Bad Luck Worsens

I'm starting to think that Someone's some sort of a jinx. Let's see...

1. My sinus recurred.
2. My computer hard disk broke down.
3. Started to get lots of mosquito bites from chalet and the wake. Before I seldom get bitten by mozzies one leh...
4. My grandfather broke down.
5. I did badly for my exams. My CAP fell yet again.

And to top that off in the horrible month of May, my phone just broke down on me. Damn... It's actually the memory card reader of the phone that's spoilt, so calls and messages still go through, the whole phone works just that I can't do much with it due to the severe lack of memory space. I need to make a trip down to Nokia Care.

If anything more breaks down again, I think I need to get rid of the jinx somehow or another. bah~

Should I Stay Or Should I Go

Should I Stay Or Should I Go?

They have been together for more than a decade, and to take her this many years to think of this question seemed to be rather inappropriate. After all, they have been together for so long, why was there this need for a sudden change in the status quo.

After breaking up with her boyfriend number two, Scarlett thought of stopping contact with Ming. At first she thought that this was just a withdrawal symptom of a failed relationship and that she wanted to make use of Ming to hurt herself to compensate for the hurt she inflicted upon her boyfriend. However, even after getting back into the dating scene and acquiring more boyfriends, the naggy feeling of her wanting to leave Ming did not fade off.

Ming was different from her many boyfriends. Her many boyfriends recognised her as a girlfriend, brought her out to meet friends and have no idea about the relations Scarlett had with other men. How she managed to keep her many boyfriends out of each other's way and still could have enough time for all of them, and Ming, was a mystery to Ming, and was going to remain a mystery to him. Ming was different in that she knew about his personal life, he was married with a child. There was no way Ming could recognise Scarlett as a girlfriend, instead they met under the guise of being best friends. Best friends of more than a decade. Not just that, Ming too knew everything about Scarlett's private life. She made it a point to keep Ming updated about her every change in the statuses of her many relationships and her countless other flings.

In a way, Scarlett was probably tired of reporting her every move to Ming. After that break up, she realised that she did not feel like disclosing this news to Ming. She knew what Ming would say. He has been saying the same thing to her everytime she announced the exodus of a relationship. He would say, "Why don't you try staying true to one guy instead of spreading your love thin. Breaking up is good, one guy less, stay on and love the remaining few even more, okay, girl?"

Scarlett would then retort him back rendering him speechless, "And why don't you stay true to your dear Shan? Maybe we should break up, then you could love her with all your heart instead."

Although she did like all of her boyfriends somewhat equally, she did not really love them. Her first and foremost was someone else, someone she loved yet dared not love and very much afraid to let known her feelings even though she knew his. He loved her. His love for her was as simple as that, but her love was much more complicated. She was afraid of hurting him like she had done with others, she was afraid of hurting him with all the complications of her love, she was afraid of hurting him when one day she could not love him the same, and hence she decided to put that piece of love locked up in her heart and giving him the free rein to marry another girl and live a happy life but yet steadfastly remaining by his side.

As time went by, her feelings for him slowly took another shape. She was not very sure if she loved him the same way as she had when she was younger. Being older and ore jaded, Scarlett soon found herself craving for some form of security in love. She wanted a husband and a child to complement her successful career, but she did not bear to leave her boyfriends and her swinging incommitual lifestyle.

After replacing her ex-boyfriend with two new boyfriends, Scarlett reported that to Ming as usual.

"Ming, I picked up two new guys over the weekend," Scarlett reported. "One's a golf instructor, I met him over at the club, he's really very good looking and muscular. The other's that cute waiter I was telling you about the other time. He's so shy that he's so cute, too him this long to ask to get together with me. I just couldn't resist him."

"You know, Scarlett," preached Ming. "Perhaps you should try staying true to one guy instead of spreading your love thin. How would that finance manager you've been dating for the past couple of months feel about this? He'd be so heartbroken."

Scarlett bit her lip. Her usual retort was at the tip of her tongue when she thought about the consideration of breaking up with Ming. With not much to lose and regret, she took the plunge with a more callous approach.

"Perhaps we should break up then," said Scarlett in a serious tone. "I can then concentrate my love on fewer people. At least I know that they can be true to me. Perhaps, I might even pick one of them to marry and have kids with. I can feel my bio-clock ticking."

"What do you mean?" asked Ming, quite taken aback.

"I'm not that young anymore. I need some form of security in my life. I need a child."

"Who are you thinking of marrying?"

"It doesn't matter much, does it? It can't be you anyway."

Ming looked away from Scarlett. A simple retort from her struck his heart painfully, but yet a part of him felt happy that finally she admitted, though indirectly, of her feelings for him. Just that it all came too late. "You gave up that chance, don't forget," replied Ming, trying to deflect the blame away from himself.

"I didn't. Hey, didn't we agree on not seeing each other after your marriage? You really should stay true to Shan, love her, and not hurt her."

"She's quite happy with things as they are now."

"Would she be happier if we broke up, Ming?" asked Scarlett quietly. "My heart breaks everytime I lie to her. I'm tired of being the two faced creature in front of her. She's too nice for me to do this to her. And Tian, she's such a sweet little baby."

Tears streamed down her cheeks quite unexpectedly. She has always kept her emotions to herself but there was something emo about her tonight which led her to let her feelings go out of control.

Ming reached out his hand and wiped the tears off Scarlett's vulnerable face, gently brushing her and caressing her cheeks. He was not unaware of her vulnerability and was thus not shocked by her breakdown. Instead, the strong feelings of love he had for her was reignited by her display of emotions. She did have had feelings for me, he thought, smiling contentedly to himself.

However, that same display of emotions reminded him of his commitment to Shan. Mixed feelings ran high within him.

"Could you please leave me?" asked Scarlett tearfully.

"No." replied Ming instantaneously.

"Then, would you leave Shan instead?" asked Scarlett tentatively.

Ming stared at her hard.

"No," replied Ming finally.

A smile appeared across Scarlett's face. Perhaps it might just be possible to rectify a wrong decision made years ago.

With the Girls

Because of the severe lack of posts this month with my hard disk crashing and my away from the computer because of family reasons, shall post a couple of pictures to lighten the atmosphere and try cheer myself up. Not much words ahead though.

These are a couple of days ago after my comp crashed but before I got it fixed. I met up with the girls over lunch. I always have this mixed feelings meeting up with the girls because I don't like the feeling of going out in big groups and there's a certain difference I feel when with the girls, well, not all of them, but certainly some of them. The difference isn't always a negative one, but well, it does make me feel somewhat unsettled. Or maybe I just prefer going out with individual friends like I mostly do.


Jasmine, Shuhui and Eunice are missing, Jasmine is on her SEP now and she's really having lots of fun. Makes me miss my own SEP experience a lot.

Zihui and Rozie are graduating and will be/are embarking on the working life. For the rest of us, it isn't that much longer for us to join them. hai... Time flies by so quickly, once we were young and cute and more worried about what to eat for our next meal, what movie to watch during our next free time, and making sure that there's always one person having a break so that she can stay in the library to chope our favourite table for us and also to look after our bags.


Surprisingly, okay, maybe not so, none of us brought cameras, so we only took pictures with the handphone cameras. But we still tried to squeeze in our trademark "all heads in" shot over the lunch table.

Zihui and Joan.

I think other than my family members, Zihui is the friend I have quarrelled with most frequently. We're so different, having so polarised thoughts about different matters but I still respect her so much as a friend. I can slight other friends, but I just can't seem to fault her and after that we'd try and see through the differences and make up again.

Just read from her blog that she's picking up a job which pays $1600 before CPF deduction. erm... hai... It really sound quite bad, but well, I still wish her all the best in her career.

Okay, I'm getting tired, but can't resist putting up this pouty face of mine. Haven't camwhored in quite a long time, so this is it. I haven't even make up-ed in a long time that my mum thought that my make up that day was too thick. haha~ And also, I wore earrings! haha~ I so seldom wear earrings that I thought it's something worth mentioning. And the earrings were a present from the girls somemore. Ah, so coincidental that was the earrings I wore to meet them. haha~

Friends for as long as we all make the effort to remain as friends.
Remember the 8th of August date next year, though I don't know if I'd be able to make it, but as long as I'm in Singapore, I'll definitely make it~

Ciao~

Camping at Mount Elizabeth

Singapore is quite a disheartening place to live in because I don't think I dare to fall ill in Singapore, especially not with the rationale of our healthcare system in place. Let's just say 一分钱，一分货，多一分钱，加一分service. A penny for a penny worth of goods, an additional penny gives a penny worth of service. Unless I have lots of money to pay for private healthcare, unless I am willing to give up my sanity before being pushed crazy my lousy healthcare services, I don't think I dare fall critically ill.

Staying with my late grandfather during his last days at the hospital proved to me that private healthcare services is much much better than the public sector. My maternal grandfather is a regular in/out of some Singapore Government Hospital and the last time he was in, the whole experience was dreadful. The doctors doing rounds were like my age and they took hours to arrive. Medication was slipshod and because of not very accurate prescriptions, the scope had to be postponed and postponed. One nurse served many people, the nurses attitudes were bad and they were quite slow. A lot more other gripes, but I don't want to sound like I'm complaining so I should just go into complimenting the folks over at Mount Elizabeth.

My dad would say that service standards there have dropped since my great grandmother, and my grandmother's times, but well, it's already very good already la. My grandfather was admitted into a double room, there was this other guy sharing the room with him when he was first admitted, but because my grandfather was in a critical condition, that other guy asked to change to another room because he was pantang about sharing a room with someone who was about to pass away. And he did get his change of room. And because of my grandfather's condition, the nurses didn't arrange another person to move in and hence my family was given exclusive rights to use the entire double room.

Making the room comfortable to ourselves, we brought in our own foldable chairs, the nurses allowed that. We made use of the chairs available. And we even took over the empty bed beside my grandfather. But it's also because we really had a lot of people with us, the entire extended family and the occasional guests. Since we had two TVs, we played two different channels on each TV to occupy our time. Best of it, there are lots of very interesting channels on their TV, mostly Indonesian channels and a few cable channels. Of course, since I bet there are like more Indonesian patients than local ones. hehe~

There's also an adequate number of staff on duty, with nurses coming in to check on my grandfather regularly, taking his blood pressure, checking on his oxygen and changing his drip. There's also a higher proportion of local nurses working in the private sector. It's not that I'm driscriminating the foreign nurses, but an advantage of the local nurses is their ability to understand the local tongue. Most nurses speak dialects so that they can communicate directly with the patients. Not just the nurses can actually, even the doctors, they speak various dialects and some Bahasa (for the Indonesian patients mah). That is better because if not there'd be lots of miscommunication. The private sector nurses also seem to be a lot more experienced than the rookie nurses stuck in the public sector.

Visiting hours and visitor limits are also bullshit in the private sector. Even though there's clearly a visiting hours, the nurses don't enforce that. That resulted in my family and I staying overnight at the hospital. We mostly stayed in the room or went to the lobby. And people were camping and sleeping all over the place, not a very pretty sight but nobody cares much, there's after all much more important stuff like the matter of life and death to worry about. That day we stayed over we saw many other families also staying over in the hospital, suddenly I felt that we are not alone in the horrible sufferings, it felt somewhat comforting.

My journey down to the hospital was bad. The news came quite suddenly as my grandfather's conditioned worsened suddenly. I took a cab down to the hospital and all I thought was the last time I cabbed down to Mount E, I was with my sister, that night my grandmother passed away. The ride was quite silent, I guess not many cab drivers, a Mercedes cabbie somemore, would want to talk to a person who looks gravely silent and is heading towards a hospital. My grandfather managed to pull through that night as we stayed with him the whole night. It was a Saturday night, luckily, people needn't work on Sundays, so there was not much worries of tiring out.

Sunday morning my family went home for a short rest while my dad's siblings and their family came over. That short trip back home was quite bad. Every phone call made our hearts skip a beat. I really hate those kind of phone calls, it's so nerve wrecking. Sometime in the afternoon came the call which sent us all back to the hospital. My grandfather hadn't managed to make it till the night.

The nurses over at the hospital were really very supportive.

But of course, private healthcare isn't also that all great, there were some quite bad encounters especially with the usage of a machine which my family supposedly paid for and rented it for the sole use by my grandfather, but because the whole ward only had one of those machines, everytime some other patient needed it, it was loaned out for a while. But it's only a monitoring machine so things weren't affected that much.

Then there's also the problem with the billing. There's a lot of additional charges and stuff. And each night at the hospital came up to about $1100-1200. Imagine how much bills was chalked up the last time my grandfather stayed in the hospital. He stayed there for about 3 weeks, and had an operation done too. hai... Very expensive.

Really, in Singapore one cannot fall sick unless one is rich enough to pay for all these sort of stuff. Quite disheartening...

PS: A note to all concerned, I'm coping well with this loss, don't worry too much about me. Life is back to normal. Maybe I'll talk about the wake another time. I'm fine with talking about these stuff, so don't worry too much when talking to me. yup~ I'll be fine.

Notice

My grandfather just passed away. So I'm now camping at Serangoon Gardens instead of Mount Elizabeth Hospital as stated in my twitter. I'll be unreachable via internet so contact me by phone or SMS instead please. All emails will be read when I come back home maybe only on Friday.

It has really be a very stressful period for me and my family with sudden phone calls here and there all day long, rushing down to Mount E, rushing here rushing there. Finally there's this release, to thin of stuff in a better way. hai...

The wake will be at Serangoon Gardens the usual place. I'll be there all night long along with my cousins, very thankfully my two other cousins and me are currently all NEETs, not in education, employment and/or training, so we can stay there to guard the body all night long.

Okay, more updates when I get back. May has been a really bad month for me. Really a month to remind me that I cannot be the most blissful person living in my own fairy tale world, everybody must live an equal and balanced fair kind of life. Bis dann~

Anime Fanstuff Pushcart

Fans of anime and manga can remember there used to be a pushcart at Cineleisure selling all sort of anime fanstuff like keychains, plush toys, cosplay costumes, pictures, blah. That stall was tended by this boy who was very short but very cute. Then one day that pushcart disappeared.

I had wanted to buy the Full Metal Alchemist State Alchemist watch but didn't have the chance to. But it was all right, didn't buy it meant some money saved.

That stall attendent was also a very interesting figure. He came up to about my chest level, very short, even Cindy also thought that he was short, erm... Cindy, no offense hor. I tried guessing his age, putting him at like primary six, but I don't think he's really that young because Singapore do have underage employment laws to protect the children. Besides, we met him again at a cosplay event and he was all decked out and was hanging around with people who looked older.

Even though he's like damn short, and highly likely to be way younger than us, visits to Cineleisure seemed to have a highlight to visit his stall and ogle over eye candy. He's really damn cute. hahaha~

Anyway, as I was saying, after the stall disappeared, I can't get my usual fanstuff fix anymore. Until I saw another pushcart at Tampines Mall that day! I was standing around with a couple of friends waiting for a friend when I saw from the corner of my eye a Kyoya plush toy. Damn kawaii~ So I inched closed and dug out from behind Kyoya, a Tamaki plush toy! Even more kawaii~

I was fondling the plush toys when this tall cute guy decked in cosplay costume come up from behind me to tell me the price and show me other plush toys. $8.90 to own Tamaki, not that expensive, but it's really unnecessary money, so I decided to to buy it. Then I went back to my friends.

But after waiting for a long time, and me being very bored, I strayed over to the pushcart to look at more fanstuff. I browsed through all the keychains, but they were mostly Naruto and Bleach stuff, then that cute guy came over again to show me even more cute stuff. But since I already decided that I wasn't going to buy anything, I kinda felt bad for him having to show me all the stuff knowing that I'm not going to buy any. I tried to tell him I was only looking, and he can go back and sit down, then I went back to my friends.

While chatting with my friends, I pointed out all the interesting stuff that was being sold in the pushcart, a Death Note pillow in the shape of the notebook, and can open it somemore. Damn kawaii~ Then still got the FMA State Alchemist watch. wah lau... I was showing my friend that and telling him about my experience in Cineleisure when I wanted to buy it but the stall disappeared.

Then the cute stall attendent cam up and tell us that this is the same pushcart as the one from Cineleisure. Apparently, they are a mobile pushcart thingie, so they make rounds around Singapore around all the various malls. And also that they would be relocating again in June. He offered to take down my contacts so that I can be informed when they relocate. I gladly wrote down my contacts. That cute guy also took a liking to my Detective Conan chain hanging down my handphone and kept asking where I bought it from. haha~ Paiseh, it's Someone give me one...

After finally waited for the arrival of the remaining friend, we left that standing area. I was commenting to my friends that the cute guy was very cute. Then my friend was like, why didn't you ask for his number. Oh yar hor... Then my friend added, but he has your number already mah. dot dot dot...

Maybe I should go back to Tampines Mall one day to look for the FMA State Alchemist watch. Is it worth it anot at $17.90?

Still No Computer

A couple of announcements.

1. I'll be going off to a camp/retreat/chalet thingie come Wednesday to Friday. It probably won't make much of a difference since I still don't have my computer back. Anyway, the main point is that, you guys still won't be able to see me online. Don't bother emailing me either. SMS me ba...

2. Eric and Danielle won the million bucks for Amazing Race All Stars; Earl won the million bucks for Survivor Fiji. Kudos to the only team who managed to crack the code to the lock; kudos to Yau-Man for being so gracious. Damn... I hate Dreamz.

3. Other people's computer still not as good as my own computer. hai...

4. I'm suffering from heavy withdrawal symptoms that even long phone calls can't cure. I've used more hours on the phone for the past week or so than the entire last year. crap... Think my ear's spoiling from all the phone calls. That day I was listening to mp3s when I realised that the volume was about two notches more than my usual. bah~

5. Cravings... I want to eat char kway teow. I want to eat the Hill Street Fried Kway Teow. Stupid TVMobile had to screen Makan Places Lost and Found featuring Hill Street Fried Kway Teow make me think of char kway teow for the whole day.

6. Went out with the girls today. This reminded me how come most of my friends are guys and that I prefer to go out with individual friends than big group, or rather, that most of my friends are individuals rather than part of a clique.

7. Europe of the Dictators will be offered next semester. wahahaha~ After such a long wait of like 6 semesters, finally... Just thinking about being able to study Hitler, Mussolini, Stalin and Franco next semester for one whole semester really brings about orgasmic pleasure. hahahaha~ Finally there's something for me to look forward to next semester.

8. I think I want to go sleep now. I'm so tired. Wait till I get back my computer, I'll upload the tons of pictures I've been taking for the past couple of weeks, and blog properly about them. Until then, bear with me for my disjointed rantings. Good night.

Computer Crashed

My computer crashed.

The last time my computer crashed was last year April, a couple of days before my departure date. The computer crash screwed me up totally causing a huge strain in my emotions. This time round, my hard disk couldn't even last me the less than two years of the earlier one and instead, after slightly more than a year, it crashed on me again.

Because I live in my paranoid world of worst case circumstances, I do back up my stuff regularly. But still because there's a lag between the back up day and my computer crashing, there're still quite a lot of stuff which will disappear after i get back my computer. hai... But at least the important stuff won't disappear, I hope.

I'd also like to make use of this opportunity to apologise to Someone. Because of my bad temper, he has to tahan all my shite, my blow ups, and suffer under my anger. And to give him credit, he was able to withstand everything. *clap clap*

With these couple of days without computer I've to borrow computer from friends and my sister to use the internet, but it can't beat using my own computer, surfing my stuff. erm erm... hahaha~ And at my own pleasure and having my usual settings and everything at my beck and call. I can't wait to get my computer back, download all my anime, watch them, surf blogs, comment in the blogs, do all sorts of stuff. ahhh... Photoshop! crap...

Yup... I'll be off MSN these couple of days because I don't like using MSN on other people's computers, also because I log all my chats and I don't want my chats to be logged on other people's computers, nor do I want my chats to be not logged. erm, hope you get what I mean. Please, anything, email me. Email to my yahoo mail. DO NOT email to my hotmail. I don't understand why people like to email to hotmail just because my MSN uses my hotmail email address. Hotmail is for MSN use ONLY. bah~ Just because my MSN is jal4eva and my yahoo is jal5eva some smartypants like to think that 4 comes before 5 so 4 is better. erm... Just email to my yahoo mail la, or my gmail.

Or just leave a comment on my blog. All comments on the blog is directed to my preferred email account and I'll see them. Even if you leave a comment to an old post, I'll get all the comments in my mail box and I can reply you. Thank you very much for your cooperation.

In the times without computer and internet, I've been doing quite a bit of reading. I'm currently reading Hitler's Willing Executioners: Ordinary Germans and the Holocaust by Daniel Jonah Goldhagen. He's basically placing the blame of the Holocaust on ALL Germans, not just the Nazis nor the SS, and it's also not the collarboraters, but the Germans. A bit interesting, but whether or not I agree to his stand remains to be seen after I finish with that book. But indeed, I believe that blame of the Holocaust does not lie solely in the hands of Hitler, but on many more people in the system.

Don't forget, Hitler was elected into power.

There're other stuff waiting for me to read them but I'm quite lazy. Going out and sleeping all looks to be better options than lying in bed reading. hahaha... So for the past week, I went out on Saturday, Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday. Only today I stayed at home to rest. I should be out tomorrow, Sunday, Monday and/or Tuesday, and going for a camp on Wednesday till Friday. Hopefully I can be getting back my computer after I get back from the camp.

No further plans already. So please jio me out~

Eternal Summer

Eternal Summer

Before I go into the film review proper, a couple of rants about the movie trip. Number one, nobody checked my identification. wahaha~ *hurt* I know I am above 21, but I am not really that much older, and I don't think I look old, so how come nobody checked my identification. Okay, I have never been checked for identification before so maybe our film vendors just aren't that conscientious ba. haha...

Second, I was quite curious because other than me and my friend, the theatre was filled with lone ah peks, about a dozen of them or so, and one auntie, one normal couple, and two gay couples. I wondering do the ah peks know anything about the show before buying the tickets to watch. This isn't Chinatown, not all R21 films are softcore porn, there's a whole lot of arthouse flicks around here lor. Besides, I don't think this sort of film appeals to the normal ah peks. haha~ Wonder if they were disappointed anot.

Third, this film was censored. Damnit! It's already R21 and isn't that long a film and the bloody censorship board must still want to cut it somemore. Kanasai... Some parts of the film was quite abrupt and I don't know if it's supposed to be the director's style or the censorship board's style. crap...

Sheng Xia Guang Nian tells the tale of two guys and one girl's love triangle relationship. From when they were in grade school to them in high school waiting to enter university. Kang Zheng Xing as a grade schooler was a good student, obedient and hardworking, he was made by the teacher to be Yu Shou Heng's partner and from then his studies was affected. Still, he was mildmannered and nice, but afflicted with emotional upheavals.

Yu Shou Heng was a boy with ADD, very mischievous, very naughty. He didn't have any friends and Kang Zheng Xing became his first friend. Yu Shou Heng matured over the years to become the basketball team's star player in high school and even made it into the university team. He's tall, dark, atheletic, outspoken and provides a good contrast to the mild Kang Zheng Xing. Despite all that, the two of them remained close friends going to and from school together.

I really like the parts which Yu Shou Heng would pick up Kang Zheng Xing, in his bicycle and his motorscooter later. It's like the standard recurring motif in all films of this genre. Ya, it reminded me of Cardcaptor Sakura where Touya would never fail to pick up Yukito to go to school together.

Du Hui Jia was a girl from Hong Kong who came between the two friends. She was first Kang Zheng Xing's girlfriend after they got to know each other from the newspaper club, then they skipped classes to go up Taipei together and even checked into a motel. But after Kang Zheng Xing rejected her, she got to know Yu Shou Heng better and after a few encounters and with Yu Shou Heng making into university, the two of them got together behind Kang Zheng Xing's back.

I think Du Hui Jia was portrayed very well, seeing her torn between the two guys, and her knowing Kang Zheng Xing's secret yet not being able to do anything, and even coming between the two guys, it's quite difficult. Yu Shou Heng was quite evenly portrayed, but I thought that he became very stereotypical of all shounen-ai couples which made his feelings for Du Hui Jia seem rather awkward. Special mention is reserved for Kang Zheng Xing. His internal emotional struggles was so well portrayed that I really felt so deeply for him. That actor Bryant Chang won the Golden Horse award as New Performer for this role. That explains the well protrayal of Kang Zheng Xing.

The film was quite slow paced which allowed for the emotional development of the various characters, I liked it. Though sometimes it can fall a bit too melodramatic, but it's not really that indulgent. The story is sad, but not to crying/wailing kind of sad, it's the sadness that hits you in the guts and make you think about the characters whole night long kind of sad.

With the two guys one girl theme, I'd first think of comparing it with Fleeing by Night, only that Eternal Summer is more explicit in the expression of emotions of love. It's not like I don't like sex scenes, but somehow I prefer more implicit relationships. It's like prefering shounen-ai to yaoi. But anyway, I bet that our sex scenes was censored away anyway. bah~

My IMDb rating for it stands at 9/10 although I think an 8.5 would be a bit fairer.

Spiderman

Since the whole world is talking about Spiderman, and I've nothing to blog about, I think I shall talk about Spiderman too, and let my blog join one of the many many many other blogs talking about Spiderman.

***spoilers ahread***
Okay, the whole entry will be littered with spoilers, so ya, read only after watching it.

At two plus hours, Spiderman 3 is a very long drawn out affair. I was already fidgeting in my seat after Harry did not die for the second time, and Eddie turned into yet another villian. With so many villians in the show, it gets quite a bit tiring. It's like first fight Harry, then fight Sandman, the fight Harry again, the fight Eddie, then fight Eddie and Sandman, then fight that black parasite thingie. Fight fight fight... It's like a cycle.

Then was the melodramatic scenes about the personality conflict of the various characters. Peter conflict about himself, Mary Jane meeting a dead end in her career and becomes upset, Harry also struggling to find himself, Sandman also has some problems, Eddie also got problems, everyone also has problems. And because it's all packed into a two hour plus show, it seems a bit not very well developed. Think if well expanded, Spiderman 3 can become a 13-episode Spiderman drama serial.

Spiderman was also littered with tons and tons of imagery.

I personally liked the scene at the church a lot. First thing was the black spiderman sitting at the top of the steeple there in the rain with a very melancholic look. Damn shuai. Especially since he was in black. hahaha~ It's damn ironic for spiderman to reflect his actions at of all places, a goddamned church.

And it became more ironic when he went into the church. How he went in I don't know. And he battled with the parasite thingie while the bells were chiming. Think it's some sort of imagery with the bell chimes. Not so sure what that means, but it seems extremely ironic. And they were still in the church somemore. Worse was when Eddie appeared in the church too and was asking god to give him powers to kill Peter. And it so happened that the parasites fell from the top, you know, like special powers falling from the sky, falling from god. It's just to ironic.

But the worse worse worse imagery was at the end when Sandman and Eddie had Mary Jane up in the cab and Spiderman came to save her. Of the montages of Spiderman's arrival, there was in a flash of the moment, Spiderman coming down from the stars and stripes. Damn! Of all things, the American flag. That did it, I burst out laughing. And continued laughing for like 5min.

I didn't realise it until Yanwei pointed out to me that I was the only person in the whole theatre who was laughing. And laughing uncontrollably somemore. It was a big theatre with 90% filled, and of the like 200 over people, I'm the only person laughing at that. I don't believe lor. And I was laughing until Yanwei had to call me to stop. Is it because nobody got it, or was I the only one who found it ridiculously ridiculous?

But other than the above gripes, it was still okay la. I didn't watch Spiderman 1 and 2 but it didn't really matter. Like we all know the story about Spiderman mah...

I do enjoyed the fighting sequences. I thought that they were all nicely shot. The effects were great. Really in your face kind of stuff, and we were sitting somewhat in front so it was lagi more in the face kind of action.

I think I'll pop by IMDb later to give it a 8/10 rating. Mostly for the action, effects and Peter's jazz dancing. It was damn cool~

Next up I'll want to watch the Fantastic Four sequel. I think I'm starting to get into the whole mood of superheroes and stuff. With or without the whole "saving America" propagandistic imagery, it's nice fun and fluff stuff with lots of action. hahaha~ Wanna guess who my favourite Fantastic Four hero is? hehe~

April Food Round-Up

I started a little project of taking pictures of food I've eaten. Most of the time I forget to take pictures of them, but here's a little roundup of the food I've remembered to take pictures of for the month of April. Yes, I'm so dry of blogging ideas that I'm now at a new low.


2.4.2007
Smoked Salmon Sandwich with my Iced Latte in the background, from Coffee Club Xpress outside NUS LT12.

It was a terribly bad day with me waking up late, bringing the wrong books, and basically me feeling like shit. I was intending to skip lunch, but the thought of worsening my day made me feel even worse, hence comfort food. Luckily for the comfort food, I met Yanwei who happened to be there, and after a bit of chatting, I felt better, and the day became better as I headed for my next class which was more interesting and nothing bad subsequently happened.


3.7.2007
Some promo item from Long John Silver Cineleisure branch.

I just wanted to try out the promo item because it was damn cheap. I added a chicken too because I remembered I sort of liked the chicken. I hadn't eaten LJS ever since the one at Parkway folded, so this was like a flash back to the past for me. Actually I ordered my with an "add chicken" but it came as "replace with chicken" so I had to go back to get my fish, a bit sucky la the service, but what to do, fast food is fast food.


4.4.2007
Teriyaki Chicken Burger with Fries, from MOS Burger Plaza Singapura branch.

I love MOS Burger. I love the Teriyaki Chicken Burger with extra extra mayo~ There’s nothing to talk about this meal since it’s one very common meal that I like to have, can even be considered as a comfort meal. I love it so much that I’d always order that when I go MOS Burger to eat hence thus rendering me unable to try out other food. haha… And one more thing to remember about this meal was that I had it with Someone. If only I knew he was Someone then, I’d probably have taken more notice of the meal. bah~


8.4.2007
Filet-O-Fish from McDonald’s and Chicken Pie from Delifrance.

Those were the food the parents tabao-ed back for me, all lup sup food. I’ve this fascination with Filet-O-Fishes because the bun is very smooth. Since young, I’ve this fascination with the buns and always comparing it with my face, I wished that my face’s as smooth as the bun. hahaha~ Chicken Pie, nothing much to say. I tilted the balance/contrast of it with photoshop to make it look nicer. Ya, I’m cheating a bit.


10.4.2007
Chocolate Brownie from NUS Munchie Monkey.

I was cheated by that guy in Munchie! I had wanted the Italian Chocolate Cake, and paid for it before I was told that they ran out of Italian Chocolate Cakes. Had I known that there weren’t Italian Chocolate cakes, I wouldn’t have ordered anything, in the end, had to get a replacement, this brownie lor. Is not bad la, but I prefer the Italian Chocolate Cake. Oh yar, I had this with Someone, so it’s also another thing to supposedly remember, but I can’t seem to remember much about it leh… bah~


11.4.2007
Fried Yong Tau Foo from Fu Lin Dou Fu Yuan in Siglap.

The mother tabao-ed for me because I wanted to eat tau-pok. It’s very nice when eaten fresh and hot, but the ones that were left till night to eat didn’t taste just as nice. Still, when eaten fresh and hot, they’re one of the nicest tau-poks around. I want to try them again~


15.4.2007
Marinara from Pastamania Parkway Parade branch.

I always have my pasta in Spaghetti, and I always have Marinara when I go Pastamania to eat. I have favourites and I usually just stick to my favourites, I lack the curiosity to try other stuff because I think I’m quite a faithful person, well, at least faithful enough until I get obsessed over some other new stuff. haha~ I love Marinara because I love tomato based pastas, and I love seafood.


18.4.2007
Assorted Dim Sum from Yum Cha.

For $15nett, this buffet is really worth its price. And this is also yet again another example of Joan eating only her favourites. Before entering the restaurant, I’ve already decided I want to eat two baskets of Siew Mai, Har Gau, Xiaolongbao, then Someone asked me why don’t I try out other stuff, try some new things. My answer was that I wanted to eat the things I like, then after eating my fill of the things I like, I don’t have much space in my stomach for other new things. The ironic thing was that after ordering some new things, Someone found that one of the dish was not as imagined. Let’s just say that this concretes my rationale in only ordering things I like to eat rather than trying out new stuff. Yes, I am not daring in my eatings, but I like what I eat can already mah~


21.4.2007
Char Kway Teow from I don’t know where. hahaha~

Another tabao-ed back food for me to eat. I just love Char Kway Teow~ But my Char Kway Teow must be without chilli, without tau gey, without lup cheong. Ya, I’m very picky with my food, especially the without tau gey part, so not many stalls would actually sell Char Kway Teow to me, only that few stalls that my parents usually patronise, well, patronise to buy food for me. Who ask them don’t cook, then have to tabao food for me. bah~


26.4.2007
Kaya Toast with Soft Boiled Eggs and drinks from Ya Kun City Hall branch.

I remember this meal with Someone. haha~ I realised that the Ya Kun people quite waste the eggs. They’d crack and pour the eggs out without scraping the sides of the shell, so a lot of eggs is actually being wasted. hai… I think I prefer to eat in places where I can crack the egg myself, then again, I think I suck at cracking eggs, and they burn my fingers, so maybe again, not. haha~


27.4.2007
Friday’s set lunch of Chicken Breast Pasta from Café Cartel Serangoon Gardens branch.

My very favourite set lunch menu from Cartel, only on Fridays, and it’s not even in the a la carte menu, so I can’t even order it as and when I wanted. I think Cartel’s set lunch is really damn worth the price. For $9.50 only, there’s so much food to eat, soup, drink, main course, dessert, plus free flow of bread to stuff you full full. I must find another Friday to go back down to eat, maybe I go Sigalp branch one…


28.4.2007
Durians!

Chilled for two nights already. I only eat my durians chilled because I cannot stand the smell of fresh durians. And I like the durians which have ‘tail’, don’t know why but I just think that they taste nicer with the tail, or rather, the tail tastes nicer. haha~ And I eat my durians with a spoon because I don’t want my hands to stink. I cannot stand the smell of stale durians. But somehow I like to eat durians. haha~ I’m so weird.

Yup... I don't know if I'll do this again, but I hope the food looks good enough to temp you guys~

Service From the Service Textbook

There's a new deli along East Coast Road called Oh Deli which caught my eye because it touts to have imported some European meats and cheese and herbs and spices. I was wondering if they would have brought in Blackforest Ham too, so I've been wanting to visit it one day. But while on the bus I happened to see the phone number being printed big big on the signboard. So for the past two days I've been calling them up hoping to ask them without having to make the trip down, but the phone calls have been unanswered until this afternoon.

The following conversation took place.

Deli: Hello, Oh Deli.
Joan: Hi, I'd like to enquire if you have Blackforest Ham.
Deli: I'm sorry?
Joan: I would like to enquire if you have Blackforest Ham.
Deli: Are you planning on making a sandwich?
Actually, it's not just making a sandwich but explaining would be difficult so,
Joan: Yes.
Deli: Would you like to try blahblah instead? We have blahblah which is good for blahblah...
Joan: No, I'm asking if you have Blackforest Ham.
Deli: Oh, we currently don't have it.
Joan: You don't have it?
Deli: We currently don't have it.
Joan: No, I meant, is it that you don't have it full stop, or you don't have it now, that it is sold out, or you're not carrying it.
Deli: We are not carrying it now.
Joan: Does that mean that you will carry it in the future?
Deli: Yes, we might bring it in in the future.
Joan: So it's all tentative?
Deli: Yes.
Joan: Okay, I'll check again in the future. Thank you very much.
Deli: Thank you. Bye bye.

Just tell me what is wrong with this whole conversation!

Granted, I'm not complaining about the bad service because the service was not bad at all, it's just so service like that it makes me feel quite exasperated with that lady over the phone. For goodness sake, I'm want something, and she's not doing the things right to woo me as a customer, she seems to be just doing it for the sake of doing things right.

I know, in person I'm some ugly lupsup looking student, I was wearing some camp teeshirt and boardshorts and don't really look like a worthy customer, but I was talking to her over the phone! Over the phone I think I sounded proper enough to sound like a customer who was willing to spend a lot just to get what I want. Okay, I AM willing to spend a lot just to get my hands on the Blackforest Ham. If I were that lady in the deli, I'd do all I can to woo me as a customer.

Instead of recommending something else and talking in vague circles, I'd first clarify and take note of the ham that I wanted, then I'd say that we currently are not stocking it but we plan to stock it in the near future. I'd get the number of the customer and say that when we stock up the ham that is wanted, we'd call her and let her know about it. This can forge a very healthy customer relationship and even make me into a regular since I'm willing to pay exorbidently high prices for some little bits of ham.

This is why people say that Singaporeans don't think out of the box. They're all stick in the muds, follow everything to the book.

Now I think I'll have to go back down to the German supermarket, or try to find the Swiss butchery which I don't know where it is. I'm such a big sucker, for the things I like, I'm willing to go out of the way and pay high prices for it. Oh well...

Something Must Be Wrong

It's just like a run up of a series of unfortunate events. I'm shaking as I type this. You know, you know something is wrong when Chelsea lets in an early goal, when Chelsea loses, on penalties somemore.

The world then further collapses when you wake up two hours past the stipulated time, and you wake up feeling nauseas and having a great headache.

You wake up because there's a phone call. The person who's over the phone is in great distress. You think she's crying. You see your sister at home on a school day. "Why aren't you in school?" You know you know all these are just the beginning of something really serious, all building up as if each individual event knows that something worse is coming along, and they want to hike on the suspense.

The sister says she had a bad dream, of a certain family member passing away. She is in tears. You know you know something is seriously wrong.

The mother leaves hurriedly out of the house, with tears in her eyes. She speaks incoherently. The sister disappeared. You don't know if she went along with the mother or seeing her at home was just a figment of your imagination.

The door bell rings. The neighbour asks if there are tomatoes. You don't know, you don't even know how are tomatoes like when they're wrapped up in newspapers and stuffed in the fridge. You still have no idea where the sister is.

You hear a crying sound. Is that the sound of the missing sister?

This is so freaky. What's worse to come is an exam paper in the evening. I'm so freaked out I don't know what to do, and I feel like puking. The measure of how bad the situation is depends on how bad my nauseasness is, and I can say, this one is really something major.

I want to call Someone, but I don't want him to worry. His exams are in the afternoon somemore. I'm starting to become incoherent. There's noise coming out from I don't know where, the computer or my stomach since the computer is on my stomach.

I'm fucking worried.