A Typical Nonsensical Sunday

Sundays are a great time especially woodblock and me always make a trip back to Sengkang(where i used to stay in) to visit my granny.

But the bonus deals are the company of all my visiting relatives especially when they bring along all my cute little nieces and nephews!

Therefore it is no wonder my royal kite flying club has grown in troop numbers.

My cousin Calvin is very good at kite flying! It took a very short time to get the kite up on the sky (despite it was semi damage during several previous trips when i bought my little nephew, Cheng Cheng, along. it almost drove woodblock nuts as cheng cheng and him will always be vying for the kite => hence a damage kite)

My cousin calvin also brought along his daughter, Xuan Xuan, for the trip. It was the first kite flying trip of her life and she was really happy when she sees the kite taking off into the sky.

Soon all of us got bored and decided that instead of having so many pple to fly one tiny damage kite, w can go to the 7-11 opposite the buangkok station to purchase more kites!

Cheng Cheng (my cousin, Pearlyn's kid aka my flowerboy if you can recall) has become less shy over the years towards strangers and relatives. These days, he love to play the brotherly role in front of his little sis and his cousin, Xuan Xuan.

Immediately, when they heard about the kite-shopping trip. Cheng cheng quickly went to hold xuan xuan's hand to cross the underpass. Adorable isnt it?

BUT wait did I hear the word "$HOPPING$"???
GUESS WHAT?

Xuan xuan is a true WOMAN in the making => when she heard the word shopping, she walked so much faster than Cheng Cheng and he ended up trying to pace himself up to follow her pace lol.

Woodblock trying his luck with the butterfly kite we have. Again, it is no wonder that Cheng Cheng soon join in a battle with woodblock to vy for the butterfly kite. To be honest, it is totally unavoidable because I realise that cheng cheng always ONLY chooses the kite in WOODBLOCK's hand may it be a fabulous one or a lousy one. Yes he has a strong affinity with kids without realising it. In fact, woodblock often gets tease (due to his gentle nature) by the children.


Xuan xuan was engrossed in looking at how Cheng Cheng's dad was trying to untangle the kite strings while her dad is kite flying at the back.


It wasnt really a good idea after she decided to lend a helping hand.


On the other side of the field, my aunt grace and cousin, Mike (did mentioned that I was the one who gave him the name when he was young? I am superb duper sure he cant rem and hope he doesnt ever recall because the name was to be made meaningful with his surname => Mike Neo (Mai Neow). This was suppose to mean "dont be a stinge" in hokkien. It really make me wonder how i have impact all my cousins(esp the guys cos i only have 1 younger female cousin) when we were all young as I am not a particularly constructive person and always asked them to do nonsense.

Recollection down the memory lane with my cousins:
Nonsense 1) I have this craze for princesses and I am a fan of barbie doll when I was young. Therefore whenever all my younger male cousins were back, we will all be playing barbie doll together (ok i sort of force them since they were still in the baby-kid age=> so it was easier for me to "control" their activities.

Nonsense 2) After a while, I soon got a little bored with my barbie doll and wanted "live ones" instead. There I took my male cousins (2-3 yrs old) to the hairdressing table to doll them up with floral head bands etc (i din shouldnt elaborate too much in case they come and read my blog and then konk my head. Hello they are now like 19-20 yrs old and are freakingly much bigger in size in height and width then me and my sir woodblock. I wont be that stupid to step on their tails now.

Nonsense 3) It can be tiring to always herd the rest of the crowd(all my cousins) at once being the eldest available cousin to look after them (my bros are usually out). It can be a nightmare whenever my followers mess up the whole room with playing cards trying to use it as a ninja flying dagger (ok i also started the nonsense by teaching them that but i regretted immediately when i saw the mess everyway). To redeem myself I invented series of minis games to see who can collect the most cards in the shortest time and who can rearrange the cards in numerical order the fastest too. It was a real rocket to a quick pack away.

Nonsense 4) I can still remember about how i made them lie down on the floor to pretend to be corpse once as I felt tired and sleepy. It took them quite a while to realise that the game was pretty boring


Our Guan Gong kite!! It is pretty funny with his beard fluttering in the sky.

I like this angle, both the kite flyer and the kite was in clear view.

Xuan xuan was wondering why i am snapping so many pics of her!

In order to help woodblock out, I quickly got the kids attention to play with some plastic strips (which had fell out from the damaged kite=> making it even more damaged =( )

Soon it was self entertainment. I guess they are practicising to become prisoners of war?

Cheng Cheng to Xuan Xuan: To be a succuessful prisoner of war, we must tie the blind fold tighter!
Xuan Xuan: ~Oblivious~


Cheng Cheng to Xuan Xuan: Please blind fold leh!!!
Xuan Xuan: ~????~

Cheng Cheng to Xuan Xuan: Since we are not prisoner of war pals, let us engage into a war.
Xuan Xuan: ~playing by herself~

That's the main reason why cheng cheng prefers me, woodblock and my other male cousins as playmate, because half the time, his own younger cousins refuse to listen to his instructions!

Xuan xuan giggling and trying to chase after me!

Time to head off home. It was a horror to see the 2 kids running on their own to the traffic light. In the end i still have to invent some nonsense to slow their speed.

The Tu -Tu -Train contingent! Ok I just recycle the 2 plastic strips they were playing with some time ago, but it works well for them.

After dinner, we got bored playing catching with the cheng cheng and it soon caught my attention that cheng cheng said that his little sis , Si yu, is good at clamping things!


HERE GOES THE
CLAMPING COMPETITION!!!

Cheng Cheng soon got Siyu to demostrate for us. You can see how serious she tries to pause and demostrates to let us see.

BUT ALAS I HAVE AN EVEN FORMIDABLE HIDDEN TALENT!!!!
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.


I can clamp slim items between my nose and mouth!! See how impressed and excited the kids were when they saw my special talent!!!

Woodblock didnt want to loose out so he gave his hand at balancing the ping pong balls.

It seems strange me and woodblock are pretty competitive in nature for petty things and I soon got work up and started to balance ping pong balls too.


Not bad bah!

Cheng Cheng insisted a solo handsome pic of his. Si Yu in the meanwhile was stilling trying to clamp things with her chin.

A finale photo! If you think that this pic was capturing a moment of action, you are WROOOOOOOOOOOng! We posted in this position for at least 30 seconds and you can see how all the kids were a little shaking here and there especially Siyu with a high difficulty posture!

I love my nephews and nieces! I wish I have a little kid of my own soon! I should be quite a fun mum to hang out with.

Our royal visit to ACM

During Saturdays, woodblock and me will usually try to occupy ourselves with a little special trip here and there like some excursion days! I was almost jumping from joy when woodblock announce to bring me to the Asian Civilisation Museum (ACM). Now I had been to ACM in the past before but that was pretty much alone as woodblock never really appreciate trips to musuems like i do.

Before we drop by to ACM which opens at 5 pm, we decided to indulge ourselves in a nice hi-tea session! (after a much tiring session shopping at far east)

The first place that came into my mind was the hi-tea special set by TCC recently. So we dropped in to the TCC branch beside the Thai embassy.

Woodblock always have a grounchy OLD man facial expression when his coffee addiction sets in.

For me, I was busily trying to fixed the new clip on ribbon i bought from Far East to match my new dress from Bugis Village.

The settings of this TCC was really victorian and I cant help but admire for a long time.

I notice a deer head being hung on the wall and was so glad it is a faux one. It will be gruesome to have a genuine one here. I bet it is going to affect the appetite of the diners.

If dont believe that woodblock is a coffee addict here's the proof!!!


There once the coffee is serve, woodblock kept SNIFFING it like some sort of drug abuse =(

PROVEN GUILTY!

After the coffee sniffing nonsense, he became energetic and started reading his latest comics craze : Prince of Tennis.

I ordered my fav coffee :Juliet =) (This is actually the cold version of Perfect Match)

A romantic drink in a Victorian setting.... I wish time could freeze for a little moment there!

Princess Christine busily slurping Juliet! (sidenote: I totally adore my ribbon that I warned woodblock that my ribbon must be in full view when i am taking this pic)

The royal hi tea set! The taste was not bad and it was pretty filling for a hi tea session for the 2 of us.

Finally after a slow and lazy noon of hi tea, we started to stretch and warm up for our adventures to ACM!!!

On our way to ACM, guess what I saw? The famous vintage gate that many brides will take with as the background! Ok since I didnt have my bridal photo being taken here, I am DEFITNITELY not missing out on this chance!


Urgh cant see the ribbon anymore =(

Anyway in the end I realise that there are just so many pretty sceneries along the way that I kept forcing sir woodblock to help me snap more pics!!!

Love my Sky blue polka dot dress with full victorian lace at the top.
Sweet isnt it?
(Shopping tip: For those who are into Korean Lace dresses etc, it is much cheaper to buy it at Bugis village than at Bugis Junction or far east. I saw this dress selling at $59.90 while I bought this at $37.00. What impresses me was that the shop has a proper nets machine which they dont in the past. Therefore to save $$ means i have to walk a freakingly far distance to withdraw cash for payment.)

Outside the ACM, I notice they have huge vibrant coloured windows!

How I wish I have a vintage bag too => maybe I shall add that in my coming Friday shopping list.

What are the odds that the flowers outside ACM matches my dress too!!!
I feel like I am modeling the dress on those Gmarket website I always shop for clothes.

Ok if you are the frequent visitor of ACM, you will being pondering why did i waited for 5 pm plus to reach the musuem instead of just going in the noon???
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.

That's because IT IS FREE ENTRANCE from 5pm to 11pm!!!
http://www.acm.org.sg/exhibitions/eventdetail.asp?eventID=621

I cant help but notice that an art installation was being setup just outside the musuem. I later found out that this event is call :
Invitation to Dream - A Fire Garden Installation
By Compagnie Carabosse (France)

Before we stepped foot into ACM we decided to explore this Fire Garden installation before something caught our eye and we ended up beside the river!

It happens that there was a dragon boat race at that moment! You can hear cheers of excitement while the dragonboats race in close proximity with one another.

It is a werid coincidence that the boats came in in the same numerical order of their boat numbers.

Surrounded by so much river water and hi tea session, it is a no wonder that it is soon our HIGH TIDE season => meaning we were in a rush for the loo.

We headed to ACM's toilet and while waiting for woodblock, I cant helped but be amuse that the toilet labels!


Maybe when I have a home one day, I shall label my royal loo with some special pic too.

At the reception area of ACM, there was an exhibit by GOOGLES on the winning entries of the SINGAPORE GOOGLE logo compeition held some time back ago.

I am a fanatic for arty crafty design stuff, therefore I took the pics of all the winning entries as a sharing here:

I am astonish by the simple and "clean" logo drawing skill by the little boy.


The national winning entry was really an amazing beautiful piece of water paint drawing but I just feel that it should be a winning entry as it is suppose to be the url LOGO on the search engine site and this is a little complicated, messy and distracting whenever I open up the google search engine.

Did I mention that woodblock's company had a small noon excursion for their employees(yes i do think they have a wonderful wellfare) and woodblock had promise to be my tour guide for this evening!

Tour guide woodblock: LAI LAI LAI("come, come, come" in chinese), follow me ....

There was this huge picture book like story book which introduces the stories and legends of singapore. Whoever, the author is, to be honest, it is a big thumbs down =( The story was written in a slip shod and dull manner that I dont think the tourists can remember a single story once they close the book.

A miniature display of the coolies quarters.

I was pretty absorbed in this mini OFFICE table accompanied by a mini stool. I realise they belong to the money lenders in the past who wants to save $$$ on rental space. Therefore there can be many money lenders who shared 1 office space in a room, occupying only a super small fraction of the room.

We soon entered a dark room and it was quite an aesthetic idea to have the videos being screen directly on the floor.



Another huge video screen.

Can you guess whose foot print is this?
Tour guide woodblock: It's the buddha foot print!
Did the word "BIG FOOT" came across your mind instead?

Tour Guide Woodblock : The monsoon wind is important for sailing and ships will stay docked in 1 area for at least six months before the monsoon wind changes direction to bring them back to the place they came from.

Woodblock listening to some audio about a monk's life. Anyway I think the musuem should make the audio volume louder as the sound was pretty faint and it was a strain to listen to every single words in the video.

Tour guide woodblock: In the olden days in India, the richer you are, the heavy the jewelleries the ladies have and hence a pair of very elongated and droopy ears =(


Tour guide woodblock: China was the first country which invented the introduction of colour paints on ceramics. The above shows the art in its experimental stage. The parts which is not painted will be covered by a layer of wax. While the paints(i am not in what form) was actually place over areas to be coloured and place in the furnace. The high heat melts the paint and causes it to fuse with the ceramic. Therefore, you can see lots of traces of dripping paint on the statue.

After many years of refining and improvement ......

ALAS the fine piece of gorgeous classic painting technique was born!


Tour Guide Woodblock: In the olden days, people in China, will paint fans and write a short poet as a gift to their friends. After receiving the fan, the friend may at times add on more details onto the painting on the fan and write down another related poet to the new addition in the painting. This explains the many different chinese name chops that you see on the above fans representing the many artists/owner at one point or another of the fan.

I seriously thought that this is such a cool and interesting idea. It will be fun reading the poems and guessing which part of the painting belongs to who.

The ACM was actually planning a more interactive theme to attract the crowd this time as there were many installations specially for the tourists to take photos.

There was even several turbans meant specially for the phototaking. Do i look like Ali Christine BABA?

It felt like an Indian wedding! Love it! I wish I can get marry again. I must thank the security guard who helped us take a photo.

Tour Guide Woodblock:
Now the Islam (if I am not wong) has this rule that forbids drawing of animate beings. Therefore, some artists which tries to find a way out, decided to use words and characters to do the trick (indirect drawing of animals).
http://www.islam-qa.com/en/ref/39806/drawing%20pictures

After a loooooooooooooong walk and comphrehensive guided tour by tour guide woodblock, it is HAPPY to say that we can receive FREE ICE CREAM AND COKE on the house from ACM!!!!! Talk about a cheap date lobang!

While indulging in the ice cream, the green pasture in front of ACM was converted into a Fire Garden with a wonderful musician who was playing a flute like instrument. It is difficult to describe how the music was like but it felt like being in the storybook of :"One Thousand and One Nights ", simply mystical and dreamy tune.


There was interesting sperical cages of burning charcoals, ablaze in flames.

Even the bridge was so romantically litted up! I wish my tummy wasnt growling in hunger then (meaning we were rushing to somehwere else for dinner)and I could have brought a nice picnic mat along to enjoy the mystical night outside ACM.....