VA1M

Awesome class!

Its been about 2 and a half months since the start of the academic year , and I must say that I am very privileged to have these group of classmates! We all bonded well together and learned some of the cultures from other countries with my class mates such as Bryan , Nessie , Clara and Mischelle from Indonesiaaaa , Jade and Lourein from Malaysia , Hailun and Fang Hong from China and Maria from Russia! I think its cool to have such good classmates as there are there when you needed them and they are the ones you'll always interact with everyday during lessons and we depend on each other to support each other and to help others out with their work , for example , teaching people like me how to paint because I totally suck in painting. Well , as time goes by and the weeks starts to past really really quickly , we will soon be separated and proceed on to our majors but I will definitely miss this class and our awesome class representative Rig , because they bring so much fun and laughter to my everyday classes in school. :) Note: Not all of them are in this picture.

Sand Boarding ~

 Sand boarding is a sport similar to snowboarding. It is a recreational activity that takes place on sand dunes rather than snow-covered mountains. During my trip to Western Australia in 2009 , my family and I tired sand boarding for the first time in our lives. I must say that i was a lot of fun and I enjoyed it a lot! But , there is a down side of it. Making your way up to the top of the sand dune is like a snail making it's way up a wall. The sand is so fine that when you step on it , it sinks instantly and plus the strong winds that blows the sand straight into your face makes it an even tougher challenge to 'hike' up the sand dune rather than sand boarding down itself. We used our boards as supports to anchor our way up up up the tallest sand dune we can find and sure enough , me and my sister were totally out of breath and exhausted. But all of that is worth it as we slide down the dune with great speed and the adrenaline rush was great. If you have the chance to try sand boarding , go try it out :) but beware of the process of getting up. ;)

Bhaktapur.

Street of Bhaktapur 

 Bhaktapur , Nepal , a place full of history , tradition , culture and art. I had to upload a post about this place. It was back then in 2010 year-end when my family visited Nepal. I still remembered back then when my parents announced that we were going to a third-world country like Nepal , my sister and I were whining non-stop because of the fact that we were all influenced by Western Media that we love Western and developed countries more. However , I was shocked that I actually fell in love with Nepal and hope to revisit it some other day. Bhaktapur is one of my favourite places. It is an ancient Newar town in the east corner of Kathmandu Valley , the place is also listed as a UNESCO World Heritage site for its rich culture , temples , wood , metal and stone artwork. As we walked along the narrow streets of Bhaktapur , we are surrounded by traditional art and architecture , historically monuments and craft works , magnificent windows , pottery and weaving industries , excellent temples , beautiful ponds , rich local customs , culture , religion , festivals , musical mystic and many more! Bhaktapur till now , is still an untouched as well as preserved ancient city that is itself a world to explore for tourists.

Traditional houses.

Wooden cravings on the pillers. 

Sadness in Bali.

Memorial to remember the victims who perished during the attack.

The nightmare happened on 12th of October 2002 in the tourist district of Kuta on the Indonesian island of Bali. Various members of the Jemaah Islamiyah detonated three bombs , a backpack-mounted device carried by a suicide bomber , a large car bomb and a small bomb outside the Embassy of the United States. They bombed the top two most popular night clubs in the region , Paddy's Pub and Sari's Club. 202 people perished , mainly Australians , Indonesians and British and a further 209 people got injured. This tragedy along with other major attacks or disaster like 911 , showed us that we cannot take our lives for granted. Anything can happen in a split second and you may not know what will happen next. It is also a wake up call for us to be responsible for our own security and for the other countries to increase security measures because there are violent groups of people , like JI and not to mention , al-Qaeda that want to cause death among us. This is a terrible tragedy on the peaceful and lovely island of Bali and i wish someday , there will be peace in our world , no fighting among ourselves , no civil war , no corruption , no starvation and no hatred towards each other. ~  

Italian Beasts

My rides.

 Italian goods , luxurious goods , only affordable for the rich and yes, these two beautiful beasts are Italian brands and Italian made. On the left is the Lamborghini Aventador Lp700-4 and on the left is like bright yellow Ferrari 458 Italia. Two of my dream cars (but i prefer the Lamborghini) , my dream is to own at least one super car next time , although it is almost impossible here in Singapore as car and COE prices keeps going up , one of them can set you back at around $1million , nevermind owning two. But , after all I must work really really super hard to achieve that dream of mine but my goal is to drive a Porsche or an Audi next time , already it sounds more realistic than my dream. I love the Lamborghini , I love their concepts and their style of design , they use a lot of angled edges as compared to other cars like the Ferrari which is sleek and smooth. The edges gave the Lamborghini a more fierce-some and ferocious look. Well , we should always set high goals for us to achieve and to achieve it , we must do our best in everything and not be lazy and slack off. "Aim for the Sky and you will reach the ceiling , aim for the ceiling and you will stay on the floor" Bill Shankly , former manager of Liverpool Football Club.  

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Throwback to Bionicle.

The gun to the left with green projectiles. 

 Classic. Lego , who will forget about Lego?? A throwback into my primary school /lower secondary school years when I used to be so hardcore into Lego , especially their Bionicle series as shown here. I kept pestering my parents to get one for me and when they did , I pestered them for another one. The price for these were not that cheap to be honest , the small , regular size ones costs around $23 , where as limited edition and big models can sometimes costs up to $100 , my limited edition model surprisingly just set me back at around $28. The fun part of Lego is of course , the building process. You can let your creative juice to flow wildly and create something out of nothing on your own which is the thing back then. Bionicle as well, it is always fun to see one part of the Lego slide smoothly into the other part like joints in our bones. And the wings, weapons and the mechanism involved in the Bionicle , for example the big orange ball on the chest which acts like a drop pod and the air pressure "gun" with the green bullets. Just flick a part of the Lego and it can work it out. Its sad to hear that I think Lego has decreased in popularity in recent years among children because I really love it and I wish i could go back to those days of assembling and reassembling Lego structures and design my own structure , and not to forget , further my collection of Bionicles.

Big bright orange pods. 

Soft toys galore.

 I do not know what happened when i was a kid and when my sister was a kid. How the hell do we get so many soft toys?!? This transparent glass storage cardboard is just behind my computer desk , whenever I'm taking a break or when I finished using it ,I turn around and those bunch of soft toys will just somehow , always catch my attention without fail. Occasionally I will think back in time to the old days when I was a kindergarden kid who do not have any stress and allowed to wake up late everyday , no projects , no homeworks no A0 works and basically , do not really need to care about anything. I thought of how did my sister and I collected so many soft toys! I do remember how I got some of them but.. 90% of it i... do not remember. We used to cuddle with these soft toys when we were sleeping and of course , all kids love soft toys and cuddle them on a cool night is just perfect , perhaps kids nowadays love Iphones and Ipads more than soft toys though. In my opinion , I feel that soft toys are slowly becoming extinct and will only be part of history in this world as technology progresses. Now it is common to see kids playing Angry Birds or Candy Crush on their Andriod or Apple devices as these things becomes more advance and easy-to-use. I'm just glad that I sort of have a vast "collection" of soft toys from 10 plus years ago.  Looking at those soft toys really brought back memories from my colourful childhood where I had classic things to play with rather than electronic goods.. :)  

P "Time Square."

Streets of the Champs-Elysees decorated with lights for Christmas 

No no no , its Paris's Time Square! Not the actual Times Square in Manhatten , New York City , but its the popular and world renowned avenue , the Champs-Elysees. The full name of the street , Avenue des Champs-Elysees is filled with cinemas , cafes , car rooms , luxury clothing boutiques and many more! It is like a shoppers dream to be here as there are brands like Louis Vutton , Gucci , Sephora and Longchamp. This famous street is just right down another of Paris's landmark , the Arc de Triomphe and it is one of the most expensive strips of real estates in the WORLD. Walking along the avenue on a cold chilly Paris night was a sweet and fresh experienced. I remembered my sister and mum spent almost an hour in Sephora to buy beauty products and me and my dad were like "are they done yet......" whining all over the place haha. We also saw a sick Peugeot onxy concept in the Peugeot show room along the street! As it was near the festive season during our time of visit , the avenue was decorated with beautiful LED lightings for Christmas and some stores like McDonald's also decorated their store , thus as you walk down this famous street , you get a sense and atmosphere of festivity. Overall , to get chance to walk down the world's most famous avenue was phenomenon , however the shops , as I mentioned early , are luxury boutiques this we can hardly afford them :( , except for the beauty products and oh , I did bought a Ray Ban Wayfarer though. ;)

Peugeot's oxny concept in their car room.

A little break :)

Arc de Triomphe

:)

Another one of Paris's and the World's famous monument , the Arc de Triomphe. Located at the Charles de Gaulle , it is built to honor those who fought and died for France during the French Revolutionary and the Napoleonic Wars. We took Metro Line 1 and alighted at Charles de Gaulle - Etolie , went straight up the stairs and there is the famous monument. Also , like the Musee du Lourve and the Eiffel Tower , the Arc de Triomphe has been featured in post cards , television shows and many other things , thus to see it face to face was also quite an experience. However I must say that it is not really my type of attraction because it has not much to look at apart from its carvings and the situation of it being in the center of a busy Paris junction. I will definitely prefer the Lourve and the Eiffel Tower more than this but of course , if you are visiting Paris , you got to see them all right? Nevertheless , we think that it is a great experience visiting the Arc de Triomphe although it is only for a short period of time as it is a representation of French History as well as one of the many landmarks of Paris.

The Eiffel Tower

Eiffel tower at night.

 Probably one of the world's most recognizable landmark , the Eiffel Tower. Erected in 1889 , it stands tall and proud as the world's most visited paid monument located in Champs de Mars in Paris. We all know how the Eiffel Tower looks like , it has appeared in post cards , posters , television shows , movies , advertisements and many more , so to see it in person in real life in Paris , is really one kind of an experience. My family and I all went like "woahh that is actually the Eiffel Tower right here" , it is THAT extraordinary. We first visited it during the night , it shines bright in the Paris night sky with a gigantic spot light shinning out from the top. Occasionally , the entire tower sparklers like a star when its special sparkling lights are turn on. During the next day , we went up to the very top of the tower to look at the skyline of Paris. It is really really high and at the top of the tower , there is an interesting statistic board that compares the Eiffel Tower to all other countries' tallest structure , Singapore is in there too! With One Raffles Place being tallest. Do i have to say anything more?? I thank my parents for allowing me to have an opportunity to witness one of the greatest sights in the world in one of the greatest cities.    

Nature "frame" shot by my sis :)

View from the top of the tower. 

Chateau de Versailles

Entrance to the Palace.  

 That was the day that I've walked one of the biggest garden that you can find from the face of the Earth. That's right , it the Gardens of Versailles , but first I will talk about the palace first. The Palace of Versailles is a royal Chateau in the IIe-de-France region. After every generation of King Louis (s) , the palace kept expanding until how it is today. Inside the palace there are thousands of rooms , paintings , sculptures and engravings. It is almost like the Lourve museum , it is humongous in there. There were some paintings and rooms that mesmerized us like the Opera Theatre and the Hall of Mirrors. Just like what happened when we were at the Lourve , we got tired of walking and yes , we bought a ticket for an extra mini palace North - East of the main Palace. The Gardens though are amazing , from the fountains to the well-maintained grass sculptures and mazes. The Palace overall shows us how did the Royal family live in France in the Palace and also their jaw-dropping and vast collections of engravings , sculptures as well as paintings.  

The Opera House in the Palace 

One of the many rooms. 

Galerie des Glaces (Hall of Mirrors) 

The super enormous Versailles gardens in the background 

Trianon de Porcelaine. 

The Lourve.

The Lourve 

Lourve at night

The Lourve! We travelled to Paris from Switzerland on the TGV French high-speed train. The Lourve Museum (Musee du Lourve in French) is a must-go when visiting Paris apart from the Eiffel Tower , this is because it not only contains the most famous painting in the world , the Moni Lisa by Leonardo Da Vinci , it is also one of the largest museum in the world with an extraordinary vast among of Ancient Artifacts from different civilization such as Egyptian , Roman , Greek , Islamic and many more! We took Metro 1 line from our hotel which is located in La Defense , to Palais Royal Musee du Lourve station which is right underneath the museum. When we arrived , I was in awe to see the Lourve Pyramid that was shown so many times in TV Shows and in post cards! We bought our tickets and we're all ready to travel back in time. The Museum is divided into 3 different sections and the Museum is enormousssss. Words cannot describe how huge the Museum is! We spent half a day in the Museum and we barely even covered 25% of it , we decided to just visit some of the famous paintings or sculptures because we are all too tired to continue walking and explore the humongous land of artifacts and paintings. And guess what , we did not expect the Museum to be this big and we bought an additional exhibition which was the Raphael exhibition as it was more worth the money overall! In the end , only my sister , my cousin and me visited the Raphael exhibition which was fantastic too with huge work of art made from fabrics , unfortunately we were not able to take photos in there :(. Overall of course the Lourve is a definite must-see in Paris but if you do not want to miss out on most of the exhibits like I did , i recommend you set aside an entire day for the Musee du Lourve. :)    

All set and ready.

The Mona Lisa 

Nike of Samothrace