I always love ballet, symphony and play. It was so great to be able to watch ballet for 16 dollars! AND, it was an outdoor performance, UNDER THE STARS! I love the park, love the picnic and needless to say, I love sitting barefoot with my bermuda and sleeveless top. And of course, I applied mosquito repellant….just in case.

Shirley, me and Roy. Roy happened to wear an orange shirt which looked like the event helpers behind. =)

I love picnic! I was so regret for not buying a picnic basket when I was in Perth. There were so many varieties and they were cheap!

Very crowded with ballet and picnic enthusiasts.

Each of my friends bought along some snacks and salad. I didn’t prepare anything though. The guys did most of the stuff. Mary prepared salad with bacon chips (my favourite) and some cherries and honey melon.

Oh…who can resist wine?? Roy brought 2 bottles of red and I ‘tried’ to control my red intake. (because I had too much wine the day before) And of course, it always goes well with cheese and crackers! I had so much cheese and I guess I must have put on extra 5 kgs after the event. By the way, the cupcakes at the top of the picture, was baked by Raymond. He put some thinly sliced apples on the cupcake and baked them. It was so delicious and I had 2 of them!!! So, another 1 inch went to my waistline. *Nah, who cares…*

No flash photography allowed. So…..very blur picture but I like this picture very much! Two of my favourite dances were the Mozart – Piano concerto no. 21 in C major and Reflections at dusk – Symphony no. 5 part 3 adagietto. The choreography of both dances were as great as the music. It was so graceful and I was smiling with gentle warmth glowing in my heart. *grin* It made me felt like taking up ballet again! (Well, I have my leotard and shoes with me…)

After the performance, we went to Menotti, a fashionable Italian cafe & bar at Raffles Place. All the pastries were half price after 10pm. Man, I love dessert and no matter how full I am, there is always a place for dessert in my stomach.

We weren’t sure what to order so we went to look at the display. We wanted to order every pastry because they were just so lovely! At the end, we only ordered a strudel, tiramisu and some white chocolate pastry with melted milk chocolate inside (the one on top). Sweet…must go there again.

After stuffing myself with all the food and drinks, and guess what happened to me the next day….

FOOD POISONING!

Argh….I was the only who got it. As always…. sigh…

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Yesterday after work, I met up with my Year 12 buddies for dinner. Boy, we haven’t met each other for years after graduation and both of them have changed so much since then. They said I still looked the same except looking more ‘sophisticated’. Erm..as compared to wearing uniform everyday to school in year 12, of course I look more ‘sophisticated’ now.

Guess what we had for dinner? RAMEN!! And today after work, my colleague (buddy) took me out for dinner and we had, YAKITORI! I have japanese for 3 days in a week. Hah! I am sooooo happy! (May be I will have japanese for weekends, too)

We went to this tiny restaurant at Far East Plaza which served delicious yakitori.

The restaurant is very small. And I think the sitting capacity is 20. Luckily my buddy made reservation before we go.

I love the skewered asparagus with pork. When I was chewing the first asparagus, I smiled like an idiot with ‘Spring’ playing in my head, skipping with a basket of flowers across a green green grass. I was very contented! Like what my buddy said, it had made his day. Yes, it has definitely made mine, too!

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I am so in Jap-mood since I went to the CG conference. (Actually I am always in Jap-mood) My school mate from Year 12 took me out for sushi after work at sushi-tei in Paragon. Surprisingly I did not have much sushi because….I was eyeing for the DESSERTS! As always..They have all sorts of desserts and they are all S$2.50 only!

I had this "fish" filled with vanilla ice-cream and red bean paste. Super yummy but very cold and sweet…

Oops…tail….missing….eww..:)

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After I came back from a long conference on Saturday, my friends brought a bottle of merlot, crackers and cheese to my house. After watching "Walk the line", we listened to my favourite music – Bossa Nova. Everything was just perfect. The music, the wine and the cheese….I am so going to get a set of bean bags to put at my balcony. Then we can wine and do star gazing with bossa nova. *sweet*

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People from all over the world flocked to Singapore for this Asia’s biggest CG conference at Expo. It was indeed a great and can’t-missed event for CG artists and 3D professionals. Some of the famous animation studios such as Polygon Pictures, Lucas Film were recruiting people from the conference as well.

My "3D" colleagues and my ex-lecturer (right)

I was so shocked when I met my ex-lecturer at the conference. He flew down from Perth to attend this event. He was very surprised that I am now a lecturer too. =) Did I tell you that he is one of the lecturers who inspired me to be a lecturer? =)

I was indeed very fortunate to be able to attend this event – for FREE. (Expenses all paid by school) A few colleagues and I went to the conference from Friday – Sunday 10am-7pm. There were speakers from countries like the USA, Spain, Japan and local to share tips and techniques in 3D animation.

Digital paintings

The downside of this event was, there wasn’t an appropriate interval. The only break we had was lunch break. Each session lasted about 2 hours. It was quite painful to sit through every session without leaving the hall. (co’s we just didn’t want to miss any precious tip!)

Further more, the Coffee Bean was so happy as it had long queues during every break. The quality worsened everyday. Unfortunately, we just had to get our caffeine kick for each session. There isn’t any cafe nearby unless you take 5 minutes walk to get your coffee and take another 5 to come back.

After all, the conference was great because we got to learn so much from these experts from Pixar, Polygon pictures, Blue Sky Studios (Ice Age 2, Lord of the rings), Robot Communications Inc (Onimusha 2, Haunting Ground, Resident Evil Zero, Final Fantasy), Rhythm and Hues (The Chronicle of Narnia), Halon Entertainment (Star Wars 2: Attach of the Clones, Moulin Rouge), the founder of Pepeland – Daniel, Feng Zhu from Feng Zhu design and etc. It was indeed an eye-opening experience where these people generously share their techniques, videos with us.

No me ames

I love the animation from Pepeland. The models are simple but the story and idea behind is great. I had a little chit-chat with Daniel and found him absolutely friendly and warm. He is a teacher himself and is planning to open a 3D animation school in Barcelona (he is from Spain anyway) but the class is going to be conducted in Spanish. I told him that I only know a few Spanish words: "No me ames."

He looked at me with his huge green eyes in puzzlement and asked me:"Don’t love me?" I nodded and smiled. My colleagues were laughing hysterically: "Cherry!!!" And Daniel was laughing too. He said I was good. Then he asked me why he can’t love me. Hahaha… I said I wish to say Please love me but I didn’t know how to say it. So he taught me new words – por favor me ames (please love me) Hah!.

Daniel and I with the signature pose in one of his animations – Changes. Behind is his Pepe animation.

Ikuo Nishii, the technical supervisor from Robot Communication. He showed us the production of Onimusha and it was so COOL! They had martial art director from Hong Kong, Donnie Yen to choreograph the fighting scene and had several japanese crew to act and fight with the imaginary enemies.

Man…he is so cool! *grin* Some of my friends said we looked alike. *blush* HAHAHAH….

Robert Chang and me. Guys, you have to see his illustrations. They looked so real!!

My imaginary "guy"

When I asked him why some of the "models" in his digital painting looked like his wife. He was puzzled awhile and said that they were his imaginary beauties when he painted them (before he is married of course). And later he just happened to marry to his wife who looked like his imaginary "beauty". Wah…..he is super lucky! LESSON OF THE DAY: From today onwards, I shall paint or model my imaginary 3D "guy" as hard as possible. *drool* Mm…I wonder if I failed to paint or model my good looking guy and the end result looks nothing like..Ohh I just can’t go on… eewww!!!! *vomit blood*

Andrew Gordon, animator from Pixar Animation Studios. A very cute and funny guy. His new office has a hidden casino with pink lights which can be accessed through a book shelf! Before that, his made his cubicle into a Love Lounge with a hobbit-sized drinking hole stuffed with kitsch furnishings and a cocktail cabinet. Man, he is so creative. Some of other cubicles were decorated like jungle, small hut, double-decker and etc. It is fun to work in an environment like this. It sure helps creative juices to flow. I must start to design my cubicle, too. (provided it is approved by the management..mm)

I had a picture taken with Suzho, the CEO of Polygon Pictures but the picture is still with my colleague. Oh, he is such a cool, good looking and charismatic guy! Every time I looked at him, my heart screamed from inside out, then melted. *ahhh…* And he spoke fluent American english! *Ahhh x 1000*

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