Wednesday, August 31, 2005

apologies

erm.....

Pardon my non-existence in the blogosphere currently. Borrowed some books from the newly opened National Library and I can't seem to do anything else.

Adios!

Till' I finish reading them books, I shall not return.

Oh, what I did when I went to the library is another different thing altogether. Till then...

Friday, August 26, 2005

till' the weekend

till' the weekend comes by....

I know I've never been a good blogger (ie. one that updates regularly) but I do feel distressed, knowing that I've not been able to update WHEN I HAVE TONS OF THINGS TO SAY AND I'M GONNA FORGET EVERYTHING BY THE TIME I EVENTUALLY UPDATE.

Sorry bout' that. Having a (very) short memory span sucks and I'm relying heavily on the random photos taken of the activities that I wanna blog about' to remind me of what went on, then.

I still can't update yet cos' I'm currently at work and stealing time to keep awake at my desk. It's Friday for goodness sake!

Besides, my Indonesian relative has been bunking over at my place since she's on vacation and chilling before she sourced for a job after graduating a month back. Believe me, playing host is not easy, if not tiring.

Don't get me wrong. I enjoyed having her around but changes have to be made to my attitude in MY OWN house in her presence and I can never get used to that.

Oh, did I mention the accent I'm spouting because I regularly conversed with her and getting hooked on the diverse vocabulary I never knew existed (and ignorantly assumed to be similar to our Malay) and that I'm (very much) into the band, PeterPan rite' now?

Don't even accuse me of being cheesy cos' I'm gonna get all defensive and say that they play good music and that Ariel, the frontman is really talented, having composed all the songs himself.

Damn, I sure am gonna miss her after she leave tomorrow.....

Monday, August 22, 2005

Napola

Napola~Elite fur den Fuhrer (German)

Image hosted by Photobucket.com
Dieses ist ein guter Film. Ich mag.

Ok, ok. Lame attempt at German there. At least I still remember what I learnt back in school eons ago.... (Btw, all I said was, "This is a good movie. I like.")

This excerpt from a review from IMDb.com pratically sums up my opinion of the movie:
"....It is no surprise that Napola won various awards for film, acting and direction, It's rich cinematography and haunting soundtrack brings to life Nazi Germany of 1942, and highlighting the horrors of the training of an elitist school of soldiers and future governors, with its expected training tragedies...."

That and the fact that Tom Schilling reminds me of Stephen Gately from the now-defunct Boyzone. I'm definitely a non-homophobic......

BUT THAT'S BESIDE THE POINT.

Shyba, thank you so much for choosing to watch this. Although, your choice is based on the fact that 'it's the most depressing/sombre movie showing right now', I assure you it is one of the best movies on my 'Most Favourites' list.

Bought some wasabi-coated-peas for the show. The girl was was kinda' surprised, I chose that and kept asking, "You sure..?" Should let her see the tube of wasabi in my fridge, which I used to eat with almost anything. However, they should cool it on the wasabe powder on that peas, man. My eyes practically smart upon eating it.

I admit I cried in the theatre. Not once but TWICE. One, it's at the most poignant scene in the movie. The other time is because I used the same hand for eating my WASABI peas to WIPE THE TEARS FROM MY EYES. The pain! Oh GAWD! It hurts like hell!

That's it. No more wasabi peas in the theatre!

Got so angry at myself that I stopped eating the damn peas and kept it. Brought it to work today and munched on it to keep awake. Boy, it sure works better than coffee. Just pop at least 3 of those into the mouth at one go.

Go on, DO IT. Really works, you know.

Wednesday, August 17, 2005

sepet

SePeT

I know that I may come across as pretty back-dated but despite having JUST watched SePet on VCD (finally!) I am am still going to gush bout' this Malay-movie-with-a-difference. It's a kinda' arty-farty movie, actually. Comes across as borderline obscene by the Malaysian censorship-board standard (it's seriously harmless!)

Image hosted by Photobucket.com

Oh, did I mention the numerous awards it received?

Image hosted by Photobucket.com

Would love to drop some comments but realized that others have reflected similar opinions bout' the movie. Just drop by IMDb for the justified reviews....

Anyway, I had planned to watched the VCD alone, before I sleep yesterday night. Somehow, a companion came in the form of my brother, who was curious as to what my muffled giggling was about (the movie DO have funny parts, ok?). He watched the movie ALL THE WAY.

"Have to watch the ending," he said. Yeah, rite! You like the movie, say lah. Don't deny! It's not like I'm going to tell everyone you watched a teenage romance movie...! (I sense some kinda' irony here...)
"Anyway, dude!" I replied. "This kinda' arty movie always have bizarre ending. Almost disappointing to some. Be prepared."

Not surprisingly, I got so traumatised by the ending (or the lack of) that I had trouble sleeping long after the credits rolled. I remembered asking my bro, before hitting the sack:
ME: What's the time now?
BRO: 0145am. Go sleep. You gotta' work tomorrow.

Later on, I remembered jumping up and dashed to my bro's room. He was in the toilet. I shouted outside the door.
ME: Dude! I figured it out! He didn't die! He survived, that's why he can answer the fone!
HIM (from inside the loo): No, I think it was a passer-by who answered. Couldn't be him. (Pause) You mean you didn't sleep cos' you're thinking bout' the ending...?

It was 0230am.

Later on, when I almost dozed off, my bro came up to me.
HIM: Eh, I think maybe it was Ah-Keong who answered. I think, Ah-Keong said he will acccompany him to see her.
ME (groggily): Huh? You mean all this while, in the loo, you were wondering about the ending too? (snickers)
Geez...!

And I conclude:
Overall, the movie is nice. Way beyond my expectations. My only pet peeve was the ending.


Sundae-EC

Another reunion.
14082005

When was the last time we met? April, you say?
*counts fingers*
Geez,
guys! it took us FOUR freakin' months to meet-up!

Image hosted by Photobucket.com
(L-R) Meng, Khama, Kai, Bas, Fendi & Shasha (his daughter), Yanie (his wifey)

After some last-minute planning and decision-making, I was VERY surprised to see that the WHOLE bunch actually made it for this meet-up. Kudos to K@i for all his effort in contacting us all and eventually bringin' us together. Oh, not forgeting B@s who suggested this thing in the first place.

ME...?

I just made my presence known, aside from bringing one 1/2 of the transportation mode. Rite...?

Met up with Khamz and then fetched Fendi & family in Woodlands before heading for East Coast Lagoon F.C (food ctr NOT football club). Yeah, I know. The distance, my gosh! I think I had covered 1/2 of Singapore's perimeter, just by driving that distance. Wonder how much the taxi fare may cost....

Driving back, it was vice versa. K@i send Fendi & family back while I drove Meng & Bas back to western S'pore. Seriously, guys. One of you westerners better get a car soon!

After dropping Meng off, Bas remarked that he wanna chill first. We decided on McD West Coast Park (open 24hrs). Kinda' cool place. McCafe & McD. Relaxed crowd. No signs of boisterous teens trying to make it 'cool' their way.

GET THIS: It's almost 1am early MONDAY morning and I; having to work LATER ON, was chillin' with:
A guy who's clearing his leave b4 he O.R.D
AND
a guy on his day off.
....Just who am I kidding? The Monday isn't just going to be blue. It's gonna be BLACK, I tell you! Sheesh!

Image hosted by Photobucket.com
2 (very) eligible bachelors. Bas & Khamz. Any takers?
They are so gonna kick my a** for this....

Btw, what happened on the way when sending Bas home was pretty hilarious (if not grave). Something involving a long stretch of straight road, a rather big bump hump, some G-force AND an unexpected POLICE road-block. Geez!

So guys, pardon me for saying this but, will the next time we meet-up be a break-fast session this coming Ramadhan? Considering the (obvious) pattern of a few months between each meet... I'm not surprised if this may be true, after all.

Thursday, August 11, 2005

Birthday(S)

Birthday(S)
09082005

(Should have updated this yesterday, but... nevermind)

Imagine sharing the same birthday as your country. But my uncle's definitely older. Heh.
The celebration was pretty fun. With my 2 favourite cousins and loads of kids around...why not?

Image hosted by Photobucket.com
LOCATION: Hajah Maimunah Restaurant @ Joo Chiat Road (my uncle totally dig their food...Who doesn't??)
NUMBER OF PPL: 18 (big family, even then NOT all are present)
NUMBER OF TABLES: 3 (one long stretch!)
MENU: Tahu telor, sotong goreng, ayam panggang, Ikan bakar, Lemak siput, sup buntut (ekor) and lalab (salad) ~ ALL x 3 sets!
ADDITION: 1 (big!) birthday cake.
PRICE: Dunno. My mum 'handled' the payment.... Heh.
-------
After which, the 'senior citizens' aside, we, the 'younger generation' braved the hot, hot afternoon sun and immense crowd-all the while standing from 5pm all the way till' almost 9pm and eventually got crushed adrift in the sea of humans inside the Citilink Mall......

Sigh....All that ruckus and exhaustion.... However.... THIS >>>
Image hosted by Photobucket.com
>>>makes it all worth it...... Be-yoo-tiful, just beautiful....

Singapore sure know how to celebrate it's 40th birthday in style... There are altogether 3 SETS of fireworks display from 4 DIFFERENT corners.

I almost went bonkers trying to snap the pics. You know how digicam nightmode is like. No shaky-hands and it takes longer to process. Then there's my cousins who went crazy:
COUSIN 1: That side! That side nice! (Points to point A)
...I start to turn to point A
COUSIN 2: No! That one nicer! (Points to point C)
...was about to turn to point C......
COUSINS 1 & 2: That one! That one the nicest!! Quick!!! (points to point B)

AARGH!!!!!

PS: I know this is crazy but all the while, when I was there, I thought, "I bet the rating for 'Shooting Stars' must be pretty low today, considering nearly 1/2 of Singapore is here to see the fireworks..." Heh.

Monday, August 08, 2005

wtf

wtf??!!!

This fella is really in for it....
C'mon peeps.
Go to this blog and get back to me. I wanna hear ur opinions, man! Here's one blatant IDIOT!

http://thesecondholocaust.blogspot.com/2005/04/well-wellthis-is-something-new.html

that time of the year

Hey, it's that time of the year again.

Watched a post-midnight show of Charlie & The Chocolate Factory at Orchard Cineleisure with my bro last Friday/Saturday.

Nopes, the issue here is not the movie. That one's cute. What I'm gonna say here is pretty creepy, actually.

As we know, The Chinese Hungry Ghost Festival started as of that Friday. Those who's seen the trailer for THE MAID should know what the festival is about. Ghosts of ancestors come down bla..blaa..

ANYWAY.

Those who used to watch Chinese horror movies (esp. the Hong Kong ones) will know that they always leave the front row empty at 'getai' shows and the same goes for cinemas (or so I thought...) Apparently, when I booked the tix online that morning at around 10am, the 1st 3 rows are already booked. So I land a couple of seats on the 4th row from the back.

However, when the show start, my bro started grumbling.
HIM: Aiyoh, even at this hour it's full-house. Damn cramp, sia. Why dun you book the seats behind us? They're empty!

Puzzled, I turned around. It IS empty. THE WHOLE ROW, in fact. Erk??!

ME: Shoot, lah. The whole freaking row behind us still empty and the show start already. You know what this means???
HIM: What?! Damn, I feel like climbing over and sit behind.
ME: I'd rather u dun. It's the Hungry Ghost Festival. Ghosts also want to watch Charlie & The Chocolate Factory, mah.
HIM: Damn, sia. They got the best seats in the house!

Anyway, minutes later, I turned back again to see 2 couples seated there. I kept looking back to see if they're 'real'. Turned out, they sat there cos' their seats are pretty cramped (4 seats in the row behind them are empty).

This is what watching too much Hong Kong horror movies (as a kid) do to your head. THINKING of NONSENSE, in fact. Sheesh..!

PS: I specifically remember one movie where a couple who sat at those 'designated' seats incurred the ghosts' wrath and were kept them in the building. Tried as they might, they're unable to find the exit, until the next morning. Creepy.....

Wednesday, August 03, 2005

jeepers

Jeepers Creepers!

You ppl have a look at this....

Image hosted by Photobucket.com

Is that supposedly creepy or what?! It's located at the 7th floor @ Plaza Singapura (where the movie theatres are). The FEMALE toilet to be exact. Those who have been there knows what the toilet layout is like. There are 2 different passages for the cubicles and at the end of one of those, is THAT.

Yep, the ghostly image (apparition??!) from the upcoming horror movie:
THE MAID.

Call it a promotion gimmick but they have the audacity to attempt to scare the ladies?! I'm not talking bout' myself here but you and I know that there are ladies out there that are pretty weak-hearted/willed and should they enter the toilet alone (esp. at nite) and saw THAT, smack at the end of the secluded cubicle passage, how do you think they feel and will react?
One word-TRAUMATISED.

Geez, when I hurriedly looked for an empty cubicle and saw THAT, I was like, "What the...?!"
The CHEEK!

Oh, here's the promotional poster for that movie. It's local, by the way.
Image hosted by Photobucket.com

Tuesday, August 02, 2005

3 of us


3 of us
Originally uploaded by crush-ice.

Ain (Caca)
30072005

Finally managed to meet up with this July-baby. Considering it's still July, I assume that it's still ok to 'celebrate' her birthday.

Considering she was pretty late (1 1/2 hrs to be exact), I took the opprtunity to SHOP. Oh, THAT dreaded word. Can't help it, lah. I was already at the heart or Orchard Road (Wisma/Taka) and it doesn't take long for my mood to kick in.

I still can't believe that I was part of the ruckus inside Charles & Keith, which was filled to the brim with women, young and old alike. Geez, in other days, I would have avoided such scenes like a plague.

Anyway, upon her arrival, we hurried to have lunch (hungry, liao. it's already 4pm, imagine!) at BREEKS! The menu items were pretty dismal. Not much variety.

Image hosted by Photobucket.com
Pardon the pics, taken with fone cam & resized. That's Caca/Ain.

Before this, I had asked a favour of my fren (who's at home) to book some movie tix. Met Suzy (moi cousin) after that. She wanna return my camera so I asked her along to catch the movie together. And so these 3 scaredy-cats watched the Jap horror movie, Red Candy. Ain was the one who suggested watching a horror movie and yet she is the one who refused to watch the scary bits. Geez!

My worries about meeting my cousin with my fren around, were unfounded. Both, being the jovial sort, hit it off pretty well. Hardly any awkward moments. Phew!