The Days of a Silly and Ordinary Girl! :D

Waiting for the crowd to pass, and quickly snapped some pictures before another crowd passed. :p

And also NEMO!

The best way in my opinion, is by MRT to Harbourfront and take exit E to VivoCity shopping mall,  once inside, there will be a lot of directions pointing to the express train station on the level 3, board the Sentosa Express, stop at Waterfront Station, and voila, you have reached the Resort World Sentosa, and look for the directions overhead for the aquarium. 

Alternatives of how to get there by other means of transportations, check https://www.rwsentosa.com/en/getting-here

S.E.A Aquarium - Resort World Sentosa

Open hours: 10 AM - 7 PM

8 Sentosa Gateway,
Sentosa Island, Singapore 098269

I was actually not planning to post any movie review in the meantime, (still trying to finish the Singapore series post *finger-crossed) but this movie completely got into my mind and has haunted me since last night. And you know, when there's a great movie that can do me any damage like that, I can barely wait to share it. 

PERFECT STRANGERS (2016)

credit: pinterest

Italian title

credit: opl.it

I first knew about this Italian movie from twitter yesterday morning, I don't remember which account recommended it, but I was attracted right away. The account did mention that he/she watched the Spanish version (yes, they remade it with the Spanish title "Perfectos Desconocidos") but he/she  also heard that the Italian version is waaaaaay better), so I googled it and found out that the movie has earned a number of critical acclaim. The movie soon had its spot in my "to-watch-list". I didn't expect to watch it in the near future, as I still had a lot of entries queuing in my list. But, somehow, an unknown force (read: my impulsiveness) pushed me into watching it last night, and since then, I can't stop thinking about it. o.o 

"Seven long-time friends (three married couples and a divorcee) are having a dinner. They decide, as a playful game, to put each one's mobile phone on the table and reveal every text message or phone call they would receive that evening, to prove that nobody has anything to hide. Hilarity and drama ensue together as everyone's secrets are unveiled and the seven friends find themselves perfect strangers to each other. " - Wikipedia

It is actually very rare to find how such a simple story, just a casual dinner among friends, could become a very strong premise and was successfully developed into a very good movie. The whole movie revolves around the dinner, the everyday conversations among childhood friends with their wives who have become good friends too, with every ringtone slowly building up the climax while unfolding the secrets layer by layer, and how those dirty little secrets eventually affect them. 

I really like the pace of the movie set by the director, like I said, it is slowly building up, from a casual chit-chat to serious confrontation, step by step, one secret to another, and it is arranged so perfectly, that I just naturally went along with the flow. I started off by watching relaxedly, and I ended up getting as tense as the characters in the movie. 

Oh, and I am also totally in love with the way they shot the movie, the movement of the camera, it's so natural that it made me feel like I was there too, sitting at the same table as them, since the cameramen did really good job in circling around the dining table and capturing everyone's expression without leaving out anybody. 

As for the actors, I don't think I have anything much to say about them, except that they are sooo exceptional. Each character is played really well, and all looked incredibly real, as if they're just being themselves in the movie. 

Every character is also portrayed in equal portion, with their own distinctive perspective, that somehow gives the impression that no one was superior or inferior to the other, and that everyone can have secrets. Hidden secrets which give you the illusion that you think you know someone like the back of your hand. Until they open up, or until they are found out, the someone you think you know completely can become "perfect strangers".

My favorite quotes of the movie are by the married couple Eva and Rocco who became the host of the dinner:

Eva: 

"We have everything in here [smartphones]. It's the black box of our lives. How many couples would split up if they looked at each other's phones?"

Rocco: (of why he thinks they shouldn't play the game)

"Because we're breakable... all of us, some more than others. You're right. this [phone] has become our black box. It's got everything inside. Perhaps too much. And it's wrong to play around with it."

I like the idea of the movie, the message that it's trying to deliver. Some secrets are meant to be kept hidden, just like a Pandora's box that will only have disastrous effect once opened, while some secrets can also make you realize how that someone is really feeling deep down inside. Some may keep secrets because they are afraid they will be judged, some keep secrets because they want to be needed. Sometimes we think we know, but we actually know nothing. That maybe what it takes is only to sit down and have some talk, opening up to one another, rather than letting the secrets gradually grow into a "time-bomb". 

Hi, there!

It's been a while :)

I've been missing and I'm ready to be back anytime soon. Haha

So, it has been a busy couple of months, or maybe triple. (ignore it if you don't get my joke XD)

Or truth to be told, the first month was the most hectic, because I needed to focus and spend my whole free time to prepare for a language proficiency exam. (Well, I'm kinda the person who has "high" expectations on myself, and I didn't want to regret not trying harder and doing my best.) Hence, I had to bid adios to my blog for a bit. 

The main thing came after: I came to realize that I needed to take some time off this whole social media thing. I found that for the whole month I spent not posting anything on Instagram or on the blog, I felt more at ease. I started to recall how it had been for me all this time being so drowned in the Instagram flood. I could spend hours scrolling the timeline, checking one's account after another, envying the influencers' fabulous feed, thinking "maybe if I bought that dress, I would look just as gorgeous, and it would make a great ootd photo, and I would get more likes and more followers". It's real. The likes that I got on every photo that I posted controlled my mood. When I got a lot of likes, I was happy. When it didn't, I couldn't stop wondering what had gone wrong. "Don't people like my photos anymore? Am I really not good?" Yeah, I was THAT insecure.    

The same thing goes for the blog. "Why don't people read my blog? Maybe they don't like my writing? Maybe it's too long? Or too short? Not interesting enough? What's wrong? Is it because I don't travel enough?" and it even reached the extent where I had this idea that I had to keep travelling in order to have something to write about. Suddenly, this entire blogging thing is not about sharing my thoughts and my experience anymore, it's about content. Travelling is no longer about going to places and have fun. It's about how to take good pictures, and enhance that Instagram feed, getting "likes" and again, to create content. For what, you ask? For the "pageviews" number to increase, to being liked, to be followed, and eventually become the so-called "power-blogger". 

And it hit me at that moment: Why would those little numbers dictate how I feel? They are only numbers without feelings. And worst of them all, why would I let it consume me? 

I have the power to change it, the choice is mine. I can't change the way people see me, but I can change my own perspective. Why would I care so much of how people like me? or my photos? or my writing? It's up to them to like or not. It's a freedom of speech era anyway. Why would I worry about things that I can do nothing about? 

I don't hate the social media platforms or the influencers, nor am I asking you to ban any of them. I believe that these platforms, if used for the right purpose and in the proper way, can be a powerful means to share knowledge, to spread positivity, or maybe to bring people closer. 

The point is, I'm just despising the way I got so carried away and ended up not feeling good being myself. Therefore, I made this "NOTE TO SELF" as a reminder to myself, so that I won't lose my way again. I choose to do what I love, to be myself, with or without others' approval (why would it affect me anyway? haha). I started this blog to share, and that's what I'm gonna do. I'm gonna write what I want, I'm gonna upload pictures that I like, without being afraid of whether others will "double-tap" or not. 

Maybe you'll say "hey, it's not even that bad! at least you don't have any hate comment, at least you're not ridiculed by people". And yes, I'm very fortunate that way, that I don't have to go through that "extreme" level to be aware of things before it can get any worse. 

To any of you, reading this post, if you're feeling as insecure as me, or even worse, maybe you really need to have some "social-media-detox". Remember, you can always choose for yourself. You decide for YOU. Stay away from the negativity. The happiness that we got from those "likes" are just temporary. Exit that app, put down your phone and look around. You'll find real happiness. ❤❤❤

 credit: pinterest

And, one other thing that I didn't get to experience, is climbing up this OCBC Skyway (see the bridge connecting the Supertree Groove?) and "take a scenic stroll, 22 metres above ground, in the very heart of nature" as the ads claimed. I thought it would be really fun, but since the anniversary was just the other day, and they had to do some maintenance thing, so it was closed that day. Sad, but I guess it gave me even more reasons to come back? *fingers crossed