UNREAL.

Glastonbury (music festival) again this year – booked my ticket since December!

Day#1: Arrival.
Carrying tent and setting up wasn’t too bad. Where are those tentpegs? Oh well, lots of shops so easily sorted. Sun is out, grass is green.

Day #2, #3, #4, #5: Music music music. At various times, we climb to the top of the hill, get Mum tattoos, drink organic coffee, organic cider, eat organic bread, organic big breakfasts, use all types of public loos including the “comfy crappers” (no kidding), sit on the grass, walk through mud, stand in the rain, sit on the grass, sit in the sun…listen to more music.

Night #5:
Prodigy festival closer! Totally mental. Some tall guy behind me was jumping up and down and suddenly stopped. 2 seconds later felt a warm spray on my leg and I ask the guy next to me “did you drop some water?” (knowing it wasn’t, but hoping it was) – the guy in front me shouts “ew some guy’s using my leg as a tree!” At one point everyone’s crouching down on the ground – why? Because they told us to! haha.. That, and crowd-surfers, moshing with 1000s of sweaty new best friends with no room to breath. Was supposed to meet my friend, but got lost amongst 1000s of people.

Afterwards I really need to wash everything off. Strip down to a bikini past midnight and subject myself to a cold wash under a tap in the middle of the campgrounds. My breath mists up as walk away feeling refreshed and tingly…only to walk up to my giggling friend who’s just happened to walk by and witness the whole scene.

Day 6:
Packing up the tent. Found out where the tent pegs went to, I’d set the tent up on them. Realised what that hard lump he’d been sleeping on for the last 5 nights was Heh.

Amazing 6 days. Not sure if I’d do 6 days again – but I will keep an eye out for when the tickets for 2010 come up!

The playlist:

Dizzy Rascal, N*E*R*D, Bruce Springsteen, Badly drawn boy, Kep Domino, Bombay Bicycle Club, Prodidgy, Glasvegas, Lady Gaga, The Yeah yeah yeahs, Doves, Priscila Anh, Lily Allen, Spinal Tap, Kasabian, In case of fire, The boxer rebellion and a little of: Jason Mraz, Bon Iver and the music of the penguin cafe orchestra

Have a good one,
Shi

ps: I forgot to mention in the last email that I also spent a day in Milan. I spent most of the day on the roof of the Il Duomo trying to prise my fingers off the walls (voted #1 most scared asian tourist on the roof)..it was beautiful though

Favourite bit was probably watching Bruce Lee Enter the Dragon with a great new live soundtrack by Karsh Kale..

http://www.sydneyfestival.org.au/2009/Precincts/_item/event/ENTER_THE_DRAGON/_mode/audioVideo

or maybe it was lying on my back on the grass listening to the Sydney Symphony play in the open air, looking at the stars..and then the closing fireworks to Tchaikovsky’s 1812 overture..

or watching Santogold completely rock the stage at (Sydney) Hyde Park!

Or maybe the brilliant sunny and warm (sometimes MUCH TOO HOT) weather…good weather that didn’t materialize on Australia Day Did I mention all those events were all..free?

Sending some Sydney love your way..

Shi

ps: oh, the chocolate thing in the pics…hot chocolate fondant with peanut butter icecream and raspberry injection..I just about died and went to heaven !

http://www.chocolatesuze.com/2008/11/11/adriano-zumbo-cafe-chocolat-photos

As the coach pulled out of Victoria London, it was bright and sunny, spirits were high and I was amazed at how organised everything was. As we got closer to the venue, it started to drizzle and the only pit stop was selling water, wet wipes and wellingtons for 2-3 times the normal price.

But the drizzle stopped after the 1st day and Glasto had the best sunny weather for the first time in years! Epic indeed. There were so many great bands to see and the audiences were mostly happy and sane – except for the ones at the Amy Winehouse and Jay-Z gig. We had a rough plan to see most gigs we wanted but spent most of the time wandering in and out of different tents, more bands, Green Fields (Hippy area), organic coffee, organic sausages, organic apple cider and organic impromptu wild dancing (heehee)

Best thing in the world has got to be jumping up and down in a sunny grassy field to great music with good friends Had such a good time I’ve already booked my ticket for 2009..so see you London people next year

Fantastic 3 days, left glasto with a brilliant sunset back to london and the next morning hopped on a flight to Kuala Lumpur via Doha. Next email, Thailand.

Shi

Forgive the fragmented nature of this email, I don’t think I’ve had time to process the varied stuff I did over the weekend.

Weather’s gotten cold, rainy, windy and dark. Feels heaps better to get into a warm concert hall & listen to some jazz during the London Jazz Festival. Southbank’s beautiful in the rain huddled under an umbrella and wrapped in a warm coat.

Went barn dancing for laughs in London in a kitschy town hall with cherubs and chandeliers and an all-english country western band. Steel capped boots would have been handier than the prescribed cowboy hats and gingham togs.

Feeling horrified by the (admittedly very good) Holocaust and the Crimes Against Humanity exhbitions at the Imperial War Museum.

Laughing at the Camouflage exhibit.

Feeling bored at the V&A museum, then impressed at the broad spectrum of exhibits and then loving the cafe with the high ceilings and beautiful lights – the most stunning cafe I’ve ever eaten in.

And all the normal Friday & Saturday night shennenigans.

And titled “1 experience never to try in London” is dropping your Ipod onto the tube tracks, having a train pass over the Ipod and lying on your chest on Waterloo platform to pick it up. No, I don’t know why if you do touch the metal bit you do not turn into a smouldering cinder. Possibly the dumbest thing I’ve done in a long time. Yes I deserve a good scolding.

Stupidity aside…

I’m going to Malaysia and Australia for 3weeks from xmas, so really looking forward to warm weather, clear waters, the sun setting at 7pm and sunshine.

Have fun viewing the pic
Shi

After last month I’ve been quite happy to stay in london & not move. Coincidentally the last 2 weekends I spent it mostly around the Thames River, except for last weekend when I went down to Corwall, Newquay, St Ives etc.

Thames Boat Festival was good fun – about 200 boats (dragonboats, rowboats etc) went down the thames. Personally I get quite thrilled by dragonboats (proper dragonboats go really fast, and they have drums!) but I stayed for the funny costumes.

Best costume(s) was the orange dutch rowboat with blond pig-tailed milkmaids, matching orange dresses and tulips; going down the thames. And of course, I didn’t take a pic of them

Oyster & seafood festival too, and that was good..yum. Went cable wakeboarding & flopped about not being able to get a good take off then shivered like a puppy (how embarassing).

Cold water & cold weather kills me, I’m always the person looking very cold on the side of the field/beach/office/bar/anywhere in london.

Last weekend was a toss-up between the Lord Mayor’s festival or Cornwall – picked cornwall. Saw St.Ives and the 5 hr ride was sooooo worth it.

St Ives is a beautiful little english coastal town but we didn’t stay long. 1 invisible green bunny rabbit later (long long long story) & we had to take the train home to london.

I’m feeling kind of wrecked at the moment. Mostly work-related but sleeping in a car on sat night didn’t help.

Need sleep now, hossegor next weekend – hope that goes alright.

Later,
Shi.

Hey there

This weekend passed in a blur – last weekend in Tokyo for a bit. Going away dinner for me and another colleague who is being posted in another prefecture (different area in Japan).

Went to see hanabi (fireworks) at Sumidagawa River (’tis the season for hanabi..) with D, a Dutch expat who’s been in Tokyo for a while. It was pretty good, not as crowded compared to other hanabi, and all the Japanese girls were in yukata, which was really pretty – so we had a good time admiring girls’ outfits , but my all-time favourite, I think best of all the outfits I’ve seen in Tokyo was the goth yukata. Even her obi (sash) was all goth, with lace and teardrop pearls. Very cool. I wish we went in yukata too, but it’s a really difficult thing to wear and tie properly. Drats. Fireworks were great! 1 hour of fireworks (and sitting on newspapers on the road), there were some like golden streamers, star bursts, crazy alien rockets but the most stupendous was one that sounded like a great waterfall, and then the whole sky would turn red as a fountain of thick columns of light (about 10 storeys tall) gushed out…I love fireworks. As usual, there were police with megaphones telling people where to sit and walk – it is really common in Tokyo. Which is good, because there are so many people at these events that it would be chaos if there weren’t. Everything was really orderly and clean plus no garbage on the ground after. Finished up with a tops dinner (thanks to D’s superior Japanese skills) and cocktails in Japanese restaurant before going home.

Odaiba on Sunday for the Miraikan museum – long name is National Museum of Emerging Science and Innovation. Coolest museum for little kids, you get to manipulate a 2-storey high globe with LCD screens showing changing weather patterns, temperatures, change the planet… and just swivel the whole thing, fast forward the years..and of course other stuff like Assimo (freaky how humanlike he moves), spider robots kids can manipulate with Playstation controls, VR…I think the Malaysian science museum has something on tadpoles turning into frogs. Hmm. And the Fuji televion building had some summer festival at the bottom with the weirdest giant elephants and celebrities heads, policegirl uniforms for Japanese girls to take photos in (although being Japan, the skirts stop ½ inch below the butt) And the Statue of Liberty with the Rainbow Bridge in the back. Dancing Elvises also on tour in Odaiba seaview deck.

Went to Omotesando on a mission to find Herzog and de Meuron’s Prada building before leaving Tokyo – and found it. It is now one of my 3 favourite Tokyo buildings. Love the treatment of the façade, the intersital spaces where stores rooms can be hidden yet appear if needed, the slanted planes with images projected at an angle so that person on the street can see catwalk show projected from the 5th floor, uber-cool creamy white honeycomb structure and custom made glass panes. Love the effortless cool. Then cooled down the hot Tokyo night with green tea frappucino on the 2nd floor while people-watching the Shibuya crossing.

Tired now. 3 days left, working till I leave. Will let you know if there is a second chapter of this Tokyo tirade.

Later,

Shi.

Hey there

Bit different weekend. Went off work an hour early (woo-hoo, 7pm!) on Friday because there was a neighborhood get-together. The businesses in the area pay an annual sum and that pays for barbecue, beer (mmmm..Asahi), chicken wings, nibblies, watermelon & shaved ice (japanese summer dessert) and fireworks for kids and kids at heart. People had tatami mats on the road, shoes off, eating at low tables, with lanterns strung up and kids and families everywhere, not just salarymen. It was fun and food was good. Had an interesting conversation with my colleague’s friend whom I asked why Japanese eat whale meat? He thinks that since Indonesia has so many whales and Japan so few, it justifies why they should hunt whales there..besides, whales eat lots of fishes at one go (with their huge mouths) Before I get any angry emails about what he said – yes, I do know that whales eat krill and plankton. I’m not sure if whales do eat sardines, but I doubt that the harpoon boats stop to ask the whales before they fire. This issue is touchy but from my personal experience, chinese people are also taking sharks to extinction (shark fin’s soup) and eating exotic clams and fish in protected dive sites and marine parks so I don’t want to point fingers at other cultures when my own is flawed as well. But I wouldn’t make whale stew or eat shark fin soup anytime soon.

The next day, got picked up at the Hilton (3 mins walk from my apartment) at 503am sharp. I sleep in my swimmers, T-shirt and boardies with packed backpack on the side so that the only thing I have to do in the morning is roll out of bed and head out the door. The purpose: surf at a spot 2 hours drive from Tokyo. After having to take the train and walking everywhere, it was great cruising on the elevated highway past Shibuya, Roppongi, Rainbow Bridge, Odaiba, Tokyo Disneyland…boys were checking surf reports on the radio and on their keitai (handphone). Taro-san’s 5’8″ was pretty short, but the wetsuit was a perfect fit – dunno how the heck he ever managed to fit into the wetsuit?? The surf was not as small as I was worried it would be, but pretty cruisy waves were good because I’ve been landlocked for the past 7 months. Nice shoulder to head-high sets (Japanese guy sized) in the morning that got blown out in the afternoon but still surfable. Really such a difference surfing in Japan – after the surf, they got out huge containers of water and a wooden rack (like the bathhouses) and took turns rinsing off. All the cars there had gallons of water in their boot, and all (no exceptions) the surfers stretched before going in. Post-surf we had soba or rice sets in a noodlehouse for lunch (complete with central rock garden, koi and bonsai) Taro-san called my suggestion of Macdonalds “dame-mono” – no-way food – Awww shucks.

Surf wasn’t as crowded as all the stories I’d heard but there were a lot of drop-ins. Japanese manners still pervade, and no one was shouting or hooting. The boys parked for an afternoon nap right in front of this Japanese chick sunbathing, who glared at us for perving. I was innocent, but she glared at me as well anyway. I didn’t understand why she didn’t just go down on the beach instead of lying in the parking lot sunbathing (???) – but then I noticed the nice manicure job with sparkly daisies she had on her feet. In this case its possible to go to the beach without actually going on the beach.

We had shabu-shabu when we got back to Tokyo at 11pm. Cool restaurant called Butaya (Pig shop) with so much kawaii piggy memorabilia – only in Japan. We had pork skewers, pancetta, pork in sauce, salad, shabu-shabu and noodles, felt like a real pig at the end of it. Got home about 130am. 2 different friends described Tokyo-ites as being “robot-like” but I think that they also like to laugh and joke a lot – only when they’re with their friends. It’s been good to see things from the other side. And compared to my past warong/little hut/meat pie/fish&chip post-surf lunches, the noodle house was really impressive. Heck, the noodle house was impressive, period.

Got fireworks and want to go to this cool robot/tech place in Odaiba next weekend and I also have to pack because my flight is next Thurs.

It’s been such an unreal experience in Japan.

See yall.
Shi.