New blog pic

The girls were updating their blog with the latest designer templates, which made me want to change mine too. After perusing the new templates, none seemed to catch my eye. So I fiddled with some past travel photos with Photoshop, made a collage with Picasa and viola! I've got my own original blog picture!

I love how retro it looks. The photos were handpicked by none other than the traveller herself! From top left, clockwise - A quaint cafe selling (yes you got it right) sandwiches in Delphi, Greece; lovers' locks in Mala Strana, Prague; a bicycle leaning against an old shed in Yangon, Myanmar; and pretty boats afloat in Sun Moon Lake, Taiwan.

All of these trips bring back fond memories for me. Ahhhh I am feeling so sentimental but it's getting late and I need to catch my beauty sleep now. Good night! :)

The time has come

After months and months of thinking, pondering, considering, contemplating, I have done it! Yes that's right. I handed over that sacred letter this morning.

The only feeling that washed over me after the deed was done was RELIEF. It felt like a load had been lifted off my weary back and my heart no longer felt heavy. Was it the right choice? I can't even answer this question anymore - all that reasoning and "thinking through things" have blurred the lines, clouded my judgement and confounded me. At the end of the day, I was guided by my heart and not my head - it felt good so the decision must be a right one.

The whole process of handing over that letter was surreal. I could not control my thoughts, lost all sense of reasoning and everything seemed to just happen, like in a dream. Now that the events of the day have sunk in, I am feeling cheery and uncharacteristically optimistic. Life is good, afterall!

2 months - let the countdown begin!

Cross-processed

Always my favourite photo effect, they never fail to evoke feelings of nostalgia and old-world retro charm. And they're so easy to manipulate on PS! If only I'd started experimenting earlier, then I wouldn't have wasted all that money on lomo cams and applications!

Guinea pig

My attempt at airbrushing. Took quite long to learn this as there are so many different ways to airbrush, from the straightforward to the very complicated. In all of the modified photos, I used the healing brush and clone stamp to remove blemishes and moles, fade away dark eye circles and even out the skin tone.

Here's Exhibit Y before going under the photoshop knife, mole still intact.

First attempt (and also most complicated), which required me to apply surface blur, add noise, then gaussian blur. I also had to adjust the hue & saturation levels twice and do a paintjob on the mask. The effect - perfect complexion on slightly pasty-looking skin. I suspect that the colour is a bit off because most of the tutorials used ang moh models who are naturally fair.

This process was slightly simpler than the first. It involved using the dust & scratches filter, followed by Gaussian blur, add noise and adjust hue & saturation. The effect - similar to the first but less perfect skin (and perhaps more believable).

Perhaps the simplest process of all, I only had to use the surface blur and do a reverse paintjob. The effect - similar to the 2nd pic but the face colour looks more natural?

Photoshop and me

I had a sudden interest to explore my Photoshop (PS) application, which had been installed in my laptop eons ago but hardly used. I must admit that I was daunted, as the entire programme, with its many functions and tools, looked way too complicated. However, something prompted me to take up this challenge, and boy am I enjoying the learning process. Being the tech dummy that I am, my learning curve is an extremely steep one, but I'm thankful for the millions of tutorials out there which have certainly made my life easier.

These are some of my works so far.

Fiddling with the liquify function allowed me to make my face and nose sharper, remove wrinkles around the neck and erase all zit marks on my face. If you look close enough, even the mole near my right armpit is gone! I'm not terribly pleased with the results, as the changes are hardly noticeable and my face and features seem disproportionate. Instead of a round face, I now have a horse face?!

Another example of my friend K. For me, the main point is to enhance the features of a person rather than transform his/her look totally. As commenting on a friend is a sensitive issue, I'll leave you to figure out the "enhancements" made.

I gave the picture of Pik, Guak and me an overprocessed look, just like what a lomo cam would produce. I kinda like the effects! :)

More to come!

Sick as a dog

Sums up my current condition. For the past 1-2 weeks, I've been having dizzy spells in my sleeping and waking moments. I felt the whole room spinning around violently, and there were fleeting moments when I thought I was going bonkers or blind! Little bro diagnosed my condition as BPPV - Benign paroxysmal positional vertigo, caused by problems in the inner ear.

Before I've even fully recovered from BPPV, I was attacked by a hacking cough that has been keeping me awake for the past 3 nights. The condition is exacerbated by a stuffy nose which now makes it impossible for me to taste my food. Not that I have much of an appetite anyway, the cough makes me feel like throwing up half the time.

After a trip to the office to clear some urgent work, I went home and crashed on my bed. Never felt so tired, awful and sickly! Dear P cooked some yummy porridge the night before - check it out.

On a sidenote, ever wondered why the expression "sick as a dog" is used? Why not sick as a rabbit or sick as a zebra? Apparently, dogs had negative connotations attached to them in the past...

There are several expressions of the form sick as a ..., that date from the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Sick as a dog is actually the oldest of them, recorded from 1705; it is probably no more than an attempt to give force to a strongly worded statement of physical unhappiness. It was attached to a dog, I would guess, because dogs often seem to have been linked to things considered unpleasant or undesirable; down the years they have had an incredibly bad press, linguistically speaking (think of dog tired, dog in the manger, dog’s breakfast, go to the dogs, dog Latin — big dictionaries have long entries about all the ways that dog has been used in a negative sense).

At various times cats, rats and horses have been also dragged in to the expression, though an odd thing is that horses can’t vomit; one nineteenth-century writer did suggest that this version was used “when a person is exceedingly sick without vomiting”. The strangest member of the set was used by Jonathan Swift in 1731: “Poor Miss, she’s sick as a Cushion, she wants nothing but stuffing” (stop laughing at the back).

The modern sick as a parrot recorded from the 1970s — at one time much overused by British sportsmen as the opposite of over the moon — refers to a state of deep mental depression rather than physical illness; this perhaps comes from instances of parrots contracting psittacosis and passing it to their human owners.

Source: http://www.worldwidewords.org/qa/qa-sic1.htm.

Boomerang

The girls were so sweet to celebrate my belated birthday over Sunday brunch at Boomerang, Robertson Quay. Initially, the plan was to go to Epicurious but a long queue had already formed when we got there, and truth be told, we found the chill factor missing. So we headed over to the Aussie-run Boomerang instead, which was a stark contrast to Epicurious in terms of their clientele. Over at Epicurious, we saw lots of locals but at Boomerang, the crowd was predominantly ang mohs. In Lei's words, "it didn't feel like Singapore".

I liked the ambience at Boomerang. It was stylish yet casual - great place for friends to catch up over some brunch and wine. What I didn't like, however, was the obvious superior service rendered by the predominantly Filipino waitresses to their preferred clientele, the AMs. We sat there for a good 10 minutes with no one bothering to hand us a menu. In strolls Jamie Ong (she is so gorgeous) and AM friends, and they were served iced water and given the menu pronto.

Food wise, nothing to boast about. The Wagyu burger was dry and not that tasty.

The Aussie breakfast plate (I forget its name now) was pretty good, I loved the thick beef sausage and you can never go wrong with bacon!

But the best item had to be the thick, spongy pancakes that were so so yummy!

Despite the mediocre service and average food, nothing could dampen our spirits on a cool, breezy Sunday!

xoxo

Honest juice from Cold Storage, Taka. The labels are so nice, makes me feel like trying them all!

Seriously creamy ice cream, also from Cold Storage, Taka.

2010 BKK

I'm back from BKK! This time, with the same bunch minus piggy plus P and Steffi! Different group but just as fun as ever! We were really glad that we got to go, as it hadn't been too long since the red shirts protests, and we were worried that the riots may start again during the Thailand by-election. The trip was on tenterhooks right up to the last minute, and boy am I glad that we made it there and back safely!

The new BKK gang

Due to time constraints, we focused our energies on shopping, massage and eating (just like our last trip). Once again, I was impressed with the service at Healthland spa. On Day 1, I did a full body aromatherapy massage and on day 2, a therapeutic massage that focused on the neck and shoulders (due to my stiff neck problem). Both were excellent and the knots on my shoulders are now somewhat loosened...which may have contributed to my deep slumber for the past few nights.

We stayed at the Ascott Sathorn, which was located right opposite Healthland. As there were 5 of us, we booked a 3 bedroom unit. Seriously, the apartment was HUGE - we could easily hold a party for 20 there! The bedrooms and bathrooms were all immaculately furnished. Our unit on the 18th floor commanded a view of the busy streets of BKK. I would definitely stay here again the next time I visit!

The spacious hotel lobby with high ceiling

Views from our 18th floor apartment


We shopped at the usual places - Platinum for cheap wholesale clothes and Chatuchak (CTC) market for everything else. I managed to snag some dresses from Platinum, and cheap tees and singlets from CTC. No homeware this time as there just wasn't enough time to browse through the entire complex at both places! We also visited the posh Emporium at Sukhumvit to shop for groceries and people watch (I think this is where the rich and good-looking hang out). And MBK where we spent most of our time (and lotsa money) at Boots the pharmacy stocking up on handcreams, body lotions, lip balm, skincare, etc. They were giving away 250 Baht voucher for every 500 Baht spend, so it was damn worth it!

Outside Platinum waiting for a taxi

We had our meals at the usual places - Platinum food court for Thai fare, Chinatown for seafood and this new place for yummy grilled meat:

Sushicyu BBQ Carnival yakiniku @ Eight Thonglor

Yakiniku is extremely pricey in Singapore. If you've been to either Gyu-kaku or Yakiniku Daidomon in SG, you'd know that a delicious meal of grilled meat can set you back by about S$100. Sushicyu was actually a recommendation by J's friend so we decided to try it out. Service was attentive and the meats were really good. Best of all, you can count on paying only a fraction of the price here! A word of advice, go for the ala carte items rather than the set items, as they are more value for money. We paid about S$40 per pax but it could have been a lot cheaper if we had gone ala carte!

We love grilled meat!

Fresh seafood @ Chinatown. According to Jason, this fresh catch cost only S$8!

The must-tries for my next BKK trip - Nara restaurant with its eclectic decor (also at Eight Thonglor) and China House for dim sum brunch @ Mandarin Oriental hotel.

Last but not least, a visit to the flower market for Mr J to stock up on his goods. Love the pics taken here as they are so colourful and cheery :)

Perennial neck ache

Neck problems of late - sign of old age? It sucks to not be able to lift your head and walk with your head held high. P commented that I look like I'm guilty of something with my head hung so low.

I don't really know what caused it but my guess is the rather deflated memory pillow that I've been sleeping on since early last year. There are nights I'll sleep on my back and not turn at all during the night - and coupled with a pillow that offered little support for my neck, I must have sprained it somehow. Initially, both sides of the neck were painful but the pain in the right side has subsided and I am now left with a dull ache on the left side.

Should I see a sinseh? I don't know...I've seen my regular doctor who prescribed cream and painkillers but I don't think they're "curing" the problem. Hmmmm I'm partly worried that inaction on my part to get the problem fixed will lead to greater problems in the future, such as rheumatism, etc *shudders*

Meanwhile, please do not be offended if I don't turn my head to talk to you, as I'm trying to minimise unnecessary movement as far as possible.

1 year older, none the wiser

I grow a year older today.

Birthday celebrations officially started last Tuesday with my dear pal CX at Marmalade Pantry, Ion. I was a big fan of MP - used to frequent the one at Palais Renaissance but due to their limited menu, I stopped going there a few years back. To my delight, the food is just as good as ever; I had the aglio olio sakura ebi cappellini which was very simple but unusual. Think fried "hae-bi" spaghetti drenched in olive oil - yums! CX had Thai basil rice, which she enjoyed too. MP was having a drinks promotion so I ordered a glass of lychee Bellini to accompany my meal for only $6/glass. Ladies will be happy to know that they offer a 20% discount for ladies night...I am not sure if every night is a ladies night so best to call up and check.

Second celebration was a family night out at our favourite western restaurant in JB - TGIF. Daddy, little bro, P and I indulged in the Jack Daniel's back ribs while Hayden had a medium-rare JD steak. I never used to be a ribs person, but I'm now a convert! The meat fell off the bone at the slightest tug and every mouthful created an explosion of taste and flavour! P and I were debating if the TGIF or Applebees ribs tasted better. I'd say TGIF wins because of that special sweet JD sauce! The bros had very thoughtfully bought me a Baskin Robbins chocolate ice cream cake in the shape of a heart, which I heart!


Sunday night was a BBQ party at an ex-colleague's lush pad @ River Valley with the SATC gang. Dear S has an awesome electric BBQ pit that churned out well-roasted meat that retained all its natural juices. We had beef, pork, banana leaf otah, sausages and chicken wings, all browned to perfection by none other than chef J - crispy on the outside, succulent and juicy on the inside. All that sinful food followed by the highly-raved about cake from Swiss bake - Paradiso and ice cream from Udders. Thank you dear friends! :)


Monday was dinner with my dear P. Since it was my birthday, P acceded to my whim to watch Despicable Me (he usually avoids cartoons). I loved it! I think P loved it too as he was smiling a lot during the show and laughing away at the cute yellow characters. Very good cartoon that will definitely make you laugh, unless you have no sense of humour! Movie was followed by dinner at Kuriya dining @ GWC - pricey but very very good quality Japanese food. To me, one of the finest and comparable to our excellent dining experience at Sumitomo building, Tokyo in 2008. Sweet P presented me with a wad of Singtel vouchers, and set his rule that the vouchers can only be used to purchase the iPhone! Ahhh, what a dictator, so looks like I'll be jumping on the iPhone bandwagon shortly!

Unravelling the truth about the leaky ceiling

Friends of mine would have heard me whinging about my bathroom ceiling that rained over the weekend. It was troubling enough for me that the drip-drip noise woke me up in the middle of a deep slumber. First thing I saw was the puddle of water on the floor...my bleary eyes followed its path of descent and I thought I was dreaming to see water bursting out from the cracks in my recessed light.

Of course, the sight of that mini rainstorm in my bathroom left me sleepless for the rest of the night.

The contractor came a few days later but could not find the cause of the problem as the pipe area was totally dry. He hypothesised 2 possibilities:

1. Condensation from aircon
2. Leaky pipes

He advised me to wait and observe. The next time the incident happens (he assured me that it would happen again), I should poke my head into the pipe area and take some photos if I can.

Last night, again, I was awakened by the sound of water dripping! I was in a quandary as to whether to get out of bed to investigate, or pretend that the noise was non-existent. Finally, the sleuth in me dragged my sorry arse out of bed and into the bathroom and there it was again - a mini storm in my bathroom! I didn't have a ladder so, armed with my trusty G9, I climbed onto the toilet bowl and tip-toed on the narrow cistern to try to catch a glimpse of what was happening inside. On hindsight, that was such a dangerous stunt - wet feet on tip-toes, one hand holding onto some support and the other maneuvering the camera in that hole trying to snap a clear picture of the leaky pipes.

At that point, I still had no idea what was causing the leak. First thought was the rain, as it was raining rather heavily outside last night.

XXX

I got home today and stopped to chat with the guard on duty. The moment I started complaining about my pipes, he told me that the tenant who moved in above me had also been complaining about hers. I asked the guard what she could have been doing at 4am in the morning last night, to which he replied that she is a trader who comes home at 3+am everyday, so naturally, she takes her bath at about 4am when the rest of the sane world is sound asleep.

Lesson learnt? Why bother speculating or conjuring up reasons when you have a guard downstairs who knows everything? Name a unit and he knows exactly who resides in it, his/her nationality, origin, occupation, marital status, gender, car being driven or none, etc etc. Time to "bribe" him into spilling dirt about my neighbours! LOL

Ugly scene

A while back, in a shopping centre in JB, I witnessed a rather ugly scene between a middle-aged man and a plump lady. Based on the lady's version of the story, the man's son had spilled some water on the floor. She, out of the goodness of her heart, had asked him (the father) to clean up the puddle. He, on the other hand, misinterpreted her intentions and felt that she was ordering him to clean the floor. He hurled vulgarities at her, taunted her about her size and even challenged her to a melt down. Refusing to back down, she fought right back with a vengeance.

So there I was all this time, feeling slightly exhilarated by the commotion going on...and thinking that if that man had any ounce of decency, he would leave the lady alone. Whilst behaving in that ghastly manner, did he ever stop to consider the feelings of his wife and the impact of his actions on his kids??

Friends of mine commented that the lady should have minded her own business as the incident took place in a public place. Was she really wrong in being civic minded and considerate towards other shoppers? I do not necessarily agree with what she had done, but I do admire her courage in standing up for what's right. Too many of us fail to speak our mind for fear of being chastised or to avoid public confrontations, and that isn't necessarily right as well!

Seriously, people just need to learn to be more open-minded and gracious. If you don't like what you hear, just walk away. There's really no need to create a ruckus over some split water. And when faced with a ruffian, don't fight back - just walk away and let him look ugly.

Why can't we show more love in this already very troubled world???

Lazy ramblings

Of late, I seem to be running out of things to blog about. Gone are the days where I'll bring my trusty camera wherever I go - weddings, gatherings, dinners etc and then post the photos on my blog and write about them. These days, I just go, sans camera. It has also been a while since I have done any critique on food, movies, music...blah blah. It would appear that my blog is slowly evolving into a travel blog? Hmmm...

So here I am slouched over my couch on a balmy Monday afternoon, thinking what a wonderful opportunity it is to do a Carrie Bradshaw and just write whilst sipping on a cuppa. Unfortunately, the mind is a complete and utter blank, and as I struggle to recall interesting things that have happened to me recently, none beckons.

I summon my thoughts together, but they are all mumbo jumbo and I can't think straight. Maybe I need to bring my camera out and about again, take lots of photos, make new friends, instead of getting swallowed by the monotony of life. Or maybe I just want to be a buoy and bob along, no drama, no action, just normal peaceful everyday life.

For now, I think I'm happy bobbing.

Last instalment - Classical Vienna

It may come as a surprise, but Vienna was my least favourite city of the trip. It felt like just another city, and a small one for that matter with much less shopping. Not that I was there with the intention to shop, as shopping to me, should be a "by-the-way" sort of thing and not the main focus of any trip (unless it's meant to be a shopping trip in the first place).

Unlike other major cities where museums charge close to nothing, Vienna's museums were horrendously pricey (EUR 9 and above). Last year, we didn't have to pay a cent to visit the National Gallery at Trafalgar Square, and that sure was a good art museum. Based on my scant memory, most of the museums in Washington DC are FOC. So, EUR 10 to visit a museum at the tail-end of a 16 day trip did seem pricey!

This is our very cool apartment at Schwedenplatz, which was a mere 10 minute walk from Stephansplatz - the centre of Vienna!
We cooked breakfasts of ham, sausages and bread in this very tiny kitchen.
Stephansdom was partially under construction and I liked how they used cloth specially printed with the cathedral motifs to cover the mess up. Look carefully and you'll notice how neatly the motifs are aligned to the structure! Beats having ugly scaffolding and green netting uglify the view, that's for sure!
At the impressive Hofburg entrance.

Lots of knight-on-horse statues in Vienna...this one was taken at sunset from the Hofburg.
Church of St Charles at Karlsplatz.
I have great admiration for Austrian architect Otto Wagner and his creations. Top to bottom: Majolica House, Medallion House and the twin pavilions for Karlsplatz station.


Hanging out in alfresco cafes at Stephansplatz, strolling along Kartnerstrasse and Kohlmarkt doing real shopping and window shopping (I'll admit here that P and I loitered around the Chanel boutique one too many times, even after shopping hours...my idea of course!), gaping at the impressive Hofburg, snacking on big fat Wiener sausages and yummy Italian gelato...doing all of these with my darling P made the trip special and memorable for me! Till the next trip! :)

Salzburg makes me happy

The gorgeous Mirabell gardens. At my insistence, we came here everyday...which wasn't a bad thing, as we caught a few free concerts here! Imagine the crisp cool air caressing your face and the wonderful music tickling your ears! Haaaaa truth is, the "cool air" was more like "cold wind"!
These beauties made me real happy!

We caught this on my cam on our hike up to the Salzburg fortress. I love walks where I catch unexpected surprises like this...
...unlike P, who was a lil' grumpy that he had to walk when we could have taken the funicular!
The impressive Hohensalzburg Fortress perched atop a cliff. We spent an educational day touring the castle with our audio guide.
Bird's eye view of Salzburg from the castle.
On one of the days, we took a 1-hour bus to the Salzburg Lake District (Salzkammergut). The bus makes several stops in Fuschl, St Gilgen, Strobl and Bad Ischl. I had done some research before we embarked on our journey and shortlisted St Gilgen and St Wolfgang!

Here in quaint St Gilgen. Obviously, Mozart reigns here too?!
From St Gilgen, it was a relaxing 40 min ferry ride to St Wolfgang. We sat at the top and froze our faces off! But it was really nice :)
The rain in St Wolfgang hampered our movements but it did not dampen our spirits. P was especially happy after buying his pet bull from a shop there at almost half the price compared to Salzburg city.
On our last day in Salzburg, we visited Schloss Hellbrunn Castle. We tried walking to the palace, and it did look possible from our map. However, an hour of walking and we were still nowhere close. Plus everyone we asked shook their heads and spoke in their halting English "quite far", so we gave up and took the bus eventually.

Here's a pic of the canary yellow palace.
The feature and highlight of our trip was the trick fountains in the palace grounds. This was a pleasure palace for the playful Prince Archbishop Markus Sittikus von Hohenems. He had water fountains and water holes installed all over the palace gardens to amuse and entertain his guests. At this particular banquet table, the water fountains, once activated, would wet all his guests except himself! The kids were having so much fun and us adults watching them had a good laugh too!