moments of pure happiness

WOW. Time has crept by all too quickly... there's so much to say, where should i start....?!

I'll start with laughter- laughter's always a good place to begin. 

So Aug 31st was the big NIKE HUMAN RACE 10K here in singapore... 25 countries worldwide racing on the same day- 1 million runners; 11,000 runners in singapore... in short it was INCREDIBLE. You can't even begin to imagine what it's like to be standing on a platform facing 11,000 runners in matching red shirts all running towards you. It was UNREAL. 

Anyway so Utt and I hosted the race and the concerts that followed; all these amazing local acts came out to entertain the crowd and NIKE being as awesome as they are gave out tons of free stuff and overall the energy was electric. It was hard to believe that most of the audience had just run 10k. I would have died 5k in and Utt would have had to pick me up from the closest starbucks. For reals.

So among all the awesome performers there was DJ KoFlow, The Great Spy Experiment (SO GOOD LIVE!), Jack & Rai (i love their vibe), and highlighting the night, Boys Like Girls from the US... some of you may know that i did their music video for The Great Escape way back almost 2 years ago and well i've kinda been in and outta touch with the guys since then but

 i hadnt seen them since we shot the video. It was SO SURREAL to see them here in singapore and not only interview them for MTV Asia but to catch up with them about everything that's happened since we shot the video. Life's been such a rollercoaster for all of us... i couldnt be happier about the circumstances under which we were reunited (And it feels so goooood haha okay i couldnt help myself there) Anyway, best of all, i'm happy to say the guys are still the awesome, fun, humble, down to earth guys they were 2 years ago before the album blew up worldwide. SERIOUSLY. I got a good chance to catch up with them and a few of us went out the night before they left- I HAVENT LAUGHED THAT HARD IN A WHILE. 

No joke i woke up to sore abs cuz we spent the night laughing so much. It was a much needed moment of pure happiness. 

I think we all need those moments... time to just be silly, smile, laugh til we cry, and stop letting the little day to day stresses scratch at our worries. It was SUCH a good night.

And now, a week later, i just returned from 5 days in Japan. I had a full day of studio then headed to the airport, flew to bangkok, met up with the crew in bangkok then caught the red eye to Osaka. We got in around 7:30am, went to breakfast, took a 2 hour bus to Kyoto then got straight to work. We spent that first day shooting for a Thai magazine then going to dinner, the second day was the first day of the music video shoot (for Thai singer Ice Sarunyu, who is SUCH a sweetheart), then the 3rd day we were up and outta the hotel by 4:30am, drove 2 hours out to Giffu where we shot ALLLLL day and finally wrapped at 11pm, got back to the hotel a bit before 2am, then the next day we were up and in make up/ hair by 9am for the 2nd photoshoot. We wrapped that day, did a lil wandering around kyoto that night and then i totally passed out. Like an earthquake AND Godzilla couldnt have roused me from my slumber. The next day we left early for osaka, did a bit of shopping then headed for the airport. I spent 12 hours in Bangkok and now here i am back in singapore in my bed with a handful of new memories, a new job for my resume, and 2 new cameras ;p What can i say, i LOVE photography (i bought a fuji instax camera that i've been searching for now that polaroid is getting harder and harder to find and i bought a lil toy holga pocket camera that was too cute to resist) 

i REALLY wanted to buy this really nice RICOH digi cam but i just got my new digi cam 2 months ago.... so i'll be holding off on the RICOH for a while.... 

SO. Here's what i will always remember about this trip to Kyoto (it was my first time there by the way):

the BUGS! i've never seen so many random species of insects in one CITY in my entire life. it was nuts. and i'm not a big bug fan but there were some pretty and some pretty ugly creepy crawlers in Kyoto.

the shave ice sucked all 3 times i tried it. it LOOKED pretty though....

the food was awesome... and i do love the mini marts in japan (they're like the ones in hawaii)

i MISS acting (even the 2 days shooting the video completely revived my love for acting....)

Japan is simply beautiful for photographing... everything comes out either brilliantly lit up and colored or soft and warm, glowing just a little

HAJI - San at the Yamasoto Ramen restaurant in Giffu makes the best cheese tempura EVER (and i DO love me some cheese!) He and his wife have the most precious lil ramen shop i've ever seen and they were adorable sweet people - we spent a whole day filming at and around their shop, it was wonderful.

gosh i'm sure there's more i just cant think right now... so much on my mind still about the trip and everything that happened in the 4 day whirlwind of work. It was an awesome little trip though :) 

lots of moments of pure happiness.... i've stolen the phrase from one of my dearest friends, Jillian, one of the people in my life who never fail to spread moments of pure happiness. I sent her a pair of lil sushi earrings that she finally received in the mail and she sent me the sweetest message. I had to pass the wish on...

So here's me wishing you all daily moments of pure happiness :)

<3