It had been 9 weeks since our return from Turkey & Greece! These two beautiful places have given us many good memories to date, and before it is all forgotten, I better write something on it.
It’s me again writing our travel memoirs with my bad grammar and confused use of past and present tense… you see Croaky is too lazy to write and edit my posts even though he keeps on telling me my English is bad.
So tolerate with me, while I grapple with my bad grammar and penned my travel entries here

We arrived at Dubai International Airport on a September morning, on route to Istanbul. It was a good 11 over hours flight, with transit in Dubai. We took a peep at the costs of a cup of latte at the airport – it was a good 8 USD.

The view of the morning sky on board was lovely. You can see the different hues of blue and orange in continuity.

And we arrived at Turkeeeyyy. The fleet from Turkish Airways greeted us as we touched down.

And this shot is my personal fave number 1. It was Croaky staring out of the MRT train in Turkey. I shall call it “Reflections”. This was taken with while my lumix was still alive. Click here to read the fate of my poor lumix.

There was plenty of sea views in Turkey, and here we were on our way to Sea of Marmara.

We were on a boat with our bus on deck as we crossed the calm waters. Breezy, cooling and scenic views everywhere.

With our map in hands, we bravely ventured into the lands of Turkiye. Here, Croaky was trying to figure out how to go to our hotel from the train station.

Being tourists, we obviously parked our noses at common destinations such as the Grand Bazaar – which was the biggest shopping district in Istanbul with over 1000s of shops peddling tourist souvenirs, goods and plenty of local produce. Albeit with a tourist price-tags no doubt!

Here, you see plenty of sexy belly dancing costumes at exorbitant prices. One salesman managed to convince me to part with 40 dollars for a set. Heh.

And we had our fill at popular kebab shops at night markets surrounding the Blue Mosque. Croaky had to pay SGD 60 to eat at such road-side stalls – expensive right? We felt as though we were carrots being chopped!

Turkish tea served in their tulip cups – have you seen them before?

The night scene at Blue Mosque – it was one of the most beautiful landmarks in Istanbul. Dare I say that it was even prettier than the Topkapi palace itself.

And this was the Blue Mosque in the day. Why was it called “blue”? I would tell you in Part 2.

And there was also the Eygptian Market also known as the Spice Bazaar. I was holding a cube of Turkish Delight – the local candy. You must have a sweet tooth to really enjoy it.

And all the spices in front of many shops in this bazaar.

We also paid for a day tour at the Bosphorous river – the famous river conjoining the East and West of Istanbul, straddling across the Asian and European continent. The boat ride was almost 2.5 hours.

Beautiful architecture abounds as we cruised down the river on a hot and sunny afternoon.

Rumeli fortress was one of them. Croaky kept on telling me it reminded him of the Korean drama – Ju Mong which he faithfully followed on SCV.

And on 2 sides of the Bosphorous bridge, you would see signages welcoming you to either Asia or Europe, depending on which direction you were heading. Fancy crossing borders without passports!

And here we are. Enjoying the view of the river and the bridge on Bosphorous.

Well. Istanbul was indeed a beautiful place where you could explore the East and the West. A fusion of everything. Nice local folks. A place deep seated in history and religion. That was what we really love – exploring old places, admiring historical relics and exchanging cultures.

And we felt that it was best to plan where you wanted to go, places you had to see and things you would rather enjoy than to following a herd of other tourists and kept on rushing from places to places. The joy of travelling stayed with us because we chose where we wanted to go, where we wanted to stop longer, and where we preferred to eat. Sometimes, we were ripped by locals, othertimes, we enjoyed the opportunities to linger and converse. There was no pretence of friendliness, the pressure of extra tipping and the awkardness of speaking to people whose company you would rather not enjoy.

Stay tune for Istanbul Part 2

Here comes my prototype for the snowman!

I saw the craft kit at Spotlight for $4.95, but I didn’t buy it. Why would you pay $5 for 3 pieces of pearl, a small piece of felt and a feather hur?

So, I ventured to my favourite craft shop yesterday, armed with a drawing of my prototype snowman, and a photo of the exact design on my handphone (that’s why camera phones are so convenient nowadays!). Happily, I bought strings of pearls, sequins (do you call those little coloured bits for your NailArt sequins?), some metal parts for gosh ($20 ++). And the receipt showed I bought many “spare parts”.

But now I can make as many snowmen as I like – as my yearly Xmas pressies to my friends, my colleagues and Croaky (he doesn’t seem to like all these Xmas things – you see he threatens to tear down my Xmas decorations even in his sleep).

Maybe I should pack all those leftover pearls and sell them off at a bargain price – $2 anyone?

We finally decided to decorate our home for Xmas after 4 years of abstaining from putting up Xmas-related decorations.
To be honest, I used to think putting up decorations is a pure waste of time, money and freakingly tiring. And someone next door actually left their CNY decorations for a few years to date! I thought we could go down that similar path of leaving things stuck on the walls for a few Xmas-es.

To brighten up the gloom which the bad economy holds, I finally relent to all those temptations of Xmas decorations you see hanging on all those shopping malls.
Spending a bit of money to remind ourselves that Xmas is near can’t be that bad a thing to do, can it?

My 15 cm tall Xmas tree from Daiso – mini decorations, lights and all. Plus my Santa Claus plush toy from Memory Lane!

Croaky called this “green fur” and he dutifully hung it on top of our TV console, at my instructions (no doubt!). I am thinking of buying this gold lettered “Merry Christmas” to hang it beneath.

Then my little angel hanging from my ceiling lamp – all done by Croaky dear.

My plastic snow-flake which I got for $0.98 per piece. How lovely if it starts snowing now ~ dreams. Heat is unbearable in this tropics these days.

Xmas reindeers, Santas and Snow-men, all courtesy of Daiso (my favourite store!)

Minature Xmas tree, made from soft clay – found from one of the shelves in my storeroom!

And my favourite creation – my snow sprayed glass kitchen door. The can of snow spray costs $6.90 from Artfriend (before membership discount).

My home is now ready for Xmas!

Isn’t it depressing that you don’t see beautifully decorated shopping malls along Orchard Road for the past few years? The younger kids these days really missed out all those fun which we used to have. The Xmas carols always have a hypnotic effect on me…

This year, Xmas will be special

The MPH book fair over the weekend was awesome! Croaky and myself managed to squeeze our ways into the crowded exhibition hall at Expo to pore over the numerous good books with great discounts. We (actually is me only) got a total of 9 books – most of them priced at 8 bucks each. Most of the books are in good condition, in fact, brand new. It was puzzling why they were on sale, when they could have fetched much higher prices than those at Borders.

I love books. Not any kind of books. And there are only a few kinds of books which I like – craft books, cookery books, self and home improvement, relationships etc. Every single acquisition is a prize to me! And I have this dream that I will finally be able to savour every single line or picture in my book in the weekday afternoon sun, with a coffee in my hand. I will think of where to acquire my next book to further expand my library, or how to catalogue my books so that I will be able to sort them in an orderly sequence, or going to Ikea to buy more bookshelves!

Reality bites. Croaky said he forbid me to buy any more books.
He put it rather plainly; ” I don’t think you would be able to finish reading all your books even when you are dead. You just keep buying and buying. You have not even finish reading the last lot you have bought! There is no more space for your books!”

I am making my way to the Popular BookFest next weekend.
There’s nothing as ecstatic as finding a book with a title which strikes your cord and completes your soul.

Besides, I am sure I will be able to finish reading them someday. I swear!

After spending 2.5 months cutting & folding little pieces of paper, my paper chicken was finally completed yesterday! I never knew this silly project of mine would take such a long time to complete. I spent nights folding little triangles, as I watched Aircrash investigation, my must-not-missed VV dramas, the History channel and Charlotte’s web. I was fanatically doing my yellow chicken night after night…
And it has been heartbreaking to see all this little pieces of triangle collapse and disintegrate into nothingness. Not once, not twice. But many times…

This little piece of paper looks easy to fold. But imagine folding 1000s of them, and stacking them together to form a shape. After multitude of “collapses”, I decided to glue them one by one.

And the chicken body parts before they are fitted together. The one on the right is the eggshell, which also take a few weeks to make.

And my little chicken – completed.

A sense of elation overwhelmed me when the whole chicken was pieced together. Nevermind the long hours of making it, nevermind the number of times Mr Croak asks me to give up (yes-he did!), and nevermind the skipping of reading my notes to do this.

Actually, deep down inside, I was cursing myself for starting to do this. Because I never knew it was that challenging a task – I thought I could have completed it in a few days’ time. But it was my passion that carried me on. It was that deep desire to see its completion that spurs me on.

That translates to life, doesn’t it? How often when I hear others (myself included) complaining that they no longer have passion for something they do? And endless complaining is useless. Find something you really love and enjoy, and I believe that passion will carry you on and help you complete that task you thought unaccomplishable.