MY COFFEE TABLE

My Japanese style coffee table has finally been delivered! The photos I've taken of it doesn't really tell much about the size and overall presence (I was sitting too close to it when I took the picture) but I like the look of it ... alot! Its low, about almost 40cm in height only.

It has a secret shallow drawer where I've found a new home for all my remote controls etc...

The colour goes really well with the Zabuton cushions that I made. Pity they are not included in this photo.. This coffee table was made my a young friend of mine who is currently honing his creative skill in furniture making... in his backyard! Thanks Kev!

GLORIOUS DIRT

As the natural progression of blogs would be, I have now resorted to blogging about my life, swaying from the very general topics that I've been blogging so far.. Things have been happening lately and one of the highlights of 2008 for me was dirt. Yes, very expensive DIRT.

We found a piece of barren, weed infested plot of land of nothing but barren yellow sand. In which we hope that one day we might build our dream home on it! So after putting my (bargaining) negotiation skills to work, we finally own this space:

View from across the road isn't much but the skies were clear blue on the day and the cotton floss clouds were pretty.. With a little bit of imagination, you can put anything on that land.

We actually thought finding a home design would be an ardous task but it turned out we both agreed pretty much on the same thing. Guess you can say, we're both 'wired' the same way! :) Anyhoo, again, my (bargaining) negotiation skills went on overdrive and have now secured a floor plan that would hopefully last us a lifetime. Here's a sneak peek on how it will (sort of) look like:

It's a jazzed up display home but essentially, it is shaped like this. We're both really into Japanese style home decor and that's where we're heading! I say bring on the bamboo, bamboo and more bamboo!! Oh yes, speaking of Japanese homes, I've learnt that 'shingles' is a design for roof tiles and not necessary a medical condition...

WHOT THA...?

Wow, I have been away and back. Sick again, well again.. and now I'm finally back feeding my blog.. Sorry for the silence, folks. Yes, the travel bug in me has bitten once again and this time my trip to Malaysia has been a quick and hectic one. (My trips are never long enough!)

Managed to squeeze some shopping time in too. The blogger in me is ever ready with a camera at hand! Take a look at this. Condensed milk - enriched with VITAMINS. They probably thought it was too long to print on the lable and shorted it to 'VITAMINISED'!!

Or a stroll by the 'women's products' aisle to browse for the latest offer on sanitary napkins. And hark! What do I see? Stayfree with a new and improved product that is ... **GASP** ... washable???

For those of you who don't know what the writing in yellow means, well, it means "Easy to Wash"!

So I thought ok, interesting... but that was the extend of my shopping for the day and proceeded for a bit of training session in a nice park by the hotel with my teammates. It was a very nice and well kept park but alas, not well enough to stop graffiti.. So we found a pergola to set up our things, and what caught my eye was the writings on the pillars. One can just imagine the strange and exciting things that go on there at night time!


Oh, sweet memories for some but not all, as I read on....

All under the very same pergola..

MOVIE MANIA

I’m finally back after a long and arduous battle of a viral infection! It really took a toll on my body and I’m happy to say, I’m fit enough to resume my blogging!
During my sick days at home, Sam suggested I leave the house to get some ‘fresh’ air. But I didn’t think I could go very far on my feet so he drove me to the cinema to watch a movie! We watched 2 movies, actually, and I was grateful for those few hours of having my mind off being sick..
I insisted on watching Harold & Kumar Escape from Guantanamo Bay. I thought the trailer looked funny, so curiosity got the better of me. Turned out, it’s a little bit OTT and try hard scary-movie-meets-date-movie humour. But overall, good escapism (considering the ‘delicate’ situation I was in!) and it was nice to see the two together again actually!
As my health got better, I thought of watching another movie. Well, actually I was hanging out to see Jet Li in The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor! (see earlier blog entry) I enjoyed it! I don’t care what other people say about it and bagging it, but I didn’t mind it at all. It was done true to the Mummy ‘genre’ and I didn’t think it could’ve been done any other way. i.e. more serious?? Just think in terms of how the last 2 Mummys were done. One thing I didn’t get… well two things actually.. is firstly, the Yetis. What’s with the Yetis and who do they work for!!?? :) Hmmm…. If they did away with the abominable snowmen, I’m sure they could come up with clever alternate near-death escapes.. Then there is Brendon Fraser. Good to see him again though but does this guy ever age? Surely some kind of makeup can make him look a little more like the father of Alex, who’s all grown up now suddenly with a very distinct American accent as opposed to the little boy Alex (in Mummy 2) who sounded more like his British mum when he spoke! Well, I guess it’s all make believe and I was enjoying every minute of Jet Li…. Oh, and Michelle too..

ZEN MISTRESS

I treated myself to a slick Creative Zen … And now we have 2 at home! I find this easier to handle and better than an iPod. Downloading is easy and I’ve finally figured out how to build my playlist. Unfortunately, to most who would like to borrow it, 80% of it is filled with 80’s music. Depeche Mode happened to be the first band I downloaded onto my Zen! Hee hee.. Yesterday I trained with it for the first time and boy was I pumped! I was in a world of my own, (albeit deaf to my surroundings), much to the annoyance of my other team mates who couldn’t really get my attention! (Sorry guys! Love your work…) The arm band does the job by not slipping from my skinny arms during training and it tucks under my sleeves nicely. But I would’ve preferred it if it wasn’t that big. Or my arms just looked small in it. Anyhoo, I just love my new toy!

HAUNTED HOTELS

I’m not one to believe in ghosts or lurking (visible) spirits from the netherworld, neither do I have what they call ‘the third eye’.. But I have friends telling awful stories about their terrifying encounters with the ‘intangible’ beings, claiming to have been touched or (*gasp*) strangled by one while lying in bed. I’m very sceptical about such encounters and will quickly dismiss it as having a hyperactive brain (nightmares or vivid dreams) while sleeping. Here’s the latest story I’ve heard from a frequent-flyer friend.
He checked into this 5-start hotel over the weekend and when he got into bed, he was strangled, push and squashed the whole night. He later described that he was punching and kicking the whole night. Well, I have those too, even on my own bed! It’s just bad sleep for me, where I feel that my brain is awake but I just can’t move my body. But I’ve never once attributed that to having a ghost ‘squash’ my chest!
Another incident where I was sharing a hotel room with a friend of mine. We were on separate single beds and I was suddenly awoken by her murmuring and ‘whining’. Then I sat up to look at her and tried to wake her by calling her name. She then continued the murmuring and ‘whining’ and stirred. I yelled out her name again, simply because she was starting to annoy me for waking me up! Then she jumped up, tore off her blanket with great speed and bolted towards my bed and plonked herself on me, narrowly missing my arm! She looked pale and dazed and quickly said, “Argh! I’ve been squashed by something! I couldn’t move!” Sigh, woke me up for nothing!
Anyway, does anyone have any haunted hotel experiences to share, you may post a comment!

BROKEN SOLES

What do you do with all the old training shoes that you accumulate over the years? I can't bare to throw mine away. Although they all look 'holey' like this!

These are my beloved 'Fei Yue' shoes, and a few other BATA ones that didn't last any longer either. As training would dictate, most of the damage is done on the R shoe! I dug them all out last night because I was trying to marry a 'decent' pair together, hoping I can use it to train on gravel. I didn't realise the extent of the (worn) condition that none can be saved.. :(

So I got a new pair (again!) today. I don't forsee this new pair to last past January 2009! I got a pair of black 'Fei Yue' shoes last year - I only have one pair and I only wear it as casual wear. There's no way I'm destroying that!

DAY 2 OLYMPICS - GYMNASTICS

Wow, how cool was Zhang Yimou’s choreography of the opening ceremony! And I haven’t seen Li Ning since 1984 Los Angeles Olympics and he HAS aged but to have him ‘run’ that length, slow-mo, his body tilted at an angle, takes some endurance from this 44 year old!

Anyway, day 2 of the Games and the women's gymnastics had a good start. We had first coverage of the Chinese and Romanians on the beam & vault and later floor excercise. And indeed, from my previous post, they have started using the new scoring system – with the perfect score of 17.

In summary, the scroring changes are as follows:

A Score = Difficulty
Starts from 0.00 and builds according to difficulty, with 7.0+ on some apparatus.

B Score = Execution
Starts from 10.00 with deduction for errors. (9.0+ is excellent)

Final score = A + B

After watching the Chinese in action on the floor excerise, these athletes have raised the bar (to suit the new scoring system) by choosing up to 5 (diagonal) tumbling runs! The tumbling combinations are SICK but so far the Chinese have nailed the team event.

We have yet to have any coverage on the Aussie girls but we're keeping the telly on. Watch this space...

ALL THINGS WOOD

I had to get some of my string instruments fixed and I dare say, it’s about time. It’s been over 8 years since I last played my cello! It was finally shipped to me just 2 years back and found that the sound post had collapsed together with the bridge, pegs and strings... everything.. Sigh, fixing it ain’t cheap I can tell you that, and I have two other violins that needed some loving care too!
But first things first, I found a very nice couple who repairs string instruments at their property and paid them a visit. Here I was lugging my cases around, navigating through the gates and finally found their workshop situated right at the back of their house. Who would've thought! Such a small and quaint workshop, the smell of varnish, old violins retiring on the walls and sickly looking instuments strewn all over the work bench ready to be nursed back to life!

Well, my instuments are as good as new now, I can start annoying my neighbours!

Many people usually have pianos in their homes, even if no one plays them anymore, they look good as a part of decorative furniture. As for MY household, you will find pieces of violins (even miniature ones!) everywhere, with my 4/4 cello standing bravely in my living room.

A friend of mine from overseas sent this photo of a fine piece of antique ‘furniture’ (no one plays it in the house!) which is apparently about 100 years old. It had a few aesthetic repairs done over the years but it’s a very special piano. If you look closely, the front portion of the piano is made of glass that you can see through the keys inside the piano. So, it’s not all wood!

Before this piano, my friend had an even dated piano!

Although this is not a very good angled photo, this piano is from Berlin and had suffered the wrath of the 1st world war! Apparently it was half bombed and hence the aesthetic flaws and the keys are a little impaired. However the strings are over 100yrs old and sounds 1st class!

080808

So the time has finally arrived for the Opening ceremony! And also for many thousands out there who seized the opportunity to have their wedding celebrations today! How auspicious, the infinite 8.

All eyes on Beijing now and I trust you won’t have a problem identifying the ‘jailbirds’ from the crowd! Last week, Elvis’ Jailhouse Rock music video was on TV and I could’ve sworn it looked like an Elvis inspired design!

But phew, the Aussies will wear these subtle blue pinstripe suits during the march-in and I think they look superb.. a little hint of a certain airline crew uniform but overall, it looks professional!