the Backstory

face between coughs

Remember in an earlier post I wrote about how every picture has a backstory? That it doesn't matter how perfect (or imperfect) a shot seems there's always a story that goes along with it. 

We tend to associate pleasant stories with pleasant pictures and unpleasant stories with unpleasant ones. Many a time it is true. Yet, there are times that it can be directly opposite. 

Now I'm not sure whether that's how it is for others. I'm also not sure whether it is the same for the pictures we take from to time, but pretty often I'm in the dump of the dumps I whip out my phone and try to take a good selfie. Knowing that I'm looking pretty okay for that day cheers me up immediately.

It's like a happy mirror.

Like this shot above. I look fine, don't I? But what you don't know is that in between this shot I was coughing and sniffling away with a box of tissues in front of me. What you don't know is that I was had a hacking cough that went on non-stop, that I was blowing my nose non-stop, that I had to have bottles of warm water on the floor near me and, no, I wasn't sitting as upright as you see in the shot. I was literally stretched out because the flu had made my muscles all cramped.  

bad hair day

Then there was this day.

It was a day when the strands would not stay down and it was going haywire and I wasn't feeling too great with how I looked and I thought I was looking like a heck of a frumpish and I wanted to go shopping to change my entire outfit from head to toe and go absolutely crazy with my sense of style but I couldn't, and so I did the best thing I could. I tied my hair up, wore my color-changing lip balm and took a selfie.

after editing a long, long email

I was just waiting for the bill after having finished a great lunch  at Yakiniku where I'd eaten a bowl of teriyaki chicken don with gingko nuts hidden in the rice together with salad in yuzu vinegarette and wakame soup and kimchi... and after having edited a long email.

Okay, it wasn't really one of THOSE moments.

It was just that I was at the window seat and there was this glorious early afternoon sunshine beaming into the restaurant and I thought it made my skin look all glowy and bronzy and sun-kissed.

got THE gear

Hey, guess what???

I've finally got my gear! :)

It's a piece of gear that I've waited one and half years for and I'm happily using it now. I'm so happy I'm finally able to work at remote locations and sort out words and do all sorts of stuff with it.

So far, let's see, I've placed three songs, I've typed up a script, I've gone on Facebook, I've blogged, I've finished a couple of emails, I've changed the cleartype text a gazillion times, swopping between Lucida Sans and Lucida Bright and Georgia and Arial and everything else in between and I've adjusted the custom scaling as many times as well.

Most users don't do that, I know. They just get down to the grind and start using it, and admittedly, the repeat procedure of logging out and logging in does get very tedious sometimes, but I'm one of those users who is very particular about how it looks like. If it looks too stringy, if it looks too spidery, if it looks too small, if my words don't flow out smoothly as they appear on-screen beautifully, then that means there's still adjustments I want to be done.

I'm the sort that will keep doing it until I think it looks right.

It is complete madness and eccentricity and all... but that's me. :) I'm getting used to Windows 10 too. It's a very different approach from 2000 and Vista, I think. It's an OS that runs on apps that somehow seem rather heavy for the memory space of this gear but I'll just get used to transferring stuff in and out and out and in like how the tech people always do.

More than anything, it's a joy to be able to type easily once again. Between the mobile and the keyboard, I'm choosing the keyboard anytime. It's the feeling that one gets when your fingers fly over the keyboard. There's a certain click-click-clack one hears when one types on the keyboard and though it's hard to explain, there is a distinctive feel one gets when the keys underneath your fingers.

And by the way, after all the changing and font swopping, I'm glad to say that I've finally settled on one- a very kiddy one. :D
 

hi, here's my Face





#daiso #dailyglam

If there's one very important lesson I've learnt from taking selfies, it is that sometimes life gives you just that one shot.

 

And in that one shot, you have to get it right.

 

You know how people talk about being in the moment and all? That's exactly how it is with selfies. Because you can try to recreate that one moment in the very next moment where you're in the exact same place, same atmosphere, same surroundings, same lighting, and something seems off right away. It never, ever comes out the way you expect the shot to. Something just seems... different. Either you're smiling different, or looking different, or there's another factor out of place altogether.

 

It's just not the same entirely, and that really can get one's goat when one is trying to get it right. It's not as simple as one wishes it would be and it can get rather frustrating sometimes. The funny thing is, the more I try to make my selfies make me look presentable and confident and real, the more I think of all the work that goes behind the scenes of the influencers who shoot OOTDs to post on social media. They've done a pretty good job of looking like they simply breezed into the scene, struck a pose and grabbed the shot because they're this confident, this stylish and basically this good-looking.

 

But there really is plenty of planning, plenty of preparation, plenty of arrangement and coordination going on. There's work that happens before the shoot. There's work that happens during the shoot. There's work that happens after the shoot.

 

And behind every picture is a backstory. Behind every picture is a direction- whether self-directed, or directed by someone else. I do admire them quite a bit, I must say.

 

Because it does take a certain level of confidence to do what they do in general public. They don't have the luxury of a large camera crew and a production assistant to block out the staring crowds. They don't have the luxury of a production schedule that's tightly arranged and kept on time. Most of the time they're with just one or two people, mingling with the crowds, trying to appear conspicuous yet inconspicuous at the same time.

 

I've seen them sitting on the edge of the road on the curb whilst their photographer crouches down from the opposite side, camera in hand. I've seen them leaning in multiple tryouts against a particular lamp-post in the glaring sunshine. I've seen them in full make-up rehearsing their walk behind alleys. I've seen them place themselves in the oddest of places and grant the lens a smile like they just stepped into that place and decided that they'd capture that one moment. It's not easy, really, sticking yourself to a lamp-post in the middle of a steaming hot day with crowds of people thronging around you and who don't give a d*** about photo-bombing your shot.

 

Maybe that's why that there's never a shot that does not go planned. There's never a shot that can be done in one take, and if there happens to be one, it's a really, really rare one.

 

With a very efficient and effective photographer.

hotel Boss

It used to be an empty space beside the river.

Then for a long time, and for what seemed like an even longer time, they were digging holes along the banks of the river, blocking off this side and that side, making it such that if you wanted to cross over the other side, you had to make this huge round, and there were bags of sand here and bags of cement there which made it so inconvenient that you completely avoided the river for a time.

But now that's done, and in that space now stands a structure which I happened to watch as they laid the final fittings. One day they were laying the tiles on the fully sheltered driveway. Another day they were placing the glass doors. Still another day the gigantic chandelier meant for the lobby ceiling arrived. Brightened up the whole space, this huge chandelier did, and now it stands like a focal point of illumination welcoming guests that enter.

There're two restaurants. One is on the ground floor. The other is on the fourth, and it's right next to the swimming pool where there're open spaces to chat, smoke, drink, munch on peanuts, bang out emails, guzzle down iced drinks, suntan and basically do everything outdoorsy. There's a food court next door and there're a couple of shops where one can get chocolate, perfume, durian mochi, souvenirs, soya bean milk, ice cream and sushi from a small joint on the outside that looks out onto the main road. Oh, there's the money changer too. 

The room, when you see it for the first time, is a place where you can prettify and make it your own for a couple of days. The tables are in square and rectangular shapes with nicely-fitted drawers underneath. On a cute tray, they've placed the hot water kettle, the mugs, the complimentary coffee and tea and stirrers. On the wall near the door, they've placed nooks for your clothes and fixed to the ceiling near the window they've placed a sort of open wardrobe with hangers for the shirts, dresses and blouses. There's a ledge by the window for your knick-knacks that you wish to put out. There's a fridge for the cans of beer and Sprite and Coke and milk and juice and fruits. 

The bathroom is just as adorable. It looks basic with little frills, yes, but you'll find a charm to it when you place your personal toiletries- and your toothbrush- out.

It's essentially a blank canvas, that's how I see the decor of the room. Perhaps it might not be what one desires from a hotel. Perhaps it could be more colorful, or more elaborate, or even more thematic, but that's the charm of a neat, structured, simple room as such.

It is a place that blends in beautifully with your living habits.

Whether you're someone who places everything in squares and hangs all your clothes up neatly, whether you're someone who stocks up on fresh fruit and fresh milk and juice and nuts and dried fruits, whether you're the one who wants beer and soft drinks and potato chips in the fridge, whether you're someone who arranges all your electronic equipment with wires criss-crossing the room or whether you're one who feels happy seeing all your things laid out as they are, this is a space that permits that personal expression, that personal vibe.

And this hotel is juxtaposed in one of the most charming neighborhoods ever.





view^1

You've got Tyrwhitt Road in front. There's Jalan Besar Stadium peeking out from behind the blocks. On the extreme right of this view, lies Kallang and then Lavender lies further up. The nearest street here where the housing blocks are is Maude Road, with Kitchener Road next to it, and if you look hard enough, there's just that tiny glimpse of the Jalan Besar Swimming Pool next to the stadium.





view^2

There's Sungei Road to the extreme left. There's Scotts Road further back. From high up here you can see the Marriott Tang Plaza with her pagoda roof and you can see Mandarin Orchard standing tall and proud. There's a glimpse of Orchard Central with her distinctive panels and there's a whole patch of green somewhere there too. Then there're the structures of Ngee Ann City behind where Sunshine Plaza and of course, Peace Center, a structure which stands out really well.





dramatic clouds= drama view

The shop houses- the quaint ones that make the unique architecture of South East Asia- are right in front along Syed Alwi Road. This is a road that leads to Mustafa Center that leads to Connexion that leads to the area where Goldbell Tower is- in the far, far distance. 






trying to follow the river's flow

 And all this is just facing one side- the side where I was placed. There's still the other side- the side which faces the city center and the Marina Barrage, and to how the view is, well, I can just imagine it would be more airy, more spacious and equally quirky.

waterway Point



towards sengkang

We decided we'd make a trip here just to see the new mall, cos' that's what locals do on weekends and public holidays.

Waterway Point is a very, very new mall situated at one extreme end of the island. Parts of it remain uncompleted still, it being not more than a month old at the time we went. But I'd heard there were interesting shops, including Daiso, a cinema, H&M, Starbucks and Coffee Bean and I wanted to just go and see- even if I wasn't sure whether I'd get anything or not. 

And so there we were, wandering around, looking for a place for dinner, and then came out onto an outdoor terrace where there's some sort of grass for children to roll around.

How funny is it that for so long I must have passed this structure tens of times on a bicycle and not even known that they were constructing something there.

How funny is it that I didn't even know where this new structure was or where it stood until this sight greeted me, and only then I realized that I must have biked past this at least a couple of times. 

Because this is the easiest, and most convenient route one takes from Pasir Ris to Sengkang. It's the route that you usually will find yourself in when you're heading in from the east side via the northeast and then off to elsewhere.

We've been there in the early part of the evenings and in the later part of the nights too. We've been here on warm evenings and also on rainy ones. We've been here after having started from East Coast Park to Changi Village to Loyang Avenue to Pasir Ris to Pasir Ris Farmway One, Two and Three to Lorong Halus before turning into this dark strip of road that leads to the Punggol Waterway Park.

Where the very spot where I'm standing right now is somewhere right in between of the park, and where to my left, leads to a McDonalds at a sports center which is a convenient pit stop for hungry and tired bikers who don't want to think about the d*** diet and just eat an apple pie.

It's not just one way.

We've also take this route whilst on the opposite side of the bank- I still get confused, and often I've gotten lost weaving myself in and out. But there's a road that leads you right up to Punggol Point where the jetty still stands and then it leads you up towards Seletar and then Yishun dam and Yishun and Lentor and Ang Mo Kio and Hougang and Eunos, or after Yishun, up further towards Mandai and Woodlands Road and Dunearn Road before heading down back east via Kampong Java towards Rochor and Nicoll Highway again.

munching in the Lunar new Year...

eat, eat, eat, eat, eat, eat, eat.

A common sight this time of the year at Giant Hypermart, at NTUC Fairprice, at Cold Storage, Fairprice Finest and at Sheng Siong...

 

It's the time of the year where rows and rows and rows of snacks and cookies liven up the stores, overwhelming us with a bright, distinct, celebration of reds, pinks and fuchsias all in preparation for Lunar New Year.

 

I was at NTUC a week before the first day, and there was an event taking place there (something to do with Milo) and Love 97.2FM DJs were somewhere in the huge supermarket. I don't know where precisely which section they were- too preoccupied I was with the sight of all these goodie jars greeting me by the entrance, placed right next to the boxes of chocolates and the steamboat and mookata pots.

 

It's fun that celebrations begin early for just about everyone.

It's fun that there's so much variety. Pretty labels stuck on the sides of jars let you decide how much butter you want in your pineapple tarts and pineapple pillows, and are probably a deciding factor as to how festive you want your goodie corner at home to look.

There's alot of comparisons when it comes to Lunar New Year.

There's just as much decisions one has to make. You've got to decide whether you'll buy from this supermarket or the other, or how many from this supermarket, how many from the other. You've got to decide what sort of goodies you want. You've got to decide how much you wish to spend (practically). You've got to decide whether to buy one jar first *just to try* first then buy more later.

There're just so many things to consider- and all this time you're standing along the shelves.

 

With the pea cookies, pineapple tarts, pineapple balls, love letters, sugee cookies, potato cookies, peanut cookies, peanut cookies shaped like curry puffs, peanut cakes shaped like pieces in a board game, cashew cookies, cranberry cookies, kuih bangkit, kueh balu, pineapple pillows all gazing down at you, willing you to bring them home.

 

Not to mention the bags and bags of individually wrapped sweets, packets of jell candies dusted with sugar, sugared and preserved fruits packed in hexagonal shaped trays, pistachio nuts, groundnuts, peanuts, peas, almonds, and the macadamia nuts.

 

All ready and happy and eager to make this once-a-year celebration an immensely joyful, happy, pleasing, blessed, fruitful, peaceful, lively one.

 

PS: We got the pineapple balls, the buttery, buttery ones. :) And fish skin a few days after.

flaring in new year's Day

a year, oh, what a year.

 

discovery unforeseen.

situations unprepared for.

shocks uncalled for.

details i don't want to speak of. not anymore.

too many there are.

i didn't know what i wanted to do this year.

i only know i wanted to see the year quietly pass.

 

and i know i wanted to see them.

~the flares~

no seat? wait, there's one.

wet seats from the earlier rain? no problem.

plastic bags from the supermarket where we'd gotten drinks onto the chairs.

problem solved.

 



the camera, it was the camera!

 

and there they were, silently, magically, one after another,

starting from the east. a blast, a flare, a blast, a flare.

fourteen there were. i counted.

rising above into the darkness of night.

quietly they drift... from starboard to bow, their orange flares illuminating like precious jewels in the night sky.

as if bidding one a fond farewell and a silent hi and hello into the other...