20151018 Brussels with its pissing boys and street art

The day started off well enough. Being the cheapskates we are, we chose one of the earlier trains to Brussels because they were cheaper. Actually, also not very cheap because it came up to S$170 per person, round trip.

But first, the beautiful sight of Amsterdam before the sun rise.

Beautiful reflections in the water but the water was not as clean as it seems

We left Amsterdam Centraal at 8:20am and reached Brussels (Bruxelles Midi) around 10am. On our itinerary was the Grand Place (a UNESCO World Heritage Site) and also Manneken Pis, the famous pissing boy. If we were to walk from Midi, it would take around 20 minutes. With the very high likelihood of us getting lost without a SIM card, we decided to take the train from Midi to Central.

Guess which station this is? Hint: Look at the sign. Lol. I'm funny.

Gotta do the artsy feet shot, what with the fallen autumn leaves and all

The interesting thing about Brussels is that it is very different from Amsterdam. The architecture is very... French. I am no Arts connoisseur so you can judge for yourself.

Galerie Du Roi, our introduction to Brussels

Do you know what Belgium is famous for? Are you ready?

Sweet stuff

Chocolates in pretty boxes

I'm not a huge fan of gourmet chocolate, being more of a Kinder Bueno girl myself, but I think Belgium is famous for chocolates. Godiva was founded here in 1926 and Praline itself was invented here under the Neuhaus house (haus house! lol!). Oh, I just realised the photo above of the pretty chocolates in blue boxes was taken at Neuhaus. Noob.

Anyway, I'm sure chocolate lovers will go gaga in Belgium because the pralines are a lot cheaper than what we get back home. We saw pralines going at around S$1 each at Leonidas.

Time to get back to the sights. Being the busy career woman I am (ya, right), I didn't do much research prior to the trip except for sourcing for flights and accommodation while Peiying dug for activities and tours. Hence, the first sight of La Grand-Place was quite breathtaking.

This is not a postcard.

Imagine walking down a narrow alley which widens to reveal tall, ornate, intricate buildings built hundreds of years ago.

See the human there for scale

Imagine walking to the middle of the square to find yourself surrounded by an eclectic blend of Baroque architecture, some buildings with gold elements, others in lovely dove blue. Imagine turning 360... wham! Sorry, it's one of those tourist spots with lots of people taking photos, selfies, wefies and we even saw students shouting their school cheers to announce to the world that they have arrived. No space for you to turn 360. 180 still got chance. Hard Rock Cafe is actually located here so you get the idea.

You can float though.

That's not to say that this is a tourist trap. It does have a rich sense of history and the City Museum houses some interesting artifacts, like tapestries and sculptures. Oh, I should probably mention that the entry (4 euro) comes with free WIFI. You're welcome.

Getting our art on.

The other thing on our agenda was Manneken Pis, the Pissing Boy.

Hoards of tourists at Manneken Pis, the object of desire for many a thief

Do you know that the sculpture has many costume changes and there is a schedule to see what the upcoming outfits are? There is even a costume change ceremony. The only ceremony for my costume change is the cutting of price tag. Sometimes the statue is hooked up to kegs of beer which is dispensed into cups and shared with passer-bys. No such luck for us. The wardrobe of Manneken Pis can rival that of Carrie Bradshaw and you can view it at the City Museum. More on that later.

Besides the statue, you will also see other kinds of pissing boy:

Hip hop hipperty hop

Waffle type. Doesn't look very sanitary though.

After visiting these two sites, we were quite lost. What to do next? We tried to recall all the phrases that start with "Belgium" and tada! Waffle time!

Chantilly cream and Belgian chocolate ice-cream. Potent! 

By then, it was only 2pm. Our train was at 8pm. 6 hours away and we've done what we came to do. It was time to get lost.

Ok, we don't actually have the courage to really get lost. We decided to walk straight down various roads. I think we worried too much because (a) there were many signs pointing back to Le Grand Place and (b) most shops were one-of-a-kind so it was not that hard to remember landmarks.

Did you know that Brussels is the birthplace of Tintin? I didn't so I was surprised to see this:

Tintin walking down the stairs like a boss.

If you're a fan, there is a Herge Museum you can visit and some tips on where to catch street paintings of Tintin. Guess we're not fans then because I thought these are Tintin's friends:

Same artist but different comic. What are they looking at?

They're not.

Have you ever imagine things you've drawn coming to life? Wouldn't it be nice if I can draw a Chanel or a house by the sea and they're all real? I know my bag will look like the counterfeit it is and the house will probably be topsy turvy, but hey, imagination~ imagination~~

I recalled the draw-and-it-shall-come-to-life childhood fantasy when I saw this.

We were semi-lost so I can't tell you where this is.

There was a place where we could take a lift up to get an expansive view of Brussels. Ok, I just Googled it and it's Place Poelaert. As this link is leading to a TripAdvisor page, I had to see what the highly ranked places of interest are in Brussels. Mainly museums. I'm beginning to understand why Brussels wasn't our favorite part of the tour.

Sometimes we try to stuff too many things into our itinerary. Sometimes we are too chill about a trip. This is when you need to have a compatible travelling companion. I wouldn't say there are hard and fast rules when it comes to choosing your kaki but ideally, they should be someone you won't want to murder. Other things that are important:

1. Sleeping pattern/time
2. Stingyness level
3. Songs/movies preferences (go on a road trip and you'll know how important this is)
4. Reliability
5. Fairness

1. and 3. are self-explanatory. For 2., it's from my friend's experience. She went on a trip with a group of friends and one of them was complaining about the shared travel funds because she didn't take alcoholic drinks and shouldn't be paying the same as others who were. I have to qualify that they were in Switzerland where a can of Coke is around 4Fr. and beer costs 5.50Fr. You get the idea?

When it comes to 4. Reliability, it matters because you usually split duty on trips. At the planning stage, I volunteered to look for accommodation and flights as I work in the hospitality industry and love pouring over these. Peiying contributed pre-trip by bookings activities and tours. We both did our fair share of research to come up with the itinerary. Imagine the person assigned to book flight booking a flight without check-in luggage (ka-ching!) or Person B "forgetting" to book the restaurant everyone wanted to try.

We don't all have skills that are relevant to travelling. Some may have driving licenses but shitty navigation skills. Others come with insider's info on where to go and what to do while the partners are pro in negotiation. We all have bits and pieces of ourselves that we can contribute to the trip. If you really don't have any, I think it is only fair that you start/end the trip with a little treat for the rest who are doing more. If you're too busy to do anything pre-trip, you can always do something during the trip, like offering to be the person in-charge of communal fund. Speaking of which, it's really helpful to have a pouch for communal fund where everyone pools in $X at the start of the trip for things like transport and food.

Ok, that was a pretty long digression.

As we wandered, we found a market. Not the food kind which would really perk us up but the flea kind. Les Amis du Vieux Marché is what you should look out for if this is your scene.

So there we were, having covered quite a bit of distance. We didn't really feel hungry but there was nothing else on our itinerary. The other phrase we can think of that begins with Belgian? Belgian mussels.

Where there is Belgian mussels, there is Belgian beer.

We chanced upon the little bistro, Le Chat Noir, took a look at its menu and saw the mussels. It wasn't cramped full with tourists and it looked like a good place to "go local". The mussels were good but the fries we ordered on the side was even better. :x Apparently, fries or frites is something people queue for here:

Don't want to get heaty. Cannot eat.

I found a 2012 article here which tells you a bit more about frites. More than I can ever tell you.

By this time, it was only 4pm at max. I started to feel the ache at the back of my head, you know, the part where headaches usually start. We got so bored that we went back to Manneken Pis to see if the crowd had thinned and did the tourist selfie thing. The sky had changed so we headed to Le Grand Place and took this:

Still crowded though.

This was when we decided to walk into the buildings to see what was there to see. City Museum, which I mentioned earlier, was not too expensive, which was the main reason for us visiting it. It had free WIFI too. Historians should be cursing and swearing at this statement now. You can take photos inside but you have to carry your backpack in front of you.

There were displays of paintings, sculptures and even household items. We saw cutlery, plates and intricate teapot. Not our cup of tea, you can say. Then a familiar figure emerged along the gallery.

Hello, old friend!

The kind of art we like. The amusing kind.

What a show(er)!

We discovered the part of the museum that really interests us, the wardrobe of Manneken Pis!

Carrie Bradshaw can retire.

You know what happened after I took this photo? A bell rang and I thought it was a fire alarm.

It wasn't.

It was worse.

The museum was closing. It was 5pm. I thought we had a lot of time? What do you mean it's closing? But we just got here! This is the interesting bit! 

So yeah, we didn't get to see much of the boy's fashion. If this is something that interests you, head up to the 3rd level first and make your way down.

What kind of souvenirs do you think we brought back? Belgian chocolate, of course. There are so many to choose from that a chocoholic would be giddy with joy. Us? We just went for the prettiest packaging.

Le Comptoir de Mathilde

I'm not sure if any of these actually tastes good.

You get to sample some of these.

Did I mention we were there for the packaging only?

By then, it was only 6:30pm. We decided to slowly make our way to Midi station since Brussels had nothing left for us. The dull ache had gone up a notch to nagging pain level. 

It took us almost 30 minutes to reach Midi. Along the way, we asked if we were going in the right direction and we were assured by the long-limbed locals that we were. It was supposed to be "just down the road" but it turned out to be half an hour with our not-so-long-limbed bodies. After confirming that we were in the right place, we sat down and waited. 

The police came. No, not for us. They cordoned off an area near where we were sitting. Instead of panicking and moving away, we were so tired that we just sat and tried to learn French in 30 minutes. No one was allowed to walk down one of the passageways. Subsequently, we saw a few burly men in uniform carried out a luggage that looked like it was ripped apart. On hindsight, with all the high alert in Brussels now, we should probably have moved our asses and headed outside. May this be something no one has to experience.

On the journey back to Amsterdam, the headache escalated into a persistent throb. I downed a Panadol Extra and the persistent throb persisted. I was mentally preparing myself to brave the 3- to 5-minute walk back to our apartment. It was torture. It was the worst day of the trip for me. I took another Panadol after a hot shower which didn't improve matters. I dropped my head into the pillow and darkness took over. Meloodrama much? 

What to conclude about Day 2 then?

1. It's probably enough to spend half a day in Brussels if you are not a fan of museums or chocolates. Given a choice, I would probably have given Brussels a miss, especially when we saw the chocolates we lugged back from Brussels selling in Amsterdam at the same price. Meh.
2. Choose your travel partner wisely. See tips above.
3. A communal fund is probably a good idea as it can simplify payments.
4. It's an even better idea to be alert and be safe than sorry when you encounter situations of high tensions.
5. Panadol Extra is good. Sufficient sleep is even better.

Yeah, I did get the grandfather of headaches which didn't get better after popping pills. Nothing cures headache more than a good night's sleep. Thankfully, Day 3 was just going to be a chillaxing day. Or so we thought. 

Day 1: Amsterdam with the sombre Anne Frank House and delicious Screaming Beans 

Day 3: Amsterdam with its red lights and Heineken Experience

20151017 Amsterdam with the somber Anne Frank House and delicious kopi

It has been more than 2 months since I returned from my trip. I've been telling my friends that I will be blogging about it. One friend has already booked her flight. If I procrastinate any longer, she will no longer friend me. *sad*

I hope I will complete this series of posts which is about my trip to Amsterdam, Brussels and Iceland before the next friend books their flight to any of these and unfriend me. Then I will be friendless. *sad*

Technically, the trip started on 16 Oct but since most of that was spent in an aeroplane, I think we can skip it and move straight to the more exciting bit. After a 13-hour flight, we landed at Schiphol Airport. Prior to the trip, I was contemplating whether I should buy a SIM card. You know, being unplugged and all those hipster stuff. Then, I chanced upon a tip about travelling which goes something along the lines of "why get lost when you can get connected?". It was a sign. 

You can buy your SIM card at the airport and it costs around 30euros. It's really easy to talk to people at Amsterdam because most of them are really friendly. Sure, the customs guy did ask me a lot of questions (the standard, how long are you staying, where are you staying, purpose of visit etc) but they were just doing their job (I think). 

We bought our train tickets to Amsterdam Centraal and waited for the train. We had a 20kg luggage each and a backpack. Please, please, please if there is one thing you take away from this series of posts, it will be to travel with a backpack. A cross-body means you will have one aching shoulder. A tote means you will be fumbling with it when you have to take care of your luggage. A handcarry means you will have one aching arm. You get the drift. A backpack also means that you can do this:

Pose for a picture with flailing arms and McHammer pants

Anyway, being the blur birds we are, we sat by our luggage, wondering aloud when everyone was alighting at a particular station. A nice lady then came up to us and asked why we weren't jumping off as it was the last station, Amsterdam Centraal. Surely, it hasn't been 3 stops yet? Till today, I am still not sure how we both missed counting one station.

Behold, Amsterdam Centraal:

I bring rain on my travels. Be warned. 

We booked our accommodation via airbnb. Unless you have been living under a rock, you would have heard of this wonderful sharing economy that is totally rad. I mean, you'll get bragging rights to travelling in a more "authentic" manner because you are essentially staying where locals stay. We chose our accommodation based on its proximity to Amsterdam Centraal as we knew we would be travelling out of Amsterdam a fair bit. We weren't disappointed with Green Alley, which was a 3-5 minutes' walk from the station.

Ok, for the uninitiated, airbnb is a platform where you can book a room, a bed, an apartment, a condo, a villa, a castle, a treehouse or even an igloo. You select the destination, enter the dates and choose away! You can contact the host to ask questions and settle arrival/departure details. I usually make my selection based on location, filtered by accommodation type and ratings and  finally decide whether I can bear to part with the moolah required.

Sadly, the previous tenant was still at the apartment and we had to be homeless kids for an hour or two. We dropped off our luggage and went wandering for kopi. I NEED MY KOPI! We walked up and down the streets,with me wrinkling my nose at the smell of weed and Peiying asking "where got?". Got, I tell you, got at every corner even though it was before noon.

After narrowing down the finalists, we went with Screaming Beans (Haarlemmerstraat 68) and we were officially on a trip.

Because the kopi damn zai ok!

Before the kopi, we were like x_x. After the kopi, we went like @_@ and can notice interesting things like this:

All bicycles will be removed. Nope.

And this:

Funny windows. Ha ha.

After a bit more loitering drifting on the streets, we finally gained entry to our apartment for the next 3 nights.

View from the studio

After a quick shower, we headed out again. This time to haolian. Why? Thanks to a tip from JT, we booked our tickets to Anne Frank House online. Why haolian? Because this was the queue:

After a long flight, this is not something you'll want to tackle

We just sashayed in, showed our tickets and waited for the introduction to start. The Diary of Anne Frank must be one of the most famous diaries around. I read it when I was 15 a.k.a a long time ago. I think you should read it before visiting her house because you will get a richer experience. If you're not much of a bookworm, don't worry. The introduction will give you the background you need to begin to appreciate how lucky we are to live in (relatively) war-free times. I felt the optimism of a young girl, her hopes and dreams for her young life, her strength and despair during the war. Anne Frank House is no Disney. It is a solemn affair as we walked through the house, wondering how so many people can cramp into the tiny space, realising with horror how it must have been like to live like a mouse behind black-out shades. You will see the magazine cut-outs she pasted on her walls and the hopelessness of her situation can be overwhelming.

We heard from our host that the queue is around 1.5 hour during winter and can be as long as 3 hours during summer. Yes, please buy your tickets online and a lead time of 1 month is recommended.

Since we were in the city of canals, I have to include this for you:

I bring gloomy weather too

We met up with my uncle for dinner and he brought us to Volendam, a small fishing town. When in a fishing town, what can you eat? Go on, take a guess.

Seafood! Did you guess correctly? Duh.

So that concluded our first day in Europe. The weather was around 12 degree C which was a good starting temperature to prepare us for the big boy - Iceland.


In summary, Day 1 tips are:

1. Use airbnb to find more reasonably-priced  and interesting accommodation, unless you cannot do without room service.
2. Use a backpack. Keep your hands free to grab your luggage, take pictures, navigate labyrinth-like streets. 
3. Buy your SIM card. Less stressful when wandering around.
4. If you're visiting Anne Frank house (Prinsengracht 263-267), buy the tickets online a month in advance. 
5. Kopi drinker? Go to Screaming Beans (Haarlemmerstraat 68)

Day 2 was the worst day of the trip. Stay tuned for the horrors. 

Day 2: Brussels with its pissing boys, street art and French architecture
Day 3: Amsterdam with its red lights and Heineken Experience

Hello!

It's been over a year since I last posted!

What got me started was reading a post by HONY where the image shown was that of an elderly writing on their journal and that they do it daily because so much happens in life!

That's right! While the things happening may not be the most exciting, that's what life is. If you're always on a high, you will drop dead fast.

So the most exciting thing that happened to me today was making dinner with my family and just enjoying the banter over a good roast chicken and some raclette.

It was my first time trying fennel and it was delicious! Its rare these days that I get exposed to a new taste, much less one that I actually do like. :)

I'm still around!

Gosh! It has been more than 2 years since I last blogged. What inspired me to blog today? Because I remember how much I love to make silly lists! Here's one: Just how much are you into him?

1. Was your heart set a-fluttering?

2. Did you get a tingling sensation in your nether regions? *nudge nudge*

3. Did you have sometimes haha sometimes shy moments when you're with him?

4. Was there a feeling that this could be more?

5. Did the date just fly by and you felt quite depressed at the end of it?

6. Did you grab your phone and slam it down when you realize it wasn't him who just messaged you?

7. Did you find yourself trying 3 or more outfits? Even if it's mental outfits? (Girl dictionary: 1 is hack care / 2 is normal / 3 is *tee hee hee)

So long as you are giggling / blushing / nodding your head vehemently to any of the above, congratulations! You have fallen into the love river! :)

in a course about blog and suddenly remember i have one!

hello! how's everyone? any plans ahead? :)

The series of unfortunate events

we've been saying we need to record this down before we all forget how 'lucky' we were. yes, all the below did happened. The weather wasn't being typically perth according to SJ. during the two years she was there, she had not experienced the type of cold we were experiencing. never mind, we love the cold we said.

on that night, we wanted to club. on! its the last night in perth and we HAVE to do something. we made plans to head out with her friend to one of the few clubs in perth: metro.

since samuel's car can only take 4, including the driver, and there's 5 of us, it was decided that adrian and i will go to the club first. if we're going to run straight into the club, then theres no need to wear jacket rite? adrian left his at our rented apartment.

once at outside the club, we huddled together while waiting for samuel to return with SJ and JT. the wind was howling but the place was packed. after a while, we noticed something unusual. the crowd consisted mainly of students. as we shivered in the howling wind, we heard them speaking to one another:

"good thing we got the tickets early! i think its sold out now"

WHAT TICKETS? and what do you mean by sold out? hmm... getting strange...

finally, i saw the poster outside the club. there was a bash tonight. crap... if bashes there are anything like bashes in singapore, you get what i mean.

we called the gals and told them the bad news. too late. they were reaching soon.

before they could explain to samuel, he had dropped them off and went to find parking. more power, SJ was wearing spag top with short skirt. and seriously, the wind was unlike anything we had experienced before. BUT it's never too cold to camwhore!



after standing around in the wind for 10 minutes, samuel finally came back.

"what now? where to go?"
"there's this other club we can head to... a little messy there but we're out to club. should be about 15-20 minutes ride away only."

it was decided. we are going for club II (cannot recall the name la). since SJ was in her minis, we graciously decided SJ and JT should take samuel's ride first. something we would come to regret very soon. very regret kind...

once the trio left, adrian and i sought refuge behind the pillar. image this: the entrance to the club is up a flight of stairs and there was no effective shelter outside the club. essentially, this:

while we stood there with our arms crossed, we heard a strange, unfamiliar noise (unfamiliar when you're in australia, the driest continent on earth). *pit pat pit pat pit pat*

RAIN!!! NO! MAKE THAT A DOWNPOUR!

heng right? the wind was making it worst by blowing the rain horizontally at us. big, fat droplets hitting you like people throwing fishballs at you. crap. it was getting really bad, we stood there for about 15 minutes. samuel should be back right? 16 minutes. where's samuel? 17 minutes. what's taking them so long? 18 minutes. come one! 19 minutes. did they head straight home? 20 minutes.

cannot tahan already! we went up the stairs, ready to enter the club for some shelter. once on the steps, we folded our arms and stood as still as we could. You know, if we move, we will may move the air more and get colder? :) waited and waited and i caught sight of something flapping on the ground. a $10 bill! that's like $12 in SGD? i pointed out to adrian.

"eh, $10 leh"
"so? i'm not going to move. nice and slightly warmer now"

we stood on the steps, watching the bill flapping.

FINALLY! after 30 minutes of pure (cold) agony, samuel returned. we ran into the car, plopped ourselves down and heaved a huge sign of relief.

"how come the 10 minute became 30?" we asked quizzically (not good to be rude and make your driver angry ah)

samuel pointed to the road block just ahead. Aha!

as we passed the road block, the police waved us on. he recognised samuel. As if we didn't have enough problems, samuel blurted back, "you sure i haven't been drinking?" +_+



arrived at burswood casino, still cold, still wet, and getting hungry. hopped into the toilet and ATTEMPTED to dry off.

while waiting for everyone to convene, we were witnessing lots of people having a great time in an irish pub. looks good i thought. but i never thought that this will be a place that will revisit later.

never mind! let's hit the CLUB!

strangely, the club was not within the casino. we had to brave the wind and walked to the club. could this be the start of our good luck for the evening? NO QUEUE!!!

we swaggered up, ready to party the night off (what's left of it).

STOP!

huh? samuel was stopped by the bouncer. bouncer pointed at his shoes and shook his head.

COME ON! NO SNEAKERS?!?!!!!!

by now, you can imagine the filthy, filthy words that are going through our minds. samuel offered to head home to change while we enter the club.

NO! WE CAME TOGETHER, WE'RE GOING IN TOGETHER!

it was too cold to stand outside arguing with the bouncer. we adjourned to the casino. as we sat around the slot machines, we were enticed by the smell wafting from 24-hour cafe. eh! when you're cold and wet, it naturally comes with hungry.

the next moment, we were sitting down with a plate of fries, some hot drinks, and brainstorming on the next (club/pub/bar/anywhere with alcohol) destination.

remember the irish pub? yes, i did. we brushed off the fries crumbs and headed for it. 1am.

TMD! the pub was closed at 1am! bouncers were standing there, barring our way. one miserable drink can?!

miserable, cold, wet and tired. we stomped around the casino and the hotel looking for a lobby lounge, a hotel pub, anything! none. naddah. zilch. +_+

let's head for the club outside the casino again!

By the time we got there, guess what? It was closing and no longer admiting anyone even for one bloody drink! Its simply not our day or night rather!

By then we were truly defeated. we decided to xall it a night. Hopped into a cab and headed back to the apartment. While Adrian was paying, the 3 of us girls alighted from the cab. Just at the gate outside the apartment were two guys. They were what you would call under the influence of alcohol. As if we had not tried hard enough the whole night to get a drink, these two boisteriously offered their bottle to rub it in. 

After some dodging, we made it back to the apartment. The unfortunate events did not end there. Since I caught some rain, the group graciously allowed me to shower first though I am sure that everyone just wanted to wash the swayness away.

When I turned on the tap, no hot water. Just when I was cursing and swearing, someone screamed "noooooooooooooooooo!!!" As if a mortal sound had been dealt. 

We had no internet.

If your eyeshadow becomes blusher before you walk out the door...

I seldom plug products but every once in a while, I come across something fantastic (like nando's).

Today, it's not about food. If your eyeshadow seems to have the amazing power of converging into a thin, oily line before lunch, this is the product for you.


Urban Decay's Primer Potion, S$32 from Sephora.

At first, it doesn't seem possible that a smear of this on your lids will make your eyeshadow stay. In fact, the thing practically disappear when you blend it into your lids. So never mind, I continued slapping on the shadow, prepared to be disappointed by yet another product touting A but giving Z.

Do not be surprised when your eyeshadow turns out a lot more vibrant that you're used to. I think this is what the primer is meant to do. Most amazingly, my eyeshadow actually stayed on the lids and did not initiate its usual trek down to my cheeks. How COOL is that?

If you're like me who have tonnes of eyeshadow pots in the drawer that you can never use (unless you like green/blue/purple blusher), this is your lifesaver. GRAB IT!

Is this angelina?

Nope! it's her

what do u think

of the new blog layout?

adore the bardot look

"now what" and "what now" are actually very different!

on another note, check out knighttcat's post

it's all the about the latest colours...

OMG! WHO IS THIS?


Source

how much time do u think u have for urself?

the calculation:

one day = 24 hours

one meal = 1 hour
three meals = 3 hours

one-way to work = 1 hour
two-ways to/from work = 2 hours

regular work hours = 9 hours
regular OT hours = 2 hours
total work hours = 11 hours

you should sleep = 8 hours

what you're left with = 24 - 3 - 2 - 11 - 8 = ???

a person who does not embrace a sunny day does not deserve its warmth

He's back!

let's shop!

sometimes.. we need a little retail therapy

It wasn't love at first sight.

When I first saw you, I never thought you could make my heart go faster. It has been a long time since I last felt this way.

Grudgingly, I decided to give you a try because I was bored and wanted something different.

The first time we got together, I thought it was just a fleeting liking, a touch, a caress, no more. I didn't know what made me do it but I felt maybe I should give you a chance. Who knows, we may really be meant for each other.

As we told ginger steps together, I fell more and more for you. I could not help it. Being with you was like floating on a cloud. You made me stand tall and I felt proud to have you with me.

My heart began to beat faster and my lungs could not seemed to get enough air. It was then when I began to think that we could really work.

Alas! You were not what I was used to. You needed me to invest more in you than what I was used to. We soon parted ways.

I could not stop thinking of you. My heart was still racing, my mind running wild with the things I will give up just to have you. I made my choice.

And we are together now.



My new 5 inch heels. Yes. FIVE! F.I.V.E!

his pain

it started with a backache.

he thought yoga would help. so he asked his friends for some moves that he could do. it didn't help.

he was overseas. he went to the doctor when the pain got too bad. i msn him because his status was about losing 7kg in a week. he told me the doctor made a hole in him to drain out the pus and it was 'very very very' painful. medication didn't help. it was supposed to be appendicitis. i asked him why he didn't come back to singapore since it was so bad. he said he couldnt travel then. we were still thankful that insurance covered the bills.

but it didn't cover his life. he passed away yesterday. doctors had misdiagnosed. in the one month that he was asked to wait for his surgery, the cancer might have raged on. it was colon cancer. and stage 2.

they told me all the treatments were too late. we were supposed to have gathering when u came back.

goodbye my friend. i hope there's no more pain now.

please take care of your health. pain is the sign that something is wrong.

Good bye Mr Ng. I hope you are no longer in pain. Take care my friend.