yuntian says

“When I was a kid I used to pray every night for a new bicycle.Then I realised God doesn’t work that way, so I stole one and prayed for forgiveness.” – from Banksy’s facebook page.

That snarky rat just summarised my beliefs in the Christian system.

forgot when was the last time we had a chinese new year without any quarrels

finally back here. much of 2011 was unchronicled and this, i regret. so here’s a brief recap. first half of 2011 was spent on an internship at a PR agency, that honestly I am quite glad to be done with. i guess the two biggest things that I took out of the internship was to 1. choose something you really want and  2. make friends and don’t burn bridges. but i must confess that taking up a PR job has made me more sensitive to little nuances (previously i was a block of unfeeling tactless wood) and i am now darn good at writing politically correct letters laced with a hint of snide snark.

the end of internship was quickly followed by a second overseas trip with J to Japan. really amazing city. and i am glad that J has always been around with me on the trips that really matter. NYC, Tokyo and more to come! we were only there for a week but we still remember with great fondness the rows of vending machines dispensing just about everything, the impeccable service from staff of our hotel to the convenience store, gorgeously dolled-up ladies (the myth that a japanese lady does not step out of home without make up is true. the average eyelash length is probably 3cm) and of course, the food. a trip to tsukiji quickly revealed how little i know of the wonders of sushi. tried the notorious otoro which redefined the phrase “melt in your mouth” for me. also spent 10,000 yen on a slab of premium matsuzaka beef. so tender that we had the meal in silence, quiet in our appreciation. and i’m proud to say that we have completed our ippudo world tour (nyc-singapore-tokyo). ippudo tokyo is by far my favourite ramen-ya. it was really ramen like no other, perfect ramen noodles, well-bodied soup, lava egg. the silky smooth gyoza was the unexpected star of the meal. please do try it. there’s none like it in singapore.

the second half of 2011 was spent clearing all my remaining AUs in preparation for a class-free sem in 2012. not exactly sure if that was a great idea. highlight of the semester was being part of the seven lucky individuals to be mentored under kay chin. i really must thank him for being a liberal thinking teacher. my works would have probably been torn into shreds by other photojournalist teacher.  other than school, there’s juggling my part time work at CRC and being a food stylist assistant for A (wash plates wash plate wash more plates). quite heartening to see how much CRC has grown since i first joined two year -wait it has been two years already?!- back. things are changing but i believe it will only be for the better.

2012 as of now, is still sailing in unchartered waters. FYP is finally in full swing after one month of working on a terribly difficult idea but the initial responses to our new idea has been really encouraging. just need to work on this momentum to our advantage. really glad to have an extremely proactive partner for this fyp. gonna be the photographer for this project. photo ideas as of now are still hazy and i gotta tie them down quick. but it will be grand. i know it.

graduation looms in the very near future. my results are far from stellar, so i’m not expecting job offers to be knocking at my door. will be applying to several places in the next two weeks. will be a long uphill climb from now and I only hope that I am doing the right things. 终于要长大啦！

J is applying for an exchange next semester and my second brother is moving his family to US for about two years while he complete his masters. it’s scary now how the people who have anchored me in the recent years will be leaving me at the same time. feels almost surreal to be helping J research about stockholm and other swedish cities when not too long ago, i was the one halfway round the globe.

this year, i’m working on recovering lost friendships, making new friends (it’s been a really long while), get involved with the family and becoming someone that I can be proud of.  I have no idea how, but i gotta believe that 2012 will be the happiest year so far. yosh!

Wanna be a kid again.

Some things I realised today: family gatherings are hard to photograph. It’s extremely crowded and there’s always the parental figure hovering behind you, asking you to snap this, take that, take more boring group shots. The more bad pictures the better. All i wanted is a quiet space with my nephew and everyone’s passing the poor boy around. Gotta break out of that mindset if I wanna do any good work.

This naked monster is my nephew. He loves making a splash in the bathtub, eating fishballs and calling me 叔叔 instead of 姑姑.

So yesterday was the day of Rapture where Christians are teleported to heaven while the non believers burn on the Earth-turned-Hell for their lack of faith. And I spent the better half of the day chasing my nephew around his home, playing his PlayDoh and kitchen set (he has the most complete toy kitchen ever! it even comes with a measuring jug) and watching Army Daze. that’s an afternoon worth of work up there. it really isn’t hard to make them but when you have a really pesky nephew that squashes your plasticine sundaes into pratas, things can get pretty tricky. I had to hide the food in the toy kitchen’s oven for a while haha.

today, i laughed at J’s freshly shorn hair, grilled my angus ribeye while he grilled his very delicious wagyu ($26 for 200g sure made a difference), mashed potatoes, sauteed mushrooms, attempted to make a red velvet cake, raised my voice at J because of an unfortunate misunderstanding over a bottle of sesame oil, frosted the velvet cake, didn’t dare to let my family eat the cake, left the afternoon’s work in the fridge thinking who i should pass to.

by the way, american recipes suck if you’re not a sugar addict. everything’s so dangerously sweet that i’m on a sugar high from just licking the batter and frosting.

today, i was supposed to:

1. write my PI february report
2. write a brisket story
3. stay away from food since i’ve been bingeing over the past 3 days (gained 2 kgs and a paunch oh god)

instead at 7.32pm, i’ve only

1. written one paragraph of my PI report
2. zero for the brisket story (i can see the $280 and a future of working for food and travel slipping by me really quickly)
3. ate 2 packets of indomee, half a box of ferrero rocher, plenty of leftover buffet from my niece’s birthday party and basically feeling shitty and pregnant from having this food baby.
4. finished My Sister’s Keeper (why did you kill anna, jodi?!)
5. watched Desperate Days in Blue Canyon and is now convinced that Aron Ralston > Chuck Norris

i blame all these on staying at home and the wall clock that runs 2 hours early.