The First Weekend

"Powerpack your Friday nights. Step on it and accelerate to the max! Dinner, movies, drinks and clubs. Chiong. Then Sat pace a little, chill and glide on. Then come Sunday, unwind and recharge and sail out on the momentum of the weekend high." Weetz, 2011.



Friday evening kicked off with meeting the interns from my internship at SPF. We met the rest of our department who were prawning with moderate success at Hai Bin! But it didn't really matter, as we sat down and gossiped and caught up with each other. It was fantastic seeing them all again. Made new friends and reconnected with old ones. I was particularly happy that we got along brilliantly despite not seeing each other for a year. Also met my junior from CS and I was glad to know that he was doing well interning there. Heineken, prawns, conversation... a warm fuzzy feeling.

Saturday was spent earning money instead of spending it! Tuition went well though. I see it as nurturing the next generation in my own little way. Poisoning them with my slightly unconventional and un-teacher-like views while explaining how to write a narrative and how to do QA for Chemistry. I've been doing it so long, it's almost effortless in a way.

Sunday. Bridesmaids. After letting it all sink in, maybe it isn't that funny! There's a lot of toilet humour, but female-style, so that's something that I've never seen before! But the rather original script and solid comedy-acting by a stellar cast made it a very enjoyable experience that was worth its weekend ticket price. The inclusion of Hold On at the end was wonderful! I am almost inspired to start tuning in to Class 95!

And then I did something that I've never done before. I went to sing karaoke. Alone! The feeling of being one with music and lyrics, of the entire body being an instrument - incredible! 2 hours, uninterrupted. I was partly inspired when listening to Jolin's discography the other day and I realised how much I missed singing and how Chinese lyrics could express emotions and thoughts in an incredibly beautiful way. So I spent the evening alone but connected! Connected to a world of composers, lyricists, singers. A solo concert for an audience of one - myself!

And that's how I spent the first weekend upon starting work.

I'm so going to regret sleeping late just to write this entry.

Kbox Monday

Music healed my soul on Monday. Although I'm not sure Bottle Pop is considered a song.



I do not know what to say other than we sang many oldies, I danced like crazy and the air con was not on.

Oh yes, and this:



I have funny friends.

Another OGL Singing Session

K to the O-G-L

ZOMG why does Lyon look so pissed!



It's because Jac and Jason are singing Gimme More! And Piece of Me. And Toxic. And I'm A Slave 4 U.



But because everyone still has a soft spot for Britney and Lyon accepts us for who we are, we're actually really good friends.



Well at least until we started on Crazy.



I suck at singing guy chinese songs, cos my chinese sucks and the sing real high. Lucky this is one of the few that I managed to sing at least half of in the real key. I need to cheat so bad.



The OGLs.

And to the fucker who stole my camera on DND - you have no idea what bad things I've been cursing you with and the people around you... I just want to ship you to an island, cut you open and let you watch me rip out your insides. Or is pouring acid down your throat or making you smell fart for the rest of your life worse. I don't know. I'm just thinking.

Random Stuff and Dan's Bday

My roomie was hungry during the exam period and tried to flatten me into Roti Prata.

Anyway LQ, YP and I went to KBox last Friday. I was quite excited becuase I haven't been there for 3-4 months! Usually I visit the place a couple of times a month, so the feeling was kind of like finding an oasis in the desert. It quenched my thrist for singing. I sang my usual stuff...



Yeah, that one, and Toxic, and Wu Niang etc. etc. I'm good at the old songs. I haven't been listening to new stuff. I did regret not singing Jolin's Ai Wu She! Go go sister... go go brother!



The food's really good. It's damn cool that they replaced the fruits with the muahchi! I don't really know what that's called but it tastes damn good! The food at Kbox is always improving!



Qi singing some very sad kind of song. The one that requires chang1 shang1 voice! Yi Ping sang well too. I've got a video of her rendition of Umbrella! Haha... we got damn high singing that one.

And yesterday I made my way down to Sembawang to celebrate DG's birthday.



Ate and played mahjong. I think I need a serious mahjong session really soon. My past two sessions didn't involve money, and weren't that fast and furious. I'm not very good at it, but I just crave playing it... Sam, GF, Ivan?



The four of us army mates... who travelled to Thailand, Bintan and Taiwan!

Uniquely S10A

1. I looked gorgeous.



2. Gorgeous company.

3. A lot of Andy Lau's old songs courtesy of TWJ. And how his idols of the past has the hairstyle that he has now.

4. Tan WJ and his story of how he's getting paid a couple of times of my monthly salary.



5. Connie's lack of voice but no lack of comic relief.



6. Kherray's arrival and her "Death Note" book. Your name is in there.



7. First of my bimbo repertoire - Everytime. I was so good. Everyone was teary-eyed after that.



8a. I attempted to recreate a masterpiece during the song.



8b. The timing couldn't be better. After the shot was taken they passed the camera around and said it was kind of like a porn shot. And remember what I said about everyone being teary-eyed after the song? It was tears induced from laughter. Sang Toxic thereafter.

9. TWJ gets high every time Hebe comes on screen. I get high every time Hebe with short hair comes on the screen.



10. Her Royal Gorgeousness had elsewhere to party, so we took a photo with her.

11. Before that we tried to send her off with the supposedly very high Liang Ai-ING. Which fell flat. Boo-hoo.

12. Connie continued being very funny throughout.



13. We cam-whored some more.

14. Sang Wu Niang and did a 3.5 second dance move with Jolin that cracked everyone up.

15. Connie and TWJ sang some Beyond song. Funny and memorable.

16. Duetted that Cao Ge and what's-her-name song with Wee Lee. Not the Liang Shan Bo one.

17. Sang my most macho song - Shuang Jie Gun.

18. Harmonized with Ming Boon on Dao Dai. Amazing.

19. Duetted with Kherray on Biao Bai.

20. Kherray held her own mini-concert with Elva songs.

21. We sang till a point where we couldn't even do the low notes properly. Ended off with A*Mei's Wo Yao Kuai Le.



22. Took cab back to Woodlands with Wee Lee. Damn tired. I love my class. I love KTV-ing.

Hectic Week

This is another entry of ranting with not much purpose, in fact none at all till I get to watch Spiderman 3. Everybody's talking about. I'll be watching it tomorrow, so... what the hell.

On Monday I went for lunch with Jie Yu and we couldn't help but notice how the public has been bombarded with advertisements for the new Spiderman 3. We went for lunch at the BK at Raffles Place, and we the cups and the holder for the fries had Spiderman printed on them. And I upsized my meal because I wanted to acquire a Spiderman card. Childish I know, but it's once in awhile! I'm a big fan of Spiderman. Ooh, and we had a drink from Boost. That never fails to make me happy. It tastes so good, yet it's healthy!

At night, I met up with Ryan and Shermaine, who had tickets for a Harmonica performance at the Esplanade Recital Hall. I enjoyed myself a lot. I think it's times when you watch other people perform that you relight your passion for music. I was really stunned at how good the second half of the concert was. The first half was performed by a group which was more interested in being technically challenged than actually making music that touches the heart. Not that they succeeded very well in being technically-challenged either. They had one thing going for them though - the pieces they played were rather famous Mozart pieces. The second-half was packed with unique performances. Harmonica with piano backing, harmonica with CD-"orchestra" backing, amazing solos, and tight, small groups of three, each wielding a different harmonica. It's been a long time since I've seen a harmonica performance, so I really have to thank Shermaine for offering me tickets to watch it.

On Tuesday I went for for a haircut with Guo Fei at Kimage. I kinda like my hair but I thought 30 bucks for the it was a little steep.



After that we met Samuel at Paragon for some top-secret thing that I'm not supposed to reveal. We had our dinner at Lucky Plaza, where I'd used to have lunch so often when I was working at Wisma. I stopped by my former workplace to say hi to a couple of people before heading over to Wheelock place, where Samuel got a laptop case (actually it'll fit A4 papers too) from Crumpler. Our last stop was Lido where we took a chance and actually went to see if there were any Spiderman 3 tickets left. If there were, we'd watch it straightaway. As expected, there wasn't any, and they even had an A4 printout just before the queue for the tickets that said "Spiderman 3 tickets SOLD OUT". Guo Fei left for home while Samuel and I had a chat about his job that I was going to take over.

On Wednesday night I met Wee Lee after tuition for a drink and a little chat. It's also been some time since I stopped by Causeway Point. I suppose it's due to the place being in such close proximity to mine that I've always ignored it. To me it's like heading to the coffee shop downstairs. Anyway, we had iced tea at Mos Burger and talked about lives. Actually more of his, because he was stuck in a rather interesting predicament, but it'm sure it'll be rewarding in the long run.

On Thursday was my first day of work. More on that later! After my tuition at Sengkang which ended at 9PM, my family went to this coffee shop at Merdien LRT station for dinner in celebration of Mothers' Day! Haha, it's really way in advance but it's kind of cool. I enjoyed stuffing myself with black pepper crab. It was amazing.

I met Zhenhui on Friday, when Shuming became MIA all of sudden after informing us of her trip to Sentosa. We went to return the car that was rented at Punggol, took a bus to his place where he went to get his Ikea Friends Card (while I went to use the toilet at Compasspoint and listened to Thnks Fr Th Mmrs on repeat). It was another bus ride to Tampiness Ikea, which I went for the first time. It was very spacious. I guess the land on which it was built was cheap, and this Courts, Ikea and Giant each had their own buildings with lots of free parking lots! The layout made it look a whole lot like Malaysia! The meatballs at Ikea were tasty as usual and we started shopping.



I actually bought clothes hangers again. They were going for 5 at $1.50, when I discinctly remember getting them for a tad more money. So according to a certain warped logic of mine of averages, I just had to get them. (After a quick search on my blog I just realised that I got them for the same price! Oops!)

Saturday was a KBox session with Ryan. It was one of the best sessions I've had, probably because we went crazier this time around, and there weren't any expectations of what we were going to sing. I'm wondering whether I should put up my version of Everytime. It does sound a bit forced at some places though. Hmmm.

I should really cut down on meeting people because it seems like it's the only way to save money! I don't know yet, but I've only got 2 more months to save for Uni and I've only got a measly amount of money in the bank. To add to that, I've got a trip to Taiwan in July. Gosh. It's quite a headache. I'm considering working at the upcoming PC show, but it starts on a Thursday, which I have work commitments. I've just been struck by the painful realisation that it's probably never going to be enough.

Alright, time for tuition!

Freedom Writers

After the previous day's insane 5 hour K Box session with Zhenhui and Shuming that ended at 3AM (and I've to take this chance to thank my dad who was driving his cab to take me to supper before sending me home), I got a mere 4 hours of sleep and went to meet Ryan for Freedom Writers.

The movie was very good and it there were parts that almost moved me to tears. As they say truth is sometimes stranger than fiction, and this story is certainly uniquely inspiring and interesting seeing how it's based on a true story. I can't even think of the words to describe it so I'm going to copy and paste the sypnosis directly from the yahoo! webpage, just to get you interested!

Fresh–faced, idealistic twenty–three–year–old Erin Gruwell is ready to take on the world as she steps inside Wilson High School for her first day of teaching. Her class, a diverse group of racially charged teenagers from different walks of life--African Americans, Latinos, Asians, juvenile delinquents, gang members, and underprivileged students from poor neighborhoods--hope for nothing more than to make it through the day. On the surface, the only thing they share is their hatred for each other and the understanding that they are simply being warehoused in the educational system until they are old enough to disappear.

So check out the movie, it's really good.

After that we went for lunch at the food court before prodeeding to get ourselves a nice spot for the SK Red Party. There was only one special guest and she turned out to be Sun Yan Zi. We waited for an hour or so, and there was this annoying mother with her annoying children standing behind us, creating a din, and putting her hand on the rail above my head, which made me uncomfortable. She was standing so close to me I wanted to elbow her in the knee.



But all was made right as Jean Danker came on stage, did her MC-ing and kicked off the show with a models modelling the latest creations from SK jewellery. After that she introduced Sun Yan Zi, who managed to sneak into the place while we were not looking, and she knew that 90% of the people in the crowd were waiting for her. I was surprised that she would be performing two songs (when I've only heard that she'd be performing Ni Guang) and was taut in suspense, wondering what the other one would be.



Ni Guang was well performed; she had an amazingly powerful voice. Here's a recording of part of the performance, forgive me for my singing in between!



The second song was Gu Ji Gu Ji, my favourite track off her latest album and it got me on a high. I got the entire song on video but it sucks because for the most of it, you get to hear me singing along. Then there was this part when she looked up at us and saw us singing along with her and she waved, and we waved frantically back! I was pretty ecstatic!

And then we met Colin and his two friends for the Jolin concert.



We were there pretty damn early and we waited for the entire place to be filled.



It was a bloody fantastic concert, and worth my every cent. There's nobody who can do it as well as she did! She's at the top of her game in the Mandopop scene. Jaw-droppingly good. As such, it deserves an entry of its own. Probably tomorrow, after a night's sleep from the work I'd be doing today, I guess there'd be an entry!

K Midnight

I wish I had time to blog properly but I haven't. The good news is starting from next week, I'll be doing a 4 day week, which means I'll be a bit more free to do other stuff. The downside would obviously be earning less money and spending more of it. I'm currently dirt broke. Time to dig out all the coins and use them!

I met up with Zhenhui and Shuming yesterday and despite the disgustingly expensive KBox charges yesterday, we went to sing. I can't live without singing, despite not being any good at it. I can do a mind-blowing rendition of Everytime though! I'm surviving on 4 mere hours of sleep (thanks to my dad who sent me home at 330AM but went round to supper and this weird place to top up diesel and caused to to return at 5AM), but I'm going out now to catch a movie and probably the performance of another superstar before witnessing Jolin in concert.

But for now, my first attempt at video-blogging.

Triple Treat

Here I am, once again with a remote control. And that can only mean one thing. K Box!!! Today Zhenhui, Shuming and I had a hell of a time at KBox singing. It was cool this time round, as every other time. I find that for me, it's money well spent although this time I had to pay for Shuming's because I was bloody late. I have no idea why I was as late as I was, luckily I had Zhenhui to be late with me! Haha...

Sang more S.H.E. and Jay Chou songs this time round as compared to other times. Also, it seems that there's an endless choice of songs to choose from because the singing list this time was totally different from the previous times! Zhenhui improved a lot that we thought he had been practising at home or something. Shuming was as good as the last time we went. The three of us haven't went out together since a year ago, and this gathering was nothing short of the crazy fun that we always have when we get together.

After K Lunch, we went to eat at Burger King. The queue was bloody long! I ate mushroom swiss double and it tasted great! Anyway, we had tonnes to talk about. Did I mention that the strawberry pie we shared tasted sinfully good too? Haha! We've decided to meet again next month, either on the 6th or the 20th, and we're going to be having a movie marathon at Zhenhui's house! Titles include Constantine, Confessions of a Teenage Drama Queen, Butterfly Effect and a Chinese movie. I really can't wait for that time to come. Exciting.

Also, we had a lot of fun taking photos. Aren't cameras such a guilty pleasure...



When there's three people, it always ends up like so. Then, we decided to try to self take the three of us together and that turned out to be quite a challenge.



That caused quite a commotion in BK. Well, maybe not. But we were hell noisy just trying our best to fit the 3 faces in and by luck, we found a good angle and everything just fell into place!



Okay, so the photograph was a bit bright. Shuming has a better versh of it in her phone, and I'll find some way to get her to send it to me. Oh well, it was a super fun day with the two of them around, and I sure am looking forward to our movie marathon!

You guys were great! Thanks for everything!