comeback kid

i am getting back the vibe, so let's pray its for long.
where have i been missing all this while?
i'd been caught up with my work, family, friends, butterfly girls, makankakis, weddings, etc.
it's pretty well-balanced now, i must say.
i should jolly well be before i start to race my life again.

let's do a quick update on my missing by months!

october:
turned a year older just a few days before eid.
celebrated at home with my family during eid.
celebrated at french cafe, little india with 2 other bday babies, together with makankakis + him.
celebrated at fignolive, vivo with 2 other bday babies, together with hangout buddies.
so there, 3 times of celebration.

december:
designfest. i was totally immersing my heart.bodynsoul. cant blame me!
della's wedding.
roadtrip to kl with the family during the week just before xmas.
mum + aunt went frenzy over the cake stuff in the baking shop near our hotel in bangi.
sg should have something like that.
new yr's eve, roaming around sg. fireworks.

january:
new yr, roaming around sg part 2.
roy's wedding.
nad's wedding. wedding of the year.
i love the music entourage that followed suit during the dinner.
icha in sg. met up with her over supper with him.
domestic tourist part 1. hopped on to duck n hippo tour.

february:
re:visited my alma mater during open house, uber-cool bldg + glass structures.
flew off to jkt with the concert groupies/makankakis/travelbuddies.
main reason is to see bjork in action.
we csED over @farah's place in mega kuningan, while the other half crashed in hotel.
'til today, i still get goosebumps thinking of the time we had while in senayan indoor.
like a dream come true.
afterwhich met up with the indo counterparts for endless sessions of makans. thanks to icha + kiki.
we visited blok m too :P! thanks to cipta.
domestic tourist part 2. i finally took the dhl ride and giddiness engulfed me.

march:
mar's wedding.
adam in sg. brought him out with ninda.
thanks to mosaic fest, we became broke.
learnt our lessons, in future need to start saving earlier.
included in the agenda are brokensocialscene, birdnbee + múm.
the makankakis at porta-porta + badoque.

now you can see my agenda. the unhidden one.

oh, it gets more jittery now as i'm counting down. a love-hate relationship.

japon

time check.
reality check.

pre-trip concert = the cure. we were all slacking and the vibe only runs in-between the 3hrs long concert.
at times, i could feel sleepy but when "friday, im in love" came on air thru mr smith's vocal..it was the most appreciated piece of music.
nonetheless, we did enjoyed the nite.

post-trip concert = gwen stefani. she rocked the house yesterday. im very much in love with her plus the chance to be a 'groupie' post concert with the kids and she came to us, yeah we were that close...she's the bomb! love her costumes, her dancers, her songs. thanks! i took medical leave due to jet-lagged but seeing her energised vibe onstage, i totally forgotten that im not that strong. i almost lost my voice this morning due to over-excess of shouting during concert. cant blame me...the boys started it first and poor yany who is hospitalised back from japon trip and was supposed to see gwen had to forgo her tix.

and those are some of my vices, pre-deserved hard-earned cash. the trip to japon, i wished that ive stayed there longer.
surviving thru the almost 8hrs flight to & fro, lotsa walking, tiredness but when it comes to shopping, we totally forgotten the tired feet.
summer was a killer. its hotter than rome and its biting thru our skins. its was hotter than sg no doubt there's wind but i could feel the unbearable heat.
we became tanned easily and the makcik @my workplace spotted my dark rings this morning.
i tend to wake pretty early as its bright at 4am (jpn time) and we are quite disciplined to follow our schedule everyday.
we covered tokyo, hakone, osaka, kyoto and back to tokyo. the only setback wasnt able to carry on to nara as we are short of time.
shinkansen, is pretty fast too, cant beat eurorail as per my last euro trips.

we pretty much controlled our expenses and went crazy over japon brands.
stores like daiso, muji and uniqlo (japanese version of GAP) prices are quite a steal.
and oh, i love shibuya for loft, not much of tokyu hands.
got myself sister holga, yet to experiment with it.

so, im back in sg all broke. not broken-hearted.
and of course, more tonnes of work.
i need a vacation again!

my yellow wayfarer broke in tokyo...im only left with not more than 200yen...and i got my slate leggings.

aint no sunshine

im gonna get a copy of this movie reel soon. a good show i must say. funny @times too.

meantime, i was having lunch earlier + watching the world news. then, a sudden reminiscene came boggling thru my mind. looking back, i was actually in some kind of "risk" travelling to the affected areas for the past travels.

::bintan 2004::

my friends (shiela, yany, mar, rina) + i were out in the open sea enjoying the high tides. just as we got back to land into our cabanas, we saw the news via cna on t/s/u/n/a/m/i @aceh. our families were worried of course, we called home to inform that we were not affected @all.

::london 2005::

we had a hard time in s/t/a/n/s/t/e/d although we had to transit before moving on to mallorca via london. the main reason, both yany + me were questioned about half an hour separately on our travels before we were asked to go to another corner + that our names didnt help bearing the "binte". from the corner of my eyes, i could see stares coming from people who were queing under the same line as us. i am still very sore with the immigration officer but the policeman was kinda nice to me. it was really an experience. while in london, we took the tube around the city a month after the l/o/n/d/o/n/b/o/m/b/i/n/g. the affected stations were closed but we kept vigil thru the news in every station as we are affected and had to change routes each single day we were there. it was then that i knew why the death toll was high as the escape route was way far off.

::bangkok 2006::

my family + i still went ahead with the travel. mum was a bit sceptical but i assured the rest that it's alright still to travel + not to follow the hundreds of fellow natives who cancelled their flight due to the bombing near the hearts in the city due to protest of e/l/e/c/t/i/o/n. thanks to updates from thai friends too.

::london 2006::

we watched the news on our last day in paris before travelling out to barcelona whilst rina + tini made their way to london and that h/e/a/t/h/r/o/w was the place that they gonna be in when their trip ended before continuing to another city. i kept praying that both of them would be safe + i was glad. the only setback, security was tight so any electronic + liquid stuff to be sealed + placed in cargo. they were fortunate not to miss their flight; tini to stockholm to meet us whilst rina back to the lion city.

everyday is a winding road

im off to kl on a road trip this evening.

the long-awaited day has finally arrived.

right now, the car's in the workshop doing some balancing moments.

packing not done yet as im bz planning what to do for the next few days.

lots of mind boggling got me thinking over + over.

its gonna be r+r session rather than anything else + in search of things that i really need to find.

im soon gonna miss these place here.

the colleagues, the students' greetings + stuff, the lunch buddies.

but its life...the need to move on.

i hope to be able to catch d/j/b/l/i/n/k's session in time + pay a visit to the new stretch of clubs there as well as make time for the latest attraction in town.

danke.

land o tulips

if i could fly, hollandse would be it

greenery

star-gazing
vintage buys
boat ride