where thoughts materialise.

So we're into the sixth version of my blog after the last version hung around for a year or so.

Now, a bit of info on this image. This photo was taken one lovely spring afternoon, featuring the iconic Old Well from the UNC Chapel Hill campus. I would like to think of this image as a tribute to my time in UNC Chapel Hill, the awesome friends I made and the memories I now hold dear.

A milestone in my life indeed.

I've dropped the tagboard cos its useless and taking eons to load. But thanks to Angela who helped me set it up, I still do like and will miss the pink interface.

So yeah, it's the sixth one you fellas!

Yours.

27 April 2008

you know you miss my older entries

October 2004 November 2004 December 2004 January 2005 February 2005 March 2005 April 2005 May 2005 June 2005 July 2005 August 2005 September 2005 October 2005 November 2005 December 2005 January 2006 February 2006 March 2006 April 2006 May 2006 June 2006 July 2006 August 2006 September 2006 October 2006 November 2006 December 2006 January 2007 February 2007 March 2007 April 2007 May 2007 June 2007 July 2007 August 2007 September 2007 October 2007 November 2007 December 2007 January 2008 February 2008 March 2008 April 2008 May 2008 June 2008 July 2008 August 2008

Sunday, July 29, 2007

This is to all the girly girls out there. See all these nice dangly stuff in the collage? They are all hand made by my very cool cousin who has an online shop selling all of those and more. You can count on me for the quality assurance and credibility in her products, which she takes great pride in making!

And you do know I do not do such promo and free adverts, so this is good stuff.

So head on down to http://annata-delloro.livejournal.com/ to check out her creations.

Guys, dangly stuff makes great gifts for girls too!

nimgnoy let the night fall at 11:01 PM

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So vic threw a bbq party to mark her first pay, which was really timely cos its almost like the end-of-summer bbq party we've always wanted and its just 2 weeks shy of her birthday. So it ended up very much a bday celebration for her. Very typically summery bbqish, bbq and booze (from brewerkz I must add!), you can't go wrong with that.
party pig2

In other news. Caught my first SSO performance of the 07/08 concert season on Friday, it must have been a year since I went for the last. Which is really regrettable I must say, all that talent within the SSO is really Singapore's under-hyped pride. But you can never go wrong with the music (aside from bbq and booze), they call it the classics for a reason, they never fade with time.

Do check out their concert in the park at the Botanic Gardens on the sunday of national day weekend. Though the acoustics are really bad there, its free lah! Great for Singaporeans young and old, kiasu and the kiasee. Bring your picnic baskets and have a great afternoon lazing away on the lawn.

Anyway, a very stirring yet in the words of nev, hopeful, rendition of Tchaikovsky's Symphony No. 5 in E minor, Opus 64 was played and it was very very satisfying to hear. I like pieces of this nature, very majestic but interspliced with so much emotion. They played Ravel's Alborada del gracioso too, which was plain awkward, didn't quite understand what Ravel was thinking of when he composed that, it has got to be the weirdest 8 minutes of my life listening that. I really do not know how to describe that piece in words.

nimgnoy let the night fall at 1:32 PM

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Thursday, July 26, 2007

Wheeee! It is going to be a sunnier semester ahead after all.

North Carolina Chapel Hill beckons.

But in the meantime, there's lots, i mean, LOTS of paper work to settle.

nimgnoy let the night fall at 10:24 PM

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So these are the photos from saturday night. Food was so so but ambience was more than good, oh, did I already say that in my previous entry?

nimgnoy let the night fall at 12:08 PM

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Wednesday, July 25, 2007

The weather has just been horribly kind these days. Balmy afternoons and cool (and almost chilly) nights have re-defined the Singaporean summer. Looks like this whole climate change thing is working to our advantage after all. But what a thing to say lah, its soooo irresponsible and arrogant and apathetic. Who cares really, we try to switch off the lights when not in use for like the next couple of hours then we forget about it altogether after that, well not until another Live Earth info-mmercial comes on again.

nimgnoy let the night fall at 1:17 PM

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Tuesday, July 24, 2007

The Deck is long overdue, and if Jackie is right, the new Deck looks far from ready. But one semester of eating from makeshift stores located at the weirdest corners of the campus is enough, though the familiar aunties make up for some of the messed up eating habits we have.

Not to mention the seriously sub-standard temporary canteen beside LT11, which will baffles me at how they keep attracting people to dine at that semblance of a tentage serving up garbage.

Okay maybe I'm just disgruntled.

I hear that B/urger King's opening on level two. Yay, no more running over to Engine for Macs. I would have loved a simple cafe though. But we have coffee club outside the Geog lab already so I'm contented.

I can't believe I'm moving onto the 3rd year. That's old. But my thirst for knowledge propels me on, tiertiary education has been nothing but gratifying, I actually feel I'm learning something worthwhile. And if I get my SEP slot, it would be a sunnier semester ahead.

nimgnoy let the night fall at 10:24 AM

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I remembered how, in the last months in 2004, right about the time I started this blog, that I was a much younger me, anticipating the end of my NS and looking forward to finally starting school again. I, too, at that time made the commitment to accompany my grandma in her weekly Sunday grocery shopping at the Yuhua market. The joy when she saw me in the market helping her with her plastic bags was distinct, not that she had no one to help her with it, my mom was always with her, but I guess its the whole grandson thing that made it extra special for her. Never did I knew that in less than a month, she would have been diagnosed with cancer and 16th January 2005 would be the last time she would ever step foot into Yuhua market.

Almost a year after she passed on, I had a lot of time thinking and tracing many of her "last"s - the last time she slept on her bed at home, the last time she had Mc/Donald's, right down to the last time she called my name.

As a young child, my grandparents would never fail to bring me to every new Mc/Donald's (hereafter "Mac") that opened its doors on our little sunny island. Well, there weren't many Macs opening in every neighbourhood in Singapore back then, so each opening created quite a showing, and knowing how much I loved Mac, they would carry me along, hop onto a bus to where ever the Golden Arches may be. Without fail.

Grandma also instilled the urban passion in me. She, along with my grandfather, would bring me to favourite urban haunts like T/angs, C/entrepoint and R/affles City, once a week the least. I guess why I keep telling people that I love R/affles City is partially because it reminded me of my weekly outings with my grandma. On hindsight, they were such cool grandparents. Hey, I'm a true blue C/entrepoint kid. Seeing how much of an urban freak I am now, and specializing in urban geography, it warms my heart to know that was very much a seed planted by my doting grandparents, and how their hard work - carrying me when I'm tired just so I can have a confortable experience in town etc etc etc - has translated into a pursuit of true passion today.

This amazing woman also showered us with birds nest every week. I didn't value the worth of bird's nest as a kid (not like I understood its nutritional value, but its sheer price) cos my grandma made it such a norm in the house to have a bowl of bird's nest for the grandkids. What touched me the most was how she saved her money just to buy more bird's nest for us. We had that till we were at least in our lower primary years, then after we insisted for her to only make it for us before our exams if she wanted to, which she always did without fail. I remember how even in her last few months when we gave her bird's nest to improve her appetite that she would not have her bowl until she made sure we were having some from her portion.

I can go on and on speaking of her love, it would never end. I still miss her so.

I feel much older now, having seen pain, suffering, tears and death. But along with that too, I've seen true love, sacrifice and resilience. They say the world is ugly and dark. Yes it is, but they only serve to make the beautiful things all the more brilliant.

nimgnoy let the night fall at 12:39 AM

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Sunday, July 22, 2007

It is probably because we seek the ideal that we have no where to turn but fall, and fall the hardest.

In the span of a single day, I had said that twice to two people. But then again, is it too much to ask for the best? We are after all, creatures not made perfect, beings who know too well that perfection is only but a distant dream.

I'm back from wala as usual, after a 5 week break perhaps? Feels good to be back. Shirlyn's becoming prettier and girlier, and I can't seem to get used to that yet.

Dinner at Oosh with Vic and Shujun was the icing on the cake, and though the food there was less than desired, the ambience quite made up for it.

Right, Take That's on the radio now, signalling the time to while away to slumberland, while nursing my mildy high state of mine. Blame it on the Chardonnays.

nimgnoy let the night fall at 1:13 AM

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Friday, July 20, 2007

It has just started to rain and I can see aunties frantically bringing in drying poles from where I am sitting here at home.

Anyway.

It has been quite an uneventful vacation so far, less the Italy/Dubai trip, and something within me is itching for a quiet getaway somewhere in the region. But that wouldn't be quite possible looking at the insanely weird schedule which leaves me superly busy during certain hours of the day and amazingly satiated with boredom in the rest. I really cannot be bothered with it, which is probably the most worrying part of all.

But then again, isn't this how summer is supposed to be? Lazing around one moment then partying hard another. Ironically I find myself making the most decisions in summer, deciding who and where to meet, what to do with the whole chunk of free time, how to balance the busy hours from the idle ones and everything in between. And not mentioning the occasional unannounced rain, which almost always foils my little plan of a summer paradise.

And in my plans, there is still a long list of friends to catch up with, places to go, things (long due) to be done, errands to run and the blah. Then summer passes you by, the semester begins and plans put on hold till summer creeps up again.

How I love summer - the friends, the alcohol, the inactivity, the mad rush, the ceiling fan swirling overhead.

nimgnoy let the night fall at 3:45 PM

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Wednesday, July 18, 2007

The human existence is a celebration, and a struggle, from cradle to grave.

I wonder if you have ever given a thought about the human race. How, we as a species of the multitude of living organisms cohabiting this world today, are a highly superiorly made being functioning on a level no other organisms can thrive on - not even the cleverest monkeys mind you.

Intriguing indeed. And it is not just that we are a premium species (if i can even use 'species', for it makes me feel low), but more significantly, the huge and gargantuan gap between humans and any other species to ever walk this earth.

Doesn't it make you wonder about this world, and life in general? Somehow, something has engineered the human race to a level beyond the reach of other organisms of today. A pure coincidence of atoms and molecules evolving?

Then we can also delve into the moral and philosophical level of the sanctity of life. How we possess the little extra something, rationality perhaps, that animals don't (a soul perhaps?), which makes us capable of complex emotions and sentimentality, to know that savage killing is wrong (animals surely do not adhere to that) and to allow us to mourn over deaths of loved ones. We seem to be living under a general natural law that governs our behavior, something innate that cannot be denied or refused.

How can humans, possessing complex and real emotions, capable of high order memory and intellect, just live for 80 odd years and then die to become, literally, nothing?

There has got to be more to life.

Consider this.

nimgnoy let the night fall at 1:47 PM

2 comments

Tuesday, July 17, 2007

So it finally has a name.

The Orchard Turn development has finally been christened Ion Orchard. And with Orchard Central hot on its heels, the retail landscape, the way I see it, is going through a significant overhaul, into an era of new generation malls led by the completion of Vivocity.

The last time we saw such a change goes way back to the likes of Ngee Ann City, and before that, Marina Square. Now malls are far more intelligent in their layout, and more so, in their branding. Ideas aside, it would now be more pertinent to see how these new generation malls live up to their promises of a "whole new retail experience". Seriously, I wonder how the 11 level Orchard Central is going to turn out, that would take a colossal amount of planning of layout and accessibility.

In all, the developments in Singapore these days is enough to keep an urban/social geographer like me at the edge of our seats, quite excited like a child eagerly anticipating the release of an up-and-coming xbox game. Marina Bay and Orchard Road are where I am (and most people are) going to fix my/our eyes on for the next three years, the change would be astounding I am sure.

But what I am more concerned with, as with any other urban/social geographer would be, is the issue of social justice. I wonder if you have ever thought about this, but these developments are signs of the hegemonic re-scripting of Singapore's landscape to reflect the aspirations of the dominant class, the class you and I would eventually ascend into. Of course, we are too clever to ignore the fact that the Singaporean social strata is not homogeneous and developments like these, however grand and cutting edge, inevitably becomes and space of exclusion for people who cannot integrate into it.

How ironical and paradoxical isn't it, that the public space becomes a place of exclusion, rather than an idealized democratic space where people can exercise their rights of citizenship.

Is it truly inevitable? Practically, it really seems so. I can agree with the fact of how as a government or a prime real estate developer, I wouldn't want my grand plans to be somehow "stained" (for a lack of a proper word, please note the scare marks) with the homeless and the uncouth. Yet, every Singaporean counts, you say.

So what I am really saying here is, developments are going on really fine and pleasing to my ear, but the real issue remains unresolved. The issue of creating an all-inclusive space where all Singaporeans can be proud of and can utilize. The consequences of such an exclusion is yet to be seen, for I suspect it might cause a widening social gap resulting in a lost of rootedness amongst the neglected. But then again, the future beckons, for the ruling powers almost certainly have a way of curbing this somehow.

That being said, I am still, like that child, ardently waiting for the developments to take shape. Living in Singapore today is an urban geographer's dream, when all around you learn on the job and the country's your classroom.

No, I do not want to be a teacher.
Yes, I majored in geography by my own choice.
No, we do not learn airy-fairy stuff, it is in fact very real.
Yes, we are the ones who live life with a passion and sincerely seek the betterment of lives for all.
And finally yes, shut up you detractors.

nimgnoy let the night fall at 11:14 AM

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Seriously I have got to be frickin bored at home to be doing all these collages. Well actually not. I have very little free time these days, despite how everyone close to me is working in the day and I'm giving tuition at night. How I find these pockets of time is nothing short of a miracle, and I still do believe I'm living in a 28 hour day.

Making collages on photoshop is just too cumbersome. They look nice but an adobe idiot like me takes eons to produce one. Powerpoint still rules.

Anyway. Rome. Yes, the eternal city. The bulk of my 2000 photos were taken in Rome cos Rome is simply one huge historical relic itself. It can almost pass off as a city-museum cos every corner is laden with antiquity.

Top collage (clockwise starting from top left): View of St Peter's Square in Vatican City, in the Vatican Museum, Vittorio Emanuele II Monument, a statue on Ponte San Angelo, me sitting on the Spanish Steps.

I'll spend the next few posts showing you around Rome. One collage doesn't do justice to the overwhelming sights at every turn, and also because I'm super sleepy now.

nimgnoy let the night fall at 12:58 AM

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Monday, July 16, 2007

This was what I found out just 10 minutes ago. I was scrolling through my Brisbane photo folder when I realised that we took 2 shots that were freakingly similar unknowingly.

Though the 2 photos were taken only 8 days apart from another, what baffled me was how they were not consciously taken to replicate another. I've always thought I had only 1 photo taken like that (hence choosing the photo on the left as the background for the title layout above). It was when I saw the second photo that I went: where did that come from? Okay, never mind, I have a feeling you think I'm mad.

Any oh how, the photo on the left was taken in the lift from our Gold Coast apartment on the first night of the trip, and the photo on the right was taken in the lift from our Sunshine Coast apartment on the last night of the trip. Cool/freaky huh, a symmetrical coincidence.

Can you believe that was 2 years ago? Rhetorical.

nimgnoy let the night fall at 12:54 AM

3 comments

Sunday, July 15, 2007

I was looking through my archives when I chanced upon a poem I wrote when my grandma was first diagnosed with cancer. I didn't think I understood the extent of what I wrote then, how the horrible truth of losing my grandma would eventually actualize, and then become a past.

Morning, and coffee
You would ritually make.
I sit by and watch
Your gentle hands in motion.

We are but silly play-things at His feet.
How fragile our mortal existence seems.
Our frivolous fate at His disposal.
He who gives life, also takes it away.

Mourning, and coffin
We would ritually pray.
I sit by and watch
Your gentle hands at rest.

Then what after?
A memory, a legacy.
A still photo to remember your face.
Carnations annually.
- 11 January 2005

I clearly remember how I wrote this poem after having our weekly coffee one Saturday morning, lovingly made by my grandma, telling myself: Cherish this, there may not be more cups to come. On hindsight, this poem spoke only partial truths of what ensued. Definitely not carnations annually, but weekly. Frivolous and silly play things we are not, but precious creations in His sight.

Time, the merciless force I mentioned once, moves on as we fast approach the first anniversary of her passing. Ten and a half months seems at once, short yet the longest. Seems I just lost her, yet also seeming I've lost her forever. Knowing she is in a better place, yet aching always to know that she's gone. It is this ambivalence that puzzles me, which I've learnt, extends to much of life in general.

But the focus shouldn't really be on the process or the "then after"s, instead, centering on her - the life she led, the values she imparted and the love she selflessly gave. When my aunt spoke in her eulogy that my grandma is an amazing woman, I realised that I've never thought of her in that way before, simply because she made what so amazing seem so effortless and normal.

Well, loving genuinely and overflowingly should be normal, shouldn't it? We live in such dark times today that looking back, I now see how amazing she truly was, and still is in our hearts.

Always my pillar of strength and source of bountiful love, I will miss her unceasingly.

always

nimgnoy let the night fall at 4:32 PM

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Thursday, July 12, 2007

nimgnoy let the night fall at 11:23 PM

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Seriously, I love my job, well, it's more like I love the people I work with. What's better than getting paid to work with a bunch of good friends?

nimgnoy let the night fall at 12:48 AM

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Saturday, July 07, 2007

I dropped by the V one last time before they close for renovations tomorrow to be re-branded as The Cookie Museum in the future, a whole new concept and style. And hence, The V Tea Room will be sorta laid to rest.

The V certainly holds many great memories, not only because it is a place I love to bring my close friends to chill (that includes Jon Yvonne Peijun Peiwen Jiaxin Vic Jess Hani Junhan Shujun), but also because of the awesome staff who has become great friends of mine too. Every trip to the Esplanade, for whatever reasons, would always be made better just by popping by and chatting with them and really entertaining each other with lame jokes and updating each other on our lives.

The photos (clockwise from bottom left):
:: Me, Dawn and Amy over the counter.
:: Me and Dawn, whom I truly have grown the closest with, is an amazing friend who is always superly helpful and an easy person to talk about almost anything under the sun. Her genuine sincerity makes her stand out from the rest and it always brings a smile to my face when we meet.
:: Amy busy behind the counter.
:: Amy and I. Amy is a little mei mei who always calls me uncle for no apparent reason, who has a bagful of lame jokes and is always smiling. Never fails to brighten up one's day. It is just crazy how she is always very optimistic and cheery despite the long hours that goes into her work.
:: The whole V Tea gang! (L-R): Rose the chief. Amy the cutesy. Me. Dawn the tallie. Christine the smiley.

There you go, the V tea gang, one last time.

p/s: oh i forgot to upload this photo but here it goes, showing how good their service is. Jon rang them up saying we were heading for dessert during my bday weekend. They collaborated with Jon and gave me a surprise bday celebration with a personalised cake and all. The surprise was midly embarrassing cos they all came up and sang the bday song quite literally into my face in front of the other patrons. Grr. And because I was such a regular patron, there were extra berries and ice cream. Whee! It was just schweet lah. And this is only but one of the many fond memories I had at The V.

I'd miss The V for sure.

nimgnoy let the night fall at 1:30 AM

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Sunday, July 01, 2007

nimgnoy let the night fall at 1:05 AM

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