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I love shoes

I do so love my shoes.

I may not be the most gentlest person with shoes Being a rather rough person, regular shoes typically dont last more than a month with me. In the end, I’d usually encounter footwear calamities like this that I can only laugh at days after.

But that doesnt stop me loving beautiful shoes.

I was walking around the Jurong Point Shopping Center when I found these very pretty and colourful pair of wedges at Charles and Keith. It was love at first sight. I just had to try them on. It looked as good as it was comfortable to wear.

It was so comfortable that I had no problem wearing when riding my scooter.

Another pair of lovely that I found was from Bata. Even though Bata has a reputation here in Singapore, as being ‘Buy And Throw Away’ for not lasting very long, undeniably, there are some very lovely designs there, such as this green and pink cork wedges that I found.

It was extremely sexy. And I loved how it immediately made any outfit feminine. It was a timeless design. The only minus point was that it can get uncomfortable after a while because of its gradient. A day at work with these shoes wont be practical.

The funny thing is, I dont usually wear these shoes and my other pretty shoes to work anymore. Instead, I wear a pair of mocassins thats almost disintegrating already but I just dont have the heart to replace.

Do you have any objects that you absolutely adore like I adore shoes?

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The wedding dinner

Ah! Its so nice to meet up with old friends again!

Sheedah invited me to her wedding. Sheedah was a friend and an ex colleague from the previous school that I was attached with. I spent about two years there and had very fond memories of the school.

I messaged Narima if she wanted to go with me. She affirmed, so I fetched her on my scooter, and together we went to the ceremony.

A dance for the bride and groom

It still tickles me when I think about us wearing baju kurong (traditional Malay wear) on two wheelers. Me in my orange gold dress and my wedges and Narima in her Kebaya must have attracted quite a few shocked motorists on the road. I imagined that they were thinking, “Crazy Women! Why on earth are they wearing fancy clothes like that on a scooter?”

When we reached there, I saw so many of my ex-colleagues. We looked at each other and started to talk animatedly, excited to see each other again. I missed them so!

We entered the grand hall and waited for the bride and groom. It was so lovely, the sound of the Malay drum beating in chorus, and adorable little girls strewing flower petals on the floor. Sheedah looked radiant and her husband, Suhaimi looked equally dashing.

The chandelier almost covered my face

One could see the love in their eyes as they smiled and glanced at each other. It was so lovey dovey. It made me feel like wanting to get married too.

While watching the emcee talk, I updated my friends on whats new in my life while they updated theirs. It seemed that there are quite a few changes in the school – quite a few staff has left or thinking of leaving. Some going for new pastures, like teaching in Hong Kong.

Peiyi : Hey! You look so nice!

Me : Not as nice as you 🙂 You look beautiful in that outfit and that hairstyle.

Peiyi : I thought you were coming with your boyboy?

Me : No, he’s coming in December, thats why I sms’ed you about Tea Chapter.

Sherry : It’s popular with tourists.

Xiaofang : Boyfriend?

Peiyi : Where is he from?

Sherry : What is he working as?

Peiyi : How did you guys met?

Me : Erm .. erm ..

I was really happy to be around these wonderful people.

Mr Loo, Me, Hasnah, Waheeda, Linda and Narima.

But the night ended too quickly and we had to say our goodbyes too soon. But what a lovely night. Being among good friends is one of the most priceless things one could have.

By the way, the post to be Marina’s husband is now open. You may apply here.

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Happy Teacher’s Day :)

I’m liking the new Blogger. I’ve finally have what I’ve always wanted to have – labels! Now I can categorize my posts and choose to read which category I want at one click.

There’s also the ‘widget’ feature which I like, once I’ve adjusted it, it will stay the same, no matter what template I change to. But now that Blogger has upgraded from CSS to XML, I believe alot of blog-skins will cease to work. Fortunately for this blog, it has a very simple design. 🙂

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I had a lovely day on Thursday which was the eve of Teachers’s day. I still went to work even though I had another day to rest – I was concerned as there wasnt anyone manning the pictures and the video for the school. I was feeling better anyways.


I watched the school concert put up by the school students – some were dancing, some formed a band, there was even one who did beat-boxing.

I felt well enough to attend the teacher’s day lunch. I asked Sophia, the admin manager, where the place was

Sophia : Its at River View Hotel

Me : Err .. Where’s that?

SOphia : Do you know where Havelock Road is?

Me : No … Where’s that?

Sophia : Its near Zouk (a night club)

Me : I dont go clubbing

In the end we consulted streetdirectory and read the directions from there but just to be double sure, I asked some of the staff who were driving if I could follow their car.

V : I’m not sure if that’s a good idea

Me : Why not?

V : I’ll be driving quite fast

Me : Just say that you dont want me to follow you

V : Its not that, I’m not sure if you can keep up

In the end, I said nevermind. It was obvious that he did not want me to follow his car so I proceeded to go to the journey by myself. Should be easy. Ayer Rajah Expressway leading to the Central Expressway, turn right and then ride along Havelock road.

I rode along Ayer Rajah Expressway, and then exited the Central Expressway as I was supposed to but I couldnt recognize any landmarks. What made it worse was that it started to rain heavily. Raindrops started to fall on me like tiny spikes. I never realised how painful it was to ride in the rain.


The Tanjong Pagar Railway

I stopped by the Tanjong Pagar Railway to consult my streetdirectory book and after getting the directions proceeded on my journey again.

Cold, soaking wet and miserable, I finally found the right road but I still couldnt find the hotel. It was so annoying.

Only when I left that I finally found the building. Printed on the high rise hotel in red words, River View Hotel. I could almost hear the angels sing.


The beautiful Kat

So stressed out I was, I signed up for the karaoke competition on a whim. And guess what? Me and my partner won first in the duet category!

Hee Hee hee!

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The grand old lady

Guess where I was last night.

I did a quick revision.

In the toilet.

I know its an odd place to study, but at least it was peaceful and conducive enough for me to complete a whole chapter on economics.

Mum asked me to give her a ride to the Kallang Stadium where she will be taking her examination for the Basic Exercise Certification. She aims to be a certified fitness instructor so this examination will be the one of the hurdles for her.

Travelling from here to home would take at least an hour and a half. Since the examination lasts for an hour, I decided to wait for her.

So I had to park my scooter. I tried to find a motorcycle parking lot around the stadium. Its a very large area, the car park itself was about the size of a soccer field.

But I couldnt find any motorcycle lot and I really didnt want to do an illegal parking and get fined again, so I decided to park the scooter at a car lot. After tearing up a coupon, I entered the stadium.


Sunset by the stadium by Justin

Aptly nicknamed as ‘the grand old lady’, it was a grand stadium. It was large and rather spectacular. I watched the caretakers tending to the stadium field, some dragging in large water hoses while others water the grass of the field.


National Day celebrations by Elfonse

The stadium has hosted many different events here such as the National day celebrations, football leagues and other events. And I remember the last time when I went here with the school that I was formerly attached with, to give support to the military band performance.


Singapore Youth Festival 2004

So many memories here.

Which makes it a little sad for me to hear that this stadium will be torn down come next year.

It was nice and quiet so I sat facing the stadium to do a little studying. But as the sun set, it got increasingly difficult to see and I went to the nearest lighted area. The gym was for members only and I wasnt allowed in the office. The only well lighted area that I could go to was the ladies.

Engrossed with the book, time passed by quickly and mum was already done with her examination. I saw the throngs of people coming out the theaterette. Many of them has an anguished look to them. It must have been a difficult paper.

A Girl : Things that I studied didnt come out and the things I didnt studied came up!

A Lady : The instructor emphasized on the wrong topics

A Girl : Do you know that 10 people retook this examination?

A Lady : Oh dear! This is so disheartening!

Mum popped out eventually and I asked her how she felt. She gave a brave smile and said, “It was scary, but God bless, I’ll be fine”.

We headed to where I parked my scooter and I noticed a white slip stuck to my scooter. Another fine! I was fined for ‘parking at an area not designated for it’

Honestly!

What is wrong with these people? Where on earth am I supposed to park when there are no lots for it?

It was really getting under my nerves. Mum saw how worked out I was that she decided to bring me to the ‘Meet the People’ session where I can air my griveances to the constituency minister.

As much as I enjoy riding, sometimes I feel that it can bring out the worst in me. I have a very short temper and get frustrated easily.

Is this normal?

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Asknlearn staff meetup

I had a company meeting yesterday. Since the location was further on to the Eastern part of Singapore, I travelled for the first time on my scooter to the ECP expressway.

On the highway, I passed by the heart of the city and saw the tall skyscrapers of the CBD area. And as I passed by the Nicoll highway, I was enthralled by the enchanting sight of the tall buildings by the river leading to the sea.

Beautiful. Just beautiful.

Which makes it quite amazing that just about two years ago, this same place, made the entire nation in a moment of trepidation as they listen to the news of the Nicoll Highway collapse incident.

It was a long ride to the boss’s house. With no form of entertainment for me except for to look at the crazy motorists on the road zig-zagging without prior signalling and to curse and shout at the taxis suddenly cutting in my way.

At length, I reached the Boss’s place and met and mingled the other educators and staff there. There was Dzul and Deanna, both of whom I met while during our orientation days last year.

My previous supervisor, Mei Yun, me and Deanna

It was the typical motivational speech, company vision, new things that will come for the future and what nots. Some people might be cynical about these motivational speeches. Granted that I include one of them sometimes, but at the same time though, I felt quite blessed that I was with Asknlearn after all that I’ve been through with the previous companies that I have worked with.

Our game team posing next to the ‘spiderweb’ that we broke

Working life understandably does have its problem but at least I can ask them for help whenever I feel that I couldnt cope with something. The best environment is where everyone feels they belong and look out for each other.

I was supposed to meet up with my friends Vai and Juli in Orchard. After getting lost around the roads for a few minutes and screaming, “Where am I? Where am I?” I finally managed to stumble into the city area and then got myself stuck behind a procession of taxis and cars then magically finding myself entering a carpark behind a shopping center complex.

I can feel the eyes of other motorcyclists as they see me park my scooter. I was the only female rider there in the already full parking area.

I swooshed out my hair like a shampoo commercial and sashayed out of the parking lot.

Anyway, I met up with Vai first and updated each other on what’s new in our lives.

Me : How did the birthday event go?

Vai : It was great! Thank you for helping out in the powerpoint slides. It was spectacular. Her entire family loved it.

Me : Not a problem 🙂

Some while after, Juli turned up and the playful catfight began.

Vai : Ah, someone went shopping I see. No wonder you are late.

Juli : Excuse me! This is for school. We are having a dinner function at a community center!

Vai : Community center? That’s such a cheap place. I had mine at a hotel!

Juli : What hotel? Hotel 81 is it? (Hotel 81 is a budget hotel)

We went to lido to watch this movie called pretty persuasion which I throughly enjoyed. It was a satirical dark comedy with spectacular dialogues and perfect characters which a rather shocking ending.

The night ended much too quickly though with Juli needing to leave to get ready for her marathon the next day.

Juli : And you, Vai, I’ll see you there at 6.30 am

Vai : But I’m sick! Who knows if tomorrow I would die!

Juli : I don’t care! If you can still stand up and walk right now, you can still run for tomorrow.

Vai : Why doesn’t Marina go for it?

Juli : That’s because she never signed up for it not like SOME people who sign up for things but never turns up at the last minute.

Vai : You women are always ganging up on me.

I have the funniest friends.

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Community clicks in Boon Lay

I was viewing the photoclicks competition page and saw the finalists from the Boon Lay CC category.

I must say that I’m very impressed by the way that the photographers captured their images – it was unique, something that I would not have thought of myself.


I was there, on Sunday to participate, just for the fun of it. I signed up for it months ago as I was a photovideoi member. Besides, Boon Lay was rather near where I lived.

The editor for magazine, John Cosgrove was there, to conduct a quick workshop. It was the same person who conducted the macro workshop that I attended in February.

He ended the workshop and started the competition. The theme was, “Life in the HDB block”. The 100 participants and I went off to shoot pictures in the heartlands.

It was a rather warm day and soon I was perspiring and fidgeting and began pawing at things.

I took shots of the housing blocks from different angles. I climbed up the flight of stairs to see view from the top. I sat on the ground to see view from the bottom.

After a few hours, I couldnt concentrate in the heat and decided to just walk casually around the neighbourhood. I stumbled upon a rather pretty farm and stood there admiring. Its rural-ish charms reminded me much of my old house before our relocation.

I saw a farmer watering the vegetables and I shouted out to him

me : Nice vegetables uncle!

farmer : Haha! Yes! But its not mine. This is shared with other residents here

me : What beautiful plants

An auntie comes near us pushing her groceries

me : Isnt this such a lovely farm?

auntie : Yes. Too bad we will be leaving next year

me : What? Why?

auntie : We are being relocated. These houses here are over 40 years.

me : Really? Doesnt look it though.

auntie : I hope that our new place will have good amenities.

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I walked around and saw other photographers taking their pictures. I smiled and said hellos and observed them deep in concentration. I saw a rather familliar face.

Me : Hey, havent I seen you before? You were at the macro workshop

He : I dont remember. I go to too many shoots. Do you always go photographing solo?

Me : Yeah, I dont have much friends who like photography.

He : Maybe you can join my friends and I on our shoots.

Me : Sounds great 🙂

In time it was time to return to the community center to submit our shots. There were a multitude of people there queing up already.

The results were announced soonafter. I saw and admired the lovely pictures by the top 10 finalists. Mr Familliar was one of them – He was very talented.

This is my submission, it wasnt in the top 10 but I’m still pleased with it.

Hopefully there will be another one next year. It was a lot of fun! (apart from the heat) Will you join me if there will be one the next time?

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Cartcart’s coming to Singapore!

My dearest has just recently booked his flight to Singapore. He’ll be here around the end of December so a big chance that we’ll spend Hari Raya together!

I’m most excited! I miss him so much, that it gets so depressing, it’s unbelievable.

Now where shall I take him to look around?

There are a couple of places where I could bring him – such as the more popular destinations such as the Sentosa Island for a day of frolicking at the beach or go to the different attractions there.

We could go to the esplanade together and catch a musical concert in the halls inside or just chill out by the bay and to listen to the band playing by the sea.

Maybe even going to the zoo (though it has been years since I’ve last been there) to see all sorts of animals in an ‘open concept’ environment and the night safari after that.

Or we could go the ethnic way and visit a tea house in Chinatown, eat delicious curries and pratas and see the Sri Mariamam Temple in Little India while I drag him to Geylang Serai or Arab Street to have him fitted with a Songkok (Malay Hat), Kain Samping (Kind of like a Sarong) and Capal (Malay Sandals) and visit the Sultan Mosque

Or we could go the urban way and let him see the heart of the city while we visit city hall and walk along war memorial to the parliament house, or to the Elgin bridge as we watch the bum boats pass by the rivers of Clarke quay.

I’d like to show him the art museum, the kitchy Haw Par Villa and if he’s up to it, maybe go to the rustic charms of Pulau Ubin or to the East Coast Park.

We’ll go to the Botanic Garden to see the beautiful flora and have a little picnic while the concert plays on.

But I would be happy even doing simple things with him, like eating at a hawker center together with him and let him sample a few local favourites, going to the shopping center together with him to catch a movie (even though I believe movie tickets are horribly overpriced)

I’ll let him have a first hand experience of the public transportation here and we could compare the prices of things when we go shopping, be it for groceries at Fairprice or electrical items at Sim Lim Square or even books at the borders book store.

And then a walk along Orchard road to visit the Istana and then stroll along the streets at night time, which, by then be full of lights and decorations.

And obviously since I’m a Jurong girl, I won’t forget to let him see the beautiful lakeside park that we have here and we’ll stroll by the Chinese Gardens and sit down by the bench watch the beautiful and tranquil scene in front of us.

We could have breakfast in the Bird Park, sipping our breakfast tea while birds of a multitude of colours surround us.

And since Cartcart is such a Maths-lover, We could even go to the Science Center which is just a couple of minutes ride from here. I think he’ll like it 🙂

I’ll even let him try a taste of durian. It will be interesting I think. I’ve never heard of an European eating durians before. Have you?


I’m like da king of fruits!

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Jam Jam, Human Jam

There was a fireworks festival at the Esplanade yesterday. All through the area was a sea of people along the Marina Square shopping center all the way to the Esplanade by the bay.

Normally I would enjoy watching fireworks. But instead of staying for the fireworks display, me and my brother rushed and snaked through the throngs of people. We knew that there was going to be a huge jam once the display was over.

There we were, squeezing though people and rushing to find the carpark while the sky lighted up with red, green, blue and yellow flames. People screaming in delight and children jumping up and down and everyone pointing to the sky.

At last we found the carpark and in the maze of cars we finally found the scooter. we hopped on and went off.

Unfortunately for us, just when we left the carpark and on the road, that was when the fireworks display ended.

Suddenly the road was streamed full of pedestrians jaywalking and cutting across. Traffic was at a standstill. I was thoroughly annoyed

And there I was thinking, “Why on earth am I here in the city area on a saturday?”

Then I remembered, “Its because I needed to go to the library@Esplanade to borrow some literature videos. Other branches did not have them and I’m only free during the weekends”

Oh bother.