shopping

Earth Day

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I wonder if anyone pays attention to Earth Day anymore or if they ever did. I remember when recycling was the thing to do and now everyone talks about upcycling. For me, it’s all about trying to simplify. It wasn’t always like that. I’m as much a consumer as anyone else and I’m not sure when but one day I did realise there are a lot of things I have that I don’t really need. Just a lot of things I want. Then came the harsh realisation that if I didn’t buy all the things I wanted … I could probably have had a down payment for my dream car.

It was about 5 years or so ago when I was walking around Beijing with my then boss and asked him if he wanted to buy his wife something. He began to tell me how he and his wife have come to an agreement that they only bought things they needed and if they came home with a purchase of something they already had, they had to get rid of the old item that needed to be replaced by the new purchase. Like a light bulb that went off in my head, I thought to myself I like that and I’ll try it out.

Fast forward to 2017 and I’ve mostly stuck to that rule. Couple of things I’ve learnt:-

  1. I never ever have to buy bags. My family and friends always seem to get me bags and I never run out of them.
  2. White pieces of clothes are the ones I replace the most. Maybe I should invest in a bib. Everything else seem to last. Again family and friends have me covered on that front too.
  3. I don’t ever buy pyjamas anymore because I just recycle/upcycle older clothes to chic sleepwear 🙂
  4. I spend a lot of money on FOOD. Being vegetarian is not the most cost efficient. Add organic and that’s the bulk of my budget.
  5. I like spending money on people I love. I don’t consume much for myself anymore but I do like buying things or experiences (especially when it’s shared with me) for my family and friends.

So I haven’t quite saved enough for my dream car but I’ve figured out that I don’t really need it anyway. On this Earth Day like every other one, I smile a little, give thanks that I’m blessed with amazing people in my life. We’re not perfect but we’re there for each other. I couldn’t ask for more and this week, my theme is more of the same – remind the people I love that I love them!

Uu

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If you along Orchard Road and a little bored with the usual shopping, drop by Scotts Square and check out an exhibition by Kinetic Singapore.  It’s also a pop up store of sorts to get a miniature replica of yourself done.

3D scanning is all the rage nowadays but few have the ability to deliver the quality that I saw at the exhibition.  Ok ok ok, I may be a little bias because the organisers are dear friends.  That said, go check it out for yourself and I’m happy to be corrected.  Though my hunch is that you’ll agree that the likeness is better than most 3D scanners out there.

So it’s no surprise, my besties and I had a blast inspecting the miniatures, especially the Lims, which were my favourite.  I was so very tempted to get one of myself.  I can just imagine displaying mini me with my Ultimate Bumblebee.  In in the meantime, here’s my favourite picture from the day, regular us while we contemplate about getting mini us.

The Chens and My Little Christian

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Before I leave for my honeymoon, better late than never 😉 I caught up with my Godson.

Isn’t he growing too fast?  He’s starting to look like his Mummy and is as cute as she was when she was a little bub.  He was the perfect little one to shop with.  He likes walking around and looking at stuff.  Needed a little feed and had the cutest cry that gave a hint to the sweet personality he has.  His Mummy, my cousin and I had fun walking around the baby section of H&M.  There may not be as many boys clothes as there are girls but they are quite spiffy too.  I can’t wait to take him on one on one dates!!

In the meantime, I love watching my cousins grow as parents.  How they balance each other out perfectly 🙂  They truly are made for each other and my Godson, Christian is a pretty lucky bub.  He’s going to have his own trials and tribulations for sure but I have a good hunch, with all the love that surrounds this little one, he will be the better versions of who we all want to be.

The Hail Storm

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There were warnings of a thunder storm when we woke up on Monday morning.  Coming from Singapore, Resh and I weren’t the least bother at all.  Here’s a little trivia about Singapore, we have the highest incidence of lightning strikes in the world.  So we weren’t worried.  After all it was a BEAUTIFUL day and we were in need of a red dress for Part 2 of the wedding so we left home with a mission.

Then in the midst of our shopping, we hear the rain come down and slowly it sounds like rocks are plummeting the roof.  It’s so heavy that rain and HAIL STONES start flying into the shop.  The girls run frantically to close the shutter doors.  The power go out twice.  I’m by the window taking videos and photos.

I’m all excited because the last time I was in Perth experiencing a hail storm was like some 15years ago.  I turn around and look for Resh, half expecting her to be as intrigued with the storm as me but she was no where to be found.  I looked around the store and was wondering where could she be hiding when I found her trying outfits in the fitting room 🙂  She is a true Singaporean … nothing will get between her and a good buy.

After the hail stopped, the rain kept going and the flood waters were rising.  My Dad called to tell us that the roads are all messed up and that we should drive safe, better yet find a good restaurant and sit the storm out.  That was our exact intention but we were not at all ready for what we had to face.

It was a scene from a disaster movie.  The traffic was NOT moving.  It took us an hour and 10minutes to move what would normally take 8mins to drive.  We did eventually, thanks to the newly minted Mr and Mrs Christian, find a Thai place to have dinner and sit out the aftermath of the storm.

Like all good storms, there’s always a rainbow at the end of it.

You can barely see it from the picture but the smidgin of it is there in the background between the buildings.  So I guess all’s well and ends well, with Resh and I driving home safely with a day to remember 🙂

Sundays in Perth

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What do you do on a Sunday in Perth?  Visit the Fremantle Markets, of course.  Kinda like any market you visit in San Francisco or Melbourne or Cannes.

It was another day of simply perfect weather.  Made me realise what I miss about living in Perth, early summer days 🙂  Not much has changed in Freo (that’s Aussie slang for the suburb of Fremantle) except Fast Eddies is no longer there.  It’s like one of the very few 24hour joints in Perth.  So as students, it was a place we knew well and hung out often in.  Especially after late night editing sessions or rehearsals that over ran. Needless to say, there was a tinge of sadness when I walked pass where it normally was and found it no longer there.  Strangely, it made me wonder about the transient nature of the world.  Change … somehow it feels like it’s in the wind.  We’ll see.  We’ll see.

Anyway, where do you go for lunch in Freo?  Kailis for fish and chips 🙂  Yes, that’s where my family headed to today and yes, it’s a seafood place but if you’re a vegetarian, they’ve got a decent Greek salad, which was what I had 🙂  I was mostly on baby duty though.

That’s baby Rachel and me, she’s my little God daughter, which is the next best thing to being an actual Mum 🙂  but I’m not as good as a real Mum yet.  While I carried her, she seemed sleepy but didn’t fall asleep.  My Mum had her for like 5minutes and she was out cold 🙂  So I spent most of lunch with the toddlers.

In between feeding the seagulls and blowing bubbles, we watched tiny jellyfish in the water and talked about plans when we get back home to Singapore, parties to go to, visiting Fidget and this art place in Cluny Court and of course, Transformers, yes, my nephew is pretty much into them as much as I am.  So we babbled about Optimus and Bumblebee … I tried to tell him that my car is secretly Optimus but of course, he so smartly pointed I drove a regular sedan type car and not a truck :p

These are what memories are made off, simple moments that last a lifetime.  The two of them will probably never remember it but it’ll be one of my favourite moments that I share with them.

Wedges

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When I have an attack of the PMS, I’ve always found window shopping a great therapy … usually done alone too.  So today, after a particularly heavy PMS day that was made worse by the ticking bomb I had to juggle.  I decided to do some online window shopping and am so very tempted to get a couple of these.  Heck, I want to buy them all.

Courtesy of www.piperlime.com 🙂  Anyone who knows me, knows my penchant for wedges.  So I’m having to seriously hold myself back from clicking ‘order’ right now.  With my sister and I sharing the shoe cabinet right now, there isn’t any room for new shoes … hmmm … maybe the thing is to get rid of old shoes first 🙂

All this is inspiring me to start planning for in my ideal shoe closet for when I find my own home.  Any ideas?

Christmas and Wishlists

/ carlenetan / 2 Comments

Bah humbug!!  As I’m doing the last sprint of my Christmas shopping marathon, I’m starting to go back on my opinions on wishlists.  When I’m watching American TV and it’s about a couple getting married and setting up a gift registry, I was like, “That’s just rude.”  Just my opinion.

My cousins who are growing up in Perth, Australia are known to make up lists for their birthdays and Christmas so that the presents we buy them will make them smile for sure.  I don’t know if it’s just the Asian value bits about me but I’m not sure about picking out stuff and telling people to go out and get them for me.  Let’s just say it’s not my thing at all.  So while I wouldn’t write up my own list, as a giver of presents I’m seeing the value of wishlists, especially now.

It’s a week to Christmas and the remaining 20% of presents I have to buy, I haven’t bought yet.  Soooooo wishlists would be very very helpful about now.  I’m hoping to get some time off tomorrow or Friday and get some last minute shopping done.  If not, I’m going to have to brave the crowds for the last weekend before Christmas … sigh … this is the bit about Christmas I like the least … shopping crowds who haven’t got what they want.

Wish me luck everyone and here’s hoping you’ve done all your Christmas shopping too 🙂  Ho! Ho! Ho!

Novena Square

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Met SP a couple of weekends ago, we were going to check out Macbooks, which are my latest desire :p (that’s a whole other post) so we met for brunch at Novena Square. Why? Coz I thought it’d be a good place to explore since I hardly ever go there and explore we did. SP likened me to a tortoise coming down from a mountain when I realised that Velocity was a couple floors and not just an extension for a gym. And Square 2, what about that? I’ve heard about it but when I go to Novena Square it’s usually just to grab something from Cold Storage on the way home.

So SP educated me on what I’ve missed out in Square 2. Since the both of us lives close, we’ll probably be meeting here more often than not. We picked a new Hong Kong Cafe type place to have brunch.

It was ok. There were a couple of veggie stuff and SP was quite happy with the dim sum option. A little to chichi for a dim sum place in Square 2 is my honest take so we’ll probably be checking something else out the next time we’re there.

All I can say is Singapore is really becoming a city of MALLS. Everywhere you go there’s a mall and they keep getting bigger and bigger. Do we honestly need more malls? It may be a tad hypocritical of me to say since I do like shopping but I’m not really sure we need that many malls. My secret wish is that we had more parks but they don’t really keep the economy running, do they?

Piazza della Repubblica and Outlet Shopping in Tuscany

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Before heading out to Florence on Saturday, my Dad caught up with work emails while my Mum and I explored Piazza della Repubblica, where we found a church, Basilica of Santa Maria that Michaelangelo designed before he passed on at the age of 82. I just love how you can find gems like that all over Italy, maybe in a couple hundred years from now, people can say that about Singapore too 🙂

basilica santa mariathe door

by the toiletfrom the back

After a quick lunch, we were on a train for Florence. It was a short hour and a half ride, which is enjoyable especially when you have a window.

And yes, outlet shopping pretty much sums up what we did in the Tuscan region. Only coz we didn’t check that museums were closed in Florence on Mondays, when we arrived on Saturday afternoon we relaxed around our hotel, soaked in the Tuscan air and rented a car for the drive to the shopping outlets on Sunday; thinking that we could check out the stuff within the city on Monday before getting on the night train to Zürich, Switzerland.

outlet shopping

On Sunday, with our trusty GPS in the car, we found ourselves at two outlet malls where my Mum decided that this was only the heats and paced herself for the finals in the US, where I think she’ll go truly shopping crazy with the other true shopper in the family, my sister 🙂 The drive through Tuscany was really nice and I enjoyed it quite a bit.

driving in florence

We were going to squeeze the Prada factory outlet in as well but after The Mall, we were ready for dinner and headed back to Florence. The plan for Monday, was to check out the Statue of David early in the morning coz I heard the line up for it was usually crazy and head out to Prada after lunch but then I found out they were closed on Mondays 😦 So with a slight change in plans, we ended strolling around and stumbled on a church around the corner of the hotel. That’s what I really like about Italy, there’s something to see in just about everywhere 🙂 I wasn’t planning on visiting a church so I wasn’t quite dressed for it but unlike the Vatican, which turns you away if you’re not dressed properly, this church provided you with a disposal cover up 🙂

beforeafter

Not bad, huh? Like all the other churches in we saw in Rome, the architecture was similar and the art that filled it was just as amazing.

another basilica santa maria

Then it off for a quaint lunch on the way to the Prada Factory outlet, where prices were pretty good and a good deal could be found if you could find it in your size. Needless to say, everything I liked didn’t come in my size :p

prada\'s space

Then it was back to Florence, returned the car, our last dinner in Italy and off to the train station for Zürich, where the Swiss-German pronounces it as Choo-rik.