fingers crossed

in slightly less than a month, i am going to become an architect! the prospect is both exhilarating and frightening, as it's been 2 years since i did any serious designing. maybe more, considering my last semester at cornell comprised mainly of snowboarding down the mountain next door... but still, i'll never know unless i try, and i really don't want my life to be spent as a paper pusher in a small, anonymous grey cube. so now i'm busy reading up and trying to prepare myself, and engaging in small projects like designing my home garden! hope that one works out so mum's neverending weed-plucking can finally be concluded...

swoosh!

eight days of heavenly bliss in melbourne reminded me just how awesome my family is, and how wonderful it is to have the chance to kick back and enjoy the company of people you love. it also made me realize that i've become a sticky bf! every beautiful thing i saw, i wished i could share it with you. there's only so much you can describe in a text message, and nothing beats holding your hand and going "wow...." together before an amazing sunset, or a crystal clear lake mirroring the majestic mountains above. i want to share everything with you, cos when experiences are shared between two connected souls, they become something bigger.

talking about connections, i love to dream about you. the last time you were in my dream, you got us a great hotel with panoramic views and lots of free food -- i can still remember the steaming bread that you held in your hand to show me. and it was so cute cos you were like, "did you ever doubt i was going to get us such a great place?" ever since you came into my life, dreaming has been such a wonderful leisure activity. i hope one day your dreams will improve too! :)

back to australia. thank you to everyone who suggested going to fall creek. even though only 2 slopes were open and the snow was totally man-made, it was still fantastic! and because there were only 2 proper runs, i had all the time in the world to co-teach (with mao) my parents and yy how ski/snowboard. it's quite heartwarming to see that i can actually return something to my parents now, after the many years of learning from them. i also had all the time in the world to practice my jumps and spins on the 2.2km wombat's ramble, which had nice little bumps at the side all the way down for us to keep trying and failing to our hearts' content! snowboarding is so awesome man. i can't take it. it almost makes me hate singapore and our sunny tropical weather ugh puke.

i need more swoosh!!!!

frakking addicted

haven't blogged for a long long time because of my recent re-addiction to battlestar galactica. re-addiction because this is like the third or fourth time i'm re-watching it, and in recent weeks the number of episodes watched per session has increased dramatically to the point where i'm getting headaches after! last weekend, we watched close to 10 episodes, which is both exhilarating and slightly depressing because now we're in the middle of the final season... 11 more episodes to go, how how how!?

all this, thanks to my lovely bee who's enjoying the show more than anyone else i've tried to introduce it to. i promise i'll watch with you any show you want after this!

to p10, hope you're enjoying season 1! i promise you it's worth it. it's the absolute absolute best tv series i've ever watched in my entire life. to everyone else in this world, please watch it if you haven't. definitely a million times better than the battlestar galactica ride in resorts world (come on please start operating it again is it that difficult for singapore to pull off a stupid roller coaster ride?)

reasons why i am in awe of battlestar galactica:
1. the plot -- moving beyond the set-up of "humans create robots, robots create humanoid cylon models, cylons wipe out most of humanity", it is the story of a rag-tag fleet of nuclear holocaust survivors desperately trying to survive as a human species and to find a new home, while constantly being tested not just by their immensely stronger enemies but by themselves, as their conflicting principles and ideals threaten to tear their fragile society apart at every opportunity.

2. the themes -- i think it's a great that despite this series being a remake of the cheesy 1978 original and despite its strong sci-fi backdrop, it is as much about love, family, politics, racism, ethics and religion as it is about robots and spaceships and explosions. in seasons 2 & 3, the humans had settled on a planet which was subsequently occupied by cylons, resulting in a painful insurgency that drew brutal parallels to the iraq war and its aftermath. and many of the episodes really made me reconsider my perspectives on life, which is quite a tall order for a science fiction show.

3. the characters -- my favourite character of all: gaius baltar, the obnoxious, self-righteous, conniving, cowardly, sex-addicted genius who went from being a traitor to chief scientist, then vice president, then president, then cult leader. not to mention the rest of the relatively unknown cast that poured their hearts out into the show and brought the script to life.

amazingly, i haven't seen the last 3 episodes of the show, and i like to tell myself that it's because i was saving it up so i can watch it with bee. who knows, maybe it's true!

huggies

is one minute of continuous, unbroken hug time with your loved one every day too long? one minute out of 1,440 minutes. 60 seconds out of 84,400 seconds. no?

but do you do it?

i hope we always get to do this even until we're old old!

falling slowly

this song is from the movie "once", and composed and sung by glen hansard and marketa iglova. it won the academy award for best original song at the 80th oscars. i could listen to it all day.

oh, and i promised you that i'd watch the movie with you right? well, yesterday i woke up in the middle of the night and i couldn't fall back to sleep. so i watched half the movie, then stopped it with great willpower so i don't know the ending and we can still watch it together! so far, it's a great movie and i can't wait to finish it!

and it reminded me of a time, not so long ago, when we sat down and wrote a song together. that must have been one of the most special moments of my life -- to be able to create something precious with you that we can call our own, that no one can take away from us! let's keep doing these things ok?

oh and i like what glen hansard said during their live performance in chicago:
"this song is about going to a party with your girlfriend...she goes off, to go to toilet or to get a drink and you're standing there on your own, and you look across the room and you see this girl that you utterly fancy, and...it's not mental it's just physical you're just like uh......and then you realize it's your girlfriend and then it's like ch-chink! ... she comes back over and you have second thoughts about explaining to her what just happened because...."

i know. i'm crazy about this song i'm watching every single performance. :)

....and then i find out that glen and marketa started dating in real life because of this movie, but they split in 2009. i don't know why but that made me very very sad!

if it's not broken

i met a girl in her monday best
she wore a latte and a cigarette
she had a painted face and violet hair
armed with an ipod and a vacant stare

i asked her if she'd like to quit
she said it's her life so just live with it
i said one day you'd wish you'd listen
when it's too late and she said

if it ain't broken
don't fix it
if it ain't missing
don't find it
if it ain't open
don't break in
if it ain't spoken
don't say it

i saw her again in another life
she was someone's mother and someone's wife
i asked her if i could borrow a light
she said if you'd let me stay the night

i made up a lie
she started to cry
i said i could try to help
if she would tell me why

she said nothin's broken
so don't fix it
nothin's missing
so don't find it
if it's not open
don't break in
if it's not spoken
don't say it

i watch her go
and we both know
that there was something there
long ago

but we were young
and now we're old
and if we had once more chance
i'd tell her so

that if it ain't broken
don't break it
if it ain't missing
don't lose it
if it ain't open
don't leave it
if it ain't spoken
just scream it

kiss!

the closest spelling i can come up with for the sound of a kiss is:

bvooke.

any other suggestions?

i can't wait!

once again, i am disproportionately excited about our volleyball game on saturday. and it's only tuesday!

i shall quickly put myself to sleep before i start spasming :)

i am on myspace!

call me! :)

waiting for the song to play

it's been so long since i last picked up my mike and recorded a song. feels good to be back!

macdonald's auntie

today i went to mac's to get ice milo for a pretty girl i know, and the auntie greeted me with:
"hello! ice milo? small? no burger with it?"

i went:
"haha yes...(stunned!)"

and she said:
"you should eat! don't you eat breakfast?"

i said:
"i don't eat breakfast, i only buy ice milo for my girlfriend."

and she went:
"wahhhhhhhh so touched....."

totally made my day. to have a humble macdonald's staff recognize me and remember my usual order feels just as good as being a regular VIP guest at a 5-star hotel. add to that the fact that it's a friday, the world has suddenly become an awesomely bright and wonderful place!

thank you macdonald's auntie!

up!

i refuse to let anything get me down. life is too precious for that.

the way i am

i could listen to this song forever. it's what i always wished for -- someone who would love me for all my spots and blemishes, who would, when i do something stupid (which i am very prone to doing), just shake her head and smile and still think the world of me.

that's why when i listen to this song, i find it hard to think of anything else but the lovely girl who has given me a reason to smile every single day, who is my muse and my inspiration, and who is worth every single winning lottery ticket that i won't get for the rest of my life :)

to...

my co-maker of snow-boots, giant lobsters, pebble slippers, cute songs, mini-gardens, windmills and happiness:

this friday marks the 1st anniversary of the 1st day i met you. and i'm so glad i did! otherwise your life would have been so boring right?

hehe. :)

i love you.

japan '10

i've been to japan several times in my life, but this is the first time, i think, that i really opened my eyes to look at it. and what a strange, wonderful and surreal place it is! pictures are on facebook, but here's a brief "highlights" for the sake of my very unreliable memory cache.

in mostly chronological order:

1. sleeping on tatami
2. getting woken up by the the old women in our Zao lodge to have breakfast, every day
3. teaching a brave girl how to snowboard
4. snowboarding through hundreds of metres of dense fog
5. family marto
6. gorging on family marto snacks while watching a documentary about japanese girls who ate too much and became grotesquely obese (one girl had a 57kg piece of fat removed, which had been hanging down almost to her knees, like an extra leg. it was horrifying, but strangely undeterring)
7. frightening ourselves with horror stories about being alone in the public bathroom...and then having to venture alone into the public bathrooms (for 3 days)
8. making giant snowboots with a pretty girl
9. taogeh mountain ramen in takadanobaba (we didn't have the taogeh mountain bowl but whatever we had would be forever etched in my memory and has effectively rendered me unable to consume singapore-made japanese food for the rest of eternity)
10. almost not being able to visit the studio ghibli museum, if not for the awesome girl with me who refused to be defeated by their "reserved tickets only" policy, and sweet-talked her way into getting our tickets.
11. the studio ghibli museum. oh my.
12. ueno cherry blossoms that blossom on demand
13. sleazy anime stores in akihabara (entire buildings and buildings of them)
14. living/zombie mannequins roaming through shinjuku 109. i swear they come with batteries.
15. tokyu hands
16. band-sawed frozen tuna in tsukiji
17. eating awesome sushi in tsukiji
18. sweets forest in jiyugaoka. not just any foodcourt. a DESSERT ONLY foodcourt. where we killed a sugar cow that tried its best to run away.
19. japanese furniture stores in meguro-dori (getting yelled at to stop taking photos)
20. harajuku girls (and boys)
21. speedwalking out of meiji shrine
22. shabu-shabu at takadanobaba (more pork please...more beef.... one more plate of pork...and beef.... more beef...one more plate of vegetables....more beef... pork and beef...)
23. leaving my faithful backpack behind in taogeh mountain restaurant (but it always comes back)
24. burning my faithful backpack on the train heater (flesh wound only! it's not so bad right...?)
25. joel, jasmin, wenwen and me!

but i don't know, maybe it isn't really japan that's amazing. maybe it's just that when you go somewhere with the right people, everything becomes just wonderful :)

revelation

i'm so proud of you for finding your hand extension! clever girl!

waiting for the song to play

if a rose by any other name
still smells as sweet
why do we keep on
trying so hard

and if birds of one feather
always flock together
why do we keep on
drifting apart

if the world's a stage
why do we have to pay
to be like puppets on a string
waiting for our song to play

and if life is a box of chocolates
why do we fill our pockets
with things that
other people throw away

hey hey
please come out and play
hey hey
let's run away

and if one man's meat
is another man's poison
i'll be your wine and
you'll be my medicine

and if the grass is greener
on the other side
well it might
doesn't hurt to be sometimes colourblind

if the world's a stage
why do we have to pay
to be like puppets on a string
waiting for our song to play

and if life is a box of chocolates
why do we fill our pockets
with things that we don't really
want to taste

hey hey
please come out and play
hey hey
let's run away

though the path is long and narrow
would you take the road less travelled
with me
and though it's hard to face tomorrow
there's a light beyond the tunnel
you'll see

hey hey
please come out and play
hey hey
let's run away

bowler

my baby sis is all grown up!

instant deja vu

weird.

got on the mrt today at the same time as this girl, who sat down beside this other girl that looked almost exactly like her. they then proceeded to cross their feet and pick at their fingernails in exactly the same manner. the freakiness only stopped when one of them took out her handphone to type a message.

weird.

Kseniya Simonova

speechless.