Leap year

Nothing special happened today except I've come to realised how good it was previously when I had no job and I could roll around in bed when killer cramps came to torture me. Sigh, I just want to be a cat and sleep all day.

Superficial post about fashion

  
Credits: hel-looks.com

Once in a while, I would accidentally stumble across a lesser-known but superbly cool streetstyle blog and fall in love with streetstyle fashion all over again. Everybody knows and reads well-known streetstyle blogs like streetfsn, stockholm streetstyle, facehunter etc. but whenever fashion week comes around, I get quite annoyed with fashion week pictures. Perfectly groomed hair/makeup and carefully planned crazy, wacky outfits can only interest me that much.

Nowadays, I like to see real people in real clothes which is what hel-looks is about. I never knew much about Helsinki (actually... I still don't) except it's really cold sometimes and it's somewhere near stockholm (I think?) According the the quotes on the website, they wear mostly vintage and second-hand!!!?? Again, time to lament the lack of such places and awesome weather suitable for layers in Singapore. But I shall not complain, this morning I read that Singapore ranked #8 in top fashion capitals in the world. "Why Singapore?" was my first thought, followed closely by "Wonder what's the judging criteria..." Ok, I digress.

First outfit is my favourite, btw. I really like black, white and grey outfits. I would wear that coat in a heartbeat if Singapore's weather allowed it. Black pants, white shirt buttoned all the way up and a coloured shoe is basically what I've been wearing for work most of the time. I like the 3rd and last outfit too.

Weekends

Pretty much spent the weekend with Jotham (again). What's new? Brunch at Relish by Wild Rocket yesterday and it was just average. The beef burger above was okay, but honestly nothing much to scream about. I only the generous serving of wild rockets (lol) on the side or I might have died of meat overload. Then church with the usual people :) So lovely to hang out people you're familiar with. Also reminded me how much I need to start hanging out with them.

Eating a Mars bar now as I wait for the rain to stop so I can go pick the boy from soccer and go grocery shopping (our favourite!!!) and dinner with my family. 

Night lights

Both pictures were taken in Wuhan on separate occasions, separate days (or rather, nights). First on the coach towards our dorm and second on lantern festival where we had potluck in the common area and er, burnt lanterns/play with fire. Rediscovered them again while flipping through old pictures in my com.

One day while I was on the way to work, it struck me how much I've grown since... say, 2-3 years ago. If I'm not mistaken, 3 years ago, around this time, I hit rock bottom. I had a really rough time when I was 18. I made wrong decisions, gave my heart to the wrong person and ended up with baggages too heavy for me to handle. I didn't know how long I could dwell in my misery, though I know I would eventually snap out of it except I don't know when that would be. To be honest, I detest myself for being so weak and vulnerable at the time. My faith suffered and it never fully recovered until about a year ago. Thankfully, time past and you learn from past experiences. It wasn't pleasant but I wouldn't say it was a mistake because everything that happened played a part in shaping me today. I'm not looking back, I'm anticipating the future. I can safely say that I've never been in a better place than I am today.

I just want to sleep

3 weeks into work and I'm still pretty exhausted. I don't even bother much with what I wear to work unlike Style:Weddings/school days. (That's a different story altogether and I will write about it another time) When I get home, I eat my dinner (good news: my mom has started to cook regularly again nom!), stone around a little bit and by 10.30pm, there'll be an intense urge to crawl into bed to sleep. Most of the time, I give in and fall asleep. I haven't got the energy to on my laptop except to download Gossip Girl, How I met your mother, Modern Family etc. Much less come here to write anything. A far cry from my (almost) daily update months ago. Haven't been regularly writing fashion articles for Fever Avenue too, I feel kind of bad now that I think about it.

But really, I shouldn't complain. It wasn't easy to finally land a job after a zillion emails, interviews and rejections on both sides. I love writing for Expat Living, I love that I'm helping them with a top secret project. Which I can only reveal in May, but so exciting! It's different from Style:Weddings or m:idea, in terms of people and working style, but I've been drilled the past 3 years to handle this so I think I'm holding up pretty well. :) Just praying that this chronic tiredness will go away soon.

I've been quite holed up recently, only meeting Jotham when he books out and the occasional friend here and there for brunch/dinner/coffee. I think I go through phases like this all the time throughout the year; not very healthy I admit. My life can really be separated into the different phases I go through, now that I think about it. Fashion (went though a tights phase which J loved, a jeans phase which he hated and begged me to change etc), food addiction (most recent is Korean food especially bibimbap), hobbies (once was baking, then sewing, then cooking), prolonged emotional phases (so depressed during ibp, so crazy during feature writing sem/Wuhan etc) and all sorts of nonsense. Oh God, I sound like a crazy women now. Time to talk about something else.

Anyway, my canon is also sitting in the dry box (recently found my dad's old slr, yes SLR, camera in a dry box in the storeroom) collecting dust. I didn't even take a picture of the super expensive Italian dinner place, Valentino, Jotham brought me to at Rifle Range Road which honestly was too atas for our (ok, just me) liking. I much rather we eat Macpherson prawn mee in the ghetto, old-school fashion.

For some unknown reason, my tummy is starting to ache really badly now like a thousand knives are piercing me from the inside. DEATH IS UPON ME. God please save me.This rant shall thus abruptly end here, goodbye everyone. 

m:idea

Saying goodbye to Ronald yesterday in m:idea office. But not really goodbye la, since we stay so near, I'm sure we can meet up anytime :) Good times!

Words of love

Valentine's Day is around the corner but my valentine date is out there in the jungle fighting mozzies (field camp), so I'm going to spend it with my family! It was my daddy's birthday yesterday and we went for crabs and had a lengthy lively discussion about my bro's future as a pilot, work stress, my dad's life experiences etc. I really do treasure moments like this.

"Listen, O daughter, consider and give ear: Forget your people and your father's house.
The King is enthralled by your beauty; honour him, for He is your Lord."

Psalm 45: 10-11

Something I read from the bible yesterday. Talk about a personal love letter from God <3

(Really old) pictures in my Blackberry

My favourite neighbourhood kitty aka demon cat (as we call it) makes an appearance again. The other day, it took the lift with Jotham's neighbour and came up to his doorstep!!!!! I almost died and went to kitty heaven.

Please meet the super cute wombat I brought home from Sydney. His name JJ Lian (short for Jotham Junior, sorry I'm so lame and uncreative). He's the first and only soft toy that I keep playing with repeatedly. And I don't even like soft toys, so that's saying alot. 

Normally we'd buy paddle pop (nom nom cravings) while walking home but that day, we decided to get a solero split. Best idea ever until it started dripping like crazy under the hot sun. Old school ice cream beats all the other ice cream hands down.

That's not even all of it...

One of the many bruises from kettlebell gym :( But I was way healthier 3 months ago than I am now.

This is a plate of mindblowing cereal prawns from the hawker centre near my house, which I must eat again soon.

Remains of my once fully intact purple pillow aka my baby pillow. I have set it aside in a secret hiding place to prevent myself from destroying it further. Maybe I will frame it up for my future home. 

Just a picture of me when I just woke up.

I love this bloated face (she just woke up), demon expression of Melissa. It wasn't even intentional.

I can't stare at the computer screen any longer, my eyes are hurting. Oh right, I got upgraded to a bigger imac in office + magic mouse and my eyes are dying from the hugeass screen. Never thought it would be a problem. Sigh, why do I have to grow up? ):

No time for anything but a list

• Work is ok though waking up everyday at 7.30am still needs some getting used to
• Budgeting my salary is a nightmare ): why am i so bad at this
• Evan's 21st at Chevrons on Friday was a blast
• Renee's surprise 21st at Chevrons the same night after 12am caught her offguard and proceeded to chalet at Pasir Ris
• Turning into heartland kids with Jotham as we go to Nex Cold Storage almost every Sun after church
• Morphing into a sloth
• Lost a Bobbi Brown lipstick, mourning over the lost, bought a new Dior lipstick
• Period is a joke and leaving me extremely emotional, resulting in crazy texts to J . Sorry babe.
• Met Xin Yee yesterday who helped me regain some sanity as we ate like bottomless pits
• Wore Dior lipstick this morning, feeling like a boss. Sorry, so superficial
• I think tomorrow is nights out for Jotham so looking forward to tomorrow!
• That's all, my list is lame.