Week-long London / Edinburgh sugar high...

is just what a depressed + dejected girl needs. Too bad it was so shortlived. Now if I can gather any remaining traces of my willpower and finish uni right and proper....
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I heart summer in London:

Hermione treated me to a production of A Midsummer Night's Dream at the Open Air Theatre in Regent Park. It must have been five or six years since I last went to a theatre. I laughed and stayed awake throughout (!) in spite of mild jet lag and the chilly evening. If only Shakespeare was half as funny or entertaining in high school...
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Sugar dosage + chick flick therapy for two neurotic, unemployed single girls:

Mon: Starbucks cheesecake + caramel crunch + Shakespearian romantic comedy for a touch of culture
Tues: Patisserie Valerie 6" choco mousse / tiramisu birthday cake + Kissing Jessica Stein
[gotta love that movie...who needs men when you can have a sensitive funny caring GF and steamy lesbo action?]
Weds: Lemon tart and fruit tart from Paul + Sex and the City + Chocolat
Thurs: Paul's meringue tart for brekkie :p
Fri: Tea at Plaisir du Chocolat @ Edinburgh. Their rummy fruit chocolate gateaux and almond chocolate pear tart are the Final Words on chocoholism. White peach ice tea is the best ice tea I've ever had in my life. Pulpy juicy white peach + peach tea infusion. Peace of mind.
Post dinner dessert at The Elephant House. Apparently where J.K.Rowling used to write Harry Potter, back in the days. Hot chocolate with mountains of whipped cream and marshmallows, summer berries flan.
Sat: Lunch at Hadrian's Brasserie, Edi. Lemon tart + dark chocolate tart.
Dinner at La Creperie de Hampstead. Oh my what have I been missing out on??? The creperie at school is nulle compared to this. Lemon juice + Honey crepe; Hazelnut crunch + Belgian choco + cream crepe......aaaaaah.

The aftermath is of course, an obvious increase in my girth. Oh well. Lifting 30 odd boxes to my new dorm should work it off =P

Back in Boston =(

via a somewhat indirect route: HKG > AMS > LHR > EDI > LHR > BOS

My luggage didn't get lost this time, but the 3 parcels sent from Florence + Amsterdam did. Am possession-less for once. Do I really have to sleep on a sheetless mattress tonight? *ewww*

Gotta watch....

Laundry [Japanese link] [English link], a quirky cutesy heart-warming romantic comedy between a guard who works at his gran's laundromat, and a suicidal kleptomaniac. The Japanese countryside scenery is simply gorgeous, and Yosuke Kubozuka, the male lead's angelic, innocent smile just melts my heart ^_^
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I just love this Ducks video for Lemon Jelly. Wickedly psychedelic in a fabulous Peter-Max-ey way. Never thought you can have so much fun with nursery rhyme videos. [via I could be Madonna]

Twins, or any other imitation teenybopper Cantopop sensations, please take note.

I love G.O.D.!

Make no mistake, I'm not turning into a born-again-Christian. [as much as my gran would love to hear] Am talking about "Ju Ho Dee", HK's new design tour de force, a chain showcasing some homegrown talent in interior and furniture design. East-meets-West chic meets HK kitsch, with a good dose of 60's mod and Formica, which hits all my aesthetic hotspots =D

Objects of desire:

photoprint shopper bags with weird misc HK newspaper notices, a housing estate block, traditional ointment pacakaging...all that HK good stuff

Franc Franc is also becoming a fast favourite, besides good ol' Muji. Also Japanese, also ever so carefully arranged, CHROMATICALLY. Just a stroll around the shop was a quick pick-me-up for a PMS-y me. *fantasizing about decorating my new place*

HK: Sports Mecca?!

Lil' bro's off to see Yao Ming play in the China Vs Australia friendlies. The lucky lil' bastard has tix for the Real Madrid Vs. Dragons match too if I'm correct. *ooozing with jealousy*
I'll have to make do with oogling at Beckham, Raul and other fitties on tellie =p

Amsterdam:

Veni, vidi, but not quite vici: in terms of everything I'm interested in....

:: Shopping ::

* Oh the selection of all vintage paraphenalia! If only I had my own apartment! All that groovy Barbarella garb and furnishings!
Tho I realised that finding the purrrrrfect mod lil' dress is as hard as finding Mr. Right. You can't force it dear, if it wasn't meant to be, you can never find it even if you rummage through all the best shops in town. It's unfortunate that I've been more successful on ebay =(
* Who needs Herman Miller when you have HEMA?
Apparently the Dutch equivalent of K- Mart is a lot swankier than, erm, K-Mart. It's like Muji on acid. The colours! The minimalist designs! The cool kitchen gadgets!
* Flower power at the Bloemenmarkt
I discovered that it ain't so hard / unaffordable to do the 99-stems-of-roses thing if you lived in AMS. [you know, the standard thing they do in the Chinese equiv of Mills & Boons]. 20 roses for 6 euros... and in all shades and sizes!
So the flower market is packed with tourists, but who cares when you can smell candy-scented orchids?!

:: Boys, gay and straight ::

Checked out the gay parade - such campy fun! It happened to be Gay Pride the weekend I was there, and so I caught a glimpse of the gay pride float parade on the canals. My, were the boys fine! Muscley pecs everywhere!
and the Best [un]Dressed Award goes to..... the Topless Firemen! ;D

As for *the* straight one....Veni, vidi, (adamavi even) but not quite vici. Sssiiigh!

:: Architecture ::

the cruise ship terminal..... the canal-strewn residential streets of Java Island

[img's from Eastern Docklands]


the Whale - it's a state-of-the-art apartment building
the off-limits private garden inside the Whale

[img's from NedZink, Architectuur and Guido Fijen]


the Dinosaur Bridge connecting Borneo Island and Sporenburg... the vertigo is dizzying

[img's from Eastern Docklands]

Walking around the Eastern dockland islands of Java & Borneo have been really inspiring. It's nice to see a well-balanced mix of modernist / deconstructivist / post-mod'ist architecture work successfully on an urban scale. Lots of compact multi-storeyed houses with bright and airy interiors, irregularly placed balconies, windows and staircases added to my delight.
What surprises me most is that this visually avant-garde neighbourhood houses NORMAL people. Average families with young children and not painfully-uberhip-designer-couples. I met an angelic blonde little girl who tried to say hi to me in Dutch, and Dutch teenagers who said hi to me in Cantonese!

I took tonnes of what-would-have-been-archi-magazine-eye-candy pics, but of course, being the mal-coordinated clutz that I am, I exposed the film by accident when rewinding the roll of film. *gggrrrrrr*
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It's good to be home, even if no one else is here...

Just flew in this morning, to find no one ('cept my lil' bro) home. Arg.
Raided the kitchen for lunch and managed to serrate my thumb whilst trying to de-shell a lobster leg. What kind of retard injures themselves eating?!