jaw almost never got back to its original position upon seeing it but even now I'm still amazed at the SIZE of that monster. See the glasses in the background? those are your usual glass sizes and measure that against the diameter of that monster pizza. YEAHHH. ;9

Pinky being exactly where I wanna be right now. X)

Imma gonna have the best night of sleep i've had in a long time I think. Must've slept a grand total of 10 hours over the past 2 nights. Tomorrow I'm going to go for a little carnival at my old secondary school :D not too sure what to expect but i sure hope there're balloons, frosted icing cupcakes with sprinkles on the top... and pink cotton candy.

Now... maybe for a movie with my mum? Up In The Air or New York, I Love You? >

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. :)

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...

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.