Random blah otw home...

On my way home from the gym. Blogging from the phone again. Until now, it is still a struggle for me to write long on the phone. Haha!

Anyway, I went for Combat at Fusionopolis. Since I had a good class last week, I decided to skip the 7AM Combat class I usually attend to go for the evening class.

Hmm, I dunno. I think I still prefer going for the morning class. My body clock is already used to it plus I get to have a more efficient use of my time.

The thing about the 845PM class is I have three hours to kill. I could be using that time for other more important things.

Had I chosen to wake up for the 7AM class, I feel like I would have made better use of the hours of the day. Haha!

In other news, I can't believe Q1 of 2014 is done!

It's been a good first three months so far. There's one major concern in my mind right now, as I previously said.

So far, I've been highly successful at keeping a positive attitude and hoping for the best. Once again, faith is playing a big role as to how I am able to do this.

Surely, there must be a reason for things. Without a doubt, something good is bound to come out of whatever.

You've got no choice but to be ultra awesome to me this year, universe!

First, the sheep are supposed to have a fantab year! Second, you owe me still for the challenges you gave me in 2013. Haha! #thesecret

How is everyone's 2014 Q1?

Dark skies somewhat...

(Somewhat) dark clouds have been hanging over my head these past few days.

A good friend shared some news recently and it has been at the back of my head since.

The good thing though is that I am still able to let the sun shine through those so-called dark clouds.

True, the news took me by complete surprise. I expected to hear that news but I didn't expect it to be this soon.

Oh well, the world works in mysterious ways. Hehe.

There are two ways I can approach this - one is to be the kancheong person that I am. The other is to lift up things to Him.

It was but natural to choose the latter.

Things have yet to fully unfold and at this point, all I've been doing is praying and entrusting everything to Him.

I have my own outcome that I want. I have a second possible outcome that I think is not so bad. But at the end of the day, my prayer remains to be, "Your will be done."

Let's see what will happen.

Happy email...

I received the email above early this afternoon from one of the team leads in my department.

She attended the session I gave on Best Practices for (relatively) new hires in our department.

Actually, I was wondering why a team lead was attending a session meant for new hires. I should have known that a team lead should really be there just to ensure I dun create new policies/procedures to the newbies. Hehe!

To be honest, I actually enjoy giving "classes." Here at the office, it is an outlet for my creativity as work can be sometimes monotonous. Presentations are always a nice break from the usual work.

As with previous presentations, mine was very visual. Lol! I included a few GIFs which I thought would make the presentation more interesting. Hehe!

Uhm, I guess I got this style of creating presentations during my years with Smart. The senior management, as well as our big boss at the Public Affairs department, always like presentations that have visuals and not too text heavy. I guess I sort of got that from them.

If it were up to me, I'd use Keynote. Hehe! I feel like it's more superior to Powerpoint in terms of making kickass prezzos. Hehe!

Oh well, thanks to this email, this week ends on a very good note. :)

Happy April Fools from US Vogue...

Who says Anna has no sense of humour?

Have you seen the April Fools issue of US Vogue? :-/

I thought Ms. Piggy and Kermit would sell more issues though.

How to pack light, ah...

With two weeks to go before the trip, I think I have start wondering about packing.

Here's the thing. I don't know how to pack light.

It is not my core competency. Haha! Just how "bad" can I beWell, on one of my visits to Manila last year, I exceeded the allowed 10KG. by 7KG!

That was just for a 4 (or 5 day) trip. Eeeep!

The upcoming trip is about 13 days (14 days because I will be flying out Wednesday night)!

It is my first ever long holiday trip in my entire life.

The longest holiday I've ever had was about 7 days? It was a few years back. I went to Siem Reap and Ho Chi Minh with one of the best friends of my ex. Haha!

PG Boy does not have any problems packing. I've seen him pack for his overseas trips and I dunno how he does it.

Or maybe I do know. For one, he is not as concerned as I am with what to wear, what to bring. He has a tendency to just dump stuff in his luggage. Good for him.

To me, I've always been crazier about packing. Hmm, aside from prepping a checklist, I also have an attire guide.Seriously. I create a spreadsheet for the trip. I think about the activities for a given day. Then I think about what I can/should wear.

This is my own way of trying to stay within the baggage allowance policy. Lol!

I've already created a spreadsheet for the upcoming trip. I've already listed the clothes, bags, accessories that I need to bring.

It's just a matter of indicating in the spreadsheet what to wear on what day. Haha!

Yesterday, Tipz and I met up to look for a pair of shoes that I hope will be comfy enough for long walks. RKGreg told me to ensure I have good footwear since I will do a lot, a lot of walking.

The thing is I don't want to spend too much on a pair of shoes. I have two to three pairs of shoes at home, which I hardly wear. It's bad. Lol! That's why I didn't want to buy a new pair. I also am in a major saving mode. A storm is brewing and it's stupid not to prepare.

However, I think I do need a good pair for hours and hours of walks.This isn't just to justify the expense.

We went to a few shops in Plaza Sing and ended up getting a pair at Orchard Central.

I needed a pair that was not just comfy but can also go with the attire I am planning? Lol!

So I want to Instagram, did a search using a particular hashtag. The above photos are some of the pegs that I think I can pull of. Apologies to the owners of these photos.

Done with the shoes. Two more things on my to buy list. After that, I can really focus on editing the would-be contents of my luggage. Lol!

Brunch at Jewel Cafe + Bar...

Despite having a very long Saturday night, hitting the sack at 6:30AM Sunday morning, I still woke up about 10 in the morning.

From RKGreg's birthday gathering, I headed to Tipz's place just to freshen up a bit before heading to Changi Airport to fetch PG Boy. Thankfully, his flight was on time. Hehe! We didn't make any plans for me to fetch him. I decided I'd just go fetch him since I expected RKGreg's party to finish very late and it'll be easier to get to Changi from Tipz's place.

Major thanks to Tipz for letting me crash at his place! Will definitely miss City Sq once he moves next week.

Speaking of moving, Tipz and I agreed to meet up for brunch on Sunday morning since he was also already up so early (suprisingly! Hehe!). I knew PG Boy was too tired from his flight and would like to stay home and zzz, so brunch seemed like a good idea.

Also, there are a few cafes around Farrer Park worth visiting, which Tipz didn't know about. The heartlander had to be the one to tell him. Lol!

I gave him two options - one is L' Etoile, which I've been to during one of my brunch place adventures with PG Boy. The other one I suggested was Jewel Cafe + Bar, which I haven't checked out yet. Chye Seng Huat was also a possibility.

We settled for Jewel Cafe + Bar. I was expecting the place to be full since it was Sunday morning after all and it was almost noontime. I couldn't be more happier that we didn't have to queue as there was a table available. Woohoo!

Tipz and I reached just before the rest of the brunch crowd arrived.

I ordered the Eggs Benedict, while he ordered the Pancakes with Strawberry and Bananas and just shared.

The food was enjoyable. I still like the pancakes of eggs and berries, but I'm not complaining about this one.

Unfortunately, I didn't order a latte as I couldn't bring myself to pay $6 for it. Lol! Stupid me since it would cost more at CBTL and yet I'd pay for CBTL. I regretted my decision even more after reading that the beans are roasted in-house and they have an awesome Italian coffee machine or something. Haha! Oh well, that gives me a reason to go back.

After brunch, we headed back to City Square. I deided to tapau breakkie toast set from Toastbox for PG Boy since I thought he might be craving for it after a week of being away.

We'll definitely drop by Jewel Cafe again one of these days.

Jewel Cafe + Bar
Address : 129 Rangoon Rd
Singapore 218407
Tel : 6298 9216
Opening hours:
Tues – Thurs: 9am-10pm
Fri – Sat: 9am-midnight
Sun: 9am-10pm
Closed on Mon.

Hello again, Bukit Timah Nature Reserve...

Just when I thought our nature walk today wasn't going to push through, I received a message from Mr. Lim that he was about to leave his house.

Thankfully, our destination this morning was at my side of the island. That gave me just enough time to shower and travel to Beauty World Plaza (seriously, that's the name!) where Mr. Lim and I agreed to meet.

After enjoying my $3.30 only(!!!) breakkie of nasi lemak, Mr. Lim and I started our walk to our nature park for today.

Bukit Timah Nature Reserve will always be my favourite nature reserve in the island. (Well, that one and Sungei Buloh... and Pulau Ubin. LOL!)

Three years ago, I joined my friend Francis in a walk at Bukit Timah. Mr. Lim joined us and that would be the start of a good friendship.

I found our walk today so damn easy leh! Haha! Compared to the first time I climbed Bukit Timah (and it's not even high at all), today was definitely not tiring.

After an hour of walking, I was surprised to see that we already reached the summit. So fast! Haha!

There were quite a lot of people who went on a nature walk this morning. I thought it was really great to see families, friends, buddies waking up early to be surrounded by Mother Nature.

Seriously, my favourite part of the island is not the Orchard area. Neither is it the CBD. My favourite would always be the "green" side of the island.

When the artist Chen Wen Hsi moved to Singapore from China, he recreated that love for nature and the environment which he had when he was still living in China. So he always painted egrets, herons and gibbons (in fact, he even owned a few as pets!).

I guess it's similar to me. I always say that the beauty of the Philippines is outside of Manila. I was born, raised and I have lived in Manila all my life before working overseas but I don't feel any attachment to the place (except maybe for my university). What I have always loved about the Philippines is the countryside. I am always happiest when I am away from the city and I am in the provinces. Seriously, I think I'm a city boy with the heart of a promdi. Hehe!

Sure, I love Makati. I love certain parts of Manila. I agree that it was once such a beautiful city. But my heart will always belong to the rural areas. Hehe!

That's why I really love the nature parks of Singapore. It's somewhat a reminder of the countryside.

From Bukit Timah Nature Reserve, we walked over to the nearby hawker centre where I had another awesome lunch and dessert for just $5!!! Insanely cheap. Really good.

Afterwards we parted ways as I have to go get some rest for a long evening ahead (RKGreg's party) while Mr. Lim has his own dinner to attend.

Great start of the short weekend!

Thursday night at the movies...

I watched Divergent last night.

As expected, the movie was better than the book.

I absolutely enjoyed watching the film. I must say that I had a different version in my head when I was reading the novel so I'm really glad the movie was great.

Loved the cast as well. Hehe! Looking forward to see more of Caleb.

Done with Tris and Four...

I finally finished Allegiant, the third book of the Divergent trilogy.

It took me a while to finish the book as I was really struggling with it. Haha!

The fact that I dun recall anything from Divergent and Insurgent pretty much tells what I feel for the trilogy. Whereas I tremendously had a great time with The Hunger Games trilogy, I felt so blah with the Divergent trilogy. Maybe because I found the latter to be too juvenile?

I decided to read Allegiant just so I can achieve closure. And today, I got that. Haha!

The big surprise was I actually enjoyed reading the last few chapters of the novel.

It was completely unexpected.

All of a sudden, the story became more interesting and I found myself wanting to finish the book.

Initially, I was planning to finish it by end of week.

Today, I read on the way to the gym, just before Body Pump class started and during lunch time.

By the time lunch was over, I was already done with the book.

This is probably my favourite line.

"Yeah, sometimes life really sucks. But you know what I’m holding on for? The moments that don’t suck. The trick is to notice them when they come around." - Christina, Allegiant

I'm still looking forward to watching the movie. I think this is one of those book-turned-into-a-movie and the movie is actually better than the book. Hehe!

Moving on to the next title...

One last visit to A Changed World exhibit...

Liu Kang's National Day

Chua Mia Tee's National Language Class

Chen Wen Hsi's Gibbons Game

Cheong Soo Pieng's Singapore River

Georgette Chen's Malayan Fruits

When I learned from senior museum guides that there will be an exhibit featuring Singapore artists, I knew it was one exhibit I would be keen to guide for.

My late father Antonio Morales, or Tonyo as he was called by us his family and his relatives, was an artist.

What would otherwise be just another drab wall in our home became an art space featuring Tonyo's works.

As a kid, I have memories of seeing him paint late at night when everyone else was asleep. His only companion would be his canvas, his brushes and paint tubes and a radio that played classical music.

It was him Tonyo who planted the seeds of my interest in the art world.

And so I thought what better way to say thank you to my Dad than by talking and sharing with strangers my love for artists and the visual arts.

Last October, the National Museum of Singapore staged an art exhibit entitled A Changed World: Singapore Art from the 1950s - 1970s.

It featured over 120 art pieces done by artists between the 1950s-1970s. Why this period? If one were to review Singapore history, 1950s to 1970s was a period of immense change.

The change served as an inspiration for the artists living then.

On one hand, there was a group of artists who responded to the politico-economic situation through their pieces. Their main objective was to use art as a vehicle to make people aware of the plight of the masses.

On the other hand, migrant artists created works as a response to the new environment, the changed world they were living in.

After the country achieved full independence in 1959, the succeeding years also served as another trigger for artists to further develop their work. One group wanted to capture the rapidly changing physical landscape as a result of nation-building efforts. Another group explored abstract art, seeing it as a new medium that would bring Singapore arts to the international scene.

The exhibit came to a close last Sunday. I had no plans of heading down to the city, but I felt that I wanted to bid the exhibit a proper farewell. Besides, I didn't know when I would see these pieces again. While walking around the exhibit, I realised that it was the only time that I actually had the time to really appreciate the talent and skill of the people who created the pieces on display.

My father introduced me to the great Filipino artists such as Amorsolo, Manansala, Ocampo, Bencab, and my personal favorite, Anita Magsaysay-Ho.

It would have been great if I had the opportunity to introduce him to Cheong Soo Pieng, Chen Wen Hsi, Chuah Thean Teng, Georgette Chen, and Lai Foong Moi. These are but a few Singapore (and Malayan) artists who quickly became a favourite.

Even if I didn't get the chance to bring my Dad to the exhibit, I am quite sure he was happily watching from above.