shadow weighs a ton

5 episodes of 90210 later, all I can think of is the OC.
I hate lying on my bed wide awake at 3am, argh.
So well, from The River Road by Sean O'Brien, first spotted on the London Tube.

The way we'd go on summer nights
In the times we were children
And thought we were lovers.

with kaleidoscopic eyes

Finally, am back in Copenhagen! After a 14-day trip that eventually stretched itself into a 17-day one, which saw me going to London, Italy and then London again, because of RyanAir's wonderful on-time flights that left us stranded at Venice for 5 hours, and consequently me missing my EasyJet connection back to Copenhagen from London. And so, I decided to make the best of the situation and stay in London for 3 more days haha.

London did feel almost like home to return to, especially after a whirlwind trip to Italy (: Italy was fantastic, really. We spent too many euros shopping, ate too much gelati and took too many retarded photos (:

Will blog on the individual cities soon (and Oktoberfest omg) but for now, there's a whole load of laundry to be done, and a dusty room to vacuum. And work which should be started on. Oh and I'm meant to only survive on yoghurt, muesli, bread, ham and cheese, because of the hugeass amount I blew in the last 3 weeks : / Terribly exciting, really.

tummy full of gelato

Am in London now, in Kwek & Weijia's place, erm hanging out till Josh is due to show up before we head down to Stansted together. But yeah, for the past 3 days, LONDON AS BEEN FANTASTIC. Didn't quite see the sights (although Josh and I did take a 4 hour walk that was damn cold because of the wind at night, along the Thames and around the Westminster area and we did see the Big Ben, the London Eye etc), because well... I'm definitely coming back to London again (how can I not). And because London seems like a city to live in, not, well, to do all the touristy things in, I spent many many hours along/around Oxford Street haha (: Oh, and we went to Koko last night, which was a rather amazing (albeit different) club. In essence, I LOVE LONDON <3

along the magical banks of the Thames

Am off to London! A brief stop of 3 days, before 11 days of Italia! (: Haven't planned for what to do in London, but well, we'll just take it as it comes. Hopefully, we'll spot some Banksy rats while aimlessly wandering around The City (:

I woke with wings from lucid dreams

19-21 September 2008

100 international law students provided with an endless flow of beer (: That was what the Law Welcome Weekend was, i.e. partying resting partying resting partying. The campsite was in the middle of nowhere, in Lolland which I have been told, is actually an island in the Baltic Sea. I never knew haha.

Anyway so we had a costume party which was P-themed. Meaning, one had to come dressed as something that starts with the letter P. So yeah we had plenty of pirates, police(wo)men, pregnant people, purple (me!), pussycats etc. But the guy who won best-dressed was Phelps. The brave soul wore only his speedos the entire night haha.

Okay done (: Am on a roll here, OKTOBERFEST next!

i fly like paper, get high like planes

Damnit this is a month late... But yeah am forcing myself to clear the backlog (there's still the Law Welcome Weekend and Oktoberfest!) before we head off to Italy next week (: So anyway, a month ago, I headed to Århus to visit Desiree Tan, where she stuffed me with not only with chocolate banana / caramalised apple crepes, but also forced me to down wine for breakfast...


4 September 2008, Thursday

Took the bus to Århus! Didn't know we were going to drive up a ferry enroute to Århus so it was plenty exciting (: No photos of the ferry ride though, because it was at night and thus pitch black.

5 September 2008, Friday

Took a walk around the city centre, just chilling, eating, watching the world go by. That really sums up my trip to Århus, you know, chilling and eating. We ate so much ice-cream because we found cheap and good ice-cream (after-eights flavour!) haha. And well... the story of the pizza. That slice of pizza was impossibly spicy because dear Desiree and I, being very proud to be Singaporean, piled on the chili flakes. And then, had to subsequently pick them off the pizza slice because our tongues were on fire. I swear. Like, there were drops of perspiration on our noses, it was thaaat spicy haha.

As part of the Århus Festival, there was an exhibition titled — "Guess the Statue". So yeah, apparently, nine of the cities’ statues were wrapped in red shrink wrap and an additional ”dummy sculpture” usually not present was mounted. Interesting yes, but this meant that all I got to see the entire weekend were statutes wrapped in red shrink wrap. We didn't quite bother finding the additional dummy sculpture though.

At night, went to Social Club for free beer (again argh, people here drink nothing but beer). Spent an hour after closing freezing our asses off in the drizzle, talking to some danish dude about the idiosyncracies of the danish people. Kinda surreal I guess, after a night of free beers.

6 September 2008, Saturday

Went on a walking tour — the Icons for Now exhibition (: Below, an entire stage made completely out of wooden crates. Very very amazing. And a religion-themed piece — graffiti artists of various religions linked together by spray paint. Didn't find an explanation behind the piece, but haha that's how I interpreted it anyway haha.

Random posters stuck on a wall that weren't part of the walking tour.

Paper covers Rock, Rock breaks Scissors, Scissors cut Paper, Gun wins Every Time. Hours Devoured, Days Slayed, Years Disappeared. I had a Friend, I had a Kroner, I Gave a Friend a Kroner. Countless Obstacles, Relentless Optimism, Senseless Optimism.

The piece of red wall was just... amazing (how else does one describe something like that). Imagine how it took our breaths away, as we came in through that door, turned around and... WOW.

Okay Desiree forced me to taahh a glass of wine for breakfast. So yeah, I think this was the wine at work, at least for me haha. I don't know about Miss Pouty Lips though haha.

THIS IS CRAZILY AMAZING. We spotted it from a distance, and it wasn't even commissioned or what-not, it just was on the side of a privately-owned building. Walking down some alley, turning around to make a comment to your friend walking behind you, stopping mid-sentence because you saw this. You must admit that this is nothing short of awe-inspiring. When I grow up and have my own house, this is what I will do haha.

Random messages left by random people, on random walls. The first one, my motto for Exchange: IF NOT NOW, WHEN? On a I'm-obsessed-with-Wikipedia sidenote, "If Not Now, When? is a novel by the Italian author Primo Levi, first published in 1982 under the title Se non ora, quando?". The second one is just plain emo-nemo.

Ended up at the Passage for Thought, furnished by Ikea, in a narrow alley.

Then we wandered into an abandoned courtyard which is the MOST AWESOME COURTYARD IN THE ENTIRE WORLD. I swear. You will see.

We Came to Change.

LOOK AT THE DETAILS (click to enlarge! please!). This just ain't graffiti anymore, its Art. Anyway, Lynn Sim, I thought of you and the intricate drawings you used to draw in your notebooks when we were in St Nicks when I saw this!

Then we climbed the stairs and from where we were sitting...

We saw... THIS. This was the reason why we wandered into this abandoned courtyard in the first place, to find this. But we found so much more (: But if we didn't climb up those rickety stairs, we wouldn't have found this. I cannot stop saying this, but it really was damn amazing lah, to keep discovering all these pieces.

HOW DOES ONE CREATE STUFF LIKE THIS.

Anti-Smoking Ban campaign initiated by Kim Larsen, some Danish rock musician who's a heavy smoker. The posters read "Tillykke med rygeforbudet - Gesundheit macht frei!", which translates to "Congratulations for the Smoking Ban - Health makes (One) Free!" So apparently this has stirred up a huge controversy in Denmark, because the phrase "Gesundheit macht frei" is seen as an allusion to the Nazi phrase, "Arbeit macht frei" (work makes one free) which were placed at the entrance of concentration camps. So yeah.

Trekked out of the city centre to see the piece below... And this was where I fell down while walking backwards trying to get a better view of the building, and promptly twisted my ankle. This is Desiree the nurse who came to my rescue haha.

7 September 2008, Sunday

Hobbled to the ARoS Museum where there were damn fantastic contemporary art exhibitions. Anyway time for some useless trivia (again, which HweeNgee adores) — "The name ARoS is the Latin word for the city Århus while the capitalized letters of the name hint at the Latin word for art, namely ars."

Saw the exhibition and film titled "Open Sky", which documented a danish woman's journey from Copenhagen to Kabul, in her bid to enable an Afghan girl to realize her dream of flying. So yeah this was the small aircraft (the real thing! not just a model!) which made it all the way from Denmark to Afghanistan... Also saw the "Music to See" exhibition, which showcased mtvs as a pictorial art form. Was damn fascinating, to read about the styles of the various directors, and the analyses of their videos. It's like practical criticism in literature class all over again, just that its no longer words we're pouring over, but images.

Oh my god. Am finally done. Started doing this while waiting for the rain to stop, so I could cycle to the supermarket but well... the drizzle doesn't look like it's going to stop anytime soon, argh. So yeah, I guess someone's staying in today and catching up on shows (: