Salam Aidilfitri!

To all my Muslim brothas and sistas,

Selamat Hari Raya Aidilfitri. Harap maaf zahir dan batin, for all that I may have said, done, thought or assumed about you, both in your presence, or your absence.

Take this time to deepen our ties amongst both family, friends and even those we aren't fond of.

Enjoy it while it lasts!

God Bless.

Wassallam.

=)

shenzhen!

oh my gawwd.

i just can't contain my excitement.

shenzhen, china, here we come!

my mum just gave the green light for me to take on the attachment vacancy there. for 2 friggin' whole months. wow.

what's exciting is that i won't be alone. HELL NO. in fact, chester, jazelle and rhoda a.k.a. rholah will be going shenzhen too! (although jazelle and rholah would be attached to a different firm from me and chester.)

weeeheee. i can already imagining the four of us going causeway bay, hongkong, every weekend! for 2 months!

i can HARDLY wait. =)

today, i gymmed and swimmed again! this time in the school gym, with chester.

(while fasting, course.)

wow.

i feel a sense of achievement. and satisfaction. i managed to try the bench press. quite shiok ah.

but of course,

i emphasise the word "try".

Uncles, Uncles and More Uncles!

Today's been one heck of a day.

I hereby dedicate this day to the elderly men of our time.

The first uncle of the day is none other than a close buddy of mine,
Chester Goh Wei Loong.

We had a belated birthday celebration for him, but of course, not AFTER mentally torturing him; leading him to think that we really, really totally forgot about his birthday.

Ha ha. WE GOT CHA, DIND'T WE?

He was unusually quiet and practically 'depressed' for the whole day. He didn't talk, laugh or joke as he would on any ordinary day and just kept to himself. He probably gave up all hope on seeing us bringing him a present or cake or whatsoever. In fact, nobody wished him or even spoke about his birthday.

But, no, friends would never, ever do that. Now, would they?

This is what we, being the wonderful friends we are, did for our dearest uncle:


I know, I know, we're such thoughtful friends. Wait till you see the other side of the tee.
(Aiyah ok lah, got typo error. PHOTOGRA-HY. People make mistakes okay!)

And we did all this in the comfort and seclusion of, yes, the plotter room!

Midway through the 'designing' of the tee, the W5A cleaning auntie walked into the room, and as usual, gave us the sheepishly blank stare. Farhan suggested kidnapping her and wrapping her up and then presenting it to Chester. I thought that was a fabulous idea - maybe we could even dress her up a la Moulin Rouge, complete with Playboy Bunny ears & thigh-high stockings. Whoa, that would be Chester's wildest fantasy come true. But alas, the plotter room was equipped with CCTV.

Oh, well.

Anyway, after giving the fake present (the self-decorated shirt above), cutting the cake and then giving the real present (Levi's shirt and dogtag), we went on to attend Frank Gehry's talk at NUS University Cultural Centre.

And there we met other uncles.

One of the guest speakers looked just like Albert Einstein. No kidding.

He was bald with puffy, frizzy white hair at the sides. And he wore some kinda all-white pajamas outfit for the talk. Which i couldn't help but think he might just be a wee bit senile.

No offence meant to the elderly, of course.

And here we were, taking photos of ourselves while Frank Gehry himself was speaking.

(Oh btw, i look like i have perfectly flawless complexion here. Ha ha. FAT HOPE.)

And here's a rare occassion when the backrests of seats are not needed.

And Fernando dislocated his neck while dozing off during the talk.

That's all folks! =))

BLACKandWHITE.

i MISS hong kong lah dey.

Clock Tower.
Tsim Sha Tsui, Hong Kong.

Another Clock Tower.
Central, Hong Kong.

Clouds.
Somewhere in Hong Kong.

Man Vs. Nature
Two IFC and a really, really huge tree.

That Clock Tower, Again.

HK Exhibition & Convention Centre and the Kowloon Harbour.

The Peninsula Hotel Hongkong.

Rolah.
And the Streets of Hongkong.

The Streets at Night.
The city that never sleeps.

VivoCity!

Ooohh.

We've discovered a new shopping paradise.
That's better than Orchard.

And a late-night lepak-ing hangout.
That's better than the Esplanade waterfront.

Yes.

It's none other than the newly-opened VivoCity! Not only is it the newest shopping mall in Singapore, it happens to be the biggest, too. And BIG's an understatement. It's HUGE.

I know you're excited.

Here's what we (Izyan, Dinie & Me) saw.


The first thing we did when we arrived - we went straight up to the rooftop courtyard. And yes, it IS huge. There's an outdoor amphitheatre, water-features which imitate sandy beaches, quirky but really cute sculptures and artworks, as well as something Izyan called "Jesus". No offence meant here, but it's a monument-like bronzed (or so, I think) sculpture of a man. It's suspended quite a distant up - hence, the reference to "Jesus". Except that instead of being crucified on the pole, the man's hanging from the pole. It's an artwork installed by some foreign artist, during the Singapore Biennale 2006. I don't know what it's called, but "Jesus Doing Pull-ups" sounds pretty neat.

And so we left the holy fitness corner and wandered off towards the waterfront.

Beeeeeautiful.

Apart from the horrendous haze, of course.

Otherwise, the view would have been excellent. I mean, hey, you could barely see Sentosa Island from where we were standing. That's how bad the haze is.

Later, we had dinner/break-fast at Banquet Harbourfront Centre. Yeah, that's after we waited for dunno-how-long for a vacant table lah. And AFTER braving the long and winding queues, consisting mainly of makciks and aunties.

Oh yeah. I spent alot on food. Chicken rice, then Fish & Chips. Not bad, huh, for someone this skinny.

So later, we found a cosy spot somewhere along the waterfront. There were some really funky outdoor 'furniture'. Circular in shape, patterned and coloured like a bright pink-red rose, we found them a tad pretty. Pretty enough for our butts to rest. We sat and chat for god-knows-how-long.

What a pretty lil' thing. (The furniture, of couse. What were you thinking?)

Much later, we went back inside to roam the many, many shops of Vivocity. Ok lah, we didn't really roam. We went to GV - but didn't catch a movie. It was a teeny bit late already. We sat, yet again, admiring the purple-gradient ceiling deco.

And, we took more photos. Camwhoring, as girls would call it.

Oh yeah, we discovered izyan's actually wearing a wig.

What i prefer to call Rambut Sample.

Izyan and the shiny wig of hers.

Apparently, Izyan's bald. And every morning, she'll put on this wig of hers before she leaves home.

Izyan thinks taking photos at this angle makes her look fatter.
That's a good thing for us skinnies.
Right?

Dinie's acting cool.
Trying to, at least.

Uh oh.
Now he's trying to seduce viewers.
Please turn off your monitors if you're offended.

Oh btw, the ticketing area at GV Vivocity has really beaaautiful ceiling deco.
Psychedelic?

And here are

The Night Shots.

The Abominable Snowman on a diet?

Sorry, there ain't no nectar, ma'am.

dang!

That's how bad the haze is.
You can't see Sentosa.
Or the cable car lines.

ugh.

the haze is horrijible!

it's time! (for a new blog skin)

say hello to my all-new blog skin.

heh.

i have a very, very, very short attention/interest span.

which means, i can get sick of stuff really fast.

till the next blog skin,

cheers! =)

myspace.

you know, it's been ages since i logged in to my myspace account. and so i decided to do just that.

and this is the conclusion i arrived at today.

myspace is full of despos.

like REALLY desperate despos. girls (well, for some, they appear to be girls) who will throw themselves at you. girls who would drop all self-worth and dignity just to get you to notice them.

NOT that it's something i should complain of.

well, it's just that these girls are weird, to put it mildly. some are hideous - not their fault though, while others i find hard to come to terms with. and some girls, aren't even girls to begin with.

heh. if u know what i mean.

so i got quite a number of persistent and overly-friendly messages in my myspace inbox. mostly from girls, well except for one that sounds suspiciously vague.

MESSAGE
Subject: You two guys.
Body: Both of you are so hot you two should be lovers i'd sucky both of you.

that message was from someone whose account was apparently deleted by the myspace administration.

hmmm. i wonder why?

in case you're wondering who "you two guys" are, my main profile pic is that of me and a close buddy of mine, shafiq. or fiq for short. hence, the subject of that message. here's my profile: http://www.myspace.com/harizlimyihao

so,

this girl/guy wants to sucky me.

i'm assuming it's nothing obscene.

right?

byebye orchard, hello vivocity!

it's finally here.


vivocity!

wow.

it's really, really, really nice. AND it's huge lah. the exterior of the building is a breath of fresh air - it's different from your typical shopping mall. and i just love those huge curly white things that seem to creep over and around the facade. but the material they used for it (whatever material it is) kinda sucks - looks cheapo.

i was there today with my classmate rong min. we simply walked in amidst all the construction workers clad in helmets and boots. rilek only eh.

oh, there's gonna be Tangs at vivocity! weehee i can't wait. vivocity isn't even ready yet - they're still doing the interior fixtures, decorations and stuff - but already, i caught a glimpse of mannequins in bras and racks and racks of clothes amidst the sawdust, construction equipment and banglas.

but apart from Tangs, the other outlets were either empty or still under renovation. there's Nautica, there's bebe and GAP, too. I don't recall seeing a GAP outlet in singapore so far. maybe there is, not that i know of. i hope there's gonna be a good mix of expensive and affordable indie labels for both adults and youths. 'cause we don't need, say, another paragon.

wow. already i can see myself making trips to vivocity during the weekends of the not-so-distant future.

bye bye orchard.

we're gonna miss you.