March

I met up with Mak the day before yesterday after work and we went to Pastamania for dinner. We talked about a lot of stuff, specifically about the fact that he was going away for 10 months to learn flying in Australia. It is cool to have a friend who's going to be a pilot, but 10 months is a very long time.

It's nice to have the feeling that there's someone who lives near by, that you can depend on and ask out for movies whenever it's convenient. Not to mention a buddy who does the adventurous stuff with me - Macritchie, 15km run to Sembawang Park and back etc. I guess I'm going to have to find someone to do all that crap with me once he goes away! Haha!

After dinner we played Daytona, and he won because I had some technical screw-up. I'm hoping for a rematch before he leaves, just get things straight! He can fly planes, but I can beat him at Daytona! After that he left to meet da-sao. Yeah, I've never seen him more blissful than he is now.

Congratulations dude!

His birthday's coming up too. Gotta start thinking of what to get him.

Chris' Party

I've been too stoned recently to come up with good blog entries. What you've been reading lately are sub-standard rants, along with photos. Editting them is a whole lot easier than constructing a pretty sentence. I am so screwed.

Anyway, a bunch of us met up at Kembangan MRT station on Saturday evening, somewhere I've never been before! Guo Fei, Terence, Shawn and I went to Cheers and there was a pathetic amount of alcohol for sale. We wanted to get some for Chris (which didn't turn out to be too brilliant an idea) as a present. We spotted a 7-11 at the CC, but it wasn't stocked with alcohol, because it was situated in a CC!

Bet you didn't know that!

Chris (who is going to Taiwan to learn hairstyling, thus the farewell party) picked us up at the bus stop in his Honda Accord. It was a quick drive to his place. I've been to private houses before and his is the biggest I've ever been in.



We went in to have dinner and the food was really good. The Taiwan sausage, fried rice and dumplings were some of the delightful things we had among the wide variety of dishes. We left enough space in our stomachs upon seeing the fondue machine. The dips that were available were the healthy strawberries and the sinfully sweet marshmallows.



A sight for chocolate-addicts, surely? I was tempted to kidnap the fondue machine back home for my personal use! It was certainly one of the many highlights of the evening. We couldn't stop ourselves from finishing almost everything, and had many "last" helpings.

Self-denial.

Anyway, we watched a bit of Star Wars in the living room and had our first taste of alcohol for the evening. There was a guy who was mixing the staggering varieties of alcohol available. It just so happened that he worked in Zouk as a bartender! It kicked off with some funny pink drink, which the four of us couldn't finish. We then had a shot of tequila each before going up to Chris' room, which was huge.

I need to be rich enough to get a house like that some day.

After browsing through a couple of old issues of Mens' Health, Chris offered us cards and we played Big 2. It's much less of a hassle as compared to mahjong, and requires more brains as compared to Blackjack. I'm surprised I didn't play it at all during CNY. We gambled - 10 cents a card!

In the midst of all the gambling...



Chris is an amazing host I tell you. I don't even know what this is called but after this baby, I was super high. It tasted really good with my favourite alcohol, Baileys Irish Cream, in it! I have no idea what the dangerous, dark, bottom-layer of liquid is. It's sweet but seductively poisonous. My camera tasted quite a bit of it as Terence spilled his over it! Thankfully, it's still functional, though I doubt it will be for much longer seeing how accident-prone it is!

To top it all off, Chris brought up Vodka lime that helped to sustain my 'high' for quite awhile. I think I was the noisiest and rowdiest (while playing cards, telling everyone off for not giving me a chance to throw my cards), which is just a little bit embarrassing, but I've known these guys for quite a long time already, so it doesn't matter!

Just one more for the alcohol list - we were offered Tequila Pop but I skipped that because I think it would've probably driven me to check myself in to rehab!



I won a little bit of money from the game (like 2 dollars), and we took this last group photo. Shawn and I were the most red in the face, but I think it's safe to say that the alcohol got us all high, and we had an amazing time.

Now I know why middle-aged uncles spend their spare time drinking and gambling.

Guo Fei, Chris' friend and I took a cab back home. And I called for the cab in exchange for Guo Fei finishing my Tequila Pop! Hilarious stuff.

Even after an hour and a half later whilst I was home in bed, I could still feel my heart pounding rapidly. I am such a lousy drinker.

Which just means that I can save money on alcohol.

(Forgive me for the crappy entry yet again!)

CNY Things

On Monday night (gosh I haven't been updating this blog in a really long time!), the class had an annual gathering at Ming Boon's house. We had this fantastic steamboat (as usual) but what was really great was the company. I realised that having them around is such a great thing - the jokes that came from knowing each other that well, and of course our "he xin nian" singing whenever someone said something scandalous just shows how much chemistry we have. It's really special to have a time for all of us to sit at the same table, have a meal, and talk.



Of course, after that we had the after-meal activities which include Mahjong and Blackjack. Overall, I lost money, but that's hardly the point. I had the most thrilling Blackjack session ever - I think I almost lost my voice after that! Yeah, it's kind of insane. I tried my hand at Mahjong for abit, which was okay (as in I didn't lose that much money!).



I can't wait to have another excuse for a class gathering. We don't do it often enough!

The next day I had work, but I managed to meet up with a couple of my army friends after that. Guo Fei, Samuel, and I made our way to Ivan's house from Causeway Point where Shawn (and of course Ivan) was already waiting! I was rather full from a dinner with Ryan, but since there was steamboat, we helped ourselves to it! Throughout most of that conversation they were discussing Warcraft, but I don't really mind because after knowing them for so long, I think they'd die if they didn't talk about it! Haha... After that we started playing Mahjong, and Shawn sort of helped me out and taught me stuff. I felt that I learnt a lot from this session! Can't wait for the next one! We left at about 3AM as all of us had to work the next day.

Yesterday a couple of us class peeps went to TWJ's 21st birthday chalet. More updates on that once the photos come in. I'm quite excited to be going to Chris' party today as well. And that would mark the end of a very busy week of entertaining!

CNY Day 01

All my cousins, along with my aunt and her Romanian husband!

Notes On A Scandal

This is a terribly scandalous movie.



The scandal actually starts off with art teacher Sheba Hart (Cate Blanchett) getting involved with a sexual relationship with her student, Steven Connolly (Andrew Simpson). However, the bigger scandal is actually the schemes of Barbara Covett (Judi Dench). She notes them down in her little diary, and pastes golden stars in it as the schemes bear fruit. After another failed "friendship", she begins to plot to become Sheba's friend. She helps her keep the secret of her scandal from her family and the school, and becomes the only person left to give her support when the cat was let out of the bag.

We all love a scandal or two, but this one will have you chewing your nails off in the scene where Sheba discovers Barbara's diary. The intensity is so mind-blowing, it gave me a headache! It was much more thrilling than your average Hollywood action sequence. Watching Cate Blanchett in this is much more rewarding than that in Babel, where her portrayal throughout the movie was more or less that of a wounded woman facing death. In this, she experiences love with a minor, destructive friendship with a fellow colleague, nostalgia of her past life, frustration of bringing up a kid with Down's Syndrome and pain of betraying her husband.



If you thought Judi Dench's presence in Casino Royale was minimal but effective, be prepared to be arrested by her acting in this one. It's as if she leads a double life - a firm, experienced school teacher and that of a desperate, obsessive lesbian woman who's afraid of dying alone. She's so threatening I was trembling in my pants when she demanded that Sheba accompany her to her cat's death or she'd dish out some revenge.

Overall the movie's exploration of some very human themes push it a notch above your average Hollywood flick.

Lonelines, and the desperation that comes along with it, is something we can all relate to.

What You Make Of It

"Time is nothing
But what you make of it
Life has meaning
If only you reflect on it "



I went to Sentosa today and was dismayed at the state of the sky. Demoralising, I know. Nobody goes to Sentosa and expects it to look this cloudy. It's essential that when you're at the beach, the three main ingrediants that come into play must be present - the sun, sand and sea. Apparently one of them decided to go play hide-and-seek behind the clouds.



I decided to do a bit of phototaking since the beach looked kinda gloomy. My camera is by no means a DSLR, but I guess it did rather well with this on Macro mode. In other news, my family got a new camera as a gift. It's not as powerful as the cheapest ones on the market right now, but it's an improvement from mine! I tried to photograph the butterflies flying around, but I couldn't spot them in the photos I took! But seeing them flutter around randomly as if they were in a dance really lightened my mood.

After walking from Palawan to Siloso, I decided that I'd either chill out at Cafe del Mar or rent a bike for a ride on my regular route - to Tanjong Beach and back, followed by the Jungle Trail. I planted myself at CDM for awhile, but ran out of patience when no one offered to get me a drink. And by that time the sun, almost midway into the sky at 11AM, was scorching hot (better late than never). I went for a bike-ride instead. I was further pissed off by the crappy state of the bike. I should've been more choosy with it, and checked it thoroughly before riding off.

I grabbed a Pink Dolphin and some loose change from the 7-11 at Palawan to stash my belongings in the locker. I forgot to bring my mp3 player a long, and had to be contented with the sounds of nature instead.

Okay, it does sound like I didn't enjoy my trip much, but I guess it gave me something to do.



The jungle trail was as interesting as ever. The steep and winding trail and the sights of mainland calmed me. There was still a lot of things going through my mind, but it's hard to be totally engrossed in your troubles when you're trying to make sure the camera doesn't fall from your hands (there's no basket and I used the bottle-grasping thing after that) while you're keeping your balance on a rubbish bike!



I've had enough of being in solitude already. I'm keen to give Sentosa another go on Thursday, when there isn't so much on my mind. Is anyone game?

"Everytime I turn around the boys fighting over me
Everytime I step out the house they wanna fight over me
Is it cos I'm hot to death
And I'm so-so-so sexy
All the boys all the silly boys they wanna fight over me"

I now understand the appeal of Paris Hilton's album and why all unbiased reviewers had something nice to say about it. It's so silly and light-hearted that you can't help but laugh (along or at) when you hear it. It's the album that I'm currently listening to, although I understand that I'm a tad behind the times!

Better late than never eh?