I think I've got a crush on...

Denise Ho a.k.a. hocc

Yes! I think I do. Haha. And I know many other girls do too! I've been raving about her a lot recently, but I think this is highly due to her recent image. She looks so much better now, as compared to this:




Hmmm, looks aside, I must say that her voice has really improved tremendously:





And when she's not performing, she looks like that:

I haven't been following her concerts or albums; I'm only watching whatever is available on YouTube. Ha!

Hmm, her cats are pretty cute too:

Tennis, Ghosts and Pirates

I've been dreaming of tennis SO often (and underwater tennis too) and it's only till now that I bothered to search for the meaning behind it:


Tennis
To dream that you are playing tennis, represents changes and the need to actively assert yourself. You may be feeling the need to prove yourself time and time again. Alternatively, you may be unable to commit to a situation or decision. You are literally going back and forth between two choices.

Since one of the score in tennis is denoted as "love", then the game of tennis may be a metaphor for a romantic relationship or a courtship.


Maybe it's because of the Ghost Festival now, or perhaps it's because Bunny sent me a scary picture of a ghost on an MRT that caused me to dream of ghosts last night. I dreamt that a family of three appeared in my room - a Filipino family. And I was desperately trying to get out of there.

Then, the dream suddenly changed to an island where we were heading for tennis (yup, again) and we met some ruthless pirates along the way. I can't really recall what happened there, but it was rather bizarre.

Ghost
In general, ghosts symbolizes aspects of yourself that you fear. This may involve a painful memory, guilt, or some repressed thoughts. You may be afraid of death and dying. Alternatively, ghosts are representative of something that is no longer obtainable or within reach. It indicates a feeling of disconnection from life and society. This dream may be a calling for you to move on and abandon your outdated modes of thinking and behavior.

Pirate
To see a pirate in your dream, signifies that some person or situation is adding chaos to your emotional life. You may feel that someone has violated your integrity or creativity. Alternatively, the pirate may symbolize freedom and one who defies authority. You may have desires to explore new adventures and take riskier ventures.


How bizarre indeed...

The Sweet Escape Tour 2007 - Singapore

The Sweet Escape Tour was smashing!!! Gwen Stefani is such a great performer - original, confident, outgoing, energetic and simply brilliant. I liked to see her strut around the stage with her little cha-cha steps. Everything about her is uniquely Gwen - her voice, her movements, the way she sings and even her Harajuku girls. It's no wonder she's one of the most famous and recognisable artistes around.

This was where we sat. Not very far from the stage, but it ain't that close either

The concert started with a bang with "The Sweet Escape" and followed by "Rich Girl". She sang a few more tracks before sending a wave of hysteria within the audience with "Hollaback Girl", which the word 'shit' was censored. Hahaha! "It's my *beep*, it's my *beep*.....this *beep* is bananas, B.A.N.A.N.A.S."

Not everyone is able to carry-off jailbird stripes like Gwen. Not even Paris (oh no, wait. Paris's was orange).

The concert climaxed when Gwen Stefani got the audience worked up during "Cool", where she ran towards the audience and started dancing and singing amongst us with only one bodyguard protecting her. Now that's what I call up-close and personal:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jY_VGuknew8&NR=1 >> These girls were REALLY LUCKY!

After a few more tracks, she disappeared for a few minutes and returned with three more tracks for the Encore. The concert ended with my favourite track (and MTV), "What You Waiting For?".

During the entire concert, I was bobbing, and clapping, and screaming, and dancing, and jiggling about so much, that I was tired and thirsty the whole time! Even my hands were sore and red from clapping too much. Bunny was enjoying herself tremendously and she even managed to catch a closer glimpse of Gwen by running down the aisle while she was singing with the audience.

Everyone left the Indoor Stadium humming her tunes all the way to the bus-stop. There was so much talk about the concert and this just goes to show how successful it was.

Last but not least: GWEN STEFANI ROCKS MY SOCKS OFF!!!

Bangkok Shopping Spree!!!

I've never shopped so much in my entire life until this trip to Bangkok with Bunny and her sister.

Once we touched down and checked into our hotel - Silom Serene, we freshened up, had dinner and headed opposite to the Patpong night market, where we started peeping into the numerous bars with bikini-clad pole dancers and whatnot. It was really an eye-opener, catching glimpses of dancers in the infamous Patpong stretch. Too bad I was busy looking around to actually snap some pictures.

Silom Serene - a boutique hotel

The view from our room


Our mess

Day 1 - First visit to the tailor and shopping at Platinum Fashion Mall

The next day, we started our 3 day long shopping craze:

Outside our hotel along Soi Piphat

Walking along Silom Road


Silom Road



The BTS station nearest to our hotel - Sala Daeng

Bangkok's Skytrain

First stop - Pinky Tailor:

This was a tailor which was recommended to us by Teri and because we desperately needed some pants and shirts, we decided to tailor make some since we were in Bangkok. We went there on the first day to choose our fabric and to take our measurements, and we had to return the next day for fitting and amendments. So I guess about 1/4 of our trip was spent at the tailors!

One of the tailors getting Bunny's measurements for her jacket

After spending almost 2 hours there, we left the tailors for Platinum Fashion Mall (wholesale paradise!!!):

We spent the whole day shopping for clothes, shoes and lingerie! Cheap wholesale prices really makes one go ga-ga!!! Bikinis for SGD 8, tops for SGD 4.55, shoes for SGD 11 and underwear for SGD 1.45! What more can you ask for?

We had to lug our shopping back to the nearest BTS and headed towards Healthland spa. But before that, to appease our empty stomachs we started looking for a place to eat at and chanced upon a seafood restaurant near the spa and till this day, we have not found out the name of that restaurant.



After a heavy seafood dinner with beer, we took a slow stroll towards Healthland, which was situated about 300m from the restaurant. Pity I didn't take any pictures of the place. The spa was HUGE and we each had a 2 hour full-body massage session where I fell asleep when the lady was massaging my limbs. Zzzz. But it was the perfect way to end a tiring day of walking and shopping.


Day 2 - Shopping at malls in Siam

First stop: Pinky tailor again! We were advised to come in for fittings so that any amendments could be made on time.

Please disregard my white 'holiday headscarf'


Poor girl must have been bored out of her wits while waiting for us, fussy Virgos

After much fuss at the tailors, we proceeded with our shopping spree at the malls in Central Bangkok. The first mall which we decided to conquer was Siam Paragon:



Three of us concluded that the malls in Bangkok were so much bigger and nicer to shop at! Although certain items were sold at the same price in Singapore, the sale items were pretty cheap. Well, even if there wasn't a sale, their stuff are still slightly cheaper than Singapore's. Their department stores were typically nice to shop at, not to mention their local brands. We ended up buying a lot of stuff from their local brands, as opposed to brands we would normally get in Singapore. A few shops we were looking out for were Jaspal and Greyhound. But we ended up buying stuff from their departmental stores, Xtra, CPS (which incidentally is Bunny's initials) and BOOTS!!!

Taking a breather (and a puff) outside Siam Paragon

Next destination - Siam Centre. This place wasn't as glamourous looking as Siam Paragon, but there were quite a number of shops to visit:

After shopping at Siam Centre, we proceeded towards Siam Discovery Centre and ended up skipping it, as there wasn't much there. We walked along the road and up the bridge to MBK (Mah Boon Krong), where before Platinum Fashion Mall came about, this was the place to shop for wholesale items:

We didn't do much shopping there as we realised that the items at MBK were of inferior quality when compared to the stuff being sold at Platinum.

After walking around MBK for a mere half an hour or so (I say mere because we spent HOURS in other malls), we took a taxi to Chinatown for seafood dinner with shark's fin and bird's nest!




My colleague recommended this Chinese restaurant called Nan Sing for its shark's fin and bird's nest.

Hungry, tired and grumpy


Cost of bird's nest:
First row - $800 plus
Second row - $1000 plus
Third row - $5000 plus

Shark's fin - Bunny refused to touch it because she said the way sharks are being hunted for their fins is cruel.


Crab, beef and veggies


Bird's nest dessert

Day 3 - Central World (ex-World Trade Centre)

We went to the same area (Siam Central) as the day before after making our LAST trip to the tailor to finalise our clothes. This time round, we visited Central World, which we had skipped the day before.







One of the highlights of Central World was their department store called Zen:

Posing outside Manga (a designer/music concept store)

After shopping here for a few hours, we lunched at their foodcourt upstairs and were very impressed by how clean and new the place was:


I think Singapore food courts have a lot of catching up to do in terms of cleanliness and hygiene.

First of all, in order to purchase food, you use a card issued by the information counter at the food court. You let the person at the stall swipe your card (in which you would have put credit in already) to pay for your bowl of noodles. This way, there is no handling of money and thus makes it a cleaner system to have.

Second, the floors, tables and chairs are clean, plus there are no food remnants lying around. Third, they even have a small station where you can take napkins, toothpicks and even different sauces. This station is always kept clean and there are no stray toothpicks or napkins lying around, not to mention the sauces! There are no chilli sauce stains or soya sauce drops anywhere! Now this is a rare scene in Singapore food courts. Plus no one bothers to steal napkins or toothpicks to top-up their remaining stock at home.

Even their plates aren't the typical canteen-style plates we use in Singapore

As you can see, we're really enjoying this place because it doesn't stink!


The view from the food court

After wandering around Central World for awhile, we had to return to the hotel to re-pack our shopping and leave for Singapore.

Suvarnabhumi Airport

I've never felt the thrill of shopping until I started shopping in Bangkok! And this picture just sums it all up: