Art in the City.

On Saturday, I met Mag at Raffles City cuz we got tickets for Leila Haddad's performance at the National Museum. Though we were rushing, we stopped by to take a peek at Julian Beever's artwork just outside Raffles City. Can't miss it cuz there will be people gathering around taking pictures of it as that's the best way to see the picture.

Julian Beever is a talented chalk artist from Britain who draws on pavements. And his works are anamorphic drawings, meaning that they are 2D drawings but from certain perspectives, it appears 3D. It's really awesome. I was lucky enough to see some of his artworks when in Australia during my visits there and it's still awesome seeing it again. Thanks to Nokia for bringing him here to get this done! Yay! Pop over to Julian's official website to see his other works. It's really cool stuff.

Outside the museum, we stopped again to admire this gorgeous Lotus. I mean, it looked like a toy car and I was openly 'oohing' and 'aahing' at the sight of the car. And there were several guys there peeking in as well, totally in awe like I was looking at the car! Was a little frustrating trying to get a nice shot of the car minus the guys in the picture but we finally managed to.

And the highlight of the day was Leila Haddad's 'In the Trail of the Ghawazee'. As part of the National Museum's two-month long festival 'Under the Crescent Moon' to showcase the rich cultural heritage of the Arab world and Turkey, the museum organised various activityes such as exhibitions, performances, films and lectures. We tried to get tickets for the other performances but they were sold out rather quickly. But managed to get tickets for Leila's show so that's another yay. I enjoyed the performance. We were entertained by a group of musicians playing traditional music and had Leila dancing as the musicians were playing the various instruments. They also were singing and dancing at some points so it was really interesting watching and soaking it all in. There was one dance that was rather hynoptic and intense and I liked it. Guess it's one of those where either you like it or hate it. I loved it. It was lovely watching a dancer who enjoyed performing and involving her musicians while engaging her audience. It was a good performance and I sure hope we get more of such performances.

A little bit about Leila (excerpt from the National Museum website)

"Born in Tunisia and now creating her works in Paris, Leila Haddad is one of the most recognised practitioners of Raqs Sharki, popularly known as oriental dance or belly-dancing. In the course of her career, she has taken the dance from cabarets and clubs to the major festivals and cultural institutions of Europe and the USA. With her performances, she has revived the dignity and tradition of the belly dance and conveyed its latent sensuality as a tribute to femininity rather than subjugation to male images of women."

I wasn't able to take any photos cuz no picture or video recording was allowed during the performance. See, if clear annoucements made, I will definitely not break any rule *laughs*. My camera stayed IN my bag the whole time. So no picture people. Would have been cool if I had some shots but I guess some things you have to experience it yourself.

Shopping for Mom.

Twice a year, I go hunting to get the right present for my Mom - once for her birthday and another for Mother's Day. She doesn't expect anything from us, but it's become a tradition that she gets something to add to her cup-saucer-plate collection. The headache is trying to remember what she already has and yes, we have duplicates cuz of that. And she has it nicely displayed in her cabinet and my bro and I constantly taunt her by saying that the next time she goes on holiday, we're gonna drink Coke out of her precious teacups. That's usually enough to get her into one of her naggy moods :o)

Anyways, this year, I went on my shopping trip and after a while found a set that am sure she doesn't have. And the lady at the store volunteered to wrap it up being Mother's Day and all. Sure, go ahead I said. Was a long queue at the cashier and ten minutes later when I went back to collect the package, she was struggling to wrap up two boxes. I mean, boxes with equal sides and all. How hard can it be ya? But she was actually struggling and I was so tempted to stop her to end her misery cuz she was apologising away about taking so long and I was trying hard to smile as I watched her.

Mind you, this is from a big department store in Orchard Road. And I JUST had to take a picture of the salesperson's masterpiece:

And the two boxes are your regular square boxes and both are the same size. So she piled them up and taped both together. Even that wasn't done properly as you can see below:

Was a waste of time cuz had to rewrap the present and it's all ready for tomorrow. We're going over to my nenek's (i.e. granny's) place tomorrow with a few other aunts and their families. Should be fun to catch up with everyone.

Oh yes, if you're ever at Bugis, look out for this. We were out today and were going to get some mangoes from the fruit market (just look out for the BUGIS STREET sign, dive in and follow the crowd) and I have not seen it before til today.

To get a better idea of how huge the fan is, take a look at the picture below which shows people and you can see how huge it is. As to whether it helps with the ventilation. I dunno. When there is a lot of people, I guess it might help some though most of the time I am too busy drooling looking at the heaps of yummy food available there to bother about the heat :o)

The Belly Twins in Singapore!

Over the weekend, Mag and I attended a showcase of local belly-dancers by Alhambra and main reason why we went was to see the Belly Twins - Neena and Veena, who were guests performers for the night. It is just unfortunate that I am so rusty in Belly Dancing (and I mean really super rusty) that I wasn't ready to sign up for their workshop cuz that would have been really cool to go for that. Am hoping that they will come back sometime in the future, and by then would be ready (as in be able to say that am at beginner's level confidently) to attend such workshops cuz the twins seem to be really fun gals to learn from.

There was alot of waiting before the show and the organisers tried to entertain us by having a singer who sang live, with a drummer and another one playing on the keyboard. There was also a bazaar that had like 10 tables of people selling hips scarves, jewellery, carpets etc. We went round them tables like many times cuz we were there at 7pm and expecting to shop but it was rather disappointing cuz the clothes were either very 'makcik' like or things that we didn't want to lug home like carpets. The shawls were nice and the hip scarves were also okay. To kill time, we finally did henna painting but we didn't anything too elaborate. There was a male and female henna artists there. Mag and I got mall ones done. Now guess which work is done by the male artist, and which one by the female :o)

Above: Mag's 'bracelet' henna - very feminine and costs her $1!

If you look at the picture, it's still with the henna on and mine (below) has dried up some so you can see how it's all cracked and came off soon. The colour wasn't so strong initially but when we got up the next day, it was nice henna colour!

Above: I asked for one FEMININE symbol and I got a modern looking design :o)

We sat through the performances by the dancers fromthe school. They had some nice outfits that the dancers wore and ..... well that's it. Honestly, the hightlight was the Belly Twins and I WISHED they just focus on the twins performing cuz it was so cool. Loved the way they were not static when they were dancing like some other performers that we saw that nite, the twins had variety where they danced with cymbals, and another time with not one but two swords. And it was my first time seeing dancers (i.e. live performance) using swords (and the twins even went for the double swords) and it was like sooo coool!!!

They also layered their moves when they were dancing. What I mean is that there was one point where one of the twins would be standing and the other was infront of her but she was on the floor shimmying away. And they interacted with the audience. When one twin was down on the floor, the other was still dancing on stage so even if from your seats you can't see both twins, you can still watch one on stage. That's the difference between the professsionals and wanna-be. The former knows what they are doing *grins*

But what spoilt the nite for me (for a short period of time) was the encounter I had with a VERY-IMPORTANT-SHE-PERSON-FROM-THE-SCHOOL (to be referred to as the IMPORTANT-SHE-PERSON from now on). Let me elaborate. The emcee made an announcement that no videotaping of the belly twins performance and that we were to respect their wishes. Hey, am totally cool with respecting people's wishes. I had my camera with me and I had the choice of using the camera part orthe video cam to take short clips. And respecting the wishes of the twins, I used the camera mode. Now, those of you who have used digi cams would understand that when you are taking pictures indoors in a dimly lit room, it would take a long time for the camera to take picture and you have to stay in that position for a wee bit longer. The technical bit I am clueless about (with all them shutter speed and more light etc) but I know it's something I need to do. While trying desperately to take pictures of moving dancers, mind you, not one but TWO dancers on stage, a voice from behind and it was the IMPORTANT-SHE-PERSON. Here's what happened:

IMPORTANT-SHE-PERSON: Please do not take video.

ME: Am not taking video. This is a camera (and points to my Canon camera).

IMPORTANT-SHE-PERSON: That's a video (points to mycamera).

Hmm, the gadget that she pointed to is definitely not a 'video', it could look like a videocam to some people (to maybe a small group of people who have never used a digital camera before) but let me assure you, it's a little digicam.

ME: But I am NOT taking any video. This is a CAMERA. Pictures can ya. Video cannot? (about to show her the pictures I took).

IMPORTANT-SHE-PERSON: Yes, so please respect their (i.e. Belly Twins) wishes and stop taking video. They don't want people to You Tube them. (She walks away leaving me stunned and totally frustrated).

Now, if I didn't have a new camera that I just purchased recently, I would have loved to slam the camera to her face. Yes, my impatience and tolerance level has gone down recently these years (and am not proud of it). What frustrates me the most:

1. People who accuse me of something that I didn't do.

2. People who THINK they know what they are talking about but obviously don't.

Such people just end up looking VERY STUPID and I end up feeling very pissed!

So wise people out there, I will let you be the judge and you decide if what I am going to show you are PICTURES or VIDEO CLIPS of the Belly Twins:

Below: Veena and Neena looking gorgeous on stage as they danced.

We were getting a good deal, two great performers on stage! And they were enjoying themselves as they danced and we enjoyed ourselves watching them dance!

Above: Neena and Veena taking turns to show us what they could do.

Then, out came the swords. One sword for one twin and it was awesome how they were at ease dancing with the swords.

Above: Am wondering if having certain assets will help do this?

Above: Some ways to position the swords

One sword each wasn't enough, and out came two more swords with each twin handling two swords. One of the twins had a little difficulty balancing two swords but hey, we all have our good and bad moments, and the crowd still cheered on cuz we knew it was tough managing one, what more two!!

Above: Balancing and dancing with two swords wasn't easy and the girls did a great job!

And if there are any people from the Belly Twins team out there checking, let me assure you that I have not taking any video clips that I can upload onto YOUTUBE. I love watching performances on YOUTUBE but am sure the twins have their own reasons for not wanting that, and I can totally respect their wishes. And have only gone home with pictures (and rather blurred ones too if I might add thanks to the quick shots I had to do and no flash allowed) of them dancing.

Cows in the City!

I LOVE these MOOVE cows that we use to have around Singapore - wherever you find a grass patch, you would see them. I have always wanted to take a picture but was always zooming by in a taxi when I spot them on the expressway or not have a camera around when I can take pictures. They started with the plain colourful ones (yellow was my favourite) and then they had them with flowers. Was even thinking how I could sneak one home but that would be very tricky to do. And recently, last weekend, I managed to take shots of the newest versions. I think it could be a series of celebrities. If anyone knows the occasion, please do let me know. Anyways, see if you can identify these celebrity cows!

Above: Need to have sexy legs and lots of wind for this pose!

Above: Need to be able to croon and look good in this tight white outfit!

Above: I would probably hurt myself with them sticks posing as this celebrity.

Above: This fella used to make me laugh so much! Yes, grew up watching his silent movies.

Above: Am probably revealing how old I am but I grew up listening to his music!

Am not too sure if there are any cows that I missed in this series but I think it's great that they put these cows up to amuse us. I did read about how some drivers who complained that them cows were distracting. Oh plez, get a life. We are so stuffy that we can't even take time to smile and just ENJOY them cows. I think it's a brilliant idea to use these cows as part of their advertisement. As for me...keep them cows coming.

Update:

If you want to adopt these cows for $100 per piece, pop over to their website. It's based on what's available so hurry. If I had space to display them, I would definitely get one for myself!

Chicken Soup update:

I think I have finally gotten the chicken soup right. Tip from some one to fry the minced/chopped chicken meat with onions first before adding in the water and the other ingredients like thinly sliced ginger, lots of garlic (I use the powder version), salt, lots of pepper, my chilli padi (one small one) and a nice mixed of veggies like tomatoes, some green leafy veggies great for soup and an assortment of mushrooms. It's alot more appetising when there are different colours in the soup :o) I think I have graduated and can move on making them Chicken Soup!

Just a few more days to the end of the week ...

It's probably weird to be thinking about the weekend when we just had one a couple of days ago but these few months (i.e. April and a little into May) have been rather crazy for me. Weekends were busy for me this time round. Renae, the tarot card lady, did say that these few months will be hectic. I had to complete a series of assignments. The first big 'assignment' was intense and I ended up with huge pounding headaches at the end of each day. That was followed by a feedback session which was okay. Was advised on areas to work on and was given a thick book to read. Right. Will get down to that as soon as I have time. Too bad they don't have Cliff Notes for such things cuz it would be alot faster going through them pages.

Then these last three weeks have been another 'assignment'. I am thinking right now that I would be VERY happy to be a tai tai living in Hougang, baking and doing housework *laughs* As to how long I can do that for, I dunno but right now, it sure sounds real attractive.

I guess am going through this process where I am thinking about what I want in life, what is important in my life and what I am willing to give up to get what I want in life. I don't have the answers just yet. And I dunno if I will ever find the answers.

It's back to writing the report. Just had to vent some and what better way to vent than blog about it :o)