People Watching

The thing about tourists is that they'll never stay put. One day they're sitting right across you, capturing pictures of themselves and taking in the hardscapes and the softscapes, and on the next day, they're gone. New ones take their place. It's a new couple, a new group of friends, a new baby in the stroller; a different language, a different shade of hair, slightly wider eyes that try to make sense of the place. The crowd changes, every hour, every day, and I sit in the same spot, watching.

City Adventure: Waves in the Air

On Easter Sunday, I decided to take Duccio with me and go on a mini-adventure out in the city. The original plan was to check out the beaches of Sentosa (coming from a country that was used to beach vacations at least twice a year made me miss the sea, ehehehehe), but I ended up doing a mini-hike instead.

...And I arrived up there.

The picture I took with my phone the moment I got down the bus and my mouth fell when I saw how high up it was! 

Yup, that right there is  the highest pedestrian bridge in this tiny country of Singapore. It connects two nature parks, namely Telok Blangah Hill Park and Mount Faber Park, and is 36 meters high up in the air. It's called the Henderson Waves, a modern-day wooden bridge that is just gorgeous and fortunately empty of people at midday. If it weren't so hot and if I weren't feeling hungry for lunch at the time, I might have stayed longer, read a book and enjoyed the general quiet and ambience that the bridge has when you're there. You see rising, crazy-formed condominium developments in the distance, and maybe a little bit of the sea, and lots and lots of green from both parks. It's quite nice, really, and if it just wasn't so far from where I live, I would have made it a habit to go up every weekend or so.

The walk isn't too bad going up, to be honest, but I suppose it took me by surprise that it was just there, hanging high up over the road where the bus stop was, seemingly impossible to reach because there was no arrow pointing to where the entrance to the park was. All it took was blind faith and lots of self-convincing to forge ahead. I'm glad I didn't turn back!

Next time, though, I'm bringing a water bottle on all my mini adventures. Note to self: be prepared!

Rainy Sunday Indoors

Weekends have never been more blessed until I started working. Much like any normal person, I look forward to the comfortable lull of Saturday and Sunday and the happy art of taking my time with the things I do. On a regular sunny weekend, I'd make sure not to waste the weather and head on to a new place to explore in the city, but this recent weekend has been spent indoors, watching the rain fall and feeling conflicted as to whether or not I should go out despite the dreary and incredibly lazy weather. 

So this Sunday I took pictures of my little space and our humble room, not even bothering to whip out Duccio in such lazy weather and relying instead on my phone. I've been sifting through the latest issue of frankie, a magazine frequently mentioned by some blogs I follow, and which I decided to buy. It's a quaint magazine, so neatly designed and so fresh that I'm quite determined to buy all the next issues this year.

Today I wrote out lists on what to do when I visit Manila in February - much to do with developing film rolls and compiling a photo book of recent happenings - and whiled the afternoon away listening to Up Dharma Down's Capacities album, the perfect sort of music to be playing on a rainy day. Days like these are absolute love. J'adore!

*The books by my bed, and Freya the French bunny, but came all the way from Korea

*The picture that hangs by my bed

*One of the articles in frankie, which suits my mood and the state of my bed

*Shoes and Duccio

*The snapshots that are stuck to the wall above my roommate's bed

To the Zoo We Go!

Good evening, world!

Le awesome birthday month has just passed, and the awesome-est weekend I've ever had in so long has been over for two weeks now. My family came over for four days, and my boyfriend too!

On the 29th of September, I spent the morning and half of the afternoon celebrating a super wild birthday at the Singapore Zoo. My undergraduate thesis was a zoo if you remember, so finally visiting one of the best zoos in the world was such a special treat! (Tip: if you happen to go on the day of your birthday, you get in for free and you receive complimentary ice cream! Just show proof of your birth date and you get a pin like I have below!) I got to see a kangaroo, a leopard, baboon, ibex, emu, lion, zebra, anaconda, seal, manatee, really huge tortoises, white tiger, jaguar, orangutans, and sooooooo many more animals you wouldn't get to see back home. I got to feed a huge seventy year old tortoise apples and carrots to a giraffe!

I had about three cameras with me, and halfway through the zoo, I decided to forego Duccio and stick to Coco (le new phone, teehee!).

I'd post more pictures if I could, but ah, well. These should be enough. 

You would think that a zoo is typically marketed towards children, but do treat your inner child and visit Singapore Zoo - it's worth it and fun, really, even for grown-ups! ;)

Home Away from Home

Welcome to my little corner here in this part of the world.

I've yet to buy picture frames and other things to make it a little cozier, but so far it's comfy and filled with scraps of things that remind me of home. My books keep me company when they can and bring me into the comfortable lull of their fantasies. And yes, for the record and just because I want to proclaim it, I love Ikea. 

Happy September, everybody!

Hello, hello!

On one of our touristy days, we caught the opening of the Gardens by the Bay. This project is so close to my heart, particularly because it was such a huge help for my related literature for thesis and the feasibility of my own project proposal. I remember watching and rewatching the promotional video rendering of the whole development (here), basically just thinking how amazing it was all gonna be once it was completed.

And it's beautiful! It's not even complete yet, but it's a sight to behold.

Sorry for this architecture-y set of photos, but mehhhh, I did graduate from architecture school. Heh. To experience such architecture is just inspiring, really, and I wish with all my heart that the Philippine government would actually contribute to investing on green spaces in every city we have, just as SG did in this mega development!

I've yet to enter the conservatories, but do have a visit of the gardens for free when you find yourself here in the Garden City. :)