The Singapore Sling

Last week my boyfriend was called away to work in Singapore for a week and so I decided to take advantage of the free accommodation and join him for some last minute sightseeing and shooting time!
The first day I was there it rained almost non-stop and so the only sightseeing I got to do was from the window of my apartment but the next day I was off to work with local photographer, Yew Kwang.

I've just spotted an image on his MM account and I'm sure he won't mind me hot linking it here!

There's also 4 more over at his Flickr page if you want to have a look!

As I was only in Singapore for 3 days, and it had rained the first and I was working one the second, I headed out early on the final day, armed with a camera, bottle of water and my imagination (due to the distinct lack of a map) to explore Singapore. I knew roughly in which direction to go if I wanted to hit China Town, so that's what I did.

This was the entrance to a small square with tons of Chinese restaurants and snack bars.

Lanterns were everywhere but these ones were especially pretty

Old meets new, east meets west

This was a little place called Lim Chee Guan, which is famous for its sliced pork. I had some of their signature pork, it
was gorgeous!

This is the oldest Hindu temple in Singapore, built in 1887. The detail was amazing!

After my jaunt around China town, I hopped on the MRT for a cool down (it was very hot) and headed over to the area around the harbour to have a look at all the modern (and very white) buildings they had over there.

The civilian war memorial for all those lost during the Japanese occupation of Singapore

The financial district of cities always seem to have the best skylines

This is the Merlion, Singapore's mascot and (apparently) national personification. The spray from the water was fantastic - very refreshing!

After my walk, I met up with Ras for some dinner and yet another walk, though this time we had a destination in mind! When I knew I was coming to Singapore, I got in touch with my friend Anita De Bauch who was here on her tour of S.E Asia last year for some recommendations on where to go. As well as the night safari (from which I only managed to salvage one picture; it's hard taking pictures in the dark from a moving tram when you can't use flash), Anita recommended that we head to the famous Raffles Hotel to have a Singapore Sling in the Long Bar. So, with that in mind, Ras and I set off for a walk through the city to Raffles.

A not-so-great shot of the financial district at night. Wish I'd taken a tripod!

Cute little sign which I'm pretty sure was not put there by the police, but is instead a tourist photo opportunity for people like me :)

Pretty blue bridge on our way to Raffles

This is the Marina Sands casino and hotel. 3 buildings with what looks like a boat balancing on top!

The absolutely gorgeous Raffles Hotel. Apparently it started as a 10 bedroom bungalow next to the sea. It's now really quite huge and is miles from water due to all the land reclamation that's happened in Singapore

The Singapore Sling - invented in the Long Bar itself. They had so many choices, but we went for the classic.

The bar itself was gorgeous (unfortunately I failed to take any pictures of it!). It's modelled on a 1920's Malayan plantation and has gorgeous mechanical fans on the ceiling (supposedly for cooling the room down, though I doubt they really make any difference!).

The nest time Ras gets called away on a business trip to Singapore (which is likely to happen, he's on another one in Tokyo as we speak, but I couldn't get flights t such short notice!), I'm definitely going to go with him again. Singapore has so much to offer, I feel that I barely scratched the surface!

I'll leave you with a picture of a flying squirrel. I had no idea they were so large (about the size of a domestic tom-cat). It didn't fly/glide for us though, all we got was him eating his dinner!

"Watchoolookinat?"

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Happy New Year!

Well, it's 2012! I thought I'd follow on from my post on the 31st Dec where I talked about what 2011 bought me and write one today about what I hope 2012 will bring me.
In just 36 days I will be sitting on a plane, reading books, watching films and thinking about the new life I'm about to begin. In 36 days I'll be moving to Hong Kong with my boyfriend for 2 years. I'd never even been to Hong Kong until June of this year (you can see what I thought of it here). It's a stunning country, fast paced in places, relaxed in others and full of sights, sounds and smells so different to London and yet somehow very similar.

So, as the majority of my year will be spent in a different country, I've tailored my New Years Resolutions to what I want to achieve when I'm there. Here they are!

1) Continue learning Cantonese. I'm moving to a country where a lot, but not all, of the people speak English. However, just as I appreciate someone learning English when they move to England, I have made it my aim to learn enough Cantonese to get by at the markets, ask directions, go along to Cantonese-speaking tours of the monuments and understand them.

2) Continue working as a model when I get there. I can't work unless I get a work visa and I can't get a work visa unless I get signed by an agency. So I guess this is more "Get signed by an agency", but I think the two go hand in hand!

3) Learn a new skill. I've always wanted to learn to play the piano, and since I'm probably going to have a lot of free time when I'm out there, I figured I'd use that time to try something new!

4) Cook more. I enjoy cooking and have tons of recipe books but tend to always fall back on Spaghetti Bolognase or pasta bake. With all the exotic foods and new things to try on the markets in HK, I really want to learn to make authentic Chinese food. I'll start with that yummy noodle soup I love so much I think!


5) Actually stick to a work out routine this year! I'm blessed in that I don't tend to put on weight (over Christmas I lost 5lbs!) but no matter how slim I am, I do need to keep my body toned and flexible, so bring on those early morning exercise routines in one of the many parks in Hong Kong!

6) Finally, I want to have enough to tell you, modelling and photography related, that I keep this blog going. If I'm unsuccessful with the agencies in Hong Kong and find that I can't work as a model, I intend to start borrowing my boyfriend's camera and learn how to take pictures! I'll have plenty of gorgeous things to take pictures of and I'd love to look back in a few years or decades time and not be annoyed at myself for taking rubbishy pictures just because I couldn't be bothered to learn about exposure or colour balances and all of those technical things.

So! Now that I've published these, I've got a great incentive to try and keep them all! I'll try not to bombard my blog with pictures of food I've been cooking or news about how I had a conversation about the weather with a lady at the market, but we'll see how that goes in the coming months :)

Happy New Year!

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Art and Books

Whilst in Copenhagen, my boyfriend tried to teach me about aperture, shutter speed and other camera-related things. So, I put my new found knowledge to the test and attempted some photography!

Nyhavn - I'm super happy with this. So much that I'm considering having it printed for putting on my wall!

Just a rather pretty building I saw!

Rosenborg Castle

The "Rundetårn", meaning Round Tower. I'm pretty proud of this picture - I like funky angles

This took a LOT of fiddling to get right but I'm quite happy with it!
Taken in Tivoli Gardens Christmas Market

I'm actually quite sad that this didn't come out very well. Apparently it's something to do with the ISO or something, but it's a little blurry and the black is all patchy. Eitherway, it was stunning :)

It miust have taken forever to get these lights up! They were everywhere!

As well as wandering around stunning Christmas Markets, we also visited Christiania. It's a strange place, full of hippies, communists (the good kind) and lots of drugs. It's not altogether 'official', but the Danish Government sort of let them get on with things. Check out the history here.

The only indication that we had arrived (other than the rather distinct smell of cannabis wafting around)

I thought this was wonderful. A small neighbourhood, almost completely goverened by its own rules.

It's says "EU". Ras and I both thought it said "Ell" until we twigged :)

Stunning painting on this building. Christiania was full of artwork and statues made from junk. I'd recommend going down and having a look if you're around!

 

Following the 'Art' theme, I thought I'd share what I found in the "Glyptoteket", Copenhagen's Art Museum. As well as Egyptian and Roman sculpture, French paintings and some more modern pieces, they had a rather large and beautiful collection of Danish art. One thing that caught my eye was this:

As you can see, it's the same set-up, same women, painted in 4 different ways. Upon closer inspection, I discovered that this was in fact the very first Female Art Nude Studio Day for painters in Denmark. Unfortunately I've completely forgotten who they're by and when they're from. I do remember that the King had given permission for a female model to be used in a class for the very first time, but it must be during the hours of daylight and she must be chaparoned. I'll do my best to find out more!

The Three Graces by Antonio Canova

 

I've done quite a few shoots based around The Three Graces, and so it was a pleasure to see one of the sculptures in person :)

On top of all my holiday pictures, I was informed that I have been published in another book! The talented Scott Chappell has published a book of his works from the last few years and I was honoured to discover that I've been included alongside some of the UK's top models! It's called "39" and you can preview and buy it here.

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