Day to Day updates

MOVIES Outings


watched The Taking of Pelham 123 and Drag me to Hell. both good movies with their own highlights. The Taking of Pelham 123 is a terrorist movie where nicholas cage stages a hostage of a cabin of passengers aboard Pelham 123 (a train in NYC). Nicholas Cage did an awesome portrayal of an angst filled wallstreet ex-convict while Daniel Washington acted well as the humble and mild-tempered train manager. A and I enjoyed the movie very much even though every 10min was filled with "motherf*@#$%" ! the plot was simple but nicholas cage was very engaging :)


Drag me to Hell, on the other hand, was just way too funny, with stupid horror tactics that was just so lame, it cracked us up! The evil old woman in the show was scary but not when her dentures fell out after a failed and (may i add) disgusting attempt to bite the protagonist of the movie! That was hilarious! We were laughing throughout the show. it was supposedly going to be a scary night, especially since Wp and i caught the midnight screening but the movie was just too funny, we weren't really scared by the end of the night.
---------------

Met up with yin yee too! she's doing her internship now but i managed to meet her for dinner and a catch-up session :) so glad to see her again! she brought me to a watch shop and almost got me a Kenneth Cole watch which costed 200+bucks(!!!), i didn't really want her to spend so much money on a belated birthday gift so i told her to get for me slippers instead(which for one, i really do need right now since my havainas broke during my holiday trip)!

went to collect my convocation gown on thursday with the grad trip gang and took a few shots of us throwing our caps! forgot to get the photos from WP but will definitely post when convocation comes! arh! can't wait to throw the caps (though we were told not to throw it because it is actually made of wood and could potentially cause injury -_-")
------------------------
Church wide bible study on friday



went to vivocity in the day and saw yong wend on my way back! wow! he's my first 3 months friend from SAJC and he's currently in pharmacy. it's been years since i last saw him and you know, it's always nice to see friends from ages ago. i was on the bus sleeping in a completely unglam manner (with my trademark 90degrees tilt of head...which some of you are already aware) when i suddenly received a message "Sandra, are you on bus 963?" The Sender read "Yong Wend". And immediately i looked around and as usual i couldn't spot him. "Where are you???"i sent another message. And immediately i received another reply "I'm on your LEFT!"
lol. It was kinda funny. We ended chatting all the way to my bus stop and we're gonna plan a class reunion again! I hope it actually comes to pass cause i do kinda miss the first 3 months gang!

And then Alvin came down to my place so we could all go to church together in my dad's car. I was super nervous about driving all the way to expo especially at peak hour. and my sis and Alvin were damn "nice", they ate dinner in the car while i drove and nearly died of starvation. lol.





Alvin then drove Myrna, YP, Kelly, Jonathan, my sis and I back to Clementi Station after which i took over and drove then to Al-Azhar Prata Store at Bukit Timah to grab supper or DINNER in my case :S After a day's worth of driving, i think i kinda felt more confident, maybe soon enough i wouldn't need so much guidance, that's of course when i become more direction savvy.
-------------------------
Mango Sale on Wed!

went shopping with kelly and lilian on wed and we managed to catch the mango sale. it was just crazy, there was a long line of people queuing up for the public sale at 2pm. and once we were inside, it just got even more hectic, i could barely breathe, i could barely walk. and in the end, i came out empty handed! but it was definitely an experience! i've never queued up for a mango sale till now. the previous time i ever queued up for a sale was for club 21 sale(which i also came out empty handed). but all in all, it was still fun hanging out with the girls! they're an awesome bunch :)

--------------------------
Science Centre & Da Vinci Exhibition with Estelle & Wp
went to science centre for the da vinci exhibition on sat to celebrate estelle's birthday. it was such a nostalgic affair to be back at science centre. the last time i went was like....lol, okay, i realised i've actually been to science centre recently for my bro's competition. so it wasn't that long ago!


me & the hall queen, estelle!


omg. a naked man in science centre! Introducing the Vitruvian Man whose body stats are aligned with the Golden Ratio. The proportions are all asthetically pleasing to the eye. The distance top of his head to the nipples is 1 cubit(size of 6 palms), the distance from the nipples to the private part is 1 cubit, the distance from the private part to the knees is 1 cubit and finally, the distance from the knees to the foot is 1 cubit! how cool is that? Certainly there is a more detailed study of proportions than what i have already mentioned, such as length of the ear is 1/3 of a man's face, the distance from the hairline to the eyebrows is 1/3 of a man's face and so on.

I also learnt more about the mona lisa painting and i bet some of you didn't already know this. Did you know the mona lisa painting doesn't have eyebrows and eyelashes?! Da vinci was very particular about details and it was impossible that he would have painted mona lisa without crucial details such as her eyebrows and eyelashes. Theories such as the oil fading and discolouration have been postulated to explain for these missing details.

Napolean used to hang Mona Lisa in his bathroom hence the water vapours in the bathroom cause irreversible damage to the mona lisa painting as of present. Spots can be found next to her eye and neck due to the water vapours.

The exhibition revealed 25 secrets behind the mona lisa painting that was unravelled through various examinations of the painting under infra-light colours and various other techniques. Pach, the photographer assigned to examine mona lisa, built a 250,000,000pixels camera in order to capture the intricate details of the painting. 250m!!!!! wth. i surely wouldn't want that cam coming anywhere near me, it'd probably be able to capture every crazy pore and blackhead on your face! and that's not even taking account the cost of that camera!!


That's me in the terrifying electric chair! i was freaking scared when i first got on, but the power proved too little and i didn't even feel a thing! gosh, i wonder if it's cause i'm completely electric resistant!


The i-space exhibit with it's crazy neon lighted floor! we were absolutely fascinated by it! it was like a mini techno club! haha

.
Headless estelle! Headless Sandra! Boo!

Greece Part #1 - Athens

i'm having a bit of blogger inertia right now, so my posts will be relatively few and relatively late these days. so just pardon my laziness.

Day 3 & 4 - Athens

Our hostel at Athens Studio :) it came with a kitchen, a bedroom, a bathroom & our very own living room!

We headed down to Acropolis the next day. In Greek, Acropolis means "Highest City". Acropolis was dedicated to the goddess Athena and as opposed to what some people may believe, it's not a single structure on its own but a historical site with many individual site monuments, the most famous of which is the Parthenon(used to be one of the world's 7 wonders).

Behind us is the famous Parthenon dedicated to Athena Parthenos, the patron of their city and the most magnificent creation of Athenian democracy at the height of its power.

The above structure would be the Temple of Athena Nike, which in the Mycenaen times protected the entrance of Acropolis.

The above structure is the Temple of Olympian Zeus (most famousy known as Hercules' father). There are only 15 columns remainingin the structure.

Acropolis is a very popular tourist attraction and there was just an enormous amount of tourists visiting the sites of acropolis, its kinda crazy cause everywhere we went, there were just people and people and people. We couldn't stand in a single spot and not have a group of tourists right behind blocking the monuments we wanted to capture! it kinda ruined the whole atmosphere.

As you've already noticed, Athens seems filled with remains of historical buildings, all of which are built with high columns and looking very like the other. We later found out that the different monuments differed by the columns. Apparantly, if you look closely enough, you'll notice that the upper part of the columns differ in their designs. The temple of Zeus columns had leaf motifs while the Parthenon had a normal curvature.

The site monuments have been excavated of all their marbles and artefacts. The elgin marbles, marble sculptures, inscriptions and architectural members taken from the Parthenon and other buildings in the Acropolis of Athens, are ironically located in the National Gallery of London instead of Athens. Why? A British ambassador to the Ottoman Empire in the past was granted controversial permission to remove pieces from the Acropolis. Till date,there has been alot of debate as to where these elgin marbles truly belong. Because in actual fact, the removal of the pieces was legal and the British empire claimed it was for better preservation of the marbles cause Athens did not have proper preservation facilities in their musuems at that time. However, recently Athens have reconstructed their musuem, added modern preservation facilities and reserved a storey for the elgin marbles that they believe rightfully belongs to them and in time to come, they hope to gain ownership of the elgin marbles that they had lost to the British many fateful years ago.

We had lunch at the Plaka, which is a charming historic district at the foot of Acropolis, with its neoclassical houses, shops and restaurants and picturesque ruins fro the city's Roman era. Lunch was a typical affair and above is a typical food found in Greece. It's called stuffed tomatoes! it was delicious by the way :)

Pretty flowers along the streets!

We then headed down to Mount Sounion for about 5.70eur. We enjoyed a scenic view of the coast while on the bus ride down to the out-of-city attraction. Mount Sounion is popular for the view of sunset.

We soaked our feets in the clear waters of the beach at Mt Sounion.

It was warm and nice in Mount Sounion, just like the rest of Athens. The only problem i had with Athens was the dust filled air that clogs up your nose at the end of a day's walk. Your feet gets dusty and sandy after walking for a short distance because of all the sand from the ruins. Certainly wouldn't be my number one destination for a permanent home.

Went to the top of the hill, and right at the top is the Temple of Poisedon, right beside it was a cafe where we decided to rest and eat some ice-cream. Ultimate pleasure to be sitting at the top of a hill, under a shade with the warm, sunny weather.

There! When we were done with our ice-cream, we went to pose with the temple of Poisedon! You're probably thinking..."This looks just the same as the temple of Olympian Zeus and well, everything else"....actually, we thought the same too! hurhur. we are so un-cultured people.

I'm at the top of the world! Look at the view! Awesome-ness!

the cute couple at the edge of the cliff, the backdrop almost certainly looks fake and i would have completely thought it was photoshopped in if not for the fact that i was actually there at that single point of time! it's completely REAL! x3

we didn't manage to catch the famous sunset at mount sounion! argh! the last bus back to athens was at 8pm and even at that time, the sun had yet to set! -_-" but we did manage to catch some parts of it on the bus ride back :)

Day 5 - Delphi day trip



We headed to Delphi, a pretty town perched on top of a mountain. The Delphi archaeological sites are also a UNESCO World Heritage site. In ancient times, it was the most important site of the oracle of the god Apollo. Delphi was revered throughout the Greek world as the site of the omphalos stone, the centre of the universe.


breathtaking view from the top,it was absolutely amazing. the quaint town was kinda french-like in a way.





acting cool at the archaeological sites:)


whee! addy & i found a tree our height!aww, i'm in love with the tree, i wish i could pluck it and transport it back home! too bad it's part of a UNESCO site and i'll probably go to jail for






the only museum we went and paid for on the trip. it was full of nude statues and barely there artefacts, which were missing so many parts that you could barely recognise what it was trying to repsresent. example, there was a ceramic portrait of some soldier on a horse but all we could see was the leg of the horse? lol. ridiculous.

Day 6 - Athens (Victoria Street & Omonia Street)

We almost got robbed on this day. Addy and I got off the train and were rushing towards the escalator leading out of the train station when, oblivious to us, 2 punksters came running after us. Jon saw the 2 men running after us and quickly called out to us, that was when Addy turned around and the 2 men got frightened and quickly ran off. Some black man then came up to us and asked "Where are you from? Those 2 men were trying to rob you. Be careful"

This all happened at the Victoria Street Station, which is a very seedy area with a lot of blacks around the area. We were not only targetted once but twice in the same station! When we were heading back, another group of blacks wanted to rob us! But at that point of time, we were all on high alert and we noticed the suspicious behaviour of the group of men. SC immediately said "Quick, let's all diao them so they know that we're aware of their movements". So the 6 of us turned and stared hard at the gang of pickpockets, it was kinda funny though cause the gang immediately dispersed and decided against robbing us.

Victoria Street also happens to be the street where my friend was pickpocketed! And honestly speaking, the police system in Athens is horrendous. Different districts have their own police post and when we wanted to report the stolen wallet, the police tried to push responsibilty to the other district police, giving all sorta excuse like "Oh, you should go to the police post where you lost the wallet", "oh you should go to the police post where you realised you lost the wallet!". WTH. It was really a pain in the ass. thank goodness we have a respectable and lawful police system in Singapore.