broylim / catalog

Shopping with cousins

Eventually, I gave in to the stress of buying new year clothes and went ahead with my cousins (Sheena, Rena, Laura and later in the evening, Leon and Vera, along with some other friends) to get some.

Actually, I was still pretty reluctant to get clothes because I find it a waste of money. CDs are so much more worth it, I feel!! But to spare myself from my father’s nagging, I think spending a little for immunity might not be such a bad idea.

By the way, I’m experimenting with the idea of hosting my photos on an external site and then uploading them here via HTML to get bigger pictures. By bigger I meant around 80px more in terms of dimension~ That’s a lot!!

So let’s see whether it’ll work out in this post… :)

WOOOO~ Bigger pictures already! Though it’s slightly more troublesome but I’ll see whether it will work out or not. Went to Far East to walk around with my cousins in hopes of getting something cheap but eventually, I didn’t get anything. Took this picture of Laura and she looks like she has wrinkles on her forehead. :P

Walked past this alley and took this really cool shot! Gonna feature it in nega+ive later on~

Met up with Rena at Far East because she had just returned from her internship. Isn’t it sad to have to work on a Saturday? She has a really interesting iPod Touch screen protector that turns into a mirror when your iPod is not in use. Handy for a vain girl like herself.

Well let’s fast forward… After walking aimlessly in Far East and ended up getting nothing at all, we went to Bugis, one of my most hated places to shop because it is forever crowded with people I don’t fancy (if you get what I mean). Sheena brought us up the wrong bus and ended up having to alight somewhere at Little India to take a cab over.

Finally reached Bugis and met up with some other friends. It was almost like the circus coming to town because there were like 9 of us there? Or more? And we were squeezing through the crowdedness of Bugis Street; the street where you typically find gangsters. :)

Bought a pair of shorts for 11 dollars!! Thanks to Sheena’s connections over there and her constant yelling at the poor uncle. 

Went to iluma for dinner after getting my shoes…

Had dinner at this place called “Taste of Hong Kong Cafe”. Weird name, no? The menu is limited and honestly, I don’t really like it there because the portion is small and expensive! That’s Rena and her fierce, metal teeth.

Laura’s “surprised” face.

Rena and Laura posing with the huge menu filled with food that are… not very interesting.

Hello Rena. :)

Well, due to our “circus” troop sized shopping team, we had to join 2 tables together for us to have our meal together and one of the tables is Table 32, as shown here.

The Queen of Unglam!

And this is what I had for dinner; Beef Hor Fun. The portion is ridiculously small for $7.90 (thank goodness they have no service charge nor GST!!) but honestly, it tastes not bad. The beef is tender and the noodles are not too sweet. They can do with a larger portion and more veggies though. Cockles would be good. :)

And let’s fast forward again to this afternoon. I had Laksa for lunch at Causeway Point’s Banquet. I love to dine at Banquet because it’s Halal and that means they do not add lard into your food. Saves me the trouble of having to pick out those fatty monsters out from my food. This is the leftover gravy from the Laksa. Notice the texture of the oil? Interesting no?

Shared this really good Roti John (I think it’s just bread + egg and lots of sauces). Reminds me of the one that we had at Tekong but this one is so much better because it’s warm and generously huge! I was extremely bloated after having this.

TA DA~~ The shoe that I bought from iluma for, if I didn’t remember wrongly, $25.90! Is that cheap or what?! I don’t really like white shoes because firstly, they make me look more like a student (My face cheated the KFC person to give me the student meal! YES!!) and secondly, people will be very tempted to step on my feet (Right Rena?). But~ I find the buckles of the laces very interesting; the colors!! So I got it anyway. It’s so cheap so I don’t really mind~ It’s meant for immunity against nagging anyway~ :P

Right. So that’s all I have for this really rushed post because I have to head back to camp on my own later. Sadded. But hope you enjoy the bigger pictures! :) Though it’s slightly troublesome, I guess it’s worth it. 

Hopefully, we get offs this week too! See y’all~

Lunar New Year -day two-

Today is the second day of the Lunar New Year; it’s almost like the 12 days of Christmas but just that we, being chinese people (not CHINA people, thank you very much), celebrate all 15 days, apparently.

Why don’t we celebrate the 12 days of Christmas? I don’t mind more presents, y’know~

Anyway, today was quite a slow, relaxing and boring day. I took less pictures but more “editorial” shots of Laura. Thanks for volunteering to be my model when we were both bored out of our skulls!

Here are the pictures~

We left Mao-mao at home again but look~ We treated her like royalty with all those cushions. In the evening, I came back to bring Kaka over to my aunt’s place (where we spent most of the day at) and brought Mao-mao in her carrier there too. But the sad thing is, I have no clue what to do with her at my aunt’s place because there were so many people and unknown hazards to the cat and myself, I brought her back home again.

If you saw my tweet regarding Halloween and today, yes. It was almost like Halloween because you know, we saw what we see during Halloweens. Shall not mention what in case they read this but heck. They made a hideous mess at my aunt’s place and I was disgusted~ AND! They totally avoided us and left when we arrived. YES! We’re fierce and scary! GO AWAY HALLOWEEN CREATURES!

Leon with a monkey face with 2 banana soft toys in his hands.

Vera loves her Marigold Peel Fresh Pink Guava juice. She drank a lot of that today~

Xander is my youngest cousin in the family and today, he re-assumed the role of a baby and wailed in my sister’s arms. By the way, the classic Pooh in his hands is called “Serene bear bear”, named after his mother.

Xavier is Xander’s elder brother and he is so hyperactive!

Xander drinking water. His face is so adorable!

Nick, Joanne and Guo Qiang hogging the computer. My aunt went to resubscribe with Starhub and got herself a brand new PC! Must be some expensive plan because we didn’t get no PC when we resubscribed! Or maybe because we haven’t resubscribed yet… Oh well! Qiang is black, yes we know.

Vera posing with her feet. Though unglam, I actually like the pictures.

Sheena and Rena arrived later than us even though I called Sheena when we were on our way there. Considering that they stay 2 blocks away from my aunt’s house, they have no excuse to be late. Okay, being females is the greatest excuse for being late.

Sheena, Rena, tangerinas.

We had some random food for lunch, which includes veggie curry, chicken curry, cauliflower with winter peas and prawns, etc etc.

Vera eating unglamly. This picture is not posed.

Rena eating slightly more glamly. This picture is posed.

Xander suddenly imitated a puppy and started yapping on the ground before he climbed onto the chair, placed a winter pea in his mouth and posed for the picture.

After lunch, they gambled. I didn’t because I don’t believe in giving my money away. These games of luck are so not worth my time and money. I have better things to spend on like CDs and kitty supplies.

Cam-whored with Sheena. She initiated it.

And Rena also wanted to cam-whore with me~ :P

SEE! Even little kids are gambling on their parents’ behalf. That’s not a good thing to teach your children is it?

Sheena’s classic pose.

I’m loving this shot but not the act of gambling.

So, the whole house was gambling or doing something while I was doing nothing but snapping pictures. I got so bored that I took a rubber band and did this to Rena’s hair. She was so engrossed in playing cards and did not realize it.

When she did, she threw the rubber band aside and I picked it up and placed it on her head.

More gambling pictures…

I got my hands on this banana character and took pictures of it. I actually have handkerchiefs as well as mechanical pencils and erasers of this character, brought back from Hiroshima. Apparently, the Japanese loves this character.

And here, Laura’s photo shoot begins… We were both bored and had nothing better to do and therefore, we took pictures! Lots of pictures~

Marigold again… My uncle work for them (I think~); that’s why.

Laura used this sparkling blue eyeliner and I thought it looks funny… :S

Epic face of the day. I can’t stop laughing/giggling every time I see this picture. HAHAHAHAHAHA~

I like my neck in this one~ :D

And we took photos together, looking out of the window at some unknown item. I was the photographer~ :P

I love this picture~ It’s so soft~

Still gambling… -_-“

We headed to the corridor to take more pictures because we were bored. Laura also said that she wants me to take pictures of her outfit for the day because she loves it so much.

Long legs! Though the face and poses can be improved…

The sunlight was suddenly too strong for some weird reason. Natural light is the easiest lighting to use~ :P

These 3 shots can be a ring advertisement~ :P The first shot is my favorite, though Laura disagrees.

And we experimented with sitting down and black-white pictures.

Long, slender legs…

This can be a shoe ad~

Angles, angles, angles~ Laura can definitely give me that!

I love this shot too~

This is slightly blurred… :(

House-fly sunglasses~ Love those eyes~

A random shot of Rena…

Pink Guava juice again~

This was dinner, steamboat (again) + grill plate. I ate lots of prawns today because they were so irresistible chewy and fresh! Look at those prawns! Big prawns! I love!

Well that’s all for day two. I wonder what will happen for tomorrow because I have no idea. Hopefully, I will have another opportunity to take more pictures. But even if there are no plans, I shall just stay at home and continue to do work.

Today’s post is slightly easier to update because there are lesser pictures but that’s okay. At least tumblr cooperated and allowed me to save my drafts; made life easier.

My siblings and their friends are playing Mahjong in the living room; the first time in how many donkey years that I’ve seen people play Mahjong in real life because I’m not a fan of Mahjong.

Oh well, if you can’t stop them, join them right? No… I’ll just let them be.

Time to go do something else~

Lunar New Year -day one-

tumblr died on me when I started blogging this entry and I had to re-upload all the pictures all over again and save a draft of it in case anything happens to it again. It’s so agonizing to have to upload images one by one…

Anyway, today is the first day of Chinese New Year and my family normally go visiting on this day. My cousins came along as well and we had to leave Mao-mao all alone at home because the maid was going along too. Poor Mao-mao but she was very well-behaved. :)

I’ve definitely broken last year’s record for the number of photos taken. I’ve went to check and we only took 8 miserable, low quality pictures that did not make it to the public. This year, we took more pictures and featured here today are 112 pictures!

Yes! 112! Imagine how tedious it is to upload every single one? Good thing I made them smaller in size so uploading isn’t such a killer. I have to say, though, this is definitely the blog entry with the most pictures in my entire blogging life!

Well~ Since there are so many pictures here, I shall not comment on every single one. Just see for yourself, yes? :D

Rena stayed over yesterday so that she can go visiting with us today.

Steamboat lunch, again…

Happy Valentine’s Day! This prawn cracker came out in this shape~ Special, eh?

Vera…

Rena… Her hair band was victimized again and again today by Leon…

Leon, giving one of his epic faces…

Nick and Laura…

See how long Vera’s legs are! NO~ In actual fact, they are short. It’s my photography skills that make her legs look so much better. :P

Heading for our “tour” vehicle; my father’s van. We were literally roasting turkeys in that van because it was SO WARM!

Our first destination; my Po-po (grandma)’s house. Her house is like an antique museum~

And therefore, I got Laura to pose for me in the antique-y set~

Black and white version…

Notice Leon’s face…

The cute woman on the left is my Po-po! She is the cutest grandma on this planet!

My youngest brother received this red packet with tigers on it. Those tigers reminded me of my Mao-mao who was all alone at home.

Tower of tangerines…

After sitting around in my grandma’s house eating goodies and surviving through a footage of Shanghai shown on TV by my uncle, we decided to go to the near-by park for our annual “photo shoot”. It’s way better than just sitting around like couch potatoes, wasting space. They look like they are working a runway~

One of my favorite shots of today~

I think Laura’s belt is gorgeous! She bought it last minute for 10 dollars only.

See the difference between having the light shining on your face and on your back?

Another attempt to make Vera look taller…

There used to be 4 girls but now, we are left with 3 because Sheena decided to go work on the first day of Chinese New Year just for the triple pay! Sad~

Rena’s big nose.

This looks like a shoe ad~ :P Those heels are tall! Around 3.5” to 4” tall!

I love the tenderness in Laura’s face in this shot.

A pose-y shot~ :P

Leon doing a flag, or whatever it’s called. I think that’s just a way of saying “I’m going to break my leg~”

The above diagram shows that my younger brother (Nick) is heavier than my younger sister (Vera).

Laura borrowed Rena’s wedges for this shot because she felt that her sandals were out of place and I must say those wedges gave her legs more length. I think she has the potential to be a model~ :D

Another fabulous shot of Laura’s face~ Her skin is good~

I told her to pull her ear backs, hoping that she can give some tension in her eyes but she gave me a lost look like “What the hell are you talking about?”

He wants to put this on his Plurk so…

Don’t really like this shot but oh well… :P

I actually find this shot very silent… There’s something going on behind that face. That’s what I feel…

An attempt on a wild shot that’s not very wild, of myself.

Rena is arranging her hair. Girls~

Jump shots are a challenge to take! Especially when I cannot predict when my camera will actually capture that frame. Luckily, we managed to get some, though they are not fantastic.

I took this myself~ :D I might make a black/white version one day~

That’s a retarded face, I know, but what you’re about to see is even more retarded…

My sister tied her ribbon hair band onto my fringe!

And I was “forced” to act cute…

I really hate this face of mine because it looks totally retarded but it’s funny~

They just had to rub it in…

Trying to take the picture using my right hand while still being in the frame. A.K.A Cam-whoring…

I like this one~ :P

Laura imitating the model on the van…

Leon came up with this crazy idea of us taking monochrome pictures of us with poker faces and then, I suggested posing and these are what we took, along with some accident shots because we did everything on timer mode.

Loving this lighting~ Could be better though.

Heading to the van after our second destination, one of our aunt’s house.

Leon’s back got stained by the yellowish walls of my father’s van. That’s why I never dare to lean against those walls and if you’re wearing white, it would be even worse.

We were having a conversation on wisdom tooth and Rena and Laura decided to count the number of teeth they have on their lower jaw. Rena is using her tongue.

Laura is trying to use her tongue to count when…

She hecked! Using a finger is much faster and more unglam. Fantastic picture! :P

The girls robbed Leon of his shoes.

Leon got back by borrowing Rena’s hair band…

A stray kitty kitty kitty~

Inside this really cram elevator with no windows. I hate elevators with no windows because if you get stuck inside, it’s damn scary… :S

This is another elevator with mirrors on the top. We took this shot couple of years ago and decided to take it again~ :P

Laura is enjoying her seat in the pink plastic chair.

The girls went to freshen up at the sink because they were complaining that they were sweaty and one of my cousins (no names please since they told me not to mention but you can guess~ :P) were complaining that her armpit was sweaty and stinky. So un-demure.

Laura suddenly went high and decided to pose for me randomly.

I love this picture~ :P It’s hilarious~

Leon and Laura were giving Rena a massage and they ended up “fighting” with each other. Laura looked as though she was going to shoot a laser beam out of her mouth~

I was so bored that I helped that family arrange the candies neatly in the circular tray. So kind of me… :P

Cam-whoring again…

The girls exchanged their shoes and realized that my sister’s shoes were too tall and too big for them and they ended up changing back to their own shoes as seen over here. Really funny~

Laura with a pony tail…

She called this the “imitation of Sheena”.

This is the amount of red packets that my brother and I collected collectively. Of course, we removed the money… :P

We got crazy and started to throw red packets into the air~ :P It was so hard to get a proper shot. In the end, we didn’t manage to get one because my camera’s battery went flat.

Oh well~ Tomorrow will be visiting again. But I guess we only have one stop; my aunt’s house. They are going to have a barbecue lunch (or is it dinner) so we are expected to go.

My camera’s fully charged for more action tomorrow! :D

Lunar New Year -eve-

Something’s for sure; I broke my record of the number of pictures I took last year. Last year, I remember that I did not take over 20 pictures because I didn’t have a proper camera and using the phone’s one was pathetic.

Now that I have my Lumix FX 48 (Am still in love with it~), I’m off to take lots of nice pictures! Especially of my siblings and cousins and of course, Ms Diva Maomao. :P

Today’s the reunion dinner day~ We had steamboat for dinner and it was… steamboat lor. Not fabulous but not dreadful neither. Just tasted like… Steamboat.

Anyway, I’m lazy to type in details because it’s now 1:52am and I’m getting sleepy but I want to blog!

Yeap! PICTURES!

Took this while my brother was playing the PS3 for the entire afternoon. He robbed me of my television and I was so bored in the afternoon. Besides using the laptop, bathing kitty, SMS-ing my fingers numb (speaking of which, I was meant to trim my nails but I guess I’ll do that tomorrow), playing with kitty, napping, eating nuts, doing GDET, I was basically doing nothing. It may seem like I did a lot but no~ I didn’t.

Random shot of my white (and it’s still white) Nokia E63. Love it~

STEAMBOAT DINNER! I think last year’s stuff was more but because we didn’t managed to finish most of the stuff, I think the adults decided that it would be more economical to just get enough. But this, I think, is the steamboat dinner that I had at home in which I ate the most. I even saved some pig liver and a prawn for Mao-mao.

Look at all the goodies I threw (literally) into the steamboat~ Yummy~ Though it could do better with a tom yam soup…

Unglam Rena… She can do fantastic poses but she refuse to be a model today.

Channel 8 was showing some movie and the girls were so engrossed in the show that they stood up to watch and I managed to steal a shot of them in the act. See~ Rena is concentrating more on the TV than her food.

The messy table…

Vera with Mao-mao. Mao-mao was surprisingly well-behaved today. No running around, no scratching, no biting~ Good girl!

Rena is constantly hiding her face…

I say, Sheena is the most daring in front of the camera. She does the dumbest things but they are funny~ :P

She looks sleepy…

Eating…

That’s me and my father playing with Mao-mao. I forgot who took this shot but it’s pretty badly taken because of that random arm on the left.

My cousins and siblings decided to play UNO in my room and I brought Mao-mao in just in case the adults want to terrorize her, especially my father. So while they were playing, I was attending to Mao-mao on my bed and suddenly, she jumped off my bed into the heap of cards~ Cuteness~

Look at Laura’s face. This is a game of Big 2 though. :P

Another picture of them playing cards.

DISCLAIMER: Cam-whoring pictures below…

Sheena and I decided to cam-whore (something that I normally don’t do) and here are our “best” shots. No laughing please~ I know some of them look funny. :P

Look at my teeth! :P

I like my face in this picture~ The chin, the neck, the angle, the eyes, the mouth, and the artificial, Lightroom-ed skin. :P

Don’t really like the face here but I like my hand~ :P It looks long and slim.

My youngest brother brought this cowboy-ish hat from China and we all took turns to wear it and of course, take pictures! This is Sheena with the cap~

Rena…

Laura in a swimming suit ad pose… :P

Another one of my favorite shots~ It will look nice in black and white. Look~ It’s ayumi at the back!

The air-conditioner was actually switched on but because my air-con isn’t very strong to begin with, plus there are so many people packed in my tiny room, it was really really warm. Therefore, we had to turn on the fan. When Rena walked pass it, I saw a shot of her with her hair blowing and asked her to pose for me. Viola~ Nice picture!

Vera and Rena with Leon making a funny face at the background. Nice picture too but the hair isn’t as obvious as the previous shot.

Oh well~ That’s all the good photos that I’ve decided to post today. Tomorrow, I shall take even more pictures! :D We’ll be visiting our relatives tomorrow and I shall clear their pineapple tarts because I haven’t ate any yet! HOHOHO~

Time to go sleep~ :D

Happy Lunar New Year y’all!