Fresh picks for Dec

For someone who professes to be abit of a greenie, who loves trees and plants and all things green, who is pained and pissed at how they sawed and uprooted all the mature trees in the carpark, who tries to be little more environmentally aware - I am oddly obsessed with paper. Which probably explains the monthly income drain on books, magazines, scrapbook products, notebooks.

Had a couple of interesting reads recently. One is purportedly written for children but I think it is quite readable for someone older as well. I was attracted by the cover, the unique way which the author (who is apparently a travel writer) weaves pictures into the story. It was a very spooky and intriguing start but after the mystery is resolved at an early stage (and the spookiness gets explained away), it descends into a fantasy / adventure story (reminds me very much of the TV series Heroes) which doesn't quite get fleshed out along the way, but still makes a passably gripping read. I can totally see this book being turned into a movie!



The other book I read cannot be more different. It has an eye-catching lime green cover with a simple sketch of a shop house in front and is essentially a non-fiction trivia on Singapore. Though I don't usually buy books on Singapore, the writing in this is short and funny, and I think it makes a perfect gift exchange when you travel.

Can't open my inbox to get a pic of the book, will upload later!

Salzburg & Lantau Island

Been abit under the weather lately, not physically though. But enough said about that, here's a couple of 2-page layout that I completed some time back. They're more of my travel pics which I can never ever finish scrapping or putting in albums.


This seems like it was from a different time altogether! Our relatively carefree and energetic days of yore (and it was only 3 years back sigh). Though we only spent a day in Salzburg, I can proudly say that we managed to cover all the major sites and maxed out the one-day tourist card! It's a really gorgeous town, albeit a little touristy. Vienna or Salzburg? Give me Salzburg!



Ok here's our more recent trip to Hong Kong last year. The picture of the 3 guys rounding a bend is my favourite! An unforgettable, soul lifting hike along the undulating ridges of Lantau Island covered in golden grass. It's autumn again in December. This really gives meaning to "on top of the world" and I felt closer to the nature, the earth than I have ever been for a long time. We had the mountains (hills) completely to ourselves. Where else can you find perfect solitude?

Funny and fab shots

Looking through TY's Cinque Terre pics and saw that she snapped many impromptu and funny shots of TR and me! What the heck was I doing in those pics seriously??!





And she took many gorgeous ones too like the ones below! A tip: set your camera to the vivid colour mode in natural surroundings to make your colours pop like what TY did.

Distracted

Arrghh, I'm supposed to be working on a striking out affidavit now but keep getting distracted by youtube's "How do you make.....".

So far, have learned how,

1. Paint
2. Peanut butter
3. Oreo cookies
4. Potato chips
5. Orange juice
6. Waffle cones

are made. Catching a glimpse of the processes involved, they all don't seem all that unhealthy. I mean a potato chip is only fried for 3 s, how bad can that be right?!

Hello Saturday!

Hi again. Thought I'll blog abit more since I'm in the mood and I have abit of time before rushing off for more packing.

My bro's pitcher plant looks absolutely monstrous now. See the new pitcher that sprouted in the pic; it's almost 20cm???


Received a delightful surprise from Yivon through the mail! Love :) She sent it before jetting off to Turkey (jealous!) and probably cos she thought her friend here needed some cheering up for abandoning her grand plans to hold a full blown Martha Steward fashion Halloween party.



Here are a couple of layouts I did with group pics. The one with my whole family took forever to complete and is definitely more "handmade" - I misted, painted, embossed and sewed. Not very skillful with thread and needles as you can see.




Love Saturdays for its endless possibilities :)

travel + food

Hello again blog.

We're having a spate of good (= cool) weather and today was just perfect. Sunny and cloudy and windy if you can imagine all three happening at the same time.

But what roused me from my blog hiatus was not the weather, but October's Nat Geo Traveller! I simply CANNOT resist picking up a new issue even though I'm lagging behind SEVERAL issues and this month's is one of the best. Special issue featuring travel + food. Perfecto! Just whet your appetite and satisfy your wanderlust by getting a copy.


Travel + food is probably one of my biggest indulgence. I don't mind splurging on food when I travel (within a reasonable limit of cos but don't ask me what's reasonable - it depends) cos good food + nice place = seventh heaven (and makes me less grumpy).

Singapore has a yawn mention in this issue - the Long Bar at the Raffles Hotel where the first Singapore Sling was created. Aside from that, this issue is packed with yummylicious photos, a pure visual feast that makes me wanna book a ticket up north now!

Anyway, I was excited to discover that out of the 4 "Europe's age-old food bazaars" featured, I visited 3 and probably walked by 1!

Naschmarkt in Vienna. Large pasar malam-ish open air market. Think I tasted my first Italian proscuitto there when Gill bought a few slices. Visited during grad trip 2008. Need Gill to verify this is the place, don't think TR remembers hahaha. We looked like total newbs!



Cours Saleya in Nice. Definitely remember hurrying through this place in 2005 with my family on our Italy-France tour. One major reason why I'll not join tour groups again if possible. Very quaint little bazaar selling alot of vintage and antiques. I bought a few little figurines of saints erm, for fun. Oh gosh, it's hilarious looking through old UNGLAM pics!!!




Rialto Markets in Venice. We didn't visit the markets near the Rialto Bridge but they definitely have to be somewhere nearby. Venice really stood out for me - one day freezing, the next day scorching. And look at that super boy-band looking photo of TR we took on the vaporetta! Hahahaha. Don't kill me!




Boqueria Mercat in Barcelona. This place is good, good enough for us to go back 3 days in a row and for me to dedicate one whole blog post to it. Apparently the famous stuff are the salt cod croquettes and espresso with steam milk. We didn't try the cod croquettes there, but we had some of the freshest prawns ever and kept going back everyday for the xuxos! KM had the espresso thingy in a cute little glass and I had hot chocolate milk right out of the bottle!






Arrgh back to work tmr but at least I had a blissful hour reminiscing.

Almost 26

It is mid-September and I have not even done my yearly "September is fantastic" post. I hate how time slips by uncontrollably and my favourite month is half over before I can even feel the Septemberness of it. Sadly enough, the lantern festival also whizzed by despite my promise to myself last year that I will carry a lantern and wander around in a silly state of nothing.

I think while my peers are heading in the direction of settledness, my life is in a flux, unraveling a little at its seams, unrestful and eye-baggy. Live it or lump it I guess. My bday wish is to find a "circle of quiet" which seems impossibly difficult here. I like this description by Madeleine L'Engle "My special place is a small brook in a green glade, a circle of quiet from which there is no visible sign of human beings". I think the Isle of Sark (and it's Dark SkyAward) fits the bill!

Sunday again

Crazy past work week and it's Sunday night again sigh. Was quite productive (at the shops) today though - bought alot of Pull & Bear stuff though I have doubts that it's age appropriate - I'm old and some of the pieces are labelled "for teens"! Abit irritated with myself too cos Pull & Bears and Zaras and Bershkas are dime a dozen in Spain and I bought only 2 pieces in all??? Somehow I have no mood to shop when I'm overseas. Partly more interested in walking around and partly deterred by the weight of my backpack haha.

Sharing a layout I did with my grad pic. Finished it sometime back but was waiting to buy a new heat gun after my new one blew due to my stupidity in forgetting to check the voltage. Here's it! I looked young and glowing :(



Embossing the phrase with my heat gun. Super fun! Stamp, Zing and blast it with heat!



Adorable owl stamp from Kikki K! Expanding my owl collection with each trip to Italy :)



Gelato somehow taste better along the Amalfi coast! Ok not very true cos Giolitti in Rome is simply OUT OF THIS WORLD (especially the Nutella flavour).

My fav part - the DIY flags.

A farewell gift for Charm. Taken with iPhone using a Korean app not Instagram. The only reason why I might consider buying an iPhone is Instagram haha.

scrappy sunday

Or smokey sunday. The burning of paper incense is aggravating my blocked nose and sore throat :( Anyway, I've been scrapping my eyeballs out (and buying bags load of materials) to de-stress and here are the happy results. The pictures are mostly from my Europe vacays this and last year.

Rainy weather plus wintry temperatures in Seville was a bit of a bummer but the misty rain glow which enveloped the whole town was worth the sodden shoes and frozen fingers.



An imposing hilltop Tuscan town with narrow streets. After an uphill trek and several wrong turns, we finally reached the town square where... they filmed New Moon! (Contrary to what people may think, I did not choose to visit Montepulciano because of this)

Scrapping this and the next layout was a breeze cos I specially bought the blue and gray papers to match the hues of this gorgeous place along the Amalfi Coast.




Another Amalfi town with the classic striped brollies along the beach! We were fortunate to have some Spring sunshine that day.


Sunset in Bintan. I love the surprising pop of pink! I somehow seldom associate the colour pink with sunsets.


Was very happy to clear some of my supplies while doing this layout. It was one of the many interesting stalls we saw while roaming the weekend bazaar in Paris.



When I think of Assisi, I remember the brown and pastel shades of the cathedral and the quaint houses and haystacks. One of my favouritest Umbrian town though I was running a most unpleasant fever that day.

happy summer!

of sky and sea

My friend and I were discussing whether it's nicer to take wedding shots overseas or here. The downside of pictures taken locally is that most of them look the same cos there are only so many places you can go to get decent photos (like the extremely overshot Cavenagh Bridge near my office!). Admittedly I've seen some photoshoots which are taken locally but don't look local if you know what I mean. The downside of taking photos overseas is the hassel, $$$$ and tragic! if your pics don't look like they're taken overseas!

Was looking through my library of old pics and retrieved a few sea, sky and landscape shots taken through my trusty S90 in a foreign but not too foreign land. I think if you're the sort who fancies beach/resort photoshoots, Asia is a good bet!