YAY ME...

i came across a facebook app that puts together a person's status updates for the past year and summarises them in a word cloud. here's mine...

no surprises that ilaika came up a lot in most of my updates. monday morning blues and work had more than their fair share too.

well, i have a good feeling that those dreaded work blues will stay behind in 2010 and not tag along to haunt me in 2011....because...yes, i have good news! i finally did it -  i finally turned in that letter i drafted years ago...

yes peeps, i finally resigned! and what's next, i hear you ask? well, that's another story altogether ;)

for now, all i can say is - yay me!

OUR WISH FOR YOU...

did you know...?

(click here or the para below for the original webpage)

" Origami was invented in China around 100AD. The word origami simply means "paper folding". Japan was in the habit of adopting interesting parts of the Chinese culture, and took on the craft of origami around 600AD. It is Japanese origami which has become a world famous cultural emblem. 

As in many societies, paper was a luxury item, created by hand and used only for important, long lasting purposes. When origami was first brought to Japan, only the rich practiced the art of folding paper into shapes. The shape creation was a way of adding special meaning to what the paper held on it or in it.

For love notes, origami was doubly special. First, the origami shape itself could represent a message. The selection of color and shape help conveyed the true emotions of the writer. Second, origami is an intricate art. If the love note was intercepted, it would be unlikely that the reader could perfectly refold the shape. So the origami love note was very secure - it could not be read by the wrong person without the recipient knowing it.

From its inception, origami has held an honored place in ceremonies that were of great importance. Origami was used at births, weddings, and funerals to help commemorate the occasion in a unique, hand-crafted manner. The origami figures would be treasured by participants for years afterwards. "

(click here or the para below for the original webpage)

" One of the first books published on Origami was "How to Fold 1,000 Cranes", released in the late 1700s. It is no coincidence that the crane was chosen as the subject for the book. For thousands of years the Japanese culture has treasured the crane as a symbol of honor and loyalty. The crane symbol is used on many Japanese heraldic devices and is a theme in many famous works of art.

The crane is a majestic bird which mates for life and is extremely loyal to its partner. The bird is strong, graceful and beautiful. Because of the great importance of the crane, the Japanese people feel that a person who folds 1,000 cranes will be granted his or her greatest wish. "

as a child, i loved origami...i can't quite recall if it was the pretty paper that our japanese friends used or just the art itself that attracted me. whatever the reason, i fondly recall my mum folding lil bits of paper followed by my excitement in discovering the figure that unfolded...or folded, so to speak! i also recall asking her to unfold the paper just so i could try and fold it back into the figure she had folded just moments earlier.

a few weeks ago, i chanced upon an origami set at a local bookstore. it reminded me of my childhood days and so i bought a set for ilaika, thinking that i could introduce the art to her, just as my mum did for me. 

and she loved it!

the crane was and still is my favourite. so it was no surprise that the crane was also the first piece i chose to fold for ilaika.

we didn't fold a thousand cranes but hey, we don't ask for very much ;) our dreams are of love and happiness (and perhaps in ilaika's case, a year's supply of froyo!) 

we hope these two will be enough to grant us our little but meaningful dreams and wishes for this coming year and we wish the same for you...

from SE1 to W11...my london affair...part 1

i fell in love with london when i was ten and again when i was fifteen; both times i was there on a family holiday. i decided at that young age that i would return when i was older to really experience life as a londoner. a few years later, just before my 18th birthday, that dream became a reality and  that's when the love affair with london really began. i only lived there for four years but it felt much much longer and even until today, a part of me wishes i never left. i can't quite explain it nor do i really know why.

of course, i had my fair share of ups and downs (for which student doesn't) and yet i always look back at those student days with such fond memories. i snapped like a million pictures whilst i lived there and sadly, i can't find any of them now. 

note: those days, we used film more than digital...perhaps one day, i'll gather up the courage to go through the unopened tea crates in my mum's house and dig up all those pics. that would really be a trip down memory lane...

i have forlorn moments every now and then, when that lil part of me misses london really badly. so i thought it'd be therapeutic to blog about the city of london...my city of london, as i remember it.

for starters, here are some pics* that capture the london i fell in love with...

* beautifully captured by peter visontay...click here for more pics or to purchase.

- the river thames -

the red bridge in this picture is the blackfriars bridge. we stayed just south of this bridge at my aunt's flat during my first trip to london.

- the tower bridge -

often mistakenly referred to as the london bridge, this iconic symbol of london is breathtaking and majestic. in my first year as a student in london, i lived in the lse student residence in butler's wharf, located south of the river. i walked across this bridge daily to get to the tower hill tube station and back home. i remember instances when i had to wait in the bitter cold rain for boats to pass (not my fondest memory of the bridge, for sure)...i also remember the time i crossed the bridge, as i made my way to class for the very first day of uni. my, what a glorious feeling that was - excitement and exhiliration, mixed with nervous anticipation of the unexpected with a tinge of a new found independence! everytime i see a picture of the tower bridge, i think of sam, my first flatmate and one of my closest friends in london.

- an old warehouse -

built in the 1870's, butler's wharf was a shipping wharf and warehouse complex. in the 20th century, many of the warehouses, such as the one in the pic above, fell into disuse. in the 1980s the area was transformed from a derelict site into luxury flats with restaurants and shops on the ground floor. this was my so-called playground in 1997-1998 ;)

- curlew street; "the results of the docklands regeneration (decaying old warehouses turned into flats and offices)" as remarked by the photographer -

the cobbled streets of butler's wharf like curlew street above was up and coming then. not too sure about now but back then, it housed several conran restaurants such as chop house, le pont de la tour and cantina del ponte. we used to save up our measly student allowances just so we could experience dining in these fancy restaurants. and if we were lucky, we'd be able to buy set meals on offer via lastminute.com!

...to be continued...

a trip down memory lane...us three in singapore circa 2007...

zain put this comic strip together back when ilaika was still a baby. it was just after our first trip as a family of three. ilaika was barely four months old & we had decided to take a break in singapore for a few days. she cried & screamed throughout the whole holiday, except when we were in the hotel room. the pic of her in that baby onesie - will work for milk - makes me laugh everytime.

clockwise from top left:

at a singaporean wet market that zain dragged us to using his gps (hobby of the month that month)...apparently they had the best char kueh teow in town...it took us an hour to get there, only to find out it was closed on that day!

mini me & me in our pj's in hilton singapore. she was so tiny back then & always had that look on her face...

zain & ilaika back in kl. she had an obsession with the tv remote...she still does except now she actually knows how to use it!

i bought this onesie in singapore & it was so fitting as ilaika had been part of a tv commercial just a month before! look how happy she was to be in the hotel room...