Want to borrow money?

That was what the caller asked. “Want to borrow money?”

2 days ago, I received a call from a private number and for no apparent reason; I decided to pass the call to Jhon to answer it for me.

Jhon told me it was a Chinese male caller and he asked if we wanted to borrow money. Of course Jhon said no and the guy said okay and hung up. This guy is surely a loan shark right? Who makes random calls and ask want to borrow money or not? -_-

For cases like these, it would seem hilarious or wacky but I imagined what if he got the ‘right’ caller? The person would say yes and there goes the deal with the devil.

[thekoratpost.com]

  

Photography and Lego Exhibits!

Over the weekend, Jhon and I made our first time visit to the Art Science Museum to view 2 exhibits  Outside in: A Magnum Photos and The Art of the Brick.

[http://www.marinabaysands.com/singapore-museum/]

There are no photos from the Outside In exhibit because no photography is allowed but they did share a video if you want to have a rough idea what was showcased. 

Personally, although there were quite a lot of great photos, the exhibit was not that fantastic. Location serves most of the purpose of what makes the photo beautiful. Despite it all, we still enjoyed the exhibit. I would recommend paying $15 for 2 exhibits as opposed to just this 1. 

As for The Art of the Brick, it was not only artistic but also fun. It is Lego afterall! I can spend hours in that exhibit  I can't imagine how I would be at Legoland. haha 

Self portrait of the artist, New York-based artist Nathan Sawaya.  He has always loved playing with Legos as a little boy and grew up to become a lawyer. One day, he decided to bring out that little boy in him by quiting his job and start building Legos full time.

There were also booths where you can Lego-ize yourself. Not that great, I guess easily appreciated from afar.

Peek-a-boo!

He also have a special room  that represents his fears and hard times.

The last artwork is a 6 meter long T-rex dinosaur skeleton. It was amazing!

At the end, there is an activity space. You can paint a bag, do 'reflexlogoy' with Lego bricks. OUCH! and also loads and loads of of Lego bricks to make your own artwork.

Our table has items to build car models but I challenged Jhon to create a camera. lol I created a DSLR camera (on the left) complete with a dial hokay? Jhon created a digital camera (on the right)

I still believe mine is the best. =P

I would strongly encourage a visit to The Art of the Brick and bring kids too!

   

Not So Fantastic Start but...

Despite 1st December being good; Jhon and I went to 2 museum exhibits at the Arts and Science Museum at Marina Bay Sands (more on that on the next post) and went out with Mom to buy Abg Jamil a birthday gift, the rest of the first week of December was not so fantastic.

On 2nd December, while relaxing just before noon, a received a call that my maternal grandpa has passed away. Everyone was away either at their in-laws or at Johor and I was home alone. Talk about chaotic but everything went well. Late granda was buried after 5pm and we managed to visit late grandma and Nadia's grave.

I got 2 days compassionate leave which I needed but just it was Wednesday, I got the flu and throat infection. Mucus was yellow. Ewww.. I was in bed for 2 days and only went back to work on Friday.
Even as I typed this, I am not 100% well as my nose gets crazy stuck to a point I have sleepless nights.

A week has passed and there was "Tahlil" (prayer) at late grandpa's place. Yet again, everything went well and there was even family announcements etc. One of my younger cousins is getting married towards the end of the month and everyone had a "speech" about trying to tighten our family ties even further especially now that both maternal grandparents are gone.

After that, we were supposed to go to a wedding but that got dramatic. -_-

But the rest of the day went crazy spontaneous which was awesome!!

Imagine 6 adults and 3 kids all in a car. lol  The main idea was to head straight home but somehow we kept making spontaneous decisions here and there.

First pit stop was McDonalds drive through to feed the kids and Mom said perhaps we should go to a nearby park for her to release stress and let the kids run wild.

And so we did.

Pity Syihab the cranky boy of the day had to miss the fun.

Then we went for a durian hunt which itself was full of commotion in a good way. We ended up buying 20 durians, 5kg of duku langsat and 2kg of mangosteens. lol

We were almost home when I mentioned that I feel like eating Mee Soto and I supposed everyone was in a fantastic mood, we actually bypassed my house and headed to Bedok to buy Mee Soto, Mee Rebus and Nasi Ayam. lol

WHAT A FEAST!

Everyone was happy and we spent the rest of the day, eating yummy food and fruits while watching 'Wujud', a ghost show. I simply love today because it is so rare for us to go out like this. I don't mind being squeezed and had to sit in an awkward position to relive this moment again.

   

Welcoming December

I am not the type who counts down to the next year. For the first time in my life, I am.

Jhon and I have so many plans next year; from personal goals to planning more outings. This also means more blog posts unlike the past months. *guilty*

As Jhon and I discussed about 2013, I suddenly realized. What if the end of the world is really 21.12.2012?? =( It would be a real sad ending to my life after all I have been through and I hope, when humanity is rebuilt, someone would make a movie out of it. lol

Anyways, I genuinely cannot wait till the end of the 2012 because that’s where a new journey and rollercoaster begins.

31 days to go! Weee!

[http://www.shutterstock.com/pic.mhtml?id=47537689]

   

Majlis Cukur Rambut Zafrul Affan

Have you seen the video Jhon and I edited? It is basically a video summary of what happened on that day while this post consists of photos. More or less the photos we managed to capture because the DSLR is mostly used for videography.

[http://zzanyy.blogspot.sg/2012/11/majlis-cukur-rambut-video.html]

The Marhabban starts at 10am and we were grateful the venue is right behind Jhon’s home. When we arrived, the prayers were about to start. Unfortunately, Jhon and I didn’t have time to settle down and was dripping in sweat, especially Jhon.

Zafrul Affan didn’t cry the entire time and was more to confuse on what was going on. He not only had little hair but also fine hair which made the men had difficulty trimming it. haha

After the prayers were done, we had our lunch, rested and chit-chat with Fizah who was unfortunately was visited by the ‘frenemy’ in red. After a couple of hours, we headed downstairs for the rest of the day.

It was a slow start and the crowd grew after 2pm; just before I had another serving of food downstairs. They are different type of food compared to upstairs okay? :gluttonface:

Although the main focus was on Affan’s ceremony, his family also wanted to take the opportunity to celebrate his 3rd month birthday, his parent’s 1st year anniversary and his auntie’s birthday. It was funny someone commented why they didn’t order a “branded” cake. -_- It’s going to be ended up into poop anyways, is there such thing as branded poop? Does it smell better?

ANYWAYS,

The entire ceremony went well and smoothly; simple, humble and nice. Jhon and I didn’t stay until clean up because well, we already did what we need to do, mingled and just tired. Thanks to Fizah’s family and in-laws for having us part of the ceremony and happy they loved the video.
   

   

Majlis Cukur Rambut Video

Fizah’s nephew had a ‘cukur rambut’ ceremony and as requested by her mom, Jhon had to video the ceremony. You how it goes, mom and dad are always busy running around getting things in order and mingling until they miss the actual event.

We did videography before with our old camcorder and it was not to our standards although Fizah’s family enjoyed it. Besides the clarity of the video from the camcorder was poor, Jhon told me that it is giving problems so there is only 1 thing we can do. Rent.

We ended up renting a DSLR that can take HD videos because it’s cheaper than an actual camcorder. Another problem was getting proper video editing software besides using Microsoft Movie Maker. It was fine but it has restrictions especially when you have certain effects in mind.

Jhon ended up downloading a trial version of Adobe Premiere Pro. After 2 hours of tutorials from YouTube (I love YouTube!) and I got the hang of it. It did helped that I had played with movie makers before.

Long story short, we managed to stitch everything together, video and audio. It’s not superbly awesome but definitely a significant improvement from our previous video. Edits are not to the T but it's okay. It's difficult when using pro movie makers where even the faded transition is so detailed.

Enough chit-chat, here it is!



Unfortunately, can't view video through mobile because of copyright issues from Mahir Zain's song. BLUEK!




   

Giant Moth

Giant may be an overstatement but it was the biggest moth I have ever seen!

Jhon and I was coming back from dinner as he was sending me home, I saw huge moth right on the floor of my block.

I told Jhon to place a $1 coin so that there is a scale on how big it was.

HUGE!

The width is just a bit bigger than my hand!

We took as much photos we can and just as soon as Jhon say "Dah" (done) it fluttered away. 

Reminded me of my blog post about the blood sucking butterfly and moth.

[http://zzanyy.blogspot.sg/2010/07/madrilenial-butterfly-bloodsucking.html]

Random Fact: Do you know large moths has no mouth?

   

Crocheted Scarves Photoshoot

:Insert meme:
I don't always post self portraits on my blog but when I do, I bombarded them.

These photos were taken on May 2012 and was re-edited recently. Lost weight since then too.

The main idea was just to do a photo shoot with 2 crocheted scarves given by Jhon's mom as a gift to me. It was handmade and I absolutely adored it that I had to take photos with it.

Attempt at smiling without my teeth which I don't do. Looks a little awkward but I like the composition of the photo.

Shadow play.

Facing the sun.

Normal shot.

Emo-I-don't-know-what shot but I love it!.

Abrupt end.

I was shy while taking photos because people were staring and it was just the two of us with me overly dressed at Pasir Ris Beach. =P Thanks to Jhon for taking the nice shots and sorry for being anal re tentative on how I want the pictures to be composed. haha 

   

Jhon's 30th Birthday

Ever since we first knew each other, I have always tried to make Jhon's birthday special and/or different. I guess the fact that he does not get to celebrate his birthdays with his family makes me want to try harder for him.

This year, my initial plans for his birthday was a flop and for the first time, I had absolutely no idea what to plan for his 30th birthday. I know he has been slightly stressed hitting the big three O mainly because sometimes he find it sucky that he had to put his goals on hold to fulfill his responsibilities as a son and brother.

Anyways, I was stumped for a while but I had an idea.

I decided to go very simple and down to earth this year and I know he would appreciate it. I applied half day leave on his birthday so I could get some groceries and cook one of his favorite soup. Macaroni Soup.

I know I am supposed to use elbow macaroni but I find this cuter and presentable. lol

So after work, he came to my place and I served him his favorite dish. At that time, he didn't know what was cooked for him and he was happily surprised. yey!

I also bought and wrote him a birthday card and that was it. It was very simple but at the end of the day, he thank you 5 times and really appreciated the gesture. I felt weird for not having a special outing so I was happy to know he loved my plan. hehe

Happy birthday, mahal ko!
[I have said what I need to say in the card so no need to write it here. lol]

   

How Much Do You Love Your Pet? (Frankenweenie)

What lengths will I go to keep your favourite pet by my side forever?

I have a long history of owning cats. I think the most number of cats I ever owned was 12 at a time. I had seen births and deaths. I had cried and sometimes more emotionally with several cats. It is hard to let them go when a human and a pet has bond beyond comprehension. Sometimes, I wish I could keep them close forever... I suppose there is always taxidermy where the pet is stuffed and turn into a doll. I would like to go for something less creepier. [www.kittystampede.blogspot.com] Oh, have you heard about 2 guys who not only taxidermy their cat but also turn it into a helicopter or flying cat? Creepy but FUN! [www.motherboardvice.com] If I could, I would probably taxidermy just my cat's tail and turn it into a key ring. This way, it is less creepy and I can take a piece of my cat EVERYWHERE I GO! This is one of my pet cats, Kitty. Kitty has a bent tail which would make an interesting key chain. Gosh, this is so morbid, even for me. =P Then I thought, how about other pets? You can do the same with dogs (tail) but what of you own a pet rabbit? How about the foot? Hahaha geddit? Because rabbit's foot is lucky and it is not just any foot. It's your beloved pet rabbit's foot! Extra special and probably extra lucky! [www.parksfacts.blogspot.com] Oh! How about a scarf made of my pet's fur? At least there is no mutilation involved if I have no heart to cut a piece of them. Whenever I miss them, I can wrap myself with the scarf, pretend they are still alive and we are cuddling. [www.knittingincolor.blogspot.sg] Why am I thinking of such creepy ways to keep my pet close until eternity? It is because of Frankenweenie! It is a boy (Victor) who brought his pet dog into life from an unexpected death ala Frankenstein's monster. He tried to keep it a secret from his small town but hell breaks loose when some unintended consequences emerged. Besides the compelling story line, Frakenweenie is not a normal animation movie because is mostly a stop-motion movie. Stop-motion is a frame by frame type of film making where they have to move the puppets bit by bit. Here is a creepy trivia, the puppets have real human hair! But apparently to Jhon, this is no big deal. He said it's just a wig. =/ Catch Disney’s FRANKENWEENIE in cinemas this 15 November 2012 and like the Official Walt Disney Studios Singapore Facebook Page, follow the @disneystudiosSG and subscribe to Official Disney Studios Singapore YouTube Channel!