what a long day that went on forever... woke up at 6.15am for the sheares bridge run and am still up now, back from work and after my shower - waiting for my hair to dry... i am utterly pooped.. sheares bridge fun run was great! - one doesn't get to run on the left lane of ECP every day! - but got stuck for more than 2km behind "sludge" of slow-moving people so am not-at-all pleased with finish time ... can't believe there were apparently 50,000 people there today! i know a bunch of people who actually completed 21km (the half marathon) without stopping.. wow... maybe i should make that my aim next year?? :p ok lah, see how.. can't be too ambitious..

the artshop at takashimaya is officially open! (click for larger image) - don't we look fantastic??



so can i expect to see you there when you next swing by kinokuniya bookstore or the library@orchard?? btw, newly-opened but already tremendously popular Spanish label Z A R A on the ground floor uses the same escalator as our store!! :) that's another reason to drop by!

my group scored 86 marks for our e-commerce project! hooray! ... funny how we spent the whole 3 hours after our presentation this afternoon moping over how badly we thought we did compared to the other groups, and how much harder we have to study for the exams now (the project - white paper + presentation - takes up 30% of the marks).. wow wow wow! what a relief.... all that hard work and sweat was definitely worth it..

sheares bridge run is tomorrow... pant pant... and after that, kai and i will pop into the new artshop and paint one of our walls dark burgundy! hehehe... let's see how we surprise our first customers on Monday...we will be the funkiest artshop in Singapore!!

Had the most surreal experience yesterday lunching at the Takashimaya staff canteen. Just in case you don’t know (and I bet all my ten toe-nails that you don’t), there is actually a place in Takashimaya shopping centre (yes, Orchard) where you can get a decent meal (three dishes and rice) for less than $2.50 and a soft drink for less than a dollar (other than at Cold Storage) Ever wondered where the typical cleaning auntie gets her lunch? Ha! No, she doesn’t always ta pow from home! Hidden beneath the posh interiors and polished marble floorings of one of Singapore’s most “high-class” shopping centres, behind giant pots of artificial bonsai plants, away from the view of Prada swinging fashionable tai tais and expat ladies, is this very spartan, but cleanly scrubbed staff canteen (with cheap flourescent lighting, rows of grease-stained tables, bare walls, and plainly-tiled floors) which only the low-waged town workers (salesgirls, security guards, cleaners, waitresses and underpaid retail managers :p) know about… i practically had to weave my way through a maze of unmarked passageways, walk through doors that only read “Exit”, surreptitiously follow this guy in Cold Storage staff uniform, before finding this really surreal place that looks a complete world apart from where I just came from… strangely, I thought of the Victorian soup kitchens that Charles Dickens mentioned in his classics like Oliver Twist as I joined the proletariat masses for lunch… haha.. call me if you ever want to see this place.. it’s really amazing…

Stumbled upon this article “The Singapore adventure from 1996-1998” by this chap called Jochen Kern while randomly surfing the net. Get a dig of this sentence.. “This hotel was the champion on food cost which not fit in the frame of the lost paradise " Value for Money " concept”…. Huh?? Read more of his strangely worded account at http://cordonnoir.com/singapor.htm

incidentally, World Animal Day falls on October the 4th in Singapore as well! what a day to about!

i support the

i want to remember myself as a dreamer and an idealist
i want to be remembered as a runner, photographer, traveler, adventurer, diver, artist
i want to be remembered as a child of God.
i want to be a linguist.
i want to be a writer.
i want to be a strategist.
i want to make a difference to the world's less fortunate.

I’ve got a friend who (rather bizarrely) eagerly looks forward to the day she dies because she is excited about what others will say about her (not that she would be able to hear anyway)…

But hey, here is someone who is really confident of the difference she has already made in others’ lives! Good for her! As for me, there’s still a long way to go in every aspect of my life..

Have you ever wondered what you would want others to say at your funeral (or even what you would think about on your own deathbed)?

Sorry for morbid topic. There is a funeral wake at the void deck of the neighboring block… strange inspirations… oh well…

i think i have much to be thankful for.. so i should be supporting this year's World Smile Day - Oct 4

the grey smiley is to reflect my current "burnt-out" state..

legs are aching...

and feeling really tired from waking up at 6 something over two consecutive days. followed by hard labour (running and packing yesterday, and packing and carrying today)

and feeling the pressure of time - got to finish painting glassware, doing project presentation, and moving shop - all in this week.. then exams will come and lecturers haven't given us a clue on what topics to focus on, telling us everything is important and need to be studied.. and that exam questions will be broad to test our "thinking skills".. umm..

this is a difficult period..

totally pooped..

woke up at 6.30am for the terry fox run at sentosa (from bridge to beach). turned out to be tougher than a lot of us expected.... (heard this woman loudly declaring to her running mate "This is NOT a fun run. I repeat, this is NOT a fun run") did the 8.8km route that covered some interesting off-the-beaten-track spots (such as the golf course, earth satellite station, maritime museum and even the ferocious merlion) and discovered that Sentosa is amazingly undulating... the uphills and downhills were endless, and the weather was stiflingly hot... very testing.. think i am quite well-prepared for the sheares bridge run next week.. :p.. once again, the camaraderie was wonderful.. :)

then popped into artshop for more packing.. the place is a big mess now, with boxes and plastic bags everywhere, of all shapes and sizes.. we are all getting into the mood for the big move to takashimaya next week! see what the place looks like now, before the furniture moves in next week.. a blank slate ready to become the best art shop in the world! :)




come visit me from 1st October.. we're one floor above kinokuniya bookstore or one level below the main entrance of the library.. :)

lost my mobile phone today.

searched everywhere!

i looked in my bag… not there.

i checked with coffee bean & tea leaf where i had my eggs ben breakfast. not there too.

i called my colleagues at the artshop where i was briefly this morning. nope.

finally i cancelled my sim card. m1 told me they will replace it for me on Monday.

went for my lessons at SIM with a heavy heart.

sigh. more expenses. unnecessary ones.

and i was sad to lose Kam Kam, my cute mobile phone accessory.



but just an hour ago… i found my mobile phone again!

it was sitting in the car – right next to my handbrake.

how did it get there?? i don’t remember putting it there!

another close shave. another moment of embarrassing stupidity.

thank you God for the phone and the lesson.

and thank you reader for hanging around. listening to my blabber.

Kam Kam thanks you too.

my sis made me read her blog while i was having dinner just now and i almost lost my appetite.. eeks... it's not really yucky, just medical stuff but i'm not good with stuff like that, so... urgh!

i'm glad i didn't choose to go into Nursing.. oh well, how silly, of course i wouldn't since i can't even handle injections.. and i'm talking about witnessing them (not actually taking them.. :p)

:D woo hoo!!!

I'm finally #1 on Google search for "hweeling"!!!

you have no idea how long it took me to reach this position!! there are easily 2000 to 3000 hweelings in Singapore (maybe even more!! i personally know at least 10!), let alone the whole world!!! and i'm now No. 1!!!

wahahahah!!! World Domination!!! :D

said goodbye to my oil painting teacher Lydia Miller today. she's returning to her home country Australia after a stay here of some two years with her very loving and wonderful husband. it was a touching moment indeed...

what struck me most as i wished her well and we mused over how quickly the two years have passed since she came to our artshop (rather by chance - as she likes to say - "i don't know why but i just thought i'll come in and i'm glad i did" :) ) was the sheer amount that has happened for her since then... she held no less than 5 exhibitions (three here, two in Sydney), painted more than 200 paintings (at least), transformed her style of painting from Western abstract style, to a more fusion style, and now one leaning definitely towards the exotic East. Through us, she taught no less than three scores of complete beginners (including myself) not just the art and technique of oil painting but also the love and appreciation of it... she also built a community of sorts with local-based oil artists, some of them through contacts from us... yet i was totally surprised that she thanked us profusely for our part in making all this happen.. and all i ever did was to approach her (two years ago as she was just "another customer" standing at the oil paints rack) to ask if she was interested in teaching and telling her that i was interested in setting up a course and learning from her if she did.. isn't that amazing? :) ... i'm glad i approached her.. i really am..

i realised how blessed i am to have met so many wonderfully remarkable and inspiring people in my short 27 years - many of whom have dedicated their lives to the pursuit of art, music, writing or whatever else they feel drawn towards.... people who have taken the "road-less-travelled" and given me the inspiration to do the same in my life... every single encounter a life-changing one in one way or other.. their passion shows through their sharing of what they do, their never-ending quest to make themselves even better, even though so many of them have already spent a good 15 to 20 years of their lives already being so amazingly good at what they do...

farewell and thanks Lydia!

b r o t h is one amazing restaurant! Big thanks to Daniel for the generous sharing of this wonderful discovery.. :) - we had foie gras, snails, NZ steak fillet, and salmon steak (skipping the wines 'cos we were suspicious).. i can safely say each is in a class of its own.. almost the best i've tasted - at least in quite a while (consider that i have been surviving on sub $2.50 lunches).. and the setting was just so nice, double storey shophouse tucked away from the hustle and bustle of club street, tanjong pagar and maxwell market... decorated in a simple classy way.. you simply have to check it out.. loved it.. :)

i can't believe i almost completely missed the terry fox run this year! publicity has been terrible!! how can they expect to raise enough funds with this pathetic amount of publicity?? run is this sunday and i only got to know about it, like, yesterday?? enjoyed the camaraderie, sweat, and squashy cheerful crowds last year so will definitely go for it again this year. run around sentosa.. umm.. sounds fun.. :) sounds like good exercise too, just before next week's sheares bridge run... pant pant..

exams are coming round... grr...don't panic don't panic!!

festive mood in the artshop now.. we are going to move upmarket to Ngee Ann City in the next few days (just below the main entrance from the library@orchard - i love this library! - and up the escalator in Kinokuniya)... but don't worry, we ain't gonna increase prices .. :) can't wait for all the exciting tie-ups with the library@orchard, kinokuniya, and doing all the fun stuff we have always been doing but better (like art courses, mini art library, new art and craft products... we're going to see a whole new bunch of people, and get to reach out to a lot more people now who have never enjoyed doing art in their lives (not counting the bad experience in school, that is..:p)... it's nice to know we are making a difference to the lives of these people.. :)

btw, see pic of fluffy rabbit taken by alb (of his colleague's rabbit)... So cute!!!!

vs
Battle of the Mutant Po(s)

... ok ok.. just taking a break from another artwork mass reproduction project again for another wedding... roses roses and more roses... zzzz....

oh dear, mum just told me there was a news report tonight about another dive accident somewhere... another dive casualty... sigh...

mooncakes and pomelos... it's the mid-autumn festival again!! :) ... i have eaten... umm... an aggregate of 4 full mooncakes (at least??) since the start of the festival.. yum yum... i love the ones with double yolk and lots of melon seeds, especially the snowy skin green pandan ones.. yum... they are selling them everywhere in town!! Decided it was more than a snack and I should do a bit of study on the historical background of this custom so i surfed the net and found this.. (pardon me for my ignorance.. .but i really do get all the Chinese heroes mixed up.... i mean, there is this guy who was thrown into the river by some enemies and that started the dumpling thing, and then there is another story of Chinese households trying to stuff the mouth of some deity on New Year's Eve with sticky paste cake, and then now this story about Chu Yuan-chang leading the Han people of theYuan Dynasty to overthrow the Mongol rule by distributing mooncakes with the message "Revolt on the fifteenth of the eighth moon" hidden inside.. very confusing...

random pictures from a "drive-by photographer"..




exams are coming again... trying to get a bit of fresh air and sunshine before hibernation period starts... grrr....

lack of sleep is wrecking sheer havoc in my life...

remember the incident where i left this huge mounting board of fragile tiles on the roof of my car and then drove off unaware? a few days after that, i left something in the laundry and it was churned to unrecoverable shreds by the washing machine... and today... sigh... today, i left my Strategic Management lecture notes (a thick stack of notes, mind you), on Bus No. 14 on my way to work (it brings me to Dover station where i take the MRT) and only discovered it missing much later as i was getting off the Raffles Place MRT Interchange to switch to the Northern line...

fortunately, it proved worthless to anyone and made its long but safe voyage from near Clementi (where i left it behind on the bus seat) all the way to Bedok Bus Interchange and was kept by the very kind bus uncles from SBS Transit who contacted "Lost & Found" .... pretty amazing how i'm learning all these lessons of late... and fortunately relatively inexpensively.. except for the bus uncle who "extorted" $10 from me to donate to the President's Charity Drive before returning me my file.. didn't mind it though, it's for charity after all and i did learn a lesson to be more careful...

THANK GOD for watching over me...