Marina Bay day & Mandarin Oriental date

One of the girls in my project group works at an agency in the city and she has the apartment of one of her clients at her disposal, so we met there to study. Check out the view of Marina Bay! I had a date in the same area after our study session, so the timing and location were perfect.

 

It was a good night. We went to Marina Bay Sands and checked out the indoor ice skating rink, saw cute Halloween desserts at a bakery and went to see all the luxury boutique displays, just strolling about and chatting.

 

Afterwards we continued our walk along the waterfront, before we headed to our destination for the night, the quaint bar at the Mandarin Oriental. Our goal was to try their signature cocktails and eat the famed hamburgers. Everything was really delicious! ♥

 

Halloween party pics & scent of horses

We took many Halloween party photos last night at Marmalade, but then my camera with the most awesome party pics with the whole crew got stolen. So sad about that... Luckily my friends managed to take some photos as well so at least I have some memories! Have a look at the photos - I was dressed as an angel, with wings and all! :)

I really loved the party venue at the Bukit Timah Saddle Club. When going outside for some air in between dances you could scent the smell of the horses around the premises. I miss riding sooo much! And I miss my horse, Monique. RIP '06. ♥

 

Btw, talking about horses... One day I wanted to go horseback riding with my friends here in Singapore... It was 600 dollars, I am not kidding! WTF, Singapore? Given what we would spend if everyone came with, we could buy our own horse for that kind of money! :D

Sneak peek: My Halloween costume

All set for the Halloween party tonight! The location has been revealed to all attendees now. Here is a little hint of my Halloween costume for this year. :o)

Bintan-Go vs Bintan-No

All in all I had a wonderful trip to Bintan. I would love to visit again, but there is so much more to see before I go back to Sweden! I will write about some other trips we have been on until now later on, but to sum up the trip to Bintan I really want to share some pros and cons. :o)

Bintan-No!

- Sandflies (Bring insect repellant and if the bites show up anyways after your return home (like mine did) go and get antibiotics (anti-itch, yeah!) fast.

- I didnt sleep for four days until I got the prescription, it was a nightmare!

 

Bintan-Go!

+ The boat ride takes less than one hour from Singapore!

+ Book a chalet at a beachfront property far off the city! You'll have a private beach and plenty of local food made by the staff that run the place.

+ The food! Nasi goreng and satay obviously; and my favourite, their banana pancakes, yummy!

Exploring Bintan, days & nights

The trip to the island of Bintan was my first getaway from Singapore. Well-needed, after not having any summer holidays and working my summer job until two days before flying to Singapore.

So off we went, to spend a long weekend relaxing, swimming in the ocean, exploring small islands when the tide was low and taking a boat trip around the area. I finally got to try the absolute notion of vacation: drinking from a fresh coconut at a wonderful beach! We had a birthday boy with us on the island, so for that night we made him a vodka watermelon! :)

We took it easy during the days and partied it up with our little crew at night. Since we managed to be there during both muslim new year and another public holiday (National day I think) all the locals were extra joyful. We enjoyed sitting around a bonfire at the beach every night.

Even though we stayed right at a wonderful beach, we still wanted to see some more. One day we rented some motorbikes and went around for hours and hours on this any photographers dream-island; we got to see the most beautiful spots of Bintan!

Halloween: Movies & costume ideas

Halloween comes best in two parts for me, a party night and movies! Tomorrow I really want to watch some scary movies but for now I have to find a costume for tonights party which will be held at a secret location, all very exciting! In the past I have been to Halloween parties with a lot of different outfits. There was Dracula, a ghost, an inappropriate nun, a crazy person that had escaped from a mental institution (not kidding, haha) and a dark fairy with black wings. What will it be this year? Talking about costumes, here is a Halloween costume for couples that I found. So pretty! I have always loved that movie, too. Here you go, Mary Poppins & Bert. ♥

More travel photos?

I've done a fair bit of traveling over here but a glance at the other posts in the "Travels"-archive just talks of leaving to some place and shares the occasional photo upon my return to the city; it never actually goes bananas offering you pictures from what I've seen, where I've been, which was the purpose of this blog to begin with. I've been sloppy, but there are plenty of photos to show. So from now on I'm going to start sharing.

Public holiday in Singapore

Today is a public holiday over here in Singapore and since I'm not a muslim, or religious in general for that matter, I'll just be enjoying the fact that we got a day off from uni. Thank you! This makes me think of Singapore day, so much fun! ♥

Perhentian Island, Malaysia

Some of us had to study but we went on a trip anyways, the whole crew. We took an overnight bus from Singapore and then caught a ride and boat the next morning. After a refreshing kopi time break of course; we had iced coffee and condensed milk by the bag full. 

 

One day we rented a catamaran and did a full day of snorkeling beautiful reefs and other spots around the island.

 

I saw a shark, a reef shark but still, so excited! I also swam with Nemo and Dory and loads of other cute fish! ♥

 

We found mysterious jellyfish sea creatures, were visited by huge reptiles, had dinner with catch of the day, seafood and barbeque by the beach in the evening and drank local Orang Utan rum. :D

 

 

Btw - One night Christian and I went for a walk and forgot that we had the keys to all rooms with us except for one, resulting in our friends all having to stuff themselves into one tiny room to be able to go to sleep somewhere until we got back! :D Sorry!!! ♥

 

 

On the way home we stopped in Kota Bharu for a night as well. We all went to the night market and tried local candy and delicacies of various types, and got caught in the rain. A good time with friends!

Water and light show

We went to the waterfront at Marina Bay to enjoy the Singapore water and light show. It was so cosy to just sit, hang out together and take in the lights by the water when it got dark outside.

High tea and Botanical gardens

We tried High tea the other day. Got dressed up a bit and went to have fancy afternoon tea and snacks.

Then the girls and I visited the Botanical gardens here in Singapore and did the Tree top walk. We finished with a late lunch at a hawker centre, the local name for a foodcourt, by the waterfront. I really liked the high ceiling and colonial interior style.

My heart's not in it anymore

My blog has an identity crisis and is undergoing reconstruction yet again. It'll be back with an updated design shortly. By then maybe I have come to an end with my thinking as well? :o) 

 

It's hard to do what you should when you know you might want to do something else. But how does one give up the safe for the scary and unknown? I am afraid of failing. But I guess you are not going to find happiness within until you go for what is important to you and seems right for you and noone else. ♥ /Jas

Perhentian Island, October 18th-22nd

My daily message really hit it off this time: "You are blessed. You may think you have challenges, but you have so many blessings. Sometimes it takes only a moment of conscious effort to recognize those blessings. Once you focus on the gifts instead of the problems, your whole perspective will change and you will see blessings everywhere." 

 

Going to focus on the best part of my life right now: A weekend away with friends in paradise, from tonight until monday! ♥

Haircut!

Finally it was time to get some scissors in there. The salon Jean Yip was great and I started off with a nice shampooing and scalp massage session. They cut over 4 inches! Nothing but healthy hair left now! 

 

Thought of changing the color to a nice, brown tone as well, maybe next time... See Before/After below :o) Gotta run, got a group meeting now!

Mr. Curiosity

Looking for love this time. I love this song, both Jason Mraz and Lena's version. "...I'm looking for love this time, sounding hopeful but it's making me cry...". *Click on the image to listen.

"Sleep is for the weak"

On a bad day Singapore does not have it all; instead it is like being enrolled in a competition you do not want to take part in and neither can win nor exit...

If I know you

Tania & Jori. Those two ladies made such a wonderful cover and remake of a Presets song that I love... *Click the picture to listen.

A day in, editing and a movie

When you don't sleep you might as well get things done, so now I have edited about a hundred of my photos, that's something!

 

Trying to find the movie Pan's Labyrinth now so I can finally get some rest...who doesn't love falling asleep to a beautiful film like this one?

 

Walk a mile in my own shoes

It's past 5 in the morning and guess who is still up and playing half-ass student? Baumgartner jumps through space and I am sitting here thinking through the night. Nothing unusual there. Actually I have been thinking alot. One topic is that of me not wanting to go back to my program next semester.

 

Another thought is an often heard question amongst my girlfriends and the SATC ladies: Why do the boys you left behind in honest judgement come back at ya when you least need them to? I am also thinking of how I actually find that I deserve more than settling for the lesser wonderful relationships in life.

Live your life impressing yourself.

After a long while of not being able to sleep you reach the point of the night when it does not matter anymore. Even if you'll fall asleep right this instant, you know your day is going to be upside down. 

 

And then I get creative. And have loads of ideas. I decide what I would like to work with. And then I go to bed and on a bad day I wake up not fulfilling any of those thoughts, instead I go back to what I am supposed to do. On a brave day you never know: In the end people will judge you anyway. Don't live your life impressing others, live your life impressing yourself.

My poor camera!

My dear Nikon D7000 is still not fixed but lying dead and heavy in my closet. I don't even know what it feels like to take real photos anymore... :(

 

Arab street and Derwish

A fun evening in Singapore! The girls and I went to explore Arab Street. When we got tired we stopped for some sweet tea and later we had the most amazing turkish meze dinner at Derwish. ♥

 

Fika in Singapore

We went to FIKA, a Swedish Café in Singapore. Kanelbullar, chokladbollar and all, you name it. Some of it really authentic even.

 

We went for chokladbollar with shredded coconut. Yummy! :)

 

Pink hair ends part III

Since the pink hair chalk disappeared too quickly last night, I'm going for pink hair ends at daytime now, as well!

 

After I was done, my friend Paul really wanted a new hairstyle, too. So much fun! :o)

Rebecca and Fiona at Zouk

And there was some more Swedish music power at a club we like to go to here in Singapore! Rebecca and Fiona played at Zouk - such a good night!

 

Microwave cooking competition!

Today a really fun and different event happened here @ Utown before all the prepartying. My roommate was in a cooking competition. A microwave cooking competition! 

 

One contestant even made German Semmelknödel (German dumplings) but my roommate Sigge's delicious microwave oven-baked Swedish apple pie definitely had my vote! :o)

 

HIMYM is back!

 

I love How I met your mother!

Saturday in Singapore

I have uni stuff, presentations and deadlines all week, so yesterday I took a day off and spent it on a Singapore excursion to get to know the city even better. Went to a couple of museums and walked around the city, in good company.

Today is all about uni again, but tonight I'm going to see a Swedish DJ duo at Zouk. Seen them twice before, but never outside of Sweden. The second Swedish DJ gig this semester actually, Zouk seems to like their Swedes!

Presentation day and more studying

Wohoo, it's done! The teacher actually said that ours was the best presentation in her 2,5 years teaching the course. We are awesome! And... we're on to the next project right away, they surely don't waste time here at NUS :-)

I really want go to the swimming pool now (it was closed yesterday due to lightning warnings) and then it's time for school work again. I have to finalize my paper for tomorrows' deadline, prepare my tutorial presentation and my discussion questions for the same class.

Be happy!

I have been given the chance to read a book I have been wanting to read for a while now, The monk who sold his Ferrari. This is a perfect week to try and test if I can manage my flow of thoughts and work towards a more positive mindset. 

 

There is this picture I took on National day in August... I really feel as happy as the smiley faced balloon right now. Not because all is perfect, but because I cope and am glad anyways! Time flies when you're having a lot of fun, and lots of coursework for uni... And I guess that being happy really means being able to take the good with the bad, and to be happy anyways. Be, in the now! ♥

Halfway through the semester

 

Singapore status. Half my time over here in Singapore lies behind me. There has been so much to see and wonderful people to meet; there is a lot of frustration at times with uni but a lot of fun and laughter in our spare-time as well. Honestly, I have never felt school pride before but at NUS I really do. I work hard and the profs are high quality educators with real experience in their respective fields. I have worn the mascot costume, I have participated in sports competitions, studied hard and am planning to support the uni as an alumni.

 

Travel plans. I have a little bit over two months to go and lots more fun to come, I'm sure. Now for example we have just booked a paradise beach getaway in Malaysia - In two weeks it's time to go!

Be a better you

A perfect day

Had such a fun daytime date today at Sentosa island here in Singapore. We started off with the underwater park with sharks, sea turtles, jellyfish (exciting neon light display!) as well as rays, sea lions and dolphins.

 

Spent the rest of the afternoon by the beach and after the sunset we randomly walked into an open air club area sporting the best house music I've heard here in a while (Ok, since Friday at Aoki's show!). All of this on a Sunday. :) We celebrated the great day with a mojito overlooking the laser show on the dark night sky of Sentosa and Siloso Beach! ♥

AOKI at Avalon in Singapore

Last night my friends and I went to see Steve Aoki at Avalon! I have been longing to see him live for years. It was amazing, especially because it was Avalon's 1st Birthday so in celebratory fashion Steve "handed out" champagne and cake to everyone, Aoki style. That means #champagneshower and #cakeface :D

 

Aoki also brought a rubber boat for crowd surfing, just like he did in Sweden a couple of days ago. He was on for three hours and we were all going nuts on the dancefloor to his amazing dubstep mixes. Got to bed at 6 am! So worth it - I fell asleep with a smile on my face and my neon bracelet illuminating the night. I'm collecting such awesome club nights in this city!

TGIF

I gotta do coursework all day, but afterwards we will host a little preparty at our penthouse and go out dancing with our charming friends, wohooo! 

 

Happy Friday everyone. ♥

 

Pink hair ends part II

This time the pink hair ends are mine and not inspo pics. Love it! Hair chalk is fun, this will make tomorrow's party outfit an easy pick.

 

And since the chalk dehydrates anyones hair completely I will go overdose on my hair oil afterwards - and hopefully make an appointment for a decent haircut at some point next week.

 

It's past 4 AM now, so I think I'm done with school work, night walks and night talks...and some more school work, for today at least. Gonna try to get a nice sleep during the hours that are left before my group meeting... Nighty! :o)