My most favorite show on tv this season

Apparently USA allows foreign fiancees and fiances to come into USA to get married within 90 days or return to their home countries, under the K-1 visa. So TLC is following these four intended brides during their 90 day journey to get married in USA.

So far the guys have treated their lady loves really well, and seem like very nice guys, but the fact is that they probably did not have much chance in finding love with their own women. Going overseas to find love has enabled them to bat above their average, especially in terms of looks. The most obvious advantage that the guys have over the ladies is their American citizenship, followed by relative wealth (in Kirlyam's case).

Each relationship has its ups and downs, some more downs than others. Which makes for exciting tv. I look forward to each episode more than my handsome farmer boys at Farm Kings (I am still very upset not being able to find any episode of season 2. Trying to buy it, don't seem to be available either).

Kirlyam and Alan - Alan's a mormon, his religion is probably the only thing stopping him from bedding the incredibly beautiful Kirlyam. So far Mom and Dad like her too, but the recent episode shows an impeding problem. When Kirlyam went to the salon to do a wedding trial, Andria the hair stylist spots how good looking she is, and gives her a modeling agent's number. Kirlyam who's from a really small town in Brazil, is excited and wants to be the next Gisele, but naturally Alan is not excited. He was already pissed off when the Jack Sparrow outside the Grauman's Chinese Theatre (we saw him too when we were in LA for one scary night) stood a little too close to Kirlyam (she has a massive crush on Johnny Depp) in the photo. My assessment of their chances to succeed - 9/10 initially, now plunged to 6/10. If she can earn $ from being a model, she won't need Alan anymore. His insecurity is very annoying.

Russ and Paola - Hot mama is facing cultural conflicts with Russ' conservative family, e.g. her sexy nightwear could set heart rates racing, and she is kind of high maintenance. Russ' dad is probably relieved the mommy boy finally moved out. She is using sex to ensnare him *approve*. My assessment of their chances to succeed - 8/10 (probably she will bleed his wallet dry, or eventually they will fight over $)

Aziza and Mike - I strongly suspect that this lady is not interested in the guy. She has some weird peeve about eating in public, therefore pissing off his Mother when she put in a lot of effort to make dinner especially to welcome Aziza. She also rejected Mike's wedding suggestions, and refused to have sex (before marriage) and children with him. Then later she had sex with him after she witnessed him talking to women outside a pub. Everyone in Mike's life is warning him that there is something wrong about the girl, esp since her interest in him only spiked when her employment visa to USA was rejected.  My assessment of their chances to succeed - 3/10 (she's going to run!)

Louis and Aya - Louis hasn't grown up, and he has two wild boys. And a forbidding scary ex to boot. I don't envy Aya. Good luck. My assessment of their chances to succeed - 6/10 (her background will probably condition her to put up with a lot when she is married to him)

[reddit] Birthday greeting surprise

Last year, I wanted to do a Christmas gift exchange on reddit. Then I lost Bobo's car keys (I thought I dropped it while at the bank, turned out it was on the dining table. Only found out after I spent S$1K to replace the keys and get a new lock frequency). So I limited myself to giving Christmas greetings.

Other than taking part in the Christmas card exchange on reddit, I was searching for other Christmas card requests. Came across this request posted by a devoted boyfriend asking for postcards to be sent to his girlfriend for her birthday in Jan.

As it turned out he posted to many countries' subreddits in the hopes of scoring a postcard for his girl from every continent. I posted one too, after getting an address from him (he requested for birthday greeting in other languages as well).

太阳是金色的，(the sun is golden)

月亮是银色的，(the moon is silver)

你的生日是彩色的，(your birthday is colorful)

愿你被幸福环绕，(wish you be surrounded by good fortune)

被好运追逐，(chased by good luck)

被快乐降伏，(yield lots of happiness)

被笑容粘住。(stuck on by smiles)

那时别忘了，(at that moment don't forget)

有人在远方为你祝福， (someone from far away wished you well)

生日快乐！(Happy birthday!)

So today I finally received a reply, he showed the 105 cards and packages to her. So cool right? He even google mapped the locations that they came from:

Happy Birthday again, Brodie!~

Mr Bear for "sale"

I was talking to my new penpal about painting, and at some point of the conversation, I showed him some of the paintings I did. He liked the Mr Bear one and asked me to sell it to him.

Since my Mr Bear is kinda of old and dented (from falling off the wall because of the lousy putty I used to stick him up), I suggested doing him a new one. In lieu of $ (despite my love for it, it seems very crass), I suggested my friend get me a book on mixing paint. I have a lot of yellow based paints due to my love for painting flowers, esp yellow flowers (the gardening committee might have a point), so it will be good that I can save some money by learning how to mix paint.

I tried to do a new version of Mr Bear, and showed the WIP (the background was not WIP) to my penpal. He didn't really like the style. So I did the same as the old Mr Bear.

It's been oil sealed since, which gave it a nice sheen. Once it is dry (I think should be ok by tomorrow), I will mail it to my penpal.

[12 Jan 2014] Acapella @ Botanical Garden

We went to watch the acapella concert at Shaw Foundation Symphony stage. It was a massive pain in the ass to walk from Botanical Garden. Btw smarter bears do not walk up the red brick path thinking it is a shorter path. Yes, it saves distance but it brings you way past the stage. The lower road path is a better idea, though it is longer. It does reach the stage by going past the Au Petit Salut.

Despite my bad directions, we managed to reach there in time and set up our mat to watch the concert. We were a little worried by the dark skies. The rain kept playing tricks on us, by raining then stopping then raining again...we were only drenched a little, but the umbrella did get away from Bobo at one point.

We picnicked on Pringles and sushi. Eaten rather hastily thanks to the unreasonable weather. We saw a Chinese family eating chicken rice and porridge, which sent us to hunt for a porridge dinner after the event.

Micapella

And enjoyed the sounds of GoodFellas, Micappella, and Key Elements. My favorite was Micappella. I especially liked some of their covers, e.g. Lorde's Royals (oncore piece), because they did recent songs. I was a bit confused by GoodFellas using instruments. Wasn't it a acapella performance? I wished their music was louder, and they seemed to play very country music style, which I didn't like. I thought Key Elements was not bad too, and felt a little bad that we didn't yell encore for them. Their music was more soothing (jazzy after all) and good for a sleepy wet afternoon, whereas Micappella was more rousing.

Key Elements

For the children, who found fun by rolling down the grassy slopes, going down the stone stair rail like a slide, and running around, there was distraction in the form of wire art, sand art and face painting. I told Bobo the makeup artist was pretty, but he was too lazy to move.

Wire art

While coming out of the Botanical Garden, LKY passed by us in a buggy. Cool right? We only realized when someone coming onwards, said "thank you sir for everything". ??? We were naturally nonplussed but after a while, it sank into our brains it was the LKY.

GoodFellas - they play @ Timbre

Being with someone

Very emos - This song is speaking to me.

Happy New Year 2014

To kick off 2014, here is a little food porn. My leftovers from NYE dinner haha. Ignore the chicken, it was murdered 4 times, poor thing.

[olives, mesclun salad, tomatoes, green apples and smoked salmon doused with sesame dressing]

redo of leftovers: roasted chicken + tomatoes + salad + scrambled eggs + fried mashed potatoes (rolled in oats)