Vacation + Lion Dance Video
So I'm back from vacation. And, being the veritable garden of infection that I was, I have also probably managed to spread whatever it was that my respiratory tract was harbouring to... oh, between a few tens to a few hundred people. [chuckle]
It wasn't a bad trip. Certainly a fruitful one: I came home with a suitcase full of books and new shirts, and we caught a pretty nifty acrobatic lion dance performance at a mall on the first day of the Chinese New Year (which I managed to capture most of on my little Nikon Coolpix). Oh, and we were very well fed... And of course, when I say we, I do also mean the little microorganisms I brought with me on vacation. In fact, they had such a good time this trip that their frenetic partygoing activity left me completely without a voice for the first three days (and I spent the next three sounding as if my larynx had gone ten rounds with a cheese grater - and lost). Health was otherwise unaffected, except for the odd paroxysm of coughing that probably left innocent passersby wondering if I was going to drop dead on the spot!
Peacock flower arrangements at The Gardens Mall.
The lion dance performance. Pretty nifty, for anyone who's never seen it before. Unfortunately, I filmed this on the 1st floor walkway, so the drumming is muted; it was either that, or film it on the ground floor for better audio... and capture only the tops of people's heads. ;)
[Admittedly, the day trip down to Malacca was a disaster: The friend who took us down stuffed eight people into a van designed for six, failed to take into account the hideous jam going into town, and spent perhaps an hour driving around said town. We were there barely long enough to grab lunch and inhale the dust, before we were bundled back into the car so that we could spend our remaining time getting lost trying to find the highway back out of there. I say we should've just set up camp somewhere, and trapped cats for dinner.]
[Should probably also add that the trip was also a *very* fruitful one for the aunt and the maternal parent, who gleefully went on a Louis Vuitton spree. Personally think that oversized, suede-lined handbags are perhaps a touch ostentatious. *facepalm*]
Acquisitions
Books
- Invasive Procedures (Orson Scott Card with Aaron Johnston)
- Lost Boys (Orson Scott Card)
- Tongues of Serpents (Naomi Novik) - I caved in and bought the hardcover after all
- House of Leaves (Mark Z. Danielewski) - remastered full-coloured edition; this book was highly recommended to me, so I thought I'd check it out
- The Making of the Fittest: DNA and the Ultimate Forensic Record of Evolution (Sean Carroll)
- From Eternity to Here: The Quest for the Ultimate Theory of Time (Sean Carroll)
- Collider: The Search for the World's Smallest Particles (Paul Halpern)
- Signal to Noise (Neil Gaiman & Dave McKean) - graphic novel
- The Unwritten, Volumes 1 and 2 (Mike Carey & Peter Gross) - graphic novel
CDs
Rammstein - Live Aus Berlin
Bobby Darin - The Definitive Pop Collection (dog_foster , I know you're reading this journal. Shut the hell up ;-) )
Shirts 3, Jeans 2 (pairs)
Yes, I know it's pink. But it's still a cool shirt.
And this...
See, I've been wanting a 101st Airborne paratrooper for the longest time, ever since I let that Screaming Eagles medic one slip through my fingers (you have no idea how much I regretted dithering over getting *that* one). And what did I find on this trip but... THAT. And not just ANY 101st Airborne trooper either. It's goddamn MAJOR RICHARD WINTERS, even if the box doesn't actually tell you very much besides the failed Operation Market Garden. (Why not do the Brecourt Manor Assault, btw? since it was such a fine example of small unit tactics in overcoming much larger forces, and Winters and his men all got medals for it. Maybe because it wasn't as big-scale or well-known?). It would've been nice if the face on the figure was the real Dick Winters' rather than Damian Lewis', but it *was* Band of Brothers that made Easy Company famous after all, so I'm not complaining.
I'd take photos of all the accessories but really? this site does it much better justice.
[NOTE: I've just discovered, thanks to Wikipedia, that Dick Winters passed away on the 2nd of January this year. :-(( There'll be a tribute painting at some point, if I can fit it in my schedule.]
It wasn't a bad trip. Certainly a fruitful one: I came home with a suitcase full of books and new shirts, and we caught a pretty nifty acrobatic lion dance performance at a mall on the first day of the Chinese New Year (which I managed to capture most of on my little Nikon Coolpix). Oh, and we were very well fed... And of course, when I say we, I do also mean the little microorganisms I brought with me on vacation. In fact, they had such a good time this trip that their frenetic partygoing activity left me completely without a voice for the first three days (and I spent the next three sounding as if my larynx had gone ten rounds with a cheese grater - and lost). Health was otherwise unaffected, except for the odd paroxysm of coughing that probably left innocent passersby wondering if I was going to drop dead on the spot!
Peacock flower arrangements at The Gardens Mall.
The lion dance performance. Pretty nifty, for anyone who's never seen it before. Unfortunately, I filmed this on the 1st floor walkway, so the drumming is muted; it was either that, or film it on the ground floor for better audio... and capture only the tops of people's heads. ;)
Click to view[Admittedly, the day trip down to Malacca was a disaster: The friend who took us down stuffed eight people into a van designed for six, failed to take into account the hideous jam going into town, and spent perhaps an hour driving around said town. We were there barely long enough to grab lunch and inhale the dust, before we were bundled back into the car so that we could spend our remaining time getting lost trying to find the highway back out of there. I say we should've just set up camp somewhere, and trapped cats for dinner.]
[Should probably also add that the trip was also a *very* fruitful one for the aunt and the maternal parent, who gleefully went on a Louis Vuitton spree. Personally think that oversized, suede-lined handbags are perhaps a touch ostentatious. *facepalm*]
Acquisitions
Books
- Invasive Procedures (Orson Scott Card with Aaron Johnston)
- Lost Boys (Orson Scott Card)
- Tongues of Serpents (Naomi Novik) - I caved in and bought the hardcover after all
- House of Leaves (Mark Z. Danielewski) - remastered full-coloured edition; this book was highly recommended to me, so I thought I'd check it out
- The Making of the Fittest: DNA and the Ultimate Forensic Record of Evolution (Sean Carroll)
- From Eternity to Here: The Quest for the Ultimate Theory of Time (Sean Carroll)
- Collider: The Search for the World's Smallest Particles (Paul Halpern)
- Signal to Noise (Neil Gaiman & Dave McKean) - graphic novel
- The Unwritten, Volumes 1 and 2 (Mike Carey & Peter Gross) - graphic novel
CDs
Rammstein - Live Aus Berlin
Bobby Darin - The Definitive Pop Collection (dog_foster , I know you're reading this journal. Shut the hell up ;-) )
Shirts 3, Jeans 2 (pairs)
Yes, I know it's pink. But it's still a cool shirt.
And this...
See, I've been wanting a 101st Airborne paratrooper for the longest time, ever since I let that Screaming Eagles medic one slip through my fingers (you have no idea how much I regretted dithering over getting *that* one). And what did I find on this trip but... THAT. And not just ANY 101st Airborne trooper either. It's goddamn MAJOR RICHARD WINTERS, even if the box doesn't actually tell you very much besides the failed Operation Market Garden. (Why not do the Brecourt Manor Assault, btw? since it was such a fine example of small unit tactics in overcoming much larger forces, and Winters and his men all got medals for it. Maybe because it wasn't as big-scale or well-known?). It would've been nice if the face on the figure was the real Dick Winters' rather than Damian Lewis', but it *was* Band of Brothers that made Easy Company famous after all, so I'm not complaining.
I'd take photos of all the accessories but really? this site does it much better justice.
[NOTE: I've just discovered, thanks to Wikipedia, that Dick Winters passed away on the 2nd of January this year. :-(( There'll be a tribute painting at some point, if I can fit it in my schedule.]