Blog-Productivity Relationship

Why ah?

Life, on a placard.

source

This picture has been circulating on Facebook for awhile now. 

I agree with it by large, and thought it'd be nice to share. Love the part about where it talks about "opening your mind, arms, and heart to new things and people" and how we're "united in our differences".

Living and loving life.

How true

I can't even be bothered to check my emails these days if I can help it.

Once upon a Kopi Hill

One of the many way-overdue posts.

Not too long after I got back from exchange in June, I headed down to Bukit Brown Cemetery to snap some pictures with jm and I'm just going to share some of my 'spoils' here. 

A quick overview of the place:

Bukit Brown Cemetery is also known as Kopi Sua (or Coffee Hill), and is a Chinese cemetery that was established in the early 20th century but has been closed for burials since the 1970s; there are around 80 000 tombstones within the compound (source: ST). It is undeniably one of the oldest cemeteries in Singapore.

Just recently, the URA has made an announcement that the area has been gazetted for future development... and I think that was the buzz that landed us there.

Bukit Brown Cemetery is somewhere not-too-conveniently located between Lornie Road and Mount Pleasant Road.

#1 Entrance

#2 Overgrown grass

#3 Tomb covered in undergrowth

I must admit that I was pretty nervous when we first stepped into the cemetery grounds. I couldn't help but wonder if I was being disrespectful by coming into a burial ground and taking pictures of random graves (having been brought up in a somewhat traditional Chinese family) and I was also slightly worried that we would end up with some out-of-this-world encounters. 

What if something unusual shows up in our pictures? 

Jm was perpetually trying to make me think otherwise, and I was really thankful for that haha. The walking did seem a lot more enjoyable once I got my mind off the supernatural stuff.

#4 Guardian

#5 Chinese stone lion

#6 Fairy tomb-watcher

#7 A newer-looking lion

The cemetery served the Chinese community back then so most of the tombs had stone decorations that are related to Chinese myths.

#8 Old, rusty gate

The place was much larger than what I'd expected; there were a number of paths leading to different areas and one particular area had a low gate that signalled an entrance of some sort. We sort of spent more time than planned, not that we had much of a plan anyway.

Somewhere along the way, we spotted some white-collared kingfishers which were absolutely lovely. There was quite a number of them too, and that kinda made my day.

#9 Three white-collars sitting on a branch...

#10 One flew off and two were left

#11 Lucky sighting

#12 More old tombs

According to what I've been reading off the net, instead of the usual Chinese stone statues as decoration, the tombs of the more prominent Chinese characters back then have colourful Sikh-guard statues standing watch over them.

#13 Left guard

#14 Right guard

#15 Puppy at the foot of the right guard

#16 Someone's got fresh flowers; it's quite a rare sight for the mossy tombs to have fresh flowers placed upon them.

#17 

#18 They never got a chance to finish burning

#19 One last tomb

Other than the kingfishers, ginormous ants, mosquitoes and swallows that we met there, we also came across two beautiful moths (as concluded from their furry bodies) as we were about to leave the cemetery:

#20 What big eyes you have...

#21 Cool fellow perched on the car bonnet; looks like it's wearing shades

We left the place in a piece (though we lost quite a lot of blood to the resident commando mosquitoes that were constantly buzzing around us), there were no supernatural encounters of any sort but it was an eye-opener for me since I've never stepped foot into any cemeteries in Singapore and we did have a good experience. 

Just a quick word of caution though, I wasn't joking about the mosquitoes, they're deadly! Remember to bring some insect repellent if you're ever heading there anytime soon.

#22 Post-treat

#22 Cheery-looking flowers

Dropped by Dempsey a quick round of dessert and my warm Sticky Date Pudding with vanilla ice-cream was oh-so-gooooood.

Happy pimples

Today, I finally learnt the real reason why there always are two pimples on my cheeks; one on each peak on both sides. Every time I smile/laugh, my cheeks will come into contact with the base of my dirty glasses.... and that's how they came about.

Rongster said that we must be really happy all the time, and called those our happy pimples, 开心的豆豆!
I say, it's probably time for me to clean my glasses more thoroughly.. or get new ones soon :p

It's okay to stay up late!

After the much-dreaded 6.30pm tutorial ended, I had a really awesome conversation with one of my classmates on the drive back home. She's a returning teacher who's back to upgrade both her content knowledge and kids' management skills, has two kids, and she shared a great deal about teaching and life in general with me. I found out how nice it is to talk to people who share the same views as you do; for once, someone didn't think I am kidding when I say that I honestly love coming to school and that I love learning, or at least give me a look that says they're thinking "yeah right" inside their minds.

We talked about a wide range of topics and I somehow mentioned that I wanted to be less of a night owl. Her reply was kind of unexpected; she said it's alright since I am being productive at these ungodly hours, and that she's becoming one too, after adopting a kitten a few months back; having the kitty for company past midnight. I can't express how reassured I felt, knowing that I am not the only crazy person staying up so late; but it was like - phwarrrrmazing. 

Very thankful for a wonderful new friend.

I crave...

(picture credits to Tumblr)

for a nice cup of green tea latte!

In fact, I've been craving for it so badly for the past few days and I think that feeling's only going to further intensify until I finally satisfy that craving.

I will must have green tea latte tomorrow!

ps. I finally drank it today; it was love at first sip (this is the first time I'm trying green-tea-something that's not green tea frappuccino from Starbucks!). Yum.