i need you so much closer

Gosh it feels like ages since I last blogged. I seem to always be starting on that note whenever I start a new post eh? But it sucks to want to do something yet reason/time constraints tell you that something else should be done instead of what you really want to do. It's like a biological urge to eat being suppressed by a supposedly rational mind in order to ... keep healthy/not put on weight? At the end of the day you just wanna GIVE IN. Which is pretty much what I'm doing now. :P 1.19 a.m. with a class at 8.30 a.m and what am I doing? But it just feels good. Like I'm doing something for myself at the end of the day. A nice way to be able to end the night.

Little Snippets of The Little Part 1 Cafe :)

(Hands down, THE most DELICIOUS APPLE CRUMBLE in SINGAPORE, I DARESAY!)

On Wednesday, my mum, my sis and I decided to head down to one of my favorite places -- The Little Part 1 Cafe for dinner. It's one of those really homely, cosy places with warm lighting and a nice cushion to sink into and all sorts of interesting trinkets stuck on walls (tons of postcards and photos and posters), a cupboard chock-a-block full of boardgames... basically it's just a wonderful place to relax in and you never get bored looking around the place while waiting for your food to come. XD And they serve the most scrummilicious apple crumble with vanilla bean ice cream. Honestly, I want to kneel on the floor and cry every time I take my first bite. And it's a lovely, small establishment that doesn't charge GST so you're free to tip however much you want.

And guess what, I'll actually be celebrating my 21st birthday there! X) Sigh, did I mention, I'm going to be turning 21 in less than a week? My actual birthday is next Wednesday but I'm gonna be having a little celebration early this weekend with some of my friends because next week is going to be taken up by studying for an exam that's the week after... yada yada. :) I'm just really excited about the weekend and seeing all my friends again. We were all in the choir together. HEH.

(bracelets from gmarket.co.kr! finally started wearing them quite a fair bit recently)

(dress worn as top: H&M, shorts: flea market, necklace: little boutique in HK)

HEHEH so I felt kinda shameless one night and decided to make myself a little 21st birthday wish list. I actually kinda had trouble thinking of things I wanted! Which is a good sign, no? :) I did manage to find some lovely covetables from Topshop (since it's one of the few stores that has online shopping available and the items on the website correspond quite well with those found currently in shops here)

1. Secret Garden Tiered Shell dress

2. Butterfly Floral Blouse

3. Striped Gold Button Blouse

4. Rosebud Strap Skater Dress

5. Gold Button Stripe Vest

Which one's your favorite? :D As you can see, I'm currently (still) into florals... and stripes. (all available for purchase/viewing at the topshop website!)

(Oh and on my shameless streak, Topshop has the option/button that allows you to 'SHARE' the items you like. I conveniently forwarded all the links to my older sis. HEHEHEHE... we'll see if my dearest dobby got the hint)

I was also thinking of whether I should get my self a Holga... it might be interesting to experiment in this other area of photography... or lomography as they might call it? :)

(how cool is that. seriously.)

(this one just looks so professional)

(Curious George on the front?! hahaha)

Hmm but really, I've come to the conclusion that my parents have given me pretty much all that i could wish for currently. Can't thank them enough for it... I guess I'll have the chance to do so in a few weeks time during Chinese New Year. ;p They always force us to do a little speech thangy for them before they release our Ang Baos (red packet filled with MONEY) to us.

Btw, just out of curiosity, WHAT DID YOU DO FOR YOUR 21st BIRTHDAY? :)) (if you fit the bill)

Oh yeah, on a totally random note, I must say, DEATH CAB FOR CUTIE ROCKS MY SOCKS!! I've just been listening to songs from the uber old but awesome album, Title and Registration, and am falling in love with so many songs all over again. :DDDD

MMMMMM. YESSS.

1 more day till the end of the week. Hang in there~~~~!!

my mind is fuzzy

Wow. It's 2010.

HAPPY 2010 EVERYONE!!

(I left my babies behind in HK!! :((( Hehehe my favorite's Ernie but it seems no one in HK likes Ernie because they never produce Ernie plush toys?!! It was always these 4. WHYY??!)

Sorry about the prolonged absence but it's been an incredible blur over the past 2 and a half weeks it's really starting to tired me out. Then again, most of the time when I find myself ready to keel over and conk out in lectures in school, I really only have myself to blame. Yesterday I spent the entire afternoon walking round Orchard Road, visiting some of my favorite stores with the boy because we (or I) just had this URGGEEE to check out all the stores (the sales!!) (that sadly appeared to have ended the day before on Sunday -___-) before it was too late...I'm really glad I managed to walk through most of the stores because then at least I won't be distracted this week by the thought of possible awesome items on sales racks disappearing under the hands of ladies with more time than I do...

So basically I was so tired I really wanted to dig a hole for myself and fall asleep in the lecture theatre.

I haven't had the chance to go through a lot of my holiday photos (Korea was SOOOOO COLD. Really. Pain-in-my-fingers-and-toes type of cold. O_O I'd never felt so cold anywhere else in my entire life!!) because the day after I came back I had to go back to school and I've been trying to catch up with work and other activities since then. A few words though --> KIMCHI. The Face Shop. SNOW SNOW SNOW. And naked body scrub. ;) Yesss, pictures will follow soon!!

Ok here's a sneak preview:

(korean dish BIBIMBAP)
(before it was covered in some special chilli sauce)

(MMMMMMMMM.... He probably has the best abs ever. If you haven't already heard of him, google Rain)

(there were such beautiful sunsets :))

(Nami Island, Korea, Dec 2009)
(the frickinnnnn coldest place on EARTH)

I feel like I'm ready to move to a new phase in terms of my dressing. I'm starting to gravitate towards the loose shirt + trousers look (ala MKA) but pretty trousers are sooo expensive. At least the ones in Zara are. Big question to anyone who can help: How does one with broad shoulders and no hips dress? I've been working on this problem for the past 1.5 years and I still have lots of trouble.

(Makes me wanna wear all black and put on a shade scarlet red lipstick.)

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

(Sigh. Makes me feel like dressing up and going out.)

(source: leloveimage.blogspot.com)

So far I've come up with a couple of New Year Resolutions:

1. Take care of my body. Exercise more, eat healthily, rest more.

2. Spend more wisely. Quality not quantity.

3. Be PUNCTUAL (this has been a real failure so far ;p)

4. Love more.

Ok brain's fuzzy now. Sleep beckons.

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.