The Volunteering

Today I joined NUS PEACE(People Ending Animal Cruelty and Exploitation) for the volunteering activity at Animal Lover's League (ALL)!

It wasn't my first time volunteering with animals(previously helped to walk/look after dogs during an adoption drive) but i guess it could be considered as my first time actually entering a shelter and helping with their daily sort of chores and stuff.

I was tasked with washing the animals' food and water dishes at the Cattery side, so that i did, for one hour or so. yes man, just washing the dishes alone took one whole hour! imagine what these people have to do everyday, you gotta admire their hard work and dedication... besides this there's still clearing the litter trays, mixing of food, walking dogs, bathing the animals etc etc.

The cats were unbelievably adorable! They curved in between and around my legs as I washed the dishes, meowing their sad little stories as I listened. They were so pretty, so active, so friendly... how did they end up here? I would totally bring one home if not for residential restrictions... I'll have to wait till I have my own abode where I can call the shots.

Some would greet you like "Meow!" upon seeing you, then proceeding on their way. Like someone just said Hi! Some just kept meowing sadly...

One particular cat kept jumping on everyone's laps! It jumped on mine and started kneading my pants haha, too precious!

When I was done with the dishes, my friend and I went to rescue another friend who was walking a dog.. who didnt want to walk. When we found them I took over the leash and the dog decided to become energetic and trotted back to the shelter swifty only stopping once to relieve itself. And when i say swiftly, I mean I had to jog to keep up! The dog was rather large, rather barrel-shaped and I am probably about two-thirds its weight. This dog made me break a sweat! But it was fun and the whole time I just thought about morning jogs with my own dog one day.

I don't know whether to feel happy or sad for these animals because despite the care that they are being given, for whatever reason, they wound up here. Abandoned, unwanted, sometimes mistreated... these animals deserve so much more.

Hair

hair used to be this.. now it's only like that temporarily after braiding :C

time and tide waits for no mun

The days are way too short. I dont have enough time to do everything i need, and other things i want. im already making use of practically all the time i have but it seems like it's just fixed this way, i cant procure more time than there is available in the first place. I'm doing things as fast as I can, finishing assignments, revision, trainings, designing... everything just going poof! one after another they just disappear. am i even feeling any of this? its like im in this zombie mode and doing everything because i have to.

Gonna snap out of this. Need. Rest. Need. Time.

It's like ice
Melting fast
Before you notice it, Alas!
Burned away
In disarray
It's flowing, flowing everyday
Can't control
Yet controlled
Oh the irony, behold
Now it's here
Then it's lost
Look at what it's had me cost.

Ok I should go sleep now.

Paris 2011 - A short rant

I never really wrote about this trip in detail i guess mostly cuz i was lazy. I think looking at pictures of places I've been make me feel happier than when I was actually there too.

For example, seeing the pics i took of the Eiffel tower and on top of the Eiffel tower, I don't immediately remember so much the crowd and the noise and the tourist-packed landings but rather the art, the architecture, the landscape. And then I float into the "Oh! i wish i were there!" moment and then i remember. Oh right, didn't really like it there.
It wasnt the place itself, but the circumstances that made it rather difficult to enjoy anything in its entirety.

Louvre: queue early! We hit the doors slightly before opening time and the picture is the queue when we left. going early means empty rooms, clear
walkways, greater photo opportunities and more freedom!

Also, you can peek at the Mona Lisa if its your thing cuz it's on display there. It was much too crowded (and our feet were threatening to drop off) by the time we finished the egyptian section so nope, didn't see it. Oh and there's no separate exit so you have to go right back where you started to leave the exhibits meaning... rooms and rooms and rooms of walking later, rooms and rooms and rooms of walking back. nice shoes, hydration and a snack are recommended.
I tried to take in everything so much that i think i got swallowed up in it ad it spewed me out again because i was not their level of sophistication so i left, sticky, upset, rejected.
No la, but there is really a lot to see so prolly have to spend a day there if you're planning to cover every exhibit.

I bought The Little Prince (my favourite book) in French here even though I cant read French. *rire*

Hair

Sometimes I don't comb my hair in the mornings, don't condition it, don't take care of it, wishing it would somehow revert back to its original state of blackie locks...

curly haired people want straight hair. straight hair people want curly hair.

but i miss my old hair. What possessed me to tame this mane of mine T_T

du du du dre-ea-ming~~ dre-ea-ming~~♪

Travel Peek: Paris

Just a couple of pretty pics from a trip 2 years ago...

Really enchanting place but terrible terrain! Maybe I'll rant more about it next time...

Reminisce

I have spent the past 3 hours studying!! 3 hours straight! I know, I can't believe it either. My power of determination is improving by crepes and gowns. Even though I only managed to study 1 set of notes for this past 3 hours, I still deserve some slacking time.

Slacking time is being spent reminiscing. I used to only want to go to New Zealand, ever. That was the only place that I'd ever visited and never stopped dreaming of returning. I was never really interested in anywhere else because I wouldn't open myself up to the rest of the world and see what else was amazing.

But things have changed yes indeed. Now I want to go to so many places I never even thought would be on my list because they were just so far away.

I was reminiscing about the Mauritius trip I went on, December of the year before last, organized by the mountaineering club for anyone and everyone. Oh gosh. Looking at the photos really make my hairs tingly and my heart all jingly. I mean, look at this place! It is nothing short of Paradise. Mauritius. Land of the Dodos.

Magnificent crashing waves. Yes, we were all just sitting with our legs dangling over the edge of the cliff, trying to breathe because the sight was just... Incredible. Sat watching for an hour that felt like 5 minutes.

I did some of the craziest things there. Like going over the fences of a random cliff along the road, scaling the edge along almost non-existent footholds, tiptoeing to the jutting platform where we were supposed to launch ourselves over into the turquoise oasis like baby birds that couldn't fly but didn't have a care for the world. Yes, we all did it. We all didn't have a care for the world at that moment. In a place like that, it's paradise. What's there to worry about?

Anyway, I also got to pat a cheetah on its head. Yes, a real life cheetah. And also, a night sky literally splashed with diamante that I think could have been a good number of carats each. And thirteen shooting stars in one night. It's like I went up to space and floated there for a few hours basking in the light, in the dark...

A random railway beckoning you towards an incredibly crisp liquid lanscape

Thinking of the whole experience, I wonder how I made it back to Singapore without restraints. We got to go to places that tour groups would never bring us, do crazy things that regular holidays would never entail. All thanks to our native guides that lived such a life of adventure they knew such places inside out and were gracious enough to open up that world to us.

I really miss the excitement, the adventure, and all the fun and laughter we had on the trip. Much thanks to Cang Ning who was really the one who made me aware of the opportunity and then became my soulsista on the trip XD

I recently decided that Ireland shall be on my list as well. I heard they really do have faeries there! I wonder what characteristics you need in order to see faeries. Is it like seeing ghosts? The Japanese movie shown in class recently had like 3 criteria for the characters that were able to see ghosts. Doing badly in life, being close to death recently and eating cinnamon. Haha. It's cute.

heart pain

OU MAH GAAADDDD. i felt so heart pain when i saw jetstar's 2 for 1 flight sales to Osaka today!!! Only as low as $344 for a return ticket for TWO PEEPEL?? I paid $122 more than that amount for just one person =.= SAD MAN. Yea So next time, must wait!! Cannot be so kanchiong like me. Summore i bought with Flyscoot. forever seeing comprains about their flight delays, lousy customer service etc etc. I shall judge for myself based on my own experience lah. But the zhong dian is. I SHOULD HAVE STUCK TO MY LA FAMIGLIA JETSTARRRR (i meant familiar but la famiglia sounded more dramatic at that moment even if it doesnt mean the same thing okay? okay. )

Happy Hearts Day!

The Living Dead

Every Global Change lecture I go through makes me come out a little more distraught about the future of this planet. Every time we are reminded of how little there is that's left and yet so few of us are trying to protect it. How some can't see its worth even when you lay it out to them in 10 digit values with dollar signs of all kinds. How they just gasp when you show them the percentage losses, and then they turn around and let it slip away from their minds...

Today I was told that Singapore's forests are living dead. That even though what's left is being protected, the trees will spill out their fruits but no birds or bees will be here to disperse the life they could bring. The forests will just die, slowly, with no predecessors... I'm not really knowledgeable about this but I wonder if it's really true. That our forests are just living, waiting to die?

And our shores, disappearing, because the losses aren't as obvious as trees being destroyed. Everything is hidden under a blanket of blue, the blankets over our eyes as we go ahead with reclaimation, development... destruction.

The shrinking ecosystems everywhere.. how can we stop it from happening? How can we convince an entire world of what it means to them to keep these beautiful parts of the Earth? How can we convince those who never touched a flower in its crib or never looked at the skies and realise they can't see the stars anymore? That all around them is concrete, plaster, metal rising into the sky and spreading over the land faster than an epidemic.

And as we grow richer, we become sadder. because we're losing something, something we innately love. We love reading about it, seeing pictures of it, going to far away places to experience it. But we don't love having to try to save it. We maintain a strange mindset that it will just be there for us and every extinction that occurs goes unnoticed in our tiny little world surrounded by concrete walls. Not hearing, not seeing, not happening.

But it is happening. And I wish the small things people do make an effort to try to help in were more apparent to those that close their eyes and sleep their way through the rest of their lives on this crumbling, withering world.

I wish there was something I could do.

1 year 2 months

Chinatown

River Hongbao

It's been a long time since I've been to this event. My parents used to bring me as a child and I dont even have a clue as to where it was held or what exactly happened there. I only remember the falling flakes of gold that flickered all around as we approached the statue of the God of Fortune. It always seemed to rain when we went. Or at least that's the way I remember it.

This year was no different. It rained practically all day! Ben and I went ahead with the plan anyway cux there wasnt anywhere else to explore really, on the first day of CNY. The carnival was at the floating platform right beside the esplanade and you could spot it from miles because of the lovely bright lights. There wasnt even a crowd because, I suppose, of the weather and the timing, and that was a good, good thing.

The decoration was pretty. Flowers, cranes, neon, LED. As the sky got darker the lights grew even brighter and it began to look like a little floating Las Vegas.

The deco was one part of it, but of course the food was the other. There was a tent with a bunch of little stalls all scrunched together and practically everyone gathered there because of the shelter, warmth and the lovely smells. We had a turkish kebab ($5 and yums!), a bacon wrapped pork sausage ($3.50 piping hot sausage, crispy wafer-thin bacon. sold.), mua chee ($2.50 as tasty as mua chee gets!), mala tofu and fishballs ($3 spicy like toot!) and bird's nest drink ($2.50 normal). yea we ate a lot and it was good.

Watched people play carnival games for a bit then tootled off. A short experience but a feast for the eyes and the stomach nonetheless!

Gardens By the Bay

I LOVE THIS PLACE.

I had the immense privilege of visiting this place for free! as a field trip for the Global Change module. We were supposed to look out for conservation issues and the focus was on cloud forests. However, the ticket included entry into the flower dome as well so definitely didn't wanna waste the opportunity!

Cloud Dome:
There was a whole lot of good information about cloud forests, precise and easy for anyone's understanding. The place was cold because it was supposed to simulate 1000m above sea level and higher... and upon entry we were greeted by this massive tumbling waterfall that sprayed cold joy on our tired faces.

There was a funky treetop walk pathway which allowed you a bird's eye-view of the place passing through the core mountain center and each on each floor sat a separate display and set of information about geology and other aspects of areas with cloud forests.

But I think I really liked the flower dome more. ROSES!! rose bushes sitting squat on the side of the pathway!! How mysterious, how mystical.. how romantic! Okay I just like roses a lot and like seeing them in bunches...

There were a whole bunch of other flowers, but sadly I only recognise a handful. There were hibiscus and roses as big as my hand (or even face) so it was really amazing to see that.

Walking back from Gardens to City Hall MRT was the biggest mistake though. I should have gone to Bayshore though i have no idea where that sits on the line either. Anyway they really should have bigger signs to the MRT! It was crazy hard to find the lift that would bring you to the bridge leading to the MRT. Esp because the lift looked like it belonged in jurassic park.

Anw that concludes the adventure. I wanna go again someday!