Hello from Auckland

It’s been almost 2 weeks since I’ve been in NZ! Spent a week in Queenstown and am now in Auckland at Ben’s familiy home. Christchurch just experienced yet another (5.8) earthquake a few hours ago, I hope everyone is fine. Hang in there, Canterburians!

Back to my trip so far – I’ve heard so many praises for the South Island, and I have to agree, Queenstown is AMAZING. SO SO BEAUTIFUL. Arrowtown and Glenorchy were quaint and very pretty too. My favorite part of the trip – horse riding in Glenorchy, near Paradise (yes, that’s the name). That’s where LOTR, The Hobbit, and parts of Wolverine was shot. We rode through valleys, past snow-capped mountains, even horse-knee high up through rivers. AWESOME!

Auckland has been chill. Celebrated B’s nana’s 90th birthday, his uncle Mike’s 60th b’day, met up with some of his friends, and tomorrow, X’mas eve dinner with his family. Nice holiday so far. Me likey. I’ll leave you with some pictures. More up on FB and I’m still working on a home video!

Hottest rugby players in the RWC

The RWC 2011 is finally over and HIP HIP HURRAY! The All Blacks won it! Finally! I don’t think they played well in the finals due to all that pressure and nerves, and France played exceptionally well as they always do (when they are the underdogs), but I don’t care because they did so well in all the other matches, and were the only team who didn’t lost a single game, mostly by far except for in the finals (France lost to NZ and Tonga in Pool A, and narrowly again in the finals). Not to mention they are by far the best team in the world!

Anyway….now that I’m no longer stressing over the ABs, I thought I’d do what I did the last Soccer World Cup – come up with my pick of the top 10 hottest guys. Here goes!

1) Richie Mccaw (NZ) – he looks like he could be a king of the humans in Lord of the Rings?

2) Thierry Dusautoir (FRA)

3) Morgan Parra (FRA)

4) Mike Phillips (WAL) – those eyes!

5) Ben Foden (ENG) – those eyes!

6) Max Evans (SCOtland)

7) Gonzalo Canale (ITA)

8 ) Richard Kahui (NZ)

and I saved my 2 favorites for last -

9) Dan Carter (NZ) – So sad when he got injured

Last but definitely not least

10) Sonny Bill Williams (NZ) – *sigh*

images courtesy of respective sources on google images

RIP Steve Jobs

Dear Mr Jobs,

Thank you for your vision, innovations, for changing the world of computers, mobile phones, the way we communicate…

May you rest in peace.

 

Let’s help Gordon Ramsey ban sharkfin soup

I admit, I love the taste of it. Only over a year ago did I decide that I should not take it, along with my girlfriend Huihua. It’s not easy, really, when it’s placed in front of me at a wedding dinner. Even harder when I know it’s a ‘good quality’ fin. And hardest when I know my mum/grandma spent hours cooking it the family for Chinese New Year. But I’ve been doing well so far, and hopefully, after watching this video by Gordon Ramsey, you will stop eating it too.

 

I think it’s hard to go completely vegetarian or vegan to stop animal cruelty. But I believe small steps count. B and I make it a point to buy free range eggs, for example, which we found at NTUC Finest. We also try to buy free range beef, which is actually not that expensive. Every little bit does count, and even if we can’t change things this generation, hopefully we can set a conscience for our future generations to come.

H&M – counting down

Are you guys excited? I am. And LUCKY ME, thanks to Celeste, I’ll get to check it out the night before. Can’t wait!

I’d rather he play the ukelele than look like Colonel Sanders

But unfortunately last Saturday, that did not happen. So now I have to make do with 6 years of Colonel Sanders and his secret recipe, shared only by his trusted merry men in white.

I still find it hard to comprehend the trust (the majority of) our people have in one single political party. I don’t mean to say that they are all bad, which they are not. But they are made up of a group of humans, and humans err and may fall prey to greed.

How is it logical, that we are allowing a bunch of people we hardly know, do whatever they want with our money, without telling us what they are doing? Would you let your banker invest in anything he/she likes with your 6 million dollar fund without ever telling you what they are investing in? Doesn’t it make a sense to have a neutral party, if not yourself, check on the fund every now and then?

It just seems so illogical to me, and extremely upsetting. I worry. I can only hope for the best in the next 5/6 years time.

Until then, you will find me waiting under the palm tree dressed in blue.

Trend: High heeled loafers

High heeled loafers are making a comeback? Awesome! I still have an old pair I’ve not thrown out. Don’t you just love it when fashion trends make a come back?

 

Portraits

A couple of months back the model I worked with on my Love, Yu ad, Iga Drobisz, an international model who has done ad campaigns for brands like Byblos. Iga is also a photographer and asked if she could have me in front of the camera for some portrait shots.I said sure! And spent about 30 min with her while she snapped away. Here’s the finished product.

And yes, my dot is missing! I think photographers treat moles like blemishes and like to Photoshop them away. In any case, I do like the finished product lots. You can check out more of her work here.

Happy National Day!

In celebration of it, here are some awesome things in red & white!

p/s: I saved the best for last

 

 

Photo by Wing Shya

And so 10 lucky ladies got picked by SKII to be part of a photoshoot by Wing Shya, popular photographer from Hong Kong. The theme was “Eye on the decade”, so the focus of the pics were on our eyes. I don’t have pics of the rest of the ladies such as Choo Yilin, Sheila Sim, Lum May Yee, etc, will try to get hold of them somehow and upload them, but in the meantime, here’s mine. Tada!

And if you can’t recognize me, well, it’s ok because I think only my mum could! I look so different! Kinda old school Shanghai or something.