Rummaging through wads of old artwork (I’d like to imagine them as tangible ones on paper, rather than digital) in my harddisk, a painting stood out and it occurred to me that I never finished what I intended to. Acrylic on canvas. The carefully painted image of Leslie as Ho Po-wing still comes on strong; incomplete, yet I’m satisfied with it in another way. And then there’s the blog entry written in 2006; I’m 4 years late.

I can’t see me lovin’ nobody but you
For all my life
When you’re with me, baby the skies’ll be blue
For all my life

So happy together.

It must be because of the massage we went for; I couldn’t sleep well at all on the previous night, my neck and shoulders ached for the entire day. On the way to work, we dropped by a bakery and I got for myself a sandwich and 午后红茶 milk tea, my favourite brand! Why? Leslie’s 2000 album 《大热》included a song also entitled “午后红茶”.

A few years ago when I was in Hong Kong, I saw these on the shelves. They had all types of tea (green tea, jasmine tea, milk tea etc), and it seemed like the brand originated from Japan. I haven’t bought a bottle before because if I remember correctly, the ones imported from Japan are pretty expensive; a few dollars for a bottle of tea. Now that I realize these are available in Shanghai for an average of 4, 5 rmb a bottle and it’s truly tasty, I’m absolutely hooked =D

Last Thursday I started doing layouts for Stiefel’s website and throughout today I worked on my version of the product page. HL is the senior designer here, since we do not have a creative or art director, he splits the work with me most of the time. Ryan’s the only other designer in Creative besides us the interns, and depending on which projects they are in charge of, we all may or may not work on the same things.

On the first day of work, we dug around in the folders and accidentally saw the wallpaper for LG that HL’s done; professional and jaw-dropping, we could totally imagine his level of photoshop skills with the standard of work produced. Made me freeze for a moment, thinking how impossible it will be for me to match the expectations especially when I’ve no experience with corporate designs =/ But so far, it has been good — HL is such an encouraging mentor, even though it’s not official! I look forward to producing better work under his guidance :3

For lunch, we ordered lunchboxes again, the fish fillet 便当. Eat and surf at the same time =D

We left the office after 8pm because of OT. The first thing that happened when we got home, the moment we switch the lights on was – ROACHES. Miniature ones! What! We didn’t even see any on the first few days.. could it be that they were attracted because we moved here? Cos everything’s on the dining table; food, keys, drinks, plastic bags, and whatnot. On the other hand we don’t feel like spending money on a bottle of insecticide.. they’re not that annoying, they’re not HUGE like the ones back home (yuck) =.= , they don’t fly and yada yada. Of course it would the best if we decided to invest in insecticide, but for now we’ll just leave them be.

Ayeeeeee. Recently the house toilet has been giving us problems too.. firstly, the showerhead. When a showerhead is functioning properly, the water sprays evenly from all the holes and the water power can be felt evenly throughout. Ours worked fine initially, but has spoilt, probably because it’s really too old. Dying la. So now the water kinda leaks and only exits from one side of the showerhead, just like a person who lost a few teeth and when he tries to smile with a mouthful of water it leaks from the gaps between his teeth. That’s how, lol.

Secondly, Sean came out of the toilet today after he took a bath and told me something like this: Ae, the light suddenly come on! What he meant was, the shower cubicle light which we assumed was spoilt all the while suddenly lit up, like whoa, and now it flickers once in a while and the light goes out. Flicker. Flickr. He guessed it might have been the water accidentally sprayed upwards that caused it, but I was thinking how was it possible? It’s been quite disturbing, the flickering of the light, although it doesn’t (and why is that so) when I am showering in the cubicle.

Oh bother. Gotta inform Linda about it asap.

[ Expenses ] :
4 rmb (sandwich), 4 rmb (milk tea), 11 rmb (lunch), 12 rmb (bottled drinks), 11 rmb (taxi fare), 10 rmb (cookies, tea)

On the day we visited Carrefour for the first time, we all dined at the restaurant Manabe. There is one near our house that opens till 1am, located at the huge building with a cinema 电影城. I had an iced milk coffee float and beef noodles (tenderrrrr and delicious!!) while Sean had the 水煮牛肉 set. Funny the drinks and dishes cost the same =.= about 30+ rmb each.

Honestly, despite being really bloated, I wasn’t satisfied with the float, so we went next door for a round of dessert. :D Iceason, selling mainly gelato and other forms of desserts. I love the way the interior of the shop was furnished! Sean had a scoop of chocolate gelato, which according to him tasted like normal ice cream. Compared to what I had at Manabe, THIS is so worth my 28 rmb: yoghurt ice cream with cocktail. Very unique combination and taste I must say.

From afar, I spotted panels of movie posters at a corner beside a bookstore. The first I saw was Leslie’s Inner Senses poster; I literally rushed there to take a picture! The movie posters were mounted nicely behind thick glass. Beside it was Sleepy Hollow.

In Shanghai, I never expected the price of a movie ticket to be more expensive than one in Singapore.. it can cost you up to 90 rmb (that’s 18 friggin’ dollars la!) to watch a Hollywood movie, dubbed in Chinese. We were really thankful there were cheap DVDs available. I saw this banner that says “野蛮的温柔” with the tagline “好男人都到哪里去了！” and most importantly, it claims that it’s a China version of “Sex and the City”. Wow…. O.O”

We returned home, and remained indoors until it was time to meet Macson. At about 5pm we set off towards the MRT station.. first time again! We would then be able to use our transport cards, hehe. Along the road, there’s a bar that I remember passing by several times in the past few days: Kaya!

The way to the MRT is slightly different from the road to our office. It was a whole stretch of road we haven’t seen before.

Particularly on this wall, newspapers are pinned up daily and many middle-age and old men would hang around there to chat or read the papers. I have no idea why they had the word ‘pee’ after ‘Shanghai’ on the wall.. well, just for laughs..

The station nearest to us would be West Yan An Road station 延安西路站; we got there via a huge overhead bridge, with the highway over us, that overlooked the 4 or 5 lanes as well as road junctions.

As kanchiong as the people here, we hastily rushed up the escalator and boarded the train.

These signs on the ground say: “Mind the gap”, “Alighting passengers first”, “Board the train accordingly” . Nope, nobody bothers giving way here; the norm is always to board as soon as the doors open. *frowns*

Halfway through the journey, Sean realized, hey we were on the wrong train!! Notice there are two tracks in the non-enclosed platform area. On one track, there are two trains of different lines (we were suppose to board the purple one, but in a haste, we took the yellow train without thinking) that will arrive at intervals of about 4, 5 minutes (?). So we got back, and wasted more time waiting for the purple train.

LOL at this; they made “no jumping off onto the tracks” as a rule..

We were late and after meeting Macson, we flagged for a cab near the station. Sean and I took the back seats, I thought Macson wanted to ask the driver something because he walked to the left side of the car. He tried to open the door, and the sudden realization dawned upon him – wrong side! Super lol moment. You see, the steering wheel is on the left and passenger seat on the right, a direct opposite of ours. :D

They said Taikang road was like the Shanghai version of Holland V; I couldn’t tell cos I’ve never been there. By the time Sam came, the sky was already dark, and the whole area lit up brilliantly. Taikang road was very happening, with the number of bars, art galleries and spaces, restaurants, cafes and tourists. A waiter introduced us to a newly opened Japanese restaurant and so we decided to take a look and eventually dined there. At the entrance, maaaany waiters and waitress stood in lines and greeted excitedly a “いっらしゃいませ” (welcome), the restaurant wasn’t particularly crowded but it’s a good start, lol. Food prices were a bit steep; we ended up with half-filled stomachs. This sashimi platter was shared between Sam and I. Look at the ebis the ebis!! They tasted oh so good together with the other fish sashimis. Photography was strictly not allowed in there, the female manager personally told us when we readied our cameras, so this was the only picture.

As if a trip to Taikang road wasn’t enough for our night entertainment, we all went for a massage at the massage parlour about a minute away from our house. Our package included full foot massage and back massage, and cost about 73 rmb. SCAREHHH! First, they brought these wooden pails of hot water, poured lavender powder in, and we had to dip our legs in. When I talk about hot, I really mean HOT. You could cook noodles with the water ok! The moment my toes went in, I wanted to yell, “Ok let’s go home!”.

There, my ¾ cooked legs after being soaked for like, 15 minutes? Terrible experience I must admit.

Back (including neck) massage went on for some time.. my gosh, my shoulders and back ached more than before =.= Foot massage, on the contrary, was much better. I had doubts initially because I really thought they would press the bottom of my feet like the way they do on TV haha! All we got was a bit of ticklish sensation from the beginning, and afterwards was like heaven =D Sean was feeling especially ticklish at that, but ow too bad he didn’t want me to upload the videos.

During that 1+ hour, there was a documentary showing the story of the bird’s nest for Beijing Olympics; the planning, construction etc. After the session, Sean and Sam, who weren’t satisfied yet, went for the full back massage for another 45 minutes or so. Macson and I just remained in the room and watched this English movie that happened to be showing.

Wanting to try street side food, Sam and I bought two meat skewers from a street vendor nearby. We got to pick from the variety they had which include vegetables, mushrooms and other meat. They barbecued them and added condiments that tasted like chilli powder and something salty. Nice, but a tad too spicy and salty for my tastebuds.

[ Expenses ] :
62 rmb (lunch at Manabe), 20 rmb (mrt card), 76 rmb (dinner at Jap restaurant), 15 rmb (misc, satay, drinks),73 rmb (massage), 150 rmb (laundry card), 28 rmb (Iceceason), 16 rmb (cab), 20 rmb (gelato at Taikang rd)

This is the 5th year, already. Time passes so quickly we’ve lost count of the number of sunsets that have flashed by. Sunsets, the most exquisite yet fleeting time of the day. I’m reminded of many many things that seem so near, yet so far. Dedicated to Leslie, all the fan friends whom I’ve shared memories with and everyone else who appreciates him.

3.5hours, Corel painter 3
Got my hands on a Wacom Bamboo Fun, small-size white version (thanks dad!) a few days back, it came very nicely packaged bundled with Corel and Ulead software. Above is an attempt on a completely different style from my past paintings. Key to this is: solid blocks of colours, and a ref picture of Leslie found in his photobook Leslie in China (2001). I think I’ll like digital painting very much from now on…