The elegance of the hedgehog.

It's been ages since I've picked up such a good book which makes me laugh & cry and that's what Muriel Barbery's novel does. Despite plenty of rather lofty & pretentious discussion and analysis over art, literature & philosophy (e.g. what makes a table a table, how humans are nothing more than primates, the awareness of time due to the falling of a rose petal etc.) and the exaggerated praise for Japanese culture, which is typical of the French & most of which I don't get anyways, the style of writing is a delightful mixture of lucidity, wit, humour, sarcasm, intelligence, subtlety and poignancy. The ending was so beautifully expressed that I actually teared and I hardly ever cry when reading novels. And I really really love Paloma & her perspectives and the way she grows and matures as a person; she's really one of my all-time favourite characters from a novel!

Now it's time to watch the film adaptation and see how it compares to the book. Next up on my list: Hector and the search for happiness. And I really hope that I'll be able to get my hands on The particular sadness of lemon cake soon!

Nail @rt

First time doing ombre/gradient nails and I almost died. This is by far the most difficult design i've tried. Took hours and re-did it so many times only for it to turn out to be something crappy like this:















And being extremely dissatisfied, youtubed another design with a much better tutorial and clearer instructions. And though it's far from perfect, this one took just one try, lesser time and turned out much nicer!
 














Hols are (sadly) over and it's back to seeing the kids again tomorrow. Hope this term's a smooth one, especially with a new partner and my new study term beginning in another month's time.

Barely a week.

And I'm already missing him so much...
 


















One more week before sch term ends at work and....June hols arrive and most importantly, Korea in 2 weeks time!! Absolutely CAN'T wait for the break after months of exhausting work + studies since the start of this year. So much has happened over the last few weeks: good news, sad news, bad news, anticipation, closures, grief, acceptance, stress, exhaustion. Really, a swirl of emotions have overtaken my senses in such a short period of time. I'm really really thankful that all these happened AFTER my study term ended or I don't know how I'll be able to deal with it all.

In loving memory....

Of my dear little boy who has passed on after more than 10 years with us.

On his last night with us (10th May)















All that's left of him in a box.

May day

Really likeee this video!...And safari week for me nails :)

Weekends

I loove this MV (not so much the song though). Owl City always makes such amazing videos! Anyhow, I'm finally able to enjoy my weekend without having to catch up (or worry about catching up) with school work for the first time in 4 months.

Pitter Patter drops..















Doesn't this look like sunset @ the beach? It's taken at a coffee shop though

Some days are just like rainbows

Had such a packed & tiring BUT fantastic day. Brought the kids for school outing @ sentosa underwater world and it's such a great experience to see how excited and happy the little ones were today. I miss being a child at times...where you're living in such blissful ignorance & where you're thrilled by the slightest things in life. And then we had a wonderful afternoon celebrating Tricia's bday, such that I actually forgot about the terrible migraine I was nursing as a result of the powerful sunshine this morning. And to end of the day in dramatic fashion, I went to chop off my hair so that I'm back to looking like a kid & my head feels a ton lighter now.


And the penguins come marching onto my nails..


Strawberry jello


And DIY miniature furniture sets I'm using to teach prepositions! Ain't it cutee?