Her Pandora’s Box

Dear Sugarplum Fairy,

There’s been a plethora of good events in my life as of late.

Last Friday, there was a Pizza Party in the office and starbucks with the lunch gang afterwards.

Ahh.. a good time to introduce my little lunch gang to you guys.

This is Fii, he’s a food thief and my dear old friend.
Alas, this is the lunch gang, with Kenneth behind the camera. Brenda and I. Brenda is a MAJOR Hello Kitty fan and an absolute sweetheart.

I went on a camping trip last weekend to unwind and i had a great time. Nothing beats having your best friends on a gorgeous, breezy night by the beach. There wasn’t much apart from junk food, company and heaps to talk about but it was all that I need for a good time.

Lunch time’s over, I’ll see you in abit!

Dear Sugarplum Fairy,

Good morning! Just some pictures from SUP’s launch.

Please meet Jacky. The man behind SUP.

Also, Aaron the Great, his beer and the crowd that was forming.

The store. (www.supclothing.com)

My lovelies: My brother, Aaron and the ladies that he pimps.

And finally, the crew.
(Pictures by Mr36)

Come say hello if you’re in Haji Lane next time.

Have a gorgeous Thursday!

Dear Sugarplum Fairy,

There’re tidbits of love around you if you choose to notice. Perhaps if we bothered to be a tad less oblivious and ignorant to these little surprises life has to offer, things wouldn’t seem so bad.

Is this the same angsty Maria we’re talking about?

Email this morning was from Jennifer:

Jennifer: You have BF today? Would you mind having sandwich?

Me: I mistook BF for boyfriend right before I linked it with the word sandwich. Gee.

I’d looove to! What are you having today? Chutney again?

Jennifer: Hahahaha, I guess as much. I used chutney in place of butter, as I couldn’t wait for the butter to melt early in the morning.

I hope you like rocket leaves though. Enjoy..

Jen makes just about the best sandwiches. She’s got the tendency to err on the side of awesome. So my breakfast was roast beef and cheese sandwich with a whole load of rocket leaves in between. T’was delicious.

And these are the lovely things that makes it hard to go away. Yes, I am upset.

On a much lighter note, got a text from a friend late last night. He got it through at an odd hour.

Hey Maria. How are you? I’m doing great. I’m watching Batman at the moment and i can’t help but notice you look like Rachel Dawes. How’s the paycheck?

Because i am not mad about movies despite the hype for this one, I had to tell myself that there was no need to get all flattered. I haven’t a clue who was playing Rachel Dawes, to begin with. I googled it up and learnt it was no other than.. Maggie Gyllenhaal.

I laughed so much and was all over the floor. If there was any feature at all that we shared, it’d be that we’re awfully not photogenic. Hahaha! Thanks though, she’s absolutely gorgeous and I’m thrilled but i personally don’t think so. Nah..

Overall, a good day for mails.

Dear Sugarplum Fairy,

Pressed for time tonight.

I’m organizing a trip to Indonesia (as a volunteer) to help build a home for some very unfortunate families struggling to survive without shelter. Expect to get active in doing some serious fund-raising here and much physical work there. It’ll be an experience, i’m certain. Not to mention that the fruits of your labour will be explosively rewarding too. With that said, if you’re keen to be part of this, please get in touch with me: by any means possible. I’ll try my best to fulfill your every informational desire at this point (since its a relatively fresh project).

p.s this project is supported by an existing, local charity organization and not exclusively by me. Reach me and i’ll tell ya’.

My friends are putting up a tiny reunion gig and it’s going to be more of a party than anything since its a private event. Kinda. I grew up with these kids so i’m coming to relive our lost, musically amateur moments of naked adolescence. But hey, we were considered cool in school then. (Hahahaha)

Here’s what I mean: the boys in 2004, during our school concert

And here they are now:

6th Avenue Production
In Collaboration With The Bastard Records
Presents

THE SALLYS x SALLY’S REJEX

A Reunion Show

A mixture of genres, we’ll be playing songs back from 06′ to the newer ones of ‘08. Friends we meet through the shows, producers and organisers we have worked with are encouraged to come!

Date:
2nd August 2008

Location:
MUSIC GARAGE
64B Queen Street
(Bugis Street Market)

Duration:
7pm Till Late

Cost:
$8 per tix
100 tickets only (It’s a private show.)

Extras
Food & Beverage Provided
MTV Snippets Of The Band
Preview of The Sallys New Album

I do hope they’ve got pizzas. I’ll see you there.

Dear Sugarplum Fairy,

Have a lovely weekend, everybody.

Dear Sugarplum Fairy,

I promise you, this is the cutest, homourous and most creative article i’ve ever read in my life. Written by one of my favourite blogger and writer, Joanna Goddard. I enjoyed a damn good laugh from it. Read about our little lemonade entrepreneurs here.

Great news. I’m rolling out to a new site in a couple of weeks. I was contemplating between this cosy, intimate, simple, somewhat private space with one that doesn’t deny me of, the least, embedding videos? Not that I have much to share but you’ll never know what you’ll EVER want to share. Stay tuned folks.

I get my dose of excellent poems at softblow. It’s good stuff all year round, i think you’ll dig.

Busy looking for a driving instructor and i can’t wait to start! I’m 20 and haven’t got a driver’s license. Shame on you, Maria. I’m two years too late. Wish me luck.

Of late, i’ve been planning what i want to do to occupy my time while i’m out of a job. I even wrote out a list! I have a list of recipes to try, good books to read, new projects to work on, friends to catch up with, driving school to attend.. (the list goes on)

I’m also going to start scrapbooking! I own this huge drawer of all things i considered sentimental (like letters from primary two). I need more storage space in my room but i refuse to throw anything in that drawer away. Scrapbooking’s the answer.

Everyone knows i love getting crafty.

Most of all, I miss dancing more than ever now. I just want to get into my pointe shoes and work a gazillion pliés to sweat and start toning up.

Three more weeks to go!

Dear Sugarplum Fairy,

Its my last month in the office and it’s breaking my heart. I’ve finally tendered and thought that it’s time to move on. Its clear that i’m not such a domestic person. When i got injured (and other fuck reasons) and left Lasalle, i drew out my own version of a masterplan. Plan A was to utilize a year as best as I can. I told myself that it was best to work on a diploma that was not Arts/Dance related, just because. Also, I figured, some serious work experience would help propel me towards getting the desired, better job. As opposed to: getting a job i hate because I don’t have a choice, they want work experience.

I’m starting work on my graduation project and should be done in a month, or less, i think. Apart from that, I’ve worked for a year here in Elsevier, so i’m letting it go since it was something i planned to be only temporary. It’s been great.

I’m pretty much done for now. Figured i’d bum for abit- like maybe go for a short trip out of town, work on some articles, do some volunteer works. Well, something like that. In no time, I’ll be hurtling back hunting for another job, this time, more specific to my diploma. So far so good.

Speaking of which, my relationship with Yasin sees through another year. We’re 3 years old. Since we fashioned Bali for our birthdays, we popped the chill pill and stayed put. We went camping instead. We loooove camping out (with lots of junk food). We were chatting the entire night, which is very typical of us. Childhood stories, friends, plans and stuff. It may not be anything much, but a friend and i share a running joke that a good conversation is probably better than sex. Yes/No?

Moving on. I was frowning and felt extremely awkward staring at two weding invitations on my desk. Both said, ‘Maria & Partner’ on the envelope. Not too long ago, it was my family that’s invited, not specifically my ‘partner’. There were TWO invites. Both were my friends. Not much older than me. Eeek! There’s another running joke between me and my dad that i’d like to share, which goes like, "you know you’re getting old when the wedding invites starts coming in."

Wait, how old am i again?

I find marriage a very sacred, self-less and noble commitment in life. But it scares me just almost equally. I’m never thinking of settling down too soon. Too many dreams to pursue, for one reason. And too little time, for another. But that’s just how i see it. Well, that’s for another time and another entry.

Have a good lunch! (I sure did)

Dear Sugarplum Fairy,

My head is still spinning from last weekend’s madness. I had too much fun.

SUP’s launch was a really cosy one and the humble Jacky, also owner/designer of SUP, was as welcoming as ever. Thanks for inviting! There were sooo many friends and familiar faces that i got dizzy trying to absorb whoever was there. So catching up got a little complicated after about a half hour and I resigned to standing at one spot and enjoyed my drink instead.

When the guests left, we ‘reopened’ the store for an after-party. That’s where the fun started. It was insane.

Dear Sugarplum Fairy,

Happy Independence Day, America! You’ve cleverly selected Obama to lead you. Do we hear a post-racial America yet?

It’s my folks’ anniversary as well. I said that I’d plan a really romantic one for them BUT they insist on a date to..

THE SINGAPORE FLYER.

Oh god..
Can’t tell you how i reacted to that. Oh good lord..

I had a really long week at work, sorta. So i’ve been looking forward to the weekends because there’s so much going on.

I’ve mentioned once before that I am an avid reader and fan of the coolest mom and blogger, Karen Cheng. What I didn’t know was, she’s actually really, really popular! Like a celebrity blogger. I figured that i was probably among a few Singaporeans whose stumbled upon and got addicted to her site (very obviously not), but guess what, she’s travelled here to Singapore to celebrate her 30th birthday and just came off air with Joe Augustin on Power 98 FM this morning! WHAT!

What I really love about Karen is the direction in which she decides to live her life. She blogs of things and people closest to her heart. Her boys, her love for tea, for fashion, for art and design, giving back to the community, being happy about the simplest things in life and sorts. She’s very humble, very creative and very active. Hopelessly inspirational.

So since Karen is just being her kick-ass self, and she’s here in our little city this weekend, she’s decided to meet all of her Singaporean readers. And then Karen, being Karen again, has decided to do that by putting together a little fundraiser for the Red Cross Society. You get to do Karen’s typical mirror-shot pose with her, have a chat and mingle with everyone there. And you complete it by doing this great deed of donating just $10 to charity to aid victims of the recent Earthquakes. Neat.

So if you haven’t got much to do tomorrow, you might like to find out more about it here and head down to support her little event at Indochine; Forbidden City.

You might also want to RSVP here on facebook since its a private event. Have fun!

A friend of ours, whose shop (Sup) is officially lauching their second collection (of streetwear), has just sent out this massive invite to pretty much the whole lot of us to attend it. So we’re all headed that way tomorrow night before partying elsewhere with all of them.

Ahhh.. how nice. The week’s been so hectic and I’m just about to let my hair down. Another day in the life of a corporate zombie. Eurgh!

A few more minutes and i’m marching out of this office towards my very much anticipated weekend. Have a good one yourself, everybody!

See you there!

Dear Sugarplum Fairy,

Welcome to July (in a blink)! How’re we doing so far, everyone?

I’ve just written to Save The Children a couple of hours back and I’m really excited to hear from them. My fingers are crossed. They encourage volunteer councils to be set up by any group of interested individuals anywhere you are and i wrote in to find out more about it. If we could indeed establish a collective of volunteers here, whether musicians, artists, students or just regular folks, it’d be a great start for something even bigger.

For some time now, i am planning another fundraiser. Azly and i are working on something but we’re not making anything official just yet. We’re currently in pre-production stage. And Azly is the real deal aka The Shit.

I received some unfortunate news from Save The Children in their newsletter to me this month and I think its time i get back in touch with this. I have a few things planned to be more involved so the execution should take place in the not too distant future. Again, nothing official.

Personally, I see activism as part of being human more than anything else. It is a responsibility. Ours, all of us. Because you and i, are just bones, flesh and blood. Just as the ones suffering and the ones residing in multi-million dollar mansions.

Understanding the concept that in place of a beauty queen asking for world peace, it is very simply just: being responsible. But it appears before us, as something more noble and more complicated than that. Tragic, but true.

Its purely hypothetical that Activists are saints who wears glasses, collect stamps and reads holy books to pass time. A fraction of us would also think that if you’re a person who seemingly, have not quite sorted yourself out (this writer), it means you’re incapable. When all that you ever truly needed to be geared up for this, is to just be and feel human.

And so what if you’re a party animal, an alcoholic, or someone with issues?

I’m not saying that we sacrifice hours of our time or a certain percentage of our money. All i’m saying is, offer your support. Its a great way to start. For instance, including a web banner of a campaign onto your website or blogs, telling your friends about it, stuff like that. It’s not too difficult, yes?

Unconventionally, you can challenge yourself. Fundraisers, workshops.. (list begins and goes on)

Anyway, if you do have any bright ideas or perhaps something about this that you’d like to share, please do contact me and i’d be so grateful to hear from you!

In the meantime..

Add a banner!

or join them on social networking sites:

Save The Children on Facebook or on Myspace.