I quote

Eagles concert

2011-03-02T10:18:00.003+08:00

Went with my buddy to watch The Eagles concert last week.

Here are some of my favourite songs:

End of the Innocence by Don Henley. Sadly he didnt perform this at the concert:

Lover's Moon by Glenn Frey, a minor hit from his 1984 solo album Allnighter:

2010 F1 Grand Prix

2010-09-26T23:11:00.014+08:00

Big thanks to beaulotus and hubby, I got complimentary ticket to last night F1 race!

Reached the venue at about 6pm and quickly rush to the flyer like any kiasu Singaporean cos my pass entitles me to complimentary flyer rides. Was expecting a long queue but when I reached there, there was not a single queue, I was in the capsule within a minute!

Here are some nice pics that I took, thanks to the sunset that added some hue to the skyline.

Back to the F1 race, I rushed back to the grandstand just 5mins before the action starts, seated beside PL and J.

This year race is better and more eventful than last year.

There were much more actions like the appearance of the safety car appearing not once but twice and the petulant Hamilton who threw the steering wheel out after being knocked by Mark Webber. A handful of racers also got knocked out during the race due to series of accidents, knocks and one car even caught fire.

Fernando Alonso eventually won, had a close finish with quite a few cars blocking him in the last lap and edges out Sebastian Vettel by a narrow few secs.

Girona & Figueres

2010-09-25T11:51:00.024+08:00

We decide to take a local bus tour to Girona and Figueres on our 2nd last day of stay in Barcelona.
We have been walking alot for the past few days in Barcelona and Dubrovnik so use the day tour as an excuse to rest our feet.

First stop - Girona.

Girona is a small town 1.5hrs drive up north from Barcelona. The quaint little town can be covered within half a day.

Next stop - Figueres.

Figueres is about an hour from Girona. The small town is well known for the Dali museum, said to be the 2nd most popular musuem in Spain, the first being Prado in Madrid, and Picasso the 3rd. We have visited all and I like Dali the most followed by Picasso, Prado too cheem for me :)

Dali is famous for his modern and surreal works, best known for that melting clock.

There is small toy musuem in that town, if you have time and are keen on vintage and toys of the past, you might want to visit. The musuem can easily be covered within an hour, 5 euros per entry. I have a small collection of wooden toys but alas the items at their shop are quite limited and the price rather ex compared to what I've seen in Prague and some other places.

≈

Movies

2010-09-23T22:27:00.004+08:00

These are 2 movies that I watched during my flight and enjoyed very much:

Title: Heartbreaker / L'arnacoeur
Language: French

The story is about a professional homewrecker who runs a business with his sister and brother-in-law and goes about his duty to break up unsuitable relationships. This really sweet romantic comedy stars the pretty Vanessa Paradis (wife of Johnny Depp, she looks abit like Julianne Moore) and Romain Duris as the French love assassin. Romain last acted in The Beat that my Heart Skipped, Spanish Apartment, Russian Dolls, all worth watching. Both were excellent in their role and I couldn't control my laughter some of the scenes while in my seat during the flight.

Title: To Hell with the Ugly / Que se mueran los feos
Language: Spanish

This Spanish comeday revolves around how a 40 not-so-looking guy starts looking for love and found himself attracted to his sister-in-law. Lots of laughter and just some trivia, the popular song "Eres Tu" is featured and make fun of in the movie. Didn't know it was Spanish entry in the 1973 Eurovision contest, it came in 2nd. I'm an oldie when comes to music/movies so not ashamed to say I like this song :)

Many artistes cover this song but I like the version by Luis Miguel:

Pics from Dubrovnik, Croatia

2010-09-22T08:49:00.017+08:00

The weather was very hot when we were there, average about 30 degrees but you get clear blue sky for photo taking!

We took about 3hours to walk the wall that surrounds the old town and were rewarded with the breathtaking views.

Pics from Barcelona

2010-09-21T19:39:00.026+08:00

Finally I get off my lazy bum to update my blog :P

Here are some pics to share from my recent trip to Barcelona.

My last trip there was back in 2003, how time flies.

RIP - Artists that left us in 2009

2009-12-28T09:08:00.003+08:00

A tribute to some of the artists that left us in 2009.

26th June - Michael Jackson

Share with you my favourite MJ song:

2nd Dec - Eric Woolfson from Alan Parsons Project

Quoting Eric's Facebook profile:

"We are very sad to have to tell you that Eric Woolfson passed away in the early hours of this morning after a long and brave battle with cancer. He very much enjoyed seeing all your kind comments and posts on this Facebook page and his family wanted to thank you for your appreciation of his work."

Eric Woolfson was the main songwriter of the Alan Parsons Project. He also played keyboards and sang on a good amount of tracks, like "Eye In The Sky", "Time", "Don't Answer Me" among some others.

Days are Numbers (Time Traveler) song is my favourite, pardon the lousy video:

14th Sep - Patrick Swayze

One hit wonder from the movie Dirty Dancing

6th Aug - John Hughes

I grew up watching alot of his works, which are synonymous with the 1980s teen movies. My personal favourite from him is Ferris Bueller's Day Off, other notable ones include Uncle Buck, Some Kind of Wonderful, Pretty in Pink, The Breakfast Club, Sixteen Candles and Home Alone.

Found this video clip made by a fan as a tribute to John Hughes:

Mary and Max

2009-12-27T17:36:00.006+08:00

Mary and Max is not your typical Disney, Pixar cutesy kiddish cartoon. It is a clay animation production, similar to the what we have seen in Wallace and Gromit and Chicke Run.

The film is directed and produced by a talented Australian Adam Elliot and it won the feature film award in the 2009 Annecy International Animated Film Festival.

It is a touching story recounting the penpal relationship between Mary, a 8 year old girl from Australia and Max, an Asperger's suffering 44 year old man from New York. Asperger syndrome is an autism spectrum disorder, and people suffering from it has difficulties in social interaction, along with restricted and repetitive patterns of behavior and interests.

You may wonder what's so special about a story about this young girl and an old man and how interesting can it be but under the creative hands of the director, he was able to pen this story of a pen-relationship between two very different people with such a big age gap and from different continents. The story touches on many issues revolving friendship, psychiatry, trust and much much more.

I'm really glad I watched this, not sure if it was shown in the local cinmeas or not cos it was released in April this year, either I missed it or there wasn't much publicity or reviews.

I googled the director Adam Elliot and found out that he won a Best Animated Short Film Oscar back in 2003 for another clay-animated film titled Harvey Krumpet. I will definitely get the DVD.

Oh ya forgot to mention the casts of Mary and Max, the production feature credible Australian stars like Toni Collette and Eric Bana. In Harvet Krumpet, Geoffrey Rush was the voice over for the main character.

Pixar's Up

2009-12-27T17:03:00.007+08:00

"Up" is Pixar's 10th feature animation film and I watched it the 2nd time recently en-route to Sydney.

Some critics and fans said that "Up" is not as nice compared to some of its previous productions but personally I like it very much. I would say it is my top 3 favourite Pixar cartoons alongside with Monster Inc and Finding Nemo.

For the first 10 minutes, I can't stop myself tearing even when watching it on the small screen on the plane. I can't remember if I did the first time I watched it in the cinema a few months back but despite it being a cartoon, the film subtly brings out its sentimental side.

The film has a great soundtrack too, really enjoyed the tracks done by Michael Giacchino.

Ponyo on the Cliff by the Sea

2009-01-02T13:41:00.013+08:00

Watched this Japanese cartoon Ponyo on the Cliff by the Sea on New Year's day.
This Hayao Miyazaki's production is rumoured to be his last project, the master of Japan's animation is 67 years old, dont know if he will still continue to churn out any more wonderful works for us.

The story is about a girl goldfish who tries to escape from her father and got trapped in a bottle. The bottle eventually find its way to a 5 year old boy Sousuke and he kept it as a pet and names the fish Ponyo. Partly adapted from The Little Mermaid, the girl fish has the power and magic to transform herself to a little girl to be with the boy. The story continues from there in many interesting ways.

The animation are mostly hand drawn, something so rare these days where almost everything is computer animated. Ponyo is so cute, with her goldfish like chubby cheeks.

I also find myself humming to the cute theme song after the show, here's the clip for you to enjoy!

Beautiful Song!

2008-11-19T09:10:00.004+08:00

I woke up to a beautiful song today.

Dedicate to the one you love or use the lyrics to teach your kids the days of the week :)

Chorus:

You’re my Sunday, Make my Monday come alive
Just like Tuesday you’re a new day, wakes me up,
Wednesday’s raining, Thursday’s yearning, Friday nights, Then it all ends at the weekend, you’re my star

Track: You're my star
Artiste: Stereophonics
Album: Decade In The Sun: The Best Of Stereophonics

Enjoy!

"Rabbit Without Ears" (Keinohrhasen)

2008-09-29T21:16:00.010+08:00

I happen to watch this German romantic comedy "Rabbit Without Ears" (Keinohrhasen) on one of my recent flights. I enjoyed it very much, so different from the Nazi, WWII subject related ones that German films are known for.

I'm not saying that I dont enjoy their serious films, I am quite a fan and have watched many over the years, among them:

Run Lola Run
Good Bye Lenin!
Downfall
The Lives of Others
Sophie Scholl – The Final Days
The Counterfeiters

So it was quite refreshing when I chanced upon this. There were other non interesting movies on the other channels so I just tikam and pick this one :)

It is a simple story, about a reporter (the male lead) who has just been released on probation and needs to work in a day care center, help to look after the kids and then falls in love with the female lead. As to why the title "Rabbit Without Ears", you will have to watch it to find out! Bad synopsis, haha :) The DVD is out and it is also showing in Singapore as part of Goethe German film festival.

I also got to know of this particular song from the movie, which was played towards the end and I kept rewinding it back to listen. The movie soundtrack feature lots of good stuff including music by Keane, One Republic and many more!

Here's the instrumental version. You may find it a bit noisy but enjoy the catchy beat.

Track: My Brightside
Artiste: The Killers

High-Tea

2008-09-13T16:39:00.029+08:00

Took wife for high-tea yesterday afternoon. It is literally a "high" tea as the restaurant is located on the 60th floor at the UOB plaza :)

It has a nice ambience , and you can get a bird's eye view of the city skyline, overseeing the Esplanade, city hall, Clarke Quay.

The high tea set consists of 4 dim sum items and 3 dessert items. Be forewarned though, the servings are very very small. One can probably gobble up everything in about 15mins, so to really enjoy the experience, you have to slowly sip your tea and savour the food one by one.

The waiter can be too anxious to serve all the food at one go, so you can ask them to serve each item after you are done.

The menu changes every month, here is the Sep menu:

Main:

1. Crispy carrot cake. Very nice, I like. It's like carrot cake wrapped in a fried popiah skin.
2. glutinous rice ball wrapped in banana leaf, very tiny.
3. steamed glutinous rice dumpling, tiny also.
4. Steamed shark fin dumpling, so-so, like har gao filled with some shark fins.

The above dim sum items are paired with 龙井 tea.

For dessert, we had:

1. Si chuan chilled noodle, very nice.
2. steamed layer cake with olive, not nice.
3. fried pumpkin pancake.
4. homemade beancurd and water chestnut

We are served with 大红泡 , a kind of red tea like 乌龙茶.

I recommend you to give this place a try, wonderful way to spend a lazy Sunday afternoon here though the food is so-so. Do remember to bring along some magazines, or your PSP to play to help kill time and to really soak in the atmosphere.

Tian Fu Teahouse
80 Raffles Place #60-01
Tel: 6535 6006
High Tea served daily from 2.30pm to 6pm

Clarke Quay mid autumn celebration

2008-09-09T08:58:00.012+08:00

To celebrate Mid Autumn, the Clarke Quay area is lighted up. Were there for dinner but didnt bring my camera along so took some of these cute fu wa lantern pics using my phone camera.

Lantern Festival at Chinese Garden

2008-09-06T17:21:00.014+08:00

Wife's company organised a family day at the Chinese Garden to celebrate mid autumn. Its been really ages since I last went there.

This year's theme is Hello Kitty and friends, so you see lots of cartoon characters lanterns from Sanrio.

Sightings of fw wa

2008-08-31T21:20:00.012+08:00

I was at the Starhub Olympics roadshow to renew my broadband plane just before the Olympics started and there happen to be a fu wa appearance at Suntec.

Olympic mascots

2008-06-16T08:34:00.012+08:00

How many Olympic mascots can you remember ?

These are the Summer olympics mascots over the past 2 decades:

Athena and Phevos - mascots of the 2004 Olympic in Athens, Greece

Syd, Olly and Millie - mascots of the 2000 Olympic in Sydney, Australia

Izzy - mascot of the 1996 Olympic in Atlanta, USA

Cobi - mascot of the 1992 Olympic held in Barcelonda, Spain. Quite ugly if you ask me :)

Hodori - mascot of the 1988 Olympic in Seoul, South Korea. When I was working with the Korean company in my first few years , I travelled to Seoul quite frequently. In one of the trip, I remembered I made a trip to the Olympic village and bought some Hodori souvenirs, I think it was a baseball, wonder where I have kept it :) It is one of my favourite mascots.

Sam - mascot of the 1984 Olympic in LA, USA. The face and white hair looks abit like Bush, no? :)

Misha - mascot of the 1980 Olympic in Moscow, Russia.

Off to Hong Kong

2008-06-02T07:27:00.001+08:00

Flying to HK for a few days.

母亲节

2008-05-13T09:31:00.005+08:00

母亲已经过世有六年了。上个星期五在早报副刊读到这则文章,在这跟大家分享:

龙应台－母亲节

（2008-05-09）

收到安德烈的电邮，有点意外。这家伙，不是天打雷劈的大事──譬如急需钱，是不会给他母亲发电邮的。不知怎么回事，有这么一大批十几二十岁左右的人类，在他们广阔的、全球覆盖的交友网络里──这包括电邮、MSN、FACEBOOK、Bebo、Twitter、聊天室、手机简讯等等，“母亲”是被他们归入spam （垃圾）或“资源回收筒”那个类别里去的。简直毫无道理，但是你一点办法都没有。高科技使你能够“看见”他，譬如三更半夜时，如果你也在通宵工作，突然 “叮”一声，你知道他上网了。也就是说，天涯海角，像一个雷达荧幕，他现身在一个定点上。或者说，夜航海上，茫茫中突然浮现一粒渔火，分明无比。虽然也可能是万里之遥，但是那个定点让你放心──亲爱的孩子，他在那里。

　　可是高科技也给了他一个逃生门──手指按几个键，他可以把你“隔离”掉，让那个“叮”一声，再也不出现，那个小小的点，从你的“爱心”雷达网上彻底消失。

　　朋友说，送你一个电脑相机，你就可以在电脑上看见儿子了。我说，你开玩笑吧？哪一个儿子愿意在自己电脑上装一个“监视器”，让母亲可以千里追踪啊？这种东西是给情人，不是给母子的。

　　我问安德烈，你为什么都不跟我写电邮？

　　他说，妈，因为我很忙。

　　我说，你很没良心耶。你小时候我花多少时间跟你混啊？

　　他说，理智一点。

　　我说，为什么不能跟我多点沟通呢？

　　他说，因为你每次都写一样的电邮，讲一样的话。

我说，才没有。

　　他说，有，你每次都问一样的问题，讲一样的话，重复又重复。

　　我说，怎么可能，你乱讲！我这么聪明的人，怎么可能？

　　打开安德烈的电邮，他没有一句话，只是传来一个网址，一则影像──“我很无聊网”，已经有四千个点击，主题是，“与母亲的典型对话”。作者用漫画手法，配上语音，速描出一段自己跟妈妈的对话：

　　我去探望我妈。一起在厨房里混时间，她说，“我烧了鱼。你爱吃鱼吧？”

　　我说：“妈，我不爱吃鱼。”

　　她说：“你不爱吃鱼？”

　　我说：“妈，我不爱吃鱼。”

　　她说：“是鲔鱼呀。”

　　我说：“谢谢啦。我不爱吃鱼。”

她说：“我加了芹菜。”

　　我说：“我不爱吃鱼。”

　　她说：“可是吃鱼很健康。”

　　我说：“我知道，可是我不爱吃鱼。”

　　她说：“健康的人通常吃很多鱼。”

　　我说：“我知道，可是我不吃鱼。”

　　她说：“长寿的人吃鱼比吃鸡肉还多。”

　　我说：“是的，妈妈，可是我不爱吃鱼。”

　　她说：“我也不是在说，你应该每天吃鱼鱼鱼，因为鱼吃太多了也不好，很多鱼可能含汞。”

我说：“是的，妈妈，可是我不去烦恼这问题，因为我反正不吃鱼。”

她说：“很多文明国家的人，都是以鱼为主食的。”

　　我说：“我知道，可是我不吃鱼。”

　　她说：“那你有没有去检查过身体里的含汞量？”

　　我说：“没有，妈妈，因为我不吃鱼。”

　　她说：“可是汞不只是在鱼里头。”

　　我说：“我知道，可是反正我不吃鱼。”

　　她说：“真的不吃鱼？”

　　我说：“真的不吃。”

　　她说：“连鲔鱼也不吃？”

　　我说：“对，鲔鱼也不吃。”

她说：“那你有没有试过加了芹菜的鲔鱼？”

　　我说：“没有。”

　　她说：“没试过，你怎么知道会不喜欢呢？”

　　我说：“妈，我真的不喜欢吃鱼。”

　　她说：“你就试试看嘛。”

　　所以……我就吃了，尝了一点点。之后，她说：“怎么样，好吃吗？”

　　我说：“不喜欢，妈，我真的不爱吃鱼。”

　　她说：“那下次试试鲑鱼。你现在不多吃也好，我们反正要去餐厅。”

　　我说：“好，可以走了。”

　　她说：“你不多穿点衣服？”

我说：“外面不冷。”

　　她说：“你加件外套吧。”

　　我说：“外面不冷。”

　　她说：“考虑一下吧。我要加件外套呢。”

　　我说：“你加吧。外面真的不冷。”

　　她说：“我帮你拿一件？”

　　我说：“我刚刚出去过，妈妈，外面真的一点也不冷。”

　　她说：“唉，好吧。等一下就会变冷，你这么坚持，等着瞧吧，待会儿会冻死。”

　　我们就出发了。到了餐厅，发现客满，要排很长的队。这时，妈妈就说：“我们还是去那家海鲜馆子吧。”

　　原来，这个电邮，是安德烈给我的母亲节礼物呢。

Sight seeing

2008-05-07T22:00:00.017+08:00

Beijing is bustling with activities. You can see posters such as this in the subway and the 5 cute Olympic mascots 福娃 in souvenirs shops.

With the Summer Olympics just around the corner, there are two more new attractions for people to sight see when in Beijing. One being the Olympic stadium, also known as the bird nest 鸟巢 because of its design and the National Aquatics Center 水一方.

Artiste impression - Day shot

My poorly taken shot of the aquatic center, didnt bring my digital camera lah.

Artiste impression - Night view when it is illuminated.

The construction of the stadium has been completed but security was tight, there were fences around it so was not able to get up close to it. The surrounding area was abit messy, there are still some pending roads works to be done.

Artiste impression - exterior view

Artiste impression - night view

With the stadium and the aquatic center side by side, it really looks quite nice:

This building stands opposite the stadium and the aquatic center, the top looks like a dragon's head, not sure if its some hotel or offices. Might be the Olympic village where all the athletes stay, looks quite posh.

Off to Beijing

2008-05-04T07:32:00.005+08:00

Its exactly 1 month since my last trip. This time, I'm off to Beijing to give training.

Been busy, didnt blog :( excuses excuses :)

Hope I will have some leisure time to go take a look at the "bird nest" Olympic Stadium and post some pics here.

View from my hotel room. The picture is taken from my phone camera, not that sharp:

This weird looking structure is actually the new China Central Television (CCTV) and Headquarters Building & Cultural Centre building.

Once completed, it will look something like this, quite nice and modern. My Beijing colleague was lamenting how ugly it looks and we were wondering how the lift is being built, will it be slanted ?

The entire structure and the facade will be completed before the start of the 2008 Beijing Olympics.

Another similar senget structure in Madrid:

I visited Madrid in 2005 but it was abit far so didnt go and take a look. It is the KIO (Kuwaiti Investment Office) Towers, located at Plaza de Castilla, looks like a modern version of the Twin Pisa Towers.

Bangkok 5th - 7th Apr

2008-04-05T09:37:00.001+08:00

Will be in Bangkok for a short getaway.

Muxtape

2008-03-27T21:52:00.004+08:00

Hey I found this cool website which allows u to create and share the tape of the songs that u like.

Check out mine at http://onewheel.muxtape.com/

Go create your own at http://muxtape.com/. Better faster go and "chop" the userid that you want before others grab it.

Do share with me once you have yours ok? :)

Off to Manila 9th to 15th March

2008-03-09T21:53:00.002+08:00

This week I'm in Manila giving customer training. My last visit here was back in 2004, things here didnt seem to change much.

After checking in to the hotel, I walked over to the Glorietta mall for abit of shopping.
The small Thai restaurant that I always dine back then is still there :) . So I ordered the usual Tom Yung Gong with rice. Nice and simple.

I am not that a foodie so didnt try any of their local food. Tomorrow I'm going to try the Italian restaurant that I used to go also :)

Juno

2008-02-25T09:38:00.005+08:00

Caught the movie Juno just before the Oscar.
This is the dark horse film among the Oscar nominees much like "Little Miss Sunshine" from 2006.

Ellen Page, just 21years of age, shines in this comedy about a teenage girl faced with an unplanned pregnancy, after having a one-time sexual encounter with her nerdy best friend. Not wanting to give away too much on the storyline, the movie manages to avoid being preachy or judgmental over issues like teenage pregnancy, choice, or adoption.

The role of Juno earned Ellen Page a nomination for Best Actress and the film was also up for major categories like Best Picture, Best Original Screenplay and Best Director. For a low budget film, this is indeed something to shout about. You might be interested to know that the screenplay was written by Diablo Cody, an ex-stripper! The film won 1 Oscar out of the 4 nominations, and guess what, it was the screenplay that got the nods from the panel! Kudos to Diablo!

In the film, one commendable thing is the artistic use of drawings in some of the opening sequence and the seasons transitions. When the first scene shows the winter landscape , there is a pencil sketch of the word "Winter", this is followed with Spring and Autumn. And the drawing somehow juxtapose to a drawing of the lead character Juno walking into a grocery store and then suddenly the drawing become real. Duno how to describe but you will know when you watched it :)

MacBook

2008-02-23T14:49:00.004+08:00

I've got a Mac! I've finally succumbed to the dark side :)

I bought a white MacBook, the cheapest of the range, with the following specs:

13.3"
2.0 GHz
Intel Core 2 Duo
2 GB RAM
80 GB Hard Drive

Come loaded with Leopard OS, 1st time using a Mac so lots of things to learn. Very excited with the buy :)

A Thousand Splendid Suns

2008-02-19T08:16:00.003+08:00

This article appear on zaobao, its about the second book "A Thousand Splendid Suns" from Khaled Hosseini who wrote Kite Runner.

完颜藉

　　“让孩子知道家族的根源很重要。父母的历史是一笔财富。”

　　畅销小说《追风筝的人》（The Kite Runner）和《一千个灿烂的太阳》(A Thousand Splendid Suns)的作者胡赛尼(Khaled Hosseini)说的这句话，让我内心赞赏。他是移居美国27年的美国籍阿富汗裔作家。他像许多旅居外国的作家一样，是“通过镜子的碎片”回看祖国阿富汗的。镜子的碎片？说的该是从通讯社发出有关阿富汗零零星星的新闻。像阿富汗这样的常年动乱的国家，胡赛尼无法亲身回国经历国家的苦难，也只好靠“镜子的碎片”探听阿富汗的消息了。从碎片中，胡赛尼当然看到美国最近在没有预先知会巴基斯坦政府就轰炸巴基斯坦境内的基地组织（基地组织）藏匿地点。我不知道，对这个事件，他有什么想法。他会不会觉得，美国轰炸巴基斯坦跟美国控制阿富汗，是不是同样是侵略？美国人当然认为不是，他们认为是以牙还牙，基地组织在美国境内制造九一一恐怖事端，如果不算侵略，那美国炸巴基斯坦的基地组织组织，甚至操纵阿富汗政权也就不是侵犯阿富汗的主权了。

　　但这类问题，往往一时很难解说清楚。倒是胡赛尼的《一千个灿烂的太阳》里叙述的故事，情节却不像阿富汗的局势那么复杂和难以理喻。两个身世不同的女子，因意想不到的事故（人事和战争），被逼嫁给同一个男人。两人由势不两立、互怀敌意到后来变成患难与共的同性知己。《一千个灿烂的太阳》里有爱情，有恩怨、有妒忌、有情杀还有战乱（苏联军入侵阿富汗、塔利班上台的故事背景）。但整个内容，依我的看法，都在歌颂困难重重中的阿富汗妇女的伟大。引用胡赛尼自己的话：他希望这部小说，能给披着从头套到脚的黑服的阿富汗妇女形象，添加几笔彩色与深度。所以小说的书名就出自诗人赛依伯的诗句：

　　人们数不清她的屋顶上有多少轮皎洁的明月／数不清她的墙壁后那一千个灿烂的太阳。

　　诗句里的她，原意虽指阿富汗首都，但到了胡赛尼手里，她就是“她”了。

The Kite Runner

2008-02-12T08:35:00.005+08:00

Having read the bestseller by Khaled Hosseini sometime back, I was looking forward to watch the film to see if it is as good as the book.

It did not disappoint. The beginning sequence where they show the producer, director, film company etc were done in a very arty way, fused with Arabian music, composed by Alberto Iglesias. I got to know this Spanish after watching some of his works including Pedro Almodóvar's films like
Volver, Talk to Her and All about my mother.

Right from the start, I was captivated by the cinematography, which they filmed in China's Xinjiang province that borders Afghanistan.

If you have read my review on the book in one of my earlier post or have read the book, you will know that the story is about the friendship between Amir and Hassan. Amir is the rich, pampered child and Hassan is the servant's son who taught Amir the skills in kite flying and is always there to protect Amir from being bullied. The story is told from Amir's perspective as he relates about the brotherly love between him and Hassan, the war that break out in Kabul - his hometown, and the relationship between him and his father.

I think the most important message the story wants to put across is in the tagline "There is a way to be good again". Amir did something wrong and tries to be good again to redeem when he had wrongly done.

The child actors are all first time actors and the young Hassan is really commendable for his performance that he won a best young actor award in the Critics Choice Award. Due to a controversy scene in the movie, DreamWorks, the American studio that financed the film, postponed its release date for a month so that the child actors and their families could be moved to Dubai. Under the movie deal, the studio is also paying for the child actors education till a certain age if I remember correctly.

Read a trivia that in many of the kite flying shots, the children were actually pulling balloons and the kites were added in post-production.

The movie is directed by Marc Forster, a german who also did Finding Neverland which I enjoyed. He will also be directing the next Bond film Quantum of Solace, quite exciting to see new directors coming up and producing good quality films.

The Diving Bell and the Butterfly

2008-02-04T08:37:00.002+08:00

Caught this movie last night. What a cheem title "Scaphandre et le papillon, Le" is French and the English title is The Diving Bell and the Butterfly.

The film is adapted from a book about the real life story of Elle magazine France editor, who met with an accident and suffered a stroke. His entire body was paralyzed except his left eye. With his strong determination, he managed to write a book by communicating with a very patient nurse, not by talking since he can't talk but with his left eye! The nurse sat down with him every day to pen down what he wanted to say. For example, the nurse will read out the alphabets a, b, c, d, etc and the man will blink his left eye once it hits the right character. This goes on for ages and you can just imagine the amount of patience just to go through the whole ordeal.

The man writes about his feelings and relates the torture he has to go through like being trapped inside his body. The movie flashes images of a diver being trapped inside a diving bell, and with the yearning to be release of the suffering, using butterfly as a metaphor, that probably explains the book and film title. I anyhow guess one, do correct me if I have interpreted it wrongly :) Unfortunately, he died shortly after the book was published.

The movie was depressing to watch, seeing the man suffering and what he has to go through in pain. A good film nevertheless and I enjoyed it.

To date, it won several international awards and is nominated for Oscars in the following categories:

Best Achievement in Cinematography
Best Achievement in Directing
Best Achievement in Editing
Best Writing, Screenplay Based on Material Previously Produced or Published

Strangely, the film was not nominated for Oscar in the Best Foreign Film category, but it did win in this category in the Golden Globes and also grabbed the Best Director award.

Atonement

2008-01-23T08:31:00.006+08:00

Its the Oscar season and I choose to watch this to see if it is as good as the number of nominations it has.

The movie is up for 7 Oscars in the following categories:

Best Achievement in Art Direction
Best Achievement in Cinematography
Best Achievement in Costume Design
Best Achievement in Music Written for Motion Pictures, Original Score
Best Motion Picture of the Year
Best Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role
Best Writing, Screenplay Based on Material Previously Produced or Published

A lot of minor awards and certainly not a best picture calibre. The film is still nice to watch, and it talks about how a teenage girl tries to change the course of several lives when she accuses her older sister's lover of a crime he did not commit.

Even though Keira Knightly is featured in the movie poster, she has a very weak role and is overshadowed by the 13 year old teen character who plays her younger sister. This young unknown actress Saoirse Ronan really shine in her role. I google her and she is just 14, and she certainly deserve a nomination for best supporting actress even though she is not likely to win, considering the other power weights. I say, her time will come.

The music feature in the movie deserve a mention here too. Dario Marianelli, the one behind the soundtrack is up and coming, he already won the Golden Globe for Best Original Score in a Motion Picture. In the movie, he has this unique use of an extraordinary percussion-like sound, the sound of an antique typewriter, to blend in nicely with the story. Whenever the actress uses the typewriter to pen her thoughts, you will hear the music blending in. In this modern computer age where you have keyboards that let you type silently, somehow the sound of those old typewriters has a certain kind of special appeal :)

Start of a new year

2008-01-02T08:58:00.004+08:00

A new day of a new year has begun. Yes I know, I have not been actively updating my blog, so please be patient and don't give up hope on me while I try my best to blog more often :)

Viva Las Vegas!

2007-11-09T16:02:00.003+08:00

Initially we only intended to spend our vacation in SF but happens one day when I was surfing and somehow clicked on one of the tourist sites which leads me to South West airline promotion. A return trip to LV from SF costs only usd100! include tax somemore, where to get right, so I quickly booked it!

If I were to take a bus from SF to LV, it takes like 10hours, if train I need to change somewhere and it didnt occur to me that I could fly to LV at such a cheap fare.

View from my hotel room, stayed at the Hilton Grand Vacation. Lesson to be learn about hotels in LV, they are usually quite cheap cos they want you to spend at the casino. I didnt know so after I booked the Hilton, then happen to talk to my colleague and he said I should have stayed in one of those casino hotels. I did a check and those nice casino hotels really cos cheaper than the one that I've booked :( Didn't do my homework properly, cos I assume that hotels are all expensive here.

Here you see the many adverts on the various performance, concerts, shows you can catch:

Elton John, Celine Dion performing at Caesar's Palce

Toni Braxton at the Flamingo, not a good shot, kena blocked by one building but have to take it , didnt know she has such a nice figure :)

Ooh-la-la, no, this is not Toni Braxton's backview :)

Cirque Du Soleil at Bellagio

Another ooh-la-la show at the Tropicana.

We didn't catch any of the show, too pricey lah and time were quite limited as we only have 3D2N in LV. Spent rest of the time relaxing, walking, enjoying all the nice casino views that LV has to offer.

Downtown

2007-11-09T16:02:00.001+08:00

We spent the next day walking around the town, taking in the sights.

San Francisco is known for its hilly roads. We spent almost half of the day on foot, up the hill, down the valley , it helps when it's windy and the weather is not humid.

Didn't take the famed cable car cos the queue is so so long, packed with tourists so usually we just commute by bus or their trolley. Cable car not cheap usd5 per ride but it brings you from Fisherman Wharf to Union Square, their Orchard Road, all the shopping malls are there.

This is Lombard Street, the world's crookiest street. If you take a closer look, you can send the many bends the cars have to navigate through.

You see the Tower up there? That's the Coit Tower, you can't miss it from the SF skyline. If the name sounds familiar, yes Swensen restaurant actually got one ice cream named Coit Tower too! By the way, if you want to go up to get a good view, trust me, save your $. We paid to go up, not cheap hor, and the view is obstructed by those plastic panels, can't take any nice shots at all

I took this at the top of the hill, bottom of Coit Tower, nice place to see the sunset.

Yosemite

2007-11-08T15:41:00.004+08:00

Yosemite - pronounced as "Yeo-si-mee-teh". Luckily didnt malu myself, cos I actually thought it is to be read as "Yeos-might", don't laugh :)

I didn't want to drive cos don't feel confident driving in a foreign land so no choice have to take the local tour. Beware though, it's a 14 hours day tour, paid usd125 per pax, excluding tips. In USA, when you dine at restaurant, day tour etc all have to give tips so alot of hidden costs.

Yosemite is one of the natural wonders of the world so since come all the way to San Frans didnt want to miss it.

Most of the tour to Yosemite end in October cos nearing to Nov and Dec, there are snows so usually they don't conduct tours during this period. We were there early Nov and luckily found one operator that still run this tour.

The coach bus (big one, got toilet inside type) came to pick us up at our hotel at about 7am. I counted, including us, there were like 15 people. We cross the San Francisco/Oakland Bay Bridge at sunrise. We stopped for refreshment at around 9.30am and reached Yosemite at about 11am. Yes 4 hours there , and a dreadful 4 hours back.

We have until 4pm to wander around, the sights were just magnificent! All so picturesque and you don't need a special camera to take postcards kind of pictures!

Sausalito

2007-11-08T15:41:00.003+08:00

Sausalito is a nice quaint little town, about an hour ferry ride from Fisherman Wharf. It's like going to Pulau Ubin from Changi :)

If you are more time and have the energy, you can also cycle there, not sure how long it takes but Sausalito is just on the other side of the Golden Gate bridge. You can also opt for a ferry and cycle combo but we chose the 2 way ferry instead.

Sausalito has art galleries, cafes, souvenir shops and waterfront restaurants where you can see San Francisco from across the bay.

We also took a bus ride to the area just next to Golden Gate bridge. Here, you can a very nice view of the bay and a close up view of the bridge.

San Francisco Day 1 & 2

2007-11-08T15:41:00.001+08:00

I am back 2 weeks from my vacation in San Francisco but have yet to update my blog. The hotels that I stayed does not come with free internet access and I didnt bring my laptop along so have to refresh my memory now. Hopefully the pictures will help :)

The flight bounded for SF was about 15hours with an hour transit at Seoul. It was a pleasant surprise for wife and I when we boarded the plane and found out that it is a new fleet, the 777-300ER aircraft. So swaku cos so far in my business trip, I have not seated on this fleet before. It was also by chance that I chose this flight. There were 2 daily departures to SF, one is the morning via Seoul, the other in the evening via Hong Kong. If I have chosen the latter, I would be flying the normal fleet.

This is the new Economy Class, with roomier seats and bigger screen. I am the sort who don't really take note of the type of fleet, what Boeing, Airbus, 777, 747 etc. If you have asked me before, what kind of plane I flew on, I will not be able to tell you. All I care are the movies and the music I will get to enjoy :)

But now having enjoyed this new fleet, next time when I booked a flight, I will take note and check if its a 777-300ER. I sat on a 777-300 last week to Delhi on a business trip, I thought it is the same, no no, must have the "ER", dunno what it stands for though, LOL :)

Arrived at SF on the 31st Oct at around 1pm. We stayed near the Fisherman Wharf area so it was quite convenient to get around.

We took a cruise to see the Golden Gate bridge, you can kill 2 birds with one stone if you are not taking the Alcatraz tour cos while on board the cruise, you will be able to catch a glimpse of the famous Alcatraz prison.

Fisherman Wharf area, that's where Pier 39 is. You will see a lot of sea lions sun bathing at the deck and making a lot of noise, seeking attention :)

Car Boot Sale

2007-10-30T08:52:00.000+08:00

Had a car boot sale on a Sunday morning, an event organised by SPC Petrol. I have always enjoyed going to flea market , looking for good bargains. I enjoyed having my stall as well and so far, I have setup flea market stall in Clarke Quay, Tanglin Mall and the previous car boot sale was held at the Indoor Stadium. This time round, it is held at Downtown East, Pasir Ris.

Clearing my CDs and other barung barung.

The weather was quite hot in the morning even though I was allocated a shady spot. Unfortunately the dark clouds gathered at about noon and it started to pour at around 2pm. So sway and the rain was so heavy and persistent, it lasted till 6pm. Some friends came over to support but due to the rain, we have to 'close shop', really dampen the mood.

On the positive side, managed to clear some of my stuff and pocket about $100 profit.

Coffee Bean Puzzler

2007-09-28T16:03:00.001+08:00

A friend send this to me and oh no, my brain is in a mess!

"
Find the man between the coffee beans.

Doctors have concluded that if you find the man in 3 seconds, your right half of your brain is better developed than most people. If you find the man between 3 seconds and one minute, then your right half of the brain is developed normally. If you find the man between one minute and 3 minutes, then the right half of your brain is functioning slowly and you need to eat more protein. If you have not found the man after 3 minutes your right half of your brain is a mess, and the only advice is to look more for these types of exercises to make that part of the brain stronger.

The man really is there.

In fact, once you find him, you cannot miss him afterwards.

"

Singapore Bay Run

2007-08-27T09:06:00.001+08:00

I participated in this year Bay Run on Sunday, this being my 2nd attempt.
The run formerly known as Safra Sheares Bridge Run was better organised compared to last year. This time, three and a half lanes on the ECP stretch of the Sheares Bridge were reserved for the run, leaving one half passable for on-going traffic. Last year quite pathetic, just one lane for the runners and everybody had a hard time finding space to run.

I signed up for the Non Competitive 12km run, not competing with time, just hoping to complete the run as this is my first time trying to cover this distance. The most I have covered was 10km in the StanChart run. My time was about 90mins, quite slow, mine is more like a jog :) I clocked 40mins for 6km, by the time I reached 10km, time taken was about 1hr 15mins liao. Last 2km duno why took so long, so tempted to just walk but managed to perservere and reached the finishing line.

Later that night, was abit shocked to hear from the news about the death of a young army officer during his 21km run. He passed out after completing the race. A sad case indeed, may he rest in peace.

HK's storm alert 'outdated'

2007-08-21T10:59:00.000+08:00

From yesterday's news, like what I wrote in my earlier blog, we felt it was a false alarm as well, maybe the authorities just playing safe:

Storm alert system out of date: Observatory chief
Aug 19, 2007

The typhoon warning system is decades out of date and requires an overhaul to avoid the chaotic scenes that followed the hoisting of the No8 signal on August 10, says the Observatory, which is responsible for issuing the signal.

HONG Kong needs to overhaul how it deals with severe storms, the head of the Hong Kong Observatory (HKO) said yesterday.

The territory hoisted its No. 8 signal - the first there this year - on Aug 10 after Typhoon Pabuk U-turned and passed across the city.

The signal led to the early closure of the stock market, government offices and businesses. Tens of thousands of workers scrambled to get home, resulting in chaos at train stations, bus stops and ferry terminals.

Mr Lam Chiu Ying, director of the HKO, which issues the warnings, said rules for dealing with severe weather were outdated and many workers could have remained in their offices as no law insists business must cease, and most people do not need to catch ferries.

Mr Lam said that responding to a No. 8 by shutting down the city originated at a time when there were no road or rail links between Hong Kong island and Kowloon and the city had many substandard buildings.

Pabuk caused only minor damage to the city and no flights were cancelled. The central business district endured only minor rains and winds.

881

2007-08-19T23:13:00.001+08:00

I brought my dad to watch this local movie 881 today. This is a show about Hokkien getai (opera) and the story revolves around two girls who dreams to become getai stars.

I know some of you might be put off by alot of factors in going to see the show
- Hokkien show, obiang
- local production not worth of the $
- getai, so old, unglam
- ...

Forget about these reservations and do yourself a favour to watch it. The movie really brings the essence of getai to the mass, there were alot of old folks in the cinema and when the movie breaks into a Hokkien tune, you can hear some of them humming to it :) Bring your parents if possible, I'm sure they will enjoy it.

Look out for actress Liu Ling Ling, who steals the show with her comical Hokkien dialogue, which she delievers effortlessly with a straight face!

This is the theme song from the movie, take a listen, really nice!

一人一半 (Solo version)

一人一半 (Duet version)

Nice feel-good DVD to recommend

2007-08-17T16:50:00.001+08:00

A friend asked me to help order this DVD from the internet and before we passed it to her, wife and I sat down on Friday night to watch it.

The movie is adapted from a book, titled "The Prize Winner of Defiance, Ohio: How My Mother Raised 10 Kids on 25 Words or Less" by Terry Ryan. It stars one of my favourite actress Julianne Moore as the mother. The movie was produced in 2005 but somehow didnt make it to our shores.

We were not aware of this book and the movie till my friend recommended it. We enjoyed the show very much. The show is about this family of 12 and the ups and downs and how they get by. The father, played by Woody Harrelson, supposedly the breadwinner of the family, did not bring home enough money to feed everyone due to his drinking addiction. Luckily the mother, Everlyn Ryan has a flair with words and poetry and she would join jingles contests and a whole lot of others and win household items for the family. The story is set back in the 50s, so you can imagine how much these prizes were to them.

If you want a feel-good movie, this is it. Julianne Moore did a very good job in portraying the character of the mother, so positive that you just like her. Her smile, her mannerism, her ability to diffuse anger is something that we should all learn.

This movie is adapted from a true story, from the eyes of the daughter's Terry Ryan who wrote the memoir. You get to see the real life kids (old adults now) making an appearance towards the end of the movie. Having watched the film version, I will try to get hold of the book and read to know more about the Ryan family.

Pretty Signs

2007-08-12T22:55:00.001+08:00

Things were back to normal the next day, no exceptional crowd at the MTR. There was a long queue though up the escalator and I took the stairs and saw these nice signs, part of a "climb the stairs" campaign:

.

Bless the Typhoon

2007-08-11T09:42:00.000+08:00

Typhoon hit signal number 8 on Friday!

An extract from the hotel typhoon alert information phamplet:
Signal number 8:
"
When signal number 8 is hoisted, we strongly recommend that you stay indoors. Offices, shops, banks and schools will close. Public transport services will be suspended any time, although the Harbour Tunnels and MTR wll still provide safe, easy crossing from Kowloon to HK and vice versa. For your own safety, you should stay in the hotel, draw the curtains in your room and stay away from all windows
"

I had lunch with my customer at about 12pm+ that day, we went back to the customer office at about 2pm. As we were preparing to start the training, one of the customer told us that there is a government typhoon alert at 4pm! So exciting right? 1st thing that came across my mind is: can go back or not? :) The customer then checked with their boss and we were told to quickly pack up and go back. Great!

Taxis were not available, we can see alot people on the streets waiting for buses and others were heading towards the nearest MTR. As the customer site is quite far from our hotel, we decided to take MTR back.

What a mad crowd it was at the MTR, I captured some pics to share:

Everyone was packed like sardines and for me to reach near to the door, it took like 45 mins! Can't believe I actually stood there for so long, it was getting very stuffy and you see people perspire and you see sweat beads on everyone's face ...

Finally got into the train:

So glad to exit from the MTR station and make my way back to the hotel.

Somehow at Causeway Bay where I stayed, I don't experience strong winds at all, maybe its blocked by the tall buildings around this area. We were wondering if its a false alarm or expecting the typhoon to hit later in the night.

When I reached the hotel at about 5pm, alot of shops and restaurants have closed, wife decided to ta bao some cup noodles for dinner. The news interviewed some folks and alot were quite happy to be able to leave office early and when asked what they intend to do, some of them said they will go to karaoke lounges with friends or rent DVDs and watched at home.

You must be wondering why I bless the typhoon, for me, I was supposed to be at customer site at 2am that very night for some upgrade work. So it was good news for me when I learnt from customer that the night work has been cancelled and postponed to a week later. By then someone from the local team will take over so I no need to worry about that anymore! Yipee!

At around 7pm+, wifey and I decided to go out and take a look to see if there are any shops that remains opened. It was a ghost town, the MTR were so empty , when we boarded the subway train, we were like the only 2 persons in that cabin! Wife managed to contact her friends (Singaporeans working in HK) and we decided to visit them. Her friends stayed in a flat, looks like condo, and it was on the 50th floor. While making our way to the building lobby, we have to brace the strong winds and hold the umbrella tightly in case we get blown away :) Once up there, we can really feel the strong winds and there were light rains as well. That was probably the strongest winds we felt that day.

We brought the cup noodles there, chit chat and had dinner. Quite a cosy evening spent.

Typhoon Alert

2007-08-10T08:09:00.000+08:00

Last few days have been quite stressful for me. Even though it is supposed to be training but I got pulled left right center to help them troubleshoot other problems that they have raised to us. Every night since Monday, I only get to leave the customer site only at 8, 9pm and then have to be in the conference call with customer as well as with my US teams. The calls were usually late, 10, 11pm and after following up and did some updates, I only managed to crawl into bed at 1am+. So sian :(

There was a typhoon alert yesterday (Tuesday), signal number 3 to be exact. Customer told me that if it goes up to number 8, then everyone has to leave the office. Good news to me, then can eat snake don't have to work mah , haha, that's the immediate thought that came to my mind.

Early this morning (Wednesday), the hotel distributes typhoon notice as well to all hotel guests informing us on the different signal levels and advice on what to do.

Extracted from the typhoon notice:
"
Signal number 3 - When this signal is hosited, Hong Kong may be enjoying what seems to be a perfect day, but the strength of the approaching winds can change very quickly. Air, sea and land transportation services might be affected
"
So we went to customer site as usual cos still at number 3 and outside its becoming rainy, didnt get any strong winds though. No changes to the signal level throughout the day.

Wife touched down in the evening, and we walked around the hotel area and had dessert.

Off to HK again

2007-08-05T12:23:00.000+08:00

This trip is 10 days long, wifey will join me during the National Day holiday break.

Gonna give training to customer together with my US colleague, hopefully not too stressful, considering the customer has been giving us so many problems.

I just had my soon kwey from the Bengawan Solo outlet :)
Going to check-in now ...

Team Building

2007-07-23T10:56:00.000+08:00

Sorry I haven't been updating my blog. Since I came back from my HK trip, my last work week was filled with training and meetings, leaving my blog unblogged for like almost 2 weeks :(

My team had a team building event last week, together with our china and japan colleagues and our US boss, there were like 15 of us.

It was a one day event last thursday, the programmes include a morning trek at Macritchie Reservoir followed by brunch at a prata place and then a cooking event in the afternoon at SunRice Academy. Nothing exciting right? In fact, the few of us have proposed for a trip to Mt Kinabalu to climb mountain but due to budget constraint, the idea was being dropped.

My boss even came up with some fancy names for the events, the morning walk is called "Awaken" , the prata brunch is called "Refresh" and the cooking session as "Indulge".

We gathered at the reservoir at about 8am, weather was abit gloomy when I stepped out of the house. The morning trek idea came from one of the angmo boss who has stayed in Singapore for like 6+ years and apparently nobody tell the other angmo including my boss what to expect cos my boss and some others came in jeans and pants. I was thinking to myself "Good luck man!" I used to trek here 2 years ago every Saturday morning and even with shorts, you will bound to perspire and the trek is like 10km, how to substain wearing pants or worse jeans!

Anyhow, about 2km into the trek, we were "awakened" by thunder! Yes downpour! None of the Singapore team brought umbrellas but our japan and china colleagues did, hehe so we had to share the umbrellas like 3 to 1 kind. We stayed rooted for like 20 minutes and the rain didnt appear it's going to lighten so we waited waited and when it didnt subside after 30 minutes, we have to do a kebelakang pusing (Malay for turning back).

We next headed to the prata place for an early breakfast at 9am, talk about waking up early for a good exercise, followed up with an unhealthy breakfast of fried and oily stuff :) Ordered teh halia, prata and mee hoon goreng. Ate and chatted till about 11am, the makan session took longer than the intended walk, haha.

Went home to take a nap before meeting the rest again at SunRice, the cooking Academy at Fort Canning Center. We drew lots and were grouped into teams named after spices, mine was Onion, others were called Lime, Pepper, Tumeric. Had a tour round the Spice Garden where you see lots of planted spices like laksa leaves, panda leaves, lemon grass, ginger, pepper, basil etc. This garden is apparently opened to public but didnt know it existed till that day, and it is just a short walk from the Registry of Marriage. Each team was given a map to identify where the different spices can be found and my team which consists of the big boss came in last, haha, we were more like enjoying the view rather than looking around for the answers.

The lesson were taught by a Thai chef but no we are not cooking TomYam soup, we had a East Meet West fusion kind of menu. On the recipe, we are supposed to cook a roast chicken and paper wrapped spring rolls (like those Vietnamese kind). The chicken dish is not that difficult to do, the main thing is the spices. We have to chop onions, garlic, basil, lemongrass and other assorted spices and then mix it with the whole chicken, massae it and put it in the oven. Sounds simple right? Ya not too difficult. The springroll item need some practise, we each took our turns to do one and each turns out in different sizes, some long some short :) We also need to decorate the springroll dish to compete with other teams to see who can come out with the best design and layout. Each team were given a tomato and a cucumber and together with the springrolls that we have made, we need to decorate it.

Quite yucky right? Haha we really scored low on creativity compared to what the other teams come up with.

We wrapped up the teambuilding event with dinner, we ate what we cooked, and so far, didnt hear anyone reported sick due to the cooking :)

2007-07-11T06:52:00.000+08:00

I'm off to Hong Kong again, this is like 2 trips in 2 weeks. A short one, will be back on Friday night. This time, I am travelling on my own, boss not coming along, so thats good, at least I can take my time and don't feel so rushed :)

I am there to give customer training on our product and they have high expectations, which customer don't right, I hear you ask, haha. The Hong Kong-ers or at least my customers are very on the ball kind. They have been feeding me with inputs, topics to cover, issues to discuss and go through etc. Hence my schedule is filled to the brim, with night work included as well :(

In fact, feel abit stressed over the last week over the prepartion of the training slides and materials. That explains why I have been quite slag with my blogging, no mood lah, will catch up whenever I can, ok?

Crossing my fingers, hope they don't give me a hard time.

Wish me luck!

2007-07-07T18:26:00.001+08:00

Watched the Dim Sum Dollies on Thursday premiere night. I must say this is one of their best! The show runs from 5th - 15th July at the Esplanade Theatres.

These are some of the skits played as part of the Singapore history theme of this show:

- the sea sick Sang Nila Utama

- Samsui women

- Ricksaw pullers kena summoned by our ever hardworking parking wardens for parking on double yellow lines

- Japanese kamikaze soldiers singing "My Way" karaoke style while strangled with their parachutes in the jungle due to premature eject from their fighter jets. Can you see the joke within? Heehee

- The Cantonese ma-jie (servant) who curse and swear when her tai tai owner who speaks with an English accent asks her to make "tui-na" sandwich, haha see if you can catch the joke.

2007-06-29T13:52:00.001+08:00

By far, this is one of my 'siong' trip. Long hours at customer site , worked till the wee hours, didnt even have time to shop/sight-see though I stayed at the heart of Hong Kong island at Causeway Bay.

Luckily I managed to arrange to meet my long time Pri Sch friend CL upon touched down. If I have scheduled it on another night, it would have not been possible. We went to one of those HK cafe for dinner, chatted and filled each other with updates. If you are reading this my friend, it was really nice catching up with you!

Travelling with boss is not easy. You have to know your boss character and personality well. My boss happens to be those 'on-the-dot' kind of person so he was first at the passport control counter, waited for me at the luggage claim area, waited for me at hotel checkout etc, I wasn't late ok, he was always earlier than me :) During the flight from SIN - HKG, boss was quite surpised when he asked me where I'm seated and I told him I'm seated right at the back. He was like "why would anyone want to sit at the back?"

Well thats me lah :)

Off to Hong Kong

2007-06-26T11:53:00.000+08:00

Another last minute notice. Was told by boss last Friday that there may be a possibility to go to HK with him to meet customer coming week. Confirmation was given yesterday and here I am, at the airport lounge now, waiting for my flight.

Will be in HK for just 3 days, back on Friday, so short hor. No fun also , travel with boss, hopefully night time I dont have to go dinner with him, can go jalan jalan, look see look see. My last trip to HK was back in 2002, that was a lesiure trip.

5 years on, dunno how much HK has changed. Hope to take some pics to share with you.

Smitten

2007-06-14T09:24:00.001+08:00

I have been smitten by the music of this Japanese singer Oda Kazumasa 小田和正 recently and I shall reserved this space to rave about him.
You might not know him or heard of his songs before but I was ignorant of his works few years back too.

My good friend KL said that he introduced this artiste to me ages ago but I think I was too caught up in my own world of 80s music and oldies so not open to all the other genre of music that I'm not familiar with. Thou shall bear the consequences and make up for lost time and try to get to know more about this great singer.

I happened to chat to my japanese colleague sometime back as he is coming to Singapore to attend training and I asked for his help to get a japanese cd for my friend KL. My jap colleague sent me a youtube link and recommend me the song by Oda. It's a concert clip and later I got to know from KL and my sister that Oda came down to Singapore to hold a concert early 2000/1. KL and friend, my sister and BIL all went and enjoyed it, the one night concert was sold out by the way! Oda was a member from the group Off Course during the 70s and later carved out his solo career in the 80s and if you like a comparison, you can liken him to Sting from the group The Police. He is 60 years old but his vocals still sound so crisp and young.

Here is the youtube link that I would like to share. The song is titled "Sayonara さよなら" and I would like to dedicate this to my friend JP who will be going for an overseas posting later this month:

Last week I was so happy when I found a copy of Oda's greatest hits compilation on Yahoo auction! Yes this is what music can do to me, I can simply go ga-ga and will go hunt for CDs and start collecting :)

Besides the song Sayonara, track 6 "Kotoba Ni Dekinai" 言葉にできない from the CD is simply awesome! Take a listen:

No Music No Life

2007-06-07T17:15:00.001+08:00

Nothing much to blog so decided to blog about the CDs that I bought lately. My friend KL has a monthly update on what CDs he bought and he blog it under the post as "No Music No Life" which is taken from Tower Records tagline :)

I haven't bought any CDs for quite some time already. I have been trying to clear off lots of olds CDs on Yahoo auctions to make way for new ones. Here is a list of what I bought:

Hilary Stagg - Feather Light. Bought this from Yahoo auction. This completes my collection of albums released by the late electronic harp musician. Sadly, Stagg's life was cut short in 1999.

Babel soundtrack, 2CD collection, bought it new. I enjoyed the movie and was mesmerised by its haunting guitar pieces. Some notable tracks that I like: Tazarine, Bibo no Aozora/Endless Flight/Babel (a 3 part song performed by Ryuichi Sakamoto, Jaques Morelenbaum & Everton Nelson and then (the last two movements) by Gustavo Santaolalla, Breathing Soul, Look Inside and Desert Bus Ride.

Dave Koz - At the Movies. Bought this mainly for the Cinema Paradiso theme. A very easy listening album but I was abit disappointed with Anita Baker version of Somewhere from West Side Story. Anita Baker is one of my favourite soul singer but her renedition of this song seems to fall short especially at the chorus part where the "Somewhere" portion seems to just die out.

All The Seasons Of George Winston: Piano Solos, bought it new as well but have not listened to it yet. This is a greatest hits collection, he has so many albums so I have to sample this compilation first before deciding if I'm going to collect all his other individual albums.

This is an oldie for the mouldy me, haha. I think I have 5 of his albums so far. Though his duo partner Paul Simon is more acclaimed, I much prefer Art Garfunkel's vocals. Bought this cheap from Yahoo auction and specially for the track "I Believe (When I Fall In Love It Will Be For Ever)". Didnt know that it was penned by Stevie Wonder! Besides Art's renedition, other artistes like Michael Mcdonald, George Michael and the group Mike and the Mechanics also covered it. Good stuff!

Cute Advertisments

2007-06-03T11:25:00.000+08:00

I was in KL for a few days to give customer training. On the way to customer office, I have to pass through KLCC and there is this big advertisment by Maybank that I find it cute. The bank latest product offerings allows customer to do Interbank Funds Transfer globally and this is what they come out with:

Here, you have this Japanese yen cartoon symbol making its way from KL Twin Towers to the other end which is the Tokyo Tower. I didnt bring my camera along for this short trip so can't snap the whole advertisment which include the pictures of the towers on both ends, have to make do with a close up shot of this cute symbol.

Over here is a US $ symbol. On one end is another KL iconic building the KL tower and the other end is the Empire State building. I would have prefer to get a close up picture of the symbol but there is a car park tunnel barrier and my phone camera can't do zoom so make do with this shot :(

and the last one we have here is the Euro symbol, connecting to the Effiel Tower.

Cute or not?

Useless Naming

2007-05-30T09:41:00.001+08:00

Front page news on today's newpapers - S'pore's Terminal 3 to open on Jan 9, 2008, wah so nice right, but wait, they have come up with a new name for the airport skytrain system - People Mover System (PMS) !

Excerpt:
"The Changi Airport People Mover System (PMS) is part of the new Terminal 3 expansion project that will accommodate substantial growth in air passenger traffic at the Changi airport in the coming decades. The PMS project is scheduled for passenger service in June 2006, coincident with the opening of Terminal 3. The PMS represents a firm commitment by Civil Aviation Authority of Singapore to assure that the Singapore Changi airport continues to be among the world's best airports."

What crap name is that? Ok maybe they can't call it ASS (airport skytrain system) so next option is PMS, hmm, how creative right! It's another classic smart aleck example of naming exercise. Why do they need to name the system anyway? Those who are familiar with Changi Airport will know there is a train/rail for you to commute between T1 and T2, and I think it is simply called Skytrain, quite nice what, why go and rename it and worst, call it PMS!

I can just picture these scenes at the airport information counter:

Scene 1

Tourist: May I know how can I get to T3 from T1 ?
Information counter staff: Skytrain. You can take the skytrain at lobby 1.

Scene 2

Tourist: May I know how can I get to T3 from T1 ?
Information counter staff: PMS. You can take PMS ...
Angry Tourist: Wait, what did you just say! You said I got PMS?! How rude! I want to complain!
Confused Tourist: What is PMS?
Corny Tourist: Haha PMS!

That's not all. Imagine next time u step into the train and what greets you will be something like "Ding Dong, welcome to PMS. You are in PMS right now, hope you enjoy the PMS ride." We will be the laughing stock of tourists and our overseas friends, they will probably laugh at how "creative" we are at coming out with acronyms and churning out stupid sounding ones too.

Whats with the authorities with these acronyms and lame attempts at coming out with fanciful names ? This is something which I don't understand. They have shown, in the past few years, that they have failed to be creative but yet many times bitten but still not shy. Here are some classic examples:

Marina Bay - Authorities wanted a more glamorous name for the marina bay area since it will be the site for integrated resorts and other high class developments. They hired some branding consultants, spent lots of money and in the end, they can't find a better name and eventually stick to Marina Bay.

Budget Terminal - A contest was held and the public submit the desired names they want for our new budget terminal. In the end, among the many entries, they chose "Budget Terminal" as the winning entry.

This last example simply takes the cake! Recently, I was flipping through some communities newsletter/magazine at a cafe and read that, in the government's bid to turn Singapore into a city of gardens and waters, they have come out with yet another acronym, a no brainer one someone, called ABC Waters Programme.

Excerpt of the meaning behind it:
"
This is what we aim to achieve with the ABC Waters programme. There are three broad elements in the programme.

- First, “A” for Active, so that Singaporeans can enjoy a wide range of water-based activities, from canoeing and sailing to dragon-boat racing.

- Second, ‘B’ for Beautiful, because we want to transform our waterways into beautiful streams, rivers and lakes that enhance our living environment.

- Third, ‘C’ for Clean, so that whatever we do with our water bodies, they will continue to be kept litter- and pollution-free.
"

Call me cynical, but I seriously think we can do without all these. At the end of the day, if people understand what is a budget terminal, what is a skytrain, monorail or whatever then let it be. What for go and draw snake with legs. As you can see, those attempts to beautify it simply falls flat!

This beautiful quote comes in handy again and to the authorities "If you want to do something, do it nicely else do not do it at all" :)

Anamorphic Street Art

2007-05-18T09:27:00.001+08:00

Passed by Raffles City the other day and spotted this street art. I snapped this picture with my trusty phone. The artist, Julian Beaver was commissioned by Nokia to come out with this piece of anamorphic chalk drawing featuring mobile phones. Simple, nice but nothing compared to his other works he did elsewhere.

I googled it on the internet and found some really impressive ones. I like these two:

The two pictures are taken from Julian Beaver's website, you can checkout more of his works at this link

Sunrise

2007-05-15T07:02:00.000+08:00

If you go to Bali, you will probably be staying in these places, Nusa Dua on the east coast, Jimbaran, Seminyak, Kuta on the west coast or Ubud, in the center but no beach.

I woke up diligently every morning at around 6am to catch the sunrise near the hotel beach. First day no luck, very gloomy and started to rain. Second day, abit cloudy and on my check out day, my lucky star answered my prayers :)

I have never worked my camera so hard before. From the moment I stepped out of the beach front, I kept snapping away, the whole session lasted for like an hour. Alas towards last few moments when the sun started to crack out of the clouds, I run out of space on my memory card! Didnt want to waste time to go back to hotel room to get my backup memory card so have to quickly delete some of the not so nice shots took earlier.

Still got alot to learn about how to compose pictures cos took so many sunrise shots but only like a few of them and some didnt turn out as well as I have expected.

Uluwatu - Kuta - Tanat Lot

2007-05-14T07:53:00.001+08:00

We started off the day to Pura Luhur Uluwatu, one of bali most important sea temples. The 11th century temple stands on a tiny promontory 70m above crashing waves of the Indian ocean. The scenery on top of the cliff is simply breathtaking! Look out for those mischeivous monkeys who are known to snatch specs, sunglasses, caps from tourists. At the entrance, we also overheard tour guides telling people to be wary of those monkeys in case they strike on you.

The small temple you see in the background is Uluwatu temple.

Monkey busy eating, so didnt come and bother us.

I read from somewhere, the scenery is being compared to Australia's Great Ocean Road.

Next stop - Kuta, the surfer's beach, the prime tourist area. Nothing much to do there actually, the shops were more or less selling the same stuff, keep seeing Polo Ralph shops and you have Hard Rock cafe, Starbucks.

Tanot Lot - the most famous of the sea temples. The sanctuary temple is 15th century old and sits along the bali south coast, one of the must-see sights in Bali. Everyone usually come here to see the sunset, its a pity my other shots didnt turn out well, so only this one to show.

We rounded up the night with a seafood dinner at Jimbaran. We ordered squid, prawns and seabass. The grilled seabass was nice but the prawns and squid so-so, abit pricey though. However the nice experience of dining on the beach, acccompanied by the sound of waves brushing through the shores, more than makes up for it.

Ubud

2007-05-14T07:53:00.000+08:00

For this trip, we hired a driver (recommended by beaulotus) to bring us around. He charges 325,000/day on a Toyota Kijang.

We decided to head up north to Ubud and take in the sights. From Nusa Nua, it takes about 1.5 hours to Ubud.

Tegallalang rice terrace fields

The drive up to Kintamani is like going up Genting, the air is cooling and you don't need the air conditioning from the car. Had lunch there and you get a great view of Mt. Batur, an active volcano &

Lake Batur

Besakih Temple. Most Balinese practice a distinct Hindu belief and to go inside the temple, you need to be appropriately dressed. Those in shorts or bermudas need to wear a sarong which you can get it at the entrance. I didn't go in so just steal a few shots from the entrance, and took some pics at the cleansing ritual of the devotees. The water is supposed to be holy and if you have committed any sins, you can supposedly "wash" them away.

On the way to Ubud center, we passed by the Monkey Forest. Need to pay entrance fees to go inside the forest somemore but as we were abit rushed for time, we just hang around outside and watch some of the monkeys in action.

Here's looking at you kid.

Ubud is like the cultural and art center of Bali. You see lots of handicrafts, paintings, wood carvings, statues along the road as you drive around the area.

It was about 5pm when we were done with Ubud. By then, we were quite tired as alot of time was spent commuting from place to place, so we headed back to a spa near Nusa Dua for a nice 2hours massage.

Off to Bali

2007-05-12T21:56:00.000+08:00

Wifey and I went to Bali for a short weekend trip as portion of our Krisflyer miles expiring soon and the lowest miles redeemable is to KL and Bali. We have not been to Bali before, and its been awhile since we last went on to a beach resort so Bali here we come!.

Its a 4D3N free and easy trip, depart on Friday and fly back on Monday.

View of a temple gate at Denpasar airport. You get to see such similar gate structures all over the island but this one I like, shades of brick orange against the clear blue sky.

We stayed at the Conrad Bali Resort & Spa, located at Nusa Dua, on the southern coast of the island. I booked the garden view but were upgraded to an ocean view room which overlooked the lagoon pool! The room is very spacious, comes with marble look floor tiles, marble look bathroom with separate toilet and shower.

The fabulous 33-metre swimming pool !

Clay-Grass Tennis

2007-05-03T13:47:00.000+08:00

When I saw this picture in today's newspapers, I thought it's touched up by photoshop but it's not! There was a exhibition match yesterday and the organisers creatively made the half grass, half clay court! Ain't it Cool!

It was a dream match as well, between my idol Roger Federer and his nemesis Rafal Nadal. Sadly, Nadal beat Roger 7-5, 4-6, 7-6 (10).

Reading

2007-04-25T09:22:00.001+08:00

I hardly read storybooks when I was young, and I was only exposed to commercial writers like John Grisham, Stephen King, Jeffrey Archer, rather late. That probably explains why there is little 墨水 in me :)

As I grow older, somehow there is an awakening, perhaps also influence from friends as well, that there is so much out there in the literary world that I'm missing out. Hence I'm doing whatever I can, to catch up on what I've missed, and pick up reading as a hobby.

Recently I've also been introduced to audio books and its a whole new world out there! I'm not saying that one should switch from reading a book to listen to audio books but its a totally different experience and you may want to give it a try to see if you like it.

About a month ago, I was introduced to this author Kurt Vonnegut, who bears some resemblance in both literary style and physical appearance to the great Mark Twain. I downloaded some of Kurt's audio books but have yet to listen to it. On 11th April, he passed away at the age of 84 due to a fall.

It's sad that I only got to know about him and his works after he passed away. As I am a slow reader, I have the tendency to give up reading half way if I lose interest. I hope I will finish reading his books and write some reviews here. By writing this down, it will also serve as a reminder to myself to finish up what I've intended to do. To my friends, if you next see me, ask me if I've finished reading :)

A nice quote from my friend beaulotus (who got the quote from her teacher):
" When a task has once begun, never leave it till it's done. Be the labour great or small, do it well or not at all."

Tribute To Kurt Vonnegut

2007-04-23T12:12:00.001+08:00

当代英文小说家群像美国怪诞鬼才小说家瓦涅格面对历史的绝望呐喊 Kurt Vonnegut

● 丘柳川 - 早报副刊

华人新年期间读了美国小说家瓦涅格的两部小说，深受吸引，4月中却听到他4月11日在纽约逝世的消息，享年84岁。

　　瓦涅格(Kurt Vonnegut Jr)，1922年11月11日出生于美国印第安纳州印第安纳波利斯市(Indianapolis)，家境富裕，父亲是建筑师，母亲出身名门；但1930年代的大萧条严重影响他的家境。

　　瓦涅格1940年进入康奈尔大学，主修化学与生物；1943年被征召入伍，在卡内基梅隆(Carnegie Mellon)大学攻读机械工程，作为军训一部分；1944年奉派出国前夕，母亲服食过量安眠药自杀身亡。

　　1944年12月，德军在比利时垂死反攻，瓦涅格在这战役中成为战俘，被送往德瑞斯登(Dresden)，与其他战俘在一家制造维他命的工厂工作。 1945年2月13日及14日，盟军对德瑞斯登展开大轰炸，瓦涅格和一些战俘躲在屠宰场地窖得以存活，同年5月回返美国；9月，娶青梅竹马女友珍 (Jane Marie Cox)为妻，并搬到芝加哥居住。他之后在芝加哥大学攻读人类学。

　　他于1951年开始全职写作，1952年开始出版作品；1965年至67年，在爱荷华大学作家工作室驻教两年；1968年获古根汉基金赞助，重返德瑞斯登；1969年，出版《五号屠宰场》； 1970年独自迁往纽约；1979年和妻子离婚，之后再婚，第二任妻子是摄影师Jill Krementz。

　　瓦涅格一生深受忧郁症困扰，1984年他尝试以酒精加安眠药自杀未遂，之后自我揶揄，说是自己笨手笨脚才把事情搞砸。

　　《五号屠宰场》被誉为20世纪美国最佳20部小说之一，《时代》杂志选出的“最佳一百部小说”它也榜上有名。1997出版《时震》后不久他宣布退休，不再写小说，只为杂志写短文，其中不乏批评布什政府的文章。他的短文在2005年结集出版，书名《没有国家的人》(A Man Without A Country)。他坚称那是他的最后一部作品，说那是人生最后一杯美酒。

《五号屠宰场》

(Slaughterhouse-Five)

1944 年12月中，德军为发动最后一次反攻，深入比利时东北部盟军阵地，1945年1月被击退。那便是著名的Battle of the Bulge。1944年12月19日，德裔美军瓦涅格被俘，当时22岁。他被送往德瑞斯登，经历1945年2月的大轰炸。《五号屠宰场》便是以这段惨痛经历为背景的半自传性小说。

　　1945年2月13日晚，英美联军轰炸机在德国德瑞斯登人口稠密地区，投下了大约3000吨炸药，大部分是燃烧弹。德瑞斯登这个古老城市几乎不设防，一夜间变成火海。14小时又10分钟的轰炸，炸死13万5000个手无寸铁的平民。年青的瓦涅格目睹这场历史浩劫，心灵造成重创，影响至深至远。

　　创作小说《五号屠宰场》成为瓦涅格的疗伤的方法。

穿越时空打破主观经验

这部独特小说孕育过程异常痛苦，一般平铺直叙不可能把如此重大历史事件重建再造。作者采用非常独特又前卫的手法，塑造一个穿梭于过去及未来的人物来当主角，从不同时间点检视历史。作者要引介新人物登场时，原来的主角会像灵魂出窍一样，站在另一个制高点观察事物。这个近乎“精神分裂”的主人公，时常会发表荒诞怪异，甚至近乎无厘头的意见。

　　所以我说这是一部荒诞怪异幽默搞笑但议题严肃的反战小说。小说由很多短小，看似独立却又相互关连的故事组成，像一部接力混合曲。唯独主人公比利(Billy Pilgrim)有时因为“黐线”而“不太合作”。这不但没有影响比利在“精神分裂”状态下的跳动思维，反而成为小说的特质。

　　小说主人公比利生于1922年（和作者同年），他预知自己将在1976年2月13日被人杀害。2月13日也是德瑞斯登大轰炸的“忌日”。

　　作为德裔美国人，这特殊身份给瓦涅格很大优势，可以毫无偏袒地表达自己。他说：

　　我曾在鸡尾酒会上告诉一位芝加哥大学教授，我亲身目睹（德瑞斯登）大轰炸，以及我要写的这本书。他是一个称为‘社会思潮委员会’的成员。他告诉我有关集中营，有关德国人以肥胖犹太人的脂肪制造肥皂与蜡烛的故事。

　　我只能说：“我知道，我知道，我知道。”

又如小说主角比利在飞机失事后受伤入医院，和一个哈佛大学历史教授同一病房，教授当时在编写二战的美国空军部队历史。这个蓝孚德教授和比利有这么一段对话：

　　“那是不可避免的，”蓝孚德告诉比利，他说的是德瑞斯登大轰炸。

　　“我明白，”比利说。

　　“那是战争。”

　　“我知道。我并没有抱怨。”

　　“那肯定是人间地狱。”

　　“的确，”比利说。

　　“可怜那些奉命行事的人。”

　　“我也是这么想。”

　　“那时候，你在现场肯定是百感交集吧。”

还好，”比利说。

　　这两段故事说明，对过去事件的每种说法都受制于当事人的价值观与需求。蓝孚德教授进一步让比利认识更多有关德瑞斯登大轰炸的历史事实，还把杜鲁门总统针对在广岛投下原子弹所发表的声明书念给比利听。杜鲁门的声明宣示美方有权对日军的战争行为采取严厉报复。瓦涅格对这种权力的傲慢颇不以为然。

　　由于主角比利近乎精神分裂，思维跳动异常，所以小说中一些情节像电影镜头，有急速切入，有淡出，也有蒙太奇。作者还引用科幻小说穿越时空手法，打破主观经验，也打破客观衡量时间的观念，将不同情节区隔，这让作者达到3个目的：以自己的观点重建历史事件，以区隔官方的历史观；以主观意识为某一历史特定问题定调；以今天的潜在问题，推断明日所可能发生的事。

　　可以说，《五号屠宰场》通过战争探索时间与死亡的本质。比利的神经质，有如在时间中痉挛。他身为验光师，又企图以眼镜片来纠正人世间心灵的视线。不幸的是，当人们面对历史时，总是感觉无助。这小说正是人们面对历史的无助而发出近乎绝望的呐喊。

《时震》 (TimeQuake)

2001 年2月13日下午2时27分，这世界发生一场“时震”，把时间震回到10年前——1991年2月17日，然后人们一分一秒一日一月重复生活，一切依照10年来的情况重复发展，丝毫没有变更余地。如此这般过了10年，在10年后的2月13日（也是盟军对德瑞斯登大轰炸的“忌日”），时震突然消失时，人类面临一场前所未有的信心危机：过去10年的重复生活，人们不再须要用脑思考，因此，当恢复自由意志时阵脚大乱，不知所措。

　　像另一位美国知名作家罗斯(Philip Roth)一样，瓦涅格的作品中也有一个自我分身(alter ego)，他便是科幻作家特芬特(Kilgore Trout)。他在《时震》中举足轻重，他的很多“故事”是小说的重要组成部分。瓦湼格便是以这方式，对不同问题提出不同看法。现举数例：

　　＊B-36姐妹

　　话说有三姐妹，两个可爱，一个丑怪，她们居住在一个叫“步步”(Booboo)的星球上。这星球实行母系制。

　　两个可爱的姐姐，一个从事绘画，一个写作；丑怪的妹妹是科学家，只懂得热力学。“步步”人自小被输入某种程序，无论是看画或读文章都根据“电路”作出反应。就地球人来说，这种反应称之为“想象”。就这样，丑怪的妹妹(Nim Nim B-36)发明了电视。从此之后，“步步”人不再需要想像了，只有老一辈人还懂得欣赏绘画与文学。两个可爱的姐姐越来越感到厌烦。后来，妹妹又发明了地雷、刺铁丝网、机关枪、喷火器、电脑、自动化等。之后“步步”人开始自相残杀。他们毫无感觉地嗜杀，因为他们已无法想象，不再像老一辈人那样会为了一本感人小说而悲戚，他们已毫无人性。

这故事写尽美国街头无时在发生的青少年杀人事件。瓦涅格强调德育，强调文学艺术培育人们的想象力，这些才是重要的精神本质。作者强烈批判电视对青少年的不良影响，也对人们无法通过吸取科学知识来增进人文素养感到悲观。

　　＊原子弹风波

　　话说二战结束前，美军在日本广岛和长崎各投一枚原子弹后，原本打算在横滨再投一枚，但奉命投弹的机员却决定不服从命令，飞返基地。这些机员因为违抗军令在军事法庭受审。审讯过程中，太平洋突然发生地壳分裂，把机员、法庭、战机，甚至基地所在的小岛全部吸入地心。这段故事颇为幽默，但在幽默背后却透露强烈的反战意识。

　　＊狗儿的早餐

名叫弗利昂(Dr Fleon Sunoco)的科学家，认为人脑像是狗儿的早餐，是一团带血的海绵，因此质疑人脑是否真的推动人类的各项重大进展。

　　在一次研究中，他在一个极度聪明的人脑中发现像微型收音机般的粉红色接收器，于是着手书写有关这重大发现的论文，而且非常有把握会因此获得诺贝尔奖。他振笔疾书，下笔行云流水，这是前所未有的经验。后来他停笔自问，这滔滔文思从何而来？甚至质疑他的这项重大发现从何而来？肯定是来自他脑中的粉红色接受器呀！这一惊非同小可，惊恐中他从窗口跃下。讽刺的是，根据他的研究，他无法确定他的自杀究竟是否自己的主意。

　　现代社会制造众多迷思，让人们自我迷失、自我否定，也自食其果。

　　《时震》中有很多这类幽默，充满睿智但发人深思的文字。瓦涅格以看似紊乱的情节来摇撼从来不受质疑的世界。

瓦涅格语录：

We are what we pretend to be, so we must be careful what we pretend to be.

我们就是我们假装成为的那种人，所以我们必须对想假装成为怎样的人多加小心。

Dinner at Il Lido

2007-04-22T23:10:00.000+08:00

Last month, due to some additional work we have done, our boss give us each USD$100 to spend, USD exchange rate is about 1.6 and declining, I was joking with my colleague the other day if only boss gave us Euro 100 to spend instead. After some discussion, wife and I decided to go to Il Lido for a fine dining experience.

When I made the reservation few days ago, I chose the indoor seating cos weather has been quite hot lately. However having seen the nice view when we reached there, we tried to request if we can change it to outdoor seating but was told the restaurant was fully booked for the night.

The restaurant is located at Sentosa, just next to the Sentosa Golf Club. It overlooks the sea and with the sun setting, the view is really beautiful.

Indoor seating

Outdoor seating

After settling down, we ordered the classic menu which costs $90 each. Too costly to order wine, and no ice water so no choice, ordered a bottle of sparkling mineral water, $8 ah.

They serve us bread chips, not like in Prego where they serve nice soft bread with vinegar and olive oil leh but the bowl looks very pretty

1st dish - pan roasted goose liver with green apple, honey & hazelnut sauce. Eat already, can feel the cholestrol going up, haha, its not as tough as pork liver, very soft but dunno how to appreciate, luckily got the green apple to mask the taste.

2nd dish - home made tagliolini with live spiny lobster and green asparagus tips. To a HDB boy like me, its like mee kai, haha but as this is a set menu, so the portion is quite little, not enough for my usual carbo intake. I am those sort who cant go without rice or noodles in my meal hehe.

For main course, we have a choice between fish and beef. Wife chose fish which is a pan-roasted atlantic cod, served with wilted baby spinach and red wine sauce

I am more of a seafood and fish person, seldom take steak or beef but since this is an atas restaurant, I decided to order the beef. Its a usda prime beef tenderloin, served with white asparagus, anchovy & garlic sauce.

I usually play it very safe when ordering beef, have it well done, like beef patty haha but I know those who enjoyed beef like to have it medium rare so I gave it a try and ordered mine cooked medium rare as well. The meat turns out to be very tender and juicy, you can see abit of the blood but doesnt have that raw bloody taste. Nice!

From the picture, you might think that the beef seats on top some french fries, thats what I thought so when the dish was served in front of me but its actually aspargus lah, haha.

Desert - molten lava dark chocolate cake, white chocolate & coffee gelato. Totally sinful but yummy. Wife felt too sinful to finish hers so I had additional servings of the lava chocolate cake, hehe.

Total bill comes up to about $220 after taxes, so have to cough up extra $60. Worth the experience though!

Bilthe Spirit

2007-04-19T13:16:00.001+08:00

Went to watch the play Blithe Spirits last night at the National Library. It stars husband and wife team Neo Swee Lin, Lim Kay Siu and others like Tan Kheng Hwa, Selena Tan, Pam Oei.

Didn't know it's an angmo-adapted play till you hear the powderful English dialogue by the actors, only peppered with occassional Singlish by Selena Tan :) Checked the source and found out that it's actually a comic play originally written by Noel Coward way back in 1941 and this Singapore adaptation was first done in 2001.

Still entertaining nevertheless, especially Neo Swee Lin, who in my opinion, shone above the rest of the cast.

Oh and by the way, Dim Sum Dollies will be back in July! This will be the 4th installment of the hit play by the comical trio. Quick go get your tickets now!

$ savvy

2007-04-18T18:02:00.000+08:00

I received a sms from my friend today saying that he made an obscene profit from the stock market during the crash last month. He ploughed in about 90k last month and sold this month and made about 33k!

So envious what he has acheived. Makes it looks so easy but this friend has always been very savvy about investment, he knows his risks, did his homework, buy the relevant stocks and seems to hit the bull eyes most of the time.

Abit sad when I reflect on myself. Ok maybe I shouldn't compare to my friends cos 人比人气死人 and have to manage my own expectations. But I guess I have to blame on my lazyness, or little interest in investment. I used to invest years ago but suffered paper loss and most still kena stucked so have not ventured any further since. Perhaps I'm a risk-aversed person, yes I admit that, I don't dare to try for fear of losing so I just have to be contended with my low risk savings deposits for the time being.

I have to tell myself, don't envy people, go read up and do something about it!

STFU

2007-04-16T14:56:00.000+08:00

Are you sick of reading about the Minister Pay issue?

If I rememeber correctly, the issue was raised before I leave for my 1 week Sydney business trip and plus my 10 days holidays thereafter, it has been coming to 3 weeks and it is still being discussed in the papers. When the news was first announced, I just shook my head, what's new anyway? Now that I'm back, I see different ministers coming up to substantiate why the raise is needed blah blah blah, not that I took any interest in reading all these, I don't, I just read the headlines and it's enough to get me irritated.

Want to share with you what I read from another blog, actually from the creator of the Elite girl comic strip, Insanepoly. I think he sums up very well what we peasants are feeling, here's an extract of his rant (warning: vulgar language used):

I don’t want to hear anymore about your justifications and rationalisations. Obviously you guys have no intention of listening to any of the people, so why should we the people listen to you. As someone once said, this has ceased to be a conversation. You tell us what you want and you go ahead and do it whether we the people like it or not. So what’s there to say. So shut the f**k up and enjoy your riches. Just don’t tell me you are doing this for my own good or for the good of the country.
For the past 2 friggin days, the ST has daily devoted 5-8 pages to the MIWs justifications for the minsterial pay hikes. Enough of that already.

Shut the f**k up.

You’ve got your money, but must you also have the last word as well. Take your f**king money and go f**king choke on it. Just shut the f**k up and get out of my face. I am sick of your bullshit.

Sayonara

2007-04-13T22:45:00.000+08:00

After two days of hotspring, we went back to Tokyo and continue our shopping and sightseeing.

There are no lack of places to go, we practically leave hotel by 10am and will only back by 9pm. I find Tokyo very vibrant, lots to see, shop and eat.

14th Apr we have to bid farewell and fly back home. Will definitely come back to Japan for another visit, maybe will go Hokkiado next.

Sayonara!

Sumptuous Seafood Dinner

2007-04-11T23:35:00.001+08:00

This is what we had at the pension and the hightlight is the crab!
The dinner spread was prepared by the owner himself and he was a chef before.

Big? Every one has its own and the claws have been nicely cut so all you have to do is just to use the tool given to dig out the meat.

Fresh prawns

I didnt eat the head, only ate the sashimi.

Scallop with cheese

A close up of what each one is having

Wasabi is a plant and this is how it looks like. You grind the wasabi plant (looks like ginger) and you will get the green paste

Don't be put off by the look of it.They catch these fishes from the river and it tastes something like the nasi lemak fish, bones can be eaten, very crispy.

Dad, being a crab lover, was full of praises with the meal and he was the first one to finish everything :)

Izu

2007-04-10T20:13:00.000+08:00

We checked out from Hakone and went to Izu for another hotspring stay.

Izu island has many scenic viewing point to see Mount Fuji, waterfalls, shiitake farms, coastal areas etc http://www.aco.co.jp/g-river. However the weather was not our side, it was cloudy when we were there and we missed yet another chance to see fuji-san. We rented a car and with the built in GPS, we drove along the hills and coastal area, very scenic!

Izu Green River Pension, our 2nd 'japan hour' stay comes with onsen and good food. Per night per adult at 10500yen inclusive of dinner & breakfast.

This pension is something like bed and breadfast kind. During our stay, our family were their only guest so we have the whole pension to ourselves, feels like home. The room is smaller compared to the Hakone one, no wooden sliding doors, just a normal room.

They have 3 private onsens that you can enjoyed round the clock.

Hakone

2007-04-09T20:38:00.000+08:00

After a few days of being in Tokyo, we headed to Hakone, a countryside full of hot springs. We took JR from Shinjuku to Hakone Yumoto station on the Odakyu line, the ride took about 90mins. There is a day ticket to cover all travel from Shinjuku to Hakone and then all the bus, trains, cable cars etc once you're in Hakone, but as we want to be flexible with our schedules, we did not buy the day ticket. Instead, after lunch, we took another train to Gora, and then the cable car across to Owakudani. We wanted to take the cable car to catch a view of Mount Fuji but when we reached the station, it was drizzling and with the misty weather, the ticket operator said that we will not be to have any view of Fuji-san :( so sad.

We then check-in to our guesthouse Ichinoyu HonKan, a popular hotspring guesthouse. They have quite a few guesthouses in Hakone and Izu, more information here: http://english.ichinoyu.co.jp/.

This is our 1st 'japan hour' type of onsen, and the package comes inclusive of dinner and breakfast, we paid about 11800 yen per person.

A river runs through it, all rooms overlook this picturesque river

Our room comes with its own little hotspring.

This is our room, complete with wooden sliding doors, really authetic like what you see in Japanese movies, at night we have to push the table aside to make space to lay out the tatami bed.

Lest you think we are having dimsum for dinner :), what's actually in the dimsum basket are toufu, pork, bean sprouts, unagi, and some Japanese style kind of wanton and meatballs

Looks like chicken hor? But it is actually sweet potato with egg plant.

Think this fish is ang-gor-li or red snapper

The ladies public bath entrance, identified by the red cloth

The men public bath entrance, identified by the blue cloth

Tried both the public as well as the private ones. The onsen very shiok with the cold weather but cannot dip for too long.

Japanese fine dining

2007-04-08T22:17:00.001+08:00

My sis, brother in law, sis's mother in law, my 1.5year old niece and my dad joined us in Tokyo today. We had dinner at a restaurant on the 53th floor at the Shinjuku Center building. It was a traditional Japanese dinner, a 8 course set including dessert. The menu doesn't come with English explanation, most of the time, dunno what I am eating but luckily my sis understand Jap and help to explain. I didnt manage to recall the exact descriptions of each item so will just share with you the pictures that I took.

Meiji Shrine

2007-04-08T21:03:00.000+08:00

8th Apr (Sunday)

Main entrance to Meiji Shrine, Japan’s oldest shrine.

It’s a long walk into the shrine itself, but its worth a visit in there, to pray for anything, and buy those Japanese amulets (the Love ones seem to work!) for yourselves or as souvenirs

We were also lucky to witness a wedding ceremony being held at the shrine.

Meji Shrine is located next to Harajuku Station. A sharp contrast between the young and old cos Harajuku is known to be a teens hangout place and if you go on a Sunday (which we did), you will see the Meiji Shrine entrance crowded with Jap-punks playing dress-up.

Oh ya, there is a Snoopy merchandise shop called Snoopy Town just opposite Harajuka station. Wife went ga-ga over it :)

Asakusa

2007-04-07T21:15:00.000+08:00

7th Apr 2007 (Saturday)

If you are keen in checking out the traditional Japanese places and dun mind the tourist crowd, go to Asakusa浅草. Here you will see the very much photographed kaminarimon 雷門gate (or thunder gate), and where festivals are still being held.

Not sure the origin of this thunder gate but it sure helps to bring in the $ from the loads of tourists going there. You can find all sorts of souvenirs with the 雷門 on it, from keychains, paper lantern, fridge magnets etc.

If you have enough hands, can buy the very pretty food snacks they sell here. But basically most of what you see here, though not all the variety, you can get at Narita airport minus the tax. Good for buying very Japanese-looking souvenirs

Visit to DisneySea

2007-04-07T21:14:00.000+08:00

6th Apr 2007 (Friday)

There are two Disney theme parks in Tokyo - Disneyland and Disneysea, the latter being the only one in the world. This year DisneySea is celebrating its 5th anniversary. From some of the feedback from internet forums, many recommend DisneySea as its unique and its not as kiddish as Disneyland. So my expectation were on the high side but overall I think DisneySea is over rated.

The top ride that I thoroughly enjoyed is the Raging Spirits, pity that I forgot to take picture of it :( . It has a roller coaster, smaller scale compared to those that I have tried in Gold Coast. It featured a 360 degrees turn among others :)

Indiana Jones - very entertaining ride, at least 5mins of it and you are transformed to some scenes from the movie and you get to see a few replicas of Indy himself.

This is Tower of Terror, one of the more exciting rides but you got to queue for at least 45minutes and what you get is about 1 minute of the scare. It will lift you up to a few storey high and then drop you down, wow!

The mountain in the background is the place where you take a journey to the center of the earth, I rate it 3/5.

20,000 leagues under the sea - the most boring rides I have ever had

Sakura

2007-04-05T21:54:00.001+08:00

5th Apr 2007 (Thursday)

We set off to Shinjuku Gyoen Garden at about 10am to view Sakura and my camera was busy snapping away! :)

A lot of families were having pinic there and enjoying their bento set. What a nice way to spend an afternoon, doing nothing, and just admiring the beautiful cherry blossoms.

We spent the afternoon shopping at Harajuka area. In the evening, we took a train to Shimbashi JR station, and then changed to the Yurikamome monorail to Odaiba-kaihinkoen station. Had dinner at one of the restaurants with a nice night view of the rainbow bridge as well as the bayview.

Konnichiwa

2007-04-05T21:53:00.000+08:00

4th April (Wednesday)

Our flight to Tokyo was at 6am on NorthWest, so woke up at about 3am and dad gave us a lift to the airport and we reached the airport at about 4am.

The flight was ahead of schedule and we reached Narita airport at about 1pm. Custom and baggage clearance were very fast and we were at the exit at around 1.30pm. Went to the Friendly Airport Limousine counter to buy bus ticket to Shinjuku, ticket costs 3000yen.

The bus ride took about 90mins and by the time we reached Shinjuku, the weather was overcast. The place where we are staying, is located near Shin-okubu station, one station north of Shinjuku station along the Yamanonte green line. Unfortunately by the time we reached the station, it was raining very heavily. We felt abit miserable, having dragged our luggage up and down the train station, across the platform, and now under the rain and windy conditions. We have no umbrellas and it was around 4pm then, but luckily there was a Yoshinoya restaurant just opposite the train station so we ordered some food as we were also quite hungry by then.

The rain didnt stopped and later we got to know that it was quite unusual to rain this heavy at this time of the year and it even snowed in some parts of Tokyo that faithful evening! Have to brave the rain to go to the inn, borrowed umbrellas then go back to pick up our luggage. Miserable hor?

We were not staying in those typical hotel but a small inn owned by a Taiwanese man. The room is very basic and toilet very very small but it costs 4000yen per night per person so beggars cant be chosers :) have to live with it for the 4 nights that we are putting up.

For the rest of the night, we didnt do much, the rain stopped by 6pm and we took a cab to the Shinjuku Takashimaya Times Square to shop for awhile and have dinner.

Spirits in the sky ?

2007-04-01T19:01:00.000+08:00

This afternoon, I went sightseeing again and was busy snapping away. I love the blue sky here as it makes a nice background when you compose your pictures.

I just happened to look up at the sky and guess what I saw?

Is it a gem ?

Or some sage?

No, it's SAGEM.

Dunno what is that, later surf the net and found out its a telecommunication company. Hmm, wonder is that their advert? if it is, it is a bad one. Who will know what they are trying to advertising right?

Lights off in Sydney

2007-03-31T22:43:00.000+08:00

When it comes to food, I am not that picky, my philosophy when it comes to food: eat to live as compared to live to eat :) Went dinner at around 7pm just now. Since I'm alone, I see no point in spending too much on food so just look for some place and chin chai eat. Last few days I have been eating at food courts but most of them are closed by this time so I wandered to a Japanese cafe near Kinokuniya. Had one of those chicken-don and by the time I finished, it was about 8pm.

As I made my way out, I noticed the streets were unusually dark. Most shops are closed by 7pm on weekdays too but I dont recall seeing so much darkness along the streets. Anyway I dont have any place to go so went straight back to hotel. I switched on the TV to watch the FINA Swimming Championship. In between the telecast, there was a news update and then I got to know that Sydney is dimming the lights tonight to protest emissions. So-des-neh! When I looked out from my hotel room window, alot of buildings doesn't have their usual lightings on.

Surfed the web and read more about it. Found that that this exercise starts from 7.30pm for one hour and city officials, thousands of businesses and many more residents cut the lights for energy conservation. No wonder lah, when I was having dinner just now, at one point, one part of the cafe lights suddenly went off and a few diners including me, thought the lights went kaputt.

Luckily I didnt plan to go to see the Harbour Bridge and the Opera house tonight cos I went there this afternoon and took alot of pictures already. Also took some night shots on one of the weekday nights.

It was also reported that Sydney is not the first place to cut the lights for conservation. In February, Paris and other parts of France dimmed the lights for five minutes in a similar gesture, Rome and Athens also took part in it.

I think at some point, we are all guilty in not doing enough to conserve energy. In Singapore, no doubt our weather is hot and humid, in certain places I feel we are using too much aircon. One example is the Geylang East library near my place. I go there very often, at least thrice a week and it is so cold, dont know why they have to set it to so low. I have not feedbacked to them yet, think I should do it and see what they have to say about it.

"Oh I know" - As fake as it is

2007-03-26T20:04:00.001+08:00

The last few days have been a busy one for me at my customer site but I'm glad the people that I worked with are quite nice and are patient enough, despite the many teething problems that are still unresolved.

Don't worry, I'm not going to bore you by blogging about my work stuff but thought I share with you some of my observation at my customer site.

The customer office has an open concept, you don't see manager's room at all, only meeting rooms and the managers sit together with the other employees. The temporary place that I am seated is quite open, so there are alot of people walking pass me every now and then.

During the hours of analysing log files, troubleshooting issues, I will be staring at the computer screen, clicking with the mouse and typing away on my keyboard. Perhaps I am very used to this kind of quiet working environment like in my office, so when there are some noise or people talking loudly, I get abit distracted.

There is this group of ladies who sits very near my cubicle and they like to make small talk and it seems so fake if you listen to their conversation. Lady A complains that her eyes hurts and Lady B sympthaise with a "Oh, I know" and go on to share her story how her eyes hurt also the last time. Later on, someone talks about the weather getting warmer or something and then you hear the "Oh, I know" reply again. I dunno if it comes from the same lady or not, but I keep hearing "Oh, I know", "Oh, I know" that it really sounds so fake to me!

Maybe its just this group of ladies or its some Australian or angmoh way of what we Singaporeans saying "Ya lor" to acknowledge what the other person is saying.

Have you watched the BBC Productions "The Fawlty Towers" ? I highly recommend it, its good old British comedy at its best! This "Oh I know" encounter reminds me of this scene where John Cleese was getting ready to bed and her wife is still on the phone. The husband keep looking at the wife cos the wife isnt talking much but keep saying "Oh I know", "Oh I know" while doing her nails :) The way she did her "Oh I know" is so classic and pretenious that I think those ladies in the office must have try to learn it from her but falls flat in their delivery! Haha.

I am a person with a few words, friends who know me will be able to testify that and if I don't have much to comment, I will not say much. I'm also quite bad in making small talk, and rather than cracking my head on what to say to the person, I prefer to stay quiet. Of cos, I'm not imposing people to stay quiet and not to make small talk, just want to share this incident.

I rather be quiet and be real then try to say something out of nothing, making it look so fake :)

Off to Sydney

2007-03-24T19:27:00.001+08:00

G'day mate! Hope I will get used to the Aussie's accent, quite difficult to hear what they are saying sometimes.

I am at Terminal 2 now, going to check in very soon. Still very full from dinner, so probably have to skip my soon kueh :)

Will update on my trip soon, keeping my fingers crossed that customer will not be too difficult to handle.

Ciao!

Busy

2007-03-23T21:51:00.001+08:00

Been quite busy with work for the past week so have not blogged for awhile. There have been some teething problems with one of our products and was pulled to help out with the support, getting up at 6, 7am to have conference call with customer as well as our US office. Yesterday boss told me that I need to make a trip to customer site as customer demanded someone down to help resolve some issues. Intitially it was requested that our US engineer do the visit but due to resources issues, I have been tasked to do it. It's a dirty job, really, mainly to help 'clear customer sh*t' :( but no choice, have to go.

Customer site at Sydney and by pure coincidence, wifey is also travelling to Sydney on the same day! She is going there to attend a training but hers was booked a few months back but mine just 1 day notice. Have tried to get my reservation on the same flight as hers but fully booked, so my flight is at 8pm+ , hers around midnight. Looking at the bright side, it's nice to have both of us at Sydney at the same time, at company's account :)

It's my second trip down under, been to Sydney back in 2003. Will be there for a week and after this trip, come back rest for 2 days and I will set off to Tokyo with family for holidays! Looking forward to it, hope can see cherry blossoms.

Duets: An American Classic

2007-03-20T11:24:00.001+08:00

Haven't buy any new music CD for quite a long time already.

Bought Tony Bennett latest release: Duets: An American Classic today. This album won him the recent 2007 Grammy Award for Best Traditional Pop Vocal Album. By the way, he is 81 years old but vocals still so good!

Some notable tracks that I enjoyed : I LEFT MY HEART IN SAN FRANCISCO, HOW DO YOU KEEP THE MUSIC PLAYING? – duet with George Michael, SMILE – duet with Barbra Streisand, JUST IN TIME – duet with Michael Bublé and FOR ONCE IN MY LIFE – duet with Stevie Wonder.

I like the James Ingram and Patti Austin's version of "How do you keep the music playing", this new collaboration by Tony and GM is quite nice too.

Check out this awesome performance by Tony and Stevie, especially Stevie's harmonica part:

and with Barbra:

《剃头刀》的吊诡

2007-03-13T09:43:00.001+08:00

Titoudao reviewed on ZaoBao 13th March.

2007-03-13
文／周文龙

看《剃头刀》演出，我像是翻阅一本泛黄相簿，勾起很多过去回忆，包括第一次看《剃头刀》的印象。

　　我想，吴文德开始创作《剃头刀》时，有很多深刻的情感在里头，想一口气倾吐出来。尤其是他对母亲的感恩，对街戏沦落的愤愤不平，对时代面貌的缅怀，都在舞台上显露无遗。这使《剃头刀》贴近吴文德内心的炽热情感，有种超越文本的悸动。

■触动人心的情感没有了

　　重演《剃头刀》，这种触动人心的情感没有了，吴文德收起昔日激情，更冷静地审视这出戏，更精确地设计演出的场面效果。

　　看看新《剃头刀》的演员阵容：黄淑贞、谢敏、陈瑞彪、蔡恩来、陈慧娟、阿蒂丽(Alin Mosbit）等。他们都是目前本地剧场最炙手可热的演员群，深受观众喜爱。而吴文德也擅于利用观众对演员的熟悉度，让演员不时在舞台上跟观众进行互动，增加剧场的热闹气氛，使观众融入剧情里。偶尔演员掺杂流行话题如“Rain演唱会”“你们不听我就投票给Hammer”等，更贴近观众生活，引起他们哄堂大笑。　　　

　　总的来说，演员表演自然生动，彼此之间也颇有默契。比较不足的是，所有演员都非福建大戏出身，演起福建大戏来，唱腔、咬字和做工都有得改进。唯有陈瑞彪演得认真，福建大戏表演算是“上得了台面”。

　　这实则也带出演出一个引人深思的问题：《剃头刀》要说的是什么？

■观众想看道地的福建大戏吗？

　　在演出中，吴文德借演员黄淑郑之口，对本地传统街戏渐渐被时髦歌剧和音乐剧所取代感到愤慨。对他而言，街戏的精致性不在外国歌剧音乐剧之下，其美学意义有时更超出后者。通过《剃头刀》演出，他希望观众能正视街戏为重要的艺术形式。

　　然而这次演出观众所接触的，是一群英语演员所演出的福建大戏。这些人演得很认真，态度很积极，但他们那“半生不熟”的演出，老实说并没有带出福建大戏的精彩性，有时倒成为笑点。譬如马来演员阿蒂丽那生硬的福建话，还有蔡恩来夸张的戏曲动作，都是逗起观众笑声的滑稽元素。

　　如果今天的演出换成正式的福建大戏，由道道地地的福建大戏演员来演出，是否会如此受落呢？观众会想看吗？还是他们更想看“半生不熟”的福建大戏呢？

　　这些都是我看《剃头刀》时产生的吊诡问题。

　　同样是彰显传统艺术魅力，赖声川的《暗恋桃花源》找来的是一流的明华园歌仔戏团，演出一流的歌仔戏，让你在笑声中同时被歌仔戏演员的沉稳表演功底所震慑。《剃头刀》也叫人嘻哈绝倒，但笑声后却是空空虚虚的，马上就忘了刚才所笑的是什么了。

　　在一个变迁的时代，许多人都在寻找新的形式，去留住和发扬传统。或许我们也应细想，这些新形式到底留住和发扬了什么？

The Lives of others

2007-03-09T17:15:00.000+08:00

The Germans have been churning out good films over the last few years and I am glad to have watch them.

2006 The Lives of Others
2005 Sophie Scholl - The Final Days
2004 Downfall
2003 Goodbye Lenin

Looking at the above titles, one probably wonder if the Germans have an obsession with their historical past, in particular with the Nazi era, the fall of the Berlin wall cos most of the recent films have stories revolving around that subject. Admittedly, these are events that shake the world and Germany have a big role in it. The leaders were responsible for the Holocaust and the divergence of the German states and one would think the way out to hide from all these shameful pasts was to sweep it under the carpets and not bring it up again. But no, the modern generation did the opposite. Films starts sprouting over the years and the stories usually centers around issues that happens during the traumatic eras. I must applaude the Germans for having the sanity and courage to show to people what they have done wrong in the past as this serves to remind and educate the young of some worthy history lessons.

I went to catch The Lives of others last week, the film freshed from winning the Best Foreign Film in the recent Academy Awards. The story was set in East Berlin during in 1984 and revolves around the Stasi, which is the secret police of East Germany. The Stasi influenced almost every aspect of life in the East Germans back then and it had a network of civilians who infiltrated their family/friends lives to report to the authorities.

The lead character Gerd Wiesler (looks abit like Kevin Spacey) plays a staunch Stasi agent controller. In his routine job, he interrogates people, with no mercy, till they reveal the underlying facts that the Stasi is after. In a special assignment, he was tasked to spy on a playwright Georg Dreyman, who was suspected of Western leanings. The playright's house was wired and tapped to a nearby room where Gerd sit and listen to the conversations and the exchanges that happens within the house.

I must admit the movie was quite slow paced in the beginning that I dozed off abit :) , but it got better when the story unfolds. Gerd began to empthaise on Georg and this got Gerd's career into trouble ... Heard of the Stockholm syndrome before? Actually the storyline likens to this effect, which is a psychological response sometimes seen for example in an abducted hostage, in which the hostage can show signs of having feelings of loyalty to the hostage-taker, regardless of the danger (or at least risk) in which the hostage has been placed.

Watch it to find out more!

窃听风暴

2007-03-09T16:50:00.001+08:00

This film review on The Lives of Others, appeared in ZaoBao on 2nd March.

2007-03-02
江迅

第七十九届奥斯卡金像奖最佳外语片——德国电影《窃听风暴》（The Lives Of Others），虽在中国不能上演，但该片今年农历新年期间却悄然流行，特别是知识界、文化界，一传十，十传百。朋友见面，竟然不说“恭喜发财，身体健康”，而说“你看《窃听风暴》了吗？”

　　

官方不演民间流行

这是一位中国网民春节期间在“凯迪社区·猫眼看人生”上的帖子：“昨天买了几张碟，其中有部《窃听风暴》，（一译《窃听者》、《别人的生活》、《他人的生活》），朋友坚持要买的。偶（我）以为是类似《国家公敌》的片子，便去上网了。但是那朋友看了不到五分钟便喊道，这个片子你不看，就别在猫眼混了。”

　　在中国不能上演的这部德国故事片《窃听风暴》，在农历新年期间却悄然流行，特别是知识界、文化界，一传十，十传百，买一张《窃听风暴》DVD回家欣赏，成了许多人春节的一个节目。朋友间见面，竟然不说“恭喜发财，身体健康”，而说“你看了《窃听风暴》了吗？”在德国，《窃听风暴》的影响超越了电影范畴，历史学家和政治学者给予它极高的评价。

　　时下在中国，观看盗版DVD《窃听风暴》，联系中国现实谈论《窃听风暴》，已经成为一种社会现象，在地下凝聚成一股风暴，在中共十七大召开前的半年，给政治体制改革的热门话题注入了新鲜元素。

　　另一方面，在最大的中文搜索引擎“百度”搜索一下，“《窃听风暴》”有11万个相关网页，“《窃听风暴》中文字幕”有1100多个网页，此外，还有“《窃听风暴》影评”“《窃听风暴》字幕”“《窃听风暴》迅雷下载”“《窃听风暴》电影”等。

　　《窃听风暴》是2006年最成功的德国电影，不仅荣获第七十九届奥斯卡金像奖最佳外语片，而且它在享有“德国奥斯卡”之称的罗拉奖评选中获得十一项提名，并获得最佳影片、最佳编剧、最佳导演、最佳男主角、最佳男配角、最佳摄影、最佳美术设计等七个重要奖项，平了1999年《罗拉快跑》的纪录。另外，《窃听风暴》还获得三十二届洛杉矶影评人奖最佳外语片奖，以及第六十四届美国电影电视金球奖最佳外语影片提名。

　　《窃听风暴》昨晚开始在本地上映。

电影故事：

东德警察的别样生活

　　这部片长137分钟的剧情片《窃听风暴》，由多纳斯马克(Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck) 导演、编剧，台湾海鹏电影公司发行。故事说的是发生在1984年的事。全东德百姓被100万斯塔西（STASI，前东德国家安全局）秘密警察控制着，还有 200万名告密者，在人口仅1800万的东德，如此多人从事间谍相关活动，堪称史上最为空前绝后的超高密度间谍网。他们窥视着、窃听着东德的每个公民。在东德，600多万人被建立了秘密档案，每3个人中就有一个被监控，如此恐怖的情报工作，造成夫妇、朋友和同事之间到处是线民，监视告密成了人们生活的一部分。

　　东西德统一后的十几年，前东德国家安全局的作为未被公开提及，前东德公民对历史怀有复杂的情绪，《窃听风暴》是他们首次面对这段历史的集体回忆。

秘密警察奉命监视作家

　　《窃听风暴》说的是斯塔西中一个名叫戈德·维斯勒的上尉（乌尔里希·穆埃Ulrich Muhe饰演）奉命对作家乔治·德莱曼（塞巴斯蒂安·考奇Sebastian Koch饰演）展开调查。维斯勒是个审讯和窃听专家。他在德莱曼的公寓里安装了监视设备，透过视频观看发生在作家家里的一切，透过窃听了解他的一言一行，对于敏感的、“不正确”的言论，一一记录，报告上级。他可以听到作家和朋友们关于艺术和社会现实的讨论，和女友西兰（玛蒂娜·吉黛克Martina Gedeck饰演）之间私秘的对话和交往。个人生活几乎是空白的维斯勒在窃听他人生活的过程中发生了变化。

暗中保护被监视对象

　　德莱曼的女友西兰是一位优秀演员，却不得不屈从于文化部长的淫威。维斯勒在监视过程中逐渐对西兰产生了情感，当他监听到德莱曼和西兰的争吵，当他明白西兰遭受的屈辱和所做出的牺牲，他无法忍受了，于是暗中保护这位作家及其女友。不过，他依然尽职地做着他的窃听工作，直到上司的一番话，让他意识到在这个时代，无论你做什么，没有人是绝对安全的。他开始清醒了，于是藏起了原本要上交的报告。

　　德莱曼揭露东德自杀者现状的文章在西德的杂志发表了，西兰被秘密警察抓捕，德莱曼的家被秘密警察搜查。但由于维斯勒的暗中保护，当局对作家的调查因没有证据而以失败告终。没有完成任务的维斯勒事后平静地接受上司的处分，被调往不起眼的检查邮件的部门。

作家给秘密警察的惊喜

柏林墙倒塌的两年之后，德莱曼给素未谋面的维斯勒一个温暖的惊喜。德莱曼终于知道了维斯勒为他所做的一切，他写了一本书《一个好人的奏鸣曲》，就是关于那位只知编号的秘密警察的故事。当维斯勒走过书店，无意中看到德莱曼这部新书时，他买下了，是送给自己的。作家用一本书来表达感激，秘密警察用这本书作为对良知的奖励。

影评：

对人性的提纯

　　中共的窃听技术和手段，早在上世纪四十年代就相当先进。由江苏人民出版社出版的《西安事变新探──张学良与中共关系之谜》（杨奎松著）中就有描述。书中说，毛泽东对长期坚守陕北根据地表示乐观的理由之一，就是“红军窃听电话和破译电报工作相当成功，对于敌人军事行动部署几乎了如指掌”。

后柏林墙与后天安门

　　研究自由主义与中国宪政民主转型的成都大学法学讲师王怡看了《窃听风暴》后说，“我几乎爱上了这部电影”，“这部电影给世界一个机会，尤其是给中国人”。

　　他说，东德国安部监控了1800万人中的600万，线民人数接近全部人口的十分之一，柏林墙竖起的近30年间，平均每天就有8人以“破坏国家安全”的罪名被捕。

　　他说，德国统一后，国安部的全部窃听档案，开放给所有公民查阅。这些监控资料一本本铺开，足有1000公里长，无数人发现自己的同事、朋友、律师和医生都是国安部的告密者，整个社会以极大勇气，承受前所未有的道德打击。

　　1989年的柏林墙和天安门，影片导演是“后柏林墙”一代，而他则是“后天安门”一代。他说：“我能体会一个‘后柏林墙’时代的青年导演，能拍出那样椎心刺骨的创伤。”

新锐导演：

中国缺乏这类影片

　　凭借电影《世界上最疼我的那个人去了》和《我们俩》获得多项电影节大奖的35岁新锐女导演马俪文看完电影《窃听风暴》后的最大感受是，影片“沉静”地表达给她留下深刻印象。该片不仅有大的历史背景，还关注着个人的命运，并伴随着冷静的思考。中国缺乏这种类型的影片。

　　中国电视剧四大最卖座导演之一、《东京审判》导演高群书说，《窃听风暴》风格简约，表现手法真实，令他十分欣赏。他说：“生活对人来说不是绝望，而是充满了希望。这部影片是对人性的提纯。”他认为，《窃听风暴》有监视、有特工，但更主要的是表现普通的日常生活，拍出了一波三折的戏剧性，同时还有奇特的温情。

Titoudao

2007-03-08T13:00:00.001+08:00

Watched Titoudao last night, a play by The Toy Factory productions. It stars Pamela Oei (one of the DimSum Dollies), Beatrice Chia-Richmond, Karen Tan, Sebastian Tan, Chua En Lai etc.

Writted and directed by Goh Boon Teck, the play is a tribute to his mum Madam Oon An Chian, a popular Hokkien street opera (wayang) performer in the 1940s.
The play won "Play of the Year" at the Life Theatre Awards in 2001 and this is the 3rd run.

The wayang part of the show is in Hokkien but dont worry if you think you will catch no ball cos there are English subtitles displayed near the stage :) The actors gave a very good performance and I enjoyed it very much.

The play runs till 31st March, catch it if you can!

Oscars

2007-02-28T17:04:00.001+08:00

It's been a while since I last blogged, backdate a bit to talk about the Oscars.

The Oscars winner list:

Best Picture: The Departed
Best Director: Martin Scorsese for The Departed
Best Original Screenplay: Little Miss Sunshine
Best Adapated Screenplay: The Departed
Best Actor: Forest Whitaker for the Last King of Scotland
Best Actress: Helen Mirren for The Queen
Best Foreign Film: The Lives of Others
Best Supporting Actor: Alan Arkin for Little Miss Sunshine
Best Supporting Actress: Jennifer Hudson for the Dreamgirls
Best Cinematography: Pan's Labyrinth
Best Music Score: Babel

I'm not exactly pleased with the results especially the wins for The Departed, a film adapted from Hong Kong's Infernal Affairs. By far, the honorary Best Picture usually go to a film with credibility, think Schindler's List, Last Emperor, Godfather etc. Of course there are exceptions in the past which I do not agree on as well, like Million Dollar Baby, Shakespear in Love, Chicago etc.

The fact that The Departed was adapted straight from another film just doesn't deem fit to win Best Picture. Yes you can twig the plot, screenplay to make it your own, but to me, it pales against something which is original. I see a difference between adaption from a film and adaption from print. The latter is a far challenging effort, to conceptualise the screenplay from hundred/thousand pages to a film of about 2hours. It brings life to the characters, settings, mood, something that a book may not be able to.

Ok, moving on to Best Director. You probably know that Martin Scorsese was snubbed by the Academy for like 5 times, namely for Raging Bulls, Last Temptation of Christ, Goodfellas, Gangs of New York and Aviator. Martin eventually won this time for The Departed which is not his best. I think the Academy probably pity him this time and give it to him. In the industry, Martin is acclaimed for his works and even without an Oscar statue to his credit, people still respect him. I'm not sure if he's so hard up for the award or not but probably he is. I read somewhere and some sees Martin like a kid who see other kids having toys that he doesn't have and yearns for it. In my opinion, he should have won for Raging Bulls (lost to Robert Redford's family drama Ordinary People). I guess sometime you have to be in their good shoes to win, or in some cases, the Academy seems to be 'biased'.

Take for example the Best Supporting Actress category in this year award. Out of the 5 nominees, Adriana Barraza is Mexican, Cate Blanchett is Australian, Rinko Kikuchi is Japanese and left with the little girl Abigail Breslin and Jennifer Hudson, both American. The little girl is fortunate to be nominated already so the tussle is between the other 4. Cate won for Best Supporting Actress in Aviator in 2004 so unlikely the Academy will let her win again but having watch Notes on a scandal, she gave her a very good performance. Likewise for the other two supporting actress in the Babel especially the Mexian lady who plays a maid to Brad and Cate's characters' kids in the film. And no prizes for guessing who won the award, American Jennifer Hudson and fyi, this is her first movie! So lucky right, first time act, win already, so easy huh! Ok I have not watched Dreamgirls and I may be biased against her. IMHO, I do not see how a role who sing and dance can win a best acting award!

There are other coincidence as well, here goes. Helen Hunt in her first movie role, won Best Actress for As good as it gets, beating Judi Dench, in Mrs Brown, back in 1997. In 1996, another American Francis Macdormand also won in a category in a tug with 3 Brits, 2 Ameicans. That year, Brenda Blethyn was a hot favourite to win for her role in Secrets & Lies but lost. Gwyneth Paltrow beat Cate Blanchett (Elizabeth) also hot favorite back in 1998. You probably see this as American bashing :) afterall this Oscar is an American award so nothing wrong to award Americans right? Well, enough said, I have seen some of those films, make comparisons, read reviews from different sources and view results from different awards and I truly think that this Oscar just does not do justice to some lor.

Doraemon Sightings

2007-02-22T17:55:00.001+08:00

Caught Doraemon at Dhoby Gaut MRT station. He was there to do a 7-11 Promotion. Spend $5 and get a doraemon magnet.

Forgive but never forget

2007-02-20T22:11:00.001+08:00

CNY is supposed to be a time to be joyous but mine was slight marred by an unhappy incident. During my days when I was single, friends and I will organise house visiting during the cny period and we collect angpow from friends parents and play card games to immerse ourselves in the festivities. Now that I'm married, I still try to find time to visit friends or invite friends over as part of the tradition. But what happen this year makes me think twice if I am going to invite this group of friends ever again.

On the 3rd day of CNY, we were invited to a friend house in the morning and also to have lunch. I have another gathering around 3pm that day so in between there were a few hours to spare. I thought I could either visit my uncle or invite friends over but I decided to opt for the latter. So on the 2nd day of CNY, I sent out sms to this group of friends, inviting them over to my place . Guess what, NONE of them replied, ok to be fair, one of my close friend did, that's it. The rest just kept quiet. At this point, you may ask why don't I call them, but friends who know me will know that I am the sms and email kind of person. And to give my friends the benefit of the doubt, it was a last minute arrangment cos it was just a day before.

What will you do if you have something on or find it too rush to fit in an appointment with your busy schedule? Tell the person that you are not free right, if you cannot make it, just say it, whats so difficult with that? For the record I have known them for like 10 over years, though not that close, the group of us still try to make it a point to meet up every Xmas, CNY and occassional gatherings. Perhaps I was just too naive to treat them as my friends or they take me for granted that no one bothers to reply at all?

I was a little perturbed by the lack of response but I thought to myself that maybe they are too busy to reply. So on the 3rd day of CNY, wife and I went to my friends gathering, (its the same group of friends that I'm inviting over to my house). When we meet everyone, none of them said if they will be coming over. One of my close friend help me to check with the others and they said they will be coming over and I also verified with one or two that they will be dropping by too. So after lunch around 12.30pm, we left my friends place and went back home to prepare some snack, goodies and waited patiently. As the time starts ticking away, there is still no one in sight. My close friend who was already at my place received a sms from one of our friends that he and a few others will not be coming, citing some excuses. I start to wonder my existence, why wasn't the message send to me but send to proxy to my close friend instead? It really makes me wonder again if I am a worthless friend or am I too unapproachable? Oh ya forgot to mention that on the 2nd day of CNY, right after I sent the invitation sms, one friend called to my close friend that he has something on and won't be coming over to my place. I didnt get to know it personally , but by proxy again. Perhaps my close friend has more 人缘 than me, that I admit. From then on, excuses started pouring in. Another friend upon receiving my sms that none has turned up, decided not to turn up as well, citing time as an excuse which I refuted right away. Another said she misread my sms and by the time she arrived at my place, I was already out. So was it a case of miscommunication or no communication?

First, none replied my sms to confirm if they are coming , second, others are somehow influence by others' decision not to come, or third, everyone is trying to be politically correct not to reject my invitation and at the same time not attending it, and lastly, I learnt that no reply means automatically that one is not coming, wow, what an assumption! (One of them blurted that if he didnt reply sms then it means he cannot make it and that he dont like to sms, rather call but I did not received either of them, excuses excuses ... This was during dinner at another friend's place dinner (same group of people). I could have just do a no-show as I wasn't in the mood since that afternoon but I am a man of words, and since I have agreed, I still show up but I kept quiet throughout the dinner.

It's the New Year season and I am trying to stay cool to not spoil my mood but in every positive or negative phases in life, we learn some valuable lessons. I'm glad I've gone through this now than later. It makes me sit down and evaluate what kind of friends I have here. Am I making a big fuss out of this? I don't see anyone feeling apologetic for not being able to come to my place, not that I'm desperately seeking for attention or sympathy. Reminds me of a song "You have to hurt", although its a song about love but one can relate it easily to friendship as well. Here's an extract, I've amended abit of the lyrics :)

"
You have to hurt - to understand
You have to get by the best you can
Until you hurt - until you cry
You won't know about friendship
And the reason you’re alive
You have to hurt

All that expectation
Too naive to really see
Maybe they knew better than me
It was better just to let them be

"

Get the gist of it? Yes, sometimes you have to hurt to understand how one feels in times like this. You may think I am petty or not forgiving but if you were not in my shoes, you will not feel the anguish and the disappointment of how I actually felt.

This sounds like bad karma, revengeful but I'm going to just try to forgive but never forget.

Happy Lunar New Year!

2007-02-16T14:30:00.000+08:00

Here's wishing everyone a healthy and prosperous Chinese New Year!

Listen - to the Message of "Babel"

2007-02-15T16:51:00.001+08:00

I caught the movie Babel recently and like it very much. Want to share with you a very good review that I read from www.TheDailyEnlightenment.com

The biblical story of Babel tells of how humans used to speak one language, and how they were later condemned by God to speak different tongues. This is the supposed genesis of the myriad races and mass human conflict via their differences. Of course, other religions such as Buddhism have their own explanations on the source of conflict. The film "Babel" however, is neither about the Bible nor God - it is a modern account of human disconnection, reconnection, and interconnection. "Babel-like", it is also about communication, miscommunication and discrimination, about how language and culture divide outsiders as much as it might unite those familiar.

"Babel" consists of three interlinked accounts of human experiences in three different lands, set in poverty-stricken Morocco, middle-class Mexico and affluent Japan. Transcending differences in language, in fact, beyond language altogether, all human suffering is one and the same in substance, while strangers connect to each other through unconditional kindness. For instance, we see a policeman hug a lonely girl (played by Rinko Kikuchi) he barely knows to comfort her. And we see an old Moroccan woman patting a distraught American woman to sooth her.

Words are not always needed. Words can be too much. Actions speak louder than words, and the often wordless language of compassion is universal. That which connects us all is that which would save us all. This is the human condition. We are disconnected only by discrimination, reconnected by empathy and understanding. Humankind essentially consists of kind humans, though some might forget to be kind from time to time.

A Moroccan father buys a rifle from a man, who received it as a gift from a Japanese hunter (played by Koji Yakusho). His sons he passes it to were supposed to use it to shoot and kill jackals endangering the family’s goats. However, one of them fires it at a bus for fun, thereby injuring an American woman, whose children back home were unwittingly put through a harrowing experience of being lost when their nanny takes them out of the country. Though worlds apart on the same planet, everyone above are protagonists in the interweaved life-turning story of their lives. Just how many degrees of separation are there between each party? Much much less than they or the audience expected. Yes, we are interdependent in the web of life.

The tagline of "Babel" is simple yet profound - "Listen". It is from the failure to listen deeply that so many interpersonal problems arise. Themes on the importance of communication thus recur in the film. The estranged American couple (played by Brad Pitt and Cate Blanchett) were frustrated from marital strain when neither could communicate their feelings of guilt and blame to each other. In their absence, their family nanny Amelia (played by Adriana Barraza) could not communicate to them the overwhelming significance of attending her son’s wedding in Mexico, which compelled to bring them across without asking.

The Japanese father was accused of not "listening" to her deaf-mute daughter, but she too failed to "see" he was trying his best – both suffering from loss of the central person in their lives – the wife of the first and the mother of the latter. Attempting to mindlessly drown her sorrows and loneliness in drugs, alcohol and sex, she awakens to the fact of the futility of it all, as she reconnects with her father. Ironically, while it is tragic when there are gaps in connection, it often takes a tragedy to bridge gaps.

The subject of gun control comes to mind too. The rifle, a gift of goodwill, almost becomes a cursed accessory to manslaughter. The "hunter" becomes the hunted. The boy who fired the gun is hunted down with his family by the authorities. The misunderstood become demonised, mistaken as terrorists by their own people. Is it better to demonise the suspicious? Obviously, it is "safer" for the demoniser (at least in the short term), but dangerously unfair to the wrongly demonised. Regrets loom ahead for the demonisers too.

While politics is supposed to help people, the overly-politicised harms them instead, as we see governments argue over red tape and "face" issues, while lives are at risk. Fellow Americans on the same tour bus demonise the Moroccans as dangerous, as they flee in fear and for comfort, abandoning the desperate couple in a village without medical aid. When the husband fights to retain the use of the bus, these questions came to mind - In our bid to help the ones we love, is it at the stake of altruism for others? Conversely, is altruism at the stake of those we love? Is it possible to have a win-win situation? Why not? Was the husband selfish or were the other passengers so? Do we have the courage to give priority for the bigger picture when we need to? Well, the Buddha did renounce his worldly family to seek the path to True Happiness for the greater cosmic family – of all beings!

"Babel" is about paying attention to each other’s pain and sorrow, about forgiveness and healing. It is about bridging of differences with similarities, about humans saving each other from alienation, from being stranded in existential desert of isolation. "Babel" is about how we are all lost without each other, about how much we cannot afford to lose each other. Simply too much is at stake. Let us listen.

- Shen Shi'an

Your inner circle comes first

2007-02-15T09:30:00.001+08:00

Something to share, something to ponder over:

The Electric New Paper : One day to live? Your inner circle comes first

By Shashank Nigam
14 February 2007

LAST year, I attended a panel discussion on the working lifestyles of Singaporeans at a conference at the Singapore Management University.

A top executive of a local bank sat on the panel, and when a student asked for his views on striking a work-life balance, this was his reply:

Put your heart and soul into work while you are young, he said. Work hard until you are about to retire. Only then should you find time to do the things you really want and start spending time with your family.

This philosophy would supposedly help to ease us into retirement when the time comes.

His views troubled me, but I did not have a good counter-suggestion - till now.

I recently read Chasing Daylight by Eugene O'Kelly, the former CEO of accounting firm KPMG.
After rising to the top ranks of the accounting world, MrO'Kelly was diagnosed with brain cancer. He was given 100 days to live.

Though the book is about the writer's impending death and how he 'managed' it professionally, I felt he had clearly put forth a lesson in prioritising. Although (or perhaps because) he did not live a very balanced life, his reflections are powerful.

He wrote about a manager who came home after a three-day trip. The first thing he did, to his family's dismay, was to check his e-mail.
'Is that necessary?,' asked MrO'Kelly.
'In his interview, when the manager was asked why he worked as hard as he did, he replied without hesitation, that it was because he loved his family.
'And he wanted them to know that (despite the fact that his clients had greater access to him than his family).'
MrO'Kelly hired a consultant to teach the manager in the story, and those like him, the simple joy of having dinner with their families with their handphones turned off.
Upon returning home, the manager was told, spend the first 30 minutes giving undivided attention to the family.

This advice made me to think hard about my life too. Even though I'm still in school, I have to confess that I'm guilty of spending 90 per cent of my waking hours stuck to my laptop (even on the train, where I'm writing this article). Unfortunately, this is true for most of my friends as well.

In Singapore, we are taught to be dedicated and hardworking (which is good), but never taught how to prioritise various aspects of our lives.

In his last days, MrO'Kelly organised the people he wanted to spend time with into what he called 'unwinding circles'.

The concept involves six concentric circles featuring the people in his life. The least important people are placed in the outermost circles and the most important ones at the core. For example, the outermost circle may be filled with acquaintances, the next one with close business associates, and his immediate family at the core. MrO'Kelly then spent the most time with the people at the core and less with those on the periphery. It is a simple yet effective way of realising how important certain people are and how much time (and energy) they deserve.
This has made me think of how often we spend our time with those in the outer few circles, at the expense of those in the innermost ones.

Is it really necessary to have breakfast once a week with people in circle one? Maybe not.
As MrO'Kelly wrote: 'When I joined KPMG, I rose through the ranks by sheer hard work. I set an example by being the most hardworking person ever, at every post I took up.
'What if I had set an example of the most accomplished balancer of life? What if I had left work at 5pm every day and yet got all the work cleared and had become a symbol of a family man?'
It's certainly worth thinking about.

The writer is a final-year student at the School of Information Systems at Singapore Management University.
Shashank Nigam
Guest columnist

Awesomely Bad Love Songs to Avoid

2007-02-14T09:14:00.000+08:00

I'm a sucker for 80s music and 80s MTV and last week when I was in KL, there was a VH1 countdown on the top 40 awesomely bad love songs on the MTV Channel. I stayed up to watch and it was fun to hear the quirky comments from song writers, people in the music industry why those chosen songs are awesomely bad.

Here is the list, more than half of them are from the 80s, the cheesy period in music history.
I like some of them actually :)

40. Hero - Enrique Iglesias
39. Is This Love - Whitesnake
38. Joanna - Kool & The Gang
37. God Must Have Spent A Little More Time On You - N'SYNC
36. You're The Inspiration - Chicago
35. The Search Is Over - Survivor
34. Get Here - Oleta Adams
33. Truly, Madly, Deeply - Savage Garden
32. When You Close Your Eyes - Night Ranger
31. Heaven - Warrant
30. Suddenly - Billy Ocean
29. You Got It All - The Jets
28. Endless Nights - Eddie Money
27. Eternal Flame - The Bangles
26. All My Life - K-Ci & Jojo
25. Love Of A Lifetime - Firehouse
24. I'd Do Anything For Love (But I Won't Do That) - Meatloaf
23. Rosanna - Toto
22. I Get Weak - Belinda Carlisle
21. When I See You Smile - Bad English
20. Oh Sherrie - Steve Perry
19. All I Wanna Do Is Make Love To You - Heart
18. High Enough - Damn Yankees
17. As Long As You Love Me - Backstreet Boys
16. I Drove All Night - Celine Dion
15. All For Love - Bryan Adams, Rod Stewart, Sting
14. I'll Be Loving You (Forever) - New Kids On The Block
13. The Flame - Cheap Trick
12. Sometimes - Britney Spears
11. To Be With You - Mr. Big
10. I'll Make Love To You - Boyz II Men
9. Hold On To The Nights - Richard Marx
8. I Need A Girl (Part 1) - P. Diddy & Usher
7. Love Somebody - Rick Springfield
6. Key Largo - Bertie Higgins
5. How Can We Be Lovers If We Can't Be Friends - Michael Bolton
4. Tonight I Celebrate My Love - Peabo Bryson & Roberta Flack
3. I Adore Mi Amor - Color Me Badd
2. Even The Nights Are Better - Air Supply
1. Truly - Lionel Richie

So think twice before you sing or dedicate any of the above songs to your loved ones :)

Happy Valentine's Day !

Hong Bao time

2007-02-12T09:34:00.000+08:00

Last night wife and I started to prepare hong bao (red packets) to be given during CNY.

These are some nice cartoon designs that we are going to give to some little ones, the olders ones will get the normal no-frills kind, hehe :)

To queue or not to queue

2007-02-06T00:01:00.000+08:00

In the words of William Shakespeare, to queue or not to queue, that is the question :)
I have this incident to share during my recent KL trip.

I was put up at Hilton Kuala Lumpur, situated very near to the KL Sentral station, an interchange where you can commute easily using their different forms of train systems.
Over the span of five days, I use the following trains to get from site to site and it is really a good means of transportation, cheaper and faster than taking a cab.

KLIA Ekspres

You can ride on this to get from the Airport to KL Sentral station, very comfortable and clean. One plus point is it is non-stop and the whole journey clocks at a flat 28mins.

KL Monorail

I took this to go to Times Square shopping mall. The Monorail station is within a stone throw from Sentral station.

KLIA Transit

Took this to Mid Valley Shopping mall.

KL LRT

Use this to go to my customer site which is 5 mins from the KLCC station. It is their equivalent of our MRT system.

On my very first trip taking their LRT, after getting down the stairs , I walked towards the yellow line and waited patiently for the train. As the train was abit late, I looked around and was abit shocked to see lines of people queuing! Didnt know they have such a 'system' to queue to get into the trains cos you know in Singapore, we like to queue for food, freebies, buy condos but NEVER for buses or MRT. I felt abit embarrassed cos I realised I was the only soul standing near the yellow line and everyone seems to be staring at me. With that malu look on my face, I went to join in the queue :) I observed this queueing happens in all the different LRT stations that I went to.

A few days later, I decided to go to another shopping mall and in order to reach there, I need to take the KLIA Transit, not the subway type. While making my way down to the train waiting area, I saw hoards of people crowding around the yellow line and there is no queues whatsoever. When the train arrives, everybody try to push and squeeze their way through to get into the train cabins.

Hmm, such double standards. Why can't they adopt a common standard, either queue for all or don't queue at all :)

Well, moral of the story: do as the Romans do.

Off to Kuala Lumpur

2007-02-04T11:04:00.000+08:00

I am at Changi Aiport Terminal two now, at the same free Internet access station where I last blogged before I depart for my previous Beijing trip. Going KL this time, its a short trip, just 5 days to give training. Though KL is just next to Singapore, this is only my 2nd trip there, my first biz trip, earlier trip was a short weekend trip by overnight coach. I have not seen KLCC, Petrona Twin Towers etc, somehow it doesn't excite me to gaga, but anyway, since I will be there, hope can do abit of shopping, see anything nice and cheap to buy :)

Bengawan Solo outlet is just next to me, the 'soon kweh' is beckoning me to go take a bite, will go and get my soon kweh now!

Fortune Forecast Lunar 2007

2007-01-25T10:04:00.000+08:00

Chinese New Year is less than 3 weeks away and as we await the Year of the Pig, take a look at your fortune for the year ahead. If its good, hope it will turn out well as predicted, if it's not that good, tell yourself your life is in your own destiny so take this forecast as a pinch of salt, ok? :)

Oink Oink, do you know how you fare in my lunar year?

Oscars!

2007-01-24T13:50:00.000+08:00

The Oscars nominations were just released yesterday! Here goes:

1. Best Picture:

"Babel," "The Departed," "Letters From Iwo Jima," "Little Miss Sunshine," "The Queen."

2. Actor:

Leonardo DiCaprio, "Blood Diamond"; Ryan Gosling, "Half Nelson"; Peter O'Toole, "Venus"; Will Smith, "The Pursuit of Happyness"; Forest Whitaker, "The Last King of Scotland."

3. Actress:

Penelope Cruz, "Volver"; Judi Dench, "Notes on a Scandal"; Helen Mirren, "The Queen"; Meryl Streep, "The Devil Wears Prada"; Kate Winslet, "Little Children."

4. Supporting Actor:

Alan Arkin, "Little Miss Sunshine"; Jackie Earle Haley, "Little Children"; Djimon Hounsou, "Blood Diamond"; Eddie Murphy, "Dreamgirls"; Mark Wahlberg, "The Departed."

5. Supporting Actress:

Adriana Barraza, "Babel"; Cate Blanchett, "Notes on a Scandal"; Abigail Breslin, "Little Miss Sunshine"; Jennifer Hudson, "Dreamgirls"; Rinko Kikuchi, "Babel."

6. Directing:

Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu, "Babel"; Martin Scorsese, "The Departed"; Clint Eastwood, "Letters From Iwo Jima"; Stephen Frears, "The Queen"; Paul Greengrass, "United 93."

7. Foreign Language Film:

"After the Wedding," Denmark; "Days of Glory (Indigenes)," Algeria; "The Lives of Others," Germany; Pan's Labyrinth," Mexico; "Water," Canada.

Judging from the list, personally I think some categories like Best Picture, Actor, Director can be quite widely contested. I have not watched all the films but the Academy can be biased towards certain type of movies and may award the winners based on that.

For Best Picture, I think it will be a toss between Babel and Letters From Iwo Jima. The Departed is adapted from Hong Kong Infernal Affairs, so to me, it lacks credibility. Doubt a movie on The Queen will get the votes from the American for Best Picture, was surprised that they select it as one of the nominees, maybe just give face to show they are netural, must surely give The Queen some face :) Little Miss Sunshine is a light hearted indie film, won a number of film festivals awards last year, usually Best Picture they give to some heavy weight films so doubt it will get the nods from the panels of judges.

My take on the Best Actress category: Helen Mirren, without a doubt!

I enjoyed Little Miss Sunshine and if you have watched it, you will agree with me the 10 year old girl gave a jolly good performance! Not surprised to see her in the nomination list cos there isn't many strong contenders. For the Best Supporting Actress category, other than Jennifer Hudson who won the recent Golden Globes, this 10 year old Abigail Breslin may give Hudson a run for the little statue.

As for Best Actor, Forest Whitaker won in the Golden Globes, so he may be the favourite to win again. Not sure if the Academy will give a nod to Peter O'Toole, after all he is quite old and he did not win for Lawerence of Arabia back then.

What a little kid can teach you

2007-01-22T09:26:00.000+08:00

"Accept what's broken, fix what you can, and adapt to what you can't, and in doing so, you discover new joys in simpler things".

- From Mr Brown's blog entry

Its true what a little kid can teach you.
We look at ourselves, at the people around us, when did we NOT complain/grumble when things don't work or did not meet our expectations?

Like the little kid, perhaps we should try to be a little patient and try not to complain so much about things cos I believe to every problem, there will always be a solution.

What do people usually complain about ?
These are what I can think of:

We complain about the hot weather, complain about the rainy days, complain about waiting, complain things cannot work etc etc

Why dont we look at the bright side of life?

when it's hot, we can tell ourselves to try to stay indoors
when it's raining, we should be glad that the weather is cooling
when clothes/shoes/household things is torn/stained/spoilt, take it as an excuse to buy new ones lah :)
When you are waiting in a long queue to see a doctor, pay at the cashier, order your food, make use of the time, listen to your music player, play with your phone, call a friend etc and time will pass by easily and you won't feel the pain of waiting

Here's a positive song I would like to share. Enjoy!

Always Look on the Bright Side of Life (from Monty Python)
- words and music by Eric Idle

Some things in life are bad
They can really make you mad
Other things just make you swear and curse.
When you're chewing on life's gristle
Don't grumble, give a whistle
And this'll help things turn out for the best...

And...always look on the bright side of life...
Always look on the light side of life...

If life seems jolly rotten
There's something you've forgotten
And that's to laugh and smile and dance and sing.
When you're feeling in the dumps
Don't be silly chumps
Just purse your lips and whistle - that's the thing.

And...always look on the bright side of life...
Always look on the light side of life...

For life is quite absurd
And death's the final word
You must always face the curtain with a bow.
Forget about your sin - give the audience a grin
Enjoy it - it's your last chance anyhow.

So always look on the bright side of death
Just before you draw your terminal breath

Life's a piece of shit
When you look at it
Life's a laugh and death's a joke, it's true.
You'll see it's all a show
Keep 'em laughing as you go
Just remember that the last laugh is on you.

And always look on the bright side of life...
Always look on the right side of life...
(Come on guys, cheer up!)
Always look on the bright side of life...
Always look on the bright side of life...
(Worse things happen at sea, you know.)
Always look on the bright side of life...
(I mean - what have you got to lose?)
(You know, you come from nothing - you're going back to nothing.
What have you lost? Nothing!)
Always look on the right side of life...