Obleak City. Day 2.

           My life's been pretty lowbrow radical (if that even makes sense) ever since I graduated college. It's super unpredictable. Well, life, in general, is unpredictable but I've never really seen my life plotted on some path towards a singular goal that's why it feels like I'm all over the place. I don't have those, "five more years of med school" or "four more years of law school, then study for board exams, then work for Annalise Keating and start getting away with murders." It's not that simple for me.

          You see, I have all these dreams and aspirations on what I want to be or where I want to be but I worry too much and think about the risks too much that it prevents me on getting to my end goal faster (but there never really is an end goal. See Matthew McConaughey's Oscars speech*.) I wish I were one of those people who could just drop everything and lead with their dreams (with caution, of course). Maybe then, I'd get to see some sort of tunnel vision of my future.

          Every month or so, I'd start thinking about what I had been up to in the previous year. Like, June of last year, I was in Dallas, Texas. My sister and I went there to visit her boyfriend. We were there for about 10 days and it was one of the best trips that I have ever had. We drove from Dallas to Austin and watched the X Games and my 13-year old self fangirled like crazy. I got to see Dillon Francis.

(A little side note, I remember I had this mental note that I should be able to see Dillon Francis within the year. I thought of it with no expectations, no plans whatsoever and then a few months later, there I was, stood amidst the crowd in the amphitheater and witnessed his speakers get shut down by the fire marshall. It was pretty awesome.)

We also visited some cool places and took lots of pictures of street art, bought some records at this hip little record store, drove past Franklin Barbecue (because I failed to convince my sister to get in the 1-2 hour line to eat there), and well, we did a few more things in the 3 days we were there. Three days is not nearly enough to explore the weird in Austin. I am definitely coming back.

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A Fineshrine in Palawan

[First off, this is a month and a half month overdue. I take full responsibility of my laziness and it is ending now.]

A little bit of context too, my sister's boyfriend was in town so they generously took me along their trip.

So obviously, I was majorly third-wheelin' but it's all good. This just means I could wander off more and take photos. 

We ventured off to Coron, Palawan and we were welcomed with sunshine and bliss that was then taken over by gloomy skies. I guess it wasn't the best time to go to the beach because it was drizzling most times but thankfully, the sun came out once in a while. 

Listen to Fineshrine by Purity Ring

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The Escape: Coron, Palawan

  This is a visual diary. 

Suggested music while viewing: In The Darkness by Foxygen

Up in the air once again. This time the destination is Coron, Palawan. 

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Lomokino Test Shots

I've finally come around to getting my first roll of film using the Lomokino developed and edited the scans. I wasn't too sure about how everything worked out yet and how it would turn out. So, this was more of a test roll and me figuring out about the settings and everything else. Here are some of the stills.

 

I'm starting this thing on my blog wherein I recommend websites that I enjoy visiting. It's just a little something I'll be putting at the end of each blogpost. 

Today's recommended site is Jackson Pollock by Milton Manetas. Enjoy!

Vampire Weekend in Singapore

This was the day I have been waiting for... for four years. I was finally going to see Vampire Weekend perform live. It felt so surreal. I still can't believe it. I've been anticipating this moment ever since me and my friends arrived at Singapore and it was finally happening. It was incredible. I felt so happy to be alive. To see your favorite band play live is the best feeling ever. And to be in front and center of the crowd made it even more epic. For years, these guys have only ever been on my laptop and on my iPod. And then to see them there, in front of me, is truly unbelievable. I just wish I had the chance to meet them personally. Maybe next time. Hopefully...

Big Night Out featured Band of Horses, Vampire Weekend, and Yeah Yeah Yeahs. Unfortunately for us, we had to miss Yeah Yeah Yeahs to catch our midnight flight but I was more than fine with it because Vampire Weekend already made me the happiest girl that night. But yeah, nbd. C'est la vie... [It might have something to do with Ezra locking eyes with me for a second too.]

Here are some pictures. 

Disclaimer: It's a lot of Ezra and no Rostam because all my pictures of him turned out blurry. :(

More pictures below.

Laneway Festival Singapore 2013

It's my first music festival and my spirits are soaring!

    I flew to Singapore along with two of my friends on the 25th of January, just a day before Laneway Festival. It was our first Laneway and we were extremely excited. We took the train to Marina Bay and when we stepped out of the station, it was scorching hot. The sun was literally burning us. We did not expect the heat to be that scalding. Mental note #1: Bikini tops should've been worn instead. There was a long line to enter the festival grounds but it didn't really take too long to get inside. When we eventually made our way in, Kings of Convenience was already on stage. There were already people settled down on their mats and enjoying the music. Mental note #2: Bring a mat/towel or something to lay on the grass for you to sit on (if you don't want to sit on the grass itself). Since the sun decided to stay out until 7pm, there's always a long queue for refreshments. This brings me to my mental note #3: Buy water outside of the festival because they only serve Fiji water which costs 5 SGD. Nobody should be paying that much for a 500ml bottle of water. But you're left paying for it anyway because the heat is dehydrating you quickly. Don't let the heat get to you, you'll miss all the fun. One thing we were right in doing was taking note of set times of bands we wanted to see, thus sort of scheduling when we'll eat and when we'll head to the crowd for a good view. Which reminds me, mental note #4: Once you're in a good spot, if someone's trying to squeeze in to get in front of you, don't play nice next time. You were there first. And lastly, mental note #5: Sing and dance like nobody's watching. 

    I had favorites that I was eager to watch which included Of Monsters and Men, Kimbra, Tame Impala, and Gotye. But I was really looking forward to seeing Alt-J (∆). They're my current band crush and to see them perform live would be absolutely amazing. 

    Photographs of the performances will be on the next blog post. 

Always ready with my Lomokino.

Our little spot at the shaded area by the curbside.

$40 for these bands shirts. No, thank you. Although I really wanted to buy Alt-J's shirt (not pictured above).

Listen to Money by The Drums.

   

Generator First Floor

We spent a good amount of our time at Marina Bay Sands because my mom's friend, who was also there for a short hiatus, was staying there. It was a big place and there sure was a lot to do there. 

I absolutely love this wall of colors. 

The room with a foggy view. The rain was about to pour before I took this photo.

Here I am lounging on the bed. 

You can see the Merlion from the room.

This is probably the scariest job ever! 

Apparently there was an event/fashion show.

I liked our little lunch at TWG Tea. Every thing on the menu was infused with different kinds of tea from around the world. This is where we were given those heavenly macarons. They've recently opened a branch in Greenbelt 5, I think.

I think every night we went up to Skypark but only swam on our last night.

Goodbye for now, Singapore.

Oh, please tell me you're a Freelance Whales fan. Listen to this!

Lover of the Light

It was my first time in Singapore and I was practically exploring it on my own. My mom was there for a conference so I had the mornings to myself. It was quite fun and liberating to roam the streets on my own. I must also admit that I was really enjoying traveling by MRT there. I actually felt like a local. That was probably because a tourist (to my judgement) asked me directions about the mrt card. Sadly, I didn't know the answer to his question. fail. 

My agenda was to go to a whole lot of shopping malls and I did. I was walking for 5 hours straight and I don't know how many miles I covered. If only I had one of those Nike things that counts how many steps you did, I bet mine would read past a thousand. My legs were absolutely beat the whole trip but it was worth it.

This felt more like a shopping trip than a tour trip which is more than fine by me. Although we wanted to go to the Night Safari, it didn't quite fit our schedule. Maybe next time. 

Here is my side of our lovely hotel room with absolutely slow internet.

Bugis

The sting ray which was ridiculously spicy.

When I saw this my jaw dropped because 1) Chocolate!!! 2) S$38++ per person? What?

Watch this beautiful music video for Lover Of The Light starring Idris Elba.