Of villas, art and doing nothing

So, I just got back from my Bali trip with C. It was 6 days  and 5 nights of impeccable service and friendly people all around, plus good food (mmmmm… BBQ red snapper,  jumbo prawns, squid, etc) & the inescapable pairing of Bintang Beer… (Mmmmm…)  & a lot of people thinking I’m East Asian (again…) because of my small eyes…

Anyway. This was both our 2nd trip to Bali. My first was 3 years ago with Grand Hyatt in Nusa Dua and consisted of 9 days of scuba diving, sightseeing and spa going. This time it’s gonna be more relaxed and less eventful, and Ubud is great for that purpose.

We stayed at the Four Seasons Resort in Sayan (couldn’t get nights in the Jimbaran sister resort, although we got a tour on the last day right before the flight back to S.B.P. (Singabloodypore – to borrow the useful, poignant term). Having been upgraded to a villa from a suite, there was a private plunge pool enclosed by lush greenery and flooding sunlight especially in the late mornings.. So you can basically tan in the nude in privacy although Sayan’s in the hilly Ubud area, if you want to. Not that I did anyway. Lol.

Our “sunken” villa was designed similarly with others to disappear from the environment as British, Cambridge-educated architect John Heah would like it. You’ll see lily ponds as roof-tops, “cascading water features” that run through the few stories of the main resort area. There was an outdoor chill-out area beside the mini-bar cabinet that comes with a coffee press, instant water boiler, complimentary coffee and tea, as well as champagne, wine and juice glasses lined up in case you’d like to pop the bottle for a special occasion.

There was a F.O.C. 2-hourly shuttle between the resort and Ubud shopping area (you can walk to Monkey Forest from the drop off point and see many handicraft and art galleries and shops along the way), so we saved on the IRP50,000 per trip taxi fare for these few days, although the norm was to book a driver for a half day / full day tour for between IRP250,000 to IRP350,000 depending on the driver. Most resort staff can recommend drivers that they call regularly for hotel guests so if you got no contacts for any driver, just ask the resort staff. Even the Spa management trainee had her driver to recommend.

So, on the first day we went to Riverside Cafe for some seriously light, wood-fired pizza with freshly baked breads accompanied with pesto sauce and olive oil.. “The best pizza in Bali” (quote Executive Chef Denny Frederick) was the perfect answer to our starving bellies.. Hehe.

Right after lunch we made use of the shuttle to head to Ubud to buy some snacks and then back to the resort to rent a couple of DVDs for a movie night. (I think throughout the trip, we rented about 5 DVDs in total.. and 2 music CDs.. Jack Johnson’s Sleep through the Static album is great for morning coffees. )
Bintang beer was on the shopping list of course, and we ended the day with “When Harry met Sally”.. Lol..

On the second day we met our Balinese pastry chef who was on home leave to have a private tour…! Started with spicy chicken rice lunch, then dropped by the art market, where it was pretty apparent that abstract art was enjoying the same popularity as traditional Balinese paintings. Then we headed to Kuta area for some avocado & chocolate (although I’d prefer gula melaka) smoothie & a spot of shopping, finally it’s down to Jimbaran Bay for some seriously smokey BBQ seafood at very affordable prices.

And then it’s back to the resort where our villa was nicely turned down with a mosquito coil lit in the alfresco area.

The following few days were dotted with visits to the famous Dirty Duck restaurant, the Monkey Forest, affordable spa massage at The Bodyworks Centre and trying delicious Bakso (meatball vermicelli in spicy broth) sold by a street vendor… The rainy weather made cycling and trekking activities organised by the resort kinda risky to carry on, so we mostly just enjoyed our villa in air-conditioned comfort (I couldn’t stay outdoors for too long because of the numerous mosquito bites >.< ) and delicious room service.

Next stop, Lombok! Let’s see when I can do that. Hehe.

We all love Stewie Griffin.

The longest words in the English Language…

We all want to be stars

The world has a population of 6,750,993,152 and counting. So. People say we’re all unique. And American reality TV tells us if we try hard enough, we can all be rich and famous. Thus American Idol, Who wants to be a Millionaire, Amazing Race etc were born.

And Facebook was born, right after other networking websites like Friendster, Multiply, MySpace etc, and people bought into them all because we all want to be noticed, we all want to feel special, we all like to be popular, and we all like to put part of our lives on public space. We all want people to know how different we are from the typical masses of whichever kind that we think we’re mightier than, and we’re interested in what other people disclose about themselves. In a nutshell, we’re all struggling celebrities.

And we love it when we get closer to private spaces of public figures through the internet, gossip magazines, tabloid newspapers, because one day when we finally get famous, we want to know how to live like a famous person.

Sometimes I want to slap myself for being so narcissistic, and melt into oblivion, because the only way to know that people think you matter is to look at who turns up at your funeral. Not your wedding, because few people would crash weddings uninvited, and the more ppl you invite the bigger the budget, eh. Unless you’re part of the super-rich minority of course.

25 things about me

1. I adore Craig Ferguson so much he’s the only reason I wanta visit LA.
2. I am a fan of Stella McCartney, Marc Jacobs, D&G, Dior, Loewe, Burberry and Nanette Lepore.
3. I am the biggest fan of my lil sister’s upcoming collection for her graduation runway show later in the year cuz I’ve gotten a sneak preview…
4. I can’t tan quickly. Therefore I need to tan often. But I don’t.
5. I love peaceful places like remoted islands and quiet spa resorts.
6. I also love cities with lots of energy and culture.
7. I’d love to pick up yoga again. Hot yoga makes me hot (in every sense of the word)!!
8. The first thing I notice about people is how comfortable they are being the way they are. Pretence is uncool. Eg. if you don’t know something just say you don’t, it’s ok to be honest about ignorance. But then you gotta get over it and get to a level of lesser ignorance lah.
9. The second thing I notice about people is whether they have any body odour. I’ve got a sensitive nose.  Personal hygiene ranks very high on whether I want to hang out with a person.
10. Not surprisingly I am a member of The Body Shop cuz they’ve got yummy scrubs and shower gels that smell soooo gooood.
11. I love perfumes.. and hate cheap smelling ones that remind me of air fresheners.
12. I am considering getting work done on my eyes, they’re so small!
13. I love autumn and winter fashion!
14. I’ve got insatiable wanderlust just like many people in my industry.
15. I shop on impulse too much.
16. I don’t date Singaporeans for fear of ending up living in Singapore for the rest of my life, and also for many other reasons that Malaysians understand. Hahaha.
17. I’m drawn to confident, actually megalomanic, people. Which can be a problem.
18. I’ve lived the good life once before and I don’t think I can enjoy it unless I earn it.
19. If I was materialistic enough,  I’d be happily married and living somewhere away from Singapore now.
20. But I couldn’t because I wasn’t.
21. If I was born in a different era, I might be a hippy.
22. If I was a hippy, I’ll get a tattoo of a black kitty on my shoulder blade.
23. And name myself Alassë Telrúnya (which is actually the elven translation of my Chinese name).
24. But I’m born in 1985. Which is a good year.
25. Maybe I might join UNICEF or UNIFEM one day.

I wuv Stewie… :p

Journey to work and back

Lately, I’ve begun to appreciate the ghetto of an apartment I’ve rented. Due to the inconvenient location, I spend an average of 40mins a day walking. 10minutes to the LRT station, 5 minutes to the bus-stop and another 10mins to my office. When going home, the same distance is covered with the destination being home. It’s been 5 months since I’ve started doing this ritual Monday to Friday (of course sometimes I take the ocassional taxi ride, because my feet hurt from either too much balancing on the overcrowded bus driven by a madman of a driver or the shoes with pointy heels finally make the blisters on my deformed toes burst and sting. I know. I’m so disgustingly honest, right. But check out the title of my blog. It says I speak frankly. Therefore I do.

Somehow I didn’t really feel the pain of walking in heels when I was doing the same at the hotel bar for a straight 8++ hours daily. I think the adrenaline pumping and multi-tasking nature of working in a busy hotel bar distracted me well from the pain in my feet, but changing 7 pairs of shoes in a year said a lot of how much walking I did… (or how difficult it is to find an elegant looking pair of shoes that’s comfortable enough to wear for a prolonged time).

Anyhow. Despite the horror of walking in 1.5 inch heels (doesn’t sound like much, but it’s torturing me) on an everyday basis, I am starting to psycho myself into thinking positive. When one earns so little and pays so much rent, one does not afford taxi rides everyday. Therefore one learns how to count one’s blessings, as in the case of yours truly.

When I’m not engrossed in reading my book (there’s always one in my bag, because I can’t stand the boredom of staring blankly ahead while travelling. And there’s not much of scenery in Singapore at all), I am plugged into my mp4 player, mostly listening to either a High Society album or a Hotel Costes album, observing. Observation of the Typical Singaporean comforts me.

Many many women like to wear 3 inch heels to work. And most of them walk almost as much as I do. The result is ugly, overly muscled, bulgy looking calves. I get reminded of my science teacher in secondary school when I see the Bulgy-calved Woman. And I get comforted because I know I still have relatively slim (and increasingly toned) legs. And no fat ankles. I hate to see fat ankles. Women with fat ankles should NOT wear skirts. They torture my vision. Yes. And through my random observation of other women’s calves, I conclude that low heels do not create ugly calves, only high heels do. I guess it’s due to the muscle group you use to balance differs when you wear different kinds of heels. High heels are NOT meant for walking, sisters!

I am motivated to invest in a nice pair of rubbery Crocs Mary Janes. Not because I think they look nice (I HATE the first generation of Crocs because they are the worst footwear to ever have been designed – no, brought to the retails stores. To say that someone designed that hideous thing is an insult to the verb), but because I need to start caring for my feet. Since Crocs shoes are supposed to be comfortable, I’ll give it a go, but only for the more bearable offering (ie the Mary Jane-ish ones). And if I can find something nice from Geox maybe I will get a pair too.

Yes. I mentioned observing the Typical Singaporean. You know who you are. The cheap-perfume-overloading, hustling-up-the-bus-entrance-because-you’re-afraid-there-is-no-seat-on-the-EMPTY-bus, hustling-to-the-exit-by-squeezing-through-the-crowd-like-you’re-the-only-person-alighting types drive me crazy.  Why can’t they just wait a little?! They make my everyday commute a regular cursing-in-my-heart ritual. It’s madness. I’m so afraid I’ll turn into one of them I get paranoid sometimes. I check my butt for VPL before I exit my apartment, I try to make sure I wear deodorant, I try to look slightly more put-together but I also value comfort of what I wear. But knowing I still think like the way I do comforts me because I’m not them. I try not to become them.

Therefore, no 3-inch heels, no typical pant-suits and no monogram bags of any brand. Monograms symbolise the infliction of Singaporean affluenza. Actually that’s mostly because I can’t afford any luxury bags. But for me, I’ll only carry a Marc Jacobs or Loewe tote when I earn a minimum 5-figure salary. Meanwhile I use my money on travelling, which is cheaper, feeds my soul and gets me out of this miserable excuse of an island.

Travel Destination Plan

Reading all those free travel & food magazines readily supplied by my resourceful PR ladies make me wanta check out so many places…

Travel plan for before I turn 30:
- Resort holiday in Lombok
- Trekking in Nepal / Bhutan
- Working holiday in NZ

And after I turn 30, I want..
- Backpacking tour in Europe
- Luxury cruise holiday on Seabourne / MSC cruises.
- Resort holiday in the French Polynesia (Bora Bora!!!)
- Trans-Siberian Railway trip to see the Silk Road

I’m sure the list will change / get longer as I get older, but for now it sounds fantastic. =)

All I want for Christmas…

This cheered me up considerably

Result Quiz What Kind of Chocolate Would You Be? Sexual, Dark, Milk, Hershey’s, or Nutty. What kind of chocolate would you be? You are DARK CHOCOLATE! Dark chocolate is an explosive, almost forbidden pleasure to those who love it. You’re like that one crazy night the old person thinks about while reflecting back on younger days. You’re wild, rich, and deep with many layers. Every person should taste you at least once before they die, because how can one judge the value of life’s simple pleasures without having climbed the highest mountain or dived the deepest abyss. Such is you. You’re also really good in bed.