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Wednesday, September 28, 2011

千九百五十五:Another Year

DSC_4230blog Stray dog at Pompeii Ruins - kinda looks like how I'm feeling now


It's another year, and for this year's birthday I'm in Italy! 

I feel kinda torn between where I should be for my birthday every year. Last year, I was in Singapore, & I had a good time with friends & family in Singapore but w/o the husband although from my blog post I think there were not so good times also because I remember I worked OT on my birthday until quite late. The year before, I was in Singapore before my birthday so I had pre-birthday celebrations with friends & family before going to Hawaii with the husband for honeymoon & I remembered we quarrelled on my birthday because he kept saying going to SG was my present. which really pissed me off because it was not a holiday trip, I just had a normal working life in SG. But anyway, that's the problem with an almost photographic memory, most events are like videos in my mind that never gets erased. I shall stop thinking about those events NOW. 

Anyway, it happens that I'm in Italy this year. This is the usual overseas holiday week for me every year, either because the husband is able to take leave usually around this period (end Sept to Oct?) or if I'm in SG, it's holiday mood. We've gone to Rome, finished up Naples (actually didn't see much of Naples, but only Capri & Pompei due to the whole Naples looking kind of grimy (loads of garbage on the road sides) & every one looking dangerous on the streets. I mean, when the hotel staff also reminds you to keep your camera when walking on the streets, you know you're in trouble if you aren't wary enough of your surroundings. So I have very few pictures of Naples, (with the camera in my bag) & we are heading to Florence tomorrow morning. Eurostar trip will take 3 hours, will aim to crochet abit more on the train tomorrow (because sleeping on European trains is too dangerous!) and hit the outlets tomorrow. 

Thinking back.. seems like it's been a very fast 1 year when I just celebrated turning 28. Travelled to a 4 new countries this year, revisited 1 country, sounds like a lot of travelling! Again, lots of happiness & sadness (as per every year..), made more friends in Osaka/Kobe through the run club & twitter, took lots & lots of photos to improve, (I hoped I improved my photography skills at least by abit?) & cleared my first half marathon properly as well. Hopefully I will be able to clear my first full marathon next month but it's hard to say since I'm now holidaying away and haven't been training very much. Looking forward to conquering new challenges in the year ahead!!

Friday, September 09, 2011

千九百五十四: Grouses

doggyblog an example of a no-brain but cute dog 

I saw this dog tied to the lamppost at Sannomiya; I think the owner went into the shops. This dog was just barking and barking (the dog in the previous post was on the contrary waiting quietly for the mistress to come out of starbucks). He stopped barking for a while when I took his pictures, but when I got up to leave, started barking madly again. (-.-!) Very noisy dog! But I realise I like dogs quite a lot, (at least for photographing). The day before there was an Otousan brown Shiba-ken, who was strolling in front of me with his mistress. Suddenly he turned around, and kept looking back as he walked. I was like "omg, how cute, maybe he will start speaking like the dog in the advertisement anytime" and he actually opened his mouth & started to bark at me. He actually went out of his way to keep turning his head back to look & bark at me. wahahah! It was so funny I almost fell over laughing right on the pavement.

I think as I grow older, I get irritated by more and more types of people.

1. Indecisive guys.
I must admit my hubby is one of them. Small decisions like what to eat at a restaurant is usually made by me, but this isn't one of the things that irritate me, it's more of, when buying stuff for people, you can't decide, yet you have alot of input, when I suggest A and B, all cannot yet you can't come up with anything at all. I get very pissed off because I hate to shop with someone saying this cannot that cannot beside me. Eg, desserts for a housewarming lunch. Ok, it's better to buy something the houseowner likes. But whether the owner want to share the desserts with you after the meal is up to the owner right? Yet he was like, "ok that guy only eats this, but I want to eat that so how??"  & i thought what kind of mentality is this? Buy something for the houseowner with a bit more sincerity can? Just buy something the houseowner likes! & I said that & he got all unhappy that I'm so curt with him. duh! & I got more and more irritated as we walked round and he shot down everything I pointed out (cos he dun feel like eating those which made me more angry) so I just kept quiet and stopped walking or suggesting anything anymore.

2. People who give alot of excuses/reasons why they did anything when you point out mistakes or give them suggestions
I mean, I of course don't expect you to take every suggestion I make, but to flat not even accept it / consider it is quite rude. or give excuses like "aiyah it's for myself only so troublesome to change". The least you can say to be polite is "oh, thanks, i'll think about it, or I'll go check". If it's for yourself, don't facebook post it, don't tweet it, don't tell every single person u did something when you actually didn't, buay paiseh meh? I guess this is kinda like claiming credit for something you didn't do which is one of the things I dislike ALOT - similar to hypocrites. At least check your data before sharing it with the world, if someone find out u are "cheating" then all your previous / future data shared will be kinda dubious whether it's really what you said it is right?

3. People who keep reposting the same picture especially in instagram 
Some people post the same picture several times in a day, after making some minor adjustments  they said. Then why don't you just post a final copy & insist on posting every single edit? it's frankly very irritating because it pushes other people off the timeline so I have to scroll past the same looking picture to me to get to other people who don't do such things & might have nicer pictures in fact. Which brings me to people who post pictures of EVERYTHING & ANYTHING without really a meaningful caption should also be shot. If you caption your pictures so that I know what the picture is about, at least I understand. or if its clear on first look (eg scenery shots) fine. if it's a pic of some animal in the distance that is probably a dot in the picture - why are u wasting our time? are you yourself going to relook at these nearly 10000 pictures again in future if you say it's for yourself? If for yourself, again - stop sharing in every single thing the same pic - facebook, twitter etc. if you share the pic in these areas, it's a social thing - it means you want people to look! why don't people understand the meaning of social networks?? which also = oversharing.

4. Girls who feel the need to talk & talk & talk & talk about mindless topics.
This doesn't really apply to people I meet, but more of those people who sit at the next table at cafes/restaurants or anywhere that has chairs.
Case 1. girl comes in with bf to restaurant. She is chattering endlessly from the moment she comes in & even when she is eating. about nothing in particular but just like commenting about every single thing. wtf! i'm trying to eat & your high & loud & nasal voice is giving me a headache. & I can't hear myself when I try to talk to Ryo - who can't hear me also. Which kinda ruins my meal.
Case 2: whiny school girls at the next table at starbucks. Whining about every single thing in the world. Their hair, their class, their home, their family, cash. wtf! if no money go home, don't loiter here & make noise! I'm trying to work! or another group of girls will be whining about work / bfs or something & i'm thinking why u guys so free to whine here. Get a grip & use your time to find solutions! If you are whining quietly it's fine, but u are whining loudly - which really makes me want to hit you over your head to knock you out.

Ok enough complaints - heading to 鶴橋 (Osaka's Korea town) for 焼肉 today! then tomorrow will be heading out to 伊勢 with Ryo's team for their annual retreat - as a special guest, so i'll just be a photographer for them I suppose. Looking forward!!

Sunday, September 04, 2011

千九百五十三: Busy Week

DSC_2369blog Doggy outside Starbucks 

Last weekend was the most relaxing in a long time, without plans, so we had gyoza for lunch, headed to Mikage to read & rot for the rest of the Saturday afternoon. Sunday was a morning at the museum for an exhibition by one of the artists in Ghibli Studio as part of the Kobe Biennale 2011.

The week went by in a flash as well - due to the public holiday in Singapore on Tues & India holidays on Wednesday & Thursday. I finally set my mind to it & went for a run after around a month of not running. It was a short run, only 4km, but was quite worried about injuring my foot more than anything else, & was quite surprised that I managed to do quite ok :) On Tuesday - went for a haircut (after I think 6 months without cutting my hair!), had lunch at starbucks & walked home - which was around 2km away. Don't eat the Churros at starbucks - they were dry & hard. How I miss my churros from Brisbane... (T.T) Wednesday was a mad rush of trying to use up around 9000 points in Daimaru because they were expiring on that day & department store was closing at 8pm. How do they expect working people to shop if they close at 8pm? Finally spent the points on a carpet for use in winter, & some skincare product, & I saw some Onitsuka tigers that I will have to go back & relook at next week. (^^) On Thursday, I met Donpy & Abi for lunch. Donpy was buying over my 35mm lens! After lunch, we just hung out at starbucks while I did my work & they played bejeweled on the Iphone & Ipad, trying to beat my score. Muahahaha - not possible yet! Friday was finally a day at home rushing work stuff, & Typhoon No. 12 (Talas) came along so it was kinda rainy & gloomy. The typhoon was travelling at 10km/h can you imagine, that's like a runner who can run 10km in an hour?! so slow! But apparently, it's slow but powerful and covers a wide area and caused major damage in Wakayama & Nara with floods, landslides and some deaths. So yesterday we were at home waiting for the storm to pass, but actually it was quite ok weather throughout the day, just grey & drizzling, and the rain only really started to fall at night. (><) Today was sort of a housewarming at Ryo's ex-manager's place and then went to replace the batteries on my watch, checked exactly what to do to upgrade my pocket wifi & came home. I'm feeling quite exhausted due to sleeping too late last night.

 Achievement last week, I finished 1 cushion cover!
  DSC_2407

I'm quite proud of myself, because it's totally handstitched and I didn't think I could finish it because the seams was already like 80cm long. But I did! And I started on the cover for the 2nd chair, hopefully, that one gets completed in a shorter time!

 I have to run alot more next week, tomorrow onwards I guess.. less than 60 days to the Osaka Marathon.

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