Florence

Update: we're at Florence now. We are staying in this perfect 3 person hostel room with a computer and internet connection! The coolest part of our room is the window that opens up to be a door leading to the courtyard.

The weather the past few days have been really bad, cold and wet. Did not bring enough warm clothes. As usual. Caught a cold in Orvieto 2 days ago and have been popping panadol ever since :(

Tuscany is totally not the sun drenched place that we all know. Probably a cold spell cos I've never felt so cold. Brrrrr.

Gimme a break!

Finished packing so I'll leave some last words before I end up having "limited access to my emails or any internet connection" (my-out-of-office message).

I'm seriously considering if it's even worth it to take 2 weeks off for a "summer holiday jaunt" in the Mediterranean coast of Italy. Maybe it's better to dream about endless blue skies and balmy weather than to actually expose myself to the extra hassle, stress and fatigue of going on leave.

I wonder if it's the nature of my job that demands my 24/7 attention such that I can never seem to be free of it - people just expect me to stay connected and reply to their email queries. Though TR obviously hates this, I foresee that I'll be checking my BB umpteen times a day and hopefully, I won't be too conspicuous doing so in the middle of some piazza.

I swear that 70-litres backpacks are built for strapping ang mohs and not for Asian women (and I'm hardly considered petite!) My backpack is extremely ergonomically unfriendly, I bought it cos it could "convert" into a duffel bag and, it's red. Now I end up doubling under it in the most unglamorous fashion. Sigh. Hoping it'll wear and tear by the time I reach home (only when I reach home) so I can get a new one. Yivon thanks I'm craazzyyy to be breaking my back when I can afford to travel in a more comfortable manner. True, but when I think of the years ahead where I'll be age-barred from hostels and when I might really break my back, or a bone, I've decided to backpack for as long as I can endure, and enjoy of course.

LA DOLCE VITA!

what we did last last summer

I'm always prone to some Sunday evening nostalgic musings, quite unhealthy actually cos it makes me all the more depressed that tomorrow's Monday again. Was clicking through our Europe pics and felt a stab of regret (don't know about what), longing (want to enjoy those good times again) and sudden fatigue (reminds me of what I have to face tomorrow). The thing that struck me the most? We all looked so carefree and YOUNG! Geeeee :(

Outside the Vatican walls. We queued forever and had to avoid the dubious bunch of gypsies hanging around the area.

The gorgeous weather calls for a picnic at Museumplein. And partly cos Gill has a fetish for buying fresh food from the local supermarkets and we both happen to adore picnics!

Maroon blanket 'borrowed' from a certain airline comes in handy as a picnic ground sheet!


One of our most memorable moments, 'cycling' around Amsterdam's canals in a Canal Bike.

Whipping good fun

Caught Whip It with Y yesterday which was part funny, part heartwarming, part romantic, part kickass (no surprises, Drew Barrymore's debut movie which she directed) - all the successful elements for a inspiring chick flick set in the small Texan town of Bodeen.

The cast was unfamiliar other than Ellen Page (she rocks! spunky and totally adorable), Drew herself and the Home Alone robber - the thin guy who is now not so thin - who relinquishes his role as a baddie and is now the supportive dad.

It was only when the credits rolled that I saw Juliette Lewis' name and got a shock. Is this middle age ah lian the same sweet girl in Johnny Depp's and Leo DiCaprio's What's Eating Glibert's Grape?? Aging is scarrrry.

Juliette 17 years later...

* Want to see Johnny and Leo in action before they got famous? What's Eating Glibert's Grape is one of my fav Leo movies. He should have won the Oscar!

Slim pickings

Totally in love with my slim Franny & Zooey paperback which fits snugly into my handbag and hardly weighs a mite! After all the Stephenie Meyers and Jodi Picoults, it's refreshing to read some JD Salinger, prose that makes you wanna savour every single word.

It's a bit like my craving for potato chips after too much chocolate.

size v. bokeh

After days of agonizing over what model to get and burning late nights to read online reviews, I finally set my foot down for the Canon S90. Can't say I have completely no regrets giving the EOS 500 a miss but size, portability and inconspicuousness weighed heavily in the S90's favour.

Still. Look at the pics we took with M's EOS 450 last Saturday at PS Cafe and Barracks. Fiddled around with the dials and knobs and voila! bokeh pictures appear effortlessly!

Sigh, will master one before I spend on the other.

greening - part I

Been extra eco-conscious lately all thanks to The Haze and the Nat Geo article I'm reading about the usual suspects of global warming - oil and coal. After reading a a few issues of Nat Geo, you'll realised that the same topics keep cropping up - Hubble telescope, conservation of energy, discovery of ancient artifacts, end of cheap oil, Iran / Serbia / Russia / Iraq... Not complaining. I'm grateful for the updates as I've discovered that the truism - change is the only constant - is, well, quite true.

Enough waffling. My first baby step to saving the earth is to go paperless for my SingTel bills. After a tedious online application, I've finally activated my e-billing account and all my bills now arrive in PDF files for easy viewing. One gripe: I don't see why I have to pay $0.53 should I request for a hard copy of my bill now that I'm under the e-billing system. I suppose it's to prevent those people who feel that they are entitled to both.

The Haze

The night sky's on fire and it's not the red tinge of comforting rain clouds but The Haze which has trapped the day's heat and our city's lights, creating an impenetrable yet invisible barrier between space and earth. The stars that I've taken for granted every night have been blotted out by The Haze, which seems to be emitting some sort of eerie red glow.

Has it every been this bad? I don't remember constantly inhaling smoke and now I find myself unconsciously holding my breath - must be my body's natural defence mechanism against weird things in the air. Somehow it is no longer such a bad idea to be holed up in the office.

Montmartre!

When I think of romantic places, I inevitably think of Paris. When I think of Paris, I immediately think of Montmartre. And just when I thought I knew almost everything about Paris' hilliest arrondissement, I read in the papers today it is a "12th century village that is touted as one of Paris' most romantic places". I sure didn't know that my opinion is shared by others!

we laugh

hysterically as usual.

Andy's random paparazzi shots are really mood lifting on the Sundays-before-Mondays.