one*15 and $75 of shopping

NO I AM NOT DEAD

a small friday family gathering at sentosa cove. better to be the first few hundred visitors to this part of the new sentosa. well, auntie joy booked a room at the one of the marina clubs on the sentosa cove areas and invited the rest of the family over for a short afternoon while enjoying the facilities. this place is exactly one degree north of the equator and 15 off the latitude. cool name to a place. geographically graceful name for a marina club ill never ever set foot in again.

i ended work and had to meet auntie joy to go together because my cousin is also coming from town. so i had to take a bus from work to town to meet them at 4pm. and with more than an hour to wonder around town i naturally did some walking around and a tiny weeny bit of my fair share of shopping. come to think of it, i never really did any shopping since i came back from new zealand. and for the past two weeks i have been controlling myself during the MNG sale period.

i hate the crowd and the queueing up for the fitting room, the cashier and then the train home. so usually i shop in the middle of the week where there is no one to hinder my queueing processes. i know there is the robinson sale and the zara which have been the two most recent sale i want to set foot in, but due to the recency of it i decided to go shopping at these two places when the crowd have died down and there is no one to fight for the dressing room with me.

anyway. i manage to do some shopping at MNG. i am 2 weeks late and i know 75% of all the sale items are out and gone already but at least that will cause me to buy less clothes. you should see my closet man. i came back from new zealand with a little shopping of my own and my closet have no more space for much things left. and MNG is left with almost nothing so that means that i have lesser chances to fill up my already full wardrobe. that is good because that will mean that i am going to be spending less money too.

one of my new year resolutions is going to be saving money.

anyway. i ended up buying a dress from MNG and two spec tops, that is a total of $75 of my hard earned money. that is like half my week's pay. if only i had not decided to meet up with my aunt and had gone directly to sentosa. well... too bad for me. and my pockets. i realized why i suddenly have this urge to buy dresses. i think after jessica's wedding the other day where i borrowed lynette's dresses i decided that i liked them. and besides, seeing lynette wear a dresses for christmas made me want to own at least a piece or two.

i am going to go searching for dresses for the next shopping trips.

ONE*15 is a very nice place. apart from all the construction around the area and your view of the coast blocked and destructed with construction sites for the future houses of rich singaporean men. the marina area is very pretty. my aunt, my cousin, me and my sis manage to whore around for a while.



inspired by shireen and our new zealand fun, we decided to put my sis's camera to the test and do a few jump shots of our own. the shuttle speed was not too bad and we managed to take decent jump shots. the color of the camera photos are pretty unique too.

and then my aunt who was taking the shots said "why not do a crouching tiger hidden dragon" and then before we knew it this was the next shot that was captured. i love this shot. it is so damn funny. everyone saw this photo and asked me how i managed to sit in mid air. well.. the is for me to know and for you to find out.



i know why i have been very lazy to blog recently. i am very busy with my life with constant work and trainings when i can find the time to. and plus i dont have that many pictures to display out for everyone to see. then again, this site is basically for my own records for me to look through the archives in the furture. i hope the internet will never go out of style. then i can keep my diary entries forever

lazy to blog alr.
since i came back i have been MIAing from blogland.
even turns out that i am also too lazy to take pictures anymore.
this blog is going to turn into lynette's blog

nelle: quick send me photos so i can put up a decent post

a moment

from the diaries

i suddenly looked up from my book. i just had a moment. it was a whole minute in my life that i felt so comfortable and so at home. (which by the way i am) but it dawned on me that it has been quite a long time since i last a moment like this. the rain is pouring musically outside, and the bass and the treble turn on max while playing my norah jones CD. and the lounging at my table with my feet on the table reading my chick flick from the library.

feels so good.
the cool air, the good music and the perfect book for a nice sunday morning.

it is that perfect feeling that i use to have almost every month when i was in JC. i almost did forget how it felt like already. it has been years since i got a moment. it feels like everything is just there and you are fading into the background. i miss this feeling so much. i think i no longer get it due to the very hectic time i am having traveling to and fro hall and home and everywhere in between.

i thought to myself that i would need to write this down. i opened my drawer and i saw the little pink NZ breast cancer foundation notebook i used to write all my thoughts in NZ in. a little bit of nostalgia as i flip past the old entries to reach an empty page.

must enjoy the moment while i can

that's all folks

i think that is the end of my very late blogging of my NZ post exams trip. i have to much blogging backlogs to clear. suddenly i am not very much in a mood for bloggin my other trip. i think ill rather spend my time watching all the episodes of house, ugly betty and greys that i have missed in the last few weeks due to my work schedule.

at least i managed to finish all my NZ ones. i still have tonnes of photos i want to put up but have to space to squeeze between the ones that i have already published.

i think i am a very busy woman. i have 9-6 work on weekdays, upcoming weddings and birthdays as well as simple gatherings. time to be busy as a bee.

somewhere over the ocean

15th nov 1.20am NZT or 14th nov 8.20pm SGT

i have already clocked 10 hours on the plane and i have about another 2 hours to go before i touch down at changi airport. i decided to bring out my laptop to type a few words after looking at one of my seat neighbours taking out his mac and started typing off on his computer too. so since i cant jolly well cant sleep on this stupid moving vehicle, might as well make good use out of something like that to type out a potential blog entry.

bed and breakfast for the first night in christchurch. and this one is a nice BnB. i stayed in the BnB for two nights while trying to sell shireen's car.

the interesting thing about car washes here in NZ is that you have to drive your car to the washing station and you get to put coins in to wash it yourself. so you have this car washing water and soap firing gun and it was fun to watch pravin wash the car.

for the last two days i have been staying at michelle's place. it is in fact a luxury BnB call clearwater lodge which is tucked off in one of the corners of christchurch near the airport. it is one really majestic house with a really nice garden. in fact it was a hug garden. and when i said huge i meant 10 acres of land attached to the house. 10 acres of land blooming with spring flowers and grape vines and olives trees and apple trees and walnut trees. (i never knew walnuts grew on trees)

there are so many plants in her garden like a lemon tree where real lemons grew on it you can just pluck it from the tree and start eating it just like that. then there was a whole patch of coriander and all the small garden herbs you can use like basal and things i never knew you could put in food.

there are even goats and cows and her three cats (missy, chester and poppy) roaming her backyard. me and katie shared her oldest sister's room down stairs where the large windows of her backyard opens to the house's swimming pool and spa pool. and i really love the kitchen where it is really the really typical setting of a upper middle class household you see on american tv where there is the dinning table with real table clothes and flower arrangement freshly plucked from their own garden. there were irises sitting on the table as a centerpiece and they really are beautiful looking and beautiful smelling flowers.

if only we could plant out own little garden in singapore and fill it with daffodils and irises and pennies and lilies and gerveras. too bad a piece of land that big is singapore is probably illegal to own and even if you do own a 10 acres land it will cost you close to a billion dollars. the think i like about nz and every where BUT singapore is that you can own large pieces of land and still be so close to the city at the same time.

i can say that i kinda learnt some new things from staying at micelle place. firstly i learnt how to make pavola. which in fact tops my list of deserts. i am actually dying to go back to singapore and try cooking out of my own oven at home. then there is gawkamoly. which is the salsa dip that tastes so damn good with nachos.


the first day was in the swimming pool soaking some sun up. it was a really nice sunny weather. and the moment katie picked me up from the city center during her lunch break and dumped me at michelle's front door i almost headed on to the swimming pool the moment i set eyes on it. two deck chairs and a nice blue pool waiting for me.

then there was a dinner with basal chicken, baked potatoes and asparagus. and pavola for desert. yum. i was so happy with katie came back from work for dinner. and i even help with putting the dishes into the dishwasher and drying the dishes as katie washed it western style. (using a sink of hot water and a little dish washing liquid) and the act of drying the dishes make me feel very western also. funny how we asian just leave the plate there to dry and just use it off the rack when we need it. the western people actually have a whole ritual where they wash and dry and put everything back in their rightful drawers and shelves ready for the next use. and we in singapore never seem to use hot water to wash our dishes, is it because no one runs hot water to the taps? or it because there is no need to? notice dishwashers always use hotwater, so is there some thing we singaporeans are doing wrongly?

i can never get used to western lunch at all. there is the pies that never seem to fill you up and the cold sandwiches that makes breakfast seem like it is happening all over. one of the few things that living in nz for 4 and a half months cant seem so accustom to. i have never like lunch where they give you the option of havin food like cold cut or chicken sandwiches or sasuage rolls and beef and cheese pies. or even pizzas. i am one of those asian people that have been living in asia for too long you will always need to have rice or noodles in your system or else it is not going to be considered a meal.

i think i am going to be suffering badly from jet lag when i get back to singapore. i kinda know now what people mean when they mean when they jetlag. the 5 hour time difference is not really helping much. i m so tired not i dont know how i am going to be lasting another 6 hours in singapore.

somewhere on the road east and down south

waking up to roaring waves is like the coolest feeling in the world. the fresh sea breeze against your skin and the gulls soaring above your heads. we are going to the pancake rocks today. i am in holiday mood now. there isnt a feeling of me permanently leaving this country at all. is it because i am actually very satisfied with the time i have spent here? i have done everything that could have been done in NZ, everything fun and amazing there is to offer.

the night sky from punakaiki is another amazing thing. you can always watch amazing things from places you dont get phone reception. i guess where there is no street lights there is probably no phone reception and yet when you just look upwars into the sky you can see everything that is different from the places that the people and urbanisations touch.

and where people cannot build their houses, the waves crash into to form the most magnificent landforms. the pancake rocks, or other known to geographers as layers of sedimentary mud and sand stone. the erosion game gave rise to blowholes and splash pools. funny how i never knew that blowholes can be 10m in width. i have always thought that it was very small. it is so big you can fit a whole whale in it to blow the water out for you.

we were right there waiting for the blowhole to blow something. waiting and waiting for the blow that never came. we were there are the right time. it was high tide and we were supposed to see amazing blowing. in the end we just saw crabs climbing along the walls and falling down the almost verticle clifts. at least we manage to see some blowing from the small blowhole called the chimney pot. and that one was pretty fun to watch.anyway, the pancake rocks really are unique.

then the whole stretch of coast we were driving along was so pretty. we had a short detour to cape foulwind to see the fur seal colony. and just standing there, you can see a whole family of seals. you can see the seals prancing and dancing each other on the rocks and watching them just doing that was fun. they are like little children head butting their friends. they are so cute.

funny how you actually cant see them until they move. this is a picture of the rocks and the seals. click on it to enlarge and see if you can spot the seals.



we had a small detour to hammer springs to go use their hot thermal springs. the one that we went to was not as nice as the one we went to in rotoroa in mid sem break. but i think i managed to get a small tan there since the weather was nice hot and sunny. lets hope with all the exposure to the sun recently i am not going to be getting skin cancer when i get back. NZ ozone layer is almost non-existent. and the amount of UV rays can kill you - literally.

but nevertheless it really was a good break from the drive. not like i was the one doing the driving but who cares. i practically anchored myself to the back seat since i joined pravin and shireen and i have only touched the driving wheel once. seems like a luxury holiday where i get to be driven around.

anyway. the interlocking spurs and the gorge passes are super photo moment for another jumping shots and as usual we wasted again the many amount of energy jumping and trying to get a decent shot. it really is hard trying to balance a camera on the car and counting down from 10 and jumping just as you say one.

we manage to get one or two decent shots but all of them where tummy bearing shots. and this one is a very tummy bearing shot. (sorry shireen but my blog is more impt than your tummy)

kaikora backpackers was one of the nicest backpackers i have stayed in. the main hall is just so intensely nicely and warmly decorated. it made me want to renovate my future house in this way. with blue and cream walls and wooden couches and tables and chairs.

we went for a swim with the dusky dolphins. well... have you ever swam with dolphins being strapped in a wet suit, a rubber tudong, flippers and a snorkel? i have. and at the same time being thrown on a boat in bad weather? i have too.

for one the wet suit was actually easy to get into. everytime i see a wet suit it just reminds me of waitomo caves where the stupid wet suit was just so damn hard to get into and we were also made to jump into freezing cold water. and then after that was water sledging where same time happened and now it is already spring but i bet you the water is almost as cold.

and our little speed boat was traveling so bumpily on the waves we were literally at the edge of our seat and clinging for our lives. the wind was so strong and the waves were so big. but lucky i got to see albatross. all this time i was staying in dunedin where they have one of the largest colonies in NZ at the otago peninsular and i have never seen one until today. funny how they take off. because they cant flap their wings they have to take off like an airplane, poor birds have to run on the water surface to get moving air under their wings so that they can take off. and they look so stupid running on the water surface.

swimming with the dolphins is so cool. you are so close to the dolphins and there they are just within arms reach waiting for you to reach out and touch them. just that they move so fast you cant touch them at all. remember when you watch those seaworld shows where the dolphin gave people rides on their backs? wild dolphins DO NOT give people rides on their backs.

and there were so many dolphins all over the place. it was a really nice experience. shireen quoted this as the best thing she have done in NZ. for me? i still like caving better. might be because half the time when i was swimming there and staying afloat in my wetsuit, i was drinking so much sea-water and i had water in my eyes. and when we finally got back to the boat, i puked out my spaghetti in the little bucket they provided. and besides the water was so cold my rubber tudong kept sliding upwards and the cold water was biting my hairline. and my neck was so tired looking up.

they let us have ginger biscuits and hot chocolate and a nice warm water bath. i tell you it feels so good to have warm water running through your wet suit. and we had to strip out of our wet suits and change into dry clothing. and all i have was a face-towel sized towel to use. and i officially declare that i am a pro in changing in public. being in a girls school have taught me some skills but coming to nz have taught me more life experiences like changing with a face-towel into your underwear and clothes.

we could see dolphins and baby dolphins swimming along side the boat. then they did their over the surface jumps which were supposed to be mating dances or something. funny how dolphins swimming together can syncro their jumps together and at the same time.

overall, the dolphins where fun.

on the way down from kaikora to christchurch we made a sudden stop due to my amazing ability to spot a fur seal on the road 30 meters away while traveling at 100km/h. and thanks to my amazing observation skills we manage to catch a fur seal really really close up. it was just sitting there and looking at us. in this photo, i manage to catch the seal yawning. so damn cute.