Climbing the Hill of Emerald

Ta-dah!!

This sort of allows me to vaguely tick off one item on my things to blog about. Haha.

'Sort of', because I can't really say Emerald Hill is a favourite place of mine, and also because it's a non-exhaustive item.

Anyway, I do like having a quick poke around Emerald Hill, though, and the other night, I had some time to kill, so clomped my way down Orchard Road in the direction of that little pocket of old-world charm.



Aaaand, we're back! There's been a more than a month-long gap between what you've read before this line, and, well, what's beyond this line. ^^; The pictures were all inserted back then as well, though I was too lazy to continue.

Finally getting down to posting this, but am going to do it in a rather slip-shod manner.





These beauties are termed 'shophouses' as that's what they were - shops on the ground floor and lodging above.

They used to be rows and rows of them during the colonial era, but sadly most have been bulldozed for towering monuments to modernity.

In my extreme laziness, I point you to wikipedia for more elucidation on this architectural form. Note the section on the 'five-foot ways'.



Well, lovely Singapore's love of knocking down old things did spare some of these shophouses, mostly in strategic tourist spots like Chinatown and Boat Quay (nnngh, not a fan), sprucing them up in the name of conservation while blasting huge holes in the frontage for glass shop fronts. *rolls eyes*

The little pocket in Emerald Hill is mostly residential, though. It seems like they were originally wholly residential as well, which makes me wonder if I can stuff them under the classification of shophouses. But well, enough of my ignoramus ponderings, and on to the pictures!

I photographed a series of front doors. Some traditional, some tropical, some modern, some sweet, all beautiful.








To be honest, Emerald Hill is not my absolute favourite spot for shophouse gazing. I don't go there much, probably because there's not much to do but oogle the dwellings of others with gazes just ever so slightly tinged with envy. Haha.







The neon brightness of the stretch of Orchard Road where Emerald Hill is.


What would I give to live in one of these!!

The Roos and the Ras

I'm back from a week-long trip Down Under to the South West of Australia!! Photographic evidence of me being there with some grazing 'Roos. With joeys in their pouches to boot!

My first time back in Australia since 2004! That is rather a long time ago!
I'm appreciating the Aussie sunny disposition and sense of humour again. At the airport duty free shop, when I commented on the length of the 20cm or so receipt with all sorts of fine print about duty free and passing through customs and blah, the girl at the check out counter naturally and effortlessly said "A little light reading for your flight."

Anyway.

We flew into Perth, and motored around the southwestern corner of the state of West Australia, which is staggeringly huge (something like half the size of the US?? I think I got my trivia a little wrong here, as it sounds rather preposterous. But it's huge. It's practically a third of the whole of Australia) so we could only cover a tiny little corner of it.

A whirlwind post of the trip.

Lovely town of Fremantle ('Freo') with quaint architecture and cute cafes.


Dramatic skies and surfs. It was winter so it rained quite a bit. We were told it usually rains a lot more, so we were lucky.
This was at a little town called Gracetown, where, as we found out in the local papers the next day, a surfer was killed by a shark earlier in the morning. We saw a rescue boat being launched into the approaching storm, but that was probably to search for the shark.


Beautiful sunsets.
Another little settlement near Margaret River. Got there to find the cafe shut and a trailer park, but the sunset was amazing.


Curling up by what was possibly my first proper fire. Nice and toasty.
And the next morning there was a kangaroo grazing on the lawn.


An abundant supply of rainbows.
Faint rainbows. Partial rainbows. Double rainbows. Full rainbows. Sea rainbows. Alpaca rainbows (more on this!! :p)
Because the rain kept coming in spurts, the rainbows were out in full force as well! Think there were about at least 7 over a period of 5 days!!


Ugly green beast.
The rental car was a most strikingly violent green. It probably inspired shock in the heart of many a driver who caught it in their mirrors, as well as a number of kookaburras and kangaroos.
(I absolutely love kookaburras, by the way!! They look so incredibly adorable! I think it's the large heads that work the magic. A couple of them rested on trees just off the track eyeing the ugly green beast as we were trundling along an ancient karri forest trail)


Lots of food, sweets, and a little wine.
And a rounder face and stomach for souvenirs. ^^

Self Archaeology

I need to start piling stuff into suitcases again.

But I decided that this was the perfect time to rip out the contents of my room and strew them about the floor.

The room has now been in a state of destruction for the past 3 days, with me putting away something like 3 things each day. Yargh.


Something I invariably end up doing when I'm back in my room at home is what I term 'self archaeology'.
Sifting through the artifacts of the years I've spent on this earth.

Old diaries, lecture notes, scraps collected on travels, bits of childhood, letters, random 'junk'.

I'm quite a serious hoarder, I have to admit, and just can't bring myself to steel my heart and be 'ruthless' to throw things out.

This makes for a very full room.


Anyway, what I unearthed today were the journals I wrote for school way back when I was 11.

Two exercise books filled with my gawdawful and morphing handwriting.

Something like 90% of the entries featured my cat. xDD Strange little girl that I was.

And, flipping through them, I realised what an amazing lady my English teacher then was! She actually took the trouble to comment on all the entries, with little scribbled notes filled with humour and care. The teacher for the previous year simply arched huge ticks across the page without even correcting my mistakes.

I remember my Primary 6 teacher well. She was the one who was horrified at the distortedness of my handwriting even at that age, and made me copy out a book of my choice ('Martin's Mice' by Dick King-Smith xD) in parts to practice my penmanship. Harhar. ^^;
I don't really remember my exact feelings to this additional piece homework, but I do realise that she had gone beyond the requirements of the 'curriculum', and was motivated out of concern for the sorry state of my handwriting.

I really wonder where she is now. I felt a huge urge to contact her and express my appreciation, but google yielded no clues.

Anyway, reading my old journal filled me with poignant pathos, for the days that are long gone, for the cat who is no more, for the teacher who is somewhere out there, and for the girl who has gone far, far away.

More Excuses

I was in the middle of what I intended to be a quick 'whoops, haven't been blogging for too long. Here, have some ramblings and some videos dumped on you!' sort of post that had begun to morph into a long rambly post with squee-ing when my usual hyperactive short-attention-span-induced clicking between browser tabs and refreshing brought pretty shattering news for my universe.

My favourite Japanese band, Ayabie, are breaking up.

Everyone but the vocalist, Aoi, will be starting a new band and shifting to another record label. From the comments issued, it sounded like things were pretty ugly.

I don't think it's quite sunk in for me yet.

Sooo, more time will probably have to go by before I post up the two entries I've been working on.

Think I'll go bury my face in a book. Oh, a third entry about my reading is probably in order too. Hmmm.

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.