AWOL Report

Hi friends.

This place is indeed growing some grass. I have abandoned it temporarily (ok for quite some time) in a bid to do well for my final ever undergraduate exams, then to play, and to tour.

Here's a sketch I did (during the Phuket trip) of the lovely Song Hye Kyo to appease you.

Song Hye Kyo. Done in Sketchbook Mobile on the iPhone.

Now, say HI to the graduate. *muffles snigger*

OK nothing to snigger about. I have a B+ average this semester. After all, I did try my best to chiong this time round. I have never been this consistent throughout a semester. and I am glad that I did prove something to myself.

I am now sitting in the office at 7pm on my first day as a full-time staff  at the Internationa1 Re1ations Office (1RO still, yes) having been offered a position in the MarComms team upon graduation.  And I am whiling the time away waiting for Kosmic Kristmas to start.

**Updates**

If you're curious - Hairdo by Aaron from NEXT @ Ion.

I have gone through some interviews with several companies after numerous applications, wasted trips to the Cognitive Neuroscience Lab for Duke-NUS Sleep Experiment (bad experience), chopped off my hair (again), slept a lot, danced a lot, and a wonderful wonderful trip to Phuket last week before Christmas with Xuzi. I can't wait to blog about that when I get the pictures from X.

Till then. (:

2♥

X and I had our anniversary celebration at Melt the World Cafe at Mandarin Oriental Hotel about a month ago. Here's a huge-ass picture for a teaser.

Foie gras.

Albeit a little extravagant, it was a great meal. It was a tossup between The Line @ Shangri-La and Melt @ Marina Oriental, and I'm really glad we came here. Also, I am a bit paiseh to say that I am a little bit suahku when it comes to good food.

But now that I am here, I want to declare that my taste buds are now spoilt, and am only receptive to fine food. *nudges X*

We had a fabulous time. The staff were super friendly and attentive, and the food was top notch. The ambience was great. And it was great having a nice, quiet meal with a little company from the cute kids nearby, and their very old ahma who was happily licking an icecream cone.

I didn't take a lot of pictures, but these were not all that we ate. I also surprised myself with my huge appetite, especially at the end for the desserts.

Also, spent a lot of time on Photoshop editing the food photos, trying to make them look like cinematic photography out of Wong Kar Wai's films. Ok far cry but indulge me, please.

Quite a private corner. Nice and quiet.

So, this is where my pure fruit juice came from. It was practically a puree.

Is it any surprise that my heroes here are ladies? Desserts FTW!

I will have a stomach left for ALL of these, I willed at the beginning.

Say hi to the freshest sashimi.

This is cute. I can hardly see my rice!

I love seafood. Haven't had oysters in ages.

Wagyu beef burger!

The beef patty literally melts. And the bread was so herbish and soft and fragrant..
I will never eat cheeseburger the same again.

TIME FOR DESSERTS!!! 

Rose-flavoured macarons. Not too sweet, and award-winning sia. Very nice!

An unforgivable amount of chocolate treats.

Croqembouche. Profiteroles stuck together with caramel.
they won't fall no matter where you pinch from!!

Crepe in Orange Sauce. Literally soaked in the sauce. This is really really good.

My pinched profiteroles (:
and part of the caramel web.

Bite-sized blackforest and raspberry cakes.

This chocolate mousse is so rich. It beats Godiva milkshake.

Okay my taste buds are now spoilt I can only taste good food from now on so I will be a little more expensive to upkeep.

Also I am especially happy with these photo edits. Look very cinema!

The waitress's surprise. (:

Happy 2 years baby. There will be more to come (:

The Hands I've been Given

Just did this sketch of a photo I found in my Photo Library, with the Sketchbook App (from Autodesk) I just downloaded for my now-abit-obsolete iPod touch.

Dedicated to X. And also of the times in Tokyo!

Hoping to improve on my free-finger (it's damn hard to control thumb and fingers!) sketching on the iPod screen surface soon. It's so much harder than drawing with pencils.

I was itching to draw again ever since I looked through my cupboard of old stuff and found all my old drawings and paintings.

[Cue in the scouting for graphics tablet...]

Passion creates wonders

From @monkeyjon - you really got to watch this video. The artwork - the colours, the intricacy - is simply amazing.

This reminds me why I so loved art in the first place. Again.

On an unrelated note... did I tell you already that I'm in love with cute? This video is full of nose-twitching cuteness that comes in 2 extralarge cups.

Portfolio

Current hairstyle

 

 

  

 

 

 

Indecent exposure

Here is a picture of how Pooh ended up while getting battered and dried in an attempt to get clean.

My mum does the funniest things.

I'm loving cats!

Pizza Hut Advertisement

Dream Home

Uncluttered, quiet, cool weather and clean air.I would love to live in a place like this.

To break the monotony

Mixed Blessings

Loving the eclecticism & juxtaposition in this picture, and the retro and dreamy colours of it.

Feeling really bored, and extremely distracted, so I'm posting on this blog one of my favourite pictures from the photography module I'm taking. The original picture didn't have colours like that, and there wasn't any wite vignetting. (: All touched up in photoshop. As with the colours in those Esplanade pictures that I tested on previously (:

Btw those eggs are painted in acryllic, no one had a month-old-baby, and no those eggs cannot be eaten.

Hope you like this! It's my favourite in the project.

Update: Photo Projeckt

Here's another from the same series.


Credits: Xu Zi
Colour rendering: ME!

Unfortunately, yours truly isn't model material. BUT luckily for me (& you), there is one avid amateur photographer, and a REALLY good camera. (:

First time I see myself look this good in a picture. I think I look really different here, unless this is how I look everytime I space out, i.e. glamorous, but I really doubt so! Thanks dearie for this great picture!

PHOTO PROJECKT

...another one on the sidelines that was too lovely for me to resist perfecting. :P




@ the Esplanade. After HTC flashmob.

New Musical Experience

My iPod earphones have served me well.. I think it's about year and a half since I got them, but the due to wear and tear the rubber coating's come off. Dearie also needed a pair cos his precious Crossroads spoilt.

So we went shopping today for new earphones between dinner and class time.

I started out looking for a pair of cheap and pretty earphones like the ones that Karen recommended sometime ago. The bling bling ones that cost only $15.

BUT we discovered a new shop selling only audio equipment, ranging from the cheapest of about $14, up to $600 for a personal listening experience. $600! What could be so good!

We wondered around the shop in amazement at the assortment of earphones, headphones, speakers, and iPhone accessories that this store stocked. Of course then I discovered Audio Technica's pretty designs, and started wowing at them. Hehe. I was worried that it would be pretty only but far from the target in the design department, but Soozey, being the techie, assured me that Audio Technica's products are good.


We wondered around somemore before I asked for something that has deep bass - Sony was introduced, and was on the verge of getting it for $39, then finally the bf asked about Creative EP-630. We compared the sound quality and decided that, at $45, he would fork out for it. But it took me some time to convince myself - $6 difference isn't a lot for the amazing improvement in sound quality. And so I bought a pair too. I bought the pink one! He bought a pair of all black one which I thought was damn cool, but not easy to dirty, but it just wasn't me.

So now I'm "burning in" the earphones - Dearie taught me - to blast some music for 10-12 hours through the earpieces so that the audio experience after that would be richer. The earphones are so good, that its now acting as speakers when I turn it to the highest volume.

Now I can finally enjoy music complete with bass and sound surround. It's my first set of in-ear earphones and I hope I get used to it on long term wearing.

Anastasia B.

Recently been poring over Anastasia Barbieri's works. And her recent fascination with blending stylishly chic feminine elements with masculine looks really intrigues me.

I'd been raving over the new boyfriend blazer that I'd gotten, and pairing it with almost anything girly/sexy that I have. Now here's what I'd really like to be wearing. (:

I need a little more bling in my wardrobe. And I'm guessing it would be good to invest in a pair of stylish knee high boots, for both the purpose of my trip to Japan with BF at the end of the year, as well as future fashion shoots and, whenever I feel like dominating the world (; . And. I want to get skinny belt and harem pants.

Will be looking out for her works in the near future. Lovin' it and lappin' it all up. *slurp*

Fab find at SONG&SONG!

Bought some winter wear for Japan trip, from, of all places, Song & Song, lol.

ADIDAS (the best stuff!) - Adidas Originals Russian Jacket

This was the best picture I could find online. Finally they had my size. I hope I don't put on any weight at the girth while mugging, cos I fit just nice in it... Haha.

It's ivory in colour with gold buckles, and faux fur in white at the collar, made of thick fleece and has thin inner cotton lining.




I'm very tired.

The XCBs again! Jiatian

This was supposed to be up ages ago as well (: We went to Lot One to celebrate JT's bday, and as usual, not many photos were taken. But there ARE a few gems (:

Attn: Xuefen, look out hor. :b

Our 6 times a year meeting. (: Jiaying you better be in the next picture we take together hor. :P

Xuefen, you remember the all blue picture?

I made you look damn pretty here.

You better use as FB profile ok! Hahaha.

I miss you all!

Of beer, lamborghini, flames and a twentyfirst

Momo is TWENTYONE.

She held a cosy party at RedDot Brewhouse (yes the same one in a few post back) yesterday and it was a really enjoyable gathering of old friends and new friends.

HAPPY BELATED! (:

FAREWELL! Dance your heart out dudes!

Fred and Clem are leaving for Prague tonight to represent Ensemble in an international dance competition. So, as friends in support of them, we've prepared them some presents - one of which is a drawing for each of them, at the back of which we'd scribble our wishes.

As for the other presents, shall update tonight lest Clem or Fred are still lurking around on the Net instead of doing last checks on their baggage. :P

Fred, this is drawn with the lovely colour pencils that you gave me for my birthday. I really love them. It's the first drawing that I've done with your art supplies, and this won't be the last. Thanks so much for reminding me about the haven that I find in art, it's one of the best presents that I've gotten. (((:

It's been, what, 2 years since I last drew a sketch in colour pencils? I hope I've still retained some of my skills, while I don't expect to have the same eye for detail, speed and technique. Hope you guys like it!

All the best Clem and Fred, dance your heart out! Enjoy yourselves while you're there, where the heat and humidity don't escalate to unbelievable levels.

Red Dot (birthday celebrations cont'd)

We went to the Red Dot Brewhouse on the 5th of June, after unabashedly claiming the long awaited treat from Dearie at Red Dot. He had promised to bring me there "one day" whereupon that quote was uttered about 2 months ago. What a right time to bring it up again! Hahah.

For those of you who don't know what is so special about Red Dot Brewhouse, here's a little intro for you. The Singaporean owner, Ernest Ng, had met 2 South African soldiers while on a family holiday at the Kruger National Park in 1998. They offered him a bottle of beer, and was told that it was a home-brew when he asked what brand it was. Later on, he went on to a homebrew shop in Johannesburg where he chose some ingredients that were packed into package with a single RedDot, and that began his foray into beer-brewing.

Since then, the brews, as well as the well designed restaurant @ Dempsey Hill have received numerous accolades.

I saw a rainbow on the floor, where sun shone through the glass at the busstop.
It was in the morning, on the way to work.

For this day, I wore this dress that I bought very long ago while on a shopping trip with Mo, and we both have the same dress. It's a uber pretty, flowery, lacy dress. In fact, the whole dress is covered in lace. Instead of looking frivolous and bimbotic, we both thought the dress was awesome in its wholesome vintage-ness. My new shoes hadn't arrived yet, so I was wearing my worn down red leather heels, and the dress on clinched at the waist with a large brown belt. But I don't have a full length picture of myself from that day.

We arrive at the restaurant to where a huge red balloon greeted us.

This way please.

The romantically lit entrance.

The house of the brewing gizmos.

I just love this shot.

Effect achieved by placing napkin over flash.

RedDot Lime Wheat and Monster Green beers. The Monster Green was good.

They have lanterns that seem to hover above the paths around the compound. It is really pretty!

Von and Freddo arrive after Kate Willis class. They're ravenous.

Perfect for cheeselovers:
Xuzi's order was the classic 4 cheese pizza - Quattro Formaggi. No meat served.

I was dying to have mushrooms, so I ordered Pollo -
BBQ chicken, mushrooms, onions and bell peppers.

Von's Pumpkin Lasagna. Soozey said the baby spinach topping was a forest of weeds that he'd never touch, just while Fred was gasping at the same said "forest" in envy.

Fred ordered Duck Confit. Apparently the right way to say it is
[con-FEE!] with the FEE! sounding high pitched and nasal.

I told you. He's hungry.

Our order.

That's a tower of beer that't not ours. I'm just showing you this shot to show off this picture. I love my camera, muahaha.

We also ordered a basket of juicy, fried Shitake mushrooms as appetisers, being the funghi-lovers that we are, and stopped ourselves from finishing them all before Von and Fredo came. But oops, it was gone too fast for the camera to snap a decent picture of it. Just order it if you go there!

We ordered another jug of Czech Pilsner to quench our thirst in the sweltering weather. I think by this time I was a little sleepy and light headed from drinking beer like water.

Czech Pilsner is a really great drink, smooth and light hop (whatever that means, lifted off the website) I shall order it if I ever come back again! And for those who are looking for nice places to host their birthdays at, this is one great place that I'd recommend. There is a little yard where the grass patch is alternately tiled with huge stone tiles. The ambience will be great whether in the afternoon for tea or at night for socialising activity. But I believe the cost is a little on the high side.

As always, it's a great time with the intellectual jokers. I love your company!