gatherings

i've successfully completed the 5th day of my 11-day marathon of meeting up with people for dinner.. most are cos i'm leaving soon, though some are coincidences such as the FS-gathering and the 206 class gathering tomorrow.. i've had 6 meals out - not including tea - and i'm glad that my stomach is still holding its fort.. for now.

here are some pics!

with the babies at pluck

the really funny haiku - and so many pple dont get the humour of this - on sharon's shirt, taken when some of us were at newton circus

with eunice and tania at marmalade pantry - the slice of carrot cake was really really huge!

one of the rare pics i have together with maxine.. check out the flower in front of us. i really love it! each table was adorned with one

fooling around with the babies at paisley and cream - really good food!

after which we went - or rather, i went around and dragged the other 3 along with me - to take pictures of some japanese restaurants in central, as apparently it interests japanese to see japanese influences in other countries. so i have photos like this:

and the kids standing in front of the shop thought i was taking a picture of them *rolls eyes*

and also pictures of the singapore river:

many tourists were also trying to take shots of this view, which made me feel like at least i was doing something right. haha. how can anyone not love the singapore river at night????

larger than life figurines - they literally were larger than life - showing our past..

i love the fullerton

the durian, and a shot with the flyer below.. i dont like the grainy overexposed look of them though..

the apparently sinister looking mini merlion..

kiru wants my shots of the merlion, so here are those that i actually kept. take your pic(k)!

i dont like these two cos of that bright light from the harbour.. anyway there was this indian tourist who was trying to do typical tourist poses like trying to appear like he's drinking the merlion's water and so on. heh.

these pictures are certainly not great, but i think they're not too bad, especially the merlion ones. and really, if i can take pictures like this with a point-and-shoot camera with NO TRIPOD (and no talent in composing photographs), i really cant accept how the only postcards that are sold everywhere in singapore - at least as far as i've seen - are these really really badly taken ones that are SO UGLY that i feel so ashamed that there arent any postcards that capture how beautiful singapore can be.

really, i think it's a huge disgrace that all the shops selling souvenirs sell the same ugly postcards, as i feel that postcards are an important part of the branding and imaging of a tourist destination. i mean, i'm now looking for beautiful scenes of singapore to showcase to all the people i'll meet in osaka, and when i'm overseas i always look for postcards that feature gorgeous vistas that i can never take on my own as a physical keepsake of the magnificent views. and yet i cant find any decent ones of singapore here!

i voiced this when the bunch of us met up on friday, and the frustrating thing is that kelvin's totally right in saying that STB cant do much about this lack either. if the government - or in this case, the stat board in charge of tourism in singapore - cant do anything about this, then who should i take my complaints to and who then will respond to this problem by producing nicer postcards??? the laws of demand and supply dont apply in this case, because it's a fact that tourists buy souvenirs, and even if only ugly souvenirs are available, they will still be purchased because there is no other choice!

urgh.