Before I forget:
happy 1st birthday, Joseph!!

I think I'd better save updates for TSKS; I've drawn another illustration so if I keep saving them my new posts will be very clogged up. Have just received the breaking news that TOMORROW MORNING I am going to have my first Chinese tuition lesson in order for the teacher to gage how good -or bad- I am... and then consequent lessons will be Sunday evenings. Wow. APPARENTLY it will give me time to get ready for school the next day, because tuition will end around 7.30 or so- but I don't think so. I'd prefer an afternoon slot, on a weekday or something, because this means NO MORE GOING OUT ON SUNDAY NIGHTS. This is so awesome, no?

More at TSKS- visit it here.*
*For the grotesquely uninformed, TSKS = The Secret Kook Society = my new blog.

You know what I would like? Right now, it'd be a nudish pink tulle skirt, with a satin waistband, kind of like the types that ballerinas wear. It would be awesome with a really light grey long-sleeved shirt, nude lace tights and nude ballet flats with a grosgrain bow.

Breaking news: I got my tablet. In fact, I'm posting this from it right now! The part I'm most excited about, though, despite the crazy amount of cool stuff this computer has- is the stylus. I don't have Photoshop on it at the moment -the guy at the shop said I'd have to disable it from the Asus to get it onto the tablet, but I want to make sure my brushes and stuff don't get destroyed first- but even Paint, which is a default program anyway, has some extra things on it that the other computers I've used didn't have.

For example... they have different kinds of brushes! For the fantabulously insane comic I drew above, I used pencil (marker?) and crayon, I think. I've also drawn a design that I came up with back in Chiangmai- a virtual copy, which shall be posted to TSKS later when I get it running. For that I experimented a bit more with colours and used a pencil, watercolour brush (I KNOW!!) and... and.. that's it, I think, for tools, but I did twirk around (LOL) with the thickness.

We're going out for tea to meet Uncle Seng-hock and Uncle Andrew + families now, so more later... Looks like this blog will terminate at post #247 - 10 more than usual?

Happy 2010, everyone!

My resolution for the new year (which I will hopefully keep- something I didn't do for 2009): to be a big step closer to my dream(s) (i.e. photography, fashion design, writing) than I am now.

My plans to achieve this include: buying a tablet (which I will do tomorrow, with luck) for drawing designs on Photoshop, borrowing De-gu's first camera and try working with more manual adjustments before buying a more tricked-out version, putting in hard work in ELPS and continually submitting articles for Sundays' Youth Classifieds.

It seems my plans to put a big long update post here keep backfiring: it's 11.51 PM at the moment and I have the odd feeling that if I go a minute over midnight somebody (i.e. one of my parents) is going to come and kill me. Really.

Maybe it will wait until The Secret Kooks Society is up...? (Yes, I abandoned the idea(s) of Falling Sapphires and Etoile Filante. TSKS sounds nicer... and oh wait, you pronounce it as TSKS! That is so awesome!)

Anyway. Little wondrous rant aside... Here's to a wonderful 2010, and I hope your year will be better than mine. (I'm as optimistic as you can get- but there's no denying that for me, this year will be an uphill one. "2 days left to the real life," as De-gu so aptly put it...)

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.

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!!
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!!
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. ♥
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!
"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.
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.)