Supper at Switch by Timbre + childhood nostalgia

brought Woon and Fish after choir rehearsal on Wednesday to this fairly new joint that i mentioned in my previous entry: Switch by Timbre, which is located just across the road from where we have our rehearsals :D

it's a restaurant/bar opened by the owner of Timbre, but offers a live bilingual music experience for a lot of us who actually enjoy both english and mandarin music, which i think is really a brilliant idea! makes for an interesting listening/watching experience with all sorts of genres in both languages thrown in. definitely very refreshing. quite a few of my singer/musician friends also sing/play at Switch, so i think i'd be dropping by a lot more often to listen to 'em and to enjoy the food at the same time!

 

the band playing on Wednesday nights is called Ground Zero, great mix of Chinese ballads with some favorite english covers like Adele, Foo Fighters, Cranberries etc.

our cider :D

can't miss out on the roast duck pizza! the menu is pretty much imported from Timbre, so all your old favorites from Timbre are mostly all available at Switch as well. had a half-and-half combination of roast duck and haiwaiian. yummy.

buffalo wings :D

we were feeling hungry after a tiring rehearsal, so three of us shared a pizza, portobello mushrooms and wings! so full we couldn't finish. too much food for supper in the end! zzz.

blur fish :P

we really enjoyed the music very much! i miss singing pop music. hoping to start singing on the local music/gig front and look for some venues i can sing/perform at.. *fingers crossed*

pictures taken with my GXR with M-mount, Voightlander 40mm 1.4 :D it's awesome for doing low light/night photography. soooo nice the bokeh.

Switch by Timbre
73 Bras Basah Road #01-01/02
Phone 63367739 


 http://www.switchmusic.sg 


Hours
 Mon - Thu: 6:00 pm - 1:00 am 
Fri - Sat: 6:00 pm - 2:00 am

***

Evonne posted up some of her adorable childhood photos on instagram the other day, and it inspired to go dig through my parents' old photo albums as well to reminisce my childhood days!

i posted a really long time ago about how i was a premature baby. i was born at 7 months, weighing only a pathetic 1280 grams (lol i checked that information from my health booklet). it was a breech delivery as well, and i think i was so underdeveloped i had to stay in the hospital for a month, hooked up to all kinds of tubes and machines in an incubator. i was also born with congenital ptosis (droopy eyelid) in one eye, which i underwent surgery to correct when i was 8 years old.

can't find much pictures from when i was a newborn infant, probably cos i was so tiny and ugly? lol. but i found just one photo in the photo albums which i'm pretty sure is me... the super high forehead gives it all away! LOL.

ok brace yourself for a really freaky looking baby....

so ugly omg! and a forehead to rival the villain in Megamind LOL. i was so tiny my grandmother nicknamed me "Nor Pong", or "2 pounds" in Teochew, and she still called me that even when i grew up :S

LOLOLOL

SCARY LOOKING. no wonder i didn't have more pictures taken when i was an infant!

fear not, i think i grew out of that freaky looking phase once i got slightly older, and look at me, so cute and happy as a little crawling baby :D

i know right, the high forehead and protruding chin gives it away as me straight away. lol. such distinctive features. you'd also see the obvious ptosis of my left eye (on your right) 

superly obvious here lor... anyway it bothered me a lot sometimes especially when i looked in the mirror or at photos of myself. or like when people commented on it. fug this 大小眼, it ruined my (otherwise would have been cute) childhood!!!

i mean, if you have ptosis in both eyes, people will just ask you why your eyes so small. but i had it in only one eye so that made me an abnormal freak and people can't help noticing and staring. ah well. thank goodness i was born with a very happy-go-lucky personality, which resulted in me being able to grow up well-adjusted and as normal as can be :D that's Gina next to me celebrating her 6th birthday with a fake HK cake! lol. 

but regardless, i was still a very happy baby :D most of the photos are of me laughing happily, mouth big big! haha FML dunno what is this ugly thing my parents made me wear =_=

unlike Gina wahahaha she's the biggest crybaby ever!! everything also cry. 8 out of 10 photos all sulky face one. LOL. not cute at all!!!

and i had to develop this habit of tilting my chin upwards to look at people, if not my vision would be obstructed by my left eyelid. but nevertheless, i think i was quite cute one lor. 大小眼, Y U SPOIL MY CUTE LOOKS?

oh and Lina (in the middle!) used to be soooo cute and fair and chubs. i think she's changed the most out of the three of us sisters! i haven't changed much, still the same chubby cheeks, high forehead and protruding chin, lol. Gina used to be super cute but other than that, she looks about the same too hahahaha.

just to show off that i've had long legs ever since i was a kid. HAHA. regardless fat or skinny, my long legs are here to stay! short torso, though.

looking at all these old photos suddenly overwhelmed me with a surge of love and gratitude for my parents, especially my daddy ♥ i was a daddy's girl through and through!

so grateful to them raising me up through such a tough infancy stage, to a happy, healthy person now :D my daddy himself doesn't say much about it, but my ah ma used to tell me about how i was hovering on the brink of death and had to stay in the hospital for so long, and i was as tiny as a kitten, and was hooked up to so many tubes and machines that my daddy cried when he went to the hospital to visit me. my hospital bills were so hefty that Daddy even had to loan money to pay my medical fees cos he didn't have enough money.  (lol up til this day Daddy keeps on saying' how i'm the most expensive daughter out of the three)

can't imagine all the heartache i've caused my parents ever since i was born. think of having to send your 8 year old kid for an eye surgery, they were probably worried sick about me, about how the operation would go, about whether i would be able to live the rest of my life normally. and thinking back about how rebellious i was back in my teenage years (hanging out with the wrong crowd, failing half my subjects and all that), i feel rather guilty now for having put my parents through all that disappointment and heartache.

thank god that at a quarter of a century years old now, i've learnt to appreciate my parents so much more and at least i will be 懂事 enough so that i don't cause them anymore heartache or worry. i love my parents, and i really pray that they stay healthy and live a long and happy life, to get to watch us start our own families, and share the same joys and heartaches they went through, when they had us. thank god for my wonderful parents. 我爱你们, Daddy and Mummy!

trials & tribulations of a photoshoot

we had a disastrous start to our photoshoot on Tuesday, when i bolted awake at 7.39AM and realized that it was way too bright to be 6AM (the time my alarm was supposed to go off at) and so off i scuttled, gathering makeup, props, hairspray and etc, squeezed onto the packed-like-sardines train with the morning crowd, and when i reached office, i discovered that the hair spray had leaked all over the stuff in my bag! D: thank goodness, nothing happened to my camera, or i swear i'd have cried! then lagi worse cos the hair spray bottle was like practically empty after the leakage and we didn't have enough spray to set Cher's curls :(

luckily, both Cher and Farah were slightly earlier than me heehee and were already preparing in the office, did the makeup, steamed the clothes, and we were off a good two hours later than scheduled -__-

ah well, regardless, it was a pretty good shoot in the end, despite numerous mozzie bites and the huge glaring sun slowly burning my skin into a crisp tan, and discovering that the location i wanted to shoot at had already been torn down! :( but still, we kept our spirits up, went for a good lunch, and carried on the shoot at another location, until lo and behold, a thunderstorm started brewing and put the photoshoot to an abrupt halt D:

that's the thing about outdoor shoots, you're subject to the mercy of the sun, skies and killer mozzies. but most of the time, the pictures are worth the effort and toil, even with my amateur photography skills! i personally prefer not to be the photographer, but don't have much of a choice, really, cos it's hard to find someone who can accommodate to your timings, and have good synergy with you to know how you want the pictures to turn out. Susu, our photographer sometimes, is fantastic, but she isn't available all the time, so i have to shoulder the task of taking the pictures, directing Cher, styling the outfits, looking for good angles/backgrounds, while Farah guards our barang barang at the side!

enough boring words. some pictures i chose from the shoot! colors have been edited so they're not so true to picture. check the Facebook page and also the pictures on the main collection page tonight for more accurate colors!

 

oh yes, our cameo actor for the shoot: Mr Bean's teddy, courtesy of Farah! how adorable and he makes such a good companion to the Hearts-a-Bon-Bon Skirt.

the skirts come with really good quality safety shorts btw! cos i'm just so thoughtful like that :P HEHE. well, i figured some customers might be worried about it being too short or getting easily exposed, so TADAAH safety shorts to the rescue!!!

 

dolled up Cher to look like a doll, though i'm not sure if we succeeded! the little eyeliner heart i draw on her cheek ended up looking like a mole or something cos it was half hidden by her hair :( probably got more weird stares than anything else. but i thought it was cute for a change, no?

 

Arrow Knit Cardi in Yellow, with tortoiseshell buttons that are superbly dainty. how i love the brilliant Yellow color, it makes me feel happy already just looking at it!

 

but some girls would prefer Cream for its versatility :)

 

together with the Faux Tux Top. tongue twister name!! hehehe. 

 

more hearts, this time in Valentine Red. did i mention how damn long we took to source the hearts prints? every other cloth factory was out of this fabric, but we FINALLY found it!!! mad loooove!

 

Teddy resting in our barang box! christened as Bunny with a pair of bunny ears we ended up not using for the shoot!

 

i was super starving, and the sun was getting too overcast and bright, so it was time for a break, and we had lunch at Watami, which is definitely my new favorite place for Japanese food that's value for money! 3 of us shared the Deluxe Set, and for about $70 bucks inclusive of service charge and GST, we ate up a storm! *burps*

 

crispy thin wafu pizza

my abso-favourite, sukiyaki & tamago katsu toji!

 

the bibimbap is pretty awesome as well! :D

carried on shooting at our newfound location, this gorgeous playground!

 

bullied Cher into trying to climb up the side of the playground structure hahahaha it was so funny, a little boy appeared out of nowhere, and he was so eager to be in the picture!

more treacherous heights though you can't tell from here, and the Arrow Knit Cardi in Black is really pretty as well!

everything looks nice and happy in this pictures, but we were actually at the 2nd last item already, and the skies were turning an angry grey color.. the wind started whipping hair and skirts all over the place, and before we knew it, it was like BAM super heavy thunderstorm!!!! end of shoot.

HAHAHA this picture is priceless. poor Cher!

we had umbrellas and all, but still got all bedraggled and wet, cos the wind was sooo strong!!! the only positive thing that came out of the rain was that KOI had no queue :P so we all got a cuppa to treat ourselves for yet another job well done and having braved the sun and rain for the love of TVD!

mad chui looking, LOL. i don't like to take pictures with Cher when she's all made up and I'm not!!! but since we both look so woebegone, 算了啦... hahaha

super no image, sat at the side of KOI to enjoy our drinks and we called it a day!

after which it's go back to office time to reply emails and all that. ahhhhh, never ending things to do! and now i'm still up at 3.30AM with an extremely long to-do list. but nonetheless, i am so excited for this collection! my favorite skirt, top and cardi of the moment.

i really love it when we make customers happy. with simple things like winning $15 store credits or like when they receive an item and try it on and love it. i love it when customers are as excited as we are for our clothes, and are just so supportive and cute. it's the only thing that's keeping me going when i feel like my life is getting a tad too colorless and work-oriented. i especially miss working as an artist, because when you create beauty in an art form, it's something that's appreciated and admired for its beauty and meaning, regardless of commercial value. it's hard to find that same kind of beauty in what i'm doing now.

love blogging in the middle of the night. i have so much crap to write. LOL. but i don't want to turn this long and boring and i think i am really not so good with words after all. plus there are so many feelings i would love to express but don't know how to on such a not-so-personal platform as this, so i will make do  with ending it off here.

GOOD NIGHT! :)