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It all started when I went back to Mauritius in 2007. My sisters got into a hula hoop craze and even my mum was learning a bit. haha. It was so funny. I joined in and it wasn’t long before I got the hang of it.
After I went back to Shanghai, I bought a hula hoop at Carrefour. (or maybe Wumei? Not sure.)

This is the hula hoop I was using back in Shanghai.

It is the only photo that I’ve managed to find. Please ignore the mess. I had started packing and getting ready to leave Shanghai when I took this photo. I left it behind in Shanghai and bought a new one in Singapore.

I don’t remember where I bought this super hula hoop. At Marina Square maybe? I’ve been calling it super hula hoop because it is huge. It is so much thicker and heavier than my old hula hoop.
I remember lifting the other hula hoops available at the sports shop and thinking that they were too light. This one caught my eye because… well simply because I had never seen anything like it before. Apparently, it is called a weighted hula hoop. (note: People with a history of back problems should avoid using weighted hula hoops or traditional hula hoops.)

This hula hoop gave me bruises but then I got used to it. It’s so easy to forget about the hula hoop swirling around my waist as I watch a movie. I never attempt more than 10 mins (non-stop) and hula hooping is probably not even enough of a workout but it’s an excuse for me to move about a bit. I haven’t touched it since June but today I woke up at about 6 a.m and was in a great mood. 6 a.m is usually the time I go to bed. I managed to fall asleep at about 1 a.m this time. I felt like shouting good morning when I rolled over to look at the time when I opened my eyes this morning. It’s high time to start sleeping at normal hours.
I had my breakfast, a cup of coffee, my hula hoop workout and I’m feeling great. I’ll probably stay home all day because it looks like it’s going to rain.
*Listening to my favourite Koreans songs… * It’s going to be a lovely day.

A short update because I’m too tired to edit the photos taken today.

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Your place or my place?
I was busy writing that message to my new student when one of my friends looked at my phone and exclaimed WHAT?! next to my ear. Ouch. I was merely asking my student if he wanted to be tutored at his place or mine. =_= Lisa is too busy to take another student and she recommended me. (thanks Liz!)
I’ll be busy preparing some French worksheets over the weekend.

I had lunch with Nicolas, one of my primary school best friends about 3 hrs ago. We went to eat at the Coffee Club right outside Raffles Place MRT station. The last time I saw Nicolas was 6 or 7 years ago. I didn’t see him for a couple of years after we finished primary school but we met up again one day thanks to a mutual friend. He is one of the few primary school ex-classmates that I still keep in touch with.

I was thinking about this the other day: I’m still not sure if Singapore is where I should be. I still don’t feel like this is ‘home’ but at least, here I’ve been able to meet up with my good friends again. I have 3 other close friends in Singapore. I’ve met them at different stages of my life and they have been very good friends. A few years ago, I didn’t think that I’d see again after they/I left Mauritius. Now somehow I’ve landed in Singapore and they happen to be working/studying here. I’m really happy.

Back to food…

Soup of the day was Leek and potato soup. It was good. I had just finished my soup when I suddenly remembered that I had my camera in my bag.

Mushroom and Parmesan baked rice. I could smell the parmesan as soon as the waiter put the dish down on the table.

Mango peach smoothie

Nicolas had the Honky Tonk Gumbo Set meal. (Weird name!) I didn’t take a photo of his Lychee soda with vanilla ice cream but here’s what his food looked like. (90% of it anyway)
He had already started eating when I took this photo.

We only had one hour to eat and talk but it was good to see him again. We’ve known each other since 1990. That was so long ago. I can’t help feeling a bit old. I miss my carefree childhood days.

The food was good & we got to talk for a while after not seeing each other for so many years. Sounds nice right? The only thing I’m sad about is that I forgot to ask one of the waiters to take our photo. As usual I took photos of food and forgot about taking photos of people. Argh. I’ll try not to forget next time.

My neighbour just rang the doorbell to ask me if I need anything from downstairs. It was a pleasant surprise. I hope that he couldn’t tell from the look on my face that I was very surprised. Maybe it’s a very common thing to do in Singapore. I had just run into him a few hours ago when I was on my way back from grocery shopping. We both took the same lift and we made some small talk. I didn’t know who our neighbours were when we were still living at Hillivew. If our new neighbour wasn’t our agent (real estate), maybe we wouldn’t ‘know’ him either.

Back in Mauritius, I know who my neighbours are and I won’t hesitate to smile at them or even make some small talk. I used to go over to one of my neighbour’s house to play when I was a kid.
In Shanghai, when I was living in the international students dorm, I’d often run into people living on the same floor when I take the lift and sometimes we talked but it wasn’t the case with everyone. Sometimes we just smile at each other but at least, I always knew who lived on my floor.

I asked the guys if they were okay with me posting their photos and they all said yes but then I forgot to blog about it. Some of the photos are already on my facebook.

The first thing I did after the BBQ was to take a shower. Never have a BBQ during the day in a hot country like Singapore! I was sweating like crazy. argh.
We transferred photos to Kersley’s laptop, talked about the good old days etc. Then Kers started to pack his things. He was taking the plane in a few hours. He was in Singapore for a few days only.
I wanted to try Bryan’s Nikon camera. I found it a tad heavy at first but soon I was happily taking photos of everything in sight. Kers and Di also had fun taking photos with that camera.

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Pay attention to the photos. I will ask a question at the end of this entry.
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Adrian was the only person who let me take many photos of him. The others were moving about too much or they were busy talking to each other.

Left: Me, my cousin Kers and Di.
Right: Me, Kers, Adrian. I included this pic which I titled ‘OMG I need to tan’.
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Lately, I’ve been taking many photos and also getting photos from friends. Now I have too many things to blog about. (I’ve already uploaded some photos on facebook.)
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My cousin Kersley wanted to have a barbecue party on the day he was leaving Singapore. His flight was in the evening and therefore we could only have the barbecue during the day under the scorching sun. I wanted to tan but I felt like my skin was burning. It is really too hot in Singapore sometimes.

The guys: Adrian, Kers and Bryan.

Kersley’s thumb got a small cut somehow. Fortunately I had adhesive plasters with me.

The food was good.

Bryan, me,Oni and Diana.

Something I’ve just learned…
A friend who has lived in Australia for a few years called barbecue ‘barbie’ .. I was like ‘huh?What barbie are you talking about?’ It turns out that barbie is slang for barbecue.

View from my window:

The water looks so good.
I can’t swim.

Caught on camera.