Indiana Jones fantasy come true

Running away this Chinese New year and going to see the temples of Ang Kor Wat and visit Phnom Penh this Thur with my partner in crime- Miss Bu bu.

Feeling sorely tempted to buy a new camera to do justice to this UNESCO relic.

Yet another flashback, since we are on the topic

Been out of dollarbills of the late, even when I was drawing money almost every day.

Am suddenly reminded of the pure surprise/ bliss/ happiness! when i just started school, miraculously, my wallet will be filled/topped up with cash again the very next day as I head off for school. Will discover that just as I was about to pay for lunch at the canteen or buy something cool (like rainbow erasers, long ruler, etc)at the bookshop. :)

Turns out that my mother just replenishes my " thin" wallet every night and fattens it up with very good dollar bills....yummy :)...cool memories..

One month carbo free diet

Went without any noodles, rice, pasta, bread, potatoes for the past 1 month. ( Viv was amazed that I could do this in Asia ha, though its true that its hard to find carbo free food)

I killed my caffeine intake too towards the last 2 weeks when I found out later that it does no good during the weight-lost period, by ordering decaf coffee whenever I have the option to.
Grilled my own meat and made my own salads when I was at home for meals
Picked bread from my Iskendar kebab when I ordered it without knowing there were bits of bread hidden under the meat
Went to the gym an average 2-3 times a week.

The result: I have lost 2 kg in all, I actually lost 2 kg within the 1st few days, and my weight kinda stablised.
My clothes feel much more loose and I feel good overall.:)
There are occassional light-headedness, and headaches due to the low sugar level in my blood, but I can get away with it with an apple or a fruit, and soon I got the hang of it.

My original intention was to run this for only 2 weeks, then it became a month. Though I can say I am officially off it now, however it does feel weird to want to eat potatoes now, as instinctively you brain tells you its no good. Even though it has been a short 1 mth, it had altered my eating habits quite a bit.

Current take would be to continue this diet for a few days in the week, till i have a flat- as a slab stomach- which takes time and alot of hard work i heard. :P

Hurray for one mth self abstinance!

Narnia and Enid Blyton

Oh... childhood


Been reading books of Narnia of the late, I was laughing to myself, as I first set eyes on that yellow, sandy pages, with its moderate sized letters and the wordings of the book like "Lucy came upon a Lamp-post in the middle of a winter forest. A faun named Mr. Tumnus appeared, and asked Lucy if she was, in fact, a Daughter of Eve. Lucy then went with Mr. Tumnus to have tea and cakes. It wasn't until after they had finished that Tumnus revealed his cruel intentions for bringing her home, not realising she was a nice girl."

Memmories of reading my hardcover Enid Blyton books like "A Hole in my Pocket"( the only book i remember of her off-handedly) , and the characters of Golliwogs, came to my mind, and as I was discussing with Jenny last night, we recalled more stories like The Wishing Chair seris, St Clare's series and The Famous Five. The funny thing is none of my non- Singaporean/ Msian friends have heard of Enid Blyton....which me and Jenny ( who is Msian) consider it to be the author during our era! Haha wonder what was the author of your time and in your country.....french, chinese, spanish etc....:)



Anyways to write this blog, I actually goggled for Enid Blyton, and found interesting things about this LADY ( i always though she was a he) that I never thought about when I was reading her books at the age of 4- 7 years old.

Excerpts: Controversies:
They reflect a none-too-subtle version of Britain's class system, as in rough versus well-behaved. Undoubtedly present are some stereotypes on gender. Some argue, from a current perspective, that the portrayal of golliwogs, amongst others, was racist. On the other hand, the Famous Five displayed a remarkably modern equality of teamwork between the sexes, and while golliwogs often appeared as villains in the Noddy books, elsewhere in her fantasy works they appeared as the heroes.It was frequently reported, in the 1950s and also from the 1980s onwards, that various children's libraries removed some of Blyton's works from the shelves.

Coming to mind, was also this brand review of the top 100 brands in 2005, one of which Harry Potter came in the running. It was known as a distractionary brand which appeals to both kids and adults who want to escape into a made-up world, away from the mundane and depressing realities of our so called real world, hehe. Adults are no longer ashamed reading fantasy storybooks, helped by the revamped more mature cover of the Harry Potter books.

Oh well it does help to that the stories are really exciting and creative!

sobering

Crash: If you haven't caught this movie yet, you have to watch it, still remember shahrin was telling me how gd it was, when it came out last year.Sobering indeed, makes me rethink of my own perceptions on race and ethnicity. How the plot unwinds and interwines at the same time is fascinating.

"Diving headlong into the diverse melting pot of post-9/11 LA, this compelling urban drama tracks the volatile intersections of a multi-ethnic cast, examining fear and bigotry from multiple perspectives as characters careen in and out of one another’s lives. No one is safe in the battle zones of racial strife. And no one is immune to the simmering rage that sparks violence - and changes lives.

You think you know who you are. You have no idea "

Jan is an unlucky month for love

Hugs to my friends who are now recuperating from a broken heart.
We could perhaps see brisk sales of this particular kitchen accessory in Jan then.:)

Finished

My reflection and attempt at long term planning and hence the formulation of 1 year goals, at my usual place last night. The place to receive higher calling, where the world conspires to aid me in my goals, its none other than Coffee Bean and Tea leaf by East Coast Park hehehe.

One of the many things I can see is that I have to start earning a hell-lot of money to live the lifestyle I want and retire at the age of 45 years.
Heres to Money- the root of all evil, k-chink, k-chink :)))


A year in review,in haircuts, my i did have such long hair to start with, and it just keeps on getting shorter

97S63

My Junior College Class mates, 97S63, 97 refers to the year in which we entered Hwa Chong. S stands for science stream, 63 is the combination of subjects generally. Oh well, we havent had a proper class gathering since 7 years back.

Its hearwarming to see familiar faces again and also compare who has the most radical change so far :), one of which must go to this schmate of mine, whom when I saw her approaching, and calling my friend's name: Ruoxia, i just motioned to her, "Eh, you friend" and I walked away with Tzeyong who even thought she was an insurance agent at Sommerset Mrt..hahahaha so funny! Talking to the guys was hilarious, cracking such stopid jokes ( really stupid), as if we were back in time, all 18 years old again. My god :)...of course we ended up with aching mouths and stomachs from all that nonsense laughter and jokes. More gathering of such seem to be in the way for 2006 la:)

Fwah

Cafe hopping again..... in Singapore :)

Surprised? Well I would be, as Singapore my country is infested with coffee chains and franchises like Star Bucks, Coffee Beans, Coffee Clubs, Cafe Cartels, they all lack that unique personality that I would hunt for in a cafe. Hence its a toughie to find small nice cafes here in Singapore, which is off limits to the general crowds but to an "elite" few ahem like me, who thinks that they have uncovered a treasure when they find it!... All done in a week, starting with

1. Mind Cafe- a cafe by Prinsep street where you can chill and play all kind of games/ board from Cranium, Taboo, etc all night now, opening hours are till wee late ( which is something refreshing here) and imagine my surprise when I checked out the cafe after 12 midnight, its packed and we still have groups shouting and laughing. Its the atmosphere that we are paying, though we might have the same games back home.


2. Whatever. com lounge/ cafe- tucked away in Chinatown, along Keong Siak Street, where a string of cool, funky bountique hotels and backpacker hostels reside. Found it by chance really after dinner at a fantabulous restaurant, Embers, as we strolled down the street and found this haven which is also a yoga centre with indie books, and resort settings. Oh they serve vegan food and low fat/ carbo meals too.


3. Royal Copenhagen- a glance into the interior finally, as Ceci has been recommending this quaint little place packed away in the middle of the Takashimaya mall, luxury goods section. The Scandinvian experience as all they use porcelain and cutlery from good old Scandinivia. :)Who would have guessed? Went to Toast in the end as my friend wanted yummy affordable sandwiches, I tried to resist the temptation of a cake at Toast, but they are oh all so good, that I gave in to nimbling the blueberry one. ( Well still maintaining my no-carbo diet, as I ate some candies at June's hse warming on Xmas day, but the diet is not so strict now,indulge a little sometime, will soon reach a month of diet, no significant results yet, though I have pple telling me that i look thinner, the weight doesnt decrease and i hope to think that its due to the increased muscle mass :P)

Restarted the cafe-hunt trail, lets keep it coming!....also realised what my sis mentioned is true, the cool places in singapore you need to go with a car. Everytime when I want to set a meeting place with friends, we always ended up back in town aka orchard road, how boring. Apparently sister's theory is, everyone goes to town or somewhere near a MRT, hence town is always packed and becomes conventional and already explored. I have to go out....like to the suburbs like this farm where they have an organic cafe or up to some "ulu" places to discover my new pot of gold.:)

The day that it never stopped raining

Since I opened my eyes till 23:00 now, the torrential rain has never let up a single bit...made the whole day so grey and wet...*splish splash with my yellow slippers*...

Many things have been going on my head for a while, guess its the reflective of 05, and setting of new targets of 06, which I have yet to finalise, plus I get introduced to new ideas and perspectives of life, which are cool, and i need to somehow reconcile and see how they can be fit in with the rest.

Well a starting point was when I went for a Multilevel Marketing talk introduced by one of my old schoolmate a wk back, she just said come by and see this workshop of mine. So off I went, with zero expectations.

Anyways the gist of this session to me, was the drive of this person who is one year younger than me, but seemed to be really driven in realizing his dreams (which I think its rare to find in Singaporean youth nowadays) and this sentence:

“If time, money and resources are not a problem, what do you want to do?”

I must say I was momentarily stumped, afterall this can’t be true and an viable option, but I think I must say I never wondered about this possibility and hence I don’t have a ready answer to that. What I muttered eventually was “Travelling.”

I am so used to making short term 1 year goals for myself, and most of the time, I have pretty good results in achieving them, but never a 20, 30, 40 year plan, a bigger picture where you could wish for anything under the stars. From my AIESEC training, long term plan making, OGSM etc, lessons learnt are ultimately it boils down to taking ACTIONS towards the right direction. No matter how beautiful your goals and strategies are, if you don’t make 1 small step in the right direction, you will never get there.

What age do I want to retire?
What kind of a life do I want to lead after retirement?
Do I want a 9-5 job 10 years down the road, or do I want to be my boss?

Questions like this do pop up once in a while, you ponder for a second, and then you move on to the next pressing thing on hand.

So maybe I am thinking bigger now, and in true A- school style, so what is standing in between me and doing what I like- “Travelling? Where are you now from your goals, what is the gap?

How are you going to get there? :)

Designing Brand Building Stores

"Shopping is an effective way to see a city; these days, to see what's new in architecture, the most efficient thing to do is to go and look at stores.When a traveller goes to London, Tokyo, Paris or LA, there is usually one new architecturally innovative museum to visit- but there are many new stores. They are open to the public and charge no admission"

Just had a chat with my sister (who happens to be an architect), the other day about this seminar she attended where this famous Prada store architect was telling them how modern architects should not think of just building buildings but how to be linked to " Globalisation". I was like..what?

We are no longer talking about building bricks, stone, nice designs anymore but also of engagement to the average consumer from ALL parts of the world. Hence, globalisation. And engagement of the consumer. Then as I was catching up on my reading again, I caught sight of this article from Fashion Week ( bizweek subscription) that featured how the luxury brands were using architecutural design of their stores to attract crowds, increase brand equity and ultimately to increase sales.

The photos I saw were really cool and it kinda changed the concept of a shop to me, out of the photos, I recognised this Prada Shop in New York Soho, where my sis brought us there to check it out while we were there for her graduation, something that I dont appreciate that much when i was younger, now i do! * sheepish grin* But a runway in the middle of the store? I was thinking it doesn't utilise space to sell as much per square metre eh...till i realised that was not the point...

Anyways read this article: Designing Brand Building Stores and check out the cool designs of these shops!

Just a thought

Look around you now, how many of your friends would you trust/ or want to set up a business with....

Even though you may be the best of friends, sometimes there are just certain principles or values or just the way of looking at things are so different that financial things are best kept aside, and just be a friend.

Ikea

Almost everyone I know loves Ikea, and that includes me. In bid to finish reading the piles of Businessweek magazines i have before 2006, I came across this article which is very interesting to see how Ikea uses its retail shop design (or maze you would say) and the room concepts to seduce the average shopper right in and dream of having an Ikea home :)

Ikea : How the Swedish Retailer became a global cult brand.

Read here

2006-01-06

Won $1.70 at the mahjong table today, decided that my luck this year can't be that bad :) (have been making a loss in mahjong in 05)

Here's wishing everyone including me, a more fulfilling and enriching 2006, where you feel that you are learning new things everyday, be constantly surprised and appreciative of nice gestures of the pple around you, and giving back to the society that we gain so much from.

Taking a leaf from the song now blasting from my laptop by Corrinne May, my entry for the 1st day of 2006:

"Take a look at the ordinary
Don't need to look for Paradise
You could be next to an angel in disguise
Everyday can be legendary
Every minute, an endless surprise
You could be the next angel in disguise"

Last min events leading to the closure of 2005:
Meeting Eason- Sat on the floor, clapping and cheering for this live performance, felt extraordinarily funny as a groupie with my camera, brings me back to sch days, wonder how life as a 1day full time groupie would feel like?


St Nicks Dinner- Met up with my St. Nicks sec sch friends for our once in a blue moon catchup, have to say they look prettier each time i see them, probably friendship does colour my lens, afterall it has been 9 years :)

New Year Eve Dinner- Went to Sofra, very nice ambience and turkish food no doubt for a nice dinner, out of which Ceci mentioned that we have spent the past consecutive 3 years of new years' eve together. Year 1 in Alley Bar (sg), Year 2 Shanghai and now.

Countdown at Sentosa- Foam foam foam, pretty amazed by the CHUNKS and CHUNKS of overflowing foam that poured on the dance flr, was on the other dry side of the party co-organised by MTV, have to say the music was not fantablous, hence adjourned to Thumpers for yet again such AMAZING live music they have there, for some calorie burning! Wonderful entrance to 2006!