Calina (Haze)

My friend Taught me the spanish word for haze in Spanish is "Calina". The first time I Heard it, i thought it sounds like a really nice name for a girl. Having Imagine me esta name - Calina Yong, but no thanks, i dont want to be Associated With haze!

In any case, there are several vocabulary That is a similar yet different. It is very interesting to learn all about These, thanks to my Spanish friends Who are Super helpful in explaining it.

Calina - Polluted air with smoke, Which Currently we experienced here. A friend Associated With it the word "Hot" Which kind of Makes Sense figuratively.

Calima - wave of very hot weather, heat wave.

Misty - or something that looks foggy Also it can mean when something is dark.

Haze - the foggy air filled with water droplets When We gaze at the mountains.

Smoke / Humareda - smoky, eg the huge smoke

Some time ago, I experimented writing a poem in Spanish, and here you go:

El tiempo está corriendo,
Sin parar,
Sin esperar,
Es tiempo del día,
Abriendo la vianda,
Frente a mi ordenador,
La comida para llevar de coffeeshop,
Pescado frito con arroz frito sin sabor.

Escribo algo para el almuerzo,
Me siento un poco lujo,
Con tiempo y espacio que está sola la mía,
Tranquila y calma,
Suerte que puedo relajar.

Aire en fuera esta brumosa,
No quiero caminar en este momento,
Solo puedo ver desde ventana,
No quiero respirar el aire lleno de humo.
Rezando para que el aire,
Sea fresco como antes.

Time is running,
Non-stop,
Without waiting,
It is time of day,
Opening my lunch box,
In front of my computer,
The takeaway coffeeshop,
Fried rice with fried fish, tasteless.

Write something for lunch,
I feel a little luxury,
With time and space That is only mine,
Quiet and calm,
Feeling lucky That I can relax.

Outside air is hazy,
I do not want to walk At this time,
I can only see from window
I do not want to breathe the smoky air.
Praying That the air
Will be as fresh as before.

Illustraccion poem The Lazy Painter.

mi mesita

A photograph of my humble workstation

Having a personal workspace is like having an intimate relationship with the space, because it is where I spent most of my time, and in my case, engrossed in drawing and writing, and sometimes, surfing.

Last two weeks, when my husband flew to Kuala Lumpur for an architecture seminar, I took the liberty of having our whole room to myself. So I started clearing our room, inside out. I have a strange preference - i prefer sitting on the floor than on the chair. Even if I am sitting on the chair, I have a habit folding my legs up to the chair. Do not ask me why, I think it is just a habit! So, to cater for my unique working position preference, we bought 2 furniture from Muji - Low table and Legless Chair sometime ago. Buying furniture can be very addictive as more often than not, you tend to have many cool imagination as you are choosing the item that you like and how you would like to place it in a room. So far we had added 4 items into our collection! We splurge on furnitures as gifts for each other mostly on our birthdays and any celebration. We thought this is the most practical way and also I am not a perfume or roses person :p I



Anyway, I did small adjustments and the room does seem more spacious after that. As much as I wish to remove the big tables that our landlord provided, I did not remove it due to some reasons (which was related to the contract), so i had very limited ways to play with my room - I could only rearrange and reorganize. No major painting or refurbishment or bulky furnitures. I would have to keep the wishful thinking of decorating our home for the future. Current room is only a shelter for rest, certainly not a place we could call home :(



. The muji low table was placed in front of the large table. dislike this arrangement so much but i could not find time to arrange it until last two weeks!



. I shifted our slim muji organizer to a new location, which was beside the small wardrobe cabinet provided by landlord, shifted the large table nearer to the bay window and tucked in my muji pine low table in between the large table and our bed. We removed the bed frame provided by our landlord as it the platform where our bed rest on was long broken before we moved in. The double bed provided had faulty spring. We got rid of the old bed frame and bed and bought a new IKEA bed and decided that we might as well rest our bed on the floor itself, instead of going through the hustle of buying new bed frame and then having problem when moving out again in future. We did have our bumpy road in renting rooms here. Nothing beats the comfort of having our own room back home which we admittedly took granted when we were young.

In any case, now that our room is now more spacious, I am able to practice some yoga stretch, spending some time alone on my knees and reconnect with the ground, enjoy some stillness and rediscover my senses. It felt quite a luxury to be able to recharge and regain some quietness this way in this bustling city.

Although it is not the ideal layout as I always dreamed of having my own artist studio and bedroom ( i love artist studios where magic happens and of course rustic bohemian bedrooms, or something with rugs or patchwork, which is down-to-earth and not overly luxurious), I love the new arrangement and was not ready to sleep after that because i was having poetry in motion. It felt like having a new fresh space for NOW.

The idea of having my own workspace/studio and a really warm and cozy bedroom will have to wait until we get our own place one day (we don't know when and where)! For now, we will have to be thankful with what we can afford and live with this first!

el melocotón

He comprado tres melocotones grande esta mañana. De verdad, yo quería comprar uvas moscatel, pero me dijo que para comprar las uvas moscatel, necesito reservar. Pues, me recomiendo el melocotón. Me hace sorpresa que los melocotones en su tienda son muy grandes, y tienen olor fragante. Así que los melocotones que tenemos en Asia es más pequeños. Quería comprar uvas originalmente para mi cuñada (mi esposo va a Kuala Lumpur esta noche), pero no había uvas hoy. Entonces, compre tres melocotones. Dos para ella, y un para nosotros.

Después, fue a trabajar en hospital. Cuando estaba en la reunión de discusión, lo olí. Los hueles dulces y agradables, como estábamos trabajando al lado de un jardín o la huerta llena con melocotones. Me recordó días en Salamanca, España donde yo disfrute muchísimo de melocotón después de comida. iAh! Los buenos viejos tiempos...

La tienda se llama "Herbs Garden" . Podéis comprar las cosas orgánico aqui.

Direccion : 50 East Coast Road,#01-74 Roxy Square,
Singapore 428769.
Tel: 63486149

I bought 3 big peaches this morning. Actually, I wanted to buy muscat grapes, but I was told that to buy the grapes, I need to reserve it before hand. Anyway, the owner of the shop recommended peaches in her shop. I was surprised to see the peaches were big and they have very fragant smell. In Asia, the peaches that we have are in smaller size. Originally I wanted to buy moscat grapes for my sister-in-law (my spouse is going to fly to Kuala Lumpur tonight), but there was no grapes today. Therefore, I bought 3 peaches. 2 for her (my sister-in-law) and one for myself.

Then I went to work in hospital. When i was having a meeting, I smelled the greatness of the peaches. They smelled really sweet and pleasant, it was like working beside a garden or an orchard full with peaches. It reminded me of the days in Salamanca, Spain where i used to enjoyed peaches after each meal. Ah.. the good old days!

Entre Paletas y Helados

Aprendí cosas nuevas hoy – sobre la diferencia entre paletas y helados.

He probado la paleta de coco en una tienda nueva en Tiong Bahru, se llama The Latino Quarter. Esta buenísima! Decidí que tengo que dibujar y escribir algo en mi cuaderno y ahora nos presento mi notas.

Sencillamente, paletas significa “Ice popsicles” en inglés. Son zumos de frutas y estan congelada con los palos. El helado significa “ice cream” en inglés. normalmente no se sirven con los palos pero con los conos.

Recomiendo paletas de @paletassingapore en 68 sieng poh lane en Tiong Bahru ! También podéis comprar cosas / ingredientes de latín América o México en este tienda! #paletasmexicanas #paletascoco #helados #dibujar #illustradora #thelazypainter #paletassingapore

Albondigas

Sometime ago, while practicing Spanish conversation with a Spanish friend, he taught us the word "meatball" in Spanish. It is called "albóndiga". There was a joke or an exaggerating way of commenting someone who has gained some weight that he/she looks like a meatball now. Probably the connotation comes from the characteristic of a meatball : fat, round, spherical, juicy and succulent. I found it amusing to call someone a meatball and the first image that formed in my head was like this. Round and cute. As much as I love eating meatballs, I don't fancy being called one, although "albondiga" sounds nicer than "meatballs." :p

A quick search online on the word "albondiga" will bring us to the urban dictionary which list a whole long list of definition that is not so pleasing! Urgh.. they totally just ruin my good impression on meatballs.

Pug lovers' love story : Wedding Card for Julian &Tricia

One of the best moment in life got to be getting married to the person you love.. and in this case, both Julian and Tricia are pug lovers. They must have love pugs so much that their friend, Fangyi wanted to personalized a card with a pair of pugs for their card. We then further animate the lovely pugs by dressing them up as bride pug and groom pug. I am not an expert in drawing live things but this assignment taught me patience and observance. Taking the drawing slow and steady by detailing the facial details of the pugs. The best thing is i get to observe the facial structure of the pugs and their cute eyes that never stopped to be loved.

I "took" the pugs to the woods/green jungle and "made" them sit down poisely. Wedding in woods/jungle had always been one of my favorite ideas as I love the green and nature settings. Nature is the best backdrop. Caption and wording inside by Fangyi. I just did the illustration :)

Some photos of the work in progress :



The beauty of the card is that it can be framed as an artwork as well for remembrance.

Bringing these birds to a friend’s new crib

Last weekend, I spent my Saturday morning doing a different rendition of "pajaros graciosos" by a vector artist, e.kataev. My intention was to recreate another version of these funny birds with more vibrant colours, with a light-wash background. Pandamopi bought me some frames so I thought it would be nice to make a handmade gift for a friend, Teri who had just recently moved to a new place. We were invited to her place for a simple housewarming on Sunday.

Painting process is always enjoyable for me. It is peaceful, tranquil and quiet. My room is normally well lit in the morning. After shower and wash up, i began my little project - painting. The paper was cut and prepared by Pandamopi, which was approximately 20 cm X 25 cm (8R). I quickly sketched and started painting process and the whole process took me approximately 2 hours, including some waiting time for watercolour layers to dry up before applying another layer.

Below is work in progress photos.


Story of the artwork :
There is an unique connection among birds of different characters and personalities in a home/family. God put them/us together in a nest to form a family. Each of us play a part in the nest, and they need each other, just like they need each other to make the artwork look complete. It is incomplete if one of them is taken away from the artwork. It is also an illustration of the birds are having fun (by looking funny) in Teri's new crib. Photo background featuring our favorite kilim carpet which we brought back from recent travel in Istanbul. You could see we still miss Istanbul pretty much!