Quickie random post...

Blogging from the phone.

Went for yin yoga class at Clementi.

Prior to that, I had to go to Orchard. I met up with a Carousell buyer as I decided to put up some of the bearistas for adoption.

Oh well, I enjoyed their company while they were with me. Also, I still have a few remaining with me - the Philippines Bearista and the Singapore Bearista. :-)

Okay, just reached Jurong East. That's it for tonight.

Monday night drinks...

I was planning to go for my usual run after work.

However, it suddenly rained around 5PM. Though the rain stopped, I decided to skipp running because I was worried that the ground might be too slippery.

Instead, I messaged Mon and Richie to check what their plans for the night were.

Since it was a Monday night, they said they didn't have any plans.

I asked them if they were up for some drinks. Haha!

By 8PM, I was already on the east side of the island making my way to Mon and Rich's place. On the way, I recognised a familiar person making his way to the same exit I was about to take - RKGreg. Yay, it was good to see him and I guess I was meant to see him.

I brought my Christmas present for them with me. My plan was to drop by their place after I visit Mon and Rich to pass on the Christmas pressie I got. Hehe! Good to see RKGreg.

Anyway, what I thought would be a somewhat short hohol time (it is a Monday after all) turned in to a long chitchat hangout. Haha! I just got home a few minutes ago. When I left, Richie was already about to sleep. Haha! It was way past their bed time.

Always happy to see them.

All day museum day...

Today was all day museum day.

NGS in the morning, NMS in the afternoon.

Tiring, tiring day.

Whiskey Coke night...

I needed a drink tonight, just because. Haha!

Earlier during the day, I asked two friends if they were up for drinks. One was not sure, the other was up for it. Eventually, we decided to postpone it. Hours later, the plan was on. Haha!

It turned out that these two friends were planning to a meet & greet happening at City Hall. I, on the other hand, planned to meet up with Richie for dinner... at City Hall.

Everything was perfect.

After my dinner, I met up with my two friends and we went to a place along Telok Ayer St. It was interesting for a number of reasons: 1.) I didn't know the AJ bar existed; 2.) It was a karaoke bar; 3.) It's for bears!!! Wow!

I was just hoping to have one glass of my usual whiskey coke as I felt like celebrating because it was a weekend. That one was glass turned out to be 5 glasses! Hahaha! It was good because I finally learned the trick how to have more glasses without burning a hole in my wallet.

Order a jug and share it with a friend. Surprisingly, this bar is kinda generous with its whiskey Coke - 10 glasses in all! Hmm, the whiskey they used is defo not Johnnie Walker though, defo not Maker's Mark. Haha! For the price my friend and I paid, $36 in total, we don't complain. A glass of whiskey Coke is already $11 without taxes. So yayay!

Since I had plans tomorrow, I told them that we should catch the last train. Thank goodness for the Downtown Line, it was so easy to get back!

Happy Friday night!

Amen...

Yup, that's what I did.

I love you today #1...

I love today #1.

Sunday night karaoke...

Tonight, I did something I haven't done in such a long time - karaoke!

Earlier during the week, Bernard messaged if I was interested to join him and Miru for karaoke. I was feeling much better this morning, so I had no excuse not to go. Besides, I really missed karaoke. Haha!

We went to Teo Heng at Rendezvous Hotel. It wasn't bad at all. The songs were updated. The rooms don't reek of that usual KTV smell. It was very affordable. Jackie also joined us. For 4 people and three hours, we only paid $8 each. That was also because Bernard had a free one hour. Not bad at all, not bad at all.

The boys sang and I sang a mix of songs - Chinese, dialect songs, English songs. I sang one Tagalog song. I also sang Teresa Teng's I Only Care About You because of Addicted. Haha!

It was also such a nice surprise to see that songs from Madonna's Rebel Heart album were already available. I got to sing Joan of Arc and Rebel Heart! Yay!

What a nice Sunday night.

Beautiful Friday sunset....

With nothing planned last Friday night, I just went for a yoga class. It was goooood!

The other good thing that night was the sunset I saw from the 23F of Fusionopolis.

How awesome are the colors, huh!

I voted today...

Today was a rather long day. What's new?

Uhm, it's almost only 9PM but I'm defo going to sleep after this. I've been feeling under the weather the whole afternoon. I think the weather is to blame for it. These past few days, it's been insanely hot. From the hot weather, I will then spend hours in an airconditioned room. That drives my body crazy, I think. It's been like this for as long as I can remember.

Earlier, I was close to being groggy during the post-training debriefing. I just wasn't feeling well. Fellow MV Lionel asked me out to dinner. I could've said no, but I knew it was going to be quick anyway and I still had to eat dinner anyway.

Before the afternoon training, my first stop in the morning was the Philippine Embassy. I opted for the postal voting, but I decided to be kaypoh and check out the elections at the embassy. Voting time was scheduled to start at 9. I reached 20 minutes before 9 and of course, there were already quite a number of people. That's good, I thought. It didn't take long before more people arrived.

I didn't have to wait that long though. When I finally got into the voting precinct, I mentioned that I had my ballot with me. The person in charge of the postal voting received my ballot, stamped it as received, and that was it. I was done in about 20 minutes! Impressive, huh?!

There are 83000 registered overseas voters in Singapore. Six days since voting started, only 5000 people have voted. I really hope more people will head down to the embassy and vote in the next couple of weeks!

If you don't vote, you don't get to complain!

A love story circa 130 AD...

I am currently preparing to give a tour of an ongoing special exhibit at the museum.

This exhibit requires more reading than usual as it covers different time periods, cultures, and civilisations. I don't know how I'm going to pull it off.

Anyway, one of the artefacts on display is a bust of the Roman Emperor Hadrian. Upon reading a little more about him, I found out that the man behind the artefact has one of the more cheesy stories.

Considered to be one of the five Good Emperors, I would describe Hadrian as a man in love. He was in love with the Greek culture. (In fact, he was nicknamed the "Greekling" when he was growing up.) He was in love with architecture and civilisation. We don't know how deeply in love he was with his wife Sabina, since not much was known about her.

But we do know that he was deeply in love with a young Greek named Antinous.

During these ancient times, two men having a relationship was not condemned. What was unacceptable was coveting another Roman citizen's wife. But the relationship Hadrian and Antinous did not raise eyebrows and in fact, they were open about it.

Hadrian was enthralled with Antinous and the entire Roman world probably saw this.

Unfortunately, it was a relationship that would be cut short. During an imperial trip of Egypt, Antinous drowned in the Nile.

The emperor Hadrian was deeply affected by this and from what I read, I guess it might be okay to say that Antinous' death really crushed Hadrian's world.

Just how much did Hadrian love Antinous?

The former loved the latter so much that Hadrian founded a city in Egypt and named after his late lover. The city's name was Antinopolis. Furthermore, Hadrian elevated Antinous to become a god. Usually, this was reserved for family members but Hadrian went ahead with it. A temple was built at Antinopolis and a Antinous had a cult following.

It is a kind of love story we rarely hear about these days.

Today, Hadrian and Antinous are reunited in one of the galleries at the British Museum. At the museum, they will remain together for as long as the museum is around. Only a traveling exhibit or perhaps a jealous curator could separate the two. Hehe! During a later imperial tour of Egypt in AD 130, Antinous drowned in the Nile and Hadrian is said to have been distraught and ‘wept like a woman’. His devotion to Antinous led him to found a city named Antinopolis on the banks of the Nile where he died. He also made Antinous into a god - not unusual for members of the emperor's family, but unheard of for such a low born person. Hadrian commemorated his beloved in huge numbers of statues, figures, portraits and coins across the known roman world.

DOTS ep 15 trailer...

Wait, wait. What's happening???

I'm not ready to say goodbye.

And it better not be some sad ending... I'm going to be so devastated! Lol!

Come already Comme...

As I get older, and I went out into the world, I realised that it wasn't a very friendly place to be, and I thought, "We need armour..." - DG

Current mood. I really wish that day when I can buy the main line of Comme would already come.

PiliPinas...

This came in the mail today.

Yay! Ready to vote.

Tiring Saturday...

Today was a tiring, long day.

The day started very early because of the museum volunteer training. It was a good experience though. I still remember the time when I did my own 5-minute and 10-minute presentations. I also did a presentation on writing the tour paper. By the time the training ended, I was just drained. Lol! Even my friends Gen and Lionel noticed that I was super sian during the debrief after the training session.

I think it could also be because of the weather. It's been extremely hot these past few days. From under the scorching heat of the sun, I will go into an air-conditioned room. As a result, my body is going crazy. Lol.

After the museum training, I joined a few of my fellow volunteers to go to Chinatown Heritage Centre. One of our fellow volunteers also guides at the said heritage centre. Situated smack in the middle of very busy Pagoda Street, the Chinatown Heritage Centre is a wonderful museum/heritage centre that gives a glimpse of how life was like back in colonial Singapore. The setup was very authentic. You can even enter some of the rooms.

By the time the tour ended, we were all hungry and ready to eat. We walked over to a nearby hawker centre and had a simple but yum dinner of local food. Zi char for the win!

Tiring Saturday, but a good one.

Travel...

Haha, I found this video to be really amusing.

Not so much because of the topic because of the quotes that the girl was using when she talked about travel. I'm pretty sure I've posted one of those quotes on my Instagram. Hahahaha!

I also love how some light shines on her whenever she talks about travel.

Great production!

Sigh, I can't wait to get on a plane again. I can't wait for the day when I have a choice to travel by a regular carrier and by Business Class without having to think about burning a hole in pocket. Lol!

Dinner with Bernice...

Bernice is in town again, but for only less than 24 hours.

She's flying to Bangkok for work, and as was always the case, she needed to transit either in Singapore or in Bali.

I'm glad that she flew in via Singapore.

We didn't really have any set plans. We just agreed to finalise things once she lands in Changi. I had training the whole day so I couldn't meet her at the airport.

Mon sent me a text message around 5PM to ask if I wanted to join him and Richie for dinner. I told them that Bernice will be arriving, and that she and I will join them if that's fine. (Of course, it was!)

It's the first time that Bernice and I hung out at Suntec area, I think. Usually, we'd stick around Farrer Park or Dhoby Ghaut or Orchard. It was a good change.

We ate at this Japanese place at Raffles City Link. I forgot the name but Mon describes it as atas Yoshinoya. Hehe!

Food is good and it's affordable. I ordered the curry rice and some sides. Bernice ordered the udon and some sides.

Afterwards, we were so full that we ended up walking to Suntec for tea and chitchat.

Good Saturday night! Looking forward to seeing Bernice again on Friday before she flies out back to Dili.

Five years in Singapore...

Today is my fifth year in Singapore! *applause applause* LOL!

I can't believe it's already been five years. Hmm, I think I've been a good foreigner in my adopted country the past five years. And I'm grateful for the experience/lesson.

I fell in love with Singapore in 2008, as I wrote in one of my blog posts then.

It took me three years before I finally got to make the move to Singapore.

All these became possible thanks to the help of a lot of friends - Chris, who passed my resume to Wiley HR; Rej and Tey, who helped me fly to SG for interviews (I had to fly THREE times!!!); Mr. and Mrs. B and MonRich, who adopted me on my first month of living in SG; Stephie, who also helped me fly to SG; MkSurf8, who helped me move to a new place, to name a few. Thank you to these kindhearted and generous friends!

Salamat, Singapura

Sale night...

What was supposed to be an uneventful Friday night turned into a somewhat busy Friday night thanks to Mon and Richie.

I didn't really have anything planned for the night. After work, I was thinking of just maybe going to the library to do some reading or browsing.

Some time during the day, Mon messaged if I wanted to go with them to the Valiram sale in Changi.

Hmm, I was curious to see what the sale items would be, and of course, I'd like to see Mon and Richie as well. So just like that, I had better plans for the night.

We agreed to meet at 730PM. Mon and I met earlier at 7PM so that we can grab dinner in Lavender.

From Lavender, we met Richie at Paya Lebar and then took the train down to Changi.

The sale was impressive since most of the items were on sale up to 70% off. Most of the pieces had an additional 10% if you bought two or three pieces. That sweetens the deal even more. Haha!

Initially, we started with a bunch of Tumi items, a Coach passport holder (for me). I was looking at some shoes as well since they were mostly more than half the price off.

In the end, we ended up just hoarding scented candles. Haha!

Success... that I didn't buy anything on impulse (well, maybe the candles but they're dirt cheap) and success for buying stuff that I somewhat need or otherwise, can be a present. Hehe!

Hmm, when is the Club21 sale this year???? I want!