First Bike Ride to Bishan Park

Few weeks ago, one of my close friends went back to her home country for good, and she left her precious bike to me, hee~

Since then I had wanted to try riding it to Bishan Park and finally this morning I finally did :)

The day was windy and cloudy, but somehow I still got my arms and legs burnt -_-

I made a quick stop to grab early lunch at McDonald's, and then found myself a funny looking bench to enjoy my lunch and just hang out for a little while.
And of course not forgetting to send pics to my dear friend that I really put her bike into good use! :)

On my way home, I saw an interesting sight. There was a bike stranded in the canal. Strange... The bike was covered with mud and also some leaves that made me think it fell into the river or bigger canal and brought by the water flow to this point.

Friendship Never Ends

Have you had a friend whom you can talk to about anything, care about you and you know you can truly depend on?

Well, I have...

Let's call him Frank.

I got to know him from our common friend over dinner few years ago, and since he is a very chatty person, and I'm actually not, we didn't start our friendship on the right foot.

On our first meeting, we exchanged number and IM right away, then later that night, he pinged me and just couldn't stop talking and asking questions to the point that I was very annoyed.

However, since we have common friends, we sometimes met for group dinner or outing together, and somehow his chatty-ness grew on me. I just stopped feeling annoyed and actually enjoyed his company.

But not until I reached a low point in my life that we got very close. It was the time when I felt like I was totally lost and had meaningless relationships just for the sake of not being alone. We hadn't met for quite a while and when he called and asked me out for dinner, I just said yes.
During dinner, I shared the bitterness that I had been feeling and he was very sympathetic. Without any hesitation he invited me to join him with his group of friends in weekly outing.
Weeks passed by, and every week, on every group outing, he really took care of me so that I wouldn't feel left out. He was always by my side, and often checked on me to make sure I could blend in. When he saw me alone or look confused, he would come to me right away to accompany me.

Thanks to Frank, I got to meet new friends, enjoyed every outing, and was just simply happy.

Our friendship was getting closer. Almost after every outing we went together, we took the same train together, walked to his block, and he would wait for the bus with me at the bus stop. Often times we would chat nonstop at the bus stop and we then just let few of my buses pass by.

When I moved to a new rental house, he helped me packing and carried few unused stuff to Salvation Army with me. And since we then lived in different area, there was no longer bus stop chat sessions, but we made it up by having long phone calls at night.

I thought I found a true friend in him. A friend that would always be by my side no matter what. Who I cared for and he cared for me too.

That was until I felt that I might have developed certain feelings for him...

I was scared... terrified that my feelings would change our friendship. So I went to 2 girl friends to ask for their opinions. Both of them know Frank and one of them happened to be someone whose opinions I always found sensible and I could agree with.The 2 of them encouraged me to tell Frank about my feelings, be honest since that was the base of any friendship.

Then I did. I told him.
He was shocked, he thought I was having feelings for my colleague at work.
I told him that I totally understood if he didn't feel the same way, I just wanted to be honest and I hoped that we could still be good friends.

Yeah... I suppose I was such a foolish to expect things wouldn't change between us.

We still met up at our group outing, but I could sense that he was avoiding me. His attitude towards me was cold and distant. Every time I tried to start a conversation or joke around with him, but his reactions were stale. It went on until the point that I thought I had to confront him, I had to do something to salvage our friendship since I was the one who ruined it.

At one evening after our group outing, we walked together to the bus stop near his place, and I asked him what was going on with him, with our friendship. He was trying to changing the topic and even avoiding eye contacts. I was sitting on a bench, and he was pacing in front of me, uncomfortable with the topic and having troubles spitting out his true feelings.
I refused to give up and asked him to just be honest and tell me, that I could accept anything he would say. Finally he said it, I traumatized him, I betrayed him, especially after what he had told me about his close friend who also ended up having feelings for him. Then he also said that with this incident with me, he wouldn't be close friends with any girls anymore, including me. And also that for now, he couldn't be civil with me and he needed time until we could be friends again.

I was devastated... but I could understand how he felt. I cared too much for him that all I wanted was just for him to go through this without any fuss and get on with his life even though I wouldn't be in it.

So since that day, I slowly backed out from our group, until I ended up never joining any of their outings and they were tired of asking why I didn't. I still keep in touch with few girls that I was able to get close with, and only with them I told the story about what happened with me and Frank.

For few years after the incident, I got to meet with Frank few times and we managed to be friendly with each other. I could still feel the distance he was putting between us and it saddened me every single time. Deep down inside, I still wish that things hadn't changed, that we were still best friends, that our friendship didn't end.

The memories with him inspired me to draw the typography poster above. The poster represents my never-fulfilled hope of my friendship with Frank, and also a sweet inspiration for every one out there who has a beautiful friendship... :)

Click here for my Etsy page!

Coming Out of Pole Closet - Got burned?

When I first started pole dancing, I had no reservation in telling people (including my family) about it. I always got somewhat positive responses from them, ranging from staring in disbelief to "Wow, I don't know you have it in you!". I am proud of my 'Badges of Honor' a.k.a my bruises and told my friends how challenging pole dancing is and how it is good to improve strength and flexibility. I would then do my bits to lure them into trying for trial class. :p

Then there is my mom...

I came from a close knitted family, and since my dad passed away, I became closer to my mom. So I have this habit of telling her things, and that included my new found love for pole dancing. Her response at first was positive. She said something like how it was a good exercise, and that I should keep doing it since I have been enjoying my class very much.

But then, there came a day when I told her that though the class was getting harder, I want to keep doing pole dancing since I really like it, and she shut me up, said that pole dancing was not important and that I should stop and focus on other stuff instead.

I was kind of heart broken. She used to be my loyal supporter, but it turns out she is not into me doing pole dancing. No matter what I say, my words couldn't reach her, and so I choose to 'filter' my pole related stories. I figure that maybe she is worried about the possibility of me getting injured and so since that moment on I only tell her about when my classes are, but no more details, and unsurprisingly, she no longer asks a lot about it, unlike her usual habit of wanting to know details of everything.

And then there is this guy... let's just call him Stan.

I was (and probably still am) in love with him, and I wanted to share about pole dancing to him, expecting that he could be supportive or even say encouraging words. Oh silly me, expectations never lead to anything good.
This what happened, I told him that I am taking pole dance lessons, and his exact response was "when a girl tells me that she does pole dancing i think that she is either a stripper or that she looks for the attention of all the guys around her".
Whew... If I wasn't (am not) in love with him, I would tell it to his face that he is such a narrow-minded guy. In reality, I was shocked, didn't expect that kind of words from him...

So then the latest one, there is Fred...

Fred is someone I considered a good friend. There was a time when we were so tight that we called each other almost every night. Though we are no longer as close as we used to, I still think of him as someone I can truly trust.
Today he came over to visit my flatmates who just had their baby. We managed to chat for a little while and at one point, my flatmate teased him to try out my x-pole in my room. His response was "What do you think I am? A stripper???". My flatmate then teased me saying, "hey, he just called you a stripper!". Though my lips were smiling, I wasn't feeling good.

All in all, I got burned bad by people I consider matter to me.

I am aware that there is this "stripper stigma" when it comes to pole dance. I just didn't expect that Stan and Fred, whom I thought were quite modern and open-minded, could say such a thing. On both occurrence, I was too shocked to even come with an argument.

Though what they said do not make me waver or give up pole, the shock is still there. It is mostly because they were two people I considered "important" for me and their unexpected negative response hurt more.

And the latest occurrence with Fred kind of makes me think to not blurt out the fact that I am taking pole dance so easily to just anyone, especially those whose opinions I consider matter. I should take my time to explain what pole dance really is, and not just let them think that pole dancer = stripper.

Wish me luck!
I also wish that people will be more aware of pole dancing as a sport, a challenging one I must say, and not always associate it with stripper. 

My Pole Journey - So Far...

When a friend asked me if I wanted to get a voucher for a 4-week trial class in a pole studio, I just thought that it could be a fun activity together.

We went for Saturday session and at our first class, our instructor, who was a very fit lady, taught us knee-spin trick (which is similar like this, only without sliding down). Oh boy, I was bad and my friend wasn't even better. I had trouble holding my body in that position for more than 4 seconds! I could feel my legs (not knee -_-') weren't gripping the pole as strong as I wanted them to. I basically did a small jump to get me to the pose and another jump to land.

But for that merely 3 seconds off the ground on the pole, I felt so... exhilarated... I know that it may sound like an exaggeration, but yes,that was exactly what I felt. Then by week 3, I was totally hooked, and at the end of week 4 class, I signed up for Beginners class.

And after almost 5 months of pole dancing, now I can do a Vanessa-Knee-spin-Spin Climb combo without my feet touching the ground to start up my practice :)

From a girl who couldn't touch the floor when doing front bend with straight legs, now I can!
I still can't do perfect splits but I know they are coming along.
My strength has improved a lot, and I love the fact that my pants are lose on me now though I don't change my diet - I guess I've turned some of my fat (which is a lot!) to muscle.
I always get a new set of bruises from my weekly class, some might say they look terrible and ugly, but to me, they are my 'Badges of Honor' :D

I'm now on level 2 (I repeat this level since the last term I missed too many classes due to personal stuff), and doing my best to build my core muscles (they have been sleeping for too long!). I hope that soon I can get my upside-down + handstand perfect, so that I could move forward to level 3! :)

There is one more thing I love about my pole journey so far, and it is that I get to meet a bunch of new girl friends, and they have been great. We support each other, go for practice together, share tips and tricks, etc. I love that they are so positive and they are not hesitant in helping others when practicing new tricks. We often encourage and remind each other to not give up, and I'm glad that none of us does. We still keep going strong and excited about pole. As for me, I plan on keep pole-ing until I reach my own limitation.

So for other newbies in pole dancing, don't give up when you are facing a difficult trick, remember, practice makes perfect!

New Zealand Trip - Christchurch

This is indeed a long overdue post...

I was in New Zealand and Australia for the good amount of days in April, and I wanted to share the wonderful and unforgettable experience I went through with all of you guys.

As most of us know, the earthquakes happened in Christchurch has left the people there busy to rebuild their beautiful city. Along the days I was there, I could still see the empty lots or remains of buildings, and there weren't many shops or restaurants open for business just yet as they were still in the middle of rebuilding.

The above picture is the Bridge of Remembrance which wasn't much affected by the earthquake, and below are pictures I took on the day I strolled around the city.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

As part of its city rebuilding project, Re:Start Mall (?) was set up in the central area. The interesting part about this mall is that most of its tenants are "housed" in container-like buildings in a spacious open area.

 

Then, on my way back to my B&B, I came upon a small market, and I noticed, there was one selling woodcraft, and since I'm crazy about woodcraft (I even had a dream of becoming a carpenter~), I went in to check it out and I was pleasantly surprised seeing beautiful items displayed in the shops!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

During my 4 days in Christchurch, I stayed at 3 different places, though 2 of them were basically on the same lot, only different building and I will share about it in my next post!

Beauty is in the Eye of The Beholder

What do you think of the above drawing? Is the bunny cute or somewhat a little bit weird looking?

Well, this drawing has a little backstory that I would like to share.

It was a sunny Sunday and I was walking from my pole dancing class. Tired, thirsty and wanted nothing but an iced cold mocha latte, I passed by Singapore Art Museum - one of the museum I haven't visited and it is surely in my to-do-list before end of this year! - and then I noticed there was this huge white colored balloon like thingie in front of it. Not after few seconds then I realized it was actually shaped like a bunny... Not the usual bunny rabbit you usually see for sure, but I was sure it was a bunny...

Strangely enough, I couldn't take my eyes off it. There was a certain charm in this oddly shaped bunny that somehow made it very interesting to look at. Her eyes were too small and placed too far from each other; her nose and mouth were also too small, and together with her eyes, her face just looked sad somehow (bear with me and my imagination, please!); her ears... just didn't look right; and even her body, the size wasn't in proportion to her head.
However, despite all of those unusual features of her, she definitely had some appeal that somehow mesmerized me. And at exactly that moment, one quote slipped into my mind: Beauty is in the eye of the beholder.

For some people, this bunny was just weird looking, but in my eyes, she was beautiful...

Link to my Etsy item page: click here

Introduction

 
There is no better first post than a proper introduction of myself to the world of bloggers :)

I'm a Chinese Indonesian girl who is currently living in Singapore.
I came from a small town in Central Java, Indonesia; then I moved to Jakarta for my study and also got my first job there. Then unexpected thing happened - the company I worked with closed down their Jakarta office and we were all retrenched. Sad, sad, sad.. But! It also opened an opportunity for me to try my luck in Singapore.

So I braced myself to step into an unfamiliar country to get a job, and now 7 years later, I'm still here!

Anyway, not until early this year, I revisited my childhood hobby - drawing. I remember I always carried my sketchpad everywhere in my house, and just sat on the bed, or porch and started drawing anything that came to mind. And now, I love to draw things that amuse me - whether it's something simple like a cup of coffee, or an inspirational quote, or even something I see on my way home.

So through this blog (and also my Etsy shop), I wish to share the story behind my drawing, and also my own personal stories *wink wink!*

Well, that's all for now, folks!