halloweenie - the really small party


so i was all hyped up about going for some house party
in ulu ulu yishun with a bunch of strangers
and only a handful of friends
but the party turned out to be not-at-all-hot
so i was all dressed up with nowhere to go.
loser.

i was so excited about my cheapo easy-o costume though
and a total of thirteen friends saw it.
i thought that was quite a halloween number to stop at.

the best part of the night was its start
when professional johan took photos of feng and i.
i'm a true blue photowhore.

this is our favorite:


i wonder how many people get my costume
without me having to explain. heh.

had a rather dismal, headeggy end to the night
but i guess it wasn't all that bad
posing and giggling at normanton,
tu-ing at hock's,
popping by butter to costume-watch
and trying out mark tay's sweaty, fanny, brighty headgear.


so that's how i kinda popped my dress-up-for-halloween cherry.

journey to the west


was an early bird today
and took an hour-long train ride to woodlands
for an excursion to the sports school
which is currently hosting the fina/arena world cup.

the main draw (for me) was, of course, to watch mark swim
and provide a tad bit of rahrah cheering.
it's been such a long time
and we're all feeling more than a trifle old.

it wasn't his most magnificent of performances
but i'm blaming that on the snapped goggles
and the last minute notification that he's competing.

ernie, too, was one of the old guards still flying our swim flag high.
he'd told me he was only swimming tomorrow
but when he got to the pool just now,
he found out that he had to plunge in for an event.
so he did it in drag.
rather funny.

lunch at peperoni at greenwood with mark and his parents,
jaelle, mark's sister audrey and nephew augustine
was warmly satisfying
and i had a great time messing about with gus.

age really does catch up on us all
and i felt it acutely today
looking at all the youngsters
and realizing that, unlike last time,
i no longer know many of the people in the line-up
is scary stuff.

touché!


am blogging from my iPod touch for the first time,
coming to you from starfucks in paragon.
sweeeeet!

mark and I have been lunching
and we're doing the usual reminising yesterday
when we re-found long lost junlin
and the three of us decided to meet today
for a meal and to play catch up.

it's always nice,
to rediscover friends of yore
and to find that they've not changed all that much,
and be pleasantly surprised by how they've matured.

meeting junlin has also brought noelle back into our lives
and it was great hearing her voice after so long.

two days till my next flight,
might be going for a swim meet tomorrow
(man, it's been so long since I last went for one of those),
and perhaps doing even more catching up thereafter.

and it's halloween halloween!
i might be popping my halloween cherry
and attending some parties tomorrow.
so exciting!

i love my life.


that day, a friend of mine asked very innocently:
zenn, why do you always go for high tea?
is it coz you can't wake up for lunch?

bye bye old house


we've been living in our new place for a while now
but it wasn't till a few days ago
that we actually relinquished the keys to the old place.

no longer will we be able to make
those little visits to sift through the mess
and pack up bags of things we still want to keep.


i'll miss you, old house.

on to other business,
i just returned from a long trip
out to seoul and san francisco and back.
sf was a whirl of zombied roaming,
ting and popovers,
and a new (cute) friend from the apple store.

in seoul, i had time to go on a tour
out to the demilitarized zone that nicky'd told me about.

we started off at the imjingak tourist resort
some 7km south of the military demarcation line
between north and south korea.
there, i walked on the "freedom bridge"
where 12,773 prisoers of the korean war returned from the north in 1953.


the bus then brought me to the 3rd tunnel
where i donned a bright blue helmet and hopped into a monorail
(yellow helmet for those walking down)
that brought me into a 2m-by-2m big tunnel,
1,635m in length and, if i'm not wrong,
about 25 storeys underground.

this tunnel is one of four found by the south koreans
and was dug by the north in their attempt to infiltrate the south.
so far, the 3rd tunnel is the one found nearest to seoul.

on to the dora observatory platform next,
which is the northernmost observatory in the south
that provides the closest view of the north.
through telescopes, one can make out the border
and look past it to see a part of north korea.


the last stop of the tour was at dorasan station
which is the planned gateway between north and south korea.
upon unification, it is hoped that this station,
56km from seoul and 205km from pyeongyang,
will facilitate travel between the two koreas.
i got my passport stamped to remember it by!

the rest of that free day was spent wandering the streets of myeong dong
and spending way too much money on facial products.
i also had yummy yummy korean food on this trip
and discovered a nice little porridge cafe
that warmed me up after a long day of walking.

ok, so that's all said and done.
it's good to be home.

taitse and taipei
(lucky no taiphoon)

was in nicky's land for a day
so was his mailman and bringer of felicity.
he met me at taipei 101
where we had yummy korean bbq,
bought a piece of rock for breakfast,
waited damn long for two cups of watermelon juice,
got money from funnily-named banks
and bought the first wine we tasted at jasons
before finally making it to the taxi "rank".

he bundled me into a cab
and told the driver to drive off to a faraway mountain.
green man running, drive-in love motels,
one grumpy cabbie, terrible driving,
"er si wu" and "er shi wu", and several wrong turns later,
we got to his americano friend's obscure, old-school chinese villa
near the top of yang ming shan.


there was an especially lovely corner in the backyard
where we parked ourselves for most of the night,
picking things off the barbie
for a second dinner lit by mosquito coil.

the gigantic mozzies forced us into the sitting room sometime later
and we joined the rest in watching a mad tenacious d movie
until a taxi managed to find us.

onward to shilin night market thereafter,
and we only managed a few steps before being lured by a long queue
and big bright signs at a dessert place.
tried their "zhao pai" which consisted of gui lin gao and taro balls,
their soya bean curd with peanuts, and taro balls with barley.
interesting, and the taro balls were nice and chewy,
but it was otherwise not very spectacular.


two hours of walking aimlessly (on my part at least) ensued.
i hunted for ikuro,
bought little rubbishes like cheesecake and sparkly "anna s" makeup,
and a pair of little socks that nicky said looks like tiny underwear.

i also got a sheet of stickers with cartoons and my name made -
i'm going to go on a sticking spreeeeee!
(the first one went onto nicky's berms,
but i can't post that picture
coz he said he had four chins and something else in it.)

when words aren't enough...


a post for a friend
who is going through a difficult time.

my dear, i'm so sorry for your loss
and for the tough situation you're in.
my heart goes out to you and all at home.

don't be so hard on yourself,
take your time to grieve.
we will hold your hands
and walk through this with you.
*hugs*