ladies' onsen sanraku

spent many happy hours here soaking and contemplating life.

there are many things i am thankful for, many things i'm excited about and

i can't wait to let this year wind up (not that it's been a bad year, far from!)

and see where 2011 takes me.

fingers crossed :)

next post: visiting the resident mountain in shin nasu!

jerry's

favourite hideaway for lazy saturday afternoons.

give me hearty, heart-clogging american fry-ups, a frozen margarita and i'm cat-content.

probably my favourite time of the week because there are

1. fresh memories of friday night fun

2 i most likely slept in

3. there is delicious anticipation about the rest of the weekend

4. saturday dinner is always family

:)

the strange passage of time

received a facebook invite to a friend's birthday party and it's that time of the year again.

four years ago, the day i passed my driving test or very shortly after, i drove over for his birthday but with granny in the car because i couldn't drive alone then! conveniently forgetting while on the way there, that having granny in the car meant that i'd probably have to go straight home! such a rookie error :( so i dropped off the tiramisu, ok, more like thrust the tiramisu at the ever reliable jonathan (birthday boy nowhere to be found, probably sexytiming somewhere, come to think of it), and went straight home, frazzled enough by driving on the expressway for the first time. 

friend fail.

the next year, at the next party, i've great memories of us ordering in too many chicken mcnuggets (probably in the hundreds) and scoffing nuggets at the nearby playground. juvenile as it sounds in retrospect, that was a fun night. i think a few plastic dustbins of the sembcorp kind were involved but mcnuggets, my love, was a distinct memory.

and of course in all that time, people come and go. the birthday boy once got all emo while we were at cafe del mar (omgosh, retro maxxx) lamenting that he'd lost the love of his life and was doomed to a life of wanton lust in a monastry (?!) but fast forward two, maybe three years, and this year his birthday party is at his girlfriend's, where he is the live-in lover. oh we used to joke about that, once upon a time before we all knew any better, but maybe we were prescient because it has indeed come to pass. 

so time is cyclical and suddenly i feel that the four years since i passed my driving test have flown by. my own birthday isn't the milestone, but this part of october somehow is.

atypically emo post

“This is how it works:

You’re young until you’re not

You love until you don’t

You try until you can’t

You laugh until you cry

You cry until you laugh

And everyone must breathe

Until their dying breath”

- Regina Spektor

i want to be this kind of couple

(photo sourced from josh's photo blog)

(almost) annual pilgrimage to HK

was in HK in the beginning of 2006 and because it was a social visit, we stayed in what was, to me, the fanciest hotel ever. met with friends, wine and dined and it was a very comfortable trip.

returned in the middle of 2007 with 15 college friends. this time, the planner sourced us an apartment in hai fong mansion, off nathan road and just opposite tsim sha tsui station. we squeezed into 4 rooms in this misnomer of a building that was anything but a mansion. we'd the dubious honour of sharing a floor with massage parlours, syed baba worship centre, kumon, a karaoke bar and music school. remember sleeping like sardines, sharing a single bed with a girlfriend for 5 nights. shudder. but this particular trip to HK was special to me for two reasons. on our last night, as we sat by victoria harbour looking across the bay, i saw the hotel i stayed at the previous year and i felt a sense of pride surge within me, because i was back in HK on my terms and at my own expense, having ceased to receive parental support soon after high school. i'd brought myself to HK on hard-earned tuition money and the satisfaction was priceless. also, while i'd just 'roughed out' 5 days in less than luxurious conditions, looking across the water, i knew that one day i'd be back at the first hotel, on my own. the second reason is a little more personal, because while i was in my tiny room at hai fong mansion, i sprung awake one night certain that something was amiss and 30 seconds later, my mobile rang. and all it took was one X life-altering phone call and we've not looked back since :)

in summer 2008, we went to HKwith our favourite couple to celebrate his birthday, approximately a year after that significant phone call. this trip was different again, although i did get to revisit some of the haunts i liked from the previous year. this was especially special because we'd just gotten home after 10weeks together in europe. we travelled highlands and iceland (from london to belgium to scotland, drove around the whole of iceland), back to leuven, the it was off on a sand and sea leg (nice, monte carlo, cannes, road trip around corsica, toulon, avignon, marseille, lyon before heading to morocco - casablanca and marrakech). after that we met up with my folks for a mediterranean cruise (athens, kusadasi, ephesus, santorini, sarande, split, venice). he went back to leuven for exams and i solo-tripped to dublin and then amsterdam. when he was done with exams, we flew to prague then his parents came over and we met them in athens (our second time in a month!) and sailed to mykonos, revisited santorini in a more leisurely fashion then explored crete. surprisingly, after 10 weeks of non-stop travel (which concluded his year away), we weren't vacationed out and still made it to HK! being the sentimental sap i am, HK a year on and with him was a poignant reminder of how good the year had been.

skip 2009 and i was back in HK mid-2010, back at the first (fancy) hotel. sadly, it wasn't as fancy this time as i remembered it. semi-concerned that i've grown increasingly discerning (he says spoilt) but it was good to be back in my old stomping ground yet at a different stage all together :)

day 38

tuesday 15 june aix-en-provence to paris

took the afternoon flight to paris and ended where i began 38 days before. it was good to be back with the Bs. at this point, i was incredibly grateful to have had 38 delightful days in europe without any mishap that well-meaning friends had cautioned me. i'd travelled alone for the most part and made it through spain without being pickpocketed, just flashed. haha. i hadn't misplaced anything along the way, i hadn't missed any connections, i'd made friends, and i'd eaten way better than anticipated. did i tell you that i was defensive eating before my solo leg? just in case i wasted away. absolutely unnecessary in retrospect, seeing as to how well-fed i was, but a girl can't be too careful, can she?

a recurring theme this holiday was impeccable, european hospitality. from the Bs in paris, to my friends in stockholm who let me invade their space, to C, grandfatherly lawyer supreme who introduced me to too many contacts to list, to J in valencia - who'd have thought our chance meeting at the nam hai in hoi ann in april would amount to a wonderful visit, and of course, J and her family were top class hosts in aix. 

i was ready to come home, and just in time for my grandfather's 88th.

thanks for reading, and for reliving my graduation trip with me. it's been fun!

p/s stay tuned for the saigon series. while in aix, i'd already planned my next getaway. had gramp's birthday on the 17th of june, and my grandmother's on the 27th. which gave me a 10 day window to play with and i skipped to saigon for a week. 

day 28

saturday 5 june 2010 barcelona

i climbed a mountain!

Day 3
Montjuic (1 metro ticket gets you to the metro and the adjacent funicular to montjuic) not to be confused with the cable car up to the castle €9. if you save € and walk up instead, it's only 15min and gradual incline.

Nice views from castle. Worth a visit.

well, not quite. but you get the drift. and when i reached the top, this is what i saw! i couldn't believe my eyes. it's no secret that i'm a big crystal cruise fan, and have been blessed to have gone on a baltic cruise in summer '06 (just before starting freshman year) and a mediterranean cruise in summer '08 (half-way through college). so technically, the timing would've been perfect for a summer 2010 graduation cruise but noooo, the parentals chose to go on a riverboat up the seine instead :( ok, really shouldn't complain. the seine cruise was awesome in its own right. but being the big fat softie i am, i sat on my little perch and watched the ship the entire afternoon, thinking about happy memories spent on board her perfectly polished decks. have countless memories of time with my family, and subsequently time with my family and with him on the crystal serenity that it was nice walking down memory lane at this particular juncture of being done with school. plus my friends were on board (also most coincidentally) and i was waiting for them to wave at me. haha. the things we do!

after some much-needed decompressing and me-time down-time on montjuic, i met up with some high school friends who happened to be passing through barca. like i said, so much for solo trippin'. being the text fanatic that i am, i'd sent out a mass text updating my nearest and dearest of my whereabouts and little did i know that Y would overlap with me in barca! along with S and 2 of their friends. again, the big softie in me was mega nostalgic because the first ever trip i did without 'adults' was with Y, S and some of our high school friends when we were fresh out of high school and applying to college. we took the overnight train to KL and it was such an adventure. we later met up in bangkok the night of the new years eve bomb blasts (new year '07) and saw the new year in together, after making sure we'd all our limbs with us. 7 months later, we went to phuket with more high school friends. so to meet up with Y and S in barca on my grad trip, unplanned as it was, felt as if we'd gone full circle. from clueless 18year olds, to slightly savvier 23year olds. i'm done with college, they'll be doctors next year. gee :)

oh yes so we crossed the bridge for some tapas then had the best sangria back at their hostel bar :)

day 21

saturday 29 may 2010 stockholm

after 3 lovely nights crashing at A's, i figured i'd imposed enough and it was time to move on to my next charitable friend. moved into J's with some drama concerning a certain absentee german and my old room at k-town. end result: very happy to take J's offer to sleep on her couch. and we met the crew in the south (oh my i can't remember the t-bana stops anymore!). while waiting for the rest, we chanced upon this very sporting bride made to yodel at the t-bana for change. how absolutely mortifying, and hats off to the gutsy bride-to-be. she really could yodel! she was brought blindfolded to the doors and when her blindfold was whipped off, her hens (haha) ordered her to yodel, which she did with minimal hesitation and rather well, i might add. moral of the story: don't get married in stockholm.

too cute!

and we went to vapiano's for dinner at gamla stan. love their fresh herbs, any fresher and you'd have to pick them yourself. oh wait, i just did.

after dinner, it was off to lilla essingen for C's birthday! what a pleasant surprise to see C again, and the very gracious birthday girl gave me the box (meant for the empty bottles - them swedes are so green they recycle EVERYTHING) so i could mail my 5kg of shopping home. now that's a real friend ;)

and the sunset over the water - what did i say? how not to love stockholm in summer.

thoughts

i graduate tomorrow.

yes, i've gotten used to the idea, having first finished my final paper in early may, and then i got my results by text while in stockholm (sitting in my kitchen surrounded by my housemates from last year - whoops all round, thank you very much. and then they tried to get me drunk on my own pear cider. not happening.) and then again when i began the post-grad course yesterday.

so why oh why am i suddenly immensely humbled and increasingly overwhelmed at the thought of traipsing down a stage in my cap and gown? even if for some reason i oversleep and skip commencement all together, i'll still have my qualifications... so it's not about the ceremony, really. but how it signifies completion, coming-of-age and unceremonious release to the big bad world. gulp.

that said, i'm determined to wear my booties with the gown. hehe.

and, on a more sober note, thank you god for opportunity.

parc guell

walked all the way to parc guell and was just about to throw in the towel and hop onto the metro (which i have valiantly resisted since arriving in barcelona) when suddenly, out of nowhere, appears this magnificent stairway to heaven! well, almost. it was 6 flights of escalators for the final uphill journey and i was more than happy to hop right on. parc guell was better than i'd anticipated, although i maintain that my parents have unintentionally robbed me of any possible appreciation of all things gaudi, because they brought me to tokyo disneysea as a child. so when i saw casa gaudi, all i could think of was 'why did they copy ariel's grotto?'

oh so unfortunate. but it was a fun hike, in retrospect, and as i sat in the cool, cavernous domed bit under the roof (sorry, that doesn't make much sense does it) as a busker played his flute, i felt a serenity like never before.

baby steps

i spent the night sleeping at the bus stop outside cityterminalen (main bus terminal) last november. was taking the first flight out of skavsta (airport for budget air carrier) and so planned to take the first bus out of stockholm (to skavsta). wrongly assumed that cityterminalen would remain open through the night so i took the last train into the city, only to find myself locked out and without a place to go till my 0430h bus. way to go! so i sought refuge at maccas until it, too, closed at 0100h and then huddled at the bus stop trying to keep warm and stay awake till it was time to board the bus. needless to say, it was one of my more memorable nights to date and a pertinent reminder of how blessed i am - to be homeless by choice and not by circumstance.

believe me, i'd tried almost everything to get indoors but there was no where to go. all the hotels in the vicinity were accessed by keycard only. fair enough i suppose, why would they want vagrants in their lobby? later learnt of the all-night kebab shop a few blocks away but having witnessed gang fights with crowbars at medborgaplatsen* in broad daylight, i wasn't about to wander around at night.

so the whole point to this is that i have a 7am flight out of skavsta this summer. however, i counted my pennies and booked myself into the skavsta hotel instead. yes, it's not going to be cold, yes, having survived a night at the bus stop it wasn't half bad, yes, i much rather eat than sleep my SEK505 but i told myself never again. money is meant to be spent, and earned back, anyway.

yay to progress!

*whoever said stockholm is a safe city lied. where i was staying, there were drug-induced fights and convicts hiding in the neighbouring forest. an acquaintance's smoke break at night was once rudely interrupted by a bloodied, battered man begging for help. patrol cars and dogs fanning out across the residence were a common sight. dead bodies in the lake, and we even had a ho killing her pimp in the very next block. not to mention the 'harmless' nonsense like blood poured into the washing machines at night. all true.

p/s oh i feel my love-hate relationship bubbling to the surface now.

life's perfect

and i don't mean to induce diabetes in you but it really is.

landed in good ol' changi airport on time and customs were a breeze. gotta love the hyper-efficiency that is singapore. and home was standing in the arrival hall looking ever so handsome :) truly where the heart is.

went to the physical home and got reacquainted with my canine precious. he really put me through the wringer! he was determined to ignore me but after much pleading on my part, he condescended to sit at my tired feet. he kept up with the silent treatment for a good 10minutes, glowering away at this previously-absentee mother of his. good he isn't one to hold a grudge though because he finally warmed up and was his usual affectionate self. glad the parentals' fear that he'd devour me live was unfounded. and when i left his garden, he started to howl. was morbidly pleased that i was missed.

rushed for a facial after then back home for some quality time with my not-so-little puppy. doubt he realises how big he actually is. it's as if he's a tiny thing trapped in a bear's body because omgosh he's GIGANTIC now. i go away for five months and come home to a grizzly bear. he still bounds everywhere and thinks he can hop onto my lap like he used to. nah uh!

and i saw our latest addition for the first time too! he's absolutely adorable and so frisky. pity he sits like a frog on a lily pad though. worried about his splayed hindlegs. gotta have that looked into.

the party count's already at 2 in the 12h i've been home. went across the street for christmas eve party #1 then to our long-time family friends' for christmas eve party #2. have lunch and dinner parties for the next four days straight with a short break before relapsing into party fever for the new years' long weekend. psyched :) looking forward to seeing everyone again!

it's so very good to be home and i'm blessed to have a fantastic family to come back to. saw my grandparents for the first time in 5 months at the family friend's christmas party and it's surreal to be sitting on my bed, listening to the sound of raindrops on the windowpane and the frog chorus i've missed. my time in stockholm feels like a dream, far removed from the pleasant reality that i've descended back into. will post proper and with some photos once i get my act together. in the meanwhile, i'm running on 2h of sleep the past 48h and desperately need to crash.

homeward bound

in the blink of an eye, it's time to head home.

the inevitable farewells have been relatively painless, probably because i've been blessed to have friends who made an effort and there was good closure. not meaning to sound morbid, i don't know when or if we'll see each other again. sure, we're young. sure, the world's shrinking. but would we ever be at the same place at the same time again? beats me. for what it's worth, it's been an amazing 5months and i've made some stellar friendships that took me by surprise.

so in order of (dis)appearance, S was the first to go, then J and N, and after my exam, i'd a tiny farewell tea at bashment. was sneaky and scheduled my friends at hourly intervals so i'd have their undivided attention during each slot. went to bashment at A.Mc's recommendation and had coffee with him and JHD before the italians M&M arrived. and then german A. was especially touched that M came by (with napolitan visitors in tow!) because she was rushing to skavsta herself and had yet to hit the christmas markets. as a fellow female, i understand the pain. had a good time catching up and reminiscing about our time together and then M, A and i went to sneakers & stuff to have one last isabel (raspberry and daim milkshake).

fellow countryman M then sent me to arlanda and very kindly provided porter services en route. spent the night uncomfortably at the airport and took the first flight out to zurich. from zurich i took the scenic route to meet the family in st. moritz. enjoyed two blissful days of apres ski, basically steam sauna and hot tub, and great company. we'd met up with family friends in st. moritz and it was fun catching up with friends i'd not seen since leaving for stockholm. spent two days in zurich and then it was back to stockholm!

had the bonus of a home cooked dinner at casa mcfaull and the tag team of the year put together a scrumptious roast chicken meal. am most impressed by aussie hospitality and ingenuity. and we skyped J in aix and it was a real party. the gentlemen then helped me to the bus (trolley bag in 30cm fresh snow is no joke) and sneaked me on because my season pass had been kidnapped by aforementioned mule, M.

back in my room and attempting to squeeze 5months into a suitcase. people have gone through worse, i'm sure. but this' pretty darn challenging by itself. and i'm scared to go to sleep in case i don't wake up and miss my flight. eep.

winter morning

the sun's streaming through the clouds, there's a blanket of white, the fresh powder's being blown off the roof in sheets, there are red berries on the wet, black, broughs.

woke up to run through the rebuttal but i rather watch the clouds move across the sky.

changing seasons

so the scale's different but J lives on the picturesque street just across the road from the hotel i stayed at during my first week in stockholm. in fact, while on the bus to J's, i got all nostalgic retracing my hike to campus in the reverse. had walked the same route in summer (when i'd been too cheap to spring for a transport pass) from the hotel to the housing office and it was practically unrecognisable under all the snow.

had a surprise trip down memory lane when we went over for tea this afternoon and snapped a quick (snowy!) photo of my initial home here. how quickly things have gone full cycle. i'm still in stockholm but it feels like all i have left are stories and memories. feels a little out-of-body at the moment even.

itadakimas

by far one of my best nights in stockholm. i lucked out with my corridor. neighbours are never necessarily friends, but i must say i've really come to like this bunch. our kitchen and living room are spotless and everyone's largely considerate and tidy. no one sweats the small stuff (except me, when the hoover's missing...) and we genuinely get along swimmingly. am going to miss having them around. indian K's leaving on monday morning, A's going to lebanon on tuesday, C's going back to france, P's returning to gdansk... you get the picture. so this was probably our last night all together in our cramped quarters. our christmas tree's up, we were serenading each other with disney songs (the only genre we've in common, but N sung in french) and it's going to be so quiet around the place as we slowly dwindle in numbers.

i've heard horror stories of co-ed, communal living but this was a rather pleasant experience :)

green

as S pointed out after dinner, living alone makes one conscious of independent consumption. in addition to my list of uncooked food, i also now know how many weeks it takes for me to go through one roll of loo paper and how many bags of trash i fill a week. i probably don't use much electricity because i live by fairylight and like the cold so i don't use the heater. not too sure how big a carbon footprint i'm leaving but i only do full loads of laundry, and every fortnight, plus i'm quite the recycling nazi, or so my corridormates tell me.

on an absolutely unrelated note, i can't wait to go home and have a party. a grown up party that isn't in a smoky co-ed corridor. with grown up wine (only wine older than us will be allowed in) and pretentious french food with names my chinese tongue can't wrap itself around. but the dress code will be sg appropriate because all them pupils will be tired of their penguin suits and if it isn't something that can withstand the 30+deg heat and 100% immunity then offending guest will have to stay with the young wine i.e. outside.

and then when everyone's had enough to drink, we'll skinnydip in the pool* with the lights off and the shutterbugs will promise not to take photos. and then we'll go to sleep on the floaties and wake up when the lovely equatorial sun shines on our faces and adjourn to the patio for pancakes and eggs benedict.

while i'm dreaming, i'm also dreaming that my precious will be less smelly because my sources tell me he's got a smell only a mother could love. sigh. poor baby, no one bathes him like i do :(

*V, remember that time there were 20 crazy girls and my brother saw us and ran away? yeah.

house guests

was talking with A.Mc over punch at S' on friday and he mentioned how he'd been the fortunate beneficiary of much european hospitality, having stayed with friends, friends' friends on his travels around europe. on a smaller scale, having been the houseguest of a parisian family friend in paris last month, i know how blessed i felt when i stayed with them. my host even gave me a stack of unvalidated metro tickets to use when i explored the city on my own! every detail was seen to without being stifling. i don't know how they did it but it was a perfect balance of time together and personal time/space, without me feeling like i was intruding on their privacy. i'd have time to myself after breakfast (before sight-seeing with them), after lunch (we'd come back to the apartment and everyone does their thing till tea-time) and after dinner (they were upstairs by 2200h and i'd have the run of the downstairs).

it got me thinking about european hospitality and how being a houseguest is relatively uncommon back home. maybe it's the space constraint - i don't know many families on our tiny isle who have an extra room! every bit of space is utilised and an empty room for visiting guests just seems to be a luxury few can afford. so, hypothetically, if a friend of mine wanted to visit, there physically isn't space for him/her unless he/she doesn't mind the sofa. but i've heard from a sofa regular that the love of my life runs at the door wanting to be let in the whole night, so might not make for the most comfortable of sleeps. but more than just physical space, i think the home's very personal and not somewhere i'd want people over. maybe it's more my parents but they'd balk at the thought of a stranger around the house because the home's private. part of me attributes it to an asian conservatism, and the other part to lack of contact with the outside world. they don't actually have friends who'd stay with them because their friends aren't backpacking students on a budget. or their friends wouldn't impose their kids on them. and they wouldn't make the first move and invite someone because it's just not entrenched in their psyche. also, we don't have a guest room.

that said, all this doesn't stop me from dreaming of one day living somewhere with a guest room at the ready for friends blown eastwards. that'd be nice :)

love despite the language gap

one of the best articles i've read in awhile. read till the end!

and i'm glad that we share the same first languages. although he'd be the first to point out that my pseudo-first language isn't really all i make it out to be.

i don't think i could ever be attracted to someone who had a different first language, even if he was was equally proficient in mine. because something gets lost in translation and i'm never as comfortable as i am when i speak my mother tongue, mother tongue here being what my mother speaks to me, literally.

and nothing soothes me the way my grandma's malay coos do. when she calls me sayang, when she babbles in her peranakan patois, when she snaps 'besing memekak!' and i know she doesn't really mean it. little things like that :) and i realise that i instinctively react the same way, i coo the same way to the love of my life and i scold him the same way when he barks. but i, too, don't really mean it.