Getting ready for Christmas!

Check the lights

Dig out the instruction sheet

Take out the tree from the box

Assemble the tree

Throw on the streamers

Hang the ornaments

String the lights and put up the star Don't forget to dress the base

Ding Dang all the way!

Every year we try to put up our tree by 1 Dec. 'Try' being the operative word. This year we finally did it!

This year's theme is blue and red. Next year, I'm thinking red and green. :)

Sitex

is not my favourite place to be but I was so desperate for a photo printer that I dragged J and his buddies there. We zoomed straight to the Canon booth because Petals and her new husband had recommended the Canon Pixma which turned out to be a real good deal, very value for money.

So there I was all ready to pay and flee from the packed like sardines computer fair when I got distracted by Epson.

When it comes to specs and prices, I am a complete idiot. I only trust my eyes and the quality of the print out from the Epson printer was superb. I actually made the Epson salesman print photos of 4R and A4 sizes on the spot because I did not trust the samples he showed me. When the colours really floored me, I asked J if I could part with more money than we intended to. Twice the amount to be exact!

For that, I qualified to take part in some 'ladies only' instant dip. The queue was ridiculous long and normally I will not bother. Then I saw that 1 of the prizes was a digital photo frame and ran to join the line! Minutes later with about 50 people ahead of me, I found out that it was not a sure-win lucky draw. Many women went away looking angry because they had queued close to an hour and walked away with nothing.

Fortunately, I waited for about 20 minutes and won this!

Ooh! I like this game!

The lady who gave me the prize looked rather envious and told me it's very addictive. Oh yes, I know!

And then I realised I also qualify for another lucky draw and these are the 3 prizes I will like to win!

Our Epson Stylus made my wallet bleed but oh it prints such lovely pictures!

Did I tell you I was given an additional set of ink cartridges with the purchase? :)

恭喜老爷，贺喜夫人!

On this lovely day,
Seriously? wishes Petals and R a blessed marriage!

Effects

When it comes to photo-editing, I find Picnik fun and easy to use. Check out the effects here. These 3 are my current favourites.



The lamp in these pictures is hung in one of our favourite eating places in Millenia Walk. I almost went blind shooting this picture directly under the lamp. ;)

Getting excited about Monday

Prepping for Petals' wedding. :)

Yes, it's OPI.

This dark red was picked by the lady who did my pedicure. The one who did my manicure egged me on and told me to try something more daring. And since Ondine said it's pretty, I went with it. I'm quite useless when it comes to choosing colours for my nails. Left to my own devices, it's almost always a muted pink.

Loitering near the museum

I still maintain that cats are hard to photograph.

And you must know by now that I love cats. :)

This week's colour

is not on my nails but hair.

I got quite a shock when I first saw this purple dye but figured it can't go that wrong. Boy was I wrong. The purple did not come out right and my hair's a rusty red instead. Very disappointing.

p.s. It's such a let down I don't want to take a picture of my hair now. :(

If only

I love museums but wish the ones here are grander and have more exhibits. Visiting the National History Museum made me miss the British Museum and The Louvre. You need 2 whole days to cover each of those museums properly because there are just too many things to see!

At our local museums, people are polite, have all the time in the world and actually step out of the way for you to take pictures of the exhibits. There's no pushing either and lots of space between the exhibits for you to walk.

Sure it's nice not to get shoved but on the downside, there really isn't much to see.

A black and white series

Unedited.

The many faces of Baby Q

The girls met up at Phoenix's place last week. For me, it was a time to do some catching up since I had missed the last get-together dinner in October. Meeting at Phoenix's also meant meeting her baby girl. The last time I saw the adorable one was when she was a month old!

I have little affinity with babies so it was a good thing I carried Lily with me. This meant I could busy myself taking photos!

This is Baby Q. Isn't she lovely?



I love her look in the next picture. :)

你看什么看?

Ridiculous!

We realised that it's been a long time since we went to the cinema so J and I decided to catch Megamind. We love cartoons in general although this wasn't our first choice and especially not in 3D.

What's with movies lately?? Everything is in 3D!

And since when do tickets cost $14 each?? I flipped when J paid $28 for 2 tickets! We are not watching another 3D movie if that's the reason for the exorbitant price. Hmpf!

Strangers part 3

We went to the Pompeii exhibition on Saturday and at one section, kids gathered for some arts and craft.

Here's a really sporting boy who put on his paper helmet for me to take a snapshot!

This is he! He gamely removed his helmet after the first shot and smiled for the camera again.

Sudden craving

for Youtiao (油条)

This picture makes me happy because this was taken last weekend when J was eating well. We thoroughly enjoyed our Youtiao with Kopi then.

Since yesterday, he's eaten only porridge and now looks gaunt. All because 2 nights ago, his stomach went haywire after a meal of fried rice.

Seriously, fried rice??

You would think that's a very common food, right? But it gave him so much pain that he could not sleep for over 24 hours. Even the first round of meds prescribed by his doctor did not help and last night, he had to see the doctor again.

Fried rice should not = Stomach cramps + vomitting + diarrhoea.

We are never going back to that stall again. :(

What's an INFJ?

INFJs are intricately and deeply woven, highly complex, and sometimes puzzling even to themselves.

What is the meaning of life?
This is the question that will plague an INFJ.

Where to hang out after midnight

Hong Kong cafes are the rage in Singapore. We found this one along Upper Thomson Road. It opens till 6am.

We actually had thick toast with peanut butter, thick toast with jam, thick toast with milo and condensed milk but the food's quite forgettable so I'm too lazy to put up the photos here.

The 'scariest' plate of fries in the world! So much ketchup and mayonnaise! I wasn't even sure what I was eating - potato or sauce??

As usual I found other things more interesting than the food. I like the porcelain ware they use to contain cutlery, toothpicks and chilli paste. Very Chinese, very pretty.

Laugh!

Even when the world is laughing at you.

marc-up

Before

After

This is just one of the many features of Picnik and I discovered Picnik only recently. I still use Picasa most of the time because I don't like doing too much editing to my photographs. Editing is a lot of work and I am a lazy ass.

But really the point of this post is not about photo-editing or my ass. It's about the Marc Jacobs key chain in the pictures. Months back when I was in London with J and 2 friends, we shopped at Marc by Marc Jacobs. Our 2 buddies saw this key chain and thought it would make a good souvenir. So they merrily bought 20 each and merrily gave them away to many appreciative female friends.

The other day I found out accidentally that these key chains are sold at SGD29.90 each on a popular bag website!

Seriously?!?

What a rip-off! Because each of these only costs 1 pound, which converts to a mere SGD2.20!

Taken in October and clear forgotten

On a very rare Saturday morning, we ventured to The Pinnacle@Duxton. Rare because 51 out of the 52 Saturdays in a year, you'll find me fast asleep in my comfy bed. I don't wake before 10 and I don't apologise for it. :)

The first of its kind, all 50 levels of public housing. I wonder if Hong Kongers laugh at us! High-rise apartments are a very common sight there.


We took the lift to the 26th and 50th levels where the sky bridges are. Alas, the sky bridge on the 26th level is only accessible to residents and the one on level 50 requires visitors to pay $5! El cheapo me was not going to fork out money for the sake of phototaking!

So the next best thing was to stick my hands through between the arms of the full-height turnstiles and push my camera as far out as possible!

The haze that we hate made the sky overcast and lighting poor for photography. This was the best shot of the cloudy skyline.

Through a gap in the wall, I also got a shot of the trees that lined the sky bridge. I quite like this.