Let's makan...

We had a department lunch earlier.

It was at a feast of local Malay dishes since the food had to be halal. I'm not complaining as I love Malay cuisine! If I didn't worry so much about my waistline expanding, I'll have beef rendang or ayam as often as I can. Hehe!

New postcards...

I got new postcards.

One was from Japan, the other one was from Stockholm.

A few days ago, Dean tagged me in an Instagram post. His post was of a postcard that he was going to mail. Five days later, the postcard arrived. I was impressed how fast the postcard arrived. Maybe it's the combined efficiency of the Japan postal system and the Singapore postal system. Hehe!

I was happy to see the postcard because it is my first postcard from Japan. I did send myself a postcard from Kawagoe, but the postcard from Dean is of course a thousand times better.

The other night, the postcard from Stockholm was waiting in my room when I arrived.

It could only be from one person - Coly. I love how Coly now regularly sends me postcards wherever she goes in Europe. Deeply, deeply grateful for her thoughtfulness. What was extra special about the Sweden postcard was that there was also a note from Luise. Apparently, they met up in Stockholm. So cool!

MonRich will be heading to Europe in a few days. I'm asking the lovebirds to send me a postcard from Florence. Haha!

From 3 people to 30 people...

Today was another busy day, mostly spent at the gym.

I was still feeling ugh but what to do, the show must go on.

In the morning, I did the usual history gallery. There were only 3 people in the group. I wasn't sure how interested they were so I kind of shortened some parts. I finished the tour in about an hour.

Afterwards, I went to Subway for a quiet lunch before heading back to the museum.

My afternoon shift was the BM exhibit. It was my second time to do it, and I think I did much better this time than the first tour I gave. Still, a bit of a rough start but I eventually got better. Hehe!

Hmm, the main reason I got nervous was because a group of about 30 people gathered when I announced that I was starting a tour. It was a challenge leading the tour because a lot of the artefacts are really small. I think I did give a good one still because of the applause at the end. Hehe!

I was pleasantly surprised (and nervous) to see a familiar face in the crowd. Thanks to this fellow for the photo above.

Looking forward to the next BM tour.

Morning with the Masters...

I wasn't feeling very well today. No, I've been feeling unwell since yesterday noontime.

Since the dry cough is still there, I decided to go see the doctor and get some medicine. It turns out that a lot of people have been feeling the same thing. When I reached the clinic, my queue number was 27. The doctor was attending to patient 10. I thought I'll step out first to get lunch and be back after an hour. When I got back at the clinic, I had to wait another hour before I finally got to see the doctor. Good thing I decided to stay while the other patients chose to head back to their offices and wait for a call/SMS from the clinic.

Anyway, my thoughts of a restful long weekend were shattered when I checked my calendar. It was a good thing because I didn't have one, but three(!!!) museum duties. Today was at the National Gallery. Tomorrow, I have a History Gallery and the BM exhibit.

It was too late to back out because it would be difficult to find a replacement.

After taking my meds this morning, I dragged myself to the museum. I thought that since my tour was really early (1030), there would be few people. To my (pleasant) surprise, the ticketing was crowded at 1020AM! I'm always happy to see a crowded museum. I hope it means that people are interested to see art and culture.

The group I led was from a church in the West. The group was about 30 or so people, mostly women and kids. I was happy to see the kids interested in learning more about the art pieces.

After the leading the group, I decided to stick around to check the Reframing Modernism exhibit and I also wanted to look for the Luna and Hidalgo works at the Southeast Asia gallery.

It was such a good decision. At the Reframing Modernism exhibit, there was a panel dedicated to Anita Magsaysay-Ho. I was soooo excited when I saw it. I kept taking photos.

Meanwhile, the Luna and Hidalgo pieces were in one of the grand rooms in the Southeast Asia gallery together with works of other great Southeast Asian artists. I was so mesmerized by the three pieces. I felt proud to be Filipino. I felt proud to be Southeast Asian.

I must definitely go back again. If Tipz were still here, I'm sure I would've been able to drag him to see the galleries. I have a feeling he would've enjoyed the Kandinsky and Affandi pieces at the Reframing Modernism exhibit.

Philip Bloom's Alone in Tokyo...

Alone in Tokyo from Philip Bloom on Vimeo.

Missing Tokyo... Missing Japan...

Waiting, waiting...

Note to self...

Weekend with Tey and Monday night with NN...

Always happy to have good friends visit Singapore...

Weekend of eating...

Since Tey arrived Friday night, we've been pretty much going on a food trip of sorts. Hehe.

It was kind of expected since the main reason she flew to Singapore was for the birthday of her high school friend Nek.

The feasting started as soon as she landed. The hotel I booked for us was in Lavender. Actually, I got confused because I thought there was only one AQueen Hotel. Here I was thinking that I booked the one in Jalan Besar. It turned out that there was another branch along Lavender St. It was okay because the hotel had a good location and surrounded by quite a number of food places including Swee Choon. Since Tey didn't pack a lot of stuff, we went straight to Swee Choon for a late dinner. Fellow ex-Smartee Arlyn was fortunately free to join us. We arrived at Swee Choon past 10. This was great because we didn't have to wait for a long time to get a table.

After Swee Choon, Tey and I went straight to Aljunied where Nek stayed. It turned out that her boyfriend organised a surprise birthday party for her. Tey and I were full from the dimsum feast but we still managed to enjoy the cake and fried chicken. Haha!

Yesterday, it was another day of enjoying good food thanks to Ikea and Lau Pa Sat. Our main itinerary for the day was Ikea. We left the hotel late and arrived at Ikea Tampines in time for brunch. I'd like to think that our brunch wasn't that sinful since we did spend the next three hours walking around Ikea looking at stuff. Tey ended up buying a book shelf, a shoe rack, a clothes drying rack, and tons of other stuff. Hehe! I was tired when we got back to the hotel. I managed to take a nap before we headed out again.

In the evening, we met up with her friends at Lau Pa Sat for Nek's birthday dinner. Lau Pa Sat is always a good place to go to since there are tons of food choices. We ended up ordering roast chicken, grilled stingray, cereal prawn, fried rice, satay, prawn satay. Tey and I also bought a birthday cake for Nek as a surprise. It was a really long day and I was just dead tired when we got back to the hotel.

Today, I had a museum activity so that meant I had to have lunch on my own. Tonight, we're meeting up with PG Boy, Ian, MonRich for dinner at CPK.

Happy tummy weekend!

BM Tour coming up...

These past few days, I've been carrying a printout of my tour notes so that I can read it when I'm in the train.

So far, I already know the things that I want to share about the artefacts that I've selected.

Listening to the audio recording of the walkthrough led by the British Museum curator was also helpful in adding confidence. Haha!

I hope that I remember the things that I want to say on Sunday.

PH elections today...

Praying for fair, honest and peaceful elections in my dear Philippines today!

I spent a few hours at the Treasures of the World from the British Museum exhibit.

This coming Saturday, I'm going to do my first tour for the exhibit. I'm a bit nervous but I feel more confident. I feel that I'm prepared to give a tour.

I hope that I remember everything that I want to say.

1 Peter 5:7

Today's Bible verse:

Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you. - 1 Peter 5:7

Matthew 6:34...

Tagged by friend Edsel to post a Bible verse for the next 7 days.

I'll start with my fave verse:

"Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own." - Matthew 6:34

Relaxed Monday...

It's a public holiday today! Yay!

However, I still did some work this morning. It's okay. One of the projects I'm handling at the moment involves publishing a book. The materials need to be with the press by middle of May. Hence, it's been quite busy busy these past few weeks.

Last night, I slept before 10. That was because I wanted to wake up this morning to go for a run. I woke up at 6. Uhm, I was really tempted to stay in bed. Thankfully, I managed to drag myself out of the house by half past six and I went for a 4K run.

After lunch, I met up with Shane and Kok Kuan to catch The Jungle Book. The movie was okay. It was more for kids than adults.

Right after the movie, I headed back because I wanted to do some organising and stuff.

It's a chill Monday. Yay!

Sleep all day...

I got home at 5 this morning.

Hmm, I was up at 10. The first thing I did was to go out to eat brunch. After that, I went back to bed and took a nap.

I got up again at past 1, had something light, and then went back to sleep.

At 4, I got up and prepped to go to church. I went for the 6PM Mass at St. Anthony. Otw back, I grabbed dinner.

I watched one ep of Kimmy Schmidt and then slept again. Hehe!

Basically, the whole day was about recovering from last night. Sheesh, I'm not that 28-year-old boy anymore. Haha!

I'm about to retire for the day...