Hello from Times Square, New York

Our first night in New York. Got in the afternoon after an hour of delay and caught a door to door shuttle bus which...... Took over 3 hours from Newark Airport into New York Times Square...

Brings me memories of Ted from 'How I Met Your Mother'. Remember the scenes where he had to travel in the subway from New York to New Jersey when he was dating Stella.  Brings back all the bad jokes he was saying in regards to New Jersey! ;)

Anyhow, here we are at Times Square! Our hotel is just near here somewhere. 

I'm also probably 2kg lighter as I had a haircut too today! Can't believe how much hair were cut! Whoops! Back to lesbian May for a while!

Anyhow, greetings from New York, Times Square!

RIP Talia & Cory

It is so tragic that this week's news is all about death.

First, Cory Monteith, Finn in Glee. So young at 31 years of age.. Then I found out he died from a combination of heroin and alcohol...

Next was Talia Castellano, TaliaJoy18 a.k.a The bald chick, YouTube Sensational Makeup Guru (you amazed me with your crazy make up skills!) dying at the age of 13 after 6 or so years of battling cancer. Such an inspirational young lady and so full of life. Her YouTube videos had me laughing at her contagious personality but her last few days were so sad. One of her last video on Instagram brought a tear to my eye where she showed us what she's eating or trying to eat. She looked so sad and in pain.. ;(

One just throwing his life away and the other fighting for so long before finally succumbed to such a cruel disease.

Even though I'm so angry at Cory for throwing his life away, R.I.P Cory, you made me happy all those hours of watching Glee in 2011, when I was in Melbourne and struggling to understand what to do with my life...

And Keep on Swimming, little Talia, you are finally free of pain. Thank you so much for being so inspirational..

Peace out,

Xx

A week and a day to go.....

..... Till...... *drum roll* ...... our summer vacation!!! We'll be off for 3 weeks!

I'm so excited..... Wheeeeeeeeee!!!

My weekend creation - a 1920s yellow felt hat!

I wasn't feeling too well last week and as I was still attending my daily Swedish classes and my 4 hour work a week and loads of catching up with fika, parties, lunches and what not, I was extremely sick come last weekend so I decided to stay home and rest..

and this is what I got up to!

A yellow felt hat with red ribbon around it.  Attached on the side is a large silk flower in red and silver bluish leaves.  I actually wanted to do something red, but realised I've already made 2 red felt hats for myself already, so, decided to play with another colour instead.  I hand blocked and hand sew everything.

My poor fingers are quite sore as I forgot to wear my thimble until they started to hurt a bit.  Whoops! I quite like it.  I actually made this for someone, but I'm thinking of keeping it for myself as I believe it's more suited to my style.. ;P  I think it's quite cute and whimsical.  What do you think?!  I really hope they like it.. if not, I'll definitely keep it! =)

Photography... What tickles your fancy? Selfies?

I've always been really keen on photography, especially food.  My interest perked when I was still in Melbourne and had my first good compact camera, a canon (of course!) which I first bought  in around 2004 or so (and upgraded every one or two years), and when I'm the one with my camera... aiming at food.. and usually at food.. Funny thing is I've always preferred to be behind the camera instead of in front and I still feel strongly towards that even till now.

It became a joke among my ex-work colleagues when I started photographing food, you should see all the eyes rolling! I don't think they understood my passion.  I love food you see, and people.. not so much.. ;)

From then, it gradually moved to scenery and sometimes people and when I moved to London in 2008, what better way than to aim my handy camera everywhere I went!  So many places to explore and so much food to discover!  Then I discovered SLR and boy!  Did it change my life.  My first and only SLR camera was purchased in 2009 and I think it's time for an upgrade!  I will have to start saving..

I still enjoy taking pictures.  Food, scenery, people, cats, dogs, still life more than moving objects, but I've learned to enjoy taking pictures of anything and everything.  Sometimes it takes me ages to get a perfect shot of something.  It's either one shot which takes 5 - 10 minutes or 10 - 20 shots of a single item in different positions.  I've even used over 400 - 600 shots in just a day!

I love how SLR cameras are now so cheap and people are making full use of it and everyone owns a SLR camera these days.  Best is how technology keeps improving and with smart phones, you don't really need to carry anymore cameras with you.

Which brings me to these questions:
*  What do you usually capture with your cameras/phones?

*  What do you hate most about pictures being posted online?

From what I can see from friends and aquaintances on Facebook and Instagram and what not, there's a lot of selfies.  I absolutely loathe selfies.  Fish lips are a must in all selfies and it's always the same pose.  They find the most flattering pose (or are they??) and stick with it, again and again and again.  Don't they just hate their own face by now?  Because I do! ;)

Another thing I can't stand are parents who can't stop taking pictures of their child or children either doing the most mundane or inappropriate things.  I get it, you have no life and your child is your only focus for now.  Yes you think your kid is cute, I get it, but do you really really need to take a picture of them doing the dump or picking their nose? Seriously?

Which again brings me back to selfies.  People who are pregnant and keep posting shots of themselves at week 16, week 17, week 18, week 19 etc etc etc .. Like seriously, we know you are pregnant and you are extremely happy with your pregnancy, but please spare a thought for those who are unable to have children or simply are not interested in seeing your weekly belly shots..  Frankly, I do not mind you posting pictures of belly shots, but once or twice is enough.  Not weekly shots, hey?

I'm pretty sure people get annoyed with my constant pictures of food just as much, but this is my whinging for today and hey, this is a place for me to dump my thoughts, right? =)

Until next time!

Xx