On the go!

Downloaded the free blogger app. Perhaps I can finally clear my whole backlog of posts. :p

Singapore Biennale 2011 Open House (Part 2)

Last site for the Biennale... Old Kallang Airport. Now, this site is really quite off the usual track and away from all the other sites. Take the free shuttle if you want to come here.

The place is quite big. But quite a number are long boring video installations. It's really too hot to sit through them. Anyway here are some of the more fun installations i like.

A quirky part from the piece "The flying method of the artist with a fear of flying"

i find that i like alot of the seemingly simple pieces. And most are in black and white! hehe.

Had loads of fun at this interactive installation "Frequency and volume". Radio frequencies get tuned into by shadows. Spent lots of time making funny poses but it can get quite noisy if there's more people.

Did i mention that students get free entry to the Biennale? With my handy nafa card, i've got access to all the sites. :) i simply got to use more of it while it lasts! :p

Singapore Biennale 2011 Open House

The Biennale is back after a 3-year hiatus.

First stop - Merlion Hotel. Queued for more than half hour in the hot afternoon sun. Was inside the room for only 5 minutes before everyone was asked to vacate. :(

View from the bathroom

Mr Merlion

There's a free shuttle service which we took to the next destination. What a god-send in the withering weather! Next stop: National Museum

This is quite hilarious

Spent some time looking at the installations but my favourite for the day would have to be at SAM.

i simply adore this installation by Julian Gothe, "Voices from the off 2".

But the one that take the hat off has to be this...

This is what was written outside...

And look at what's inside the room...

Really nothing! It's a no-brainer! =_="

頑張れ、日本！

i'm very sadden at how one of my favourite country, the beautiful Japan has suffered under the hands of Mother Nature last Friday afternoon. It is a devastating sight to behold. Cars, ships, planes, houses, anything and everything, etc. swept away by the dark waters of the tsunami.

Having visited Tokyo less than a month ago, it's just so surreal seeing the clips showing the disaster. Yet, i can't help but want to know how bad it was. Still, there are little sniplets of touching moments which shows the resilience of the Japanese.

Yes! i believe Japan will fight back.

頑張れ、日本！I will be back!

A Day Full of Surprises!

Surprise #1

Slept in late (no surprise.. hee.. :p) All cos of the construction near my house which OT till 1+ AM this morning!! In my haste, i randomly grabbed a haven't-worn-in-a-year pair of sandals and wore it out. i had just walked a few blocks away when i realised that my sandals was getting loose. Horror of horrors, it started falling apart!! OMG!! i'm stuck and can't walk home so i had to call my dad to bring another pair of white shoes down for me. But he got me a super casual pair and i'm too late to go back to change so i just went with that. Anyways, just as well cos i missed the shuttle so i had to walk to the office. Lucky for the flats. :)

Surprise #2

Well, after work, on the spur of the moment, decided to go walk walk and replenish my shoes. hee.. Spent quite some time deciding if i wanna get a second pair at the second shop which was having 50% storewide. Decided not to in the end and was about to make my way down the escalator to go home when i thought i saw someone i know... OMG! it was him!! He saw me too and was also like "is that him/her"?! In that split second, i knew that it was him and my mind just went blank. What conspired after was quite lame. i remembered uttering like, what was he doing there. He said, eating ice cream. Well, obviously cos he just walked out of the ice cream parlor and was holding onto and eating his ice cream. -_-" And i commented i almost couldn't recognise him cos he had changed so much. Yeah, fatter. And that was it.

It has been almost 8 years since we parted and i last saw him. i had always wondered what would it feel like to meet again. Well, now i know the answer.

Surprise #3

So while i was still reeling over the fact that i saw someone whom i've not met in a long time, i walked myself home and opened the letter box. Surprise surprise! There were two mail for me. One from JL in taiwan. i knew she was sending me something and was waiting for it for some time. The other was from KC. i knew that he was going to send me a cny card too. i didn't know that it was being sent from the US!! What a surprise! :)

What a day! i wonder what tomorrow has instore for me. :p

Art Class!

Two months after registration, the wait is finally over! Class starts today! The instructor talked quite a bit today. Well, probably cos today's the first lesson. We were told to practise drawing straight lines and circles. It might sound crazy or simple but don't you know that foundamentals are the toughest?! It's so hard to draw a long straight line. Can you draw a perfect circle without use of a protractor? i can't!

Pompeii: Life in a Roman Town 79CE

Last exhibition for the year.

Pompeii, which was buried in a volcanic eruption, was stopped in time and many of the items are very well preserved. It was such a coincidence that keppel nights have a discount code for it this weekend. Yay! And it was a bigger coincidence that I received my nafa student pass just few days before. And students (as long as you produce a valid student pass) goes it free!! Double yay!! And so I didn't need to pay and got half price for YZ (my museum kaki). Money saved but well spent cos we spent almost the whole day at the museum. Well, not including the 2hours lunch. Hehe.

Exhibition runs till 23 Jan. And it's not crowded even on a weekend. But maybe the crowds are doing their Xmas shopping. Hehe. Go for the free 1hr guided tours to familiarize with the exhibits then go a more thorough look on your own after. You can make your own gladiator helmet at the end too! :p

All's well afterall!

And so, exactly one week after it all started, my anxeity ended. And i'm alright! :) The cardiologist saw my ECG results and said i have a normal healthy YOUNG heart!! :p Nothing's wrong with me. The reason why i fainted was most probably due to the shock and pain of the muscle cramp i experienced just before i blanked out. x_x That said, i'll be taking extra precaution to stretch lots, stop when i feel pain and last of all, make sure i lie on the floor, duck, bend or whatever i can to make sure my head is lower than my heart the next time i feel faint. So that the blood can flow to the head, of course!

the day it came back full circle

And so the saga continued from the previous episodes...

i went to see the company doctor that i visited before. He also thinks that there should be nothing wrong with me from the ECG report and was quite furious with the GP for causing the saga. BUT! Being on the safe side, he says he will refer me to a cardiologist so that the specialist can tell me that i'm ok!! In the meantime, he won't write me a letter to defer my PT. He won't tell me when should i stop working out. And i'm none the wiser a second time. All i know that i've exhausted all the 3 options and i'm back to being a private patient at a public hospital once again.

To be continued...

The day i found out i have a marathoner's pulse rate

And so the saga continues...

Went to the polyclinic early morning to do the tests as referred by the doc, including

• the much dreaded blood test (needles! yikes! but lucky it was not that bad. The nurse was quite skillful and i'm very amazed that she can draw blood from infants' foot and they don't give a d*mn!)
• ECG (this is quite cool. They just stick some pads onto your lower chest/upper tummy area and its done in less than a minute!)
• Chest X-ray (killed alot of my cells)

After collecting all the reports an hour later, i went back to the doc who declared that i had an irregular heartbeat and told me to get a referral to a cardiologist. OMG! Another blow to me. He gave me a few options. i could either 1) get referral from him 2) get referral from polyclinic or 3) get referral from company doctor.

For the cheaper alternative, i chose the polyclinic route. So i went back to the polyclinic and consulted the doctor there. Surprise surprise!! The polyclinic doc declared that my irregular heartbeat is normal and i do not need to see a cardiologist!!?? HUH!?!? He even mentioned that i had a relatively low pulse rate and asked if i do marathons. Double HUH!! And for the first time in my life, he told me i had low blood pressure. HUH HUH HUH!?!?!? So in the end, i was sent home without any referral letter and lots of question marks on my head.

Reported the poly doc's remarks to my GP and the GP just said to ask the company doctor's opinion.

What the!!

And so the saga continues... And i'm none the wiser... :(

The day I blacked out

The scariest day of my life! I thought i was a goner! Was at the gym training with my trainer as usual. Doing the same machines and drills that she has for me when i suddenly felt a cramp in my left butt muscle. It came as a shock cos i never had muscle cramps while exercising and certainly never at the butt! So i was trying to relieve the great pain by trying to stretch it out when i suddenly lost it. Vision blurred. Voices became distant. Body went limp. I just became so weak it scared the h*ll out of me.

My trainer thought my sugar level was low so she ran and got a piece of chocolate for me. How sweet of her. But i was still very weak and i can't hang around the machines to rest. So when i felt strong enough, i made my way down the stairs to rest on the sofa.

i was perspiring profusely but i tried to calm myself down. More chocolates and a hot cereal drink after, i was well enough to go home. Went straight to the doc. i was quite ok already, nonetheless, he prescribed a chest X-ray, blood test and ECG to be done the next day...

Everything Happens For a Reason!

Today was my usual gym day. So i made my way to gym as usual. At one of the usual turning, there was a person giving out a bag of something. "Free sample", he said. Since he was in my direct path, and being a typical Singaporean, i took one of the last pack from him. And thanked him for it. On the way to the gym, i opened the plastic bag, it was a small pack of food - rojak. Great! Just nice for me to eat after my workout!

So, after the gym, as i was walking to the station, i decided to stop somewhere to eat the rojak. It had turned soggy. Anyway, as it was a little spicy, i couldn't finish it. But anyways, i had stopped outside a CD shop to eat and was looking at the displays. i had known all along that this store was here and stepped in once before. After scrutinising the window, i realised that they don't just display the newest arrivals but also oldies.

i decided to go in to take a look. And since my mind is on retrolicious this month, i decided to try my luck. And look what i found! (^^,)v

What a gem of a find! This is the exact album that i had in pri school! Just that it was in cassette then. OMG! So i simply had to grab it even though it is more expensive than the usual cd. YAY! i was searching through my old items the other day and found that i had thrown away most of my antique cassette tapes with the exception of my Little Tigers collection. hee... Oh i also bought a Little Tigers dvd from the store... hope the quality is not too horrible cos its made from you-know-where.

Ok, so the moral of the story is, Princess Sotong is getting old and nostalgic? Perhaps. No!

The moral of the story is how everything is so intertwined. Everything happens for a reason. So, if i hadn't taken the freebie rojak, i wouldn't go to a corner to eat it. If i didn't go to that corner, i wouldn't have looked at the display window. If i didn't look, i wouldn't have entered the shop. If i didn't go in, i wouldn't try my luck to look for Debbie Gibson's cd. If i didn't try, i wouldn't have found it! If i didn't find it and bought it, i wouldn't write this post! As simple as that! :p

Fireworks!

By chance, saw the fireworks at a very good location. Wanted to upload the very short clip i took but it hanged my cranky pc... :(

Anyways, the night sky is really nice. :)

Walk in walk out

The course was brighten up when they started filming a show, entitled "Walk in walk out" (literal translation) as informed by the production assistant, adjacent to our function room. :) Some of the course people were really walking in and out the whole afternoon. lol.

The scene was about Tay Ping Hui's wedding. And some of us actually thought that it was his real wedding when we saw the photo outside the banquet. hehe. Till we saw the rest of the crew and artistes. It was quite interesting looking at them film (during our tea break! :p) He's quite friendly and quite accomodating to my course mate's request to take a photo of him. And he even suggest that we take together with him. :)

Night Festival: New World 2010

This year's Night Festival seems better. Well, maybe cos i spent most of the time in the museums, rather than waiting along the road for some weird uncomprehensible performance. The outdoor night performance at midnight was really... -_-" i guess its too high brow for me to understand it. But since when art (or so what is called art) is easily understood??

Anyway, i was the happiest in 8Q SAM. Maybe cos it's Children's season! Titled Art Garden, it really is a colourful and whimsical interpretation of garden. Nice! :)

Reflections at National Museum

My fav wolf at the Head On exhibition at National Museum. Isn't he sweet? :p

The World's slowest SMS billboard at SAM

The bunnies at 8Q SAM

i coloured the butterfly! :)

The day Sumiko Tan announced she is getting married

To say that Sumiko Tan is my fav columnist is an understatement. i mean, i had been reading her columns in the Sunday Times since N years ago that it has become a habit.

Maybe it was we shared a particular alma mater. Or i really like her writing style. Maybe it was because she was always writing about things that i could relate easily to, such as, family, life, love and most importantly, singlehood. Ah, that state of life for most part of mine.

i remembered when i went for a pre-lasik assessment about a year ago, i chatted with another lady who was there for the same purpose. She mentioned that she had finally plucked up the courage to go for the assessment after reading Sumiko's experience in one of her columns. Yes, i had read that column too. To a certain extent, she had impacted and influenced some of her readers that we feel that she could be a BFF.

When i read the news that she is going to marry her Hurricane, it seems like a fairy tale come true. Imagine getting reunited with your JC crush after so many years, that is the kind of "happily ever after" ending that you would wish for her. So, although i would miss having another "comrade in arms", i'm really happy for her and wish her all the best.

Lets hope i'll meet a long lost crush too! :P

The Singapore Lion

No. This is not about soccer. Rather, this is an exhibition at the National Library Level 10 on Mr S. Rajaratnam. Visited this free exhibition by chance while waiting for my friend. i dunno why, but when i finished viewing the exhibition, i teared. Maybe after seeing so many exhibitions, this is one about the place i call home and one of the people who had strived to make it happen. i don't think people nowadays have the conviction and idealism as those before us.

Quite a small exhibition but worth viewing. Till 4 May 10. There's also an exhibition on William Farquhar on Level 7 till 31 Aug 10. Free admission as well. One thing i like about exhibitions at the National Library is that they are usually very quiet.

Amazing Race 16

OMG! Next leg, Singapore!!! :)

i'll have to catch it while in Taipei! :P

Quest For Immortality - The World Of Ancient Egypt

Had wanted to go to this exhibition ever since it opened last Dec but cos the guided tours only started in Jan, we had wanted to wait.

And so we waited. But then there came CNY. So we waited.

And there came the Siem Reap trip. So we waited.

And now with the exhibition ending on 4 Apr, we could not delay any longer!

So taking advantage of the public holiday, off we go to the museum! Alas! As it was a PH, there were no guided tours! :( But we went still.

Reached close to noon. There was a queue for tickets but it went quite fast. There wasn't much people in the exhibition hall so we could view, read and see all the exhibits in our usual slow leisurely pace. As usual, we were very amazed that the pieces are so wonderfully preserved even though they are almost four-five thousand years old!

Spent about 3 hours in there and when we came out of the hall, we were shocked by the queue outside the hall! LONG queues in the basement outside the hall itself and LONG queues at the foyer buying tickets. The queue even extended to outside the museum! OMG!

I'm so glad i went early! :)

4 Apr is the last day which also happens to coincides with the Circle line open house, huge crowd expected.

After SR Thoughts

4 days 3 nights.

1017 photos (547 from my cam and 470 from YZ's).

i've finally almost finish processing my photos and thoughts. but have to wait a little longer before the photos are out... hee...

Siem Reap Day 1,
Day 2, Day 3, Day 4 to be uploaded... :p