law and economics. what’s there not to love?

Judge Learned Hand.

october, in pictures.

wtf?

keep it clean, Singapore!

every christmas.

this is super old school and i would give it a try if i could convince myself that i won’t end up being a walking disaster.

sentosa bridge. the IR work-in-progress. i think i see some cheesy castles haha..

wedding.

bouquets for the wedding.

even more bouquets.

crates of them.

the past 6 weeks (or more?) in pictures.

first up! got to say the grammar in the previous post is deplorable. i hope my tuition kid does not ever stumble upon this place hahaha..

i’m supposed to be in some sort of exam-frenzy mode now but i don’t know what’s gotten over me. can’t really be too bothered to do much.. arrgh.

yeaaah. so anyway.. moving on…

barcelos. boomz.

b’days with not-so-nice sacher torte.

dicey!

choice of law for contracts… yadda yadda blah..

mid-autumn festival

CruPAC lives on, three years and counting.

when the earth shakes.

xo fish bee hoon.

mini cooper cabriolet

best moment of any day.

sometimes, please don’t ask and stay away. thanks.

lazy afternoons at home.

and drowsy afternoons.

everyone’s wardrobe should look like this.

and more b’days.

marble tops and brown sugar for you?

high ceiling with lots of glass. my house next time.

the sweetness of full bloom.

deepavali lights at little india.

feeling blue?

yepp.. that’s all for tonight. too much to cover in one post. maybe i should update more regularly.

scents.

i didn’t realise i have so many colognes until i took them all out of e drawer haha! just going to write a little something about each one of them ‘cos i’m so bored, firstly, and also because i feel that there’s alot which goes and comes from a scent which is pretty interesting, for lack of a better word.

the whole psychology that goes behind a scent is (to me at least) quite complex. in choosing which one to spritz on every morning before i leave the house, i’d consider things like my mood, outfit, where i’m going, whether its night or day etc etc… hahaha.. i don’t sit in front of a row of bottles thumb-twiddling and thinking about which one to use, for sure! it’s not a long thought process – it takes 3 seconds? – but for something to mundane and simple, i have to say a lot of considerations go into it.

maybe i’m just…. uh. yeah. hur.

i’ve to say i don’t know anything about the top/middle/base notes blah blah stuff. neither do i know anything about the names of chemical compounds for certain scents (like there’s all that butyl-phenol-ethyl whatever name for, say, the woody forest smell, and a dioxy-methyl blah name for, say, a breezy ocean scent…).

so. here’s davidoff cool water, supposedly smelling like the oceans. the aquatic scent aside, its something i use if i’m looking for something which smells more edgy and mysterious (even though it has a very distinctive and identifiable smell).

its one of the few scents which i use till almost the whole bottle of (strangely, i have never finished an entire bottle. there’s always the last little bit i don’t know why!). i’d definitely get a new one which i’m done with this bottle.

d&G Le Bateleur, the anthology series. its supposed to mean “The Magician”, a character from tarot cards. the bottle is boring. the cap is ugly. and wtf! the label is just a piece of white sticker! yeah. but being the marketing sucker i am, i bought it partly cos of the name of the cologne, the mystery of tarot cards which the brand associates the cologne with and allure of the intensive marketing campaigns. and i just need to buy something on that day.

its a stupid mistake because its a 100ml product. i already have problems finishing a 75ml one! ok i don’t know what i was thinking. and to top it off, it didn’t smell THAT nice. it smells kind of generic.. the typical clean, crisp sort of scent.

i thought it smelt familiar and after much thought i realised it smells like Givenchy Pour Homme which i was using about 5 years back! it was a scent i grew sick of really quickly.

oh yeah. it has a really artificial ‘clean’ smell, which is largely why i don’t like this fragrance. after one use, i am quite sick of it. the good part of this? its pretty potent, so one spritz is enough to last the day.

for my own sake i hope i will grow to like this cologne cos there’s 99.9ml to go.

chanel allure homme sport. this is a little puzzling ‘cos it is the sport version of the fragrance, but it is also stronger than the main one (chanel allure homme).  it is also stronger than the chanel allure homme blanche.

it has been widely slammed on the internet for being boring and uninspiring. but its probably one of my favourite scents! i can’t put my finger on it, but this smells fresh, musky, light, sweet all at the same time. its something that could take me from day to night and all day long. very versatile, which is probably why its said to be boring hahaha..

i’m already on my second bottle for this, after finishing three travel vials. the one features is the travel version but its crap ‘cos the cologne evaporates really fast in that bottle.

CK one summer. bought this a few years back, used it once and never again. i don’t know why i bought it. its something for the resort, i guess? very citrusy and sweet at the same time. i cannot imagine anyone using it outside the context of a beach, if anyone even uses cologne at the beach. there’s no depth to it. and it smells kind of cheap.

i think they release new versions every summer ‘cos i haven seen an orange/yellow bottle of it and an orange/purple bottle of it.

YSL L’homme. this is one interesting item. i can’t put my finger on it.. it smells sweet, musky and a little fresh altogether. its a heavier scent than Chanel Allure Homme Sport and has a different personality altogether. its something that makes me scrunge my eyebrows and go hrmmmm??? i can’t tell if i like it or not (even after more than ten applications).. but i feel that it is because of this that it is particularly alluring. shapeless, formless and incapable of fitting into a particular category of smell.

it goes with me when i’m in a heavier mood.. i.e. not when i am feeling particularly fresh and bursting with energy. i think its more suited for night wear.

its pretty potent. one or two spritz is enough to take me through the day. it also comes in a lighter version (i’m not sure of its name, but the box is a silvery-blue colour) but its too light to be worth buying ‘cos i can hardly smell it 15 min after application. it also comes in a heavier version (i forgot the name but i think its called L’Homme Noir) which i haven tried.

oh yeah. this comes in a great, solid bottle. the sturdy hexagonal metal cap is supposed to resemble a screw and it weighs a ton! in terms of bottle design, this is a clear winner.

this is a 7ml sample which i got when i purchased Le Bateleur. the original bottle is way cooler than this as it comes in a glass bottle in the shape of a clenched fist. the slogen is “only the brave” and i’ve to say this scent is surely not for the faint-hearted. at the early stages after application, at least.

at the beginning, it can be a little too overwhelming. very strong musky smell with a heck lot of oomph and character. but let it settle and it becomes a lot of pleasing to the senses. too pleasing, actually. after about 15 min when the scent settles in on the skin, it becomes this boring-sweet-vanilla-smell which lacks character.

i’m quite surprised by how the smell changed so drastically. its not a bad thing for scents to develop after application, but in this case, it just didn’t turn out well.

not something i would use.

lacoste essentials. this is ENERGY in a bottle! it is lively, fresh and bursting of energy. a very uplifting scent that i would use when i’m bursting with energy.

on the down side, i tink this is scent lacks staying power. can hardly smell it some hours after application (unless body temperature rises. but this happens for all scents so it doesn’t really count when we’re comparing the staying power).

most definitely, i would get another bottle of this when i’m done. i’m down to the final drops already which, as i mentioned, hardly happens.

snippets of this week.

these metal mugs are damn gross. why can’t they use plastic / ceramic / glass / whatever that reminds you less of a toilet?

toilets like these.

a dying existence.

getting lost.

getting even more lost.

going to get a GPS soon. its frustrating to get lost. and even more frustrating to get lost in Singapore because of the ERP! zzz.

from the front.

and from the back.

affogato. first time i’m having it the proper way haha.

the pistachio green chairs! where can i buy them??

so damn addictive.

saturday night live.

bright skies + rainy days.

and there goes the haze.

indonesia needs to stop burning down e forests. singapore’s incense burning isn’t helping either!

more storage space! =]

. . . . . . . . .

feelin’ absolutely under the weather. its been a long while since i last posted an entry but i’m not terribly inspired to write about anything either. so here’s some random photos to plug the dearth of entries on this little bit of cyberspace.

christmas is coming!!!

I thought my eyes were going crazy but no, it isn’t! Christmas decorations are actually sprouting around town! Not that I’m complaining, though. It’d be better if Christmas is all year round.

This has got to be the highlight of every year haha.. the countdown has begun!!! There’s 122 days to Christmas. my gawd, we might as well have it tomorrow.

anyway. yep. day out in town today was good. school pretty much sucks every bit of life out of me and a day around breathes life back.

Merry Christmas! soon!

. . .

extreme chocolate.

stars and bouquets.

jelly #1.

jelly #2.

a blurry past

a piece of history.

with caffeine and more caffeine.

another warm july night.

and a warm july afternoon.

the signboard in the background (on top of the fridge) is actually a hand-painted menu from many years back. till today, the shop owners are still selling the same things and in other variations.

ramble…

i find the student activism in NYU so refreshing and even though i am not involved in whatever they have been doing (wrt to tla as a visiting prof there) i feel drawn to be part of it. now that the matter is somewhat settled, its as though i have missed out on being a voice of a chorus so powerful that even the strongest and most convicted can be shaken.

the grass is greener on the other side, so the saying goes, but the whole chain of events has made me realise how small an existance i lead. the next step is perhaps to find an opportunity to be part of something more dynamic, loud and alive.

time to start searching and planning!

p.s. tla, i think you’re damn sad.