A couple things

Last week was lots of fun.  Because the 'rents were out of town, I got to do whatever I wanted, swanning round the house like a Duchess.  (Full disclosure: when they're away, I pretend I'm the Queen and sleep in a different bedroom every night.  The best nights are in the giant king-sized bed in the master bedroom.  I toss and turn with abandon and wake up feeling delighted.)

I also got to spend lots of time with my friends, including a long overdue book-binding tutorial with colleagues where I made this.

Now, I like to journal and I like to draw, but I can't do crafts to save my life.  I'm one of those irritating people who can't cut paper in a straight line, even with a guide.  I briefly entertained origami one long-ago Christmas morning and ended up shredding neon paper and flinging it violently at my mother.  (She's crafty.  And smug.)

So for me, at least, the bookbinding session promised to be a disaster.  And you know?  It wasn't half bad.

It started off a little shaky, but I think once I got the hang of the strokes and how tightly I should be pulling the thread, I managed to make a somewhat decent piece of stationery that I would probably use.

We used the coptic stitch, which means that the book will lie flat. 

It's too complicated for me explain via text and we had Rebecca actually giving us directions, but there are plenty of videos on YouTube and it's how most people learn.  The clearest video I can find is this one which has a great view of the steps and some good instructions.  All you need is a needle with a large eye, thick thread, paper to fold into signatures, and covers.  We used some plain 100gsm stock and for covers, I cut up a cereal box.

Speaking of boxes, the first round of Project Box also ended last week.

As I said here, Rebecca, Amanda and I decided to start sending some good old-fashioned mail to each other in the form of a themed package every month.  Instead of writing letters, we planned to design a package of presents, artwork, photos and other bits and pieces.  This month's theme was "Greed" and I sent my package to Rebecca.  In turn, Rebecca was supposed to give hers to Amanda and Amanda, hers to me.

When I opened my mailbox to find one package from Rebecca and one from Amanda, I was first confused, then worried that we had gotten our wires crossed and that Amanda was receiving nothing.

To my surprise, Rebecca's package came with two pictures in a frame, a red pen for Teachers' Day, and a note that said:

This is my interpretation of greed.  Putting two photos in one frame.  

Sending two packages when you're only supposed to send one.

I thought it was a very unexpected twist on the theme.

Her brother, an animator, drew the second picture.  She didn't say it, but I know that's me being greedy over a massive pile of sweets.  Rebecca knows I'm a chocolate fiend and we spend ages at work lolling around the pantry and teasing each other with, "How many calories do you think this cookie is?"  (Amanda said hers was a girl surrounded by piles of clothes and handbags!)

Amanda's, as I suspected it would, employed washi tape to generous effect.

She made me this awesome piece of washi art that I've displayed on the porch with my mother's favourite cat statue.  I was especially touched that she'd used loads of her favourite red and white washi tape - ostensibly the one she's most greedy over.

This month's Project Box theme is Blue.  I'm meant to send something Amanda's way and I've already started planning it.  Hopefully it works as well!

Neverland

Today, while randomly scrambling around in drawers at home, I found this instax of my late grandma and my brother.

And now, I miss them both.

The sky on the water

Last weekend, I decided to make like a good student and get my homework out of the way.  I spent Friday working properly so that I could enjoy a leisurely Saturday, complete with dinner at Relish with Eddie and Shirin.  

Because both ladies work on Saturday and I had some time to kill after pole practise in the afternoon, I decided to take a quick walk round the Botanic Gardens with my camera.  The sun was setting, so I didn't manage to squeeze in too much practice but it was lovely people-watching and taking in little details like flowers and the ripples spreading from the poking snouts of terrapins.  

The walk was an impromptu one and I had only brought my 50mm.  I yearned for my zoom lens, especially when trying to take pictures of people.  At one point, I caught a lounging couple laughing at me as they watched me clumsily tail a child across a field. 

I sat on a hillock and watched boys playing captain's ball on the grass.  Their shouts floated over couples on blankets, lying on their backs, forearms thrown over their faces to block out the sun.  In the slimy soil on the fringes of the lake, children squatted on haunches and settled their toes more firmly in the cool black ooze.  They laughed and grabbed each other each time a turtle surfaced nearby, blinking like a grumpy old man.

Eventually, I made my way around the other end of the lake, away from the clamour of people.  When I was younger and we used to visit the Botanic Gardens for walks, the paths were mannered dividers for well-manicured slopes.  Now though, the grass by the lakes has grown tall and marshy and where the shouts of people have become faded echoes, the air is filled with the buzz and hum of marsh birds and insects.

I spent a good half an hour chasing crimson dragonflies and horny-legged grasshopper nymphs round the reeds and got my shoes covered in muck.  It was simultaneously inconvenient and exhilarating, slithering around in the mud and having insects leap scratchily onto my bare legs.  I spotted a serious nature photographer hiding in the bushes.  He had settled himself on a hill with a huge telephoto lens in his lap and was waiting patiently for animals and insects to creep closer.

Next time, with my zoom, I might try a day of doing just that. 

At any rate, the 50mm really shone when it came to flowers, capturing everything right down to the tiny bugs in the heart of a bloom.  I couldn't snap quickly enough, trying to take in every last papery petal.

When the air turned blue, I walked back through the gloaming to Cluny Court to meet Shirin and Edie.

We had a really chilled out dinner with burgers and wine (coffee in my case) and since I had never tried the burgers at Relish before, I was really delighted with the heaps of salad, beef and fragrant truffle fries on the table.

Of special mention, Edie and Shirin's blue cheese, pear and walnut-peanut butter burgers.  There were so crazily-flavoured and yet so perfect that even after I'd polished off my segment, my tastebuds were still delightfully confused.

I was boring that night though, and tried a variation on the Ramly Burger with a patty wrapped in egg and cheese and doused in savoury sauces. 

Predictable, I know, but what to do?  You can't take the pasar malam out of the girl.

Thus friends absent speak

Friday is my default day off.  I like waking up early in the mornings, taking walks, dawdling over breakfast.  Some Fridays though, when my mother asks me what my plans are, I put on my haughty Downton Abbey voice and say, "I will now be taking care of my correspondence."

I'll be the first to admit, it's romantic to think of sitting at a desk on a windblown weekend and penning elaborate missives to various suitors (hah!), but the reality is that I also just really enjoy writing letters to friends.

There is something deeply exciting about receiving letters, postcards and packages from friends.  I love guessing what's inside, opening them up and noticing all the little personal touches like comics, drawings, stickers, the quotes that have been chosen, even the paper they were written on.  One of my most treasured letters comes from a cousin who wrote it from a cafe in France, in flourishes all over sheets of thick cream paper studded with lavender petals.  In contrast, another was mailed halfway across the world by a friend and is hastily scribbled on a torn sheet of notebook paper and covered with scrappy cartoons.

In return, I love writing letters, thinking of the surprise that people will get when they shuffle through bills and flyers.  The time delay aspect of it is exciting and I like to put a little bit of effort into the kind of stationery I use.

Previously, I would buy expensive stationery from places like Artbox or Stationery Island.  Don't get me wrong: the paper quality is delicious and the designs are ridiculously cute, but I've recently discovered that in terms of value for money, you absolutely cannot go wrong with Daiso.

I recently popped into the Plaza Singapura branch with Ann-Marie and was pleasantly surprised to see that their stationery selection has increased exponentially.  An entire aisle was devoted to letter paper and notecards and at $2 for 10 to 12 sheets of paper and envelopes, the stationery is definitely more wallet-friendly than, say, Artbox's $4 for five sheets or so.  Some of the packages even come with stickers to seal the letters with!

Needless to say, I quickly stocked up and now have enough paper to correspond with half the world. 

The designs are pretty cute if you can ignore the ridiculous Engrish.  (Actually the small ladybird notecards are cracking me up because they rather ominously warn "There is a person who wants to inform..." and I want to give them to students as encouragement for their exams.  I sometimes pretend to be menacing in class, so I know they'll get the joke.)

The paper quality is rather uneven.  I've already sent out several letters - the adorable rabbit paper, which is my favourite design, is thin though not offensively so, but the floral blue paper is actually thicker than a normal sheet of A4.  I guess it's a little bit of a gamble, but as long as you write with a ballpoint, it should be all right.

I broke the paper in by putting together a package for something that I'm doing with my colleagues, Amanda and Rebecca, called Project Box.  The idea is that every month, we'll post a package of stuff to each other based on a theme that we've picked.  The theme this month was "Greed" and we were free to interpret it as we liked, through photos, articles, snacks and so on.  My version involved collecting a bunch of things that I was feeling greedy over and paying them forward to someone else (washi tape!). 

If you like writing to friends and are not too fussed about paper quality, I highly recommend a Daiso run. 

I'm also already planning the next batch of letters and if you enjoy receiving random letters and don't mind participating in some old school conversation, I would be happy to add new "penpals" to the list!

On a sidenote, Ann-Marie and I really enjoyed lunch at Hoshino Coffee that day.  The food was simple and tasty and I was so enamoured by the way this cheesy, fluffy, golden souffle looked that I had to take a picture.

I was also in the mood for a good coffee (Ann-Marie said, quite rightly, "When are you not?!") and the latte was not foamy but quite nicely balanced. 

The rest of my weekend is aimed at wandering around and taking some photos for practice.  I hope you enjoy yours!

Zoo: Part Four, Miscreants

This last batch of pictures that I took at the zoo is of other random animals that I didn't spend all that much time shooting.  I enjoy them and I'm glad that my zoom lens was able to pick out some of the cool details like the thousands of little ridges on the elephant's skin or the green stain of leaves round the mouth of an Aldabra Giant Tortoise.  

All in, this was a really good lesson for me.  I tend to spend too long waiting for a moment and end up missing good shots because I have an idea of how things "should" look in my head.  I'm not very impulsive, but in this area, I should be.  

I love the pygmy hippos and how ridiculous they look.  One of my favourite things about the Singapore Zoo is that because visiting it is such a childhood rite of passage, we grow up with the animals.  When I was a kid, Gambir the elephant had just been born.  And the pygmy hippo exhibit had a new baby which came up to his mother's knees.  Now the hippos are the same size!

This black crowned crane picture is a great example of my problem with speed.  In the viewfinder, his head was in perfect focus and because I waited a moment too long, he shifted and his feathers moved into stark relief instead.  It's not a horrible photo, but it's not what I wanted and it's a pity because the light was shining beautifully on his golden mane.

As my father says, shooting birds and insects takes the most skill.

Inuka was flat out snoozing when we went by his new enclosure.  Edie expressed her solidarity outside instead.

 At the long end of the zoom, I'm noticing quite a lot of what looks like purple fringing outside the focus point.  Damn zebras! 

Giraffes are cool and all, but you haven't visited the zoo until you've seen a giant beast unleash a stream of pee into hot, frothy bubbles.  That went on for well over a minute, no lie.

I've had a soft spot for babirusas since I found out that their canines grow through their skin.  When we got to this exhibit, there was a man with a camera actually throwing things at the hog and trying to get it to look up.  Edie and I glared at him and I said, purely out of reflex, "What the hell?"  He cringed and slunk away into the crowd.  Children, don't throw things at animals.  I mean, come on.

Another funny moment: Edie read this sign and waved me over.  We stared at it for a moment and then just burst out laughing.  Yum!  Anus food!

And of course, the two biggest miscreants at the zoo that day.  Thanks for the outing, Eddie!