your scent on my skin


i don't want it to fade away.

london lovin'

i'm back from my vacation in barcelona and ibiza but my post on spain will have to wait because there are a million photos i have to sort out first (thank you, dave, for loaning me your dslr xx).

before spain, i flew over to london and finally saw my minmin after she ran away from singapore for a month and a half. we had duck rice EVERYDAY (coz i miss deep deep after half a year of no londoning) and lola's cupcakes and yummy korean hole-in-the-wall and sketch and hyde park and oxford street and carnaby street and waited longlong for a bus and the tube didn't screw up too badly this time round.


lola's and friends at selfridges.


the lovely sketch - where i was pleasantly surprised when i bumped into *drumroll* YUJUN!!! she was having tea there too and saw me from her table when i was taking photos from outside like a mountain tortoise who had never seen a building before.


our scrumptious tea. mmmmm creeeaaaammmmm...


the amazing egg white loo...and i discovered "SOON!" scribbled at the bottom of the toilet paper holder!


various other parts of sketch we walked past on the way to the washroom. i'll definitely be back!

it has been a rather mad couple of days since i got home - akashi, helipad, late-night gmax (both the bungy and the swing!) and mos on the first, yum cha, dodgy manly camera shop, boot party and pvd@zouk on the second. but i'm saving all that for (yet) another post, after i get the photos from ollie.

i don't want this to end. =(

in search of my everything


i often end up with nothing at all.

hola!





greetings from barcelona! =)

smile


even when your heart is aching

i can so live here


morton's with the boys last weekend -
hugeass steaks, champagne, expensive wines...


gay dave showing off his gay socks before we left home.
and we made it louis' birthday just so we could sing the song
(coz every other table was doing it).

monday and we were bored when the boys were at work
so we got busy with the wii and created miis!



grace doesn't really look like grace coz we couldn't find the right hair
but i think the others are pretty well done.

had a flight back to melbourne over the past couple of days
and, four years on, it still feels very much like home.
this time round, i slurped down some mekong,
trammed to lygon and got my favorite cookies from brunetti,
then took a walk down memory lane and wandered about my uni.


old arts, baillieu library, redmond barry, sports centre,
union house, john medley, south lawn, old quad...
unimelb in autumn has always been particularly charming.

met genie in the city after and went to koko black
for some hot choc and dessert sampler
before driving his new car "xiao hong"
over to port melbourne (i want an apartment there!)
for drinks at campari.
dinner at shoya was yummy
and we ended up sitting in the restaurant for quite a while
coz we were too full to move.


went to da bao gyu tan don before my flight yesterday morning
and took photos like a tourist while strolling back to the hotel.
the city came to a standstill when a group of protesters
walked down bourke and swanston
with loud hailers, flags and police escorts.


just another day in melbourne =)

independence day


i went to huntington beach...


and SURFED!!!


why this surf board look like airmail envelope?

the sun was out, the wind was a tad chilly,
the water was brrrrrr (thank god for the wet suit).
i took an hour-long lesson and managed to stand up!
was knackered after that though
so decided not to head back into the water
and lazed on the beach instead.

the day after, i hauled my aching body out of bed,
rented a car (and got a cool one plus a discount coz i hiao),
braved the peanut butter and jams
and drove out to farmers market and the grove.


it's the long fourth of july weekend so the masses were out
and traffic was HORRIBLE.
i crawled along the freeway
behind a never-ending line of vehicles
and took more than two hours to complete a 45-minute journey.

will be missing out on the independence day fireworks today
but the past two nights have been amazing
since my room overlooks disneyland
and their nightly 15-minute fireworks display
happened right before my eyes.


-----

on a different note...
your coming forward to talk about us,
your sincerity and apology,
no matter how late,
meant a lot to me.
thank you.

people to say goodbye to

threw up on my flight to los angeles after eating some dodgy pork porridge and felt hella rough until i managed to nap it off during my rest. the "ex" was a passenger on the flight and it was nice having a familiar face in the crowd for a change. it has been a while and, despite everything, that very comfortable chemistry we shared was still present. he was the last person i saw before entering the bunk and his "are you feeling better?" was the first thing i heard after i got up. it brought back a flood of memories.

nostalgia aside, i'm glad that i no longer am trapped by this leopard who will never change his spots.

in la and my second meal in two days was half a california pizza kitchen pizza that managed to stay down. the cool californian night breeze was perfect for a solitary after-dinner stroll back to the hotel. in my mind the whole time, was something from one of the chapters in the book that is accompanying me on this trip.

the scene: at the airport just before boarding the plane - an all too familiar moment.
"...both had people to say goodbye to but i had nobody and for a brief moment i felt as if the one thing i wanted most in the world was to have someone who wanted to hear from me. someone who would miss the fact that i was no longer there...i turned off the phone before i could do any damage..."

jet-lagged and a restless 5-hour sleep later, i got out of bed at the crack of dawn and am typing this as the sky slowly colors. disneyland is waking up and there's already someone doing laps in the pool. i think i might take a drive to the coast and try my hand at surfing today! (",)