g/uploaded_images/Tokyo-2009-1-772794.JPG)
Back to Tokyo 3 years later and it's better than ever!
More super happy thihgs coming up yo.
In the words of the Mart+Mari ... it's all about good feelings. And yes, there were plenty of good stuff going around. links to this post
After all the hype about Katz's Deli and how Meg Ryan faked her moans and Gary Oldman's Nokia ad and a scene from Across The Universe was also filmed there ... this bloody pastrami sammich really lived up to expectations!
IT WAS TENDER, SUCCULENT, WARM, SPILLING, JUICY, MESSY AND YOU CAN ACTUALLY CHEW ON IT!
Very orgasmic indeed! links to this post
Yes, yes ... this woman found herself halfway across the world in 24 hours and all she is posting for her first picture are 2 guys in a wallpapered room. Best.
I'd like to believe that most people know about my fascination with the Singapore-local-indie-band-type of photo which I love to take everywhere I go, with whomever I choose to compose it with ...
Hence it is really quite shiok to be able do that again at the MOMA, under the watchful eye of a guard and with the beeba actually very close to being caught for actually "touching" the artwork (the wallpaper lor). (And I am still too lazy to edit photos but here's my favourite which I had to batch resize for Mr Hat in the photo)
Here's one for the BB (Beeba) and PJ (PseudoJappo)yo!
Labels: Beeba, Friends, NYC, Travel
links to this post
I am hungry hungry and I want to eat cakes that look like plastic!
Let's go back there soon ok? links to this post
Surgeon wrapping up corpse and body parts are displayed in sanitised vessel.
Nah, just a fishmonger taking great pains to wrap his frozen prized catch and the top cuts are displayed in a radically modern refrigerating device.
This counts as one of my favourite parts of the city for me. The sheer size of the Tsukiji Fish Market is enough to make me want to meander through the many lanes of organised mayhem and splattered liquid grime. Just look at the treasures you can find and the discovery that octopus do come in that brilliant technicolour ... so shiok.
I do like the neon lights and all, but give me the real stuff anytime. links to this post
Yes, there are things that I do miss about Tokyo.
Under an elevated driveway at The Big Sight where we took our breaks and where the impromptu shoot for the badges were taken. links to this post
So ... traveling brings about it's many stories of bowel movements (and non-movement).
This water closest has seen it's fair share of action which I shan't quite talk about ... Except that it involved a certain disposable toothbrush that has joined it's comrades in the tomb of mass destruction, albeit with less dignity.
So there was also the problem of airflown constipation that caught up with me, causing the buckets of top-grade beef and kyushu ramen I've eaten to compact freeze within, under the erratic Tokyo weather. Of course, the act of coagulation did nothing to help me ... erm ... purge.
2 days worth of fibre jelly later, in the company of Lonely Planet Tokyo ... the thoughtful act was finally done. This was Day 6 of an 8-day trip. Bless me.
Meanwhile, the misses come in the form of the separation anxiety I am suffering from sorely missing a vital part of me that can only be found in Sydney at this moment.
... And only that extension of myself can understand the significance of Anthony Bourdain in the bathroom.
I miss you. links to this post
I got my White Trash Charm and I was the happiest woman in the heart of Tokyo on 25 May 2006 to be back in 1984. I've been pining for it for nearly a year now ...
Play Me! links to this post
Capricious weather dominated Tokyo.
When we entered the musuem, the entrance was a serene picture, short of a couple of Victorian ladies perambulating their children around in one hand, with silk parasols in another.
An hour later, torrential rain took over and turned the same entrance into a bleak war-torn picture, short of soldiers marching around in heavy overcoats.
Tsk tsk tsk ... like that how to not fall sick sia? links to this post
Random stairwell defined by lines cast a lovely silhouette against the dreary sky.
Very dystopian. links to this post
While Tokyo wasn't quite the concrete shrine that's dotted with enough Tadao Ando's to make me lick the walls ... there were happy moments where the design goes beyond the visual candy that saturates the city. Now we're talking about spatial relationships ...
The Observatory at Roppongi Hills. links to this post
What's with my fascination with windows?
View from the room in it's Ultraman/Godzilla surburban landscape splendour of matchbox houses and the rudimentary tower. links to this post
"Look not for the ability of someone to get the job, but the ability to do the job."
-- Paul Slezak
Labels: Travel
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"Do not be too concerned with knowing everything. The important thing is to know where to look for help when you need it."
-- Pre-open-book-assessment advice from Simon Lusty
Labels: Travel
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Nate: Paul, I have a question for you. What would you do if XXX happened?
Paul: Well, Nate ... Let me throw the question back to you, what would you do if XXX happened?
Nate: Firstly, I will walk into my Area Manager, Paul's room. Then I'll look at him and ask "Paul ... XXX just happened. What should I do?"
Paul: .... Now I know why they said that I've hired a mini-me.
-- Exchange of totally intelligent questioning methods between Paul Slezak and Nate Phelps
Labels: Travel
links to this post
"You have all gotten out of your comfort zones, doing what you are doing now. You will move from unconsciously incompetent ...
... to consciously incompetent ...
... to consciously competent ...
... to unconsciously competent ...
... to finally the state of nirvana that we all want to be ...
... subconsciously competent."
-- Paul Slezak
Labels: Travel
links to this post
"My life is hard enough; without tying up my legs, climbing up 15 storeys and attempting to jump off it!"
--Belinda Lodge
Labels: Travel
links to this post
With an office that's right beside Circular Quay, boasting a good view of the Harbour Bridge and the Sydney Opera House ... it is just a pity that all I got to see of the monuments was all shrouded by dark skies by the time I got out of the office.
The city lit up in the early dusk; in a resplendent state that can only be fully appreciated against the black background. It reminded me of the adage ... "The darker the skies, the brighter the stars."
For the first time, I gathered no strength nor compensation for my weariness from the external stimulation I used to feed on. Architecture, art, weather, food, colourful skies, pretty window displays, lights ... the usual extrinsic fare was adundant but did nothing for my soul.
With a brain that has taken more battering than it deserves for long time, I was aroused by people and their effects on me. It was sublime.
Hence my latest travelogue shall leave you with no more than quotes I collected and with which, I was stirred, spurred and inspired.
"We're only as strong as the weakest link."
-- Greg Savage
Labels: Travel
links to this post
You land yourself in Sydney ... thinking that you can probably indulge in some of the shut eye that you've been missing out on ... Hell no.
Just got out of a conversation where I just aired my limited views and absolutely politically incorrect notions about the local Politics, Religion, Feminism, Laws and my fascination with Clairvoyance.
I'm having a headache.
Was it the wine?
Was it the long day?
Was it the debate about the Ps, Rs, F, Ls and Cs?
I think it's all of the above.
A topic of great contention would be Religon.
It has always been a struggle for me.
Born into a family that believed in Taoism and the 8 fairies that travelled on a banana leaf that floated across the sea with a nice lady with a humongous fan as a sail.
Sent to Methodist school where we had weekly cell groups and chapel where we sang hymns after hymns.
A following 10 years of which you are exposed to other types of religion and races right after 4 years of Chinese elitism.
You are SO screwed up there in the most byzantine of ways when everything seems right and humane at its most fundamental level.
This piece, of course, was specially brought to you by none other by a $1/30 minutes session at the internet thingamajig, half a bottle of wine and a really mind blowing debate about the PRFLCs.
Invocation.
Evocation.
The pagans believe in THE Ultimate that resides in all of us. Hence it is extremely intrinsic since we seek no one but the inner self for a gauge on how we should behave. You evoke and you invoke.
Christianity, Catholicism, Buddhism, Greek Orthodox.
OK ... I know not enough to elaborate further on how the above could stifle the ideals of what we deem as the present day Suffragettes that's manifested in liberal females of my time.
So what do I know about religion that could perpetuate the situation and make me the person that I am?
I believe in a value system that I can measure against.
A butterfly flies past in front of you.
You appreciate it for all its ability to fly, symmetry and beauty.
Who do you thank?
Some thank The Creator.
Some thank The Big Bang Theory.
Some thank The Molecules that make up the fabric of life.
I appreciate it for it mere existence.
That's my reference point.
Just got out of a conversation where I just aired my limited views and absolutely politically incorrect notions about the local Politics, Religion, Feminism, Laws and my fascination with Clairvoyance.
I'm having a headache.
Was it the wine?
Was it the long day?
Was it the debate about the Ps, Rs, F, Ls and Cs?
I think it's all of the above.
A topic of great contention would be Religon.
It has always been a struggle for me.
Born into a family that believed in Taoism and the 8 fairies that travelled on a banana leaf that floated across the sea with a nice lady with a humongous fan as a sail.
Sent to Methodist school where we had weekly cell groups and chapel where we sang hymns after hymns.
A following 10 years of which you are exposed to other types of religion and races right after 4 years of Chinese elitism.
You are SO screwed up there in the most byzantine of ways when everything seems right and humane at its most fundamental level.
This piece, of course, was specially brought to you by none other by a $1/30 minutes session at the internet thingamajig, half a bottle of wine and a really mind blowing debate about the PRFLCs.
Invocation.
Evocation.
The pagans believe in THE Ultimate that resides in all of us. Hence it is extremely intrinsic since we seek no one but the inner self for a gauge on how we should behave. You evoke and you invoke.
Christianity, Catholicism, Buddhism, Greek Orthodox.
OK ... I know not enough to elaborate further on how the above could stifle the ideals of what we deem as the present day Suffragettes that's manifested in liberal females of my time.
So what do I know about religion that could perpetuate the situation and make me the person that I am?
I believe in a value system that I can measure against.
A butterfly flies past in front of you.
You appreciate it for all its ability to fly, symmetry and beauty.
Who do you thank?
Some thank The Creator.
Some thank The Big Bang Theory.
Some thank The Molecules that make up the fabric of life.
I appreciate it for it mere existence.
That's my reference point.
Labels: Travel
links to this post
My parents were really close to naming me Sydney.
Just because it sounds like my Chinese name.
Somehow, that didn't work out ...
I named my daughter Shea.
My parents wanted to name her "Shi Ya" in Chinese.
Just because it sounds like her ang moh name.
Somehow, that didn't work out ...
So much for naming conventions and the random association I made.
Just because I will be in Sydney.
Somehow, I want this to work out.
Period.
Just because it sounds like my Chinese name.
Somehow, that didn't work out ...
I named my daughter Shea.
My parents wanted to name her "Shi Ya" in Chinese.
Just because it sounds like her ang moh name.
Somehow, that didn't work out ...
So much for naming conventions and the random association I made.
Just because I will be in Sydney.
Somehow, I want this to work out.
Period.
Labels: Travel
links to this postAbout me
- I'm Abigael
- From Singapore
Fixed Reads
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