Star Visibility Zero

We are all in the gutter,
but some of us see the reflection of the fence.

My rather limp attempt at re-crafting Oscar Wilde's famous quote:

"We are all in the gutter,
but some of us are looking at the stars."

I was literally in the gutter about an hour ago, after catching sight of a very gorgeous drain.
What luxuriant and healthy moss you have!
What adorable little sprigs of weeds you have!
What poignantly curled brown leaves adorning your belly you have!
What delightfully rough textured surfaces you have!


Right. *cough*

So down into it I climbed, thankfully with vaguely suitable footwear slapped on my feet, though the fluffy skirt wasn't too advisable.


Not totally satisfied with any of the pictures I snapped, though.
Then I started to run low on battery and memory space, and my ageing legs started to ache, so back out I clambered.
Spotted more contenders for the title of Most Picturesque Drain on my way back. Tropical vegetation is frantically flourishing even in the gutters.

Started constructing a Grand Tour of the Gutters in my head.

And then I was home and my cat was waiting in the porch to greet me.

Pretty Plastic and Sugary Creations

Lookie!! The goodies I bought off Etsy arrived when I wasn't back yet, and I was just given the package. Haha.

What you see above is a strap for handphones, or whatever you wish to dangle it on. But look!! It's a mini merry-go-round!!! Wow! I placed my order quite a while back, before that post on merry-go-rounds! I sort of forgot what charms were on the strap, so my subconscious must have been sending images of pretty painted wooden horses going up and down and round and round to the fore of my consciousness.

Anyway, I also got this necklace:


The creator describes the range as "Gothic Sweets Jewelery".


I sort of know the creator from LiveJournal, and found the link to her Etsy shop, Chocobanana. Actually, I came to know of Etsy through this shop!

She has some pretty interesting ideas, and some of her creations are really adorable and pretty.

I really like this Natural Layered Bracelet, but didn't get it as I practically never wear bracelets. The Chinese coins are a nice touch.
This Eiffel Tower Crochet Chain and Lace Necklace is pretty too, but I felt I had too much in my shopping cart already.

A really nice touch is her packaging. My goodies came in an adorable Cinnamoroll bag with a Rilakkuma paper note. ^-^ She also threw in two plastic ribbon charms and a cute little black Anna Sui-esque plastic comb (which has lost itself in the clutter of my room and hence is unable to make an appearance v.v ). Thought that goes into packaging is appreciated!!


I've preciously shopped there before, and the highlights of that order are:

This wonderfully pop and shiny pin! With a carousal horse!! Haha. It's in need of some superglue now, though. Eep.


And my absolute favourite!! You've probably seen me wearing it before! A Whipped Cream Mini Barrette! xD I love it muchly!


The goods arrived nicely packaged as well that time, with adorable macaron tape, sweet pink tissue wrapping, as well as a free chocolate bar-shaped mirror! ^^


It has been raining all afternoon, which is lovely, especially since I was out and about in the morning and got home before the skies opened up.
I love rainy days.
And I especially love them when I have nothing to do but stay indoors and listen to the sound of the rain.

I'm also listening to some Dvorak, pilfered from the father's CD collection. I chose this disc because it had a Cello Concerto and a Polonaise, and was surprised to recognise the tunes when I popped it into my redeemed-free-with-petrol-station-points Hi-Fi set.

It's mostly like that with classical music for me - recognising the tunes but not knowing what it is or who the composer is. Haha.


There was tea and cupcake earlier on.


Mmmmmmmmmm.

The cupcake is obviously half-eaten, as I brought it back from brunch when I couldn't eat another bite. Haha.

From The Marmalade Pantry, which has now moved to the swanky new shopping centre, the ION, from the stalwart old tai-tai (rich wives with naught to do but go shopping, have high tea, and play mahjong) hangout that is Palais Renaissance.

The smoothie was a Fail - if I wanted an ice-blended, I would have gone to Coffee Bean or Starbucks, my friend.
The burger was disappointingly unimpressive.

But, the cupcake was really pretty good!


The Geisha. Pandan with coconut and..... other stuff I can't really remember. Haha. No matcha (Japanese green tea) involved, though, so named solely on based on colour.
I love pandan and coconut! Pandan chiffon cakes are an old childhood favourite of mine! Must write down in my notebook to have some before I leave the Spore again!

But yes, the Marmalade group's cupcakes do not disappoint. Which means I should probably just go back to frequenting Toast, their cafe, which has pretty pink tiled walls and floors. Ho-hum!

Perved their cupcakes on my way out.


The one in the middle is the Red Velvet, which I've had before. Coconut and rose chocolate, if my memory serves me right!



This one was the prettiest one, and all the patrons who judge cupcakes by their covers picked it! Tsk! I think the three lurking behind are Limonettas (or some other lemon-based name). That's good too!

My old favourite's got to be the chocolate one, whatever it's called. Mmm. Brings back good memories!

Seems like they've expanded their range of cupcakes. New ones like the Geisha and the pretty strawberry one. Yum yum!

Rainy Day Blogging

I keep meaning to blog, but have been distracted by other corners of the internet whenever I get online. Well, to beging with, being back has rather cut down the number of hours I spend with my digits being glued to the keyboard. I'm still ill and so have not gone into full 'I'm back!!!!!' mode, but there're enough engrossing diversions and delightful distractions to be had within under my roof and within the confines of my room. I rather enjoy conducting what I like to think of as self-archaeological digs - sifting through my drawers and going through the material goods that are now remnants of the years I've spent taking in oxygen and consuming resources on this planet.

But anyway, there's much that I'd love to write about on this blog! I keep blogging in my head, but never actually get down to doing it. Let's draw up a little list and see how much I can get through..... eventually? Haha.

♣ Impressions on China.
-This is something I really want to do, but don't feel quite up to the task just yet. Hmmm.
♣ More on hutongs.
-I have some pictures from a sunny afternoon spent traipsing around the hutongs of Beijing. Would like to put some up. Or I could just dump them in a Facebook photo album. Haha.
♣ Tianjin
-Took a day trip to the city of Tianjin a while back, but never got round to writing about it and putting pictures up.

♥ Two years ago.......
-London, Norway, Paris, Iceland. I miss Europe so!

♠ Uniquely Singapore
Haha! That's our tourist promotion tagline. Right. Haha. But yes, it'd be nice if I could actually get down to posting about places I like in the Spore. I don't think I've ever done that before. Heh. ^^;

♦ NicoNico Video music!!!
Remember when I complained about not having new music to explore? Well, all that has changed now!! Whoo! Haha. Lots of lovely cheesy electronic Vocaloid music, and Utattemita ('I tried singing it') music. Nya~! =^.^= Happily spinning!



Mmm. I think that's about it? For now? Heh.

Anyway, I need to gloat!!


I am now the proud new owner of happy, happy, shiny, colourful hair!!! Whoo~! о(ж＞▽＜)ｙ ☆

Or as the speshu Shu puts it, I have shanny, colourful hair!! xDDD

I was getting so sick of my old hair and one of the first things on my list to do after getting back was heading to the hairdresser's.


Have I mentioned how much I love my hairdresser??? If not, I am now!!!

She did a much more amazing job than I would have hoped for!

It's this old, pokey place in a sleepy neighbourhood with interior designs straight out of the 80's. It's like stepping back in time.
I sat there for four hours with the classical channel on the radio piping into one ear, and a cheesy Chinese period drama on the TV into the other, with the sweet fumes of chemicals drifted through the blocked clogness of my nose as she put aluminum into my hair and we talked about Europe and Monet, Millais, and Munch.


The final result had me grinning like an idiot!
Four colours - red, brown, blue, and purple.
The last two will fade into pink and copper with time. Wow! It's like magical changing hair! Two for the price of one!! xD

And she charged me a really, really reasonable price - no, it's actually really rather cheap!!

I can't stop looking at my own hair. Haha. Apologies for the pic-spam!!


The last time I did anything fun with my hair was over two years ago. Wow. o.o

Good times, good times. ^.^

Anyway, the poor long-suffering Shu had to put up with my silly real life spazzing over my hair (and other various spazz-spasms. Haha.) when we went out for Ramen and sweets.


Was very glad to set eyes on the Singapore River again. This is one of my favourite mainstream Singapore places. Haha.


The Japanese Ramen boom shows no sign of slowing down in Singapore.....? This one's Santouka, which hails from the northern island of Hokkaido.


On to Canele for desert!! Oh, my Passion Fruit and Milk Chocolate Macaron! How I have pined for you!!!
Haha.


The other two I went for were Mandarin Orange and Black Forest. Good stuff! Though they still can't knock Passion Fruit and Milk Chocolate off its throne. Haha.

Evil thing about Canele is that now they "only serve still and sparkling water". No more normal (tap) water provided. Money-grubbing bastards. This would be against EU regulations, right?
Ah well.


In other news, more stations on the new MRT (Mass Rapid Transport - our subway/tube) are now open, and I felt like a mountain tortoise (Chinese/Hokkien expression that sort of means 'hick' or er..... Too lazy to wrack my brains to come up with a good explanation for it. It can be used as a noun or an adjective, if that helps. Lol).
They also started saying 'Please mind the gap' on the TV screens on the train platforms, which is just weird. Haha.

Anyway, it's been a nice, rainy morning so far. A veritable tropical storm which has now mellowed into a patter with distant rumbles of thunder. I'm on to my second pot of tea (LUPICIA peach-scented Darjeeling). The cat is cosily curled up on the chair under the table in the yard, and I haven't the heart to disturb his soporific state with a camera in his nose.


So what I'm going to do is throw you a Vocaloid song instead. Haha. 'Yowamushi Mont Blanc' (Literally - 'Coward Mont Blanc'. Mont Blanc here isn't the mountain, but that cake you see in the video with oodles of spaghetti-looking cream piled on top. It's made of chestnuts. I'm not a fan, as I don't particularly delight in the taste of chestnut confections.)

Composed by DECO*27, featuring the Vocaloid GUMI, who uses the voice of Anisong singing sensation (at least in 2008? haha) Nakajima Megumi.

It's a wonderfully cute song with a cute video too. If you listen to it with good(ish) speakers or earphones, you'll hear that the arrangement is actually pretty good as well! Love the string-instrument-like melody. (Fails at musical description)
I also like how GUMI sounds. I'm not a fan of some of the other Vocaloids as their tone is too shrill or cutesy sometimes. But GUMI sounds good here. A bit husky and not grating on the ear!

Well, after so much typing, here it is!! Enjoy!!!

My song of current loop, both in soundwaves and in my head. Heh. ^-^

The best kind of rainy days are those when you have nothing to do but laze around the house with the sound of raindrops providing background music to all the lazy lazing you do.

The Return of the Brat

I'm back!!

Germ-y, phlegm-y, sleep-deprived and sweat-slicked, but I'm back!!

Feels good to not have a shower that suddenly subjects me to spurts of scalding water, a toilet bowl that wobbles and is inapt at flushing, and clear, non-murky water running from the taps.

Bless you, you little pocket of sanitary, functioning orderliness, Singapore!

Last night, I was reunited with my black blob.
He seemed to remember me. Either that or he's just being his usual shameless self and throwing himself at any human being for the prospect of scratchies.
I subjected him to a flurry of snaps worthy of a paparazzi, and he looked suitably bewildered and annoyed at turns.


Had the most splitting headache last night, and that combined with adrenaline from the excitement of being back deprived me of slumber till about 5am.

Got up after 10, and then had to go to the supermarket, as the fridge and larder resembled deserted streets with the sporadic clump of tumble weed in Westerns. Was pleasantly surprised I not only managed to not deal any damage to the car, but also parked rather prettily!

Now equipped with milk and other random items, I could proceed to partake in my morning pot of tea.

Mariage Freres' Marco Polo.



I'm usually not a fan of flavoured tea, but Marco Polo is an exception. The fragrance is lovely! Heavier on the floral side, but fruity as well. I'd heard much about it, and finally got to have my first taste in Kyoto last year, at this cute little cafe I chanced upon.


I was sold immediately after the first whiff and the first sip.

It leaped up to occupy the first place on my tea leaves shopping list that trip.
Unfortunately, my tea has lost most of its fragrance by being left on the shelf for about four months. My blocked nose might have something to do with it too. However, since there're only about two servings left, it wasn't too much of a waste. It doesn't look likely that I'll be able to get my hands on more of the stuff anytime in the near future, though. Ah well. There are always new tea horizons to explore I suppose! ^-^

I also treated myself to some walnut cheese. It looked yummy, and it was yummy. Apparently it's a Bavarian cheese.
Cheese and crackers.
Cheese and granny smith apples.
Pure bliss.


Carr's table water biscuits have been a favourite of mine since toddler-hood. Or so I have been told. ^^

Later on it was strawberry time. With 'The Time Traveller's Wife', which I have just started reading today. Oh, and that's white fungus drink in the mug. Muaha. Apparently it's good for coughs. I actually rather like fungus. The black variety is absolutely delicious as a component of a dish or as a starter on its own. They had a lot of it in China. I think calling it 'fungus' in English (well, it probably is fungus) makes it sound rather unappetising, if not revolting. However, the Chinese name, muer, can literally be translated to 'wood ear' making it sound much better, and even a little cute.


And just now I had some genmaicha, Japanese green tea with roasted brown rice. Put too much tea leaves in the pot, so it was rather too bitter.


The cat joined me at the dining table and dozed a little, purring all the while, as I read my book and sipped on tea. He really enjoys just being in the company of another sometimes. :)


And so my day's been an immensely lazy one with much to please the palate. Everything's been wrapped in a sticky film of humidity, though, and the weather has been strange and ever-changing throughout the day.

Hopefully I'll manage to get a good rest tonight, and make it into town tomorrow.

Then The Clouds Will Open For Me..... Not.

I was supposed to be moving now.

But the skies are dumping down immense amounts of water on the city.
I think this is the heaviest it's rained since I got here. Just figures it had to happen on the day when I was planned to be lugging the suitcases, backpacks, paper bags, and other miscellaneous bits and dregs of my life to the main road, flag down a cab and somehow manage to fit all above-mentioned items into it for transportation to temporary place of abode.

Went out for dinner and had to navigate the disgusting dubiously dirty pools of water along the road and pavement as well as avoid being run over while trying to navigate the hazardous traffic, which is bad enough under normal circumstances, and try to avoid being spiked blind by the umbrellas of other pedestrians.

When we stepped out of the building after dinner, wehey, guess what?
The rain was EVEN heavier!!
Brilliant.
At a particularly flooded stretch, my feet were practically underwater.
How nice.
Dress was all wet too, irregardless of umbrella.

Also, I'm ill. Have been battling a bad throat since Tuesday, and now it's gone on to the hacking cough stage.
It still feels like there're hot coals residing in my throat.
(Ok, I exaggerate. Not quite hot coals, but it does feel like it's burning)

I'm really worried they won't let me on the plane on Sunday.
The last thing I want is to be quarantined in Beijing Airport.

Well, and if I get past the health screening or whatever, I'm worried if the plane will even be able to leave the ground.
Weather report says rain all the way till Monday.
The last time I flew in China, our flight was delayed for 3 hours because of thunderstorms in Beijing.


I want a shower and to snuggle up in bed and actually be able to fall asleep.

But all my things are packed up.

I foresee washing my hair and showering with a tiny bottle of hotel shampoo, drying off with a face towel, letting hair drip-dry, and going to bed without plushies, pillows and other miscellaneous nest bedding material.



So now I'm sulking in the cafe trying to distract myself with an internet fix.


Some dude's playing a guitar behind me, and is now playing 'Blister In The Sun'. Yay. Makes me a wee little bit less grumpy.

That Little Nook

Last paper tomorrow. Will have to produce two vaguely intelligent-sounding essays.
I tried to explain how I'm very likely to mix up my character-writing, and then deleted all of it as I realised I couldn't get it down coherently in English. Urgh.

Anyway, it's been a scorching three days. Especially cruel after the cool relief of a rainy and comfortingly gloomy Thursday.
Here, the heat is like the blast of a furnace. Intense and oh so dry. I'm definitely not enjoying it. But when I get back to the tropics, I'm probably going to start complaining about how I can't stand the humidity and the slicked sweat on skin.

Think what I need now is a good night's sleep.
Last night's snooze time wasn't adequate as I got caught up with observing a fascinating newly-discovered virtual communication phenomena.

Non-euphemistically put, I got sucked into yet another online obsession. Hahaha.
Well, to be honest, it hasn't reached the level of obsession yet, but I can see myself getting there eventually. Time to step on the breaks. But lord, it's so compelling!

What is?

Mmm, Live Broadcasts on NicoNico Video.

More on it next time. Perhaps.