"Faith is like electricity; you can't see it, but you can see the light." - Unknown




Aimless in Singapore & in between spamming my CV over career websites, I decided to indulge in couch-potatology by watching loads of internet TV. Total visual carnage: 2 seasons/26 episodes worth of Eli Stone in 4 days flat. Fans or viewers of this show would know that it consists of religious-bearing content & the 2nd season's finale ended with, of course, the likes of such a message: An atheist initially being denied of a heart of a "Christian" girl with strict Christians parents.

As the lawyers were arguing their notion, it began to dawn on me how much of my faith had vapourized over the last 13 years or so. By now, it is a known fact that I'm a believer of Christ, albeit a lousy non-chruch going one. But when I was between 13-17, a teenager exploring & still suffering under the cruel hands of puberty, I was an enthusiastic member of a church & cell group. Heck, I even attended bible study classes, prayed on my knees and got myself baptised. However, somewhere along the way, I decided that I could achieve things on my own effort & that prayer should be carried out only when I need something (like good academic results, lottery luck etc). I became complacent & as expected, I left the church, did whatever pleases me & got myself a nice collection of skin art. Though for the skin art part, I have never regretted discovering my love for them (reserve the eye-rolling & judgement to yourself, thank you very much...). I have never felt as much guilt for kicking my religion & faith to the curb til a few weeks back when something quite epic happened which made me reaccess my attitude towards life, people & especially myself.

I would not elaborate more on that because I didn't want to risk a preachy post, plus, religion has & will always be a taboo subject. What I can say now is that a change is underway. I just told Mavis a few hours ago: Funny how it is so easy to cross over to the dark side, & so bloody difficult to turn over a new leaf. I know it is no mean feat, but from today onwards, I will be making baby steps into becoming an even better person, with the restored faith to boot.

P.S: Shout-out to the Big guy above, for never losing faith on this complacent & blinded young lady.

A vacation is like love: anticipated with pleasure, experienced with discomfort, and remembered with nostalgia. - Author unknown

Back from Turkey with an unintended tan! :( An unforgettable 17 days indeed! Realised local celebrity Joanne Peh was in Turkey at the exact same locations as I was, just 2 days apart. She even had a photo of the same food stall owner I took a picture with (if I'm not wrong)!






Funny how differently I react to vacations from other holiday-makers. Usually, people prefer beach holidays with lots of sun, returning with the glory of their healthy, tan glows. For me, the opposite is true. I have been trying to whiten myself since forever (cos I think I suit the fair look more), & also, being a biologist per se, I'm super aware of the damages the sun can do to your skin (Skin-aging, sun burns, possible skin cancer, dark spots...). Of cos when you're in your youth, being tan is 'healthy', cool & all that cal; but in 10-20 years time, I hope you don't scream into the mirror when you see your once cute & character-defining freckles turn into melanin-laden pigmentation spots that would require hundreds or thousands of dollars lasering off. Thus, I was damn sad that the 10 months I took to un-tan kudos to my post summer-Europe backpacking trip was destroyed in less than 10 days under the Turkish sun! I should prolly plan a winter/autumn holiday next year where I can freeze my arse off & remain white. Not to say beach or summer holidays are not enjoyable, they are always too fun...but whilst frolicking around in that fancy bikini of yours, remember to load up on that sunscreen spf50+++++++!!! :D

During holidays, people tend to let themselves go, & of cos, one of the best things in life is eating. Food defines culture in many sense, thus, it is paramount that one should immerse themselves in a country's culture through eating. I have had the privilege of tasting great European cuisines last year, & this year I repeated my gastronomical quest in Turkey:





























































Highlights of this trip also included me managing to coerce my mum into giving me her company's new digital camera, a slick Panasonic Lumix (which I borrowed to take all of these wonderful pictures). Well, she didn't exactly end up giving me the camera, but agreed to sell it to me for 200 bucks!!! It's still a good deal considering how lost I was after my camera unceremoniously broke in a freak accident on my birthday last October. Besides, Mum bought it for $425 & it comes with an 8GB memory card. Hee hee *evil smirk*!

Oh...& how can I forget... I also managed to meet one of my favourite tattoo artist, Luba Goldina!!!





Was also toying with the idea of soon setting up a travel blogsite with tips on getting-around, cuisines, hostel stays, attractions, must-dos etc & also share my travel experience, especially around Eu. At this point, I shall disclaim: I'm not an expert or anything, but I just want to share my thoughts so that if one were to visit similar places with my kind of broke-student cum backpacker kinda budget, they could apply some of these tips to hopefully aid them. But first, I must brush up on my photography skills. Today's blog is just a little trial practice. I still have much to learn. *Modest Mel face*

Ok, too much for 1 blog entry. Will leave you guys with one of my beloved photos from this trip! :D






Til, the next time!