He's One Quirky Guy

i enjoyed myself so much at the tim burton's exhibition today. i went for the exhibition not knowing anything about him, besides knowing that he's the director of alice in wonderland. heard his name numerous times, and i know that he's definitely one big shot in the movie industry. since holidays are here, i decided to go check out his exhibition at federation square. mind you, there was a 35 minute queue on a tuesday morning. this is how great he is. he's a real talent. no regrets going, and i found myself a new idol. :)

sadly, we weren't allowed to take pictures inside the exhibition. i totally agree with that idea as allowing people to snap photos of his work will just lower himself. rachel, kimmy and i were blown away with his masterpieces. from sketching to movie production, everything was just awesome. i wish i could buy some of his drawings and hang them in my room or future house. his work displayed is so HIM. drawings, sculptures, movies and story lines were all so weird, sad, spooky. but the funny thing is, the majority of us out there do appreciate his work.

after today, i found out that he actually directed so many movies. 1982 Vincent, 1984 Frankenweenie, 1985 Pee-wee's Big Adventure, 1988 Beetlejuice, 1989 Batman, 1990 Edward Scissorhands, 1992 Batman Returns, 1994 Ed Wood, 1996 Mars Attacks, 1999 Sleepy Hollow, 2001 Planet of the Apes, 2003 Big Fish, 2005 Charlie and the Chocolate Factory & Corpse Bride, 2007 Sweeney Todd, 2010 Alice in Wonderland.

can't believe i've only watched 2 of his productions. what have i been doing? adrienne's going to pass me Edward Scissorhands tomorrow, and i shall slowly start finding and watching the rest. and its always glad to know that he has upcoming productions. 2011 Dark Shadows, 2012 Frankenweenie, 2013 Maleficent, 2014 The Addams Family. :)

i couldn't leave federation square without a souvenir, so i got myself a post card and a tim burton's tragic thought journal. love the cover of it as it has colourful lights. everything about him is just so ____. is there even a word to describe his character? sad, lonely childhood are the words that occur to me when looking at his work. also, i guess his love life proves the point that love is fated, since his wife is Helena Bonham Carter. so compatible.

everyone in melbourne should go for this exhibition.

My Cup of Tea

went for afternoon tea with rachel tjong on thursday at hopetoun tearooms. can't believe that we only discovered this place very recently after being here for 3 years. a very small english tearoom located on collin's block arcade. they have a wide range of teas, and their cakes/pies/tarts displayed on the window is just mouth-watering!!

we ordered vanilla tea, highly recommended by the waitress. & guess what my dear friend rachel did. she poured milk and SALT (spamming) into our tea, thinking it was SUGAR. what a big joke. i was thinking to myself why doesn't the vanilla tea taste nice at all. in fact, so salty.

blackberry really can't let your fingers rest.

they were so good, we had hazelnut and strawberry sponge cake. the hazelnut one was solid, felt as though i was just eating kinder bueno chocolate. very rich and moist, yet not too sweet. the strawberry sponge cake was just yummy and fruity, perfect for an afternoon tea snack.

really enjoyed that slackish 1-2 hours having afternoon tea with one of my besties. i could really do this everyday. can holidays please be longer? i want more time so that i can get back there and try the rest of their delights. :)

51

on wednesday, i attend the singapore society's mid autumn festival event held in the university with kenneth. we totally didn't know what we were getting ourselves into, but it was really not too bad after all. everyone was divided into groups of 6-8 and we had to complete 4 game stations and collect post-it stars stuck around the sidney myer area. the event was held at night, so we all had to each carry a lantern while walking in the dark. really reminded me of my childhood days where aaron's family will come over to my house and we'll just light up tons and tons of lanterns and hang them up in my garden. i'll definitely make it a point to celebrate mid autumn festival if i'm back in singapore.

we were given 3 rounds of mooncakes. there were the usual white lotus ones, and of course not forgetting the york. the snowskin mooncakes were really special and unique. pink was blueberry cheesecake (my favourite), yellow was durian, green was yam, and beige was tiramisu. never really tried such flavours in singapore before, since i've never really been a fan of mooncakes.

oh, and i was really lucky. i won the grand prize for lucky draw- won mooncakes and plenty of tea to share with my friends. though the prize wasn't really grand, but whatever man, it's my first time winning a lucky draw. okay, sounds quite pathetic but well, i won. :)

thereafter, headed off for super with kenneth lee at nortuno on lygon. i had my nutella crepes while he had his schnitzel chicken with pepper. it's my first time eating there, and the food was really tasty. really amazing how our conversations didn't stop. we talked until 12.30am where i had to put a stop to it since i was so tired and needed sleep.

i cannot wait for tonight. :)

Grateful

last friday, under the courtesy of cindy's parents i went to crown for some VIP gambling room experience. my parents never gamble, and hence i know nuts about gambling. visited las vegas casino when i was 14 and i wasn't even allowed to stand and watch the adults press buttons to aim for a jackpot due to tight security. went to crown casino with the girls last semester and we were trying to figure out how the different gambling games work, but to no avail.

met up with cindy and rachel at the hotel lobby and off we went to the 27th level. got registered at the counter and saw cindy's parents and some friends playing baccarat. the three of us just sat there and watch while cindy ordered a hot chocolate for me since there were free flow of drinks. the uncles played with thousands, and minimum met was 300. we were not allowed to take pictures in the room, but the view from the 27th level was gorgeous.

thereafter, 12 people then cabbed from crown to china town's crystal jade restaurant. first time eating there in 3 years. it was cindy's parents's treat. food was great, comparable to singapore's crystal jade. but i still feel that singapore's better- food and decor hands down.

we had plenty of food. winter melon soup, roast duck, lobster, crab, fish, osyter omelette, abalone, etc. the best chinese meal i have ever eaten in melbourne. awesome-ness. will definitely go back there if i feel like having a touch of home, since crystal jade- paragon is my family's usual chinese dinning place, love it there.

i'm feeling extremely fortunate today. 2 days ago, i received an email from Citi informing me that i've been accepted for internship from Dec 2010 to Feb 2011 in Global Trade Services. credits really goes to my dad and mr michael teo who pulled some strings for me. also, kimmy has been such a great help who gave me a crash course on Citi and phone interview tips.

on the other hand, knowing that i've been accepted i was really worried that i wouldn't be able to make it for my family's annual overseas trip in december. papa told me that everything has been paid for, but we both agreed that Citi is worth sacrificing my hokkaido trip for. i was prepared to forgo it despite yearning to visit japan since early this year. thankfully, i received an email from my future supervisor this afternoon, allowing me to start internship after the trip or alternatively, apply for no-pay leave. i get the best of both worlds. :)

Paint Me A Rainbow

i'm back from my gold coast trip! the 4 days have been filled with fun, laughter, peace and joy. the first three days were spent at movie world, dreamworld, and wet and wild respectively. the last day was spent shopping & eating at surfer's paradise, and jet-skiing in the afternoon. we took tons and tons of photos that are all up on facebook. :)

more than a month ago, merrie, rachel and i went over to li-shen and charlene's place for a dessert potluck. found the idea very interesting and was so excited for that night to come, since sweets have also been my favourite. everyone contributed a dish or two to the table, and we girls brought chocolate fondue with bananas, strawberries and gummy bears. many others made cheesecake, tiramisu, cinnamon buns, cheese tarts, etc. plenty of good food that night. :)

the theme for that night was bright colours, but i guess no one really dress to it. coincidentally, kenneth and i wore green and it was almost the same shade. coolness.

spent most of our time playing board and card games. we played taboo, table questions, and twister. i enjoyed twister the most though we only played one round. there were 9 people squeezing on that small mat which can only fit maximum 6. oh wells, the more the merrier, despite having to stay put in weird positions with aching legs and arms.

let's have another gathering soon. :)

Ladies in Black

approximately 3 weeks ago, we attended the international commerce student society ball at crown. its our first time attending a school formal since we came to melbourne university, and i think that we should do this more often. its always fun to dress up and snap tons of pictures on the night. bad side is, money flies away in a blink of an eye.

jayesslee were there that night, icss flew them in from sydney just to perform for us. both of them are so sweet and pretty, and their voices are so good. go youtube them! :)

oh, jonny got nominated for best dress. too bad he didn't win, since our screams/shouts weren't loud enough to beat the table next door.

the four of us decided to go all black that night, and i think we all looked good. we were busy snapping pictures in between meals and performances, and all of them are up on facebook. honestly, the food served that night was disappointing. i didn't finish any of my meals. :( i actually expected much better food served since we were at crown.

our clutches, and jonny's extra cast.

dinner ended at 11pm, and we headed to the after party at bass lounge. while queueing for cabs, we saw this awesome huge limousine. the sound system inside was so good, better than clubs i guess. those college students were happily 'dancing' & popping champagnes inside.

this was at bass lounge. huge mistake to go there, the club was so bad. i'm never ever going back to that place unless its some friend's birthday party. the music was horrible, the lighting was like laser lights, the crowd was 3/4 guys and they were all so rowdy. if not for our curiosity and the free champagne that cindy won due during the lucky draw we wouldn't even have gone. we should have just booked a night stay at crown, it would have been much more fun.

Sliding Down Snow

finally back to this page after a very long time. have been rather occupied with school- tutorials, assignments and mid-semester tests. can't wait for the upcoming week to end, cause it will be our 2 weeks mid-semster break. lots of activities planned, and i'm going to GOLD COAST. :)

here's some pictures of my trip to falls creek with the gang. much much more up on facebook, so go check it out. it has been exactly one month since we were there, but we still can't forget how much we enjoyed ourselves up there. it was a 3D2N stay, took the 5 hours coach up on friday 9am and took it down on sunday 5pm.

we didn't manage to do any skiing on the first day, since the ski lifts closes at 5pm. so we spent our afternoon touring falls creek, looking for food places, and enquiring about the day passes, ski lessons and skiing routes. night came really fast, and we had our dinner at a japanese restaurant. i swear, we had so much fun and trouble walking through the snow in the freezing weather at night. it was so tiring and cold that my chest hurt so much and i felt that i couldn't breathe. on the other hand, jonny was doing some stunts by walking in that crazy weather topless! our nights always end with cranium board game, girls vs guys. laughter-filled room.

we started day 2 with lessons! :) kimmy, rachel and i went for ski lessons for 1.5 hours, while jonny and merrie did snow boarding lessons. skiing is actually very easy to pick up, especially if you start young. there were so many 2-3 year olds learning how to ski, and some even did skiing and snowboarding stunts, like jumping off slopes, so crazy man. i was in utter shock!

so cute how there's a mini stall selling hot dogs and snacks on the ski routes. so we skied down half way, took a break and had our lunch there. our instructor said that the basic ski routes are not easy, and suggested that we take another lesson before trying them. despite that, we still went ahead to drovers range. true enough, the slope was really steep and i had my first fall there, it was quite painful.

i really love the view up there. everything's so white and wide, really beautiful. our favourite ski route was wombat's ramble, and i love that so much. really had lots of fun once i started to get the hang of it. doing the big and small S really helps a lot. :)

ski lifts were great. especially when we just finished a long and tiring route, it was always nice to sit down and admire the view from above. we all had thoughts of the cable snapping, but none of us dare to talk about it. cause if it ever broke, we wouldn't be able to stop ourselves from sliding down the slopes since we had our skis on. we would die.

whenever we're doing wombat's ramble, we would all wait at the bottom for everyone to arrive. i think we were waiting for merrie, when kimmy and i decided to make a snowman. jonny and rachel was too tired and uninterested to help us out. anyways, the snowman turned out fine. any cooler snowman than this?

day 2 in falls creek ended with jonny breaking his wrist while snowboarding. the snow 'ambulance' found jonny lying in the snow and sent him straight to the medical center. we all got changed out of our so-hard-to-walk-in ski boots and met him there. spent like 2 hours waiting for him to have his cast put on. poor jonny, he enjoyed snow boarding so much. had dinner in our lodge and played usual cranium to end the night.

oh, and they had night skiing on saturdays. but we were too tired to try it. if not i bet it'll be loads of fun.

on day 3, only rachel, kimmy and i skied. the snowboarders were all so tired and un-fit to continue. the 3 of us had lots of fun, we tried out new routes and we skied over and over again. i challenged myself to go for one intermediate course, and i did it! no falls or anything. lots of concentration involved though, and without kimmy's guidance i guess i wouldn't be able to make it to the bottom. :)

we stopped skiing at 3pm as we had to catch our coach back to the city. we would love to continue skiing and extend out stay. but for obvious reasons (school), we couldn't. by the way, our lodge was bad. please don't ever stay at snowdrif lodge, there's plenty out there which are much better. we can only blame ourselves for not doing our bookings earlier, beggars can't be choosers.

okay, i'm going to enjoy my chicken herbal soup and sambal fish for dinner now. dinners won't be boring anymore, cause JUNIOR MASTERCHEF is back tonight! yes, it is. :)