To Pike's Place We Go!

So I'm finally getting around to showing some of the photos I took in Seattle! :) I LOVE Seattle, seriously. It's such a nice place - the people are so friendly (well, I know a lot of an impression of a place is based on luck, because you just need to meet the right sort of people to fall in love with a place; I've been lucky so far!) and there's a great laid back, peace-loving culture...Or so it seems. :) Tell me if you think otherwise. I do happen to really like downtown Seattle because it's near Elliot Bay and there are all these great places to spend the afternoon traipsing around in... And of course, one place I always enjoy going to is Pike's Place Market. For those of you who don't already know, it's a famous public market that's been around since 1907 (thank you, Wiki) and there are lots of well known stalls and restaurants that have been referenced in movies, books and the like. For example, there's this place called Lowell's Restaurant and Bar that was featured in the rom-com Sleepless in Seattle :D and my aunt brought me there once for some great seafood. I'd been to Pike's probably 2 or 3 times before this but you know what, each time it's a different experience (and with a different camera) so I really never get sick of it.


Check out these cute piggy banks! :D The funny dark spots on them are actually surfaces that you can write on with chalk. Man I do think I need to get a piggy bank for myself to remind myself to save everyday. But I can totally imagine myself sleep-opening the piggy bank in the middle of the night while dreaming about a dress or something I'm thinking of getting. ;p I know. Self-control, where have you gone?? Ocarinas! :D You know what, I remember my mum getting my a small blue ocarina once many many years ago and I think it was actually from this market! I seriously remember thinking I could be the next big star in music armed with my cool-ass ocarina since I couldn't play the piano for nuts. But really it's about as hard to play as a recorder and there's a reason why there aren't really any famous Recorder ermmm players. Then comes the food section! :) We tried some of this honey and MAN it was good. Suddenly I'm reminded of the Berenstain Bears who used to have snacks of bread and honey. I'm still really upset that Jan Berenstain (the author) passed away recently. :( Definitely getting those books again for my kids in the future. Left: I had no idea what those were. Fruit logs?? Dried fruit rolled out into those shapes? 
Right: Elephant Garlic! MMM speaking of food, we happened to get some really huge and juicy apples called Pacific Rose Apples. Try to get some if you're there since it's really mainly from the Pacific Northwest.  Oh the colors. :) There's a famous seafood stall called Pike Place Fish that's known for having fishmongers who know how to give good service and have a good time at work - complete with fish-throwing antics. They file orders by throwing fishes to one another and that can be with regards to a HUGE salmon or sth. It's called Pike Place Fish and if you've read the book Fish!, it's actually based on the work culture at this particular stall. They normally have this huge fish head that sits notably on the ice with a sign that says something like Touch Me! or Come Closer! and so when customers go really near the fish, one of the fishmongers on the other end will pull a string that brings the mouth of the fish to a sudden close! And of course the customer freaks and the audience laughs and it's all in good fun. :) Unfortunately this time they didn't have the fish out. AND, another place we went to that was nearby was the ORIGINAL Starbucks cafe! It opened in 1971 and still has the original starbucks logo from the time. Before I forget, meet Krayon! :P This cutie belongs to my friend Jessalynn and her boyfriend who study in California but happened to be able to come to Seattle that very weekend that I was there! So we managed to meet up and they brought him along. Honestly, he attracted SO much attention. Everyone LOVED him. Which brings me to my conclusion that dogs are the same as babies in terms of how they elicit the whole gushing/cooing/"soooooo cuuuuuute" comments from passersby. They are great conversation starters and best of all, the ''parents'' don't mind people taking photos of them. For Krayon, it was really all about his fashionable orange rain booties that made him such a star. And I must admit, he was a really good doggy who hardly barked! BUT the cutest dog was another dog that we happened to meet the day after. >:D PHOTOS SOON! 
 xx

24h in Tokyo - Part 2

May I remind you that when we were in Tokyo, it was plain freezing?? Not that it was minus O (though it MIGHT have been O_o during one of the nights?) but I do think my mum and I were quite unprepared. So we were walking around without proper thermals/warm boots/layers... But it's great that we passed through Tokyo on the way to Seattle because when we got there we were more or less acclimatized to the cold. ;p It snowed the day after we reached Tokyo. :) And well, I now know how the locals must feel about the snow because while it's gorgeous to look at from indoors or when you're overseas looking at a photo on your computer in the warmth of your house/bed/blankets, it sucks to be IN the snow! The main thing that was going through my mind while watching the snow come down was, ok you're pretty but you're also totally in the way! With the snow, it just got colder and the streets were wet and slippery... not ideal for walking around and shopping especially when we had limited time there. Ah well. But though my fingers were freezing, I still managed to take a couple of shots. :)


Ginza in the snow. Last time...well, maybe a couple of years ago when I first started getting into photography, I used to not want to try editing photos very much because I felt that it would be unauthentic... Like it would be cheating somehow. But now, I'm all for it. Also because I've come to realize that through editing photos, it's sometimes easier to convey the feeling of that moment captured. So it's not just the image itself but also a hint of the emotions that are tied to it. Just something I've felt for quite awhile now. ;) Snow everywhere! On the way back to the hotel after a very unfruitful trip to my mum's favorite shoe store at Ginza, I stopped by the famous Baumkuchen (type of layered cake) store at Ginza. It's really popular in Japan and the good news is, it's now at the basement level of Takashimaya in S'pore! ;p They sell the regular sized cakes and also cheaper smaller portions (probably from the leftover scraps of cake) that are equally good. Left: Florist in the rain. 
Right: Just thought this was a pretty hilarious sight. I can imagine the dialogue going on. So the caption of this photograph would be, "Will You Be My Friend?" When in reality, if you hadn't already known, Big Rabbit is most likely giving out tissue packets with porno adverts tucked into it. Yeah. Sorry to burst your bubble there. But they often hand out free packets of tissue on the streets with really weird adverts in them. (I still always try to get them since free tissue is always great!) 
I really wish we could've spent a much longer time there. There were so many places that I wanted to check out this time in Tokyo especially since I'd learnt of a few new neighbourhoods like Kichijoji which are apparently the up and coming/funky neighbourhoods. Can't wait to go back soooooooooooooooooooon.

24h in Tokyo - Part 1

Wow my back is seriously achy now. And so are my shoulders. Probably because I've spent the better part of the past 6 hours or so hunched over my laptop editing photos. And after all that time (dinner included), I'm still only halfway through! O_O BUT, I'm happy with the stuff I've gone through so far. :D There are moments when I kinda wonder if well, I should be spending my time doing other more productive stuff like erm studying/reading up on the stuff I've been exposed to this week at my posting but then the more I think about it, the more I feel I should really treasure this relative freedom that I have now at the moment and do the things I enjoy doing while I still have the time and am not burdened by unhealthy amounts of stress that will be the likely case in a few months time. 
The truth is, these photos are way backdated. :P I'm not anywhere near Tokyo at the moment! I'm actually in Montreal now and will be here for the next 2 months or so for my elective. Many many Montreal photos/experiences coming up soon but before arriving in Montreal, my mum and I actually stopped over at two places; the first being Tokyo, for just over 24 hours (something to do with her getting a cheaper round the world flight ticket that way; beats me), after which, we visited my Uncle's family in Seattle. :) It's all on the way, really. 
So when we were in Tokyo, we decided to visit my cousin who's actually teaching English in a more rural city called Namegata (in Ibaraki Prefecture)(it's such a small place hardly anyone's heard about it) that's about an hour and a half away from the Tokyo city center by an express train. A couple of things that really stick out in my memory of our time there include 1. BEING SUPER DUPER COLD. We were REALLY freezing our asses off! I guess we didn't expect winter in Tokyo to be so cold but when we were there, we encountered snow. ;p "Lucky" us, eh? 2. Being as always, impressed by the sights of rural Japan. Our train stopped at Ishioka (that's the bigger city next to Namegata) and while we were waiting for my cousin to pick us up, I couldn't help but fall in love again with Japan. I love the look of the train platforms, really. :) They bring to mind Japanese TV serials and anime (Slam Dunk FTW!).

 
Coat and Scarf: Ruche , beanie: F21, sweater: Sonia Rykiel (borrowed from my mum), 
Jeans: Urban Outfitters, Shoes: Jeffrey Campbell 

I'm really happy to have rediscovered these low ankle boots that I'd gotten ages ago from an online store. I never wore it that much back home because the first time I wore it I was silly enough to not wear socks and ended up with a bunch of blisters. But recently in the past month or so, I've started wearing it with jeans (and socks!) and it's been a real hardy pair of shoes. :) I guess it means it's always good to go back to your closet/shoe cupboard and see if there are things that need a bit more lovin'/a second lease of life. Isn't this awesome? My cousin's learning Japanese by himself at the moment and he's got all these post-its EVERYWHERE. In the car, on the walls in his apartment... Makes me really miss learning Japanese. :(( It's just so difficult to keep up with a foreign language if you're not actively using it all the time. I know it's really possible (I have a friend who not only is as good as native speaker, but he also hangs out with a lot of Japanese friends, goes for Japanese karaoke sessions and takes the highest level of exams yearly. That's perseverance!) but I guess at the moment I'm focusing on other stuff... It's always been a dream of mine to take a year off to teach English in Japan though. Hopefully next time! My mum and my cousin in the HUGE supermarket near his place. It's ginormous and awesome but to put things into perspective, it's about the only fun thing to do there. There are no shopping malls. I can understand why he pops into that mega supermarket 2 - 3 times a day. ;p I would probably do the same. Besides, in Japanese supermarkets like these they have freshly cooked food like these incredibly yummy looking freshly fried potato croquette! And in the evening time before they close, all of the cooked food goes for like half price or something great like that, so all the house wives (and my cousin included) hustle for whatever's left.   

Left: All those cute Japanese munchies!!
Right: Believe it or not, I'd never tried Baskin Robbins' ice cream prior to this trip. For some reason I just figured it could never be as good as Haagen Daz or like Ben and Jerry's. But NO, this was GOOD. There were a total of 27 flavors available in the small Baskin Robbins' outlet in the supermarket!   
I ended up choosing some cool flavor like Tea and Scones which was so good! And the best part was that they had different sizes available so my mum and I got the Kids' size one to share. :p Perfect pre-dinner snackeroo!  And for dinner that night, we met up with some of his fellow English-teacher friends and went for Yakiniku. It was INCREDIBLY good. All that tender meat (with lots and lots of layers of fat) that we walloped so quickly. I love the feeling of meat so tender it melts in your mouth but then after everything's over and done with, it's hard to not think about how it was only so soft and delicious because of the amount of fat in it. HMMMM.

Oh but before I forget, the Yakiniku place was in another city (sounded like there really wasn't anything much in Namegata) that took about 1.5 hours to drive to. AND after that we traveled another 1.5 hour back to Tokyo. Too much traveling in one day. :( Ended up snoozing most of the time in the car. Something about heated cars in winter time that are perfect for sleeping in. Ever felt that way?

xx

Non.Stop.Museum.Hops!

So just so you know, I don't spend all my free time at cafes being a munching monstah. Though, that's definitely something I enjoy doing. But really, all the previous posts have been condensed from visits over a period of say...4 months? :P Terrible, I know, but the time I give myself to edit/go through folders of photos is pretty pathetic. But there's just so much to do...!! Which is why I can never understand it when friends/classmates say they feel bored during the holidays. Seriously?? I would never utter those two words in the same sentence. If I do, gimme a go wake-up-call slapppp. 


Anyway, here are some photos from what I remember to be a really great afternoon spent museum hopping with Donald. :D The National Museum had a pretty awesome exhibition over the past few months that just ended in Feb - entitled, Dreams and Reality: Masterpieces of Painting, Drawing and Photography, it featured lots of well-known works from the Musée d’Orsay in Paris and I do think that a lot of people ended up going to check it out.
Man, who is that cool studious dude? :) I just had to take a photo and spend the rest of the day with him LOL. So I didn't quite take a lot of photos of the paintings I liked (because ermm I did that with my iPhone)(but seriously, what do people do with the photos they've taken of the paintings they liked in a museum?? It's not like they can really print it out or remember to show it off? Unless they post in on their blog hmmm..!) but I did take some photos of the little bits and bobs that were happening inside. Live sketching workshop going on! Though I think it was more of a bring your own art materials and do whatever you want session, with live model provided. I really like how there was a rest area within the exhibition space itself. Ohh before I forget, a couple of things that I think make for a really good exhibit: 
1. The total amount of time taken for a reasonably normal human being to get through it should be about 1 hour, maximum. Anything more than that is plain cruel because who wants to be made to feel like a total spaz for not being able to absorb all the goodness from beautiful artworks? Besides, I DO think that I remember reading from somewhere that a person's attention span for a certain activities lasts only a maximum of 40 mins after which is really dips to abysmal levels. (No idea why schools never adhere to such research and insist of having classes that drag on for hours and hours.) - On a side note, that is also why I really don't like the Louvre. It's incredible and all but... before I even start going through the first exhibit I'm already filled with fatigue/dread at the thought of not being able to complete even a fraction of the exhibitions even if I devote an entire day to it!! BAHH. 
2. There should be comprehensive explanations about each piece of art, in terms that a layman would understand. I always think it would be so great if there could be an explanation for WHY the artist even came up with that drawing/sculpture in the first place because that's really the main question in my mind. What inspired the artist? Why on earth did he/she decide to do this?? And really, I actually quite relish reading the "Kids'" explanations sometimes because it really is a lot simpler to understand and there are often certain pretty wacky details they point out to kids that they don't do for the Adult explanation. Wonder why huh. 
3. There should be resting points. 
4. Photography should be allowed. :D To allow for people to at least prove they've been there so that they can show off to their friends. And besides, if they don't understand what they're seeing and they need to wait for friends, they can at least snap away.

So back to the exhibition. Pretty timeline! Something I liked even more outside at the main lobby of the museum entrance. These little things were the ones holding up the balloons in the previous photo.  

skirt: Fancy French Cologne, top: The Everyday Life Store (TELS), necklace and flats: Tangs Studio  

 What I wore museum hopping. I have realized that on hot days, maxi skirts can't be beat!

Next, we went on over to SAM at 8Q, or if that isn't cool sounding enough, 8QSAM, which is really the extension of the Singapore Art Museum, located at 8 Queen Street. Kinda meh once its name has been demystified eh? ;p But really, it was my FAVORITE museum of the day! All its exhibits pretty much fulfilled ALL the criteria I listed above for what makes a good museum exhibit. It's actually quite a small museum but it's rather quirky in terms of its color (I'm all for superficial details like this) and it showcases exhibits mainly by local artists of much smaller scale. When we were there, there were quite a few by Singaporean performance artist Amanda Heng, under the title of "Speak To Me, Walk With Me". One that I quite enjoyed had photos of her donning the Singapore Airlines attire visiting places/parts of Singapore oft-forgotten/fast vanishing.

I wish I could give a better/more insightful commentary about this but... I remember Donald explaining a lot of it to me in detail. Sometimes it's good to go museum hopping with a well-read Lit student. ;p

Another really awesome installation featured piles of beansprouts on tables and I THINK it was supposed to symbolize a focal point around which women of the house would gather to peel beansprouts and have conversation. I just thought it was pretty darn cool. :P LASTLY, we traipsed over to the actual Singapore Art Museum for a short bit to check out an exhibition featuring the works of artist Hyung Koo Kang. I'd not heard of this artist before but after seeing his work, I'm seriously AMAZED. I thought that his works were some sort of digitally modified and magnified works based on paintings of these artists (all of which were his muses, e.g. Leonardo da Vinci, Van Gogh) but NO - they are actually his own paintings. Isn't it insane?? Doesn't it look like some sort of digitally enhanced image of a painting? I can't believe what a genius this guy is! Btw, anytime I look at a picture of Van Gogh, I'm reminded of an episode of Modern Family when Luke held up a picture of V.G and said to Phil, "doesn't it remind you of Uncle Mitchell gone crazy?" HEH.  Apparently he chose to paint these artists because they'd all gone through a period of struggle in their artistic career (a.k.a. they were all pretty crazy and tortured perfectionisits) which he could identify with. Which makes me feel... kinda worried for artists everywhere. What sort of angst must they be going through their entire life in the name of creating something good enough for themselves? 


So just incase you were wondering, the 3 places we went to were: 1.The National Museum, 2.The Singapore Art Museum and 3.8QSAM, the smaller offshoot of the Singapore Art Museum. All of which are totally worth checking out! :D I definitely recommend 8QSAM because Food for Thought (nice cafe!) is right outside. You have to think about your tummy when you go on outings like these.

Tiong Bahru: Open Door Policy

Probably the most telling of how far along in its gentrification efforts Tiong Bahru has become, Open Door Policy is the latest culinary venture of Singapore's Spa Espirit Group that aims to bring fine dining to the neighborhood at more affordable prices. (All this is seriously just googling heh. Just thought I'd give a bit of overview incase you were too lazy to google yourself ;p) It's next door to Books Actually and while I'd heard from a few people that the food was pretty decent albeit overpriced, I really wanted to try it out for myself. So finally, Donald and I headed over there one day for a late lunch. I suppose that was a wise choice because there was hardly a crowd at all and we were able to get seated really quickly. A couple of features I really like? The brick walls on the side and the glass-roofed sky light. We decided to be adventurous and tried two main courses: 
1. Wild Mushroom risotto with truffle crumbs 
 2. Pan Seared Sea Bass with Artichoke, Potatoes and Rocket Salad. 
So since I'm not a seasoned food critic nor do I claim to represent anyone else's taste in food but my own, I must say that the mushroom risotto was not the best risotto that I've had. I tend to like risotto that's lighter both in texture and flavor and this one was rather heavy in terms of consistency and the truffle flavor. I always feel that truffle works best in minimal amounts; just enough to make it tantalizing. Too much and it loses its effect. The sea bass was decent though. I remember it being soft on the inside with really hot and crispy skin on the outside. Nonetheless it was rather salty, but with the risotto it worked out alright.
 

 

 dress: Fancy French Cologne, necklace: Mikkat Market, bag: Urban Outfitters  

And because there isn't much flexibility in the day-to-day school/work dress code I have to contend with, I focus all my energy in having fun dressing up for the weekends when there's time for restaurant-going/cafe-visiting. :) I first saw this dress on one of my favorite online stores (ok, I do have many!), Fancy French Cologne, and it struck me immediately as a dress I loved because of the zany print that really only made me think of one word - Vintage. :D My sis thinks I look old (and from her tone of voice I could only presume she meant Granny-old) but I suppose fashion is all a matter of perspective isn't it? Oh and having at least a layer of thick skin. So to match what I thought was a more vintage feel of the dress, I pulled out an old Urban Outfitters handbag that I'd bought quite a while back. 

Open Door Policy 19 Yong Siak St 

Singapore 168650 

Just to sum up Open Door Policy -- I think based on that first experience I can only say the food is decent but it IS somewhat overpriced. So do go if you're willing to splurge because the ambience is great and you'd definitely enjoy being in that restaurant.