030. figure 0

Last week...

Watched The Dark Knight Rises, met Andrea just for a tiny catch up and headed out to town with little sis during the weekend. The Dark Knight Rises was a let down but than again, how you could even beat the last one with Heath Ledger as Joker? I liked Anne Hathaway as Cat Woman though, I thought she played the role surprisingly well. 

Nothing much has been going on lately, same old same old. 

I've been drawing a lot which makes me really happy and have come to the conclusion that  I still hate painting. I hope I can figure out how I really want my art to feel and look soon. I think I need to draw more things, tiny things that I like, instead of always drawing faces. Also, I'm thinking of setting up another blog for my art because the one on tumblr is kind of mixed with some personal things and I just want a blog strictly for my art. 

I've also made some plans already for this week with Mad and little sis. Let's see if there's any places left to explore in Singapore.

Lately, I've been falling asleep to The Moomins. It's a 1990 kids' TV Series. I really love the show and characters and have been reading up on it. I've always loved them ever since my friend Manu introduced it to me earlier in the year, and thank God he did before I left for Tokyo! If not I wouldn't even have gone to Moomin Cafe! I'll probably write about them in another entry and I've also added Moomin, Snufkin, Little My and The Hattifatteners on the side of my blog. They're so cute! Now when I'm on my blog, I'll be all happy. ^^

029. keep me keep me keep me

Yusuke Kobayashi ; THE NOVEMBERS

by

hanayo

028. tu m'

 

Lately, all I want is to be locked up in my room,

reading, drawing or just listening.

No disturbance, no one, nothing, only me.

I want to live in the night again,

lost in a world of my own.

027. dear you

I miss you but I don't.
I want to be by your side but I don't.
I want to talk to you but I don't.
I want to kiss you goodnight but I don't.

I want to be able to have deep conversations with you,
you could just listen and stare back at me but I don't need them.
We could go on adventures again, climbing fences but I don't need that.


I want you in my life but I don't.

I don't want to hurt, again.

I don't know if I want you.

I don't know if you still want me.

026. jin young yu

I really like the details of this, most probably my favorite one.

"The Disguised"

Jin Young Yu

A write up about her work here.

025. autobots & dinosaurs

Yesterday was my birthday. I think I had a little too much fun, I crashed on the sofa the first thing I got home and had a nice two hour nap. Little sis and I went to Universal Studios to celebrate my birthday with some monsters, dinosaurs and autobots!

I spent the first few hours of my birthday watching some of my favorite movies, which I realize that I always watch a movie on my birthday. I remember when I turned 21, the first thing I did was watch Howl's Moving Castle. Last night I watched The Nightmare Before Christmas, Fairy Tail (not movie) and Ponyo.

Got up really early to head to Resorts World for lunch, since there wasn't much nice restaurants near Universal Studios, we settled for Hard Rock Cafe! Anyways, it's good because I'm surrounded with things and music I love.

It's a smoothie called Groupie Grind, I got it just because of the name. Haha!

While we were having our food, they played Motion City Sountrack's It Had To Be You on the big screen! I love Motion City Sountrack, it's just that I haven't been listening to them in a long time. I used to listen to them a lot when I was still in high school all the way up to first year of college. It made me feel so nostalgic but in  a good way. I watched them live for a little bit in 2010 back home in Melbourne. They're good live!

After lunch, we headed straight to Universal Studios. I came here with the family two years ago to celebrate baby sis's birthday, back then, it was newly opened and there weren't as many rides as of now.

The first thing we did was went into the shops, I was surprised they had Sesame Street merchandise. Like, it was just kind of out of place. My favourite character in the show is actually Big Bird because I used to have a gigantic Big Bird stuffed toy when I was 2 (it was bigger than me then, I still have it now) and mom said I would drag it everywhere I went, to school, to the mall, to the supermarket, everywhere. Haha. She said she figured I was lonely so she  decided to give me a sister. Best gift ever.

Me trying to be cookie monster?

Little sis actually isn't a fan of the show but I made her do it anyways. :D

Donkey and Puss in Boots!

My crazy sister.

I'm a witch! Except, not really.

After cam-whoring, we went to Madagascar first. We decided to start with the slow rides because we were stuffed from lunch and didn't want to puke on the rollercoaster. The Madagascar ride was cute! Well, at least it was way better than than the damn Sanrio one I sat in Beppu, I wanted to kill myself for even getting on that ride.

On the ride!

Marty says bye!

The ride was really cute even though they will squirt water at you at the most random times. Next, we headed to Far Far Away! 

Shrek's house! 

I always loved Donkey's kids. So cute! :3

We went to the 4-D show here, it was really funny! The story was about Lord Farquaad's (villain in the first movie) ghost coming back to haunt Shrek and kidnap Princess Fiona and Shrek would go on this wild goose chase after Fiona! It was quite fun!

The shoppe! It's so cute with the flasks on top!

Far Far Away!

After that, we walked around for a bit and decided to go on the small rollercoaster at Far Far Away. Fun but it's really a kids' rollercoaster. Haha. And next, we headed to Jurassic Park! 

 We wanted to get on one of the rides but the waiting time was freaking 45 minutes and it wasn't even that great! So we skipped on that idea. We could have gone to the other cooler one but we didn't want to get wet so we skipped that too and went on another kids' ride. 

On the kids' ride! Haha.

I like how stupid I look in this Raptor's nest! w

Ancient Egypt! It's my favorite place at Universal Studios. I love the thriller ride, The Mummy. So sick. I remember when we came here the last time, Dad liked it so much, he sat it twice on both on his own. I have a family of members we love the adrenaline rush a little too much.

Next, we were in Sci-Fi City! I was dying to get on both of these rollercoasters, Battlestar Galactica: Human vs. Cylon. The last time we were here, also, these rides weren't ready yet and Dad was making a fuss out of it. It was pretty hilarious to see him get so annoyed over a damn ride. 

Little sis told me she sat this 7 times in a row when she came earlier in the year and now I know why. I love the Cylon one more! It's fucking awesome, especially when you're turning upside down in circles. Pure awesomeness. I didn't really like the Human one because of all the sudden drops. I wish I got on the Cylon at least one more time but I was having such a bad headache after sitting these. ;___;

Still in Sci-Fi City, we met up with some Autobots!

Bumblebee says Hi! What a cutie!

In the Transformer's Supply Vault!

After resting up for a bit, we sat on the last ride at the theme park, which was Transformers : The Ride. It's fucking awesome as well, it's also a 4-D ride but not the ones with the moving seats. Like literally a ride but you had to wear those damn 3-D glasses. 

We literally felt like we were part of the movie. On the ride, you're actually "helping" the Autobots destroy the Decepticons. So you'll drive through all the Autobots fighting them and it was simply amazing.

After the ride, we were ready to leave. We had to get past pseudo New York City where Sesame Street characters were around to take photos with but I failed miserably because every character I wanted to take with, before it's even my turn, they'll walk away. -.-

I also saw Beetlejuice! It's one of my favorite movies but the Beetlejuice there wasn't cute enough. ;___; So I skipped on the idea of getting a photo. Beetlejuice! Beetlejuice! Beetlejuice! And we left Universal Studios at about 4 in the afternoon. The Universal Studios here is so small compared to the one in the States. I've been to the one in Florida when I was really little. I want to go back again someday and I also really want to go to the Harry Potter theme park!

We rested up again and walked around Festive Walk over at Resorts World before heading to town for dinner.

I feel like I am promoting him.

"Space Elephant" by Salvador Dali. One of my favorite piece by him.
The other one is  "The Persistence of Memory" (the melted clock).

Lake of  Dreams

We got on the monorail at about 5 to Vivo City. I haven't been to Vivo City in a long long time. I love the Indonesain food at Food Republic though. I should go there on the next date with one of my girlfriends. 

I went to the Pet Safari to look at some puppies and rabbits and died inside from their cuteness. Why am I allergic to fur? ;___; The puppies were so cute, but I'll still have kittens over puppies. Cat Cafes in Japan always kill me inside. I love cats so fucking much I want to die.

Okay,enough of my cat obsession. We headed to Orchard Central again for dinner. I didn't know there were so many fancy, fine dining restaurants at the rooftop of Orchard Central. The Japanese one looks amazing but I already had set my taste buds on Vietnamese cuisine. 

Mom came to join us for dinner! We had fried spring rolls, fresh spring rolls, pho bo (beef noodles) and some dessert! The food is good but Melbourne's one is better. I can't really compare actually because Australia gets fresh produce and I am biased because I love Melbourne a little too much but little sis and mom also agreed with me that the one back home is better! 

Can you believe that when my parents stayed in Melbz for 6 years, they'll have Vietnamese food twice a week and they always order the same damn thing, which is pho bo. Just goes to show how amazing the food is over there and now I miss Dim Sum there. ;___;

The pudding was so gooooooodddd! Especially the green one at the end, it's pandan pudding topped with Coconut sauce and the bottom of the pudding, there are some coconut as well. So good! The other pudding is the normal Caramel pudding with Rum and we had Banana cake with Brandy!

Am I really related to this person?

I headed to Takashimaya again to get some art supplies and that's when my dad sent me the cutest text message.

He really cracks me up. I have the cutest Dad.

Here's a bigger picture of the pretty roses.
 I don't like flowers because I am allergic to them but  Dad always makes me hate things less.
 Haha!

In the end, I spent way too much time at Kinokuniya again. I just love the Japanese and art section. I can spend two whole hours there just looking at books. I bought The Art of Arriety for myself. I really love the art in Arriety, I think it's one of the more prettier Ghibli films. 

Not long after, I just couldn't take it anymore and went home. Like I said, I crashed on the sofa first thing I reached home. Too tired. 

Anyways, thanks to everyone that wished me a Happy Birthday, via e-mail, whatsapp, text message of just on Facebook! I really appreciate it though I am one year older ~_~; I have to push myself more with my art to achieve my dreams. Here's to another year of good fun!

024. red, blue & hogwarts

Yesterday was more than awesome. It was so awesome that my legs are aching from all the fun we had. It was little sis's 20th birthday, I spent the entire day with her having some nice food, going to the Harry Potter exhibition and ending it by watching The Amazing Spiderman (why did they even add The Amazing? It just sounds lame).

I haven't used this bag in so long! Jiji, I have missed you.

We started the day by heading to Marina Bay Sands with no idea what to have for lunch, little sis spontaneously just walked into the first restaurant she saw because she was too hungry. In the end, we went to a celebrity chef's restaurant that we can't even remember the name of. -_-

Marina Bay Sands is the most luxurious hotel Singapore. It has a casino, an enormous shopping mall, Sky Park, Sky Garden and the ArtScience Museum (that's where the Harry Potter exhibition is at until September 2012). It's a tourist spot and the shopping and food here is awesome. I didn't appreciate the architecture as much until today when little sis started taking photos.  I also didn't appreciate Singapore this much until I became an Australian, I mean I still don't like Singapore in general but if you see it as a tourist (I am one, haha), it's actually quite amazing. Other than the fact that it's hot and humid all year round.

The birthday girl!

Foie Gras,  I haven't had this in a long long time.

Duck Confit, Lydia's lunch.

Scottish Salmon, my lunch.

I kinda always blame Dad for teaching us to eat well, but than again, what would life be without great food? The food here was good! I haven't had this in a long long time, we only get this when Dad comes back every few months. The most important thing was little sis being happy, that's all I want for her to be on her special day.

After lunch, we walked slowly to the ArtScience Museum for the Harry Potter exhibition. Which made me realize that we have always been doing something Harry Potter-ish for the last 5 to 6 years because the movies would always be out around our birthdays (my birthday is just 3 days after hers on the 18th). I thought last year was the last time I'll ever be doing anything Potter-ish which made me kinda sad (I watched Deathly Hallows Part II), but since the exhibition is here, this will be the last time we will be experiencing Hogwarts.

Ron's car from Chamber of Secrets! It was so cool to see it! *__*

We weren't allowed to take photos in the exhibition itself. ;___; Wish we could have, everything looked so amazing! So, the first thing when you go in, you'll get sorted into the houses by the sorting hat. Of course, they only picked one or two people to volunteer. Than you'll enter a screening room, it was basically a mash up of all the movies ( the One Piece exhibition in Tokyo, screening was much more mind-blowing). Next, you'll see the Hogwarts Express where I saw Sarah, my friend who works at the exhibition, couldn't talk much to her but at least she did wish baby sis a Happy Birthday.

I can't remember the sequence already, but I think in the room after that, there were the paintings on the wall and yes, some of them could move! And there was the Fat Lady of Gryffindor's common room! There were props for everything, Hermoine's time-turner, the Quibbler, their robes, everything. I really liked the Forbidden Forest, there were centaurs, Tom Riddle's grave, Dementors, Kreacher, gigantic spiders and even the Dragon Harry fought with in Goblet of Fire.

There was also Hagrid's Hut and The Great Hall. They placed the Triwizard Cup there, along with Hogwarts food, the Yule Ball Outfits and some stuff I really can't remember. They even had a room for Quidditch. You could throw the Quaffles in the rings. Little sis spent too much time there, while I went to pull out some Mandrakes nearby, yes they really do "cry". Haha. I don't think I could list out every single thing they had at the exhibition because they really had EVERYTHING. 

At the end of the exhibition, we went to buy some merchandise. I bought Bertie Bott's Every Flavour Beans, the Marauder's Map (I always wanted it) and Xenophilius Lovegood's Deathly Hallows necklace. The necklace is so pretty! :D Also, they sold wands from Harry's to Bellatrix Lestrange's, robes, books, stuffed owls, chocolate frogs, Hermoine's time-turner necklace and so much more. I was so amazed with everything.

Banana, Black Pepper, Blueberry, Booger
Candyfloss, Cherry, Cinammon, Dirt
Earthworm, Earwax,Grass,Green Apple
Marshmallow, Rotten Egg, Sausage, Lemon
Soap, Tutti-Fruitti, Vomit, Watermelon

I'm so in love with this.<3

Finally! It's mine :3

After spending too much energy and gasping at every damn thing at the exhibition, we took the train to town. We didn't really do much for the rest of the evening, other than walking even more. When we couldn't take it anymore, we just sat down at Coffee Bean for some Hazelnute Soy Latte!

While having coffee, we actually tried some the jellybeans. I tried earwax first, it wasn't that disgusting as I thought it would be in the beginning than when the smell kicked in, I just spat it out. It smells SO BAD. Little sis tried Black Pepper after that and she spat it out almost immediately, she said there literally was black pepper in there. Ewwww. Than I tried Dirt, it's sooo bad. It tasted like dust? I don't even know, I got too repulsed and spat it out too. The other normal flavours were nice though, like Watermelon and Marshmallow!

We decided to go to Takashimaya because I wanted to get some art supplies. We stopped at Louis Vuitton on the way there, no I'm not that rich to get anything from there, but it's because I realized that Yayoi Kusama did a collaboration with LV, so I was excited to see how her art work would translate in Fashion. 

Mad was the one who told me about Yayoi Kusama a while back and we both intrigued by how obsessed she is with polka dots. She's a Japanese artist that does work in all kinds of mediums (paintings, installtion etc), I like the way she uses psychedelic colours and patterns. 

This is one of my favorite pieces by her. 

Polka Dots Madness 3, Yayoi Kusama

It's amazing how she can translate polka dots into this. 

I was looking at the video and books they placed in the store while little sis went to look at the glasses and bags. We are worlds apart, I know.

It's amazing to see art next to fashion, really. If they made shops like this, I will never be bored. And at least, I won't be bored waiting on little sis when she is trying out clothes and stuff. I really liked how the shop looked! So whimsical, it's like I'm walking into her wonderland. I also loved the work when Takashi Murakami collaborated with LV in 2002. That's my favorite.

More photos of Lydia being crazy shopping...

Haha, she never fails to make me laugh.

Of course, she didn't buy there.

After shopping, we made our way back to Orchard Central for dinner. We wanted to try a restaurant that Andrea introduced me to!

The escalator was up till the 7th story, pretty scary especially when you're afraid of heights. My legs were actually trembling when I took this photo of her.

So, Andrea introduced me to this restaurant called Ootoya on the 8th Level of Orchard Central, she said it was traditional Japanese home-cooked food! The word home-cooked made me want to try it even more, you should have seen the look on little sis's face when I told her about it.

It was really crowded and the restaurant was full of Japanese. You know a place is good if their locals flock to it. Little sis was so tempted to tell the waiter "Futari!" when he asked how many people were sitting, he was Japanese I think? Later when they asked us what we wanted to drink, I was so tempted to answer back in Japanese too because, yeah, Japanese accent just make me automatically do that and being there made me miss Japan and my babes. ;___;

I had "Aji" It's fried mackerel with rice, pickled vegetables, mushrooms and  miso!

This made me miss mornings in Tokyo. This is what I literally have for breakfast everyday whenever I am in Tokyo. The food was good as well! Little sis was grinning from ear to ear, yes, we are suckers for home-cooked Japanese meals! Sigh, Tokyo. 

After dinner, we finished our day by catching Spiderman. Although it's been screening for almost 3 weeks, the cinema was still so full! The movie was better than I expected it, I'm so skeptical about blockbusters really, but this one was better than the other 3 Spiderman movies combined, though it's a little draggy. I thought some parts were interesting and I didn't know why all my friends were obsessed with Andrew Garfield till I watched this. Haha. He's dorky cute and he really reminds me of Brendon Urie ( lead singer of Panic! At The Disco). Brendon is really cute in person! I met him some time back in 2008.

All in all, little sis enjoyed herself on her birthday and I'm more than happy she did. I felt like it was my birthday also because yesterday was just too fun. Hopefully we can think of something interesting to do on my birthday.