Sunday, June 29, 2008

these days have been happy days.
have i said before, that i have the most amazing friends ever?

like how chipbeng always says watching death cab will make her life 80% complete, i feel like all the people i have around me right here right now, who have stuck around me, haven't forgotten about me, have made my life 80% complete.

life seems so uncomplicated these days, which is a good thing i guess? ive got new music (three new cds.. i knowww i splurged but i couldnt resist!) on my playlist, ive got good company, been dancing yay, been active (as opposed to being a slug on my couch). yeah it's simple and good.


yesterday i met the hc girls for brunch, at cityhall 10.30 am in the morning. ive never met anyone for brunch that early before in my life, i think. i'll be flying off to bangkok with them in about two weeks, a trip that took about a year to materialise. and like we said, even though mel wont be there with us, we'd take her matric card for slotting into our hotel card reader to keep the air con on, for taking pictures so we can still have her face in them and tag her on facebook (: haha noe, you want to give us yours too?

after that i went to meet ella, and then we went to meet christl! we just about self-invited ourselves to her place, went to j8 to dapao and rent dvds and look at my pretty new shoes that aren't actually mine yet but perhaps if things go my way they will be in the new future :D made our agonising way up the stupid hill, "this hill is keeping me away from my fooood". christl's daddy popped by the media room to say hi, "hi uncle! we're back, along with your daughter!" hahaha. i felt very proud of myself because i held a conversation with christl's grandma in cantonese over the phone and she actually understood me haha though i could tell she was amused. we watched the darjeeling limited which was so random and amusing, and yes i admit i fell asleep. i always fall asleep watching vcds at christl's place, i feel terrible :( after the movie ended we just sat around and talked for abit. i like how we can just sit and do nothing and talk for hours and hours, no matter how long it's been, nothing changes. and then we talk about going to haji lane..

me: but its so expensive!
ella: yeah boy, everything's expensive.
christl: YAH! chicken rice four dollars leh!
at this point, the two of us burst of laughing..
me: she doesn't know we're talking about haji lane right..
ella: yeah i dont think she does, though she could be talking about chicken rice at haji lane..

ohhhh christl (: plus your face on the photo from wakeboarding that kwanie forward to every single one of us, its etched in my brain im sorry to tell you i can never forget it hahaha.





and today we had our fantastic4 outing, after such a long time! funniest moments include joycie's shrill and loud laughter that caused people from the escalator to stare at us when we were sitting in the restaurant, ekie's protection measures for her eyes against the sun (because it could cause four diseases!!), and ekie carrying her super nice-smelling chicken around in her plastic bag everywhere she went hahahaha.


mommy!


ekie :D


protect your eyes from the sun!


together we promise we will save the world!



met mellywelly, philbert and sum later on for chocolate dessert which was nice! we ordered too much dessert and it was so rich i got kinda sick of it, but i love the place. it's like one of those pretty little quaint cafes where you can go sip your english tea. when i heard about miss clarity cafe, i had hoped that it would turn out to be quite like this one, but when i saw the neon pink sign and the kiddy font, i was sorely disappointed. before they came i took a long stroll around clarke quay, watched the people go up on the gmax bungee and thought about what it felt like those three years ago, just checking out the scene and people watching as i went along, passing by those hooters girls in their orange spandex bottoms that showed half their rear hurhur.




macaroons, chocolate cake, cheesecakes, lemon meringue!



THEN I WENT TO DEMPSEY! not being there helped me to not think about the people and the place, helped me to not miss it. but when i got off the cab outside the entrance i practically sprinted in and snuck up behind chipbeng covering her eyes. i didnt make a sound and no one gave away my identity but she guessed it right (: that was after she felt my hands- "xiao xinyi! your hands are so small!" i would say it was a warm reception, though jin's way of showing that is to give me his menacing glare and demand which hole i have disappeared to, and ivan's way of showing that is to smear his wet hands all over my face, that dirty boy. and then i found myself in ivan's extra L-sized scoopy tee, working away! even though i barely served and only helped a little with closing, i managed to get fudge splotches on me anyway haha. edwin came along and said "do you want to save the day? superhero xinyi!" hurhurhur till now i still have no idea what he wanted me to do, but i guess the day didnt need saving after all. donald came along too, and he made me feel absolutely terrible for not telling him i went overseas, and for not bringing anything back (but i did! i just hadnt brought it!).

i mopped the floor for them and i felt so tired like my arms were going to drop off. ohno i cannot last a closing shift anymore?! after closing up, we sat around for supper, talked about the same old funny things, like janice getting hot fudge all over her shirt and talking about weetiong, trying to figure out why he was such a funny character. even the un-funny sentences, that wouldn't have been funny said by any other person, could tickle us when it comes from uncle weetiong. "i think its the voice", "i think it's that face", "i think it's that voice coming out of that face" hahaha. dempsey's always this happy place, that doesnt change much. but uncle sam wasnt there today, and uncle weetiong got new glasses hahaha. i asked him about it and he went "of course la!" with that self-satisfied smirk on his face. yay dempsey dempsey! i cant wait to go back!




ivan's such a grouch!


in the back of georgiee


just around the corner,
chop chip beng and chop chip huat!




big shirt/dress haha


curbside kids



and tomorrow is big barbecue cum pool party day! mel just made it a facebook event and invited me to a party that i'm supposed to be hosting hurhur. she's going to come over and pounce on me in bed tomorrow so we can go grocery shop and marinate stuff and then we'll get the party started and have a blast!

xinyi cartwheeled in the rain at 04:41

Saturday, June 28, 2008

why do i wake up the next day and allow everything to be okay? a good night's sleep doesn't take it all away, it doesn't make anything any better once you've exited dreamland and returned to the real world. it's not like while you were sleeping, all the wrongs in the world decided to make themselves right and everything just resets to the way that they should be.

xinyi cartwheeled in the rain at 06:11

Friday, June 27, 2008

[C-ome C-larity] new york, new york says: (6:39:26 AM)
heehee
Cj says: (6:39:26 AM)
stop it you
Cj says: (6:39:29 AM)
teehee
Cj says: (6:39:36 AM)
ok now why did i just say teehee
[C-ome C-larity] new york, new york says: (6:39:37 AM)
DID U JUST TEEHEE!?
Cj says: (6:39:43 AM)
I REALISED THAT AS WELL
[C-ome C-larity] new york, new york says: (6:39:54 AM)
HAHAHAHAHHAHAA



ohhhboy. that made me feel instantly better hahaha. now im left laughing to my computer at 6.30am in the morning.

xinyi cartwheeled in the rain at 06:43

"im looking for.. something that can help me deal with, um.. what might be an awkward situation. well something funny might be nice, but not necessarily big, hahaha-laugh-out-loud kinda funny and certainly not make-fun-of-other-people funny. but rather something uh.. human funny. and if it could sneak up on you, surprise you, and at the same time make you think that what you thought wasn't only right in a wrong kinda way, but when you're wrong there's a certain rightness to your wrongness. well maybe what i mean is, more importantly, im looking to be swept up. and, and at the same time not. meaning.. i want to feel a deep connection to something.

well.. maybe i dont know what im looking for."

xinyi cartwheeled in the rain at 06:04

Tuesday, June 24, 2008

i love my friends (: (:

i really feel so happy being back even though like ever since the day i touched down it's been mad rushing around everywhere! dance has started so my days are all filled up and ohmygoodness it's so exciting cos i have plans to meet all my favourite people in the coming week! i hope i have the energy to last! im so super jetlagged, i sleep at 7am and wake up at 5pm :\

so whats happened since i got back?

on the day i touched down i slept till 6pm! goodness. so at night i went for an adventure with almost best friend sam! he refused to tell me where his new place to chill was until i got to his place. and then we got distracted by his new SLR! whats with everyone and DSLRs these days! haha im not complaining, at least i get to play with it! haha we were taking stupid photos of his little juggernaut characters on the floor that keep assassinating me. then we drove to sentosa tanjong beach! tried out his camera some more but please, he's got so much more to learn :b then we just sat by the sea and played music from my laptop. THEN! when he drove me back to my condo, he let me driveee!! AHHHHH im now officially no longer afraid of being behind the wheel. haha it was so exciting i couldnt stop laughing after my first go. i went three rounds around the condo i think! :D send me photos chablani!

and then on sunday, i met my lovely lovely cblockers! they make me happy so! especially seeing all the seniors back, AND watching surath and hanrong play at timbre! i dedicated dakota because i loved it when they played it during tgio,. and it was so fun cos there werent many people there, so even though they were on stage it felt like they were having a conversation with us! joking and making all these cblock references, and asking kuanthye to go up on stage for a song!! haha kuanthye did good man, i was pretty amazed. i havent seen all of them in so long, it felt so happy to be back with them again.


which is the best block!




kuanthye on stage!

and after getting home i met up with mel and hongrui for the soccer match and we had a hellride in the back of his van! he seriously treats us as cargo.


crazy driver


mellywelly


maybe this will give you an idea how crazy it was


cargo!


playing with his shades haha

TODAY! though its just the first day of the week, im sure it's going to be the best day! haha even though i only had like, two hours sleep, i met ella and spaz and the church people to go wakeboarding! yay spaz is back too (: and im super glad im meeting up with them so regularly cos this is so rare. like just before i left i met up with ella for lunch and stuff and then shortly after i came back i see them again! :D so yes, wakeboarding. all of us were amateurs, like we've never done it before in our lives. but it was fun fun fun fun fun! i want to go back again. haha. just four hours out on the waters, and even when i was just sitting on the boat chilling out it just felt so nice and relaxing and the company was awesome. that is the life mannn. and then at night ella and i went for dance! with ladc again :D it felt like so long since ive put my jazz shoes on. so long since ive done jazz walks across the studio. and then back there we see all the familiar faces again! and i cant wait for yenny to be back next week to take over class again. i havent danced in so long, but i danced so hard tonight i was so exhausted, face all flushed and perspiring in an air conditioned room. im sure the wakeboarding in the morning contributed to the adrenaline and all. im officially so tired i just want to be a slug on my bed haha. but it feels DAMN good, its been so long since ive felt so active again.


like melbourne all over again?




wheeee


i think that's ella in the background haha

the rest of the photos are with kwanie im going to get them asap!

and its going to be dance dance dance for the next three days as well :D for senior performance and rag! and tomorrow morning i'll be playing badminton with wenyi in the morning haha how random! but yes :D healthy living! okay goodnight friends! today's been an awesome day!

xinyi cartwheeled in the rain at 01:38

Saturday, June 21, 2008

OLA!

im back after two weeks of hectic touring of europe, seen gorgeous sights, watched sunsets at an average of 9pm everyday, ate local fanfare (most bread, pizza, pasta, bread, steak and more bread.. and omg we had icecream EVERYDAY, except for one day i think haha its insane! the gelaterias were everywhere, one on each street i bet, maybe even two), had an experience of all forms of public transport, and now im glad to be back. sadly, still single and unmarried after leaving portugal hurhur (but thats only cos hes not there right?), and even sadder to witness portugal's exit from the euro last night :( they almost fought back though, which made it even more exciting :D seems like all the expectations on newspapers of a portugal-netherlands final is not to be realised :(

europe's full of interesting sights, its been a trip into the books of history and a learning journey about art and culture. and ive unknowingly ventured into six countries in just two weeks. apparently the vatican is a country on its own, and i went to the small fairytale country of monaco, if only for a day. but its really tiring, all these checking in and out of hotels every one or two days, lugging the baggage onto trains. it has hardly seemed like a holiday, because our days here have been as fast-paced as back in singapore. unlike in melbourne when i had one and a half weeks to see one city, i had two weeks to see eight cities! but all the running about places was worth it i guess, got to see most major sights even though regretfully, we had to pass up on some :( like camp nou! the biggest stadium in the whole of europe, even if im not a barca fan. and i went all the way to portugal only to realise that madeira was off the coast! like some offshore island that was a 2hr plane ride from lisbon :( im so definitely going back again! but i know that there's a lot more to all these cities than what we've seen, we have only just gleaned the surface. it was an ultimate touristy factor 10 vacation please.

there's really so much art and creativity everywhere, in the museums, in the buildings and architecture, and on the streets! there were all these people pretending to be statues everywhere, and some of them are really entertaining! like they'll toy with the audience or just completely creep us out like some gruesome alien-predator guy we saw in barcelona. haha and in rome we went to this square that was just overflowing with artistic talent. all these artists doing portraits and caricatures of people, busking and playing music, whether its the guitar or the violin.

and from a very objective point of view, with no relevance to any soccer superstar hurhur, i really think portugal's my favourite place of the lot! the people and the place are nice, unlike the italians who are so unfriendly and rude, or the spanish WHO TRIED TO ROB ME. i was so terrified! this bunch of kids that seemed harmless suddenly swarmed me and pushed me to the wall and this girl BLATANTLY stuck her hand into my bag. thankfully i wasnt scared senseless and kiaped her hand in so she couldnt remove anything. ugh. okay actually spanish people are nice too, but the kids just totally tainted the whole impression. STUPID KIDS i want to make effigies of them and stick pins in :( :(

okay updates on the different cities :D with photos! finally it took me a million years

MILAN
the cosmopolitan city of italy! there was really nothing much there, just this breath-taking duomo (cathedral) standing tall in the city centre, and lots of branded shopping which was barely of any interest to me. maybe my sister and i should have just swapped bodies over those thousands of miles for the two days i was in milan. climbed to the top of the cathedral, those 250 steps to take a good look at the city from the top. favourite part definitely was watching soccer in the square with all the italians, immersing ourselves in the full atmosphere of euro2008!


and we're leaving on a jetplaneee.. we were quite fascinated by the business class seats i think i looked quite suaku hahaha. once in a lifetime, no more! so expensive!


the hugeee cathedral! and then i saw florence's and i was like :\


the dome of some place haha very descriptive eh. it was an accidental picture but i like it!


yes! i made it up the 250 steps! im the king of the castle!


the top of the cathedral! the view was amazing


there you go


ella, no need for any more mental image. rats in my hair haha


rats with wings! my mom doesnt seem to be complaining about the company hahaha


watching soccer in the square


sunset (:


the number of people with us, watching the italy netherlands match


can you feel the patriotism just oozing out their pores?


we went to this flea market way early in the morning and the fruit stalls made us the happiest ever! cheapest cherries in the world :D


mommy! she has the funniest faces in these kinda shots hahaha


castello! its like great wall of china but europe style


train station :D i love trains!


mommy and i on train to..

FLORENCE (FIRENZE)
i only had one day in florence! :( which was nicer than milan if you asked me. i ran out of places to see in milan after a while, but i had no time to really see florence at all! took a 3hr train ride from milan to florence, i like trains! they dont block your ears like airplanes do. and you actually get to see stuff outside the window rather than clouds and sky. the cabride to the hotel from the train station was enough to make me fall in love with the city, as we navigated through the tiny alleys with cobblestone paths, passing by all these little cafes with people seated on those exact cobblestone paths we were driving on. snaked our way through the city, around the duomo in florence, along and across the river. went to see the statue of david!! seeing it towering in front of you, is a completely difference experience from looking at it in photographs. we entered the musky museum and i thought it was going to be a long boring tour, and when we turned the corner, the statue was at the end of the hallway underneath this dome-shaped ceiling, a special area created just for him alone. and our guide was great, she brought us to look at the statue from four or five different angles, and there was also something special to mention, some extra thought that michelangelo put into every single detail, the knitted eyebrows in concentration, the unconscious leaning of weight onto one foot, the veins that ran down his neck and down his arm. we werent supposed to take photos, but i couldnt resist! felt like such a sneaky criminal then haha, hiding behind my mom and waiting for her to cue "now now! the guard just went away!" hurhur. went to another museum that traced how art evolved from the gotic(?!!) period to the renaissance, the influences and how it changed. ohmann old art used to be on pure gold!! someone should rob that museum and melt it all and become a multibillionaire. spent the rest of the night finding our way up to the piazzale michelangelo, which was on a hilltop of sorts, to watch the sunset. it was really gorgeous, cos you could see the entire city from there, plus the sun setting across the horizon.


michelangelo's statue of david! sneakily taken, its against the law


ok the oldest bridge in florence is behind us, not that you can see it. see the problem with touring with only two people


sunset through my shades!




city by night, from the top of the hill

ROMA
took a train again to get to rome! train system all within italy! wanted to go see the leaning tower of pisa, but no time :( :( what used to be one of the seven wonders of the world! the first day of rome was, terrible. i got lost in the foreign city, okay not really lost because i knew where i was and where i wanted to go, but i split up with my mommy, so i was just completely alone in this new place for possibly the first time in my life. imagine if i met the spanish robberkids here, i'd just die. and it just felt bad cos while i was worrying about myself i worried about my mom too cos shes not as streetsmart (hurhur yes me! streetsmart! its true) but that day quickly passed with much unhappiness, frustration and anger. and the next morning daddy flew over to join us and we went to the vatican city! sistine chapel! (which my mom thought was sixteen chapel and she was asking me why there were only fourteen paintings hahaha) and george bush was there too, seeking a private audience with the pope which explains the annoying number of police around so we couldnt entire st peters square! hurhur best chance to assassinate him :b went to the colosseum, only the most well-known thing in rome hurhur. heard the stories of real-life gladiators not ur russell crowe version and saw all the things in the arena, it was really in ruins cos of earthquakes- rundown and shoddy and falling apart- so we could see under what was once the stage and stuff. then there were all these pretty piazzas that are really just big empty spaces with occasional monuments for people to chill and hang out with quaint little cafes by the side serving espresso and wine, and a fountain where you toss two pennies in and wish that you'd fall in love in rome.


sphere within a sphere, cool right! in the vatican city


the last judgement! on the wall of the sistine chapel


the ceiling! okay this was a sneaky shot as well, hence badly taken. but you can see "genesis"!


colosseum!




the bricks were all triangular-shaped!






there's just this 9m in diameter gaping hole at the top of the temple! and when it rains the rain just comes raining down onto the temple floor and is drained away by holes in the floor.


outside the pantheon




that guy is real okay! he looked like a statue!

NICE AND MONACO
and then it was a day trip to france, nice to be exact, and crossing the border over to monaco! walking around monaco was like stepping into a fairytale book, like sleeping beauty land or something. there was this palace where the royal family still stays in, the king and all. and THE grace kelly is in fact the princess grace of monaco! apparently the most beautiful girl in the world, even if only at that time. the city was like taking a tour around disneyland, without all the rides. we could go inside the palace too, and the bedrooms were gorrrrgeous with beds that were like those in the princess and the pod. yeahh, nice upholstered with huge frames and draperies and fluffy cushions! and rich people get to collect the coolest things in the world, like they had a napolean bonaparte museum that was rather boring and then there was this antique car museum that had the coolest cars in the world! some racing cars from F1 (cos the F1 track is in monaco!) and horse carriages from the olden times, cars that dated back to production date 1911. and there was also the monte carlo casino that needed an entrance fee, thats like staking ten euros and losing it instantly with a zero percent chance of winning. it was furnished like a museum seriously, las vegas doesnt even compare, not a single one of those casinos on the strip does. it doesnt have weird flashy diamonds as carpets and its got gorgeous ceilings! i guess the ten euros were worth it. and on the way to the airport in nice we dropped by the beaches in nice and shops and stuff. the beach isnt made of sand but instead, pebbles! a pebble beach haha and there were people sunbathing all over!


the harbour where all the multi-million dollar yachts were anchored!


outside the famous monte-carlo casino


look at all the gorgeous cars man!! they were everywhere in the vicinity. rich people country!


princess grace kelly's rose garden :D the roses were dropdeadgorgeous please


just look at that!


and the tiny country had a helicopter pad. can you imagine how rich these people are! tina turner and bono live there apparently.


my cadillac!! so prettyyyy. this was at the place with all the antique cars


and of course, my lamborghini as well haha


pebble beach!

PORTUGAL
yay my favourite little country! perhaps its because of the way we explored the city, and how i made small little surprising discoveries along the way. and also perhaps because it reminded me much of melbourne, my absolutely favourite vacation though im sure it would have been a lot of fun with the same people from melbourne since my daddy obviously doesnt like walking and sightseeing :\ we hired a driver to drive us around for two days so that we could get as much out of the two days that we had there! they have totally the coolest traffic light system. basically there's this round stump in front of where ure supposed to stop when its red light, and when the light turns green the stump goes into the ground and comes back up when the cars have passed! haha my dad was super amused by it. driving around, we were brought to the new age modern part of portugal where the buildings are all glass and steel with them abstract shapes and designs, and also to the old and historic part where all the architecture is stone and bricks and big carvings in stone that kinda thing. so its like we saw the two different sides of portugal.. and when we went for dinner at this place which serves traditional portuguese food and entertainment, i found this special little lane that looked like haji lane and those neat little shops hidden away from the public's eye in non-descript places.. and then we drove along the coast with the beach and the atlantic just outside the window! the waves were huge and the sand dunes were amazing, and then we went to the westernmost part of europe! it was gorgeous! i could just stand there all day enjoying the winds and the view :D something like great ocean road but less wow-worthy haha but still special!


portugal bound :D on portugal air!


sunset from the plane


haha look at how huge the fish is!


castle :D


the sky!




look at how small am i! thats just how big this thing is, and i didnt even take the whole structure yet!


my portugal haji lane :D


the atlantic ocean is behind us!


the westernmost part of europe


i love this picture! look at the hills and the lalang (if thats what the tall grass is)


the ocean




pretty castle haha. dont remember much of its history, but its situated right smack in the middle of this gorgeous park

BARCELONA
okay barcelona went by so fast we practically didnt see anything at all! and the memory has been tainted with the near-robbery encounter hurhur. well interesting things were, there was this museum where it talks about the history of some old city that existed before barcelona did i think, and then we went underground and we were IN the ruins of the city! so basically barcelona was just built over this place. my mom was damn amusing because she kept trying to steal some rocks to bring home and put in her non-existent display case saying "ROCK FROM 2 A.D.!" hurhur but its really damn cool cos its like travelling back in time and they tell us what all these rooms and walls used to be for. yeah and there was this church that was designed by gaudi but after a century and after his death it still hasnt been completed! apparently the world's most visited construction site. yeahhh its quite cool. like u go in and u see all the scaffolding and construction mess and when u take photos there are those cranes in the background! gaudi to barcelona is like michelangelo to florence. OH and i bought 10dollars gummies at some cool market but HELLO thats insanely expensive. i think for that weight i'd get 2bucks in singapore?! :( haha i was just so swept away by their display of gummies i didnt even bother to ask the price first! oh then my favourite part was going to this gorgeous park that was also designed by that gaudi guy.. and there was mosaic like everywhere! and this damn cool tunnel like thing made of rocks and the whole tunnel was shaped like a wave! but the mosaic must have been the best part.. on the ceilings, on the benches on the walls, everywhere! :D ok so that was it i spent the last night in portugal running all over the place to catch the match that made me go into mourning :(


barcelona from the air! the city looks damn well organised from up here.


traditional spanish dish! damn i forgot its name :\


alien vs predator dude! he was seriously scary i didnt dare to give him money even if i wanted to!


on our last day in europe :(


this entire thing is made of chocolate! drool worthy :D


underground ancient city!


gummies galore, how could i resist right.


world's most visited construction site!






mosaic, so pretty!




my wave tunnel!


this was in the park too


prettiest park bench in the world haha



yay so thats about most exciting things that happened :D
i miss people! date me please!

xinyi cartwheeled in the rain at 21:10