Things that run through my head on a daily basis:

1) Gym & Yoga
2) Prada Saffiano Shopping Lux Tote
3) My current job
4) Phuket
5) People close to heart
6) How hall life would have been if I'd actually stayed in one back in NUS
7) my current ear-candy that colleagues introduced to me: 煎熬. My favorite part of the song goes like this: 叫思念，不要吵。

haven't felt this way in a long time

AP Royal Oak Offshore 40th anniversary exhibition

Hairdo for my company's gallery launch cum cousin's wedding

At Donnie & Jean's Holy Matrimony with S, one of my first BS teacher :)

Subsequent day at D&J's wedding lunch

"Loving you feels like learning a foreign language. At first it doesn’t make any sense to me and I don’t understand what I keep doing wrong. I’m flustered and I sound stupid. But the point of learning a language is that the more time you spend with it, the better you get. Being in love with you feels like learning more about you, what you like, what you don’t like. Loving you feels like being out and seeing something that reminds me of you. Love is like being fluent in you."- thought catalogue


Read more at http://thoughtcatalog.com/2012/what-it-feels-like-to-love-you/#Yz3lfA4BppplZIJi.99 

I must say, since the last time I penned my thoughts down, there've been so many transitions and changes. I'm still adapting but all I can say is, life is treating me so well and I really can't ask for more.

on a side note, can't wait to go for the audemars royal oaks exhibition next wkend. ive never been a crazy fan of watches but thanks to A, ive been learning so much from him and beginning to appreciate their beauty. I know he's secretly happy his efforts are paying off.

I was browsing through my items when I chanced upon several diary entries which I wrote some years ago. Flipping open that diary was akin to flipping open my memory bank. The emotions, the butterflies, the laughters and the heartaches and everything that comes along with a relationship instantly came upon me. Maybe there's still a tinge of reminisce occasionally but in retrospect, I've came a long way. Its alright to miss some people who used to be dear to you at times, but always remember there's a reason why we live in the present and not the past :)

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Mid Year Resolutions

By the end of December, I would want to:

1) Be able to set aside minimally $570/ month for investments.

2) Be more focused and less easily distracted. This is the second hardest amongst the whole list because I simply find it almost impossible to not let my brain wander off every other five minutes even during a conversation.

3) Grow my connect group and myself in the CG (as to how I envisage my own growth, I shall share about it only when it comes to pass)

4) Be 52KG. Needless to say, this is the hardest.

5) See further improvements on my relationships with people (family takes precedence, followed by friends).

6) Be more fashionable. It takes more than just money simply, but also effort and diligence to keep up with trends but the end results are satisfying and not to say, impressive.

7) Master the cajon. People say the first step is usually the hardest. I guess I have no excuse for myself since I've already broken through the barrier and gotten myself a cajon. Being around people who are musically inclined, and dare I say, talented, inspires me to appreciate music more. The girls and myself actually have a project in mind and let's hope it comes to pass by the end of the year :)


The Lord of your vision is also the God of your provision.

Us of A (Day 5)

Day 5: San Mateo - Hollywood Boulevard - Walt Disney theatre - Hol Inn (LA Marinda)


On Tuesday Morning (5th June), we got up at 7ish to prepare for our road trip to LA. GEGE dropped us at San Mateo which was the pick up point about 20 mins drive from home. He was kinda excited to have the house back to himself again since we'd be gone from Tuesday to Friday.

Life in LA is more similar to SG as compared to San Francisco. The afternoon sun is more lethal and it's warmer in the day. Temperatures go up to 35 deg which is kinda similar to what we have in SG, just that it's no where as humid so it was bearable. As well, half of America's population resides in LA which makes it pretty densely populated with human and cars. There's crazy traffic jams almost throughout the day. On this note, people in LA are very sharp looking in the sense that they dress to the latest fashion (in fact, they are the fashion) and that they have nicer features. I know Beverly Hills is known to be the city of cosmestic surgeries but this does not naturally indicate that everyone is in general better looking because they've all gone through some sort of surgical corrections.

Us hippies setting off for LA in the tour bus

First of a series of stopovers next to a fruit market where there was a carousel and small park 

Second stopover where we had BK for lunch nearby a cattle farm. 

Nice landscape coupled with overpowering smell of live products.

I think we made about 3 to 4 stopovers in total. After a long 8 hours journey by road, we finally got to LA and the first stop was Hollywood Boulevard with the famous walk of fame. True to what the tour guide had mentioned, it is a city abuzz with activities and (good looking) people. 

Greeting tourists outside Madame Tussaud's wax museum in Hollywood 

Kodak Theatre. Seems like that's the last anyone will see of the sign since Kodak has declared bankruptcy earlier on this year. 

Will Smith

Donald Duck

Along the streets are people who dressed up as celebrity icons from cartoon animations to movie stars. The only difference between them and those we see in Universal Studios/ Disney land is that we need to pay for their photos because it is essentially what they do for their living. After careful deliberation, M and myself each chose one character we would take a photo with.  

Optimus Prime!

We were walking along that stretch and were pretty fascinated by his costume. And it's true that people are won over by good services and warm greetings. So as we stopped and deliberated, he approached us and started talking to us. Both of us were captivated (yes, I believe this is the right word) by his robotic voice and his mesmerizing eye (you can actually see through the opaque box to see his eyes). And upon our request, he actually turned off the voice box after warning us that all the magic will be gone so we got to hear his real voice. To bring it a note higher, he took off that robotic head and beneath it was a really good looking hispanic guy *_* He obviously won M over who decided that this shall be the character she'd have a shot with.

As for myself, I chose

Mr Incredible!
(and the character from Star wars. I really dont know his avatar name because truth be told, I was never a Star wars fan)

My choice was purely diplomatic. I was not prepared to have any photos with these people but as we walked along that particular stretch thrice, I guess I was won over by Mr Incredible's cheekiness and part thereof, looks. As to why Star wars was in the picture, it still remains a mystery and joke to M and myself. For the rest of the trip, Mr Incredible was always the topic of our jokes because let's just say, as a character from a child movie, his personality certainly didn't match the innocence you would expect from his avatar.

After having enough fun at the walk of fame, we proceeded down to Walt Disney Concert Hall.

That's the Disney theatre behind which houses about 2200 people and is worth billions of dollars to date.

Thereafter, we were brought for dinner at a Hong Kong restaurant (which tasted surprisingly nice) before we headed back for our hotel at Holiday Inn La Mirada. My stereotype of holiday inn hotels was challenged because what greeted us in the hotel room were 2 Queen sized beds and an almost impeccable toilet that we could ask for.

OOTD: White Jacket: HnM Hong Kong || Yellow dress : Cotton on USA || Necklace : Flea Market from San Jose

US of A (Day 4)

4th Day: San Francisco (Castro) - Union Square - Burlingame

On the fourth morning, we gave ourselves additional time to sleep in and to hang around at home after a tiring weekend. Breakfast was a simple affair because we were pretty worried that we had busted our expenses on the second day in Gilroy.

Cinamon Donuts from Safeway (it's like Cold Storage albeit a much bigger version) which were really addictive

Wearing the coat that I was gonna wear for the day for fun and because it was pretty cold in the morning (yes, you can see the tag because it was new)

Breakfast in style

After taking our time to get ready, we left home at about 12 noon for San Francisco. Actually, we did a bit of strategic planning (which I will get to later)

Burlingame was really like a quiet suburb and was one of the richer and safer areas in SF

train tracks of Caltrain

Traveling to SF as an independent tourist really requires you to do lots of research and smart planning. Unlike SG, many of the places are not very accessible by public transport and even if they were, they have several kinds of trains (in SG, you just have to say the train and everyone knows you are referring to SMRT but over there, they have caltrain, bart to name a few). And for the caltrain, they have stipulated timings (about 1 hour between each train so you really need to get the timings correct cause missing the train would cause you lots of time wastage and for us, waiting in the cold) 

Fortunately or unfortunately, they have a rather known area within SF where we were advised to avoid because people there are known to cause troubles and instigate fights. It was a risky move on our part to travel there alone because we look every bit like tourists and very potential targets of bullying. Whilst waiting for the bus to get to Castro, we met 3 kids whom we had every right to suspect were from that area. They were throwing fart bombs at pedestrians, at the windscreens of drivers (yea, not kidding) and because they got on the same bus that we boarded, they threw it even in the bus. Thankfully, the bus captain did his part by chasing them off the bus and reported the incident to policemen patrolling the area. And, one thing about SF, it's really cold. I know I've mentioned this a few times but we thought Burlingame was cold enough. It turns out that the clouds in SF always cover the sun so it gets freezing cold when the wind blows even in summer.

In any case, we got to Castro (which sells vintage stuff like Haigh / Ashbury but on the more affordable end) 

  

Fresh and hot bagel which tasted absolutely delicious :)

We saw many saw country flags in this particular store

I tell you, our loyalty is dangerously wavering

Sadly, it was not a very fruitful trip at Castro for us because we weren't too sure where the hauls were. Instead, we went on a pilgrim in search for ...

That's the city hall in SF

That's the shop at Hayes. We spent some effort before we found this place but it was absolutely worth it. Can you already guess what it was?

Yep! Macarons!

This shop was initially known as Paulette. I have quite a sweet tooth and macarons are included. Before the trip, I was googling on best macarons in SF and this kept appearing on my google feed. 6 macarons came at about 12USD which was absolutely worth it in our opinions

Thereafter, we went back to Union Square for some shopping before heading back to Burlingame. We had cravings for vietnamese so we ended up at Ben Tre. The shop is opened solely by Vietnamese so the food tasted really authentic. I know we can debate about how authentic something can be if it's not located within its home country. But seriously, the shop name, owners and most probably chef are vietnamese, ingredients are similar to what they have at home, beef is fresh in US; there's really nothing more we can ask for.

Beef Pho. So Good. 

Vietnamese spring roll with peanut and sweet sauce dippings. Words cannot describe how delicious and addictive it was.

Because we were headed for LA early morning the next day, we went home by 10PM to pack our bags and  for an early night.

OOTD: Polka Dot Coat - Target || Jeggings - Target || Shades - Cotton On