A situation given

Let's picture this. You and I.

You meet him for the first time, got quite an interesting impression and got his number.
First few days it's all about messaging each other, finding out more information.
Like, dislikes, interests, home location, favorites, everything.
Sometimes you get those smiley face in the messages, or random pictures.
Yet you know you look forward to each reply and almost immediately replying back.
A date gets set up to meet for a meal.
A little nervous yet excited. But it went well in the end.
Second, third dates set up.
He tells you of things he appreciate of you, and little promises.
That's for week one.
But you wonder if it moved a little too fast.

Moving on to week two.
Still about the same, you get the messages daily. Sometimes even calls.
You learn each other patterns and habits.
A point was made to make time for each other.
Common interests get formed, learned and discovered.
You enjoy his company, his nonsense and going out together. Even if he isn't free to go out, you know where to find him.
The little goodnight message from him means a lot even if he doesn't know it.
And the messages he send when he suspects that something is wrong.
Yet inside you still don't know how to feel, how much you can trust again, and whether he would do anything to gain that trust.
Broken inside, you know you don't trust yourself to fall.
That for week two.

Moving on to week three.
Eventually own life get the best of us. Both sides started getting busy with individual schedule.
You know why he is busy, what he is busy for and the importance of what he is doing.
Once you thought it would be nice to watch him work.
But gradually messages get lesser and longer to be replied. It started from an hour before stretching through the day.
Sometimes you're left wondering what went wrong, other times you leave it and said 'he's busy, don't disturb'.
Random thoughts started kicking in and get you down. And you start playing back the same game of slow replies but it stopped cause it isn't a game at all.
Maybe it gets lucky if you get more than three messages in a day.
Inside you feel like screaming, you whine and complain to your bestfr about it.
That's for week three.

Moving to week four.
It stopped there for communication.
And it's funny how your first love language is quality time and you believe communication is the main essential factor.
Once in a while you thought of messaging but for what, when there won't be a reply.
Eventually you made the decision to not let it affect you.
To learn you just ran out of patience to wait already. You know why you don't trust the words, and you learn to be happy with yourself.
You learn that not everything is meant to be, some are here to stay while others are here for a while.
Because you're tired of being there, you're tired of giving in, you're tired of believing.
That for week four.

Moving to week five.
I give up. Literally.

One race, two races, three races...

How to start this post.
It's a different feeling each time I register for a race event.
To think that it's only since March that I started running more often, doing more training and pushing myself more. As much as I can't be back at my peak performance, and I doubt I'm barely halfway there, it's still an adrenaline rush to be back on track, to be back running and to be back against time.
But this time, it's a different field.
It's different from training for 400m, 200m and 100m already. It's different from having competition on the track.
Now it's outside, it's pushing out of boundaries.
Since primary school, to secondary school, it's all about racing on the track.
Even in secondary school, we had a few runs at MacRitchie, that was a big challenge already. Imagine then, our longest distance we ever ran is 2.4km. And to run about 3.5km at our yearly cross country event is like WOAHHH.
Yet two years ago when I joined my first race event in Adelaide, and that was a 12km run from city to bay. It was a big step. That's one distance I never thought I would be running, least training for.
It was a good experience though, to be running on the road, with random people cheering for you as you reach towards the finishing line.
And after you cross the line, the first word on your mind is 'FINALLY'. And seeing the timing that you clock and marking your personal best, it's a whole new feeling again.
One hour for 12km. That was my fastest. YET.

Taking the first step to start training is hard, it really is very hard.
Last year my friend asked me out to run with her at MacRitchie with her group of friends on Sunday morning at 7.30am. I went once, after that I never appeared again... Until recently.
I couldn't wake up, or rather I didn't want to wake up early on a Sunday, the only day that I get to sleep in. That day was so precious to me especially when I'm working a 5.5days week. There was just no way I'm sacrificing my sleep to torture myself for a run in the morning.
I do love to run, but I get bored of running easily and not really up much for a challenge again after not running for years.
It's like learning to walk all over again, and this time on my own. There's no coach who is going to yell at you to run faster, there's no friends who will be training with you for every session.
As much as I have the friends who wanted me to join them on Sunday, it's a different terrain. I'm not up for that challenge at all.

After 6 months of bluffing and procrastinating that I would start running again eventually, it finally happened in March.
It first started with Kevin randomly asked if I want to run at Serangoon stadium in the morning.
From one morning, we continued on to about three times a week, and pushing more distance. Adding swimming in, we pushed the boundaries to run and swim. Hell it wasn't easy.
We started adding more people into our running/swimming club.
And once we decided to run outside the stadium instead.
The whole month of March was a struggle to wake up early, and not just waking up early, but waking up early to RUN.
I think along the way, there were a lot of moments that I lost motivation and wonder why am I training again. Why bother going back to train. It's not as though I'm going to compete in any racing events.
But one day, Ashley mentioned about joining marathons. That's when things change.
We found a website showing racing events of the whole year, and started choosing a race to join.
Debated and finally decided on joining the Race Against Cancer.
The thought of joining a first race in Singapore, and I really wanted it to be a meaningful one.

This year just registering for my third race event, I'm excited for it.
I'm wondering how would it be like running on Singapore streets.
The first would be Race Against Cancer at East Coast Park.
The second is Adidas King of The Road at Gardens by The Bay.
The third is Yellow Ribbon at Changi.
All three different locations, all three different experiences.

My primary school teacher always tell us; in a race, we're not racing against our competitors, we are racing against the clock.
Even if we didn't come in the top position, but we beat our personal best. Inside we have already won the race.
The second thing he told us is that it doesn't mean the first person who turn the corner would be the first person passing the line, anything can change along the way.
And third is our moto - To conquer, to overcome and not to yield because only the finest make it through.

Well, we will keep the post about finishing the race in July after I completed my first one.
Till then it's all about training and beating the clock.

Tiong Bahru walkaround

Another rainy evening to wash the heat away.
Here I am typing another post.
Just ended two days of mass eating of desserts and pastry. Just one of my favorite items to eat when I'm feeling down and not much in a good mood.
At times it's like tsk, so easily happy with little things.

Starting this post with a sunrise picture. Gotten into a habit of taking sunrise pictures while waiting for my bus in the morning.
Only problem is Singapore still doesn't have much of the best scenery to take sunrise, since half the time (or rather most of the time) the sun is blocked by building, or lamp post and other random stuffs.

After class headed down to Outram Mrt. Today exploration of Singapore is at Tiong Bahru. Haven't exactly been to this area in a super long time. Or rather I don't think I walked this area before, not that I can ever remember.
Bright side, today I'm here to explore the area.

First stop of the day is at Tiong Bahru Bakery.
Kind of been waiting to try this bakery since Ashley introduced it to me, and till then I haven't have the chance to drop by the bakery to try it out.
They have two outlets; one at Raffles City and the other at Tiong Bahru.
Walking into the cafe, the first thing that amused me was the door. No picture though, but it's just super unique and heavy idea.
Second thing was the variety of breads that they have. And also the pressure to make a choice while others line behind you waiting for their turn to order.
First time and wasn't sure what's nice, I acquired the staff herself and she recommended the croissant and a sweet bun. And Shermin ordered this Almond bun.

Hot chocolate for me, with ice water to wash down the sweetness from everything.
Personally I find the croissant just alright, perhaps it was not heated up, which did not make it soft yet crispy to be eaten.
I quite love the sweet bun, and definitely one of the item to order again the next time I'm back.
And of course the almond bun as well.
It's a lovely atmosphere to be sitting there on a warm afternoon, and enjoying pastry and drinks. A little different from normal lunch food, but hey, dessert can be eaten anytime.
I think the time period inside this bakery made my eyes tired. Hahah! Too much sweetness to look at.

Tiong Bahru Bakery

56 Eng Hoon Street

#01-70 

Moving on, we continue to wander around the area, and going into random stores. 

Who knew Tiong Bahru area would have little interesting stores. Some selling books, food, clothes and even vintage items.

The dog that barked at me after I took this picture.
And after that it refused to let me take any other picture. Somewhat similar to mine who is super camera shy.

A vintage store selling both book and old school items, ranging from empty bottles to cassettes to even the most ancient music dvd. And mind you, those are the awesome big ones. Doubt anyone have the player to play the dvd now.
More for collecting I reckon so, and also wall decoration purposes.

Final stop; Drips Bakery.

Simple dessert this time.

To try their Baked Chocolate De Tart. And halfway we decided to order pomegranate tea.

It comes in a personal tea pot for you, and two glasses for us. Best thing is the glass is double insulated so you can easy hold the cup without directing feeling the heat. Definitely not much of a tea person.

The baked tart was not too bad, cripsy on the outside and inside chocolatey. But not chocolatey enough! I'm a chocolate lover, like seriously. Dark bitter chocolate. 

Probably didn't pass my expectation, but for the atmosphere, I guess it's not too bad.

Sofa inside the cafe, together with a glass roof, makes the place much brighter without the lightning. And on the prediction, it rained while we were inside. Another excuse to stay inside the cafe longer and enjoy the tea on a rainy afternoon.

Drips Bakery

82 Tiong Poh Road

#01-05 

That's one day worth of eating dessert and pastry. And a lovely afternoon exploring another side of Singapore and learning the secrets behind shop houses and that is hidden there.

I bore you with my addiction

This post is well, pretty nonsensical.
Literally.
I will bore you out with my addiction.

Firstly, I really love wearing tee. All sorts of tee, whether it's graphic, words, plain, black or white.
Those who know or go out often with me, will know that I'm forever in shorts and tee. Like standard uniform.
And literally that's what I am doing now.
Using these two items as my standard uniform for school. Gone are the days of dressing up, debating what outfit to wear everyday for school, and accessories to match.

Ordered like a whole bunch of tee online on q0010 and some of them arrived while a few more would arrive at the end of this month.
And my pair of lens finally arrived after two weeks, and I was wondering if it would ever come.
Feel like it's pre-GSS sales when I ordered these items, least I don't have to shop that much in June. By far, the only items left is a pair of wedges, slippers and maybe heels. 

Now is getting used to the red lens and not scare myself in the morning.
And of course loving my new hair color. Who knew I would be adding so many colors at one go, and yet the outcome is just that awesome.

Adding more colors... AGAIN.

So, as the title suggest. I changed hair color again!
Literally, it becomes to the point that I visit my hair salon once a month to change or add hair colors.
And yes, I am a VIP at the salon already.
The moment I arrive, I just walk in without waiting. And the staffs know I only let one hairdresser do my hair.

On Sunday afternoon, since I had the afternoon free, decided to add some hair colors.
It was a serious debate with myself about what colors I wanted to do. Some choices include...
- Red with a strip of blonde
- Ash blonde with purple ombre
- Brown base with multiple colors as highlight
- Black with blue and purple ombre

Yeaps, funny extreme colors that I wanted to do. But well, one thing I needed to mentally prepare myself for is the bleaching process. It's always a love-hate relationship with bleaching and if I want do crazy insane colors, that the things I need to go through.
Thank goodness I gotten over the process and get used to bleaching already, and learning how to take care of my hair. Good hair treatment and serum do miracles.

Debated a week about color changes and decided that I would not change my base color. I reckon I haven't seen my natural hair color in two years or more? Since I started coloring my hair two years ago, since then it was a constant change of color until I forgot what my natural hair looks like.
Even my hairdresser don't know. Hahah!

Therefore, I shall just dye a part of my hair instead. The original plan was to cover my faded pink with purple and add blue as well. That simple. And I estimated I would be at the salon for 2-3 hours to get it done.
Another round of bleaching to lighten the black hair. Still awaiting the day where I would finally bleach my whole head. Lol.

Surprisingly, after a round of bleaching, my pink turned cotton candy pink.
So instead of covering it with purple, I told Leslie to leave the pink alone and add in with the combination.

And then he add more pink dye to my current cotton candy pink to make it brighter.
After that it was the layer of purple.
Before the blue.
And so random, he asked if I want to add green as well. And I thought why not. I'm already adding so many colors, another one won't hurt.
So there it was, four colors in one patch. I was so curious about the outcome.

While waiting for the color to 'eat' in, I got a packet of hot fries from Leslie. Pampered to the maximum by him all the time.
And did I mention how there was a mini crowd of 8 people waiting outside to get their hair cut, and I just walked into the salon like a boss and went to my usual seat. In some sense, you should have seen the expression on everyone's face when they saw me doing that.
But that's VIP me.

Nearing to the end of my hair coloring process, another friend messaged me that she wants to see my hair color.
And just on Friday she also came by the salon to do her extreme color change. Aka she got influenced by me. For hers, she did a two layer haircut designed by Leslie. Bottom layer was dyed pink. And the top layer have red-purple highlights.
And she brought more food for me!
I'm just like sitting there for the past 3 hours, munching on the fries and now more fried food and bubble tea for me.
It's a wonder how I can get fat just from going hairdresser.

 
Three cups of bubble tea from this bubble tea at Nex bus interchange for three of us!
Now I thank my lucky stars that I ran earlier in the morning.
But the super unfair part is that me and my friend ran the same distance of 10 clicks and he gets to burn more calories than me! Our running profile was adjusted according to our age and weight, so it's definitely accurate in terms of their calories calculation. Now I feel horrible that I need to run more to match the same calories.

After the first wash, the pink and green were easily visible. However I feel that the purple and blue were not as bright as I hoped they would be. Nonetheless, they were still visible if you look closely.
Hopefully after a few washes, they would lighten up and show their colors.

First layer of pink and purple.

Next layer of blue and green. And some patches of purple if you can spot.

And the favorite color of green that is so awesome looking.
now makes me wonder if I should have done more highlights of green instead.
Never would I think the green would turn out so nicely, and really happy that Leslie gave that suggestion.
 

 

Blah! That's my 3.5hours adventure inside the salon.
I think in this picture, you can see the purple and blue more easily. Maybe it's just the angle or how the light shines on the hair.
But in any case, it's approved by mummy! Was showing her the different layers of my hair, and her joke was her hair also have color layers; one layer of black, and another layer of white! LOL.
Mom's priceless joke. Least she didn't scream at me for having those colors in my hair.

Until my next color experiment, which I hope would be in August, not July.

It's a fun fair event

Peekaboo!
Had a super packed weekend, and indeed I spend it to the fullest that I can.
From starting early on Saturday morning to head down to Tuas, and of course with a car ride provided else I would not have agree on going there.
Agreed to help out for three hours at a staff carnival, and my booth is in charge of putting temporary tattoos on people! Almost attempting to be a tattooist for a while.

My *ah hem* equipments to be a tattooist.
But somehow most of the designs are tigers. A bit of scorpion, flowers and butterflies. Nothing that interesting or nice looking tattoos.
Though at the end of the day I had a butterfly and a rose on me. So yea.

And here to my youngest customer. Super cute bot.
The first time I did a tiger and scorpion on him. Then I guess he went off to play or something, he came back saying that the tiger came off a bit. So I replaced the tiger with a blue tiger on his right arm there.
Then after a while again, he came back asking to do more. I ended up adding one more scorpion and another blue tiger on him. Haha! He became my hero for the day aka my superman.

Did a lot of tattoo on a guy as well. Even add one on his neck! Before I did another 5 on his both arms. Tiring man. And all tiger designs again!

As the carnival was coming to an end, and without much customers at my booth, I took the opportunity to get myself a henna!
Did stars design on my left leg while I had a flower design on my left hand. Over load of 'inked' designs on me in one day.
Seemed like I'm enjoying myself at the carnival instead of working! Lol.

Even had the cartoonist artist to draw a cartoon portrait of myself. Yea, I just considered myself a staff of the company already to do the activities as well.

Around 12.30pm that's when we started packing up. And before everything was packed away, me and a new-found friend took another opportunity to play dress up.
The carnival had a few booths; photo booth, henna, cartoon drawing, tattoos and game stalls. Of course, food table as well.

It's a whole table full of props for us to choose from, and be someone else just for a moment.
One thing you just love about having a photo booth is playing dress up. And with such a wide spread, you can't help but to have fun with it.

Why I shouldn't have purple hair.

That's the pictures we took before we had to pack up the props.
If only we had more time to dress up more. And the photo booth even print out a ez-link card size picture for you to keep on the spot. Something like having a Polaroid camera, just that the pictures are taken with a good DSLR.

Overall, despite working just for the three hours, it was one of the fun jobs I had like ever.
Who knew doing events would be so interesting, although of course then again, it depends on what the event about.

AND AND! I think wherever I go, I would have something epic that would happened.
I was doing tattoo for his auntie and she started asking me stuffs like where am I studying, how old am I and whether I am single. Lol.
Next thing you know, she introduced her son to me. Erm.
Awkward moment then. So well, in the end we exchanged numbers.
So far, no movement made to send any message to him. 
Mummy was saying I go anywhere also can get guys' numbers. Tsk! 

After that it was another car ride back to Kovan mrt. Crazy thing that my brother make me do, is telling me once I reached home to accompany him out again for two hours. Rah! So there I went, accompanying big brother on his errand to run to get furniture. Well, I get to sit inside a van and watch him drive a manual, while telling me how he isn't stalling the van unlike me.
Finally after two hours plus I am back home. Exhausted from the constant traveling, and moving furniture down three floors. That's what sister are for. Free labor.

Evening had my awesome buddy coming over my place to accompany me. And we ended up watching Ah Boyz To Men both movies on my laptop. It's literally the OMG feeling when I finally watched both movies. To think I was still waiting for it to be out on channel 5.
Watching the movies kind of make me wonder what is it like to date an army boy and how we would go through the relationship. Would I be patience and wait for him to finish his ns for two years? Would I be annoyed with him on weekend if he wants to sleep in or spend time with his friends and family instead. Would I demand him to spend every book out with him? Honestly I have no idea, and I don't know if I would experience it either.

Read this! This link was shared on Facebook about understanding your NS boyfr. Worth a read.

After the two movies, we're off to dinner. By then it would almost 9pm already, my latest timing to have dinner. And we are off to my favorite supper place. One of the food place I reckon Theodor missed while studying oversea.

Blah! Always eat the same food choices when I come here. Super standard, and forever no rice included. Together with a cup of iced milo.
Okay, it's Monday tomorrow. Off to the start of a new term!