Perth

It's been a while since I last update my blog. Been so busy before I went to perth and since I came back :(

But Perth was great! It was really R&R so I had a good break :) Here's three things I really enjoyed!
1) Trip brought me closer to nature.
- The farm stay was a highlight - how I wish we stayed for another night in the beatuiful cottage. The starry night was a surprise as I didn't expect to see so many stars in Perth as we were not in high altitude. But it was really cold and SF wanted to stay indoors - otherwise we could have a cup of hot tea under the stars :)
- It was nice to be woken up by the chirping of the hens, geese, peacocks in the farm (really!) and to wonder around the farm and breathe in the fresh air :) It was nice just sitting at the playground, enjoying the peace around you. And the highlight was the animal-feeding! Think I never had such fun and laughter for a long time :)

2) Did so many things for the first time in the sunniest place in the world (the sun was really strong!)

- My first self-drive trip (although I did not drive lah :P)
- Never been to a winery until and tasted so many wines in a day! It was a fun yet strange thing to get really red in the face and my heart racing in the day! :) and yes, cold beer at lunch!
- 4WD (not as exciting as I thought it would be) and sand-boarding (this was fun! wooohooo!)

3) Just being free and easy most of the time.

Starting the day with a good breakfast of coffee and toast. Stopping in the late mornings and late afternoons for coffee now and then. Planning what we wanted to do and changing plans along the way. Getting lost and finding our way around. Talking to the locals (many of them know Singapore!). Sunburning in the day and shivering in the night of Perth. Watching the sunset. And seeing the world goes by...

休息是为了走更长的路

10月22日，好热

累了。想休息了。
这条路，风景已看腻了，脚步也以放慢了。

My Golden Half - Roll 2

I finally finished my second roll of film using my Golden Half (since March!). And I really love the effects! Here are some of my fave pictures :)

My first picture in this roll - love the black/colour constrast of the church in Malacca. Love the over-exposed edges...

Red square in Malacca - it was a very sunny day. The sky was so blue...

Special effect - turned out naturally on its own. No photoshop effect.

Macau - From top (clockwise): Again, I love the black/colour constrast of the church (it's kind of surreal how. Taken behind the facade, from the top of the facade and in front of the facade...

Egg tarts - such cheery yellow...i guess you always feel this way when on holiday! :)

Genting Highlands Theme Park - I want to fly!

 

Right: In front of where I work. Left: In front of my house (it's autumn!!)

Have the courage to live a crazy life

Been passing by this cafe on my way to work and it has a banner that says 'Have the courage to live a crazy life'. Hmmm...just wondering how many people would dare to. I am really tempted to but still trying surmount enough courage :)

Well, November is going to be a crazy month, at least the first half! So looking forward to it.

Will run in the Great Eastern Run on 1 Nov with MQ - first time we are running together. Had a trial run in East Coast a few weeks ago and was really amazed that she could run (almost 10KM)! I gave up after about 6KM :P So looking forward to completing the run (in good time) with her in a few weeks' time.

And I will be PERTHing from 7-13 with SF. It's like going on the graduation trip we never went. But no regrets and guess it's never too late to do it as long as it's with my uni buddy :) We are planning a self-drive to Margaret River and will be staying at a farm - both first time for me! So looking forward to having a fun time with her.

Not sure if there will be computer access in our Perth Hotel - have not tried blogging while on a trip and really want to try it this time :) Till then.

My love will get you home

9月26日，晴
喜欢常在心和成亮在戏里写日记的感觉。喜欢听Christine Glass-My love will get you home的感觉。喜欢在家里当悠闲的自己，远离F1 大赛的尘嚣，自由自在的感觉。这个周末， 我想当个宅女。你呢？

Christine Glass - My love will get you home

If you wander off too far, my love will get you home.
If you follow the wrong star, my love will get you home.
If you ever find yourself, lost and all alone,
get back on your feet and think of me,
My love will get you home.
Boy, my love will get you home.

If the bright lights blind your eyes, my love will get you home.
If your troubles break your stride, my love will get you home.
If you ever find yourself, lost and all alone,
get back on your feet and think of me,
My love will get you home.
Boy, my love will get you home.

If you ever feel ashamed, my love will get you home.
When it's only you to blame, my love will get you home.
If you ever find yourself, lost and all alone,
get back on your feet and think of me,
My love will get you home.
Boy, my love will get you home.

If you ever find yourself, lost and all alone,
get back on your feet and think of me,
My love will get you home.
Boy, my love will get you home.
Boy, my love will get you home.

笑有时，哭有时，快乐有时，悲伤有时

笑有时，哭有时，快乐有时，悲伤有时。
很喜欢唐心风暴里大妈说的这句话。
There is a time and season for everything.

快乐可以很简单

今天上了个讲座，讲师说：“只要每天想发生在身上的三件好事，快乐字数就会增加25%”

9月24日，晴
工作半天，很悠闲， 很relax。
5点回家的感觉真好。漫步回家，经过Blair Road的小巷，穿过很小娘惹的旧屋，心里有一种所不出的宁静。
跑了4公里，好健康哦！

其实快乐可以很简单，知足就会常乐。

命中注定我爱你

正在看台湾偶像剧-命中注定我爱你。很喜欢剧里的主题曲和插曲， 尤其是半情歌。
或许有很多事情明明中早有安排，吃多少，赚多少，爱多少，命中注定。　

元若蓝 - 半情歌
作词：陈静楠， 作曲：方文良， 编曲：吴俊毅

花 接受凋零 风 接受追寻
心的伤还有一些 不要紧
我接受你的决定

你将会被谁抱紧 唱什麼歌哄他开心
想著天空什麼时候会放晴
地球不曾为谁停一停

你的明天 有多快乐 不是我的
我们的爱是唱一半的歌
时间把习惯换了 伤口愈合
也撤销我再想你的资格

你的祝福 一半甜的 一半苦的
像我手中冷掉的可可
最最教人残念的总是未完成的
我只能唱著 一半的歌

你将会被谁抱紧 唱什麼歌哄他开心
想著天空什麼时候会放晴
地球不曾为谁停一停

你的明天 有多快乐 不是我的
我们的爱是唱一半的歌
时间把习惯换了 伤口愈合
也撤销我再想你的资格

你的祝福 一半甜的 一半苦的
像我手中冷掉的可可
最最教人残念的总是未完成的
我只能唱著 一半的歌

我的明天 快不快乐 都是我的
我们的爱是唱一半的歌
时间把习惯换了 伤口愈合
也撤销我再想你的资格

你的祝福 一半甜的 一半苦的
像我手中冷掉的可可
最最教人残念的总是未完成的
另一半的歌

Beauty Box

It's so nice to laze around on a saturday afternoon (and blog...and facebook...)

Did I mention that I had my first makeover this year? Went with PY and it was quite fun! First time I put on fiery red lipsticks and do weird poses (now I know what the celebrities meant when they say that it's hard work behind the glam!).

And today I went for my convocation shot - I graduated with my MBA from NUS Business School in July 2009. And guess what! The makeup artists still remember me and my fiery red lips!

My first convocation was in 2002 when I graduated from the NTU School of Communication Studies. I still remember taking photos with my friends all around town. Now I still see many graduates doing the same thing around July/August period in singapore (it always bring a smile and fond memories of donning the gown and the mortar board for the very first time in our lives, after so many years of studies!)

This time, I naturally feel less excited. Well...it's not the first time...done it before already...and I'm old already :) Perhaps this is the law of dimishing marginal utility. And perhaps it's time to do something for the first soon and feel the thrill racing through your pulse once again.

Run

It's raining now - a cool end to a nice day. Met up with G for lunch and tea. Very relaxed way to spend a sunday, catching up with an old friend. We are going to Genting Highlands this coming weekend though. So there will be lots more opportunities to talk.

Received a surprise in the mailbox this week - a 2009 special edition newsletter of the Singapore Passion Run. And I was featured! Did not know the organiser actually took pictures of the runners and personalised the results for us this way. Very nice and cool!

It's my first 10KM run, so I'm naturally very excited about it (although I took quite a long time to complete the run, I am still very proud of myself! I mean, for a 30 year-old-to do this is incredible, right? :P)

I'm going to join the Great Eastern Run with my friend MQ in November and then the Standard Chartered Half Marathon in December. And I'm looking forward to running under 90 mins in November. Wish me luck!:)

LOMO Newbie

Golden-Half photos (my first roll of film!) in Singapore. I enjoyed the LOMO journey. Hope you will too :)

On my way to the pool at Redhill.
My friend G lives around the area.
Used to swim with her after work.


My neighbourhood. Cat was curious at the sight of Golden-Half.
And ah... the roads that never fail to take me home everyday.


My fave sandwiches from Orchard Road.
Think Tuna and Egg. Yumms!


Rainy day at Orchard.
Enjoying a cuppa at the Cuppage.


Watching the world goes by.
Rain rain come again.


Plaza Singapura.
Value for money stuff at Daiso!
And Taxi!


My friend J brought Taxi to Singapore!


View from my room.
Bus-stop behind my house.


Views from my room. Sunset.

LOMO

I bought myself a LOMO-camera - the limited edition Golden-Half - on my 30th birthday. I read about it in the internet and love the effects, especially the half-film feature. This means that a 36-roll film can turn out 72 photos, with 2 shots appearing in each picture. And well, it's a film camera, nothing digital about it. So it's really about how you carpe diem!

When I received the package by post, I was really excited. The package was exquisite (of course lah, it's invented by the Japanese!)! And the Golden-Half is really cute and pretty! There were 10 Golden Rules of Lomography on the package:

1) Take your LOMO with you whenever you go

2) Use it all the time, at any time - day & night

3) Lomography does not interfere with your life, it's a part of it

4) Get as close as possible to the objects of your lomographic desire

5) Don't think (William Firebrace)

6) Be fast

7) You don't have to know what's going to be captured on your film beforehand

8) You don't have to know what's on the film afterwards either

9) Shoot from the hip

10) Don't worry about the rules

In the next few weeks, I continued to be excited and started to preach by the golden rules. I carried the Golden-Half around and started to learn how to use it and capture things ( prefer to refer to it as moments) - on my way to the swimming pool, on my way to work, at the shopping centre, from the window of my room...

Sadly, the first 24-roll did not turn out as well as I expected! The photo-processing shops do not have half-film processing facilities and so all my photos turned out as a normal photo without the two shot in one picture effect! And I did not really know how to use the LOMO very well - only 14 picture were developed (meaning I wasted 17-roll!)! Tsk tsk tsk...

I have since started on my second roll in March for my trips to Malacca, Hong Kong, Macau and Muar Town (in Johore Bahru, Malaysia). There's really no rush to finish the roll and I just shhoot what I feel like. Not sure how many pictures have been taken - the counter says 30 (let's see what happens when it hits 36). And I'm going in search of a photo-processing that can develop the photos and make them turn out the way they should!

Well, I guess that's the beauty of a LOMO- to expect the unexpected and see how things turn out. And perhaps that's life - to treat each day as a vacation, enjoy each day to the fullest, follow your heart and let it unfold its surprises...

Laidback Malacca

My friend S asked me to join her on a trip to Malacca in March. She went on a photography trip last year and really enjoyed herself. Her friend J also joined us.

It was a weekend trip. Malacca is about 5-6 hours' drive from Singapore, and we reached in the afternoon. Had lunch at Secret Recipe at the shopping complex next to Equatorial Hotel. The price is the same as Singapore but in Ringgit! So it was good value for money. With no plans for the day, we decided to shop around the area and check into the hotel at night. We had dinner at a food stall for malay food with rice, cockles, curry chicken etc. It was very local fare and cost around $4-5 per person - very cheap!

The adventure began when we went in search of our hotel after a taxi-driver declined to send us to the hotel as it was very near. However, it took us hours before we found it after going in circles (thanks but no thanks to the directions given by the friendly people in Malacca). It was getting dark and the directions we were given took us to dark streets, which was quite scary. Luckily, we met a kind couple who offered to take us to our hotel which was indeed just a few turns away. The people in Malacca are really friendly and that's one of the reasons why I like the small quiet town.

We went for a half-day tour the next day which started from Equatorial Hotel. The hotel people told us how to get there and indeed it was a few streets away, a few minutes walk away. We took a ferry ride, visited the square, went to the Peranakan museum, had lunch at a Perankan restaurant (and chendol which was yummy!) before our last stop at Chinatown (Jonker Walk).

For the rest of the day, we just explored the street which was lined by old dutch colonial houses (which I really like). Each house was long and stretches with several courtyards- it was interesting to know that in the past, houses were taxed in terms of their width but not their length. Hence, the smart Malacca people build long houses to avoid tax and create maximum living space.

We bought the famous pineapple tarts - there was this panda flavoured pineapple tarts which my mom loved! We stopped for drinks at the Geographic Cafe, which overlooked the street, so we spent some time watching the world go by! Then we had dinner at the famous chicken rice shop, which was nice but a bit commercialised. As I looked back, it was a very very relaxing day. Often, we would try to do so many things in a day during a holiday and end up very very tired. So this is another reason why I like Malacca - the slow and quiet pace of life. You cannot really find a lot of things to do.

And on our very last day in Malacca, we went shopping and I bought 3 pairs of shoes (shoes are must-buys in Malaysia - good value for money!). As usual, shopping got the better of us. As we spilt up to do our own shopping, J went missing for a while in the mall but thankfully she was found. We had to rush for lunch (I had McDonalds :P) before the bus ride back to Singapore which took about 4 hours - it was a very smooth journey back home and we were very happy that it's so much shorter than we expected.

I did not take many photos on this trip. As I turned 30, I have taken less photos but enjoyed more moments.

旅行的意義 (Travel is meaningful)

I really like 旅行的意義, a song by Taiwan singer, Cheer Chen. That was one of the reasons why I first bought her CD. And I also like many songs in her latest album, 太陽, which I think is a friendlier album. I could relate to so many songs in it!

So this year on 5 April, I went to her concert in Singapore at the Singapore Indoor Stadium with my friend, SF. My first pop concert! While I admit that I am not a Cheer Fanatic (her fans were really 'on'), I had fun waving the light stick, laughing at the encores after encores after encores and just enjoying the music and the company of SF and many like-minded people around me :)

So Cheers to 30! Cheers to Cheer Chen! Cheers to 旅行的意义! Enjoy!

作词：陈绮贞 作曲：陈绮贞 编曲：李雨寰

你看过了许多美景 你看过了许多美女

你迷失在地图上每一道短暂的光阴

你品嚐了夜的巴黎 你踏过下雪的北京

你熟记书本里每一句你最爱的真理

却说不出你爱我的原因

却说不出你欣赏我哪一种表情

却说不出在什麼场合我曾让你动心

说不出离开的原因

你累计了许多飞行 你用心挑战纪念品

你蒐集了地图上每一次的风和日丽

你拥抱热情的岛屿 你埋葬记忆的土耳其

你流连电影里美丽的不真实的场景

却说不出你爱我的原因

却说不出你欣赏我哪一种表情

却说不出在什麼场合我曾让你分心

说不出旅行的意义

你勉强说出你爱我的原因

却说不出你欣赏我哪一种表情

却说不出在什麼场合我曾让你分心

说不出离开的原因

勉强说出你为我寄出的每一封信

都是你离开的原因

你离开我 就是旅行的意义

13 to 30 (Fun in HK and Macau)

Did so many things for the first time since i turned 30....

ah! the first time i travelled to HK/macau with the clique...

Some background about the clique - there's 5 of us who knew each other since secondary 1 (our class was 2/3!). If you think about it, we (PY, MQ, ML, AL and me) knew each other since 13 years old but only managed to travel together this year at 30 years old! Come to think of it, we did travel to Batam for PY's bridal shower but guess that probably don't count since it's like going to sentosa :P

Well, there's probably lots of whys (bf, work, no time, no $ - so I shall not speculate). So we were all looking forward to the trip. but. but. but we did not expect that we had to overcome so many odds in order to go! Swine flu struck 2 weeks before the trip (we tried to cancel but zuji won't let us, had to seek permission from bosses, be prepared to self-quarantine and be stuck in the HK hotel should any guests kana H1N1 etc etc).

We decided to go in the end and had fun! We had different roles during the trip:
- AL was safety officer (think masks, sanitizer) and was a great map reader
- MQ did a lot of research before the trip
- ML was $ IC (easy job for the accountant)
- PY was translater while I was the assistant translater (means broken cantonese :P)

And as fate decrees,our secondary school projects had prepared us to work well as a team and we survived this short and sweet vacation :)

And I must say I really like HK/Macau - the food was nice (yummy!), the firework at disneyland was spectacular, lantau island was very peaceful (and cool in the rain), the peak was beautiful (a bit foggy though), shopping was fun (although I did buy much, I like what I got from H&M and Esprit) and I laughed so much in Macau at the jackpot machines that I really want to go back again! And the best and worst part was lugging the food back (but the duck tongues were nice!)

It was also great to catch up with the gals. And it was like being back in secondary schools when we saw each other in school everyday, ate together during recess, supported each other during school performances, walked the back alley and parted at the bus-stops to go home etc etc. Well, there was exams stress but we were really carefree then. Things were more real back then- we were angry when we were angry, we were happy when we were happy, we were sad when we were sad. But now, it's hard to tell the real from the fake.

At least the HK/Macau vacation was real! Am looking forward to the next trip with the girls. Hope we don't have to wait too long...

###

30

Have not blogged for such a long time. Been face-booking for the past year and twittering for the past week.

Was following my friend S' twitters and clicked on the link to her blog. And I thought that perhaps it's time to start blogging again.

I must be too free or bored these days. Looking back, I always start on a new fad when I have too much time on my hands. I started this blog and started to facebook when I was having my long vacation in 2007 (really missed those days of busying doing nothing)! Believed it or not, I was the first amongst my close friends to facebook and I think I am also the first to twit :P

Well, since I have the time, will treat this as my paid long vacation (it's all about perspective, right?) and rest while I seek new challenges more actively. And I shall blog about being 30!

Frankly, I don't really feel anything special about turning 30 ( I still look the same :P) But many people around me are! Well, it's great to be 30. I have done so many things for the first time since I joined the club and maybe it will be fun to share more in the coming days :)

PS: Although I'm not on long vacation, I feel really relaxed. I do look forward to a real vacation though!