fish farm day

a lonely stingray

funny face and more

these aren’t shadow

crowded

innocent looking

swimming bananas

poor birdie in the cage

a little break

dinner and friends

Mid-week dinner at Le Bistrot – relax ambience, fine service and delicious food.

In picture: braised Wagyu beef cheek served with duck fat potatoes and mesclun salad

pink dot sky

Yesterday, at Pink Dot 2011, an event to support the freedom to love.

Beautiful, isn’t it?

first, and last

My first visit... and probably the last, to the nostalgic looking Bukit Timah Railway Station.

Disappearing types on the old signage.

Another first: walking and checking out details on the railway tracks.

Can you spot the station master? He was chatting with a friend on the platform.

The red bricks station building looked quite well maintained when viewed from the front and right side... however, on it’s left side, the wall looked weathered and abandoned with peeling paint .

The station office.

Entrance of the station.

The manually operated signalling room.

A small corner on the right side of the station. There was a row of death threatening looking hooks outside the window and i can’t figure out its usage. They looked like torturing weapons to me.

Heart-shaped leaf plants along the side of the tracks.

Me, pretending to wait for the train.

Finally, an approaching train that was late for almost 55 mins (yawn!). The station master was getting ready to exchange the key token.

Took a few random shots as the train passes by and caught myself in one of them. The token exchange happened in a split second and the whole train passes by in just under 5 seconds.

Shortly after, there was another approaching train... most likely for cargo as there was only one or two cabins.

Glad i made it to this station and witnessed a piece of history before it closes on 1 July 2011.

A well-spent Saturday morning :)

if. there is a tomorrow

Life is so unpredictable, no one knows if there is a tomorrow waiting...

An irresponsible driver almost got me killed today... Although i have the habit of making sure that the road is safe before crossing (even if it’s the right of way for pedestrian at green light), but no matter how careful one is, accident still happens. Earlier today, i was half way crossing at a near empty road when a car appeared suddenly at high speed. Maybe the driver failed to notice the red light, or in the first place, his intention was never to stop since the road was so empty... Luckily, it did manage to brake just a few inches away from me at the last second. i have survived unscathed, but my legs still feel a bit numb as i type this... they were so closed to becoming mince meat.

i wonder if i’m lucky or unlucky, but this is my third time brushing passed death. The last one was an accident in traffic-chaotic Hangzhou when the cab behind crashed into the cab that i was in. Everything happened in a split second – loud screaming, then my head hit real hard onto the back seat. There was no immediate pain except that my head felt heavy and numb from the strong impact. Everyone in the cab would have been killed if we were travelling on high speed. It’s been more than a year since, although i’m not sure if it is the after effect of the accident, i am having headache very often as compared to before.

The first, which was the most rememberable, happened more than 10 years ago in Tioman island. i used to be a confident swimmer and being young and ignorant then, i thought it was alright not to wear a life jacket. But anything can happen when you’re out at sea. The wave was extremely strong that day, the yacht couldn’t go any nearer to the island and the other alternative was to swim there. Shortly after we jumped into the water, i realised the breathing apparatus that i was wearing turned out to be faulty and i had no choice but to remove it. The wave kept hitting on my face, making it difficult to breath normal above water. i was falling behind the rest and worse, making no progress towards the island at all. i kept threading water to stay floating but i could feel my limbs getting weaker and weaker, and till a point i told myself: this is it. i remember the scene very clearly till today – suddenly everything stood still, no more struggling, not a single sound, it was peaceful. i looked around me, panning from left to right slowly, then closed my eyes and i thought: “So, this is where i am going to die”.

A typical drowning scene in the movie does happen in real life... But of course, i didn’t die, i was saved. After that incident, i was so scared of water i stopped swimming for years.

So, you tell me, am i lucky or unlucky?

changing wall

i’ve updated my wall again... now spotting a huge Paul Barnes poster that i got it from the interesting talk (on typography) yesterday.

things

On the wall: inspiration and reference for a current project

Top of the book shelves: getting higher and higher

Ready to mail: wooden pencils and ruler, before and after postcard

Seeing double: camomile tea and vegetable chips afternoon break

paperdoll wardrobe

The initial plan was to make paper dolls for my niece. And since she likes to mimic me a lot, i thought it would be nice to let her play with clothes from my wardrobe. However, when i started drawing, i realised i can’t be bother to trim out the edges. So instead of one doll plus few sets of clothing, now there are multiple me. Will try to colour them when i have time, but not sure how she’s going to play with these. We’ll see...