A Photo Canvas

Nahele decided to take a day off to extend her hatch day celebration. As her partner, I decided to accompany her too =P Taking half day off and making use of her Standard Chartered card promotion, we decided to have a 1-for1 high tea buffet at La Terrasse at Orchard Hotel.

For this year's celebration, Raphel planned out a short Bintan getaway just for me. (Yes I had an extra celebration apart from the birthday cake he surprised me with!)

So there we are, on the ferry towards Bintan. I was quite afraid that I would get sea-sick like I sometimes do. Thankfully, it wasn't that bad, as I slept my time away (as usual).

We arrived earlier than the check-in time at Bintan Lagoon Resort. That's when we explored around the place, bum around, had a nice chat, as well as cam-whore just to kill time =D


After quite a long wait, we finally checked into our room! It's quite a nice and decent room, and the little rest corner right at the end is really comfortable! A nice place to chill out and relax...

Our room is also located on the 5th floor, hence giving us the chance to use the stairs as a form of work-out every time we return from the pool as the lift was too far away. Besides, the resort is 'infested' with quite a lot of lizards on their ceiling!! Every time we walk from the lift to our room, Raphel had to endure my 'screams' whenever we see lizards crawling around. (I am afraid of them falling onto me because I've encountered that twice!). Hence, to bypass all these, I prefer to take the stairs that is nearer to our room.


Anyway, back to the entry, throughout the time that we were there, we mainly bummed around at the deck chairs by the pool side, hoping that the sun will be kind enough to give us a tan. It was quite interesting to be by the pool side also, as one can people watch and observe many interesting happenings! =D



And, when you are in Bintan, how can you not explore the beach?? Having spent most time by the pool-side, we felt that we needed to at least explore the beach area. However, deciding to do that on the second day, which presented us with gloomy skies, it was quite a shame that we had no chance to spend more time there.


But as usual, that did not stop us from grabbing a last couple picture before we had to call it a day and make our way back to Sunnyland... And for all it's worth, it was a nice short trip, of which I am extremely grateful to Raphel for planning it all, and cracking his head so hard as my birthday coincides with all the F1 drama =)

On 26th September, when Raphel gave me a call at 10 plus, asking me to dress up and make my way out of the house, I knew that something was up. Yet, I did not hesitate to do what he asked, as I was missing him quite a bit.

For that, I was surprised with a sweet bouquet of purple roses!


Close up shot of the flower. I was really happy, as it's been such a long time since I received flowers from someone (although my colleagues also surprised me with a super huge bouquet of lilies the day before). Besides, it's purple in colour! Raphel, knowing that I have a soft spot for purple besides pink lilies, decided to get me roses that were violet in colour =)

But knowing that the bird-brain of me left my wallet in the office, he decided to make use of the chance to accompany me all the way to hospital just to retrieve it. Nevermind that he was carrying his heavy bag, nevermind that he was lugging along a huge cake, nevermind that I was carrying the bouquet with me wherever I went, and nevermind that it was seriously freaking late, he made sure that I got my 'errand' done. After which, he accompanied me all the way back home to my void deck, where we finally sat down to talk till the stroke of midnight. And it was all because 27th September was my birthday =)

So that's my special cake that he got from Canele, with a customised chocolate message!



So I just want to say a very big 'thank you' to Raphel for the very lovely surprise birthday celebration. I'm very appreciative and touched by all that he has done, knowing that it was not easy for him as my birthday coincided with the F1 race, and that many things were not up to what he expected =) Thank you very much darling!

But with all these carefully thought out plans by him, I think it just stresses me out more that I should seriously start planning for his birthday as well! =D

When: 27 September 2008

For Nahele's birthday =)

Lights, Cameras, Action!

That's how it all was during Super Import Nights, where I kindly tagged along with Raphel to catch all the action and drama. Action because of the cars performing drifts, drama because of all the 'wolves' chasing after the models and shoving their way around you that even though you are a girl, they do not care if you were bumped away like a pinball because of their inconsiderate ways. Men...

But heck, I decided to try and enjoy the event more, by admiring the cars, finally getting to see the models in person after seeing them on screen for so long and trying to encourage Raphel to squeeze in a place as decently as possible in order to get a shot at the models.

Here are some of his pictures:

And one of mine:


Which is when I realise something: I like Lamborghinis! Most of my pictures were actually of Lamborghinis, with my favourite of the lot being the sleek black matt one! =D

While I tried to escape from the pack of 'wolves' as much as I can, it's ironic that I constantly try to encourage Raphel to squeeze into the pack in order to take a picture of them, despite seeing how he abhors the craziness of all the shoving and pushing.


For that, he was rewarded with at least a fairly decent picture of the USA import models, while escaping pretty quickly after which from the ever crazy crowd. We decided to give the Thai models a miss because of the sheer mass of people following them. One could say that I was irritated, because I believed a self respecting person shouldn’t be that brash and rude even if you wanted to take pictures. Besides, can’t everyone take turns??

Anyway, here are some pictures of the local models:


That's of course not forgetting some screen time for me too!! That's when I turned 'pro' for a very short while =D



But while I'm still making up my mind on whether or not to get a DSLR, the fact is that I do not mind spending time with Raphel at such car shows. He may be running around, paying more attention to the cars, taking more pictures of the models than me, but I still enjoy being by his side, just like how it was when he went for the photoshoot.

Besides, if I really got bored, I'll always find time to disturb Raphel!! =P

Well, we did! The boys decided that they would love to view Zhang Jingna's first ever photo exhibition at The Arts House. And me being a photo enthusiast went along as well.

Nevermind that the photo exhibit was quite a small-scaled one. Her photos itself were still breath-taking!


So here are some of the quick shots that we took before the security guard stopped us! (No one said that photography was not allowed though!) =P


Interested to see more of her works? Check out her website, or her flickr account, where she's known as Zemotion =)

Pics Intensive!! =)

The festive of the Mid Autumn craze is still on, we Raphel and I made plans to head down to the Chinese Garden to catch the lantern exhibits. And I must say, we got lucky again!

We originally wanted to visit the place the previous week, only to be greeted by ominous clouds and flashes of lightning. But Raphel had doubts that it might rain, as he could still see stars in the sky. He felt that if you could see the stars, chances are it might not rain. And truth be told, I didn't really think it would rain too.

Despite our beliefs, I guess us being both Librans, we had difficulty making up our mind, as we continued queuing up for tickets. And just when we are a few steps from the entrance still unable to make up our mind, the rain did so for us. Yes, it started drizzling. With that, we quickly backtracked our steps, only to be greeted with heavier rain drops. For all our indecisiveness, damn were we lucky!

That's my shot of the entrance while Raphel bought the tickets. (It was also my first time here, as I usually enter from the entrance nearer to Lakeside station). Thankfully, there was no date on the tickets, meaning we could return the following week.

So yes, we came back the following week, and rushed through the thronging crowd as we tried to head for the location where we could catch the fireworks performance.

Thankfully, we made it in time despite the crazy crowd. And even though it was a really small-scaled performance, it was nice to still enjoy the show beside him =)

With this year's theme hanging around Hello Kitty, most of the exhibits were all about the cat and her friends.

If not for the lovely view of the exhibits against the calm waters of the lake, I believed I would have been bored to death...

Anyway, with us going as a couple, naturally it would be hard for us to get a picture with the both of us. And while I notice that other couples do not seem to ask around for help in taking a couple picture, that didn't stop us from asking them. With that, it became a cycle of 'you scratch my back, I scratch yours' =)