A small update

It's really difficult to have any sort of life with a full time job. Though I love what I am doing, I still miss the days of freedom. In any case, I'm pretty happy with the events that are being brought into Singapore. At the very least, they keep me from staying home all weekend.

At Beer Market


Last month was a live gig by Flumpool and Sid at Clarke Quay. Although I'm not the biggest fan of them, being able to see them up close was really a wonderful experience. It was a Friday night performance, followed by a second gig later in the night at Beer Market together with Weaver. Unfortunately, beer market was too small to contain all the eager fans and I spent quite a long time queuing outside waiting to be let in. Due to that, I completely missed Weaver's performance. Luckily, I managed to squeeze in just before Flumpool and Sid performed. It was a really close up experience and I definitely don't regret waiting two hours outside for it.

And, today was Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of the Ring concert. It was held at Star Vista theatre, a newly built place at Buona Vista. The theatre is much bigger than Esplanade, with a capacity of 5000 people. The seats are much more spacious and comfortable too. I had plenty of knee space, and my bottom didn't hurt at all after sitting down for 4 hours. The concert was much longer than I expected, because the orchestra actually showed the movie alongside. So I was basically watching the full movie except this time, the music and songs were live. After so many years, I have forgotton how epic LOTR was. In my opinion, no other trilogy can surpass LOTR. 

The alarm clock is my enemy.

(By 優 on pixiv)

A perfect depiction of my situation every morning. 

Yummi House -- Beware

If anyone should recommend you honey from Yummi House, take some time to read this post before you decide to spend hundreds of dollars on their so-called 100% unprocessed honey.

Firstly, http://flowerpod.com.sg/forums/Don-t-Fooled-Yummi-House-Honey-read-This-t116725.html this link is about lab tests done on yummi house honey and results pointing that it fails to meet international standards of pure honey regarding HMF levels.

Secondly, I have tried some of their honey as well (my mother being a victim of their really good sales pitch). I only had a small spoon of it mixed with water, next day I developed a sore throat. At first I thought it was something else that caused my sore throat, so I tried the honey again when my sore throat went down. Again, I got a bad sore throat the following day.

Thirdly, you probably should know that yummi house was reported in the papers due to complains from consumers, and they were fined by AVA for misleading consumers with their claims. Which means that all their claims of better health and everything is not necessarily true.

I recently listened to their sales pitch for their new product-- bird's nest. I must admit, they are very good salesmen. They make their product sound like the best in the world and worth every penny of its exorbitant price. However, when you consider established brands with over 30 years of history also selling bird's nest, on what grounds does yummi house have to say that their product is superior to all others? 

Furthermore, they marketed this bird's nest as being harvested from sea swallows, so the nests are exposed to the good of the natural weather. Personally, I find this to be bullshit. I went to google their so called sea swallow, or 海燕 in chinese, the animal that came out was nothing close to a swallow. Neither could I find any breed of swallow that lived near the sea.

I once watched a documentary about bird's nest harvesting in Indonesia. Yummi house did mention that their product is from Indonesia. What I have learnt from the documentary is that the harvesters build large shelters and attract swallows to nest there. When the swallows leave, their nests are then collected and cleaned. So which part of it is exposed to the sea? Just take a while to think of their claims and you would realise that they are actually full of loopholes.

I have seen many elderly aged people buying bulks of honey from them, mainly because of their membership and discount requirements, eg. you have to purchase a certain amount to get 20% discount and lifetime silver class member. I understand that the elderly will never google online for information but I hope that by word of mouth, less people would fall into the trap. With the amount of money spent at their shops, you could easily buy many other things that are truly beneficial to health. You may not develop any problems from eating their products now but who knows what effects might surface 5 or 10 years later. I would rather put my faith in established brands which are not as expensive as yummi house.

I won't really call yummi house a conman, because they are so good at persuading people to buy their products willingly. Still, it's always good to think twice before you believe in their sweet talk.

The last time I said I would come back with good news. Here's a piece of it -- I got into Lucasfilm's Jedi Master Program (JuMP for short). At least that puts an end to me not knowing what to do with my life. It's a six months apprenticeship. As for what will happen after six months, who knows? The future is unpredictable. For all you know, the end of the world might come again.

Resolution?

Another hole to be burned in my pocket.

It's been awhile since my last post. Christmas passed, so did New Year's Day, and now Chinese New Year is approaching. The year 2012 ended and I am still here along with the rest of the world, sadly. I have never had a thing for resolutions and such but this year I will have one, just one: Resist that lure of laziness. 

Two years past and I am still standing where I was. I might have taken a step or two forward in that course of time, yet more often than not I retreat into my hole of comfort like a hermit crab, hiding in my own little world and deluding myself that the shell is all I ever need. It is time to put a stop to that.  

Hopefully the next time I post, there will be some good news.

Blue

Haven't shared anything in quite a while. Here's a piece of stop-motion that's nicely done, featuring a creepy looking octopus plush.

A peek at what I have done lately.

I made the totoros a long time ago, but just did not put them together. 

Now I finally did and I am not sure how I should price them.

As for the pendants, they looked nice on paper but when I finished the thing, I can't help but feel that something is lacking. I guess it's probably just my problem.

生まれてきてよかった

Happy Birthday to me.

Thanks to all who remembered =)

p.s. pls ignore tt ugly pineapple and banana in the background...

Paris Baguette

Paris Baguette, a chain bakery from Korea, recently opened a branch at Wisma.

I intended to only take a peek at their assortments, but their bottles of pudding on display stopped me in my tracks. If you don't know already, I have an obsession with puddings, so how can I not try those delightful little bottles!

There was 3 flavours available, original, mango and berry. I only bought the originals to test how good they were, and I am glad I got them! It's a creamy type of pudding, so the pudding just melts in the mouth leaving a milky fragrance on the tongue. The combination with caramel at the bottom of the bottle is a perfect match. Next time I will try the other two flavours!

Being a bakery, of course they had other stuff. There was quite a wide range of bread and sandwiches. I wasn't that interested in them, maybe next time. The cakes, however, had a much smaller range, roughly about 5-6 kinds. I picked up two to try, strawberry crepe cake and marron mont blanc. 

The mont blanc was quite amazing. It has a lot more layers inside then others I have tried, hence a burst of surprise in taste when I dug into the cake. There was a slight tint of mint in the chestnut cream, beneath are layers of light cream with chestnut bits, yuzu jam, and a chocolate mint nougat thingy.

The crepe cake had layers of sponge cake and strawberries in it. The raspberry atop the cake was stuffed with jam, a pleasant surprise.

I am quite pleased with Paris Baguette so far =)

Italy-Venice

Welcome to Venice!

Luxurious gondolas

Beautifully crafted venetian masks

Miniature glass art!

Venice! 

I always hear people saying how beautiful Venice is, now I finally get to see it for myself. 

Well, upon first glance, it is beautiful, but it really isn't much after a while. There wasn't much sightseeing either, I pretty much finished Venice in a day. At this point I was already quite sick of visiting museums and random churches so I didn't bother. Didn't take a boat ride either because those gondolas cost a bomb to ride on, though they look really nice! 

I was more interested in the tons of shops selling either venetian masks or murano glass crafts. That whole miniature orchestra is really pretty to look at. Each figure measures less than a thumb's length and is quite detailed. There was also a chess set but I couldn't get a good photo of it behind the window. These things cost a bomb too! A photo is just good enough for keepsake.

That pretty much wraps up my whole trip. Pity I couldn't make a trip to Pisa to view the leaning tower, making my visit to Italy incomplete. Overall, I still enjoyed my trip and had a pretty good time =)

Italy-Florence

Cattedrale di Santa Maria del Fiore

Seafood risotto
My 2nd happiest meal of the trip

Not much photos for Florence because I basically only had one day for sightseeing and photos were not allowed for two museums I visited. The Uffizi gallery was quite nice, though not as impressive as the one I went in Vienna. The other is the Academia, which houses Michelangelo's famed 'David'. The only thing worth seeing there is basically just David. And for that one look, it cost 11euros plus 90 minutes of queuing. To me, I was quite willing to part with the money. After all, I have already came all the way, might as well just have a glance. However, to those who have no interest in the arts at all, I would say skip all the museums. You'd be better off spending the entrance fee elsewhere.

Italy-Rome

Second stop, Rome.

If you're wondering, yes, this is an escalator.

The colosseum

The Roman Forum & Palatine Hills

View of town area over Palatine Hill

The Vatican

Top view of front area of Vatican

Backyard of Vatican, restricted area 

Stairway of the Vatican Museum

The Last Judgement

The Trevi Fountain

Amazing bakery that sells really good pastries

Why a photo of an escalator?

Not that I want to complain, but the metro stations of Italy is not what I would call friendly for the disabled, elderly and people with heavy luggages, like me. That long flight of steps you see is the only exit of the metro, and it wasn't working the day I arrived there!! What a stroke of bad luck! There was no lift around, as with most of the metro stations, but at least the others only had a short flight of stairs. Thank goodness halfway through the climb, some kind fellow helped me! There is some good in this world after all!

The colosseum, vatican, sistine chapel, famous tourist spots of Rome, and definitely tourist infested! It's not obvious in my photos as I try to avoid capturing human heads as much as I can, but there was a sea of people in every spot! And one thing which I don't understand why it always happens to me, almost all the sites that I visit are under renovation at certain parts. So every time I take a photograph, I have to avoid the ugly parts with all the scaffoldings. It happened when I was in Vienna last year too!

Pastries and baked goods in Italy is really good!
How I wished I had the stomach to try everything in the shop.
Though it's not exactly cheap, but I'd gladly pay the price for such quality.
I'm already missing the fabulous choux creams I had there!

Italy-Milan

My first stop in Italy, Milan. 

Milan Cathedral
Duomo di Milano

Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II

Unsuspecting building tucked in a corner of the plaza...

...in which was hidden a 7-storey shopping place.

Random structure

Wild berries & cacao gelato

There wasn't much sightseeing to be done in Milan. The most famous one is the Duomo, located right next to the Galleria. These two places were done in under an hour. And I was left dangling, didn't know where to go next as I didn't expect it would be so quick. So, decided to visit a shopping place that was newly opened and featured in a magazine I picked up.

And I immediately regretted that decision. 

There were barely any street signs around and I don't understand why the Italians are so secretive in labeling the street and building names. You won't know the name of a particular building until you are right in front of the entrance. This really doesn't help when I'm trying to find my way around the place. In the end, I spent over half an hour searching in the area, only to find out that the place is located about 200m from the Galleria, right under my nose!

La Rinascente. 

The exterior of the building suggests nothing of a shopping place, and the signage is totally inconspicuous!

Anyways, the shopping place held all the high end brands such as LV, Dior, blah blah. So you can imagine how unexciting it was for me. The only thing I enjoyed here was lunch, and it was the best I had throughout the whole trip. An order of angus beef fillet with grilled vegetables and sautéed potatoes. Yum!

That pretty much wraps up Milan. I would say it didn't leave me a good impression. In fact, I got cheated on the very first day! In the central station, there were these bunch of people who targeted unwary tourists that just arrived. And in the main tourist spots, there were also dozens who either gives you feed for the pigeons or push some kind of trinket onto you and ask for coins. They can get really pushy at times. I'm just glad I didn't get pick-pocketed.

Sakura Miku

Isn't she adorable!!

I already lost count how many versions of Hatsune Miku has been released.

Still, she's definitely going to be in my figure collection!

Arteastiq at Mandarin Gallery

Visited the Arteastiq Tea Lounge on Monday. 

It was very packed and the queue never ended for the whole time my friends and I were there.

Next to the tea lounge is a space which they provide canvas and paint for people to paint, at a fee of course. I find it to be quite a interesting concept, and there is a surge of such concept cafes around SG recently. For people who just want to try their hands at painting, this is a good solution that doesn't cost too much.

Anyway, the interior of the lounge was nice. Sadly, I didn't get to sit in the sofa area.

Was seated under a large white lantern-like lamp. Their table and chairs were quite assorted, like random mix-and-match, but in a way, artistic. 

They had a tea set for 2 at $48, which includes a choice of tea, and a platter of smoked salmon, crabmeat salad, smoked turkey ham, spicy top shell salad, a crispy prata wrap and either a orange or apple cake. The portion was tiny! Quite pricey for such a small serving. Not to mention taste is not fantastic. What they served was really simple food, not much cooking involved. Think I would stick to scones and sandwiches for hi-tea.

Their tea is quite nice. I had a oolong tea with lychee gelato. The gelato was good.

And I liked the wooden tray which they served it in.

They have really nice china crockery for the other tea selections.

Though I doubt I will ever go back again.