Entrance to Singapore’s Red Dot Design Museum is free on the first weekend of each month, so my coworkers and I decided to pop in one Saturday. (Wondering about the name? Locals fondly refer to Singapore as the “little red dot”, because that’s how the tiny city-state appears on most world maps.)
My hyper-abbreviated review: There were some interesting displays but nothing worth the $8 entrance fee, if one were to drop by on a regular day. We did manage to snap a few cool photos, though
Obligatory tourist shot. It’s impossible to miss the colonial building that houses the museum. It’s painted fire-engine red and takes up an entire block.
My F1-crazy friend, Chrissa, came to Singapore to watch the night race last September. While she was here, we jumped at the chance to get flung into the air on the G-max Reverse Bungy ride at Clarke Quay. We loved it! A couple of lessons learned:
Go at night to avoid being roasted in the sun.
Wear pants instead of a miniskirt.
Below is a video of our ride. The scream you’ll hear during the release came from the guy holding the camera
We also went on the tamer GX-5 Xtreme Swing, but we unfortunately didn’t manage to get a video of that.
I’ve had bad luck with summer outings before. For the longest time it seemed like I was doomed to never set foot on a sunny beach again, but last weekend the weather gods finally decided to cut me some slack and gave me two full days of fun in the sun.
I traveled to Puerto Galera, a popular beach destination in the Philippines, with seven of my college friends. It was easily the best vacation I’ve been on in quite a while. The synopsis: We lounged on the beach, swam in the clear sea, got drunk on bonded over a pitcher of Mindoro Sling, hiked through a mountain, took a dip in a waterfall, and went parasailing! If you want the whole tale and the boat load of pictures that come with it, keep reading
My college friends and I hung out at Eugene‘s condo this weekend. It had been months since I last saw some of them — Tin! Nas! Albert! — so I was really excited. We went swimming, had dinner at Pancake House, played PS2 (they played; I just randomly pressed buttons), (re)watched Golden Boy, drank, slept a little, then woke up and had leftover alcohol with our breakfast. Good times. Check out the photos from Chrissa‘s camera.
Of course there was gift giving, too. Like I mentioned in a previous post, I didn’t have much money to spend on gifts this year, so I did a lot of DIYing. This time I drew cartoon alter egos of the girls, had them printed, and found matching desktop frames for each drawing:
They loved it! Seeing their reactions to the cartoons got me feeling all warm and fuzzy inside. The guys pretend-pouted and asked why I didn’t do the same for them, so I mock-complained about how hard they were to draw because they all looked alike, hehe. I did try, but unfortunately I can’t draw boys as well as I can girls. I got them uber-geeky squeeze flashlights instead. Maybe next year.
Happy holidays, everyone! And thanks to Rose for being extra cool
Kathy is a special breed of awesome. My weekend rocked something fierce, thanks to her love for Seventeen Magazine and her penchant for joining their contests. They sent Kathy, Ivy, Phin, Chrissa and me on an overnight stay at Taal View Heights and took care of everything so we didn’t have to pay a single centavo. We were chauffeured, overfed, and generally pampered. We even got new tankinis from SPF, “Filipinas” flip-flops from Havaianas, and loads of Freeman beauty products. I can’t speak for the others, but I for one had never been spoiled so rotten in all my life.
The best part was I finally got to spend several hours swimming under the sun. My sunny swim in TVH’s Zen-inspired infinity pool was no doubt a far cry from my freezing foray into the stormy seas of Subic. It still wasn’t enough to bronze me, but at least I’m slightly darker than I used to be.
Swimming wasn’t all we did, though. We played badminton and billiards, rode horses, and briefly visited the lakeside where we met the friendliest little dachshund. On Sunday morning Chrissa somehow managed to make jogging up and down the hilly venue seem like a good idea, but after only 10 minutes of wheezing and panting, Kathy and I realized that it really wasn’t. We also made our very own scary movie using the night vision setting of Kathy’s Handycam, squeezed under a single comforter while bonding under the stars, and consumed too many glasses of mais con yelo. Oh, and we took lots of pictures.
The only downside was that we missed Nas and Tin and wished they could have come, too. Other than that, I can definitely say it was the most fun I’ve had of late. Hugs for Kathy!
