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

Modern Architecture.

LIoyd's Building.

Manchester Civil Justice Center. 

For a contemporary theme, High-tech architecture emerged as an attempt to revitalize the language of Modernism, it drew inspiration from technology to create new architectural expression. The theorical work of Archigram provided significant inspiration of the High-tec movement.  High-tech architecture is mostly associated with non-domestic buildings, perhaps due to the technological imagery. The two most prominent proponents were the Lord Rogers of Riverside and Lord Foster of Thames Bank. Roger’s most iconic building is Lloyd’s Building (image below). Glass is often used today as in Architecture so as to maximize the use of sunlight, glass also improves the looks of buildings compared to the dull and boring colour of concrete. An example will be the Manchester Civil Justice Center. 

19th Century Architecture in England

Palace of Westminister 

Widespread Gothic construction began in England in the 19^th century, led by the renewal of church building but spreading to secular construction. In the Victorian Era, the Gothic revival developed an abstract rigour and became a movement driven by culture , religious and social concerns. The grandest work of Victorian Gothic architecture will be the Palace of Westminster in London . High Victorian Gothic was driven by the writings of John Ruskin, based on his observations of the buildings in Venice. The Gothic revival also drove a widespread effort to restore deteriorating medieval churches. Notable work is St Pancras Station , designed by George Gilbert Scott. Other leading Victorian Gothic Architects included G .E Street, J. F Pearson and G. F Bodley. 

Thomas Sheraton

Thomas Sheraton was an English furniture designer , one of the "big three" English furniture makers along with Thomas Chippendale and George Hepplewhite. I personally like the way he designed and the proccess of him making this particular chair (pictured above). He stained a pear-tree wood with writing ink , polished it with a stiff brush and then added hot wax to the surface for an ebonized look. Before he set up as a professional consultant and teacher , he was apprenticed to a local cabinet maker and continued working as a journeyman cabinet maker until he moved to London in 1790 , where he taught perspective , architecture and cabinet design for craftsmen. 

Football, 足球, Fútbol, Calcio, Fußball, Futebol, Sepak bola, voetbal, fotboll

UEFA's Respect campaign 

My worn out Adidas F50 

I shall say that Football unites the World. Football brings the world together , the World Cup which is held every 4 years , brings family , friends and relatives together as a whole. Even in big Club games like Football Association Cup final or the biggest Club match in the world , the UEFA Champions League , brings us , football fans together. I myself love playing and watching football. Playing with my buddies or with complete strangers allows us to strengthen the friendship bonds between us. Playing with strangers allows us to practice Respect and fair play or perhaps maybe even make new friends. My friends and I share the Passion in football when we watch it Live on TV. For example , last season's Champions League final between Bayern Munich and Borussia Dortmund (2 of the best teams in Germany) we went to Simpang Bedok to change it Live , although I'm neutral , I can feel the sense of passion , love and believe in my friends and all of the football fans there. I personally supports Liverpool , also when I'm watching a game I'll scream and yell and sometimes make weird gestures around the house and if Liverpool scored , I literally will scream at the top of my voice and jumps around the house like an insane monkey. And if Liverpool loses a really important match , I'll cry too and be really devastated. This shows my passion in Football. All football fans or maybe even everybody when it comes to the World Cup is united by football and by Passion for the game. Even if you are not a football fan , when it comes to World Cup , people like my parents and my sister , who do not know much about football , is united and passionate for The Beautiful Game.

Watching the 2012/2013 UEFA Champions League final together with my friends and many other football fans in Singapore at Simpang Bedok. 

Real Madrid (Spain) 

 These are some of the Graphics of Football Clubs that I find it interesting :)

Paris Saint Germain (France) 

Manchester United (England) 

Chelsea (England) 

Liverpool <3 (England) You'll Never Walk Alone

HIDE and SEEK

 Hide and Seek is a store in Bussorah Street , somewhere near Haji Lane , opened by Keith Png. It sells a wide variety of things from clothings to eyewear to perfume and to beauty products. What I love about Hide and Seek is the concept of the store. Keith Png brings in brands that most of us would not have heard before like , B Sided , Nooka watches , Dr Denim and Puma BLACK LABEL , also he also brings in brands from local fashion designers like , JASON , Evenodd , Koops and Young and Restless. Personally I feel that he really expand the local fashion scene in bringing in designs from local designers and many Singapore celebrities do wear their clothing. Unfortunately , the pricing of the things are relatively quite expensive because of the fact that local designers do not mass produce their clothings in other countries , they do it in Singapore and the quality of it is good. An Evenodd tee can cost you at around $69-79 average and a JASON long-sleeve shirt can cost around at least $149. They also have interesting bag brands such as dothebag. Personally i owe 2 Puma Black Label products , a pair of high-cut sneakers designed by Rudolf Dassler Schufabrik and a hoodie designed by South Korean designer Bumsuk Choi. Puma Black Labels collaborated with different designers such as Alexander McQueen , Hussein Chalayan and Mihara Yasuhiro. Overally , I love the concept of the store as well as the unique products on sale that had caught the eye of many celebrities in Singapore. I would recommend checking this store out if you are interested in Fashion. :)

My hoodie , by Bumsuk Choi.

Sneakers by Rudolf Dassler Schufabrik 

Cloak and Dagger 

Koops 

Evenodd 

JASON 

Young and Reckless 

WanderWonder

dothebag

dothebag

Puma Black Label Alexander McQueen