a weekend of varied experiences


sunrise 04 oct 2004

the weekend that just passed (from friday all thru to sunday) was pretty amazing..

firstly, Friday. i happened to be at raffles city at the right time and caught no less than 5 babelicious models catwalking down the side of Raffles City to pulsating electronic music (see here for the 2004 vertical catwalk asia tour by espirit). i stood alongside heartland aunties with toddlers in tow and young couples in smart office suits, all of us watching in awe the real life Lara Crofts in action. Very surreal.

then hopped over to the opening of a good friend's exhibition at Singapore Art Museum. His team, sciSKEW architecture, is one of 10 artists exhibiting as part of Seni Singapore 2004 (Project Home Fronts). Look out for the cool piece of work – you can’t miss it cos it’s so huge (stretches over two rooms) and white and elevated and rather bright with about 30 flourescent tubes incandescent. Noticed a few somewhat well-known figures in the local arts scene while sipping wine and gulping tea tarik at the reception and caught up with some “long lost” acquaintances and friends. Fun :)

then adjourned to the related art exhibition Insomnia 48 at the Arts House where we stumbled upon a free slow waltz 101 course by a bubbly lady with a broad smile. She was brilliantly friendly and made the moves seem so effortless. Still, it didn’t stop me from tripping over my two left feet. Nonetheless, I’m glad i overcame some of my initial biasness against this dance form and now I think it can actually be quite fun. Ha.

woke up early Sat morning and went to get my already-not-so-long hair chopped further at my favourite HDB dwelling hairdresser, as suggested by my kind colleagues who are going to do likewise, as preparation for the heavy load of marking that will descend on us in a few days’ time, once the exams are done. In their own words, “Have a lighter head”. Imagine the extreme lengths teachers will go for their students! Erhm. *I’m sure you’re weeping in gratitude now??* haha.

Then headed down to Yishun swimming pool for some sun and laps. Trying my best to get the “healthy glow” look that is not typical of teachers.. hahahaha . ok ok, well, actually I was trying to fix my right ankle which is still throbbing a little from a careless sprain after the long run last week. Thought the soft motion of the water current will help. It didn’t after 10 laps, so I just stood around and people watched. Ha.

Ended the evening walking around famous Chong Pang "village" (where every other nasi lemak stall claims to sell the original "Chong Pang nasi lemak", just like in the katong laksa case), stopped by at the handful of pet shops to stare at the gerbils, hamsters and budgerigars, and eventually, ended up at Ma Kuang Chinese Physicians and had my first taste of acupuncture! I think the trauma of really doing it was more than the actual pain, though I did have some six needles poke into my foot and light electrical impulses sent through them, causing this odd numbing sensation for a good 15 minutes.

The random experiences continued into Sunday. A good friend and I caught up over lunch and then watched the Discovery Travel and Adventure channel host contest live at Suntec. At the beginning, we pained over those on stage who put on faked accents and looked enthusiastic but awkward for the cameras and live crowds (too fat? too old? really sweet? too friendly? too fake? whatever..) We cheered those who pleased us intuitively, even if we couldn’t figure out their appeal. In the end, I didn’t finish watching the whole contest and spent the rest of the day with a group of fun friends for cold beer along the river, laughing and bantering. Good clean malty fun. Ha, who can complain!

I think a weekend like this takes a while to recover from… burp…