i love heung gong again

Someone asked me, after the trip, "Wah, Four Seasons ah! How was it?" My blase reply, "Okay lor." Even a room with a gorgeous view of the harbour, bathroom with scrumptious L'Occitane toiletries and long bath with mini TV cannot match up to the Bvlgari resort. I'm ruined for life. (Take note of the squat white rectangle building almost right smack in the middle of the photo.)


Before.


After.


The luxury brand which shall not be named -- no need to give it more publicity, it's already very well known -- wined and dined us. Even the napkins and plates were emblazoned with its name and monogram.


By the end of the four-course dinner, the poor goldfish in the flower arrangement were gasping for breath at water's the surface.


We had to take part in a luxury version of The Amazing Race. One leg of it saw us sailing on a reproduction of an antique Chinese junk while sipping cocktails and having foot massages. By the way, the winning team of 10 journos from Taiwan walked away with a huge monogram bag each (estimated eBay value at over S$5,000).


We also had to go to a temple -- the name eludes me, Mo Wan or something, we cheated and eavesdropped on another team to get there -- where an ang moh woman demonstrated the art of breaking spears with her neck, like some Shaolin monk. Very incongruous.


The last stop of the race was a private champagne room where we guzzled Krug. We were supposed to taste how well it went with foie gras and caviar and Alaskan crab, but frankly, I was too hungry by then to appreciate the nuances. Although I did notice that the light fixture was made up of bowls and plates.


Four days in Hong Kong and the only local food I had was wanton noodles. And we had to sneak off from the launch party -- with its free flow of champagne and non-filling canapes -- to get to Tsui Wah for it.


What I was in Hong Kong for. Obligatory shot of the newly-opened store.


The store is so humongous -- biggest in Asia wor, second only to the one in Paris -- that it has its own art gallery. Yes, that's Gong Li, as shot by Chow Yun Fat, as shot by me.


For the entire trip, I kept seeing this pixie-like China journo with adorable hairbands and various cute outfits. Finally, I plucked up the courage to ask for a pix of her hair. Wonder if I can carry it off. Oh, and notice that giraffe-like model in the background? She's from Slovakia and she had just turned 15 the week before. She looks double her age.


Remember that white rectangle? It's this mammoth tent built like a trunk for the gala party.


Sorry, my lurve, this is the best pix I could manage of your hero Kanye West. In my defence, I was balancing on a wobbly stool at the end of the tent in three-inch heels with Dick Lee and boyfriend jostling behind me on the same stool.


One last gratuitous shot. For more shameless shots of me and my various outfits, check out the Swirl Girls blog.

i love heung gong

I've been telling everyone, but in case you haven't been informed: The Swirl Girls have set up a fashion blog.

It is full of silly poses -- mostly by me -- and behind-the-scenes action of running a shop and preparing for new designs. We also have a fashion diary series, where we post what we wear daily.

There are also a detailed posts about our trip to Heung Gong, which should keep you occupied while I fly off to Heung Gong again. I will endeavour not to miss my flight this time round.

fringe benefits

Armed with a large A3 size colour print out of Katie Holmes (and stunted-looking Tom Cruise that I was too lazy to crop out) and determination to cut my fringe, I went to visit my nazi of a hairdresser.

As usual, he looked pained and insisted that hair poking into my eyes was very nice. But I forged on and insisted on the Katie Holmes blunt-cut bangs. For once, I got my way.

My friend D who happened to have made an appointment to cut her hair after mine, came armed with a similar photo of Mrs Cruise. The nazi looked more pained than ever that she, too wanted, that hair cut. He has a thing about not giving us similar cuts, which explains why he tried to psycho me into growing my fringe.

I'm not sure how he convinced my friend, but she ended up with a cut completely unlike the one in the photo.

Luckily I got there first.

trigger happy

Still trying to get the hang the mind-boggling number of functions on my new toy, but super happy thus far. My compulsive reading of online camera reviews and relentless badgering of my fave photog has paid off.


I love the "food" function, it makes a simple shot of xiaolongbao look good.


Still getting the hang of focusing. Wanted to focus on the spoon, not the chopsticks!


The "face detection" is amazing! And see what being married for more than 30 years does to you? You smile and cross your arms the same way.


My sissy and I look like crap in this photo, courtesy of our dad. He, obviously, hasn't been reading the manual like he needs to sit for an exam.


Of course, the most unwilling and uncooperative subject of my photos has been my doggie. I haven't tried the "pet" function on him yet though.

it's a wrap

Isn't this the most fab wrap? Simple yet clever. It's from Missoni's A/W 08 collection, but I'm pretty sure I can make one myself. Now, when was the last time I said that?

As if I have the time to sew anything, especially now that I've got my hands on the object of my desire. Final decision was the Panasonic Lumix FZ18. Just got it today and been turning its knobs and pushing its buttons all night. Love it! Especially the 18x zoom. Woot! [Pardon the sentence fragments and random subject jumping. Tired. Been busy with things like work and sale and mahjong.]

OK, now to go mark my students' assignments while listening to Jay sing 献世 in heartfelt, if not exactly accurate, Cantonese on repeat mode. Then to start figuring out what to wear for a week of 10 to 15 deg C weather in Hong Kong. But first, to play some more with my non-shiny [I opted for black instead of silver] new toy.

Tell me, when am I gonna find time to haul my sewing machine [poor neglected toy] out and make anything?

beautiful in desolation

Ahhh, these are the kind of depressing and haunting pix I would love to shoot if I ever settle on which camera to get...

I've driven my fave friendly fotog mad with my endless camera questions, including "Why do I need wide angle lens?" and "How come don't have pink cameras ah?"

The two contenders at this point in time -- they keep changing -- are the Canon G9 and Sony H7. Any help in making the decision would be much appreciated.

Photos above from etsy seller Still Memory.

jayday! mayday!

While doing a massive load of laundry -- dating back to pre-CNY days -- last night, I unearthed a "new" striped tee that I had taken from the Swirl Swap Swop last month and finally washed it.

So this morning, regardless of the fact that (a) my throat hurt like mad from excessive rubbish consumption, (b) I only had five hours of interrupted sleep because I couldn't stop watching K-drama Queen of the Game till 4am, and (c) I was late for work and had no chauffeur, I just had to do my own private tribute to Jay. And puke-inducing as it sounds, it made me feel 甜甜的. *joooooom*

I told WW after lunch that my outfit was inspired by him, but she had already figured it out all by herself, clever girl. It was what he had worn when he arrived at the airport on his birthday. She just didn't want to say it while we were lunching with non-Jay fans. We're such persecuted folks!

It's a Jay Day also because dear MS gave me a belated birthday present -- her autographed copy of 七里香! So sweet of her to give me "something Jay has touched".

Oh, and the Mayday in the subject header refers to their concert in April. And we're going! So excitement!

P.S. Ignore the giant pile of worn clothes on the left of the photo, please. But note the big green hand proclaiming my love of Jay on the shelf on the right. Doggie's spotty body in the shot is a bonus.

P.P.S. To make this post less "scary fan stalker" and more "fashiony', I'd say I was also inspired by the fantastic Flickr group, Wardrobe_Remix, where people snap and post pix of clothes they wore that made their day. I can spend hours scrolling through the thousands of outfits. In honour of Wardrobe_Remix (and my sissy, who abhors the long-sleeves-under-short-sleeves look):

Striped top -- Mango
Black knit top -- H&M
Black capris -- Zara
Black pointy patent shoes (not seen) -- URS & Inc
Camera phone -- Nokia 6300

P.P.P.S. Check out the incredibly stylish blogger Style Bytes, who makes the supreme effort to get dressed, put on make up (or is her skin really that gorgeous?), accessorise her outfit and shoot a photo of herself, even when she is supposedly ill. When I am sick, I don't even want visitors, that's how bad I look.

i like hats, especially cowboy ones

A long overdue post. Sorry, my two loyal readers. I've been very busy (just like what a certain singer says on his latest album).

Anyway, so what transpired on the day of the cowboy hat? The obvious answer would be the breathlessly awaited Jay Chou birthday concert!!! (Notice the unprecedented use of three exclamation marks? The sub in me now has this urge to go back and edit out the over-enthusiastic, unjournalistic punctuations.)

More on Jay in another post. He deserves a long long long post, but it will have to wait till my fever abates somewhat. Otherwise, it will consist of "I LOVE YOU, JAY!!!", "SHUAI DAI LE!!!", "DAI WO HUI JIA!!!", a whole lot of exclamation marks and no content.

But back to that fateful Friday of 18 January. It was also the day I put on another hat and became a teacher -- something I never thought I could do because of my phobia of public speaking, as well as fear that I would be leading innocent students astray.


It's been three weeks since I started -- I take two classes every Friday -- and I'm still marvelling at the architecture of the spiffy new Lasalle campus. There are bridges linking various parts of the buildings, called pods (very space age), and the green "grass" you see is actually astro turf (again, very space age). I wish I could be one of those art students who sprawl on the fake green with their iPods plugged into their ears and their sketch books open in front of them.


Classes are held in a cavernous hall, with mannequins lurking at the back. Sorta like Project Runway, especially with those drama queen students I have. Take this conversation I had, for instance:

ME: So why did you choose to write about this Chanel bag?
STUDENT A (I'm very bad with names): Because it's Chanel!
ME: But what's so special about it?
STUDENT B: You don't like Chanel?
ME: Ya, I don't like Chanel.
[Collective gasp of horror from STUDENTS A-Z]
STUDENT C (Flaming gay boy who wears a pashimina shawl): OH MY GOD! You don't like Chanel!
ME: Erm, ya. Please don't burn me at the stake.


Oh and the course I'm teaching is called Fashion Communication. Basically, I teach about writing about fashion for magazines. I would share the horror stories of marking their written work, but I'm still trying to figure out the meaning of a word that appeared in a 100-word assignment about a Yves Saint Laurent bag -- "kuluolan".

in praise of pastes

For dinner, green curry* with brown bread and white wine. Burp. Hic. This is what I do when I'm supposed to be doing actual writing.

* Made from Dancing Chef curry paste. Dancing Chef is very good. My tummy is dancing now -- with joy.

mmmmentaiko

Mentaiko pasta in 15 minutes, thanks to a thoughtful MS and her gift of Japanese sachets of instant seasonings. Neon yellow pickled radish -- takuan, I think? -- as a side dish.


Bland yet salty. Rich yet light. Gone in 10 minutes.

I've loved this since I first had the home-cooked version -- still the best ever -- by the Mum of the family my sis and I were staying with when we backpacked through Japan a millennium ago. I've tried to replicate it once from scratch but it was too rich. Can someone try Chubby Hubby's recipe and let me know if it's any good?

In the meantime, I'm guarding my last three packets most jealously.

just shoot me

Despite the lukewarm reviews and rather hefty price tag, I'm still drooling over the Leica D-LUX 3. I think it's something to do with the retro boxy shape. None of that shiny silver shit.

I'm such a sucker for packaging.

P.S. I can't belive I just spent the last two hours obsessively comparing various dSLRs, prosumer SLRs, compacts and ultra-compacts on CNet.com. The logical choice -- Ha! As if I have spare cash! -- would be the highly-rated Canon PowerShot G9.


Not as pretty as the object of my desire (the pix is pixelated not because I don't love it as much, just some technical difficulties I can't be bothered to troubleshoot), but a good $200 cheaper.

a moving story

If Ikea is the happiest place on earth, then we should just move in there. Oh wait, someone already did.

0204

Dang. I got my "big" and "small" mixed up. Novice 4D gambler mistake.

Double dang. I came close to striking a consolation prize. That's $12 down the drain.

speeling on chanel 5

The guys doing the trailers for Channel 5 must be drunk. The two stars in Mr & Mrs Smith were Angelina Jolie and Bratt Pitt. And the winner of Asian Idol was Hardy Mirza.

0201

First post of 2008.

There I was, getting ready to tuck into my yummy char kway teow with extra hum, when I saw out of the corner of my eye, a white streak going diagonally past my face from right to left.

With half my attention on AC's riveting tale of a spitting deejay and clubbing hijinks, I didn't notice that whatever that airborne thing was had landed on my plate. Luckily, an alert CW pointed it out. On close scrutiny, we realised it was bird poop.

"Ewww...Ewww...Ewww..." I couldn't stop exclaiming, alternating between leaning as far away from the offensive whitish goop as possible and examining it in morbid fascination. "My char kway teowwwwwwwww..."

"Why don't you just push it aside? You can still eat the rest," someone suggested so helpfully. (No one would own up to this later on when I questioned the witnesses.)

"Nooooooooo!" I wailed, to continued chortles from my unsympathetic lunch companions, some of whom were merrily tucking into their unsullied char kway teow.

Using only the barest of finger tips, I carried the plate back to the char kway teow uncle and told him in my best whining voice: "Got bird shit!"

Even the sweaty harassed uncle had to pause in the middle of frying and crack a grin at my predicament. And the auntie very kindly gave me another plate and refused to take my money.

Since bird shit is supposed to be lucky -- not sure why -- I've gone and bought 4D for only the second time in my life. (I won the first and last time I did.)

We'll find out tomorrow if betting $12 was a good idea -- or a bird-brained one.

P.S. Can you spot my good luck charm in the pix?

easy to please

I'm so thrilled by K's Christmas gift to me of a toothbrush holder. It has the same colouring as my doggie! I think he likes it too!

happy festivus

Here's my Christmas gift to one and all -- especially all the fellow aunties out there.

If you've ever been driven to the brink of insanity when trying to fold fitted sheets after washing them, here's how to get them all nice and flat.

100% christmas

It's not Christmas until I hear Wham sing, "Last Christmas, I gave you my heart..."

I still haven't heard that or "Do they know it's Christmas time at all?", but I'm sorta in the mood after splurging on the most darling sweater (above) at Topshop. 100% wool, 100% handmade, 100% warmth. (Oh, and 20% off the regular price. Yay!)

And next year, the elves will get their act together and produce Mr Brown (not pictured), Mr Browner (left) and Mr Brownest (also not pictured) for sale. Hugging them is instant 100% happiness.

Here's wishing everyone warmth and happiness this Christmas! Big hugs from me and the Messrs Brown.

of gingerbread & men

A furry human-sized gingerbread man came to the office yesterday. I was freaked out and fascinated at the same time. I couldn't stop staring at him but I didn't dare to go close to take a photo.

I believe he tried to eat some log cake, but failed because of his mouth does not open. He brought us a very large cake in his likeness which we were very thrilled with. Many photos were snapped.

No one could bear to do an autopsy on the cake, so it just lay there till the end of the day. What a waste of a perfectly good cake. So XY and I decided to follow the altruistic example of News Desk and send it to a children's home. BC very kindly drove us there. We hope there were some very happy kids at Grace Haven last night.


This is a palm-sized gingerbread man I got from one of the countless Christmas hampers in the office. He looks perfectly cute and innocent -- until you look at the junction of his legs.

Now for the "men" part of this post. There aren't any, which is a problem. A problem not so much for me, but for my Mom. She now has this idea to matchmake me with an old neighbour's son who looks very 老实. Apparently his mother was the one who approached mine. I'm horrified beyond words. Shall I tell her I have a thing for gingerbread men only?

knit pick

Give me two sharpened broomsticks and yarn as thick as my wrist, and I will make you this scarf in any colour you want. If you sprain your neck, it is because the anaconda around your neck weighs approximately 5kg. Giles scarf, US$2,150, as seen in Marie Claire December 2007. Via Jezebel.


Too bad I don't have the right tools. This is what I just made instead. It weighs a mere 200g. Don't ask why I need a scarf in Singapore.

all i want for christmas...

Since we started playing Christmas albums in the shop -- Bette Midler, Mariah Carey and Diana Krall on rotation eight-and-a-half hours a day -- I've been pondering and editing and rearranging my [shallow and materialistic] wish list.


It's so cold in the shop that I feel like I really really need this Kimchi & Blue Ruffle Coat from Urban Outfitters.


Miniature Leica digital camera, also from Urban Outfitters. Look how cute and small it is. Oh and it's packed with nifty functions too. A Polaroid camera would do nicely too, but I would ask for a year's supply of film, which is the killer part. But actually, I have my eye on a prosumer camera, specifically, the beautiful Sony Cyber-shot DSC-R1, which I even dreamt that I had in a lovely aquamarine colour.


For the domestic goddess in me trying to get out, I want a transparent crock pot. [Every time I say "crock pot", I associate it with "crock of shit".] Unfortunately, I can't find any in Singapore. The auntie at the electronic appliances shop gave me a weird look and asked, "How can the clay pot be transparent?"


I've kicked my addiction to glossy mags, but I wouldn't say no to subscriptions to Domino, Dwell, Blueprint and ReadyMade.


Chloe Edith bowling bag in black, red or brown. Even a fake is fine by me, that's how much I covet it.

Santa, are you listening?

flower power

One of the few joys of having a flourishing garden -- Flowers for the plucking! For free! To place on the window ledge! To gaze upon while washing the dishes! Oh joy!

The non-joys of having a garden include having to do actual gardening, over-abundance of weeds and lalang, and muddy doggie paws.

The green leaves at the bottom edge of the photo are from my basil plant, amazingly lush and still growing despite being plucked ever so often for cooking.

While overcome by a sudden urge to embrace nature, I planted a mini terrarium in an old pasta sauce bottle with everything -- soil, baby plants, pebbles -- taken from the front yard. Non-green fingers are crossed that it won't die on me.

run for your life

If these shoes could speak, they'd be saying, "Don't just do it."

First, the good news. I didn't keel over and die after jogging 100m.

Now for the not so good news.

I ran at a very slow pace. My doggie, who usually breaks into a gallop, was forced to merely trot next to me.

I set a very low target of 20 minutes, which was what I seem to recall experts recommending thrice a week, not that I ever paid any real attention to fitness articles.

After 10 minutes, I was on the verge of collapse. I wasn't breathless or tired, I was faint and light-headed.

Fearing an imminent heart attack, I sat on the curb with my chest heaving, while my oblivious doggie ran around in a circle with the radius the length of his leash and marked every tree in it.

That was not the worst. I then felt like vomitting, even though I had not eaten anything the whole morning -- which on hindsight might not have been such a good idea -- and started dry heaving.

Strangely, I felt right as rain after that and could even take my doggie to his fave park to run around. But I'm too demoralised by my inability to run even 500m that that may be the last time I attempt to jog.

Healthy lifestyle? Bah!

lawn furniture

ReadyMade magazine is like a vault of ideas for my never-ending list of WIP. The instructions for this green couch seem simple enough. I'm thinking of attempting an armchair, to begin with. Starting small...

i don't think so

Silly PR: Will you be able to make it for the event tomorrow?
Me: I don't think so.
Silly PR: You don't think so you can make it?

If you can't tell what is wrong with the above conversation, I don't think so we can be friends.

yo yo yo

The worst rap in the world. It doesn't even rhyme. And my beloved Mr Man looks like a fool, though not as big a fool as the rest of the pseudo rappers from MDA.

a rolling stone gathers more than moss

I was so intrigued by this mini sculpture -- the giraffe made me giggle -- by Jennie Maneri that I had to find out what the heck Katamari Damacy was. Yes, I'm aware the cool kids probably are no longer even playing PS2 and have moved on to Wii, but I'm still fascinated by a game in which you do two of my favourite activities -- rolling around and gathering tiny objects.

it's a sickness, y'all

I've been stricken again. I simply gotta have these two prints, The Barbie Murders, from Etsy seller Wilde Designs framed up and hung side by side. The fallen stiletto just kills me.

My twin has volunteered to shoot something similar for me. Just need to dig up my old dolls.

in the pink of health

Boy, am I glad to see the last of that grapefruit juice.

For the past three days, I have been on the first and only diet of my life -- the grapefruit diet -- in the name of journalism.

Before every meal, I had to either eat half a grapefruit or drink a large glass of grapefruit juice. Since I couldn't find the fruit in the supermarket, I settled for three large bottles of the organic stuff.

The best part of the diet was the two slices of bacon and two eggs I was allowed every morning. After I had first downed a large grapefruit juice, of course, which felt very acidic on the tummy, but also rather refreshing.

Lunch and dinner was a meat and a salad, which wasn't that difficult, and I was allowed to eat as much as I wanted. But the tough part was no sugar and no carbo, which meant no desserts and no pasta or noodles.

By Day Three, I was hallucinating about a large plate of spaghetti smothered in tomato sauce and thoughts of the Ben & Jerry's in my fridge kept popping up for no reason.

All the deprivation was worth it, though. I'm proud to announce that I'm now 1kg lighter. But I'm not touching grapefruit again for a couple of months at least.

bidding war

Do you have a practically worthless pack of Pokemon cards that you would like to turn into some spending money? One harrassed mother of six did just that on eBay, with a lot of humour, and made some US$142. Not sure how long more the page will remain since the auction ended some time ago, so faster click and see.

And yes, I'm back to my bad eBaying ways again.

friday night always is a happy day

For the entertainment of heavily pregnant women -- and I can't believe there are two such readers out there -- this may make you laugh so much that you go into labour.

I got this e-mail after I wrote about being alone and not lonely:


Dear Suzanne,

After reading your article at LifePeople... Sound like you are interesting person, I always wanted to meet. The fact that, I get inspiration from your words 'Sure I can, but it's easy to go by myself'.

Five years ago, I met one of my customer from American. She told me that, Singapore will become one of the great city in the world but are we facing the social communication change? Do we really have to work and live like that?

All I need, just wanted to meet up the same topic crowd to get my writing flow. Friday night always is a happy day. Perhaps, we can meet up for chatting in near CBD area. One of the bar or caffee...

I am looking forward to hearing from you.

There was an attachment with his CV {I call it a CV only to be kind}:

London College of Communication - Graduate Diploma in Creative Media, Graphic Design, 2004 – Recently, I have been working in printing and book industry after graduated; I do simple design and print all kind of books, letters, DM, invitation card etc.

Now, my work also involve in visual juarnal, creative writing, proof read checking and others. Beside, in some case we have to provide some suggestion topical letter.

I am Asian born Chinese, writer and designer. What made me to continued write well infor, funny and life? Once, I got your commission and gift

Thanks

Another "fan" wrote the following, despite the T word not being used in the most recent column but one many months ago:

You wrote to your readers in a recent byline to drop you a line, so let me blast straight off the blocks and say, with my totally unabashed admiration coupled with a guilty tinge of male arousal - that you're one hell of a young woman journalist to pen the word 'tampons' in a family-friendly paper, alluding to personal use … I can't recall any other lady reporter brandishing that word so offhandedly in the entire history of SPH's English-language news print media.

Hey, don't get me wrong - I'm not one of those middle-aged uncle perverts out to score with provocative praise, then scurry off with grave urgency … it's just that until I read your article on, oh well whatever it was, I thought I was the occasional Singaporean who would get overly explicit in thought and talk, but now I know I'm not alone. There should be a chatroom committed to people like us (NOT that PLS, please!).

Meanwhile, I prefer to remain anonymous, awaiting your next piquant declaration! :- ))

I don't know which is worse -- a proof read checker who can't spell or a tampon-fixated pervert.

the perils & joys of a well-stocked larder

On my supermarket sweep on Friday -- I was actually excited before it -- I got everything on my list for $29.90. Check out my very impressive shopping cart:

Extension cord
Two pints Ben & Jerry's
Valley Chef Sausages
Kitchen towels
Toilet paper
Canned mushrooms
Half a chicken
Potatoes
Carrots
Onions
Frozen dim sum
Ant baits
Two large cans of Baygon
Breakfast ham 300g
Cheese
Two good sized hunks of steak
Spring roll skin
Tinned tuna
Frozen prawns buy-one-get-one-free
Fish fingers
Fake crab meat
Magic sponge

Long live shopping vouchers redeemed from credit card points! Lugging home all those shopping bags was a pain in the arms though.

My fridge is ready in the event of a nuclear fallout, but the downside is that I keep thinking about what to eat next. Like now, I'm considering padding downstairs to get two scoops of ice cream. And what I can cook with frozen prawns. I'm thinking garlic prawns with pasta. Mmm...

And I'm still so incredibly impressed by the final item I grabbed on impulse, the magic sponge -- proper term is melamine foam -- which my colleagues had raved about.

The innocent looking piece of white foam can really work wonders. I tried it, half doubtingly, on a tea-stained mug. The yellowish marks came off when I wet the sponge and rubbed it like an eraser. I next tried it on my hot water flask, formerly grey, now back to pristine white.

I was on a roll. My sink, my tabletop, even my laptop. All so clean now. So effortless! And so fuss free! Just add water.

Okay, before I sound completely like a bad infomercial extolling the virtues of a piece of foam, I better end this auntie report. Back to looking for dirty surfaces to buff!