Twenty-seven

I didn't do my usual yearly birthday reflection where I list all the significant things that has happened in the last 12 months. If I think about 27, I will say that it was a great year and a great age. There were a lot of achievements and challenges, but there was one thing that stood out the most:

At 27, I became re-acquainted with my independence (read: broke up with Damien).



Of all the highs and lows, this is the thing that stands out the most. It happened just before Easter, which means just before all the bloody long weekends in Australia and before winter came around again. So I struggled through all the long weekends and cold winter nights alone and miserable. In response, I hung out with my friends on the weekends and bought a hot water bottle to snuggle with at night. One has to cope somehow.

It was a real struggle at first, but I always had the belief that it was in a way, a blessing in disguise. Firstly, I'm in the final year of my PhD so this means that I now have a lot more time to dedicate to working on my thesis.

Secondly, I used to stress about what I would do about jobs once I finish. I feel that getting out of Brisbane will only enhance my professional and personal growth, but although I was keen to do this I always had to consider whether he would want to do that too. Now, I feel the freedom of having more options because the only consideration I would have is me. There's something very liberating about that.

Finally, I really did become re-acquainted with my independence. Up until the end of Honours, I'd been supported by my parents and when I started my PhD, Damien was around to contribute to both personal as well as financial support. Now, truly on my own, I had to learn to support myself on my meager scholarship (which is less than the usual scholarship as I'm not a resident - the biggest chip on my shoulder!). I had to move out of my beloved apartment on Sydney Street. In the end, I found an apartment still in New Farm, along the river (awesome) but with a housemate (eew... living with strangers). Still, I think I do quite well for a "poor" PhD student. So the financial independence was a change forced upon me, but one which I think is timely in reminding myself that I can do this, I can look after myself, I can stick it out on my own if I have to.

I do think that it is very much my nature to be with someone. I find life to be more fulfilling and satisfying when one has a partner to share it with. But at least this experience can only teach me that if the shit hits the fan, I'll be okay.

My Canberra Sunday

When my plane landed in Canberra, I looked out the window and thought, "I'm in Canberra... SIGH." But once I step out of the airport, I'm greeted by a nice cool breeze and think of everyone back in the Brisbane heat and humidity. Hehe.

I arrived at the hotel early and my room wasn't ready, so I went to the National Gallery of Australia to catch the Masterpieces from Paris exhibition. I changed my flights around to catch this exhibition. This is how much I like going to galleries.

The exhibition featured works by post-impressionist artists from the Musée d'Orsay. The most thrilling moment for me was when I came face to face with Van Gogh's Starry Starry Night, one of the pieces I love by him. At the end of the exhibit there is the obligatory gift shop, but this was a gift shop like no other. I have never been to an exhibition where the gift shop has blown me away as much. It was like every item they could think of, they sold at the gift shop. There were postcards, posters, placemats, aprons, alcohol, magnets, underwear, you name it - they had it. With a "Masterpieces of Paris" stamp all over it.

I was tempted to buy some framed A3 prints (Van Gogh and Monet) but in the interest of cost-saving opted for postcards instead. I went a bit nuts with the postcards because I got quite a few:

Felix Vallotton: Le ballon ou Coin de parc avec enfant jouant au ballon (1899)

George Lemmen: Plage a Heist (1891)

Claude Monet: Londres, le Parlement: trouée de soleil dans le brouillard (1904)

Claude Monet: En norvegienne (c1887)

Henri-Edmond Cross: Portrait de Madame H.F. (1891)


Maurice Denis: Regates a Perros-Guirec (1892)


Maurice Denis: Les muses (1893)


Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec: La clownesse Cha-U-Kao (1895)

Très jolie!

After the gallery, I had lunch at Wagamama - complimentary thanks to their frequent noodler program. And then, it was chocolates at Koko Black ($9 for 4 pieces!!!!) and back to the hotel. My room was finally ready and I checked in to find cricket on TV.

Win.

Anything less than awesome

I'm not a big fan of resolutions because people often do not sustain them and there is a huge disconnect between individuals' intentions and behaviours. However, I may be presumptuous in saying this but I think my days in Australia may be numbered, which has motivated me to resolve that in 2010 I will do interesting things every month.

I haven't got very far, but there are already a few things I am interested in or would consider doing if I had the company. I welcome any takers and anyone keen to try something new. Here is the list so far:

January
17th: I will be heading to the National Gallery of Australia to visit the special exhibition from Le Musée D'Orsay while in Canberra.
Am so glad there is something worthwhile to do while I'm there.

22nd: I would love to see the Australian cricket team play
Pakistan at the Gabba. I can't live in Australia for nearly 6 years and never see them play Pakistan. Pakistan!!! I need to expand my horizons to watch Australia play opponents other than New Zealand.

February
14th: I would very much love to spend this day at the Gabba again,
this time seeing the West Indies.

19th: Queensland Reds versus THE CRUSADERS!!!
They skipped Brisbane last year but I saw them at Suncorp the year before. I'm giddy with excitement just thinking about it...

March
26th: Lady Gaga concert, which will be quite cool.
I'm happy to go to this because I think she'll be good to watch live.

That's all I've got so far, but I think that's pretty good especially considering I'll be in my last 6 months of my candidature. I'd like to spend my last few months in Australia on a high (if they really do turn out to be my last few months) because it's a shame to waste time on anything less than awesome!

Festivals & Food

I had a busy weekend that left me doing my weekly laundry at 6pm on Sunday night. Saturday was spent at French class in the morning as usual, followed by a little afternoon meet-up with Lisa. We went to check out the Brisbane International Film Festival and caught the movie, Mademoiselle.


It's a film from 1966 which is a psychological drama about a woman who is a sociopath and an arsonist. I had a feeling it was going to be interesting and it was. I found the movie to be quite disturbing as there was destruction, death, fear, and cruelty in the movie but I quite enjoyed it. I believe at the time, the director was criticised for his overt use of symbolism, but that was something I quite enjoyed. The movie was interesting, engaging, and left a deep impression on me that I am still thinking about it today. I don't feel this way about many movies. I'm glad that I went to see it.

Afterwards, Lindsay asked if I was interested in going to the NRMA Dancing in the Street festival at South Bank. It was super fun because it was so lively and there were so many people. There were multiple stages around Little Stanley Street with different types of dance including swing, African dance, and hip hop.


We watched the dance instruction by Mad Dance as Tamara was doing that, which was called Club Moves. They did moves like the sprinkler, exits & mouseholes, shopping trolley, and air hostess. It was really funny. It was nice to see so many people getting into it and some of the people there were hilarious. You could imagine them actually going to a club after that to bust out their newfound dance moves, totally believing that they're the bomb. Haha...

Sunday was Singapore's National Day marking 45 years of independence. A nasi padang buffet lunch was organised at the Pav Bar of the Stamford Plaza and the spread included sambal eggs, beef rendang, kari ayam, sayur lodeh and ikan bilis. Yuuuuum........

It was great, but not as tasty as the authentic stuff. It was great nonetheless by Australian standards and I always feel incredibly comforted eating Singaporean Malay food :)

Melbourne Memories

I was in Melbourne last week for conference and had the chance to enjoy the city for a day on either side of my working days. I arrived on Monday morning and checked into the Novotel on Collins, which was a really nice hotel in a great location. I didn't realise that Collins St is kind of like the boutique street because I went for a walk and found all the designer boutiques along the sidewalk. It was heavenly. I came across Gucci, Chanel, Louis Vuitton, Escada, and by the time I hit Prada, I'd decided I needed to go inside. At least I can say that I went into one of the stores! I probably should have taken more pictures, but I get so lazy to do the tourist thing and I am probably going to be back in Melbourne in December anyway so I let that slide.

I had lunch at Grossi Florentino's which was lovely but terribly expensive. As expected of a fine dining restaurant, the service was excellent but the portion sizes were puny. Surprisingly, when I ordered the tiramisu, this ginormous thing that looked like part of a mini igloo appeared on my table. It was the biggest slice of tiramisu I had ever seen. It was ridiculous! I struggled to finish it and gave up in the end from being too full and feeling guilty for all the cream I was consuming.

I didn't do much else on Monday except walk around the shops and do a spot of shopping. I understand now why their tourism campaign uses the "lose yourself" tagline because I pretty much spent my time exploring the laneways, which was fun but I probably would not have been able to find my way back. I checked out Haigh's Chocolates, which was right next door to the hotel, so I was actually able to find my way back. I spent forever browsing in store and I spent a lot of money in there during my stay but didn't actually buy any chocolate for myself as I was paralysed by choice.


I had dinner at Laksa Me, which is supposed to be a Malaysian laksa place. I didn't realise it was curry laksa and not the "normal" laksa I'm used to in Brisbane and back in Singapore, but it was worth a try nonetheless.

The next day, Tuesday, was the first day of the conference followed by the conference dinner at Bluestone Bar and Restaurant. We went to the lounge first for a pre-dinner drinks reception and then upstairs to the restaurant. It was quite beautiful and I appreciated the decor. The service was very good and the food didn't disappoint.


Wednesday was the second and last day of the conference, after which we caught up with Sandy in Lygon Street for dinner. We went to a restaurant called Ti Amo, which is Italian and again I thought the food was pretty good. Although it was State of Origin night, we were a bit tired after dinner so I caught the game in bed in the hotel.

Thursday was my last day in Melbourne and my flight didn't depart until 8pm that night, so I had a full day to walk around and explore. I wanted to catch the Salvador Dali Liquid Desire exhibition so I walked over the Yarra to find the Gallery.


I'm really glad I went because I enjoyed the exhibition more than I've enjoyed any other. I never knew much about Dali's work before but his paintings and his work was so beautiful and so emotive. I felt quite emotional looking at some of his art (and then felt like such an idiot) but it was just beautiful. He manages to express so much into his paintings. I enjoyed that a lot of his work reflected the different stages of his life as well as the times that he lived in. I liked how his art went through different phases, like how his early work reflected much of his home and his family, and then his later works reflected his thoughts about the war, and so on.

After the gallery, I decided to check out Southbank. Or is it Southgate? Or are they two places adjacent to one another? I went to the Eureka Skydeck and was treated to some spectacular views of Melbourne.

I was quite impressed and I can understand now why so many people have such a strong preference for Melbourne. It's pretty spectacular and it has beautiful architecture with some beautiful Victorian-style buildings. I got the sense that it was a very cultured city and people everywhere were so beautifully-dressed.

After the Eureka Skydeck, I decided to find the Crown Casino. I remember having lunch in the food court the last time I was in Melbourne 5 years ago. Along the way, I managed to get some beautiful photos.

I found the Crown Casino and the food court fairly easily and discovered that the Asian stall had yong tau foo. Mm.... I miss yong tau foo... After lunch, I caught the free tourist shuttle for one last look around. I skipped the Melbourne Museum as I was too tired and too lazy to check out the Pompeii exhibition. A small part of me still thinks that I should have, but I would have been wrecked if I had. Overall, I quite enjoyed Melbourne, although I'm still trying to shake off this chocolate addiction I've acquired ever since stepping foot into Haigh's!

Lose Yourself... in Art & Melbourne

I'm so excited!

I'm going to Melbourne in July for 4 days and have been feeling a little ho-hum about it. It's become a bit of tradition that every July I attend the International Nonprofit and Social Marketing Conference, followed by a short holiday at the location. Last year, it was in Sydney and for four days afterwards Damien and I did a nice holiday with lots of sightseeing, which was fabulous. I had an awsome time.

This year, the conference is in Melbourne and I was initially all excited about the holiday afterwards but that idea fell through in the end. At first, I thought I might spend a few days just sightseeing but in the end, gave up on that idea upon deciding I was too poor. So in the end, I'd booked my flights to allow me a whole day before the conference and a whole day after. I figured a day on each end would suffice to walk around and entertain myself fairly easily. From thinking my trip was going to be this superb holiday, it ended up to the point where I was most excited about having meals at Grossi Florentino, Nelayan, and Laksa Me. And I think that it's quite sad when it's meals and only meals that you most look forward to on a trip, rather than activities or sightseeing. Hah.

Today I find out that there are a couple of exhibitions happening in Melbourne while I'm there and it's got me very excited! The National Gallery of Victoria is having a Salvatore Dali - Liquid Desire exhibition. It's the first ever comprehensive retrospective of Dali's work in Australia, exclusive to the NGV and I can't believe I'll be there while the exhibition is on!


While I was being all giddy thinking about seeing Dali's art, I found out that the Melbourne Museum is having an exhibition about Pompeii. Pompeii!! The exhibition is called "A Day in Pompeii" and will showcase all things relevant to everyday life in the city. I'm so excited!


And there you have it. From ho-hum to giddy with excitement. I amuse myself sometimes...