stolen colours

4 March 2012, Sunday

We got up early to trek to the jetty.

Managed to catch a glimpse of the sunrise over the lake at the jetty. Two young Japanese girls were also there, armed with DSLRs. (The group of five yesterday also had them, seems to be really trendy these days.)

Had a full breakfast and set off for the Upper Lakes at 9am.

The route to the Upper Lakes is a broad main road – which was unfortunately almost all covered with snow. Thank goodness people from the hiking tour group had been before us and all I had to do was literally follow in their footsteps.

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First, there was Chinese New Year on 23-24 January. (Photos on Facebook, protected so that only family can view. It’d better not change without my knowing.) Next, cousin LW got married on 11 February. And today, we attended the first month celebration of Cousin LH’s first baby. Three occasions in which I faced the firing squad with the usual questions we got to meet up with the extended family. Love my nephew and nieces who’re now big enough for interesting conversation.

Cousin Y is the oldest of us cousins, with a brood of three. Her kids are now 12, 10 and 6 years old. They are indeed precocious.

During the Chinese New Year lunch.
Kate (12yrs old): What brand is your bag?
me: Kate Spade.
Kate: I don’t like Kate Spade. I like Prada, they have nice clothes.
me: Uhm. *at age 12 I didn’t even know what Prada was…and the Kate Spade bag was a gift long before Tin Peiling came onto the scene*
Kate’s dad: In that case you’d better make good friends with John’s classmates and their elder brothers. *chuckles away*
(John is 6 years old, most likely going to ACS Primary next year.)

LW’s wedding dinner was held at the Marriott Hotel yesterday. Interestingly, it’s also the same ballroom where Cousin Y had her wedding 12 years ago. I was just one year older than Kate when I attended it, but of course I’ve been back multiple times since for dinners of friends. Cousin Y hasn’t been here ever since her wedding dinner and was rather shocked at the inflation that’s gone on meanwhile. Imagine, 12 years ago, it cost $668/table at the Marriott; the most expensive hotel back then was Four Seasons at $888/table. Now we have extra-atas hotels like the Fullerton going at $1588++ and let’s not talk about Capella over at Sentosa. Prices have seriously doubled.

It still amazes me that some of my peers communicate with their mothers via SMS.

Mother doesn’t use SMS. Well, she tried once, via Kakao that my brother loaded on the iPad that we’d gotten her for her birthday. It would have worked, just that I didn’t have said program on my iPhone at that time.

It’s always been handwritten notes. She leaves them outside my door on the floor. Or stuck to my door for me to read when I’m back. I leave them on the kitchen table. Sometimes she sends me Howlers: huge handwriting in thick red markers with many exclamation marks eg, “WHY YOU LOCK THE DOOR BUT NEVER CLOSE THE GATE!”, “YOUR ROOM IS TOO MESSY!!!” Of course, I simply Incinerate tear them up and deposit them into the Paper-For-Recycling bin in my room.

In under an hour of very targeted shopping, I got all I needed at Vivo City.

1. Croatia travel guidebook
It did take me a while to locate the Travel section in Page One. Also, books aren’t left open for browsing, so I was glad I’d already looked through the lot at Kinokuniua and knew which book I wanted. Picked up an origami set, just couldn’t resist.

2. 五月天 – “第二人生”专辑
WTF are there two CD versions. Rock Records, what are you trying to pull! With the increased ticket prices to boot.

3. Iphone4 case
I’ve been looking for one for ages since my current one is chipped at two corners and the lacquer is peeling off. Managed to get a treasure hunt-themes one from one of those cubicled shops.

Now for dinner and bitching session.