Bah, is that the sound a goat makes?

I called the night a little earlier on Friday so I could have plenty of rest for my first job in a while. The new Bayfront MRT station was opening and there was to be a big celebration, myself and a number of other models were the attraction.  As celebrations for Chinese New Year begins, we were made up to be signs of the Zodiac.

I posted a behind the scenes picture on Facebook. I think the general consensus was SCARY! I know Mom for sure felt that way. The artistic direction was Dave Navarro for make-up. I couldn’t believe how few people know who Dave Navarro is, then again I can probably name a few people back home that don’t either. Think Jane’s Addiction, or he was dating Carmen Electra for a bit.  

After 2 hours of preparation and fixing my hair to 3 or 4 different styles the even was beginning. For the next couple hours, we all stood there taking pictures with people. You would not believe the queue (that’s what they always call lines here) easily 300-400 people lined up at all times to get free stuff and a picture with their Zodiac. The dragon was very popular too as we are entering the year of the dragon. I didn’t have my cell phone on hand so I couldn’t take pictures of all of us. Although I am sure I will receive some digitals from the event coordinator and photographer as we provided email addresses for them.

Here is a quick one of me once we finished:

I have never had this much makeup on in my life; as a result I wouldn’t exactly say I was prepared to take it off. Turns out wet naps and towels can only do so much. Especially eye liner! I am so glad to not wear make up regularly. Fortunately after the event, and a quick gym session, I was heading to Catherine’s for a dinner party and she would have make up remover.

Looking like I had 2 black eyes, I tossed on my shades and headed onto the MRT. Having trouble seeing on the train with glasses on I decided to take them off. When I met up with Bernie to head the rest of the way she immediately spotted all the makeup. She said it looked good, but I certainly didn’t feel comfortable with it all on. The first stop at Catherine’s was to do my makeup/ get it off.

The first time at Catherine’s I couldn’t eat the pizza they had prepared. But in our advanced planning and by me actually informing them this time, rice pasta salad was made and mmm a tuna steak. It was all-delicious!

From Catherine’s the 7 of us headed to their favourite bar Mogumbo’s. I quite enjoyed this place, it wasn’t extremely loud like Attica or LeNoir and they played music I enjoyed. As a result I lost my voice trying to sing, it’s still a little dry right now. It’s either that or I might be getting a little sick.

Distractions galore

 With Christmas and New years behind, there is only one more holiday to come, Chinese New Year. This is a pretty big deal here in Singapore, as 80% of the population is Chinese. Most people have between 4 and 5 days off this year (the 23^rd falls on a weekend. Being a foreigner I truly don’t know much about these celebrations. Naturally I turned to my good friend google and in turn Wikipedia.

I discovered the history behind the colour red. It apparently scares this evil spirit away. Many things are surrounded by the idea of good luck. Spring cleaning is done to help wipe away the bad and create new space for the good. Monetary gifts are shared in red envelopes. These gifts are only given in even numbers. Odd numbers are though to be unlucky. This includes both digits. So you are more likely to get $88 or $8 in an envelope than 10 or 100. Not because people are cheap but because 8 in Mandarin is very similar to the sound of luck. You will get 40 or 60 instead of 50. Many of the things are similar to Passover. Celebrations also last for a total of 15 days.

I was thinking this would be a good time to try and jet out for a few days in Thailand or Vietnam, but just like Christmas and New Years its $$$. That was the first distraction. Back to Chinese New Year. I discovered that we were just in the year of the rabbit and heading into the year of the dragon. Hmm, what year was I born, checking; Rabbit and my element is fire. Sounds like the combination for a delicious meal.

http://www.chinesezodiac.com/rabbit.php

Chatting with a friend we discussed some of the characteristics that describe a rabbit. Creativity, sensitivity and easily taken advantage of don’t exactly express who I am. It is good at describing me as an open communicator, friendly, outgoing and enjoying the company of others. The other interesting thing was that I apparently like to learn more about other cultures. Go figure. 

Fire on the other hand, describes me much more closely. 

“In Chinese Taoist thought, Fire attributes are considered to be dynamism, strength and persistence; however, it is also connected to restlessness. The fire element provides warmth, enthusiasm and creativity, however an excess of it can bring aggression, impatience and impulsive behavior. In the same way, fire provides heat and warmth, however an excess can also burn.

In Chinese Medicine, fire is associated with negative emotions of hate and the positive emotion is joy. The organs associated with this element are the heart (yin), tongue, and a body's pulse.” – from Wikipedia.

Dynamism, strength and persistence hit the nail on the head. The negatives associated with fire for me are also related; my enthusiasm can sometimes lead me towards impulsive, and aggressive behavior. While I have learned to be more patient I certainly can agree that I am impatient, when I want it, seldom do I want to wait. With all that said though, it is slightly some of this impulsive behavior that has sent me across the ocean and thrust me into adventure and I am happy about that. 

For dinner I had an odd craving for Sushi, time to dig in. There is salmon, swordfish, eel, egg and that salad is an octopus salad. It was awesome!

See what distractions can bring. All this when I was originally trying to find out what the hell these flags mean. PS I still don't know.