Requiem for two goldfish

Oranda

My two goldfish died today.

I got them for my first year anniversary with my boyfriend last year, so they were really special, marking the first milestone in our relationship. We decided to name them "Pix" and "Script", after what I did at work.

Pix and Script were orandas and were with us for 1 year and 3 months when they passed away. Pix and Script were very lively and smart for goldfish and would often swim near the side of the tank when we walked into the room. The Boyfriend always said that was because they were hungry for food, but I thought that was really cute and puppy-like of them.

Of the two, Pix was the more intelligent and lively one, while Script tended to be the follower. Pix can be a really naughty goldfish and he loved to terrorize and eat the tetras whom we put in the same tank as them. I remembered how they managed to decimate one bag of 50 tetras within three nights. Most of the damage, I suspect, was done by Pix.

Pix was always the more greedy and domineering of the bunch. When we got two more baby ranchus to be with them, Pix tend to body-slam the babies whenever we feed the aquarium, just so that he could have his fill. Script, at least, appeared to take to the babies more kindly.

Fin rot was what got them. On hindsight, maybe we should have suspected something when Pix started swimming upside-down on his head. Script was the first to succumb to the disease, The Boyfriend found Script floating belly-up in the tank this morning. We suspected that Pix first got the disease as his beautiful fins started to tear a day before, but he stayed fighting till he breathed his last this morning. Pix is a goldfish with character - he does a lot of weird things for a goldfish, like hiding himself inside the barrel in the tank whenever he failed on his "tetra hunt" or swimming upside down on his head. Pix would often get the both of them stuck in the strangest places as they go on their hunt for tetras. They are really greedy goldfish and eat so much. Strange thing is, The Boyfriend and I both agree that we can pick Pix out even if he gets lost within a school of orandas - Pix has got the bad-ass fish look down pat. As The Boyfriend would say,"He has the spirit of an orca trapped in the body of an oranda".

I am not overcome by grief for this loss, but neither can I say that I don't feel anything. Pix had more personality for a goldfish than most Singaporean managers that I have seen. I will miss these two boys of mine, for the endless hours of entertainment that they gave us.

Now that they are in the big Fish Bowl in the sky, I wish them eternal peace.

Vintage - "Glamourisation" of old clothes?

Mention the word "vintage" and I get a lot of different reactions from everyone.

Some, like my ever-practical Boyfriend, will scrunch up his face and go,"Eeee, why are you spending so much money on old clothes..possibly dead people's clothes?" My more tactful colleagues will shake their head in bewilderment. (Forgive them, they are engineers and know not what they say/think.)The only form of mutual appreciation I'll ever get when it comes to vintage are only from posters on The Fashion Spot. Which leads me to declare that the majority of Singaporeans are a pragmatic lot - the thought of paying money for old and possibly worn clothes, just does not compute to them.

Vintage, is really so much more than a euphemism for old clothes. Any type of clothing that is a decade old can be classified as "vintage". This means that clothes produced from Victorian times all the way to the 80s' can be classified as vintage. I feel that the older a vintage piece is, the harder it is to incorporate into my daily wardrobe without coming across as too "costumey". Also, it is harder to find good-quality stock for the older pieces, such as those from the Edwardian period. Taking care of them too needs a lot more care and attention mainly due to their age, and also because pieces from that period tend to be made of more delicate material like lace.

Doing vintage well is really a taste of your sense of style and restraint. Pairing a pair of sevens with a 70s' victorian-style hippie blouse is the easiest example of vintage-chic. Wearing a 80s' off-shoulder blouse with skinny jeans and leg-warmers just means that you missed the audition for "Flashdance" by a really loooong time.

My love affair with vintage started when my mother found some of my grandmother's stuff while she was doing house-cleaning one day. My grandmother was a very fashionable lady and she owed some of the most beautiful and needless to say, vintage stuff. I had inherited a lot of stuff from her when I was younger, there were tons of beaded necklaces (which are so popular now!), clipped earrings, brooches, vintage Lancome compacts and even an antique watch. Sadly, I didn't realise the beauty of these items before and now a lot of them are gone. The only saving grace I guess is that the most valuable items still remains, such as the vintage Peranakan silver custom-made belt which my mother found. Peranakans are a race of Straits-born Chinese and they are unique in the sense that their culture and tradition incorporates elements of the Chinese and Malay cultures. The belt that my mother found had a phoenix motif as its buckle and the entire belt was custom-made and hand-crafted in Malacca, Malaysia. It was easily 50 years old. Wearing the belt gave me a sense of connection, not just to my culture, but also to my grandma. The fashionable factor, in this case, ceased to become important.

That is what I love about vintage - every piece has its own history and is unique. How each piece is carried off really depends on the wearer's individuality and no two pieces are exactly alike. Wearing vintage transports you to a time where things were more idealised, pre-911 everything was just more carefree and optimistic then.

I started with accessories to ease myself into vintage. There were the requisite beaded necklaces and chunky bangles, besides the truly breath-taking finds in my grandmother's closet. Bags and sunglasses, especially the big Jackie-O ones are also good starters for introuducing vintage pieces into your wardrobe. I love clothes from the 50s-70s the best as these pieces are the easiest to work with my wardrobe without looking too weird.

I usually get my clothes from eBay - I don't believe in visiting vintage stores where the clothes get unnecessarily marked-up to pay for the rental. Thus far, I have scored a few dresses and tons of accessories. Horror stories do exist about flea-infested vintage stuff on eBay, but as always when it comes to eBay, only buy from reputable sellers and use a healthy does of common sense in everything you bid for - do NOT get carried away! One seller which I highly recommend is mamastonevintage, I get a lot of my eBay stuff from her:

From left: vintage wooden bangles from the 60s; victorian-inspired blouse from the 70s'; calico dress from the 70s; pictures courtesy of mamastonevintage ebay auctions.

The Olsen twins I think, do vintage very well:

The Olsens in their vintage looks.

I have been in love since I saw Mary-Kate Olsen in this white dress for Chanel's introspective at the MET in New York. She got her dress from the famous New York-based vintage store, What Comes Around Goes Around.

The Olsen twins at the MET Costume Gala, NYC, May 2005; pictures from olsen-twins-news.com

You might also like to check out other vintage websites like Enokiworld and Adorevintage, for more inspirations.

If you are leery about wearing vintage however, vintage-inspired designs is the next best bet. I highly recomment visiting my favourite online website, blaec, for the season's best vintage-inspired finds.

Vintage is a homage to one's individual style and the revival of eternal classics. As the saying goes, "Greatness never truly goes out of style."

I couldn't agree more.

Portable intelligence.

Samsung Q30 red

Is this love at first sight?



I don't know why but it seems like manufacturers think that women will only buy an electronic gadget if it is in pink or red. Well, I am attracted to the Samsung Q30, not because I detest the silver version it also comes in, but simply because the red is more striking to me.

For someone who has to lug around a monster of a laptop when I go on duty travel(3kg!!), owning a slim, large-screen laptop has always been a fantasy for me. Now that I have business bags sturdy enough to tote a spiffy laptop in (think the Chanel Cerf-thanks to the Boyfriend ^-^), I feel a strong desire to find an equally light-weight laptop to work on in style.

Or how about the Apple Powerbook?

Steve Jobs has done an excellent job revitalising the company whose name is now synonymous with artistry in engineering and excellent product design (think the iPod and the iBook), I also find the 15-inch Powerbook pushing my "want" buttons

Apple Powerbook with 15-inch screen

I can imagine myself working at an alfresco joint, soaking in the Californian sunshine and nursing a venti-sized latte while blogging on this machine.
What is it about the appeal of apple laptops to people in the graphics industry as well as writers? Ever notice how most of them are faithful users of Apple machines as compared to those operating on Windows XP? Just for the record, articles in this blog thus far have been created on a boring black Dell latitude machine that would kill a newborn kitten if I were to drop my laptop on it. Though the operating systems may soon be a moot point as Steve Jobs has announced that Apple will be putting in pentium chips inside its machines soon - that means the Powerbook in the near future may very well be running Windows XP.

In my own opinion, Apple products have become more of a lifestyle statement, rather than just a utilitarian electronic gadget, because of its perennial appeal to a niche crowd, the so-termed "artistic" crowd. People like architects, graphic designers, writers, artists all swear allegiance to their Apples. Not necessarily because Apple machines have more computing horsepower, but their appeal to such a niche and avant-garde crowd lends it street cred.

Maybe this Christmas?

A year wiser!

Yay! Tomorrow is my birthday!
Can't wait to see what presents my sister gets for when she returns from Europe! (I hope she is reading my blog now..)

For the moment, this is what I got from my boyfriend:

Sweet! Another Chanel! \^-^/

Down Under - where fash meets surf (aka Shopping in Sydney 101)

G'day mates!

This is my first post to my blog after returning from Sydney, capital of the land down under. I spent a total of seven days down there with my boyfriend. He was there for duty travel while I lived a tai-tai lifestyle of waking up late, spas at the hotel and shopping shopping shopping!

For the first two days, we visited the requisite tourist spots like Bondi Beach and the Blue Mountains. These two are definitely must-visit spots in Sydney-if you are really squeezed for time, I highly recommend these two spots, especially the latter! The Blue Mountain's beauty is unparalleled and it was a comfortable hike even though it's a winter month in Sydney. Bondi Beach is of course a good place to soak in the Aussie beach culture though I guess there were not too many people on the beach in June as it was winter. On days when the Boyfriend had to go to work, we did our sight-seeing in the evening, making it to the Sydney Opera house, Darling Harbour and the Rocks to name a few.

So what else could I do during the day when left to my own devices? One word: SHOPPING.

I was probably very lucky to be in Sydney last week, as it was the start of the sales! Almost every store was having their winter sales and I lived in a good locale - my hotel was located in the city center along Elizabeth/Castlereagh Street.

For all you fashionistas, this is an important street to remember, as well as Market Street that intersects it. These three streets, together with Pitt Street, forms what I would term the Sacred Square of Orgasmic Sydney Shopping!

Shop here for orgasmic sydney shopping!!

For those who are into high-end fashion labels like Hermes, Chanel, Gucci, Louis Vuitton, etc, Castlereagh Street is sheer heaven. This street is where all the high-end luxury houses are located, with the exception of Armani, which is located on Elizabeth Street. Remember to get a tax invoice from each store should you spend more than AUD$300 there (and how difficult is that with these labels?) to qualify for the Australian TRS (Tourist Refund Scheme) where you get the goods and services tax credited back to you.

We went into the Chanel store to purchase my birthday present. I must write this encounter down as I was extrememly unhappy with the level of service which I received in Chanel Sydney. First of all, the SA who was keeping the bag for me had gone off for the day and she obviously had not left any instructions for her colleagues as to how to get my order should I turn up after she left. For the record, I did turn up on the agreed day as promised and I was surprised that she had already left for the day. But what really got me was the attitude of the first counter staff that I spoke to down there. First of all she had NO IDEA of the cerf tote that I requested for, even thinking that I was asking for the SURF tote instead. Even when I spelled out the name for her, she had the most unintelligent and uncomprehending look on her face. I wondered if she understood English? To add salt to the injury, she certainly didn't look contrite nor cared that I, as a customer had better knowledge of the products in Chanel than her. Luckily a more experienced and poised customer associate took over and was able to locate the cerf tote for me.

On to happier stuff- department store David Jones was heaven-sent! Down there, I managed to pick up Aussie labels like Sass&Bide and Willow at a fraction of the prices availabe online at Net-a-porter! Do note, however that I have yet to locate any website selling Willow. I love her designs and how it draps so flatteringly on the female body. I bought a heavy sequinned type which felt like armour but it was just so beautiful and unique!

Damage at David Jones:

Willow Wish cami - I have it in plum.

Managed to net this gorgeous top from Sass&Bide - woo hoo! ^-^

Sass&Bide stand-aside jeans

Be sure to check out these aussie labels and other favourites like Collette Dinnigan, Alannah Hill, Lisa Ho, etc when you are there!

Further along the other shopping centres, there were also perennial Aussie high-street favourites like David Lawrence, Witchery, Kookai and trendy, budget-conscious stores like Sportsgirl, Supre and Dotti. I just went wild inside and bought so many shrugs, tubes, tank tops and flirty summer skirts! The salesgirls there were really cute and nice, especially the girls in the Supre store along Pitt street!

A portion of my loot:

Montage composed of pictures from Supre.com.au and Sportsgirl.com.au

On top of these, I also splurged on tiered skirts, retro giant sunglasses, chunky boho jewellery and of course, Tim Tams! Only in Australia can you find so many flavours!

Besides the city centre, check out the shops along Oxford street - there are just so many interesting ones! You can find a repeat of some of the shops in the city centre there as well as shops devoted solely to Alannah Hill and Lisa Ho. Interestingly along King Street, I found a small shop called Como which stocks a very small selection of CoStume National. Predictably, I still was unable to find the CoStume National belt which I had been hunting for a really long time. Anyone has any idea if this label is carried in Singapore?

Walking down the entire length of Oxford Street will lead you to Bondi Junction which is another conglomeration of more shops and malls. This is recommended only for the die-hards as it is really easier to take the bus half-way down Oxford Street to arrive at Bondi Junction instead. There is another David Jones at Bondi Junction, but there is a much better selection at the flagship store at Market Street. There are also more surf wear stores at Bondi Junction, presumably because of its proximity to Bondi Beach.

There are so many more interesting shops for you to explore in Sydney. I only stayed in the northern area of Sydney due to a time shortage, but hopefully what was written here would give a meaningful representation of the shopping experience there. There are also Sydney shopping "landmarks" like the Queen Victoria Building and the Strand Arcade which were not mentioned in this article as enough coverage has been given to them.

I had great fun shopping in Sydney. Next target : Melbourne ^-^
(I can hear my boyfriend faint.)