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avalanche
my heart's too fast for my feet
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Hello, my name is Grace, and in about ten years or so you'll be buying my premortem biographies where they'll be flying off the shelves like Harry Potter on a Summoning Charm spree. Just kidding.

wishlist
  • Pocket tees

  • Bandage skirt

  • Bootie/ brogue/ strappy heels

  • A big fat brown tote

  • Flora by Gucci

  • InStyle US


  • To Catch A Pirate (read)

  • The Secret Countess (read)

  • The Reluctant Heiress (read)

  • Aurelia

  • Who What Wear

  • The Sartorialist (paperback)


  • Valentino: The Last Emperor

  • The September Issue

  • Coco Avant Chanel

  • Lenka/ Taylor Swift albums

  • (500) Days of Summer soundtrack
  • tagboard

    links
    MY NEW BLOG, THE SECRET KOOK SOCIETY!
    vaguely- (BS) The Art Collaboration I II III IV V

    chingying! leen nicki xinyi leti cayke kibs miji sand saman sarah john jlee jm yong jianchong daniel batch blog

    bren hannah rachel danielle huahua fiona pingghee callie nat sarah junhui amelia tianjiao esther huiran maddie abby 112 212 '08 212 '09

    cat class jayne diane gen pearl brigette leticia neil thomas

    marissa jovana lidan eindah valerie sher sarah zhongxuan eugene dorothy

    ryan's well panya project

    red carpet fashion awards garance dore studioofstyle sea of shoes who what wear the clothes horse lookbook

    archives
    June 2009
    July 2009
    August 2009
    September 2009
    October 2009
    November 2009
    December 2009
    January 2010

    credits
    This layout was made by: TM


    Dec 30, 2009 ,6:39 AM

    Dreaming about the day when you wake up and find that what you're looking for has been here the whole time.

    Back in Singapore! I am oddly homesick. Is it possible to be homesick when you are at home? I suppose my heart has not quite made its move yet, if the proverb 'home is where the heart is' is to be believed...

    Wish I could write an essay here with full updates on Chiangmai but my literary juices have been squeezed out every single drop in my tell-all email to Ching Ying (feel guilty), so I suppose you could wait until I download the Panya pics from my blue camera...? It's a vague deadline I can settle for for now.

    Watched a bit of Love Happens on the plane but missed most of it because (a) I didn't realize the headphones were in my seat pocket and (b) had to go to the toilet and didn't realize there's more than one cubicle. Seems both are due to my ignorance, so no blaming here... I WANT TO WATCH THE REST. Very desperately. It seems good.

    Photography credits: me, from Rayong. I think it was an old Harper's Bazaar with Kate... Bosworth. My, there are TOO MANY KATES IN HOLLYWOOD. Might've taken a pic of the cover, post later.


    Dec 29, 2009 ,2:13 AM
    I'm In Love With How You Feel
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    Okay, so the font thingy isn't quite working out. I think the font needs to be larger to looks nice, and the italic font isn't working. But I need to go desperately, I've stayed overtime, so I'll edit it later, probably when I'm back in Singapore because our flight is early tomorrow. TTYL and wish me luck!!

    ,1:59 AM
    It's Pouring But I Still See You Clearly
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    Nooo! The Beautiful Life has been cancelled! I hope this news is very late and wrong because I just watched two trailers and it's AWESOME! Noooo!

    (Okay. I just signed the petition. I hope I don't regret this.)

    Anyway- we ISBers were on the cover of the Chiangmai newspapers! The picture was of us at Panya but the thing is I can't see the pic clearly so I can't tell who's in it. But oh well this's just as awesome!

    Am supposed to be packing for Singapore. Clothes are all done and on their way to Singapore via my brother but I still have to do... toys (like Big Moe, my plush monkey), accessories (headbands almost done), art (e.g. notebooks), bags, laptop + wires, chargers, tech and savings. I never knew packing up your life could be so hard.

    Just kidding. I'd just forgotten, that's all.

    I kind of added a bit to another poem I wrote yesterday- very sketchy, but here it is anyway:

    Like fog, like rain
    images sometimes clear, focused
    sometimes indistinct, like only
    the outlines of eyes
    wrinkled up in laughter
    or remnants of ordinary words
    like "see" or "there".

    Am going to change the font here to Sabon which I downloaded off the Internet yesterday. It's my all-new favourite font... I'm not sure what font you'll view it in, though.

    Pingghee: No, I'm in 310, I think.
    Callie: Yay Amelia! Hope there're more 212-ers!!
    Chingying: Yeah. Stars at Panya were AMAZING. Tell you more later.

    Sorry if I missed anyone out I'm rushing!!

    Dec 28, 2009 ,8:56 AM
    240/ The Train We Missed
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    It well may be/ that we will never meet again in this lifetime/ so let me say before we part/ so much of me is made from what I learnt from you/ you'll be with me like a handprint on my heart/ and now whatever way our stories end/ I know you have rewritten mine by being my friend.

    -For Good, Wicked, Jennifer Paz ft. Lea Salonga

    So good, so true.

    Just came back from Chiangmai, been surfing the Net and didn't realize it's almost midnight already, and I need to do a lot of packing tomorrow. 2 days left in Thailand. Wowwww!

    A little poem I wrote:
    With every bath
    the smell of you is washed away
    And I feel
    not clean- but dirty, unbaptised,
    as if water
    could wash away memories.

    An ode to the glorious, glorious Panya. ♥

    Dec 22, 2009 ,4:22 AM
    Delayed Devotion- Rayong Part I
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    This is the first in a series of posts with photos from Rayong, each having about a max of 10 photos because it's truly a drag to have to format everything... They're all in order from the very start of our arrival to, hopefully, the end, with little captions in between... Enjoy!

    The breathtaking view... Our resort was located at the bottom of a very steep mountain drive. You drove from the main town into a kind of ulu street that went on and on and on with increasingly few houses along the side, then up a very scary steep slope and round and round a mountain till you get to a little stretch where we took the photo above (and a few others). Then from there it's downhill, to the little square of a parking lot, then the resort. I didn't take photos but the scenery's beautiful at night; you can see all the stars in the sky! It was so totally BEAUTIFUL, there's no other word for it. Nowhere else have I seen the stars; only satellites and crude city lights.

    The tiles were a very awesome turquoise. Since I was wearing my red shoes, needless to say I had to take a photo of them together. Without editing -they don't need it- it looks quite nice, no?

    This is a very old car that was parked in the front... veranda? (The lobby was below.) We all posed with it. It's awesome.

    This was the start of the corridor that led to the lobby; I was just pretending to be a pro photographer and taking shots every five seconds or so.

    THIS is the lobby. The hotel had loads of slopes all around so we had fun kind of running (okay, I did) down the steepest one down to the receptionists' desk. They had these huge bird sculptures looming over it, can you see them?

    This delightful chalkboard announces the Admiral Waterfront Club or something which we went to at night to play pool and (I) to read magazines... (old magazines. Very awesome old magazines.)

    Here's the view from inside. I don't think we were meant to be there but nobody restricted us and the door wasn't locked. Only photos, honest.

    We went to the beach after that. This was a sneaky shot of us taken by my parents who didn't even touch the sand, pfft.


    This is our hotel. One part of it, anyway.

    And this is a very awesome stray dog that kept following us that first day... He's black and white and very cute- my brother and I could've sworn he was posing for us. More pics of him later.

    Other Parts coming up- dinner now. I'm already late. Oops!

    ,3:21 AM
    "Today, my friends and I watched Mulan. We concluded that emperor, who is wise and has a long white beard, is the Chinese version of Dumbledore." -AverageWizard

    I think I want to change my blogskin. I'm kind of tired of this font. (LOL.) Or maybe I'll just change the font... Yeah.

    Went to Platinum today. My mum decided I was well enough. Wish I'd walked around more but my mum was getting tired. Ate a crepe for lunch and it was sooo sweet I didn't finish it (and now I'm hungry). Pfft.

    Bought a silk (horizontally pleated) pencil skirt of a rich purple that my mother says is mauve (which is pronounced 'move' and not 'mahooove' as I thought... sigh...), a dark denim jacket with cream lace edges and round wooden buttons (I feel like one of my rag dolls in it- but am now wondering if I should've bought the lighter colour instead), a really, really, cheap-looking but totally awesome jewel elastic bangle (took pictures, experimenting with the camera- will post later), an adjustable gold ring with a light pink rose on it, a headband that looks like a necklace or a silver snake or something (and makes me look like Cleopatra or something)... and a feathered hairband! Finally! It's awesome.

    Total spending:TB1005 (or something, I'm guessing the prices)
    ..and I thought I'd cut down on my spending. Damn it.

    Well, cleared up my wardrobe yesterday, which includes storing all my plastic bags somewhere else so now my closet looks less cluttered. I got rid of 3 bags' of stuff and colour-coded the rest of my hanging clothes so it actually doesn't look too bad (i.e. I keep sneaking looks at it when I think nobody's looking). I'm determined to have one of those professional-looking closets, with all nude and neutral sheaths of stuff and everything looking new like you'd want to buy it. My previous closet made me want to buy more stuff so I wouldn't have to wear the things in mine.

    I'm leaving Thailand next week already. It feels as though I've only just arrived... This Thurday morning we jet off to Chiangmai and come back on Monday, and Wednesday's It.

    (I haven't even started packing for either. Shhh.)

    But I'm guessing I won't need to bring over that much stuff yet because Dad's term only ends... in about one and half years so they said I could leave some things here. I'll probably bring over some awesome Garance-Dore kind of stuff (i.e. shorts... neutral jackets... my ISB capris...) and choice accessories, not the whole boxes of stuff I have scattered on my desk.

    I. WILL. BE. POLISHED! (Golly, do you know how HARD it is??)

    Grah. I don't want to go to school... going back to Singapore, fine, but not to SCHOOL. I've hardly had a holiday as it is. MY FINALS JUST ENDED GIMME A BREAK ):

    Heigho, like it or not we're going uniform and book shopping on the 31st already and then I think in about 2 or 3 weeks (or less) it's off to NY for me....... I DON'T REALLY REMEMBER MUCH AND...

    oh shit.

    CHEMISTRY!!!

    I think we've done all sec 1's work but sec 1 was only like, one term or something.... and i'm not sure I remember it... only consolation is, I think most people will be foggy after Dec break too, but that doesn't help much. I already hate it. I should be on holiday but I still get that little ugly feeling in my stomach that's reserved for school (the "let's relax OH WAIT SHOOT I FORGOT I HAVE ____ COMING UP" feeling).... and that's because of YOU. CHEMISTRY.

    Pftttt.

    Dec 18, 2009 ,9:48 PM
    Style Picks by Grace
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    It is done!!
    Admittedly it's not a my style collage- looking at it I can't see how it could be further from the truth because I'm normally such a sartorial mess. Let's just call it my ideal style...

    Style icons, from left:
    (Images from Google Images)
    Kate Hudson
    Thandie Newton
    Rachel Bilson
    Sienna Miller
    Diane Kruger
    Natalie Portman
    Chloe Sevigny

    Style picks, from top left clockwise:
    (Images from Google Images, Style.com)
    Chanel
    Chloe
    Chloe
    Marchesa
    Marchesa
    Marchesa
    Marchesa
    Ashley Olsen in vintage
    Kate Hudson in Stella McCartney for InStyle UK March 2009
    Anne Hathaway in Atelier Versace
    Kerry Washington in Malandrino
    Malandrino

    Hope you guys like it!! (I do. Even if it doesn't look like the artsy scrapbook I envisaged.)

    ,7:51 PM
    You're a Part-time Lover and a Full-time Friend
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    I don't think I'll be sticking to the 237-post limit for this blog, as I intend to start a new site only when I get my tablet (which will be when I move to Singapore for good at the end of this month, and even then only until we've settled all the school stuff), and this is already my 236th post if I'm not wrong.

    This week's been hectic. Finishing off my finals Monday through Wednesday, then a full-scale hiking trip at MBK for pretty much the whole of Thursday (which was a school holiday for those who didn't have to make up any exams). I must've caught a bug on Thursday because I woke up feeling like hell- sore throat and headache, with a fever by the end of the day. (Bought 2 Ten & Co. shirts, but that doesn't count because one was making up for the shirt that got stained in the laundry...)

    Friday -my last day at ISB!!!!- promised to be a big disappointment because my mother was threatening to keep me at home but I fought and ended up going, rather excited. I was in a very big daze all day and it still hasn't sunk in that that's it, there's no longer going to be one more day... one more hour... No more 'mores', and that's the thing that I haven't quite grasped. There was always something left for me to hold on to, cling on to, and now there's nothing. It's like I no longer have a safety rope and I'm falling but I don't even know it.

    Went to Paragon afterwards with Nimarta, Nimanee and Tata. No photo studio- we were really irritated but compromised by taking photos with Tata's very awesome Canon 500D. Ate at Coffee Beans by Dao which was really unexpectedly good- and then watched Couples' Retreat which was also really unexpectedly good. Oh, I love Malin Akerman, esp. with red hair- she just didn't get the credit she deserved in 27 Dresses!

    Walked in Siam Square for a while but it seems everyone was getting rather sweaty from trudging around so we went back to Paragon and just sat around at Swensen's until I had to leave at 5.30. We were going to Suanlum Night Bazaar, which looked quite good but -maybe because I was so tired it was taking all my willpower just to walk a lane, and my fever was coming back, and my blocked nose was making me breathless- wasn't that fabulous.

    Today my brother and mother went to Chatuchak. I'm killing myself for having this stupid sickness because -as my brother so nicely pointed out- this was my last chance to go to Chatuchak before I leave. Dang it. Hopefully my mother will bring me back a pair of heels or a nice hobo bag, but not likely. She often hates the weird "old" stuff I like.

    Speaking of which- I'm currently compiling a "My Style" collage. Already got 4 Marchesa looks lined up with the help of Style.com. !Hasta Luego!

    Dec 12, 2009 ,4:20 AM
    Inspiration: Summer Finn
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    Clearly this Saturday night was not meant for collages... but for chemistry. I am being bustled off to learn about atoms.......... Oh, joy.

    ,3:13 AM
    Wow, today's been a really long day... Went out at 10.15 to Chatuchak via MRT*, and then we took the MRT back to Sukhumvit and transferred to BTS to Phrom Pong for a sumptuous lunch at Greyhound Cafe in Emporium -deliiiicious!-and some awesome book-hunting** at Kinokuniya... then went back to Robinson's, where their TOPS supermarket has been freshly renovated and we did some grocery shopping. Finally arrived home slightly after 4...

    * Was strangely controlled. Or maybe it was because my parents didn't like a lot of the stuff I did, like this gorgeous red leather bag with a gold exposed zipper. It was very plain, and oddly roomy, and I could imagine bringing it hiking around Singapore (my dream street-style life! oh, *big sigh*). But sadly my parents didn't like it. At all. For no reason. (I think it was the zipper that did the bag in. Too... unconventional, shall we say?)

    Anyway- I only bought a chunky pearl, metal and bead necklace for 250 Baht (it's sooo chunky my dad says I can take it apart and have 3 or more separate necklaces when I'm sick of the whole but I don't see that in the near future!!!) and two adjustable ring... templates? at 50 Baht for me to stick my stones from Rayong on, so I can DIY my own rings.

    ** Am equally excited about my two buys here. Could not buy Christian Siriano's book, Fierce Style, because even though it had 20% off, the original price was already 600+ Baht so hopeless wishing... and I wanted to buy another book but my dad said it didn't look like much... anyway, to focus on the positive, I bought

    Camilla by Madeleine L'Engle
    and
    All The Things We Didn't Say by Sara Shepard (of Pretty Little Liars fame)

    Once I'm through with Sense and Sensibility (which I'm close to... I'm either in Volume II or III right now) I am going to devour these two quite voraciously!

    Inspired by Jane Aldridge's "My Style" collage post on Sea of Shoes I might create my own collage. I'm predicting fairy-tale classiness (i.e. Marchesa y Chanel) with just a few leather jackets and grommets in between... Last time Laeticia asked me what my style was, and I said, "Feminine with an edge." (Well, at least my ideal style is- I think my own real style would be "really weird with many faux-pases"! I never seem to know what's right for me.)

    But right now I'm going to do a blue palette inspired by Zooey Deschanel in (500) Days of Summer. Her outfits in the movie are all in blue shades, very simple and feminine.

    Dec 11, 2009 ,4:47 AM
    Broken Hearts Hurt But They Make Us Strong
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    Aaah, lociento lociento!! I have been a total idiot for not updating this. I have been too caught up in things. What's weird is, time seems to fly when you're not doing anything productive! I can only honestly say that procrastination is what has kept me from posting... and maybe an overt attraction to Garance Dore and MLIA, the only sites whose archives I have not totally exhausted yet. And then, of course, there is the *obligation* to study for my FINAL EXAMS (haha, just kidding, of course I study, although less than I think what people expect)...



    I'm listening to the Juno soundtrack now. Indie (i.e. Juno and (500) Days of Summer soundtracks! apologies for the lack of creativity) is the only thing between Taylor Swift and I right now... *LOVE*: Tree Hugger, Loose Lips, All I Want Is You, Anyone Else But You, Tire Swing, Us, Quelqu'un M'a Dit and probably a million other songs but I'm not through with the soundtracks yet ;-)

    So if you want to hurt yourself- remember that I love you.

    1. The lyrics to Loose Lips are odd, and they have the F word in it, but there are snippets that are quite meaningful, really... Anyway. Real updates is that I:
      Went to Rayong from Sunday to Wednesday. Quite possibly the most awesome family holiday ever, filled with embarrassment at my expense (I now realise I say the stupidest things... like... "Er, Mum, this is weird, but the Eden story doesn't support the theory that we came from monkeys!" DON'T- LOOK- LIKE- THAT) and lots of photography! Will post some landscape pictures I took of the place -we stayed at a resort just outside Rayong, actually, and took the speed boat to Koh Samet twice- later.

    2. Had my PE exam today- fitness testing (I think I failed this part- because I deproved quite a lot in push-ups and a little in my left-sit-and-reach... thank goodness for my right-sit-and-reach and sit-ups scores, which stayed the same, and pull-ups, where I improved)... and my first biathlon!! 10 swim laps (roughly 7 mins +) and cross-country, in 15:40. Not bad but could've walked less in XC, I think, just that I- was- just- so- dead- from- swimming!!!

    3. Had my Spanish exam today- surprisingly informal, but maybe that's because we have Kevin in our class. Even our teacher, who is normally very even-tempered, said out loud that K irritated "the hell out of" him. Wowza. I am pretty sure I passed- but even so- I spotted about 3 careless mistakes and I only skimmed because I couldn't wait to get rid of it :S

    4. Got a leaving-the-school gift from ... the school. It's a black leather-looking bracelet with a little phial that has white and black stones in it, and a big white stone that says ISB on one side, and Panthers on the other. It's adjustable and looks quite nice- I am looking forward to layering it, except that I'm terrible at layering. It's not effortless!!

    It seems I have short term memory so no exciting stuff from weeks before - how long have I not been updating??



    OH- WAIT-

    I wrote a song today (01:32.14). It's very random, inspired by Broadway but very wishy-washy. Not at all like the power hits from Les Miserables, but it'll be four hundred million years before I can compare to Boubil + Schonberg. Recorded it on Windows Movie Maker to remember the tune, but from past experience with Wintergirls, Blogger doesn't seem to like uploading WMM videos. So here are the lyrics to Something About Him anyway:

    Something about the way he looks
    The way he smiles
    Is enticing

    Something about the way he moves
    -The way he dances!-
    Is
    captivating

    There’s something about him
    In everything about him
    There’s something about him
    That’s beautiful

    It’s something
    about the way he walks
    The way he drinks his coffee
    The way he talks
    That pulls me in

    Or maybe it’s about the way he sits
    The way he
    frowns
    The way he knits!
    But for sure…

    There’s something about
    him
    In everything about him
    There’s something about him
    That’s
    beautiful
    And I can’t forget him
    Can’t take my eyes off him
    I can’t
    forget him
    No matter what I do…

    Dec 1, 2009 ,4:48 AM
    Superficial Wake-Up Calls
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    Don't you hate those little superficial wake-up calls you get every now and then?

    I'm hazarding an educated guess that they're beneficial, but still, it's like a bee sting. (And that hurts, trust me.) Like when you want something for totally superficial reasons- and then something happens that brings you right back down to earth.

    I'm not going into details but this's true. I probably need more of these S. W. U. C.s in my life. *slaps self*