Samantha. 20. i laugh a lot and i love sleep.
E-mail me at:
Amy
Ai Ling
Calvin Cent
Calvin Chung
Carrie
Choon Liang
Ciara
Daryl
Darren Quek
Elaine Ang
Elaine Voon
Farrah
Jason
Jia Min
Jonathan Song
Jonathan Chu
Josselyn
Joyce
Karen
Karuna
Kellie
Kelly
Kiern
Lisa
May
Michelle
Ming Lee
Nico
Phui Yan
Shannon
Shanuja
Si Lon
Sophia
Sue
Su Ling
Swee Li
SzeToo
Sze Wei
Thong
Tsuey Xin
Tze Min
Wendy
Wen Jing
Wei Ken
William
Wilson
Vanessa
Vivian
YiWei
College Daze
Daily Dosages
Dunedin
Grandmother Stories
Happenings and Events
Inspirations
Laugh Out Loud
Memes
Musings
Password Protected
Pixels
Reviews
Quirky Quotes
Shrieking Stomach
Travels
Vlogs and Videos.
You Know What I Think?
Sunday, July 19, 2009
From This Day Forward,
really, in this little society we were bubbled in, it is actually really hard to be politically correct and be true to your believes. it's just too hard. i attended a poker night last night, which gradually turned into a conversation night between two girls (me included) and eight boys in one very cramp living room, and the battle of the sexes was triggered into full force. taboo being taboo, topics like palestine vs israel, world government, standardized currency, obama, obama's eldest daughter, religion, men being degraded because of feminism, women being degraded because of the psychological beliefs of human and religion, plastic surgeries, how "just be yourself" had failed to exist anymore as a stand alone sentence, megan fox, david bowie, obligations, ego, future children, abortion, sexuality and marriage. things just got a lot better when people in the circle were not being judgemental and everyone could expressed themselves as themselves. yes, again, it is too hard to be politically correct and it is too hard to please everyone with your thoughts and believes so therefore, i am not even trying.
sophie (she's a girl because she has the pink scarf on her neck wtf which btw, terence pop it off yesterday emoe sial), the balloon penguin, which i am sharing custody with terence. weekends and wednesdays with him and the weekdays with me. :/
btw, meet my new baby.
sophie (she's a girl because she has the pink scarf on her neck wtf which btw, terence pop it off yesterday emoe sial), the balloon penguin, which i am sharing custody with terence. weekends and wednesdays with him and the weekdays with me. :/Labels: [musingz]
Friday, July 17, 2009
Windy Welly.
crumpets on nutella = love
~.~
if louis vuitton is every girl's best friend, this colour bubble popping game is mine. evan got me into it and now, we're having this little tug-of-war over it. and now, terence got himself involved in the whole hoo-hah and now, these two are rubbing their points all over my face. -_-
~.~
did i mentioned that i have two new flatmates?
1# julio, an MBA student from bolivia who i spend an hour just the other day, talking about micro credits -_- and the alluring constanza, an exchange student from madrid, spain. elinor and mark from last semester remained as my awesome flatmates in flat toru, which btw, kicked ass.~.~
there was an earthquake in fiordland yesterday, four hours away from dunedin and my friends were all freaked out because they felt that the vibration. i was putting on mascara that time and i did not feel anything but my flatmate did, and his room is next to mine. and there had been a tsunami alert put up yesterday night that i was made absolutely awared of, only to be lifted an hour later. no casualties you guys and thanks for the emails and facebook messages asking, "hey, you're at the bottom of nz right? are you okay? heard there was an earthquake?"news did travelled fast.
~.~
wellington and photo update part two.
2# i visited te papa or the museum of new zealand on my last day in wellington. being the largest museum in new zealand with six floors up, i spend a good six hours just roaming around every little angle in the museum. 
3# at the entrance to te papa. 
4# the infamous colossal squid of te papa. te papa, is the only museum in the world to have a display of a real colossal squid and this female squid here, was 4.2 meters long and weighed about 400 kilograms. it was captured in 2007 by the san aspiring ship crew in the antartica waters.
5# a built-in contemporary marae in the museum. a marae is a place where the maori people meet. personally, i am all for art and the means to develop it but to be honest, call me conservative, but i would much prefer to see an old school marae, which is always brown and had a greater emphasis on its sculpting work rather than its colours.
6# me and the contemporary marae. i met a young maori family and they had a toddler son in which came up to me, held my leg while i was sitting on the steps and he wouldn't let me go while looking at me with those puss-on-boots eye in shrek. his father had to tear him away from me. cutesy kills. 
7# storyline sculpture on the walls. 
8# there was a story behind this sculpture. it was telling a story of a group of warriors trying to capture the sun. 
9# a beer belly, he has. =)
10# in front of in my words, a real marae. 
11# the storage house. 
12# we do tongues. 
13# i live by those words.
14# broken skateboards put to good use. 
15# floating globe is the new pink. i was waiting for christine at the civic center and it took me at least two minutes to figure out how did the globe stayed afloat. one of my very few bimbo moments i must say. 
16# when i met christine, we went to this busy chocolate shop along willis st. and she bought me a deletable cup of ice chocolate. those little balls of chocolate truffles over the counter were simply orgasmic, i didn't have any, but the sight of it made my heart skipped a beat lesser like butter on hot toast wtf. 
17# we were given a dash of free chocolate to go along with our drink. = love. 
18# christine and i, at the harbour, while waiting for andrew to finish work. it was a beautiful night at the harbour, as we walked along those little wooden planks as the wind swished the water to create tiny waves that vibrated the support legs of the walkway. on my right was a sophisicated japanese restaurant with mirrors on its four, with a spectacular view of the harbour. 
19# i left christine an hour later to meet with my couchsurfing host during my stay in wellington, aster. i had so much fun surfing with evan, while i was in christchurch and aster. on top of that, i saved so much money during my trip because my accomodation expenses were cut off because couchsurfing is free :) . although many of my friends had told me before that couchsurfing sounded sketchy because it was build upon mutual trust among strangers to let someone crashed in their flat for a couple of days, even though the host and the hostee did not know each other before this, but after knowing that i made it back alive and hearing stories about my couchsurfing experiences, my friends bought into it and they now wants to do it in the future. 
20# WTF?
21# aster is really into art and good music so we decided to head to cuba st. to have a cheap dinner of turkish kebab, talk, had a drink and impromptuly visited a couple of independent art galleries opening. 
22# this is art. really, it is. 
23# met an artist, john at one of these art shows, who came up to me and asked me of my opinion on one of his work. it was rad.i was talking to this guy from the states, scott at the bog this evening and he told me he drove by ipoh a couple of times TO GO TO PENANG FROM KL, last year while he was doing his exchange stint at NUS, but never took the chance to stop and check the place out. i went all emoe on him and insist he must stop in ipoh to have chicken wtf i was thinking. and i hate when people asked where is ipoh and everytime i have to explain over and over and over and over and over again that it is located two hours north of kl and an hour south of penang. :(((
Labels: .travel.log., daily dosage, Dunedin., Pixels.
Tuesday, July 14, 2009
Uber Fabulous.
i had my first epic caffeine overdose over the weekend that it was almost funny. what happened was this, i went for coffee at five in the evening, stoning my time away before the clock hits six thirty. all i had was a mug of flat white with chocolate sprinkles on the side, the way i usually have it. usually, i would be fine after having coffee at five pm. but noooo, not on sunday. from what i managed to gather from the brains of others was that i was hopping around like tigger from winnie the pooh, attempted to annoy one of my friends and i hoped i didn't annoyed him too much, talked really fast AND without a fullstop and i freaked out when there was an approaching car, even though the car was going to stop because it was a traffic light intersection and the light was turning red but despite all that, i ran across the pedestarian crossing because i was high on caffeine AND life wtf. -_-
yeah mock me now.
i watched bruno the other day and yes, i am very disturbed, till today.
iswandi is back! the famous chef of toroa is back! i was skyping with him last night for an hour (although our flats are like a minute walk apart but it's too cold to walk and i was lazy and he was lazy so skype it is), talking about food like duh, his five days training in thailand, my little escapades and random traveling flings, internships, silly strategies of seduction, me trying to assure him that beauty is in fact, skin deep and this went on for an hour while i was curled up in my bed, at midnight, staring up on the blunt white ceiling. oh, at one point, i screamed, wandi i missed you in which he replied, you missed me or my cooking? in which i cunningly replied, with my eyeballs twirling all over the place, "errr...you," (it was a lie actually. i miss the food lol okay lah, i miss both, wandi and the cooking.)
i want morning pancakes with maple syrup. and weird beef stir-fry that tastes so good. :DDD i had suffered from a two weeks wandi's cooking draught. it was bad.
Labels: General.
Saturday, July 11, 2009
From Wellington,
i am in love. with a place that i thought i'll never loved. it was one of those little skeptical moments, where i had learned far more now to never judge on ideas and stereotypical agendas, but rather on personal sights and expressions. as the plane descend on the entrance runway of this capital city in a windy evening, my head begun to spun in thoughts of being in a metropolitan city and the times i assured myself that i had to somehow learn to live with it. i had heard so much in the past; stories of mournful looking locals during rush hours, the depressing damp weather and the gusty wind. i went with an empty heart, ever ready for the next big thing, and through the many archeology-like explorations, i found love in wellington.
1# the pimped up shuttle that i took to go to the city from the airport. with butterfly disco lights, and a flat screen and oh yes, heaters. he offered to take me to the city for $15 initially while a bus ride would just cost me $8. fifteen minutes later, he came back to me and said he would take me to town for $10. i agreed and hopped on his ride. we, that would be two other women, the driver and me begun to sing along to michael jackson's you're not alone. epic shit.
2# wtf?
3# joanne cooked dinner for the both of us, of chicken and mushroom porridge and potato curry. joyce, her friend from hong kong, made us tong yuen, which were glutinous rice balls, sometimes with fillings in it, served in ginger soup. i had mine in black sesame and peanut fillings. when i came out from the bathroom, joyce held a big bowl of tong yuen right in front of my face, i nearly had sweaty eyes. the serving of tong yuen was delightful, considering how speedy the temparature had dropped that night. i curled up in my sleeping bag, savouring my tong yuens in ginger soup, not wanting the flow of hot steaming ginger soup to come to an end. much love.
4# windy welly, how i always pondered on how it got its name. now that i am here, i understood perfectly.
5# the new zealand parliament house, or better known as the beehive because of its architectural outlook which resembled a beehive.
6# this must be a house for the sadists.
7# visited the new zealand archives to view the original treaty of waitangi, the very document signed a century ago that new zealand is governed upon until today.
8#
9# lampton quay, the beating heart of wellington.
10# in this concrete jungle, there is still something called a life, which many enjoys.
11# the cable car is one of wellington's landmark. my former flatmate, barbara told me before she left that i have to take the cable car up to the botanic garden. i did.
12# the wellington cable car.
13# in the cable car.
14# the city from the peak.
15. i strolled around the botanic garden. sometimes, i wished i was lost here, in the proximity of the greenest green and tranquility.
16. fattest pigeon i ever seen. also the most grumpy.
17. this is how the quackers sleeps, with one leg and a hundred and eighty degrees head twirl, to hide it under their wings.
18. cute mandarin duck.
19. when cupid struck, it hit pigeons instead.
20# taraniki street, a very artsy street in central wellington. left rather undiscovered, taraniki street was a stretch of colonial-inspired building, housing small art galleries, quaint cafes which doubled as souvenir shops selling trinkets and postcards.
21# courtenay place, the wellington street of night lifes, with busy restaurants, theatres, themed night clubs and food joints. i was at courtenay place one night to catch a movie and have coffee with shane, another couchsurfer i met. very nice guy with a rather awkward sense of humuor. this is also where aster and i found a really nice kebab place at a decent price. i would have love to catch a play or a performance at one of the many theatres in courtenay, but i couldn't due to time constraint.
1# the pimped up shuttle that i took to go to the city from the airport. with butterfly disco lights, and a flat screen and oh yes, heaters. he offered to take me to the city for $15 initially while a bus ride would just cost me $8. fifteen minutes later, he came back to me and said he would take me to town for $10. i agreed and hopped on his ride. we, that would be two other women, the driver and me begun to sing along to michael jackson's you're not alone. epic shit.btw, air new zealand served the best vegetable chips ever. i am a sucker for vege chips and it's really hard to find good ones around here. but air nz's ones blew me out of my seat. the air stewardess who served me the vege chips was so nice to me, that she gave me two more packets where i asked for more.
i waited for joanne, a friend from home, who offered me a place to put up for the night before she goes off on her own holiday stint the next day. she texted to say to meet her at the railway station in which i did.
2# wtf? 
3# joanne cooked dinner for the both of us, of chicken and mushroom porridge and potato curry. joyce, her friend from hong kong, made us tong yuen, which were glutinous rice balls, sometimes with fillings in it, served in ginger soup. i had mine in black sesame and peanut fillings. when i came out from the bathroom, joyce held a big bowl of tong yuen right in front of my face, i nearly had sweaty eyes. the serving of tong yuen was delightful, considering how speedy the temparature had dropped that night. i curled up in my sleeping bag, savouring my tong yuens in ginger soup, not wanting the flow of hot steaming ginger soup to come to an end. much love. 
4# windy welly, how i always pondered on how it got its name. now that i am here, i understood perfectly. i begun my first morning in wellington rather early as i took a seat at one of those wooden benches along lampton quay, the CBD of wellington. i looked at people and examined their expressions, which were often camouflaged behind the power suits, leather briefcases and ipods. men and women during rush hour, they were all smiley and laidback, not gushing their way through the morning crowd, yet another face on a busy weekday morning. i see people laughing with their friends, as they munched on their bagel or drink off that familiar venti-sized starbucks on the go. in wellington, people would stop to say hello and take time off their busy schedule to check whether you were okay or whether you needed directions because you looked confused behind your lonely planet guidebook, on a gruesome monday morning.
5# the new zealand parliament house, or better known as the beehive because of its architectural outlook which resembled a beehive. 
6# this must be a house for the sadists. 
7# visited the new zealand archives to view the original treaty of waitangi, the very document signed a century ago that new zealand is governed upon until today. 
8# 
9# lampton quay, the beating heart of wellington.
10# in this concrete jungle, there is still something called a life, which many enjoys. 
11# the cable car is one of wellington's landmark. my former flatmate, barbara told me before she left that i have to take the cable car up to the botanic garden. i did. 
12# the wellington cable car. 
13# in the cable car. 
14# the city from the peak. 
15. i strolled around the botanic garden. sometimes, i wished i was lost here, in the proximity of the greenest green and tranquility. 
16. fattest pigeon i ever seen. also the most grumpy. 
17. this is how the quackers sleeps, with one leg and a hundred and eighty degrees head twirl, to hide it under their wings. 
18. cute mandarin duck. 
19. when cupid struck, it hit pigeons instead. 
20# taraniki street, a very artsy street in central wellington. left rather undiscovered, taraniki street was a stretch of colonial-inspired building, housing small art galleries, quaint cafes which doubled as souvenir shops selling trinkets and postcards. 
21# courtenay place, the wellington street of night lifes, with busy restaurants, theatres, themed night clubs and food joints. i was at courtenay place one night to catch a movie and have coffee with shane, another couchsurfer i met. very nice guy with a rather awkward sense of humuor. this is also where aster and i found a really nice kebab place at a decent price. i would have love to catch a play or a performance at one of the many theatres in courtenay, but i couldn't due to time constraint. btw, this is just part one. :) and i love flight of the conchords!
Labels: .travel.log., Pixels.
Tuesday, July 07, 2009
Christchurch the City.
the five hours bus ride came and went. i slept through it, like a newborn baby and on the fourth hour, the driver decided to take a thirty minutes halt at a small eatery in timaru, in which i fed on fish bites and coffee while talking to these two girls sitting at my table, to kill time. i had met the loveliest people during my short-stint travel, and i'll talk about these people as we gradually progress into time.
some photos during my stay:-
1. my one and only travel companion, my used copy of the latest edition of lonely planet: new zealand which i got for $14 on trademe, new zealand's answer to ebay. a new copy of LP, last i checked at whitcouls, would easily set me off at $70. when my $14 copy arrived, i realized it was clean inside, untouched with no side notes, no highlights, no whatsoever. :)
2. my junk in my hood.
3. i put up at evan's, a couchsurfer and a friend that i met two weeks before in dunedin during the all-blacks test match. evan had been a great host, making sure that i was comfortable and picking me up from town in the evening. i met his flatmate, joe on my last night in christchurch and we got along pretty decently. we talked and we get to know each other better, of our lives, of his recent backpacking trip to melbourne and how he had fell head over heels for the metropolitan city and wanted so desperately to go back, of our dreams and ambitions, of deception, of music and of cars. the next morning, he drove me to the city to catch my shuttle to the airport. evan and joe were the many awesome people i was fortunate enough to bump into that had also made the idea of me, a twenty-year-old wide-eyed girl, traveling alone so much easier. 
4. my room at evan's, which i trashed on my first night :P
speaking of which, i met this guy from dubai, who just arrived in christchurch a couple of hours before me, as i exited the korean restaurant that i had my dinner on my first night in town while waiting for evan to come see me and turns out, he is an accountant by training but currently runs a backpackers in dubai, which name failed to contemplate in my head now. sometimes, i reckon that god does have a sense of humuor by putting two relevant people on street corners so that they could meet by chance. fourty minutes and a free ice-cream sundae later, i was convinced that the institute of chartered accountant in england and wales (icaew) was the way to go. sigh -_- what turf.
the people that i had met in christchurch was amazing, from that chatty old man who came up to me at the cathedral square to tell me that i was the first asian girl he ever saw backpacking alone to the busker who played my favourite song on the flute and left me standing in the cold, listening to him as he finishes his song and then came up to me to talk about the weather and christchurch, and of course, the crowd of people, from journalists, civilians and activists that i met during the neda's candle light vigil.
the next morning, i arose after a good night rest and took the walking route as recommended by lonely planet to explore the garden city.
5. the definition of serendipity is the avon river. 
6. hereford street, house to the jazz school of christchurch polytechnic institute of technology, a couple of small fashion boutiques, vintage music record store and cute brunch cafes. however, it was a sunday morning and hereford was not at its top buzz. i was told by a random passerby that it had always been quiet on weekends, although the reason was not unfold to me because i had to cross the pedestarian after the light had indicated green. 
7. high street, another art district of christchurch. 
8. graffiti in boutique. 
9. artsy mannequin in tattoo parlour. 
10. what becomes of the broken hearted?
11. a coffee bean's promise.
12. the four corners that centered around christchurch- the cathedral square. 
13. as the name had hinted it off, the city takes pride of its many prestigious cathedrals and churches. 
14. the christchurch cathedral, the grand daddy of them all. 
15. you can almost hear the white doves sing. 
16. i met a soldier, attached to the canterbury battalion inside the cathedral and i talked to him. turned out, the reason behind the many formally-uniformed men and women standing outside the cathedral, just like him was because there was a mass earlier that morning to celebrate the 150th anniversary of the canterbury battalion, in which this particular soldier was serving. we talked a little about the history of the battalion and of the wars the battalion had fought in the past. we also talked about his experiences on peacekeeping missions and on the recent military coup in fiji. a man of nothing more than a smiling flicker on his lips, he is definitely very wise and friendly, but firm nevertheless. 
17. here lies, in this tomb, the first bishop of christchurch. 
18. the cathedral entrance. 
19. my advice to future christchurch visitors, unless you are a typical tourist with a mean ass camera hanging from your neck and believes in all things touristy, the christchurch tram, in my humble opinion, is not the ideal way to tour the city, considering it is $15 per ride. i, on the other hand, am an unconventional traveller and believes in all things cheap, or free in some cases, hence still thinks that sightseeing on foot is still the way to go :D
20. spanish-inspired architecture on new regent street. on this road, i met the soldier again, who whistles me for my attention from his truck across the road because he thought i was lost. 
21. victoria square and its comforting greeneries. 
22. punt like the italians do, me and lonely planet. 
23. the avon river, on oxford terrace, is like a drawing from a little girl's bedtime story book. "there's beauty in the silver singing river, there's beauty in the sunrise in the sky"
24. maori sculpture on victoria square.
25.the way to a backpacker's stomach: subway sandwiches. 
26. in honour of the women who had petitioned for the first women's voices to be heard during parlimentary elections, in which by the way, if i may add, new zealand was the first country in the world to allow women to vote. 
27. at the local market at the art museum's grounds.
28. the twelve heroes of canterbury. 
29. young buskers. 
30. the canterbury museum. 
31. maori performance at the museum. 
31. gold plated motorcycle.
32. was looking for the original paua shell house when i was in bluff a month ago but failed so instead, i saw a reenactment of the house at the museum. 
33. paua shells. me on mirror.
34. now that fred and myrtle had passed away, the guide told me that the original paua shell house was sold to australians who refused to open it to the public for viewing. 
35. btw, paua tastes so good. :D
36. vehicles used for antartica expeditions.
37. went back to the market at the art museum grounds nearby in search of light snacks because i was hungry after being on foot for at least five hours. decided on crepes. stood in front of the cart, talked and laughed with the owner and couldn't decide what to order. the boy next to me recommended the crepe suzette, in which i agreed into. the crepe cart owner, who by then, knew my name and where i was from, made me my crepe. 
38. my crepe was inflamed in sugar glazed brandy. 
39. perfect snack for a chilly day. 
40. walked back to town and lurked around the cathedral square. laughed at the sight of those annoying birds, surrounding those three young men as they attempts to finish their fish and chips. 
41.old men playing mean ass giant chess. one day, i'll learn how to play chess. one day. one very fine day. i am munching on the stolen mandarin oranges from conference. man, are they addictive. i managed to sneakily stuff six of them in my bag while no one was looking. and i am watching gilmore girls. nostalgic much. back in those days, i followed rory gilmore like a cult. i am glad that andrew and christine came bashing into the lounge room, off the lights, passed me a bundle of glow sticks so that i can play with them because they were worried that i was bored watching tv. how sweet. and this chair that i am rocking is now making me sleepy...
Labels: .travel.log., Pixels.