ZEN Bitchin'

You Gotta Work (Supermodel) – RuPaul

I arrived in Singapore at 4.30AM Saturday, after a 5-hour bus ride from Kuala Lumpur. The trip was uneventful; the bus was way better than the buses that plied the Phnom Penh-Siem Reap or Ho Chi Minh route. I got to my friend Danika’s flat at around 5.30AM. He didn’t answer the door so I called him. He was on a night shift at the hospital. He misunderstood my email and thought I would leave KL at 5AM.

I offered to get his housekeys from him at the hospital, which I reached only after getting lost 2 times, after 20 minutes. I stayed at the kitchen/pantry of the emergency department of the hospital until 8AM, the end of his shift. Before going home, we bought some sandwiches and coffee at Starbucks.

I told Danika the story of the fake Starbucks in Phnom Penh and he didn’t know whether he would be amused or alarmed. After eating at home, we went to bed to catch some sleep. We agreed to go out at noon.

Our first stop was IKEA because Danika was in need of some shelves for his books and shoes while I, well, I hadn’t been to IKEA and I’ve always wanted to go. So there. Danika got her shelf, I got a few small things that will help me organize my closet and kitchen. That done, we proceeded to my (our) important destination for the weekend.

So we headed to the National Museum of Singapore and bought tickets to the Christian Lacroix Costumier exhibit. But before going in to the exhibit, we had a marvellous lunch at Novus Cafe, located within the museum. The Pesto Risotto with Arugula and Sun-dried Tomatoes was delicious. And their Carbonara is the real thing–not lathered in cream as the other wannabes.

Waiting for our food at Novus Cafe

After eating, off we went to the exhibition. It showed Christian Lacroix’s costumes for various operas since the 80s.

The exhibition featured 60-80 pieces, each installation as elaborate as the costumes themselves. I will post more photos at Ways of Seeing. But what I loved more about the exhibit was the quality of Christian Lacroix’s sketches. They were good enough to be considered artworks already. Some of the designers I know do not really like illustrating their designs, for varied reasons. In fact, only Rajo Laurel comes to mind when I think of fashion designers who draw as well as they make clothes.

Designs for ‘Carmen’

for one of the cast of ‘Othello’

Danika showing off the souvenir programme

Fuchsiaboy asked me to buy him a book on the exhibit. It was something I would like to have as well but the price was way beyond our personal limit. Besides, the book was about Christian’s fashion in general–would’ve been nice if it focussed on his opera work. So I contented myself with the little booklet about the exhibit (shown a la-Vanna White by dear Danika).

After the exhibit, Danika let me go off alone to Sentosa Beach, which my friend J calls the ultimate tourist trap in Singapore. I wanted to see the Underwater World exhibit. So I went to Vivo City, the mall that connected the city to the nearby island. As in all things Singapore, I think Sentosa as a whole runs like a well-oiled machinery. The ticketing system, the monorail, the shuttle services, the aquarium itself, I do not see the ineptitude that I am so used to in my dear Cambodia.

View from the monorail station

Under the sea (or just water)

So how impressive was the aquarium? Fairly impressive, I will admit; especially if you haven’t seen the Ocean Park aquarium in Hong Kong. I will have more photos in my other blog once I have finished processing them (good luck on when I will finish that–hehe). After Sentosa I hung around Vivo City–purchased a few books in PageOne, browsed at the Mac shop for accessories for my MacBook, and had a dinner of Hainanese Chicken Rice and Gadu-Gado. I went home at around 10PM, and didn’t sleep till 2AM the next morning.