Andy... Who?

I can’t contain my exhilaration any longer and my heart was factually palpitating with vehemence when I stole a 5-second peek at a commuter’s TODAY advertisement on Andy Warhol’s exhibition at ArtScience Museum!

How cool can it get?

The last of Andy Warhol’s exhibition I was at, almost 5 years ago at a Sotheby’s Auction event in Hong Kong, left me crying buckets of paint and rainbows as I gaped at the wonders of his eccentric art pieces. I love eccentrics, in case you don’t know.

Andy Warhol was a leading figure in pop art, a visual art movement, with famous pieces like Marilyn Monroe, Mickey Mouse, Mao, Beatles, The Last Supper and a whole luggage-full of nothing but exquisiteness in all his other etcetera’s.

His “15 Minutes Eternal” exhibition starts tomorrow (17th March – 12th Aug, 2012) at the ArtScience Museum in Marina Bay Sands. An entrant charge of $13 per adult applies and of course, I’d like to bring Amber and she goes in for FREE!

Mao

Tell me really, how can you NOT like him?

Kinderspielzeug Panda

I just can’t wait! 

Oh btw, thanks to a friend, I've got a Free media invitation!

Live. Laugh. Love.

I’ve never really taken a penchant for Valentine’s Day, maybe because it simply epitomizes an overhaul of pricing for everything - from $3-a-stalk roses to off-the-cuff dining spots that only offer Valentine’s menu which has jacked-up costs for a measly piece of breaded fish (the only consolation is how they’ve suddenly taken a French inflection in their menu, where a piece of “Dory Fillet” is now known as “Filet du Poisson de la Dory des pommes de terre”.

Okay. Maybe I’ve digressed. Valentine’s Day is incontestably a day in the whole calendar year whereby secret admirers and boyfriends/ girlfriends shower their lover with oh-so-saccharinely-sweet dosages of “I like you and now you know it” or, simply just “I love you and need you to know it”. It is a lovely spectacle to see jubilant beams on each couple’s faces promenading through Orchard Road, almost comparing in silence whose bouquet is bigger than the others’, or whose bear is furrier and cuter. But really, if love is so true, why do couples exhibit and proclaim their love for each other so openly, only on Valentine’s Day? Should it not, then, be over 364 days with 14^th Feb a day-off?

Even a small piece of chocolate should keep you happy!

Anyway, I’ve never really envied or felt desirous over girls who have got heaps of gifts while I just had to suck thumb at the corner of the merry room those days. Flowers have never been my type of thing. Roses, baby’s breath, lilies, sunflowers… well they are pretty flowers I must agree, but what do I do with them after that? Teddies dressed in elaborate tuxedos and party dresses (some dresses are tailored nicer than my girl’s dresses!) are cute, but thank God I don’t impose on my partner to get those for me. What do I do with them after that?

Buying a girl's heart always starts on Valentine's Day

Today, Facebook is practically facing an Orchard Road flood all round with Valentines greetings and proud photo posts on “Wah kaozz! 99 roses bouquet given to me by dar dar worrzz!” Some disconsolate singles tend to post “Vday Sucks!” or “See couples got dinner, roses, bear bear, but I don’t have! Who wanna be my Valentimes today??”… Poor guy doesn’t only suffer from a broken heart, but he also suffers inadvertently from broken English. Well, all lonely hearts out there, please rejoice in this day with your families instead of mulling over finding a date in a day for your date might just as well ruin this momentous day.

Orchard flood is to Facebook Vday flood

As I reclined in my swivel chair, smirking over my friend’s Vday shout-out’s and posts on Facebook, I started to wonder (4 hours ago) if it’s me being peculiar, or just me being exiled from all the sweet lil’ nothings, now that I’m married and very taken. I’ve also moonlighted this afternoon as a relationship advisory supervisor, where tons of friends threw droll questions at me as to why they didn’t get roses, bears or diamonds and all I could say to them is “What is wrong with that?” Inadvertently, they probably blocked me on MSN or deleted my SMS reply to them, thinking that I’m not supportive with their complaints.

Aww.... so sappy!

Sorry girls, I don’t feel that you should only be pampered on 14^th Feb, it should be a constant rekindling act by you or your partner!

The biggest irony precipitously became the fact that my colleague stomped towards me with a lovely fuschia pot of red roses, lilies and white roses in her hands, with a white note sticking out of the bundle. “I thought it was for me! I’m waiting for mine for so long you know!” – she exclaimed, and placed the pot at the corner of my table.

Pot of red + white roses, lilies, baby's breath and green... ferns?

I read the very sincere note from my husband and my girl, and I stared at the pot of flowers for a good 10 seconds before deciding to move it from the precarious corner of the table, to a spot right by my telephone, just so it’ll remind me to say something nice to whoever who’s going to call me at my DID.

Well, we did plan for a simple dinner after work albeit. I surprisingly found myself enthusiastically snapping shots of the flower pot, having a hard time deciding which photo shot of the pot looks the best to be uploaded on Facebook. Why, why. I guess it’s just a thing that everyone does nowadays!

Whether you’ve got a gift (yet) or not, whether you’ve got a gift which you hate, whether you’ve got a gift which brought you to tears, or if you’ve got no Valentine’s date at all, please don’t feel the way you shouldn’t be feeling!

For people who’ve been given gifts: Appreciate what you’ve been given, whether it’s a box of Ferrero Rocher chocolates or a posy of 999 roses. Some people might be dying to get what you’ve received, and yet they can’t afford to lay their hands on that item that’s sitting placidly at the corner of your desk, or maybe even behind your calendar so you wouldn’t be reminded of it – wherever you’ve decided to put it.

For people who’ve not been given gifts: Don’t feel dispirited or wretched. Valentine’s Day should be celebrated 365 days, not with tangible gifts at all. Your partner is your gift, and so are your family members. Don’t be easily satisfied with materials and the tangibles because a love that banks only on gifts is not bound to last at all.

For people without dates: Date your family! Cook a simple fare for dinner and use this time to catch up on things that you’ve missed out on with your parents or siblings. Simple pleasures will make you who you’d be thankful you’ve become in years to come.

A cause for Anorexia

(WARNING: Disturbing Images)

I’m very beholden and flattered when Dimensions Magazine approached me to helm an anti-Anorexia campaign for a cause. First off, acting for a cause has always been a tacit prerogative at the back of my mind and it’s habitually deserted when career, family and friends supersedes. That’s very wrong and reprehensible, and it really shouldn’t be my excuse anyway.

Isabelle Caro, deceased French model

During my 1 hour 15 minute radio interview with a panel and an anorexic 15 year old, I started to unravel the tainted perceptions of anorexic patients. I used to think that being anorexic was a choice, but mostly, it is a mental illness. A retrospective study into anorexia nervosa helped me better recognize the reasons why some women (on average there’s a higher percentile of women than men) fall prey to this merciless illness.

Anorexia Nervosa is a terminal eating disorder characterized by the punishing fear of gaining weight. It’s coupled with an evocative distorted self-imagery of oneself when he/she looks into the mirror. Empirically, I sometimes feel the same about myself, only that I do it to tease my own body in a lighthearted manner. Anorexics, however, would delve into a downward spiral of neurotic loss of appetite, low self-esteem and depression amongst all other petrifying attributes.

During the radio talk show, my newfound anorexic friend was shivering in pain the whole time. I assume she’s as tall as I am but she was merely even 1/3 of my weight. The most aching part of it all was when I reached out to hold her frail wrists, it felt like death. I don’t mean to lay it on thick or exaggerate, but my 1 hour 15 minutes immersion became a testimony of “mind over matter”. As I spoke to the 15 year old who was clad in a child’s dress which was still king-sized for her, she could barely concentrate. It did occur to me if my discourses were boring, but I conceded that it’s just that she didn’t have sufficient energy to keep her up half the time.

This is so not cool

This girl had smuf-blue fingernails and very swollen, protruding joints. I still can’t seem to forget how perpetually ill she had been (she was anorexic since 9 years old), and that no amount of shrink/ psychology could help cure this desolate soul. I, of course, was compelled to lend her an ear and to stand for a cause against anorexia in Asia.

I wouldn’t write too much about the causes that I stand strongly for as I’ve got an audio clip that’s in production to boot.

To hell with judgments. Celebrate women with curves. 

Breakfast for Dinner, anyone?

The conquest of All Day Breakfast dining bistros in Singapore breeds just like rampant wild mice – they’re almost invading every nook and cranny of this little island, and this is a mammoth fête for my squealing tummy! Pancakes, Eggs Benedict and Waffles for dinner - who would be pitted against this hard-to-resist menu?

Over the weekends, I popped by Wild Honey at Scotts Square (the franchise is pretty new in Scotts), of course I just had to make a booking 2 weeks prior because I’m Singaporean and that “Kiasuism” runs thick and deep in my blood. Thank God for small favours, that I made a prior booking as there was a snaking human queue from the entrance of Wild Honey.

The meld of European, Country and French interior, together with the intricate and contemporary settings was a major turn on for me. We didn’t get to plunk ourselves on the large comfy looking sofas, however, we were seated at a wooden dining table, shaft with pastel wooden chairs and lined with antique wares right down the table top. Very conducive ambience for a lovely tea party with your lover/ small groups of friends.

An unassuming cottage long-table setting

Because I had bad runs in the stomach over the Lunar New Year period, I told myself to stay clear from dairies, but fortunately, I did otherwise. We ordered 4 main meals and 2 beverages, oh-so-satisfying (and boy, this posting is definitely making me hungry yet again!).

Review: English Breakfast
Rating: 4/5

Loved the Mexican chilli beans! This set is a perfect recipe of spices, richness and savouriness – all on one plate (though the pork sausage is a tad bit tough). The thick slices of bread was sweet and crisped with the right consistency and the scrambled egg was tasty on its own. An impeccable meal meant to fill one up from breakfast till supper.

Review: European Breakfast
Rating: 4.5/5

Don’t judge this underrated-looking breakfast because it is not as happening as the rest. This is my all time favourite, compared to the rest. The finely sliced parma ham that hugs tightly around the eggs are slightly salted, a very good blend to the delicately tasty egg yolks. The mushrooms are the bomb! They’re pan-seared with olive oil, and they ooze out a succulent dosage of juice that will make your tongue hail HALLELUJAH!

Review: Tunisian Breakfast
Rating: 3.5/5

Thank God we shared this dish. It got a bit overwhelming after a few mouthfuls, albeit its scrumptiousness. This dish is slightly spicy and very MEXICANO. Well in fact, it tasted just like spicy spaghetti sauce with a hint of herbs. The egg yolk was almost fortified and we were mortified at the toughness. Other than that, it’s a decent dish meant for sharing.

Review: Caribbean Breakfast
Rating: 4.5/5

Nothing will supplant this winning main course! Because I’m a pancake/ waffle-type of lady, I take this serving of Caribbean breakfast seriously and I am utterly beyond satisfied! The waffles are sliced in 4 decent portions, snugly plastered side by side by a dollop of smooth, heavenly and saccharine (without being overly cloying) buttercream. The brown flakes sprinkled on top are actually dried coconut flakes – do not be turned off by this, because I’m no coconut fan myself but this has got to be one of the best coconut flakes I’ve ever tasted! It is very unlike the artificially-synthetic looking and tasting coconut strips which you find in our famed Tu Tu Kueh. Instead, these flakes are toasted to crisp perfection, yet they still retain their succulence, with no compromises! Instead of the typical maple syrup/ honey, this Caribbean Breakfast comes complete with a portion of Passionfruit extract. Drizzle this extract over the divine waffles and there you have it, a happy belly for the rest of the day!

WAGGIN’ DRAGON YEAR!

Happy Lunar New Year, my dearest readers! I hope you’ve had a noteworthy and jubilant break like I did. Unreservedly, fortunate folks get the days off and don’t start work till Friday/ next Monday. A trickle of overachievers are already back at work today – yes, I’m the lucky few workhorses.

Unregrettably shagged @ work at the start of the Dragon Year!

Anyway, here’s wishing one and all a very welcoming year ahead, filled with love, harmony, elation and everything honeyed! Because the Lunar New Year spans across 15 days, it is still comparatively considered an unsanctioned holiday. Stay blissful and optimistic (ditch those Feng Shui quandaries away!).

Our quiet photo studio

 I have to admit I was very daunted when someone said that the Rabbit zodiac would suffer an abysmal year, and so would the Dog. Well, let’s just not stress on that – this is the season of HUAT, HUAT, HUAT if lady luck has been by your side (she has definitely abandoned me for sure).

You might not wish to check out your predicaments

Happy New Year, folks!

Happy Baby = Happy Mummies = Happier Daddies

I retell the tale of a pre-pregnancy fable that equates to delivering happy babies! I do confess (and I do this fulsomely), that as luck would have it, I’VE GOT A HAPPY BABY!

Doing what she does best

Of course, happy babies still do bellow, wail and protest as would any other babies. The difference in that is, in my decree, happy babies smile at blank walls; happy babies smile at scary faces; happy babies smile at ceiling fans; happy babies smile at motion graphic on telly; happy babies squeal and shriek after they’ve pooped; happy babies … just make you feel awesomely happy too!

Sheer smile at 4 days old

There are times in which my girl yowls for no apparent reason (I’m assuming she may have been distressed by something she had seen/ heard/ felt) earlier, and it’s only during those times when I just feel dejected at not being able to appease and pacify her. There was once, I threw in the towel and needed to find an escape route for both my throbbing arms and sore ears. I gently laid my exasperated and shrieking girl in her cot. Instantaneously, my girl looked up at me with beady eyes and arrested her yelps. Before I could pick her up again, she gave me the widest, cheekiest smile and started babbling at me. That’s my higgledy-piggledy, albeit happy, girl.

While entertaining me on the bed

Honestly, have you not felt that your world has been rehabilitated after your wailing baby smiles back at you? Because I have and that feels terrifically euphoric!

Just this morning, I got a text from my tremendously rapt and fascinated sister. She said to me that she stole glances at my girl who was in her cot this morning and caught my girl smiling widely like a Cheshire cat, blankly. When she managed to get my girl’s attention, my girl started squealing in delight, smiling from ear to ear (as crazy as her mummy!). Because we always play “yi chiang” with my girl (motion of us grabbing my girl’s arms and allowing her to push herself to sit up), my sis thought she’d play “yi chiang” with my girl before she left for work this morning. As anticipated, not only was my girl amused, smiling and being oh-so-over-the-moon, my sister was, unsurprisingly, equally excited. At the end of the mini exercise, my sis laid my girl back on her back without attempting to carry her at all. Instantaneously, my girl stared brutally at her, wiping her wide grin off her face. She didn’t cry, though. Oh, Lord please bless me with an ingenious kid!

My smiley girl at 5 days.

In my books, my girl is one of the happiest babies I’ve seen (not just because she’s mine), and I thank heavens for that!

Happy babies make for Happy friends!

Well, many people do undergo pre-natal blues and all that depression crap that comes along. Mercifully, I only suffered from that nonsense after giving birth. There are certain rules in rewarding your 9-month toil with a happy baby.

•          Stay happy. It sure is hard to do when you’re swelling in the belly with every progressive week, but being happy releases endorphins that will be passed on to your baby, so in order to recompense yourself, you MUST try to stay happy.
  
•       Exercise. Exercising releases endorphins (a happy compound) that will ultimately yield a happier   baby!

Walking with your dog is a good form of exercise!

• Chocolates! Dark chocolates are almost a MUST HAVE through the course of my pregnancy. Do not opt for milk chocolates (Mars/ Snickers/ Milky Bar etc) as they are coated with high amounts of sugars. Opt for dark chocolates (you can get a good bar of smooth and well-blended dark chocolate from Ikea, which is also extremely cost effective!)

Choose only the darkest chocolates!

OOther than the above, it is imperative that you stay optimistic and chuck all your worries aside!

Remember to throw this expression aside!

A Day in the life of Valerie... in Singapore

A day is incomplete without a meeting!

I am Singaporean and what makes up a paramount fragment of my life, is really, work – to be and stay employed. How desolate! Anyway, I’ve categorically decided to pen a regular day of nothingness but work. And no, it is not a bluster post, incongruent with how every Singaporean would sit and bombast for hours about how distraught they are in the office, yet when asked to switch jobs, they’d rather not. Oh quizzical world, isn’t it?

Do we seriously have a population shortage?

Classic example of a "stare-and-I'll-kill-you" incident

I start my day off at 8am and commute by public transportation (Go Green, YEAH!) to and from work. Because I stay right at the end of the whole MRT line, I don’t usually have to fight to slot myself in a paltry space amongst other glum-faced commuters (step on their feet by accident will get you nothing but the executioner’s stares). Us, Singaporeans, find it especially tough to pull off a smile in the early morning. Just don’t stare back or you might end up in the hospital!

You don't want to be scared blue as a hippo!

I practically encounter people from obviously very different walks of lives – iPhone idiots (who’re seemingly virtually and figuratively glued to their iPads and iPhones and everything Apple) who are also the people who won’t evacuate should there be a Grizzly bear sharing their apps beside them; long-armed invaders who’d spread open their Straits Times and conquer your invisible comfort space as if attempting to plaster and share their newspaper foreground with the ones beside them; perspiring aunties and uncles, clad in polo tees and mismatched shorts, holding onto the stanchions and handgrips for dear lives, yet giving you that sickening stare that actually turns you off enough to not want to give up your seat (admit it, I’m sure it happened at least once!), and who can forget, that immaculately clad working executive who’s lying fast asleep on your shoulders.

iPhone idiot.

Ritual 1: Open the blinds!

Ritual 2: Trawl through pantry

Anyway, breakfast is a simple affair of bread or oatmeal biscuits, with 3-in-1 coffee (yeah, a MUST-HAVE now). 

Peanut Butter bread/ IKO Oat biscuit

I’m beholden that out of all the other units in our decrepit building, we’ve got the swankiest office unit. A day in the office starts with my colleagues and I chatting about really hysterical and nonsensical topics. This sure is a treadle to starting our day right. 

Yup, we're an Advertising, Graphic designing and Interior Design firm!

Because I hold the fort for Advertising, Marketing and Copywriting, a large part of my daily job comprises of editing, writing, conceptualizing and designing campaigns for our clients. I’ve recently also befitted a fashion merchandiser’s portfolio by providing contents for advertorials and editorials on importation of the latest fashionable wears. Thumbs up to that, I’ve managed to learn a thing or two on garbs and fabrics.

Looking a bit serious at work

Writing FASHION

A bible for all my fashion editorials

By 1pm, we’re all out for lunch. The crew and I are never fickle with settling on a place to eat because we’re just simply not spoiled for choices at all! We jaywalk (all the time) to have lunch at the Traffic Police building just across our office – no pun intended! Till date, we haven’t received a fine for that … YET.

Doesn't scare us no more!

Ritual 4: Periodically sweeten my day, staring blankly at my girl

Oh, its a must to change out of heels, into leg warming comfies :)

Lunch is a vital meal for me but I go light on my tummy because I hate feeling sluggish like most people do after lunch. Because my crew are guys, they’d chow down huge plates of rice and noodles and are quite so often bemused at how my lunch menu usually is (everything MUST go with my triangle jelly!) Soups, sandwiches, desserts, porridge… anything light usually ends up on my plate, alongside a multi-tiered triangle jelly that I can never go without.

Jelly is like ... well, RICE!

Work ends at 6pm but we’re usually not gone till 6.30pm and I head to the Circle line back to the East. In Singapore, you’ll definitely be caught in a jam, wherever – traffic jam, human jam, train jam, SMRT jam, bus jam… 

Nothing extraordinary!

I don’t go light on dinner to make sure that I don’t overcompensate on my lunch. Dinner is my favourite meal of the entire day, when I can sit back and appreciate munching on my food without being conscious of the time. Better still, I’ve always wanted dinner by a serene lake or sea of some sorts, but it’s always near impossible here in Singapore, unlike Melbourne where we had the entire Docklands to ourselves.

Still, my work life sure is pretty interesting! How about your’s?

You can have dinner by the dock, together with free-ranging penguins

Dinner by Docklands, Melbourne

Or you can even be creative and have dinner right HERE!