Vietnam- Cám ón (Thank U)

I am the type of person who would not read a storybook twice, or watch a vcd twice easily/voluntarily, hence to go back to the same place within 5 years could be even harder. As there are so many new things on the list to see/read/watch, and I dont have forever :)

But Hoi-an, located right in the middle of Saigon and Hanoi, a quaint, artsy, cheery yellow town with fantastic food and town of tailors, I would go back anytime. :) A nice laidback town, listed under the UNESCO heritage sites, where cars are banned on the main streets here. And everything- ranging from clothes, bags, shoes and lanterns can be TAILORED MADE! Its like a town of artistic talent and exquisite beautiful things. Big shopping time for us gals! I made a suit with pants, 3 tops ( by just pointing at a mag), the traditional ao-dai costume and a pair of pants, all under SGD100, and very good tailoring from our favourite Ty Ty Tailor shop, fantastic mother-daughter duo, a place where we spent most of the time in Hoian there. Oh I even tailor made a pair of sneakers too!:)

Went with June and Stef for this 5 day trip, where we spent time in Hoi-An and Saigon/ Ho Chi Minh. Have to say that Hoi-an impressed me much more than HCM, and going to the city after townie life, took some adjusting to :P. But Hey! went to THE MOST FANTASTIC PHO place that Chauie recommended in HCM, am contented :)Not forgettting the new Singaporean friend, Yvonne, we made on the 1 day trip to the Mekong Delta on a row boat and the War Remants Museum recording the 10 year war betw VN and USA- a very sad story, and it shows how much people power can amount to.

A nice break, think I am done with Indochine for a while.

New fixation

Mel Torme. My new fix.
Realised that I like old vintage stuff. Big band jazz and clothes with big flappy sleeves that you can mistake for wings. Funny that chinese period costumes, japanese kimonos, and european dresses back in the 16th centuries all have the flappy sleeves, romanticism phenomenon worldwide maybe.

Enter the crab

Done alot of socialising aka organising of gatherings the past 2 weeks with different groups of friends, that the cancer side of me desperately craves to retreat into my comfy shell to recuperate.

And nothing beats reading good books, and I am currently hung on Brand Sense: Build Powerful Brands, through Touch, Taste, Smell, Sight and Sound after reading/browsing Vietam War: Told from the other side, to gain more indepth insight of my trip. ( at least trying :P)

Some very interesting findings from Brand Sense:

... proves how the smell of a new car or the perfect sound of a closing car door plays a major role in selecting what model car is purchased. Ironically, a new-car smell simply doesn't exist. What the consumer smells is an artificial odor that's been sprayed into the interior, creating a sense of quality. Now the generic "new car smell" is about to be branded along with the sound of a closing door - just like Singapore Airlines has patented the smell in their cabin. Likewise, the sound and feel of Kellogg's cornflakes crunching in our mouth has been created in sound labs.

:)

Feel loved by my family.
Sometimes I don't know how lucky I am.

creativity as a livelihood

all these random tots were inspired when I saw this guy who dyed half, just half of his head BLOND, in a punk hairdo walking along orchard rd quite fashionably... which led me to thinking:

What if i were able to do something creative as a livelihood, paint fantastic SELLING paintings, sing mesmerizing SELLING songs, act convincingly in SELLING movies, design quirky SELLING fashion etc etc, something that uses your left part of the brain, and somehow you feel inspired and excited of creating something new each time ... instead of punching numbers or your keyboard using the all too familiar excel and word day in and day out.

Wonder how differently would i have turned out if I hadn't chosen to study science stream or went into junior college after secondary sch, and embarked into school of art or animation instead, a path less trodden.

Next week in ...Vietnam :)

Short term plans include finally checking out Vietnam- Ho Chi Minh and Hoi-an.

Supercool!

Thanks to Chau, I discovered Pandora where they help you to discover songs that you like based on the entry of song/ singer that you typed in! For e.g. from Michael Buble, I got Frank Sinatra, Mel Torme, Glen Miller etc....

Wayyyy cool...

the right to love

Ha am just reminded that its Valentine's Day today, no particular relation to this posting.

Caught Brokeback Mountain last night and wary I was of Lee Ang's movies for being infamously long and slow. This movie took me by surprise on how the timely pace set for the movie brought out the laid back cowboy life in the 60s, the realistic and subtle performances brought out by Heath Ledger and Jake Gyllenhaal (who are both incredibly cute btw) on forbidden love and the ending which left a bitter yet poignant taste in your mouth. Now I know why its a hot contender for the Oscars after winning the Golden Globe for Best Picture.

What I got out of the movie is everyone has the right to love, whoever they are, life is too short to spend on waiting and worrying about what other people think.

heart-stirring

think I may have found my favourite english female singer of the moment, and she is asian looking.:P Corrinne May, home grown, Singaporean singer who is based in LA came back for her 2nd concert in NUS University Cultural Centre last Sun, and imagine her concert is sold out for the 2nd time in a row. Quite a feat, for someone who only has 2 albums, not much publicity done, and again a local. It has always been said that if any singer who wants to make it big here, they have to make it big overseas first. Small market Singapore has? Or Singaporeans are too practical/ snobbish to support home-grown local singers?

Anyways Corrinne May composes most of her songs, and with her
playing the piano or strapping on the guitar belting out her hits, which most of the audience including me, sang along,knowing the lyrics by hard, it was an awesome concert, for she could sing through a very wide range effortlessly. I guess her songs inspire hope, faith, goodness of this world without being too preachy, none of the gangster rapping or sex- sells antics that we see too much on MTV nowadays.

Kudos to Miss Flo, my childhood friend who shared the same interest as me and now has made her first step into the career path she wants. Congrats woman! :) And I must say surprisingly UCC has a much better theatre/ projection compared to the Esplanade.

what

what does one do, on the 1st day of being a W.O.L (Woman of Leisure)? play some stocks and win me some money thats what i did. :P too stressed out you think? hehe

Today is the end of my Elux career of 2 years

Took me a long while to make up my mind that I needed to move on to learn new things and do things that I like. At this very current moment, my interest lies in product/brand marketing, preferably fast moving consumer goods industry.:) Hence unlike most pple who find another job before they resign, I did just the opposite. Oh well it didnt help that I had a 2 month notice period so I decided to get it over and done with.

I guess I am much luckier in my position as I have no debts, no family to support and I live with my family, plus I have savings on my own, so I can take a comfortable break and find something that I truely like, something that I will stay longer than 2 years hopefully.

Was hard to leave a job when colleagues are nice, even harder when your BOSS is even nicer.As for Elux, as Vivianne so aptly puts across, its hard to leave as we had such good memories working for this company, be it in Sweden or Brazil for her.

Now we are down to Elux 2 for our old gang. :)

Cycle of life

We are just passengers in the cycle of life and God is the driver. He decides when we should board and when we should alight. No warnings no telltale signs, when its time, its time.

Recent happenings to dear friends around me has been yet again reflective, to what we think we really have or possess, and what we should really value and not take for granted in life.

?

Wonder why my previous post keeps on disappearing

Frivolous postings

Three women look at a life-size chocolate statue of U.S. heartthrob Brad Pitt at Hyundai department store’s main branch in Seoul on Sunday. The store commissioned the statue after the actor came first in a survey asking customers what star they would like to date on Valentine’s Day./Yonhap

From Cambodia with Love

Yet again reaffirming my theory that countries with Buddhism as their main religion, has its people more smiley and happy than even more affluent ctys.Cambodia a country by far one of the poorest that I have been to have their people smiling constantly and warming up to you. A surprising note is that the pple i met spoke more English than in Korea, could be due to the tourism trade.

Last week, wisked off with Bulan to Siem Reap, Ang Kor area where most of the 2,000 year old temples reside. A mixture of long Hindusiam and Buddhism heritage have left their marks through exquisite carvings and left us gapping in awe. Why dont we build such magnificant buildings/ temples anymore I wonder? Our long 2x 6 hr bus to fro Phnom Penh, the capital city ( as the cheap airfares were only avaible there), could be given a miss though we saw the countryside of Cambodia and our constantly honking bus took its time and additional passengers along the way who sat on the corridor of the bus when we were out of seats.

An experience to savour and remember.

And I agree with Bulan, Cambodian kids are definately one of the most adorable in the world. :)