This is the story of my stolen wallet

Sigh.

Yay! A real card!

Even if she asked for my home address a while back, this post-Christmas mail was still a lovely surprise from my blogger friend, Jo of  http://witsandnuts.com! She’s a Filipina who works as an auditor in Abu Dhabi, posts beautiful photographs in her travelogues, and catches lots of great shots of the artists in all the concerts she watches (her latest entry was on Coldplay)!  The Christmas greeting card was not the only thing in my mail.

Mission Impossible 4!

It’s a postcard of the Burj Khalifa which Tom Cruise scaled with his ‘stick-on’ gloves and dangled like crazy on a rope in the movie. Not only that, I also got a cute item that Jo declared to be our ‘reminder’ for the year:

Our mantra for 2012

Her kind words and heartwarming thoughtfulness made me inspired to take more photos, to travel more places, but most of all, blog more about it! In the midst of all the internet-related laws that curb our writing freedom, who would’ve thought that real friendships could be formed because we are free to post our thoughts for all the world to see?

Thanks, Jo!

Didn't get to try them

I wanted this meal!

Here comes our food!

Roast chicken for J

Meatballs for JM

Baked salmon for me!

Apple+peach

Dora, is that you?

After the filling lunch at the restaurant area, I was lucky enough to not go too far to find the children’s toys I looked up in the online catalogue. I bought my niece & my goddaughter  a pack of 10 finger puppets. I went around and salivated at the bedsheets, but I opted to not buy anything at the moment since I only packed a backpack for the trip, and that I had friends who were coming over too in a few weeks to buy me the stuff I want! I had time to think things over, but all in all, the IKEA experience is wonderful. How I wish Manila would have a branch.

I'd love to bring 'em home!

Beyond this overpass was a Cotton On store where I got to buy a dress last minute, haha. Headed back to our Commonwealth Ave. apartment to fix my things and then took some obligatory home photos before leaving for the airport.

Thank God for camera timers

Totoro says goodbye to the apt. view

My friend J brought me to the Singapore budget terminal and said my fond farewell. The departure area is not as grand as the Changi airport, but I like it enough for the short wait before boarding.

See-saw

Should've had some coffee

Carebears countdown!

Doraemons

I got airsick on my flight home because there was a bit of turbulence that lasted for quite a while, but luckily, I didn’t have to barf up my snacks and make a mess of myself. My flight was directed to Diosdado Macapagal Airport in Clark, Pampanga, but I didn’t have any problem getting a bus ride home to Manila. A Philtranco bus was waiting for passengers, and we were apparently the last flight in the airport (we landed around 8:30 p.m.). Got home by around 10ish, got off at Cubao, and hailed a taxi home.

My Singapore trip was short and sweet. Hoping to visit Universal Studios when I go back and ride all of the fun rollercoasters! Soon, real soon!

from this

to this!

I badly need an upgrade. My Nokia 5220′s face has been scratched by numerous bumps/falls, it experiences software ‘hanging’ and needs rebooting once in a while. Since I got myself a macbook pro two years ago, it would be counterintuitive to not get an iPhone to centralize contacts, data, and apps. I hope to get one real soon, and it seems like I could get one through my telecom, Globe. Maybe my mid-year bonus will do the trick. Can’t wait!

I hope to close one of my two credit cards soon so that I could narrow down my financial debt. The purpose of my cards are mostly for booking plane tickets and buying groceries/home needs. I do think I can manage with just one card, so I’ll avoid unnecessary splurging and will try to make my financial status more secure.

Bubble milk tea!

This photo came from their Facebook page (http://www.facebook.com/ILoveDorabee). It’s cheap, it’s yummy, it’s refreshing. Only 2 sgd!

I wish I tried 'em all balls!

(photo from the internet)

I ate the fish balls and tasted the cheesy hotdog balls that J got. Sooo yummy! It was quite a while before  A arrived, and by then it was time for dinner. Took the purple line and alighted at Clarke Quay to search for the best crab restaurant! The best, unfortunately, was full already, so we settled for a smaller seafood resto by the port.

Twas a windy night!

An extreme swing ride

They're now spinning in space, haha

Another variation of the swing ride

Tunnel

Whoa! Giant crabs!

They have a Pinay waitress

The seafood became pulutan

Deep-fried butter prawns

This was very crispy, but a bit bland, so I dipped these in the sauce of the next dish which was…

Classic fish fillet w/ sweet & sour sauce

Main event: black pepper crab!

Love, love, crabs. I’m not a fan of too much pepper, but this dish was just delicious I had to forgive the pepper overload. (Blogging about this is making me hungry!)

Had a very filling meal, but I tried not to bust my tummy because it was just starting to recover from my tummy flu before the trip (see previous SG prelude entry). We walked around Clarke Quay for one last time and since it was still ‘early’ to end the day, we decided to watch a movie! We saw ‘New Year’s Eve’ at Plaza Singapura. The cinema seats were so soft and fluffy, I dozed off a bit in the middle of the movie (out of tiredness too).

It was a very long day, my feet were so tired, but as we headed home, my heart was overflowing with joy from all the experiences of the day. I’ll be leaving the following day, but I still have the Ikea experience to cross out before going home! That’s up next.

]]> http://thegrayspots.wordpress.com/2012/01/15/the-2011-sg-getaway-clarke-quay/feed/ 1 thegrayspots 291692_224039357632548_161192827250535_241477_26962_o main-qimg-60c9a42343106e040f908433699a4d24 DSC_3559 DSC_3569 DSC_3571 DSC_3575 DSC_3590 DSC_3593 DSC_3597 DSC_3598 DSC_3600 DSC_3601 DSC_3606 http://thegrayspots.wordpress.com/2012/01/11/the-2011-sg-getaway-marina-bay-sands/ http://thegrayspots.wordpress.com/2012/01/11/the-2011-sg-getaway-marina-bay-sands/#comments Thu, 12 Jan 2012 08:24:17 +0000 thegrayspots http://thegrayspots.wordpress.com/?p=1430 […]]]> The main purpose of my trip was just to see the Broadway musical by Stephen Schwartz entitled Wicked, whose soundtrack I heard way back in 2006. It is a side story to L. Frank Baum’s The Wonderful Wizard of Oz and is directly based from Gregory Maguire’s novel Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West. Dorothy, Toto, the Scarecrow, The Tin Woodman, and the Cowardly Lion are not the main characters of the narrative but instead it is about the friendship of the Wicked Witch of the East (Elphaba) and the Good Witch of the North (Galinda). The musical had a long run in Broadway, had a west coast tour (San Francisco) and a few of its songs like ‘Defying Gravity’ and ‘For Good’ became more popular in the pop mainstream scene as they were recently remade in the hit musical tv show Glee. I’ve loved the music for so long but it has finished its run in the US so when I heard that it’s gonna be staged in SG in December I got really excited! I don’t need a visa, I can book budget fares through Cebu Pacific, it’s showing after my birthday, and it’ll be a way for me to visit my good friend J! Voila, there I was, giddy, walking around the huge Marina Bay Sands mall. My show was at 1:30 p.m., so we stopped by the food court for a quick lunch.

Promo tarp

http://wickedthemusical.com.sg

Ain't it huge?

Narnia exhibit!

I didn’t go in because I didn’t have enough time to look around. It’s not a walled exhibit anyways, and from where we were seated eating our lunch I could already view the stuff they displayed and used for the movie franchise.

My lunch

J's lunch

The stage!

Long story short: my throat hurt so much from stopping the tears from falling during the first half of the musical. The Australian cast is doing this tour and they were AMAZING. I was breathless from the very moment the orchestra started playing a few bars of the first song ‘No One Mourns the Wicked’ to the show-stopping ‘Defying Gravity’ before intermission. Their speaking voices sounded like the original cast (Idina Menzel as Elphie & Kristen Chenoweth as Glinda), but their singing voices varied a bit, especially with Elphaba. Jemma Rix, the Aussie actress’s notes were perfect and fluid, but I wished her delivery had more of the raw, edgy grit of Idina (who won the Tony Award for Best Leading Actress in a Musical for this, by the way). Suzie Mathers, on the other hand, was spectacularly funny and giddy as Glinda that she seemed like she got high on something!

A blogger friend happened to be there on the same show, and I finally met Mela in person during the intermission. We’ve been following each other’s blogs since way back when (I forgot), and it was such a pleasure to meet a friend through blogging!

Our mirror image

LED posters

Totoro waiting for the 2nd half to resume

Second Act snapshot

Closing song

Curtain call

I hope they don’t kill me if they discover this blog and see that I stubbornly took a few pictures towards the end of the show. I didn’t use any flash to blind the cast and I was too far up to be noticed, hahaha. I felt sad that the show ended. Mela and I walked around MBS and saw that there are costumes on display outside the theatre.

Look at the details!

Would you wear green boots?

Another green gown

Mela and I parted ways soon after walking around and promised to try see each other again back in Manila. I met up again with J & JM and resumed our photowalk by the river and the Helix Bridge.

Funny!

Jay & I in front of LV 'island'

An airplane without wings

The Singapore Flyer

Was not able to go to the roofdeck of MBS nor ride the Singapore Flyer. Maybe for another time. We were already tired and hungry from all the walking and decided to go back to Orchard Road. Next up: Clarke Quay!

Bacon, eggs, & pancakes!

After eating, I was ready to go!

My two wonderful chaperones suggested we take the bus to have a stroll at Orchard Road. It was my first time to ride the top bunk of a double-decker bus (yeah, yeah) so it was a shallow thrill to just see the view on a sunny day!

Alexandra is where IKEA is!

Holiday decors!

Upon walking our first few meters, we immediately made our first stop at Cotton On, the affordable Australian retail brand of clothes. Bought my two siblings Christmas gifts (a shirt and a nice bag each) that only cost around 40 sgd (Php700) for the 2 items! After that, my friends were trigger happy with my dslr during our photo walk.

Elephants!

Life-sized snow globes at Ion!

Pretending to be a statue

A life-sized HTC phone

Further down the road, we chanced upon a commotion on the other side of the street, by the A&F building. This event had gone viral in the social networks of the gays and the girls because a row of 25 handsome, half-naked male models stood outside the building, ready to chat and take pictures with passersby! Lemme post ‘teasers’ for you, because am keeping the rest of my photos private and besides, they might be NSFW for you!

The temperature just skyrocketed!

A wholesome cutie!

That actually ends this post, because as our blood pressure started to calm down from that run-in with the hot guys it was already time for us to fly to Marina Bay Sands for me to watch the Broadway musical, Wicked! That’s up next. Stay tuned

Must be a physical breakdown of some sorts from all the stressful activities since November, or that I just really caught a bug from dirty food or water, and for 5 days before my flight I was just taking in a soft diet of Gatorade, crackers, and soup! How pathetic. Or I could suspect food poisoning, but it wasn’t too bad for me to be detained in the hospital. Anyways, after praying hard, taking Diatabs, and being a good girl with my diet, my tummy got well enough to enjoy Singapore!

Aside from the stomach problems, I had stressful experiences pre-departure.  In my frantic packing at home, my Sun broadband stick got misplaced wherein I immediately concluded that it got lost among my things. Pack, unpack, pack, unpack. Time was ticking, twas drizzling non-stop, and the traffic build-up was getting horrible that I just lost my head, screaming at my sister for putting the wireless internet on top of the pile in my hands that I had to fix earlier. We eventually found it on the floor. Okay, first problem over. Next problem: transportation. I made my life convenient by deciding to book ‘Go Lite’ flights, and my waterproof backpack was ready to go. I just realized that I couldn’t take the fastest way to the taxi bay in the nearby mall because I’d have to open the mountaineering backpack for inspection! Thank God it was just drizzling, but the roundabout way outside the mall that I had to traverse to get to the friggin’ cab bay hassled me a lot. Several taxis were in line, only to discover that they were on coding. Damn it! After several minutes, I flagged down an Avanza where I pleaded to manong that I needed to get to the airport and will pay extra just to get there. He hesitated a bit but kindly let me ride out of pity. Roads were a bit clogged because the ex-Phil. president’s move from one hospital in the Taguig area to Mindanao Ave. was a national event, and I was reserving my curses for GMA if I didn’t make the flight. I started to calm down when lolo manong offered me Mentos and started a conversation. Turns out that he was a former family driver of a local singer/balladeer who scrimped on his wages badly he wasn’t able to eat for days in one occasion! The showbiz gossip amused me, and the long ride to the airport was entertaining enough that I left him my umbrella (because I don’t have check-in baggage and it’s forbidden as hand carry) and gave him a nice tip for the kindness. Problem #2: solved!

Still miffed with the travel tax and the travel fee I had to shell out before checking in when the country’s airport was empty and crappy. I had a third problem after my baggage x-ray: an unidentified swiss knife-type of utensils were detected! I just borrowed the backpack, and didn’t notice anything in its numerous pockets when I was packing. We discovered a real steel foldable spoon and fork with an inch-wide KNIFE. Cold sweat formed on my forehead as I denied having packed that item, yet admitting that the bag was borrowed. I had to leave it with them of course, and took some ragged breaths as I walked away from that last checking point. Immediately informed my friends who lent me their brother’s backpack that I got freaked out at the prospect of being detained for carrying a dangerous weapon, haha. Over my spanish sardines meal and coffee dinner, I slowly unwound the stress knots in me and tried to relax. Pre-vacay worries usually disappear once you’re at your destination already, so I tried to imagine a good and safe flight, and lots of fun with my good friend, J.

Next up, the vacay experiences with photos. This prelude deserved a separate entry, haha.

I got the Powerbooks journal in a thrift sale in school, and it’s a blank calendar filled with questions and inquiries about one’s favorite or recently read books. It has lots of space to be made as a daily diary where I could jot down my thoughts on life and the reading experience. I discovered the Le Petit Prince planner during my recent trip to Singapore, and a friend bought it for me as a gift. It was compact enough to fit in my bag and to jot down my soon-to-be crazy schedule in the next few months.

I’ve been a loyal customer of Moleskine for the past four years, but I decided to break this monotony out of my plain desire for change and discovery of cuter and much more interesting journals & planners where I could still practice my longhand (and prevent it from getting uglier because of computers). I’m still a romantic, and I do think nothing compares still to the beauty of handwriting, smudged by tears or sweat or ink. There is a different kind of relief in catharsis on paper where it still remains private and secret, as compared to an online blog that brings out the sometimes disdainful voyeur in all of us. Oh, don’t get me started on my dislike for the Starbucks ones. They make you spend thousands on coffee for something not really worth its price!

Show me, dear reader, if you have any interesting planners/diaries for 2012! Happy New Year and keep safe!