a finesse for reminiscing..

Note Bene for Musicians

2010-10-12T19:22:00.002+08:00

Note Bene for Musicians

p - piano (soft) - the neighbours have complained
f - forte (loud) - the neighbours are out
Crescendo - getting louder - testing the neighbours' tolerance level
ff - fortissimo (VERY loud) - to hell with the neighbours
pp - pianissimo (VERY soft) - the neighbours are at the door
Dim. - thick
Obbligato - being forced to practice
Rit. and/or Rall. - coming up to a bit you haven't practiced
Con moto - I have a car
Allegro - A little motor car
Maestro - A bigger motor car
Metronome - Person small enough to fit comfortably into a Mini
Lento - the days leading up to Easto (with eggo and choco and things)
Largo - brewed in Germany (Hence "Handel's Largo" reaches parts other beers cannot reach!)
Piu Animato - if you don't clean that rabbit cage out, it will have to go
Interval - time to meet the players in the bar
Perfect interval - when drinks are on the house
Cantabile - singing (that is, viz. drunk)
Con spirito - drunk again
Cantata - a fizzy drink
Tutti - ice cream
Coda - a fish-a served with chipsa
Codetta - childs portion
Chords - things that organists play with one finger
Dischords - things that organists play with two fingers
Suspended chord - for lynching the soloist
Rubato - ointment for the musician's back
Subdominant - "I can't play until I've asked the wife"
Tonic - a pick-me-up
Syncopation - bowel condition brought on by an overdose of Jazz
Crotchet - knitting
Quaver - the feeling before a lesson when you haven't practised
Key signature - silly things put there to frighten you (ignore them, they will go away, and so will your audience)
Time signatures - things for drummers to ignore
Colla voce - this shirt is so tight I can't talk
Professional - anyone who can't hold down a steady job
Flats - English apartments
A tempo - (just) in time
A tempo de cafe - Ah, coffee time!
Improvisation - what you do when the music falls down
Fugue - clever stuff
Prelude - warm-up session before the clever stuff
Acciaccattura/appoggiatura - insects
Opus - exclamation made when Moggy has done a "whoopsie" on the carpet
Scales - fishy things
Trills - bird food
Virtuoso - someone who can work wonders with easy-play music
Antiphonal - crossed lines
Melody - an ancient and now extinct art in songwriting
Music - Happiness!

Birthday Review

2010-10-05T06:35:00.002+08:00

2006 - Clarke Quay, Singapore
2007 - Bangkok, Thailand
2008 - Bulle, Switzerland
2009 - London, England
2010 - Lossiemouth, Scotland

Birthdays can be such surreal affairs, indeed.

Linguistic Snobbery

2010-05-15T02:36:00.003+08:00

Someone please explain to me why the f**k does the UK Home Office's Border Agency not classify Singapore as a "majority English speaking" country. Least I need to remind them, it was their empire-building, bureaucratic Georgian ancestors, who realized that perhaps the British wasn't quite as dominant as the Dutch within the archipelago, that sailed to those fair shores nearly 200 years ago in an attempt to colonize the island, and introduced English as the "administrative standard".

Just so we're clear, every child in Singapore goes through at least 10 years of compulsory English language education, along with an appropriate mother tongue language -- this makes nearly everybody in Singapore effectively bilingual. Besides being the first language, English, along with Malay, Chinese and Tamil, is an official language of Singapore. There also are stringent checks and balances within the education system which makes sure absolutely everybody receives the necessary bilingual education, which is more than I can say for the UK education system.

Interestingly, the UK Border Agency does classify Barbados, Guyana and Jamaica as "majority English speaking" countries. Nothing wrong with that, since English is indeed the official language in these countries. But just because Singapore decided to take a stand against British repossession of the country after WWII, not recognize the Queen as our head of state and not send children to wave little Union Jack flags should the Queen visit, and don't know how to sing "God Save the Queen", doesn't mean we're not better off than the UK in terms of linguistic competence. It's about time the UK government grew out of these narrow, Eurocentric views already!

Just in case you're interested, the countries that the UKBA recognizes as "majority English speaking" countries are: Antigua and Barbuda, Australia, Bahamas, Barbados, Belize, Canada, Dominica, Grenada, Guyana, Jamaica, New Zealand, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, St Vincent & The Grenadines, Trinidad and Tobago, and the United States. God, I couldn't even say all that without without coughing "Commonwealth" and "empire colony" in between!

Ouch, Ouch, Ouch

2010-02-25T11:26:00.006+08:00

South Korea disqualified from the 3000m relay finals and China still manages to get the gold with a Olympic record?!! UTTERLY, ABSURBLY RIDICULOUS!!

Olympic Fever!

2010-02-25T11:21:00.000+08:00

My thoughts are becoming more and more random these days, and this is being exemplified with mental exhaustion that has pretty much put me in a very sullen mood this past week. Combined with the never-ending stream of coursework to deal with, I find myself slowly devolving into a one-man party, having conversations with myself and sometimes not just inside my head.

So earlier this week I was waiting for the 210 bus at Finsbury Park, and at the terminus there was a parked 210 with the doors shut and light off, but with the driver still inside. Outside the bus gathered 15 or 20 people, myself included, in the cold and patiently waiting for the bus to start running. Interestingly, the driver was inside at his seat sipping at a cup of hot coffee waiting for his next shift.

Now, don't get me wrong -- I didn't expect myself to be let into the bus before it started running just so I could get out of the cold. Bus drivers all have a timetable to adhere and stick to, though a fair number of them just simply couldn't be bothered. What I was bemused at, however, so the driver's strong yet perverted sense of resolve, where he had the courage to sip coffee within the warm interiors of his bus in front of dozens of waiting passengers. Positive or not? Admirable in a way? I can't really decide.

Almost my entire past week has been mostly preoccupied with continuous watching of the Winter Olympics. I guess part of the reason is because I'm catching up on all the ones I missed previously -- Singapore never ever had TV coverage of the Winter Olympics, up till 2006 as far as I know. I guess we can't be bothered with keeping up with an international sports meet in which we know we will never win in a hundred lifetimes. Then again, watching something as exciting as the Olympics wouldn't make a lot of sense if you didn't have one or two teams to root for, so I've been paying particular interest to Team GB's progress especially in curling and the sliding events.

Still, nothing beats the exhilaration from watching the South Korean team on the short track -- it's hard not to root for them indeed. Apart from their obvious blazing speed, their style, race strategy and signature tactic of skating from behind in the last few laps make it even more exciting. On the other hand, the US team for short track has been quite rubbish to watch, to be honest. A lot of pushing and shoving from J R Celski and Katherine Reutter, with Apollo Anton Ohno taking the cake for being rough on and off the track. Who can forget the unpleasant verbal comments he had for the South Korean team after winning through lucky circumstances in the 1,500m finals!

I was just watching the 500m qualifying races earlier just now and the commentators were just talking about how Simon Cho, representing the US, could be from Korea "given his name". He placed second behind South Korea (of course) for that particular race, and I couldn't help but think of how Singapore is doing the same -- "poaching" Chinese table tennis players then fielding them against China under the Singapore flag, only for them to lose to their former fellow countrymen and women. This is most recently exemplified in Beijing two years ago. Must be quite the lousy feeling!

I've becoming quite a fan of curling as well, and have been tracking Team GB's progress quite closely. The men's team just crashed out just shy of the semifinals, which is a shame. And of course, Eve Muirhead skipping the women's team was quite the feat, given the fact 19-year-old's debut at the Olympics has been wrought with heaps of pressure. Very good effort! In the meantime, it's the women's bobsleigh that's under way as I'm typing this, and Great Britain 1 just crashed at the notorious (but admittedly very exciting) track at Whistler Sliding Centre. Those who've been watching the sliding events will remember how Dan Money and John Jackson crashed at the infamous corner 13 last week. Tonight two teams have already crashed at corner 11, and not all teams have finished their fourth run in the heats, with Great Britain 1 being one of them.

Well, it's only a couple days left for the 2010 Winter Olympics, and I must say I'm going to miss it -- and eagerly anticipate the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi! Then again, I should stop staying up till 3am everyday watching the Olympics...

All About 14-02

2010-02-18T21:11:00.005+08:00

14 February just passed, and it was a day shared between Lunar New Year (that means Chinese New Year, Korean New Year, Mongolian New Year, Tibetan New Year and Vietnamese New Year) and Valentine's Day. Now, having never being much of a fan of the latter, I was anxious to make sure that I could keep myself occupied with Lunar New Year celebrations so I wouldn't feel too dismal, especially with Min-joo away in Korea.

Last year's Chinese New Year left a very bad taste in my mouth for me, I'm sure some of you might have heard. Nonetheless, this year definitely made up for the last -- I had an amazing reunion dinner of sorts this time round with Jinn, Robyn, Jinn's sister Hsu Mei and her hubby Peter. Dinner was at Hsu Mei and Peter's place in Blackheath, and they practically played model hosts with a fantastic dinner, amazing wine and a very comfortable duvet for myself.

Chinese New Year evening itself was spent with Gordon and his folks who were visiting him in London. How sweet is that! We went for dinner at Four Seasons in Chinatown before Gordon and me headed over to GAMA (for obvious reasons known to Gordon, of course) and we had a bit of soju to round off the Chinese New Year festivities. Not that the celebration has to end though, this Sunday there will be massive Chinese New Year celebrations in Chinatown, complete with lion dances and firecrackers before topping it all off with fireworks in Trafalgar Square. Nice!

Sun nin fai lok to all, and gung hei fatt choi! And yes, happy Valentine's Day to you, if you insist.

Dawn of a New Decade

2010-01-31T23:25:00.001+08:00

When I was a bit younger, say four to five years back, I was always constantly hanging out with friends who were substantially older than I was -- I would be fresh into my twenties but most of my mates would be hitting their mid to late twenties, some even in their early thirties. Not that it was a problem at all, except I was attending lots of weddings as people usually do get married at around that age.

And while all of that was going on, I always thought to myself, "Your friends may be getting married but it's alright -- they're older, while you're only 21 and enjoying it!" And now, fast forward half a decade and we're looking at the fact that I will be 25 years old this year. I think of the very day I turned 20 (yes I remember it like it were yesterday!) and how I'm now just about halfway to 30. And friends who are MY age, people whom I went to school and college with, are now starting to get married. What's my excuse now?

Hanging out with friends who were older back then has made me grow up in a constant this-will-never-happen-to-me state of denial. And I have this feeling that when I finally realize that this is all about to change, I will not be prepared for it. At all.

Staying At Home Is Bad

2009-12-13T03:21:00.006+08:00

So it's been a week and a half since my tumultuous attempt to enter the Gambia -- for those who don't know, I hopped on a plane to Gambia, got rejected at immigration and hopped on the same plane for the return flight back to London. How tedious, isn't it? To cut the long story short, the natives at Gambia immigration felt that my Singapore High Commission-issued temporary travel document, validated by the Gambian High Commission for right of entry, wasn't good enough for them. Guess that's what happens in developing countries like Gambia -- present something that looks more complicated than a one-plus-one-equals-two formula and they throw their arms into the air (minus the spears) declaring not knowing what to do at the top of their voice.

In any case, I have been utterly free and bored to tears since now I have an empty three-week holiday where I'm restrained within the shores of the great UK 'cos the Home Office still has my real passport. I did, however, make an impromptu trip down to Sheffield to visit Jinn, Robyn, Ikhwan and the rest of the guys. Which was quite useful for my psyche, really. Sometimes, spending a couple days outside London does the trick.

Four days later and I was back in London, and since this week started I've only been out of the house on three out of seven days. Not too bad, some hermits might argue -- but if you consider how terribly busy I was during the period leading up to the Gambia trip and all of a sudden, I can now afford to go to bed every night without having to set an alarm, three out of seven days isn't a lot at all. That means for the four remaining days, I did nothing all day but sit on my bum, watch loads of TV, play lots of Xbox 360 and basically just get fat.

And that started to bug me when I thought of how I bought a 7-day zone 1-3 travelcard on Saturday the 5th (the day I arrived back in London from Sheffield) and I just possibly might not have finished using the £21.10 worth it cost me to get the travelcard. Now, that would obviously suck because I wouldn't have paid for a travelcard only to stay in all day, whether by conscious choice or not. So, in all my glorious free time, I listed down all the trips I took within those seven days to see if I tallied up -- and since I was bored enough to come up with this comprehensive list, I thought I might as well just shared it with all of you.

Saturday 05/12:
Kings X Stn - Golders Green Stn [£2.20]
Golders Green Stn - Montrose Ct [£1.00]

Sunday 06/12:
Montrose Ct - Turnpike Ln Stn [£1.00]
Turnpike Ln Stn - Stoke Newington Stn [£1.00]
Stoke Newington High St - Angel Stn [£1.00]
Angel Stn - Golders Green Stn [£2.20]
Golders Green Stn - Montrose Ct [£1.00]
Montrose Ct - Golders Green Stn [£1.00]
Golders Green Stn - Stroud Gn Rd [£1.00]
Stroud Gn Rd - Golders Green Stn [£1.00]
Golders Green Stn - Montrose Ct [£1.00]

Monday 07/12:
-NIL-

Tuesday 08/12:
-NIL-

Wednesday 09/12:
Montrose Ct - Golders Green Stn [£1.00]
Golders Green Stn - Montrose Ct [£1.00]

Thursday 10/12:
-NIL-

Friday 11/12:
Montrose Ct - Golders Green Stn [£1.00]
Golders Green Stn - Camden Town Stn [£1.10]
Camden Town Stn - Russell Sq Stn [£1.60]
Russell Sq - Oxford St [£1.00]
Leicester Sq Stn - Golders Green Stn [£2.20]
Golders Green Stn - Montrose Ct [£1.00]

Blue, of course, refers to bus journeys and green for tube journeys. So, as you can see, my total PAYG equivalent for my week's travel came up to £23.30 -- close! But at least my (discounted) travelcard did not go to naught. Oh dear, now look what I've become. An obsessive hermit.

The "I-Can't-Believe-It's-Already-Christmas" Post

2009-12-01T05:39:00.003+08:00

Wow, so I'm actually back at my blog doing a post. It has been a long while indeed. But definitely not long enough to make me wonder why is it already Christmas. True, it's twenty-five days away, but it might as well just be tomorrow to me.

Ah, yes, tomorrow. I'm heading off to Gambia with my colleagues from the Leadership course, under the Guildhall Professional Development Department. It's my first time to Africa, so you can imagine how bloody excited I am! Still, I had so much to finish up today before leaving tomorrow, it was utterly insane. I've had a couple of those big days where you traverse the entire Greater London throughout the course of one day, but I think today's itinerary has yet to be superseded by any I've experienced.

So, it was (in order):

- Croydon in the morning to get my biometric enrolment done at the UK Border Agency's Public Enquiry Office in Croydon.

- Lunch in Wimbledon -- great sushi at this place called Ta-Maki. And I took the tramlink for the first time from Croydon to Wimbledon. How exciting, right.

- Piano teaching in Fulham.

- High Street Kensington to drop by the Gambian High Commission to get my temporary travel document verified.

- Tottenham Court Road to get my hair cut. It's awfully short now.

- East Finchley for a quick rehearsal at Tyler's place for a recording he wanted to do with me.

- Muswell Hill for the recording session itself.

Amazing, huh! Now that's a real milking of my Oyster travelcard. Well, tomorrow it's hopping on the first 460 bus at 5:29am to Cricklewood to catch the train to Gatwick. Ho hum. Combined with the 2, 3-hours of sleep on average that I have been having every night since Thursday night, I think I am going to have a very interesting time in Gambia. Uh-huh.

Summer Shenanigans

2009-09-15T07:22:00.002+08:00

Yes indeed, it has been a while since I've updated anything here. A very long while indeed! Summer is indeed well and truly over here now in London, with the weather dipping to 15 deg C for most of the day. Not that I'm complaining -- the severe heatwave over the summer was a stark reminder as to how invaluable air conditioning can be!

Anyhow, summer saw Sezenyum in Southeast Asia over five weeks for an amazing residency at Yong Siew Toh Conservatory of Music in Singapore as well as workshop projects around KL and finally some intensive Balinese gamelan training in Flower Mountain, Payangan. It's been a wonderful experience so far, to say the least -- going back to Singapore has also made me realize how much I actually do miss home, and how I actually do want to end up there, eventually. The workshops in KL were a great success, and the participants of every single workshop were far more responsive and creative than we could have hoped for.

Having said that, I've stitched together a short video showcasing what we experienced, with scenes mostly from our one-week stay in Bali. Indeed, this particular trip to Bali has been nothing like my previous trips. Watching Pak Sumandi do his amazing wayang kulit show, visiting Meili's temple for it's anniversary ceremonies and celebrations, being part of the cremation ceremony in Kedawatan, having lunch on the rim of Gunung Batur overlooking the volcano, watching a gambu performance staged for our private viewing pleasure -- I could go on and on. It's been unforgettable, to say the least!

What Home Office?

2009-07-13T22:24:00.003+08:00

Here's a copy of a complaint email which I sent to the Home Office recently, regarding the most abhorrant experience we've experience in trying to apply a student visa for her to remain in the UK. I'm sure many fellow visa-applying members will find this helpful and relevant -- feel free to use it as a reference.

Dear Sir/Madam,

My name is Jonathan and I am writing to you on behalf of my partner who is currently applying for leave to remain in the UK under the Points Based Tier 4 scheme.

She sent in her visa application as far back as 10 weeks ago, and completed her submission of biometric information on 3rd June 2009 at the biometric centre in Croyden, England. On that specific day when she turned up promptly for her assigned appointment, she was made to wait more than three hours despite having adhered to the given time. During those three hours where she and others were made to wait, no staff from the centre appeared in person to explain the cause of the delay, nor to apologize for any inconvenience caused.

There was, however, an announcement running on the PA which kept repeating a message which accounted the (blatantly obvious) delay which was ongoing. This in itself seems to be quite a rather poor and lackluster approach in managing the centre -- I would think the Home Office would like to approach and resolve such matters with the public using a member of staff, instead of hiding behind a cold, pre-recorded message which plays from the ceiling without offering any explanation for the delay whatsoever.

Having said that, I would like to enquire as to why her visa application is taking such a long time to be processed. Her biometric information was submitted nearly six weeks ago -- surely doesn't that warrant some sort of correspondence on the Home Office's behalf to update her of the situation? With such poor service notwithstanding, she has had to cancel or reschedule several travel plans which were made before the visa application due to inaccessibility of her own passport. This has proved to be costly and extremely inconvenient, as all these changes and cancellations would obviously require money.

While I understand that the Home Office are evidently oblivious to personal problems as such, it would help effect a more positive image to the visa-applying public if they were more responsible and accountable for the multitude of applications (and passports) they receive on a daily basis. As a registered UK taxpayer, I am concerned that my contributions do not see any improvement whatsoever towards the customer service standards as well as attitudes of the Home Office. The main contact line, listed as 0870 606 7766, is almost always inaccessible and provides the caller with no option of waiting in line to be spoken to. With such strained and poorly-managed resources, I wonder why the Home Office even bothers publishing that number on its website at all.

I also observed that you have left out correspondent details such as phone numbers and email addresses out of official letterheads in documents sent by the Home Office. This makes me question why the Home Office operates on such an averse level of unwillingness in terms of being accountable and contactable. On the Home Office website, the UK Border Agency customer charter (which isn't easy to find, might I add) states that 75% of applications under the Points based Tier 4 system should receive a response within 4 weeks. I shudder to think how much longer the other 25% will have to wait. Additionally, on the Home Office's contact page, it states that enquiries should only be made 14 weeks after providing biometric information.

Firstly, I would like to know why it might take up to 14 weeks (or more) to process an application when 75% of your applications are purportedly processed within 4 weeks. I can only imagine that 14 weeks would be the timeframe where the Home Office finally admits that they might have actually misplaced an applicant's information and documents -- something which people I personally know have had happen to them.

If the UK wants to project itself as a hospitable country that welcomes diversity in the form of visitors, students and workers from foreign countries, then may I strongly suggest that the best place to start would be the Home Office. With the very apt and overdue departure of your Home Secretary Jacqui Smith, I was looking forward to numerous changes and improvements to the way the Home Office handles matters, most notably in the areas of visa applications. This has, obviously, not been the case, and I must say that I, along with many members of the visa-applying public, am most disheartened and disenchanted.

Should you require more detailed information, please do not hesitate to contact me. I look forward to hearing a response soon.

Best regards,
Jon

Twelfth Month

2009-07-07T06:14:00.006+08:00

And so the summer term has finally come to a close, and with it my first year at Guildhall is over. Unbelievably quickly, might I add. IPEs for both first and second years are all over, and they've all been a great success. The first year's IPEs were especially satisfying, and I've had a great time workshopping each piece including my own. Hopefully I can get a recording of it up sometime soon!

So, lots of people have been wondering (or at least silently questioning) what my Leadership course is really all about. Recently, Guildhall CONNECT just finished a massive concert featuring all its different ensembles under its wing. I was, of course, a part of the concert -- it was really inspiring to work with every single participant and ensemble. Chigusa Fukato, a writer for the Piano Teachers' National Association of Japan, covered this project starting from ensemble workshops and rehearsals all the way to the big concert, and came up with a few brilliant online articles which can be found here and here.

Here are a couple videos that would perhaps explain better. Enjoy!

Interview with Paul and Sigrun Griffiths

Urban Sounds In Action

I'll be headed over to Singapore on 2 Aug, arriving on the 3rd. Guildhall is sending the first years to Southeast Asia for projects throughout the entire month of August, so I'll be in Singapore for two weeks, KL for one and than Bali for the last week. I'm hoping to squeeze in another week back in Singapore before heading back to London, just in time for Min-joo's birthday!

The Ghost Date

2009-06-21T15:25:00.004+08:00

Here's an article spotted on thelondonpaper's Love column about a month ago which I particularly enjoyed, written by Andy Jones.

Boys, look out for that spooky feeling

There is an enemy out there to all men. It is called the "ghost date". If you're a man or woman who doesn't think you've been on one, you are lying to yourself.

The ghost date occurs because of ignorance of one basic fact. In a man's mind, "drinks" with any woman never just means consuming alcohol. It's an innuendo-laden proposal which simply states: "I'm working out if you fancy me, and if you do, we're getting smashed until you agree to come back to mine."

Because women don't always understand this, ghost dates occur. That is, one of you thinks it's a date, but it's not. As a guy, you'll know you've been on a ghost date because at the end, you'll get a dry kiss on the cheek and spend your journey home dumbly staring at your phone wondering whether or not to send a text.

We foolish men can even go on several of these ghost dates with the same person. Drinking, chatting, saying good night, not even kissing, yet never being any the wiser as to whether the girl even likes you.

My mate Alessio has been "dating" the same girl every week for the last three weeks. His "date" probably thinks she has the best new mate in the world -- he takes her to bars, gigs and listens to all her problems. All she has to do is look pretty. But does she know he is taking her out only to get her in the sack?

Honestly, girls, tell us. Because you don't help the situation. Plenty of my girl mates meet guys "just for a drink". I pity their dates -- I bet the poor bloke spent ages getting ready only to be sat opposite them scarcely able to get a word in, wondering when me might turn the conversation to something more flirtatious.

Any girl who thinks she has suddenly got a new platonic man friend, you haven't. You've just got a guy dangling on a line, who is hoping at some point you'll lean in and snog his face off. Truly, we don't care about your crappy work problems, your ex-boyfriends or your dodgy femme plumbing. Just show us your pants!

If you're a man going on constant "ghost dates" with no return, I recommend the following -- after you've just bought your sixth round of the night, sit there and say: "Your round, love." If she's interested, she'll buy. If she looks horrified, you know you're being played. It's hard on your heart, but easier on your wallet.

The Last Quarter

2009-05-21T21:55:00.005+08:00

Ah, the joys of self-resourced home entertainment! Movie-watching is a pretty indispensible part of my life, as you can tell -- whether it be in a cinema theatre or from the comforts of my own home. That's just about all the movies I've watched in the past three months, not including a couple more unremarkable ones which I didn't care to include. Star Trek was exceptionally good, it's a must-watch for anyone who dares to utter the phrase "I like sci-fi."

The big Lambergo + Guildhall Folk Ensemble gig is tomorrow, and it looks set to be foot-tappingly and hip-swayingly good and enjoyable! For those who don't mind a spot of Friday night fun, come to down to the Basement at Guildhall's Sundial Court at 7:30pm! Memories of last Wednesday's recording at Abbey Road Studios with the Folk Ensemble are still echoing in my head -- I can't believe how lucky and priveliged I am to have been given an opportunity this golden. Checking out Studio 2 was such an exhilirating experience! Photos of the recording session can be found on my Facebook album here.

It's going to take awhile before the final product is ready, but I'll be sure to post the tracks up when I get the chance! Meanwhile, the Bath International Music Festival is up next -- a few of us from Guildhall and RCA will be heading down in the first week of June to showcase our works as a culmination of the MAP/making project. Can't wait (for it to be all over)!

A Pictorial Easter

2009-04-19T05:34:00.011+08:00

And here we have it -- my travel photos from the two trips I made over Easter break! First stop was good old Amsterdam which I revisited, this time with Dong Young. To put it short, it was a fantastic, fruitful and fun-filled four-day (lot's of 'f's there) trip filled with adventure. It was really nice to have Dong Young along too, considering this would be the last amounts of "quality time" we would get to spend together before he returned to Korea.

My second trip was to Prague, and my god was it beautiful! Prague really exceeded all my expectations -- stunning architecture, breathtaking city views, pulsating nightlife, rich culture, Prague has it all! I accompanied Jinn & Robyn on this trip, and it was really wonderful to travel with them. Robyn is the best navigator I've seen in awhile, for sure! Jinn? He's just the same old talk-cock buddy I got know 11 years ago. Lovely.

Anyway, here are my photos which I've linked from Facebook -- one album for Amsterdam and two for Prague. Jinn brought his kick-ass Nikon D80 with him, of which I hijacked for quite a considerable amount of time to fulfill my photo-taking craze. The Prague pictures are really beautiful, you can see what an amazing city it really is.

I AMsterdam
Amsterdam, Netherlands

Photos from my four-day break to Amsterdam with Dong
Young during Spring '09. From museums to coffeeshops
and churches to brothels, Amsterdam is certainly
always a fantastic place to just visit, chill out and
have plenty of fun!

Zátiší do Praha
Prague, Czech Republic

Amazing photos detailing the breathtaking sights in
Prague, the city of a hundred spires. Just grab a bench
(or grassy patch), sit yourself down and watch life go
by in this quaint little Central European city beloved
of highbrow cultural tourists!

Praha chtivý turista
Prague, Czech Republic

Watch as Jinn, Robyn & myself traverse this
beguiling, beautiful-looking city in plenty of style as
we push the curtain back on the intoxicating maze
of winding cobblestone alleyways and soak up the beer
and absinthe!

Intervallo

2009-04-07T11:05:00.004+08:00

Time for a contact update: my new number is now +44 (0)7882 716 733. As bad luck (or a cruel twist of fate) would have it, I have been desperately harvesting for contacts, no thanks to a careless course of action where I misplaced my beloved old N6300.

Anyway, the past week have been taken up with me trying to figure out the mind-boggling array of functions on my new E71, shootin' up more Manjini in RE5 as well as jetting over to Amsterdam for a short trip to fill up my Easter break. (Photos here!)

The search for sunrise never ends.

Lovestruck?

2009-03-26T00:58:00.000+08:00

Tonight, I did something completely unprecedented. I sent in an entry to thelondonpaper's Lovestruck column. Yep, I did it. I actually did it. Half of me hopes it gets published tomorrow, and another half of that half hopes I get a response from her. Okay, scratch that -- in my perfect world, it would get published, she'll respond and we'll be meeting up for drinks before the weekend arrives.

Okay, just not to further confuse those who don't have the (mis)fortune to read thelondonpaper every day on the way home, Lovestruck is column where you can send in a short paragraph telling the entire city of London you saw some cute or attractive guy or girl, but didn't stop to do anything about it. So it could be anywhere: on the Tube, in a Starbucks outlet or whilst crossing the road. Then you pray hard and hope the other party reads that, call the paper and identify themselves and hope she (or he) looks better face to face than she does when she's 3 arms' length away in a packed Tube carriage. Anyway, check this out and you'll know what I mean.

So, yes indeed. I shall be sure to pick a copy up of thelondonpaper tomorrow and hope my fate takes a turn for the better. Oh my god, what am I doing??

Spider-Plant Man

2009-03-17T05:30:00.004+08:00

So, Comic Relief fever has recently just swept through UK, and I got caught along with it. Yes indeed, I contributed money to a fund to get my Director of Music's legs shaved. Or was it his hair? Well, in any case, in light of all these Comic Relief-related ongoings, here's a hilarious parody of Spider-Man that was made back in 2005 (for that year's Comic Relief). It features Rowan Atkinson as Peter Piper/Spider-Plant Man (yes, you get the idea now) and the oh-so-hot-now-but-wasn't-too-hot-back-in-S-Club-7 Rachel Stevens.

Oh, you gotta love London. Poor Jade Goody, it's almost unbearable to read about her in the news now -- everyone's all waiting for the inevitable.

Part 1

Part 2

"Two men high above London in lewd costumes. It can only mean one thing -- another Fathers 4 Justice demonstration." Oh god, that really cracked me up so much!

Popcorn Talk Pt. II

2009-03-02T19:47:00.001+08:00

My extremely slothy weekend has extended onto Monday (my Mondays are usually free), and that means more movies to catch up on! It's getting to be quite addictive, really. And with the problems that I'm having with my Xbox Live account at the moment, I've been ditching my X360 as of late in favor of movie marathons that seem to never end. Also, I've been catching up on the latest season of LOST. However, the first two episodes of the fifth season that I've watched so far have left me puzzled more than anything else -- I think the break between seasons has been too long and I've pretty much forgot everything that took place in the previous season!

On the other hand, I've been going for a blast from the past movie selection, with the Akira Kurosawa classic Seven Samurai and Stanley Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey. I almost can't believe I've finally watched the latter after so long, especially after hearing so much about it when I was young.

Seven Samurai was really quite the enjoyable classic; so, did you know that this film "was among the first films to use the now-common plot element of the recruiting and gathering of heroes into a team to accomplish a specific goal, a device used in later films such as Ocean's Eleven, The Dirty Dozen, and the western remake The Magnificent Seven". Who'd have thought! Also, "plot devices such as the reluctant hero, romance between a local girl and the youngest hero, and the nervousness of the common citizenry had appeared in other films before this but were combined together in this film". It is no wonder that this film is considered to be one of the greatest and most influential films ever made. Additionally, I can't remember when was the last time I watched a black & white film!

2001 doesn't let down either, and is a groundbreaking film "notable for its scientific realism, pioneering special effects, ambiguous and often surreal imagery, sound in place of traditional narrative techniques, and minimal use of dialogue". Considering that this film was made all the way back in 1968, that's quite a feat. Incidentally, This is the last movie ever made about mankind landing on the moon before mankind landed on the moon. Talk about visualisation! Australia was better than I thought it would be (after reading all those negative reviews), and I think Nicole Kidman still looks as hauntingly beautiful as she did when I first saw her in Eyes Wide Shut in 1999! Yes, I still vaguely remember the thrill of watching an R-rated film at an age where you first enter secondary school.

Well, as my lazy start to the week comes to an end, I better prepare myself for a killer 9am - 9pm day tomorrow! A short concert in the morning, followed by a MAP/making session till 1pm, then a tutorial, then a rehearsal in the evening for my 7 March gig! Oh, speaking of that, I'll be doing a gig at the Barbican on the night of 7 March, Saturday, as part of a four-piece band which will be showcasing Brazilian originals. I'm really looking forward to that one! Jinn, Robyn and Jie Han will be coming down for the weekend, so that should be good company as well.

Popcorn Talk Pt. I

2009-02-28T23:09:00.003+08:00

Well, apparently the Merlion back home in Singapore has been struck by lightning. Just imagine that! I'm sure you've heard someone say at one point of time or another that it's harder to get struck by lightning than to strike jackpot. Damn, the Merlion must be one lucky fella! I've only read a couple of articles of this story online, but I've yet to hear any responses that Singaporeans might have written to the press -- I don't know what the general sentiment will be like, but for me, I've always found the Merlion to be somewhat of an eyesore so I'm definitely not shedding any tears over this incident! Here's a paragraph of the online article as reported on 938LIVE:

"Nature sure knows how to throw a tantrum.

In its fit of anger, Singapore's longstanding original icon - the Merlion, was damaged by lightning flashes."

Gee, I wonder what would make Mother Nature so angry. Guess that will be pretty much left up to open interpretation! So, anyway, last night and tonight have been enjoyable movie marathons which I've organized in my room (for myself, mostly) as part of the ongoing celebrations to commemorate my internet independancy. My laptop has been downloading and streaming at full speed for most of the time since I got it working again, and believe me that translates into quite a considerable number of movies now sitting pretty in my hard drive!

Last night started off with catching up two missed episodes of Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles. Thank goodness they went on a short hiatus in mid-season from December 16 last year to February 13, otherwise there would be an insane amount of catching up to do. Following that was a re-screening of The Matrix Reloaded -- I still remember watching this in theatres six years ago and enjoying it immensely. How time flies. (Yes, I seem to have to say this phrase in every single blog entry.) Ikhwan, who came to London from Sheffield for the weekend, then joined me for Quarantine, something which I've been wanting to watch for a long time now. Quarantine is a bloody (literally) brilliant movie, absolutely terrifying and best watched with the lights out.

Tonight I managed to watch the second half of Red Cliff, and was quite relieved because when I watched the first half I knew I wouldn't be around in Singapore to catch the second half. You know how annoying it is when you're watching a movie on a plane and they shut the entertainment system off when you're midway through? Yeah, it felt like that when I knew Red Cliff II was released in Singapore and I wasn't around to finish watching it. Well, thank goodness for torrents, I suppose!

And to round it off I managed to find the Sydney special for the Japanese drama Attention Please. Aya Ueto's character seems to be alot more brash and noisier than I last remembered, but nonetheless it was enjoyable to watch. This dorama really makes me think back on the good old days where we would all gather in the TV room back in MDC and watch Japanese dramas all day long. So, there you have it -- self-concocted entertainment that doesn't cost a single pence for the entire night. That's if you don't count the multitude of crisps, Dr Pepper and snacks that I've stocked up!

Big Apple Revisited

2009-02-27T07:44:00.013+08:00

So, I've finally got my internet back up at running -- after 3 months, no less. My laptop has been out of service for as long as it has been working; I only bought it in September last year! Nonetheless, the feeling of having online independancy is nothing short of liberating. No more hunching over a school computer or peering into the minuscule screen of my iPod touch! What's lamentable though was the fact that I solved the problem easily by reinstalling Windows Vista -- something which I would've done long ago if I didn't know that I didn't need the startup CD to do that as HP laptops come with a partitioned hard drive that has all the necessary installation files in one partition!

Ah well, enough of that. I'm glad to say life has been picking up considerably now that I've moved, to Golders Green no less. The neighbourhood is brilliant and I'm loving every bit of it. Last weekend I decided to flee to NYC for a getaway trip as well, so that was great! Meeting up with Jon, Marcus, Fion and the rest of the MDC gang was fabulous -- I even bumped into Leslie as well! Haven't seen him for ages. It feels like yesterday when we said bye and he left for NYC to undertake his masters, and now he's graduating this summer. How time flies! Ah dammit, I said that again.

The first night in NYC was an absolutely smashing (and smashed) night, with us plying the streets of K-town again! We started off with a Korean BBQ dinner where we gorged ourselves silly like no tomorrow, then went to this quaint place for makkoli before bar-hopping to somewhere else for somak (which is a lethal combination of soju and beer). These glorious Korean drinks are destined to leave you well and truly inebriated by the end of the night, I tell you! Needless to say, we were all thoroughly hungover the next morning and slept in with wild abandon.

Throughout the weekend we ate like kings (that's the nice way of saying we ate like pigs), from Chinatown to Midtown to wherever there was a restaurant with good food. I felt very much like a Zagat reviewer after that entire culinary adventure -- covering everything from wine & tapas to nyonya cuisine to Bubba Gump shrimp! Of course, I managed to squeeze a couple touristy deed or two, like tramping through Central Park (which I missed the last time round) and spending a good half a day at the Guggenheim. Sunday proved to be a real treat as well as Jon took me to watch the Metropolitan Opera National Council Grand Finals Concert, which saw eight really talented and young finalists from across the US compete for a chance a four prize winning spots. Of the four winners, one was soprano Nadine Sierra, who at the very young age of 20 is still studying at the Mannes College of Music. Talk about young talents! Some photos from my weekend trip:

Kids, this is what "sumptuous" means when you describe a meal.

Getting sloshed on Korean alcohol.

Laura, me, and those shockingly small eyes.

A very captivated JCT at the Met store.

Read, Marcus, read. The Bubba Gump menu, that is!

NYC skyline from Central Park.

Taking in Picasso's "Woman Ironing".

This is the second time I'm here -- the first was in GTA IV.

Well, so there you have it. The remainder of the photos can be found on my Facebook album here. And with that I've just about exhausted all my funds on the trip, so now it's back to my glorious life of instant noodles and microwaveable dinners. Not like it was much different than before, but this time I'm typing this at my own laptop on my (new) cozy bed. Hallelujah! Now, to finish my Composition assignment for tomorrow before I get lazy!

Arrival of the Ox

2009-01-26T18:50:00.006+08:00

I can't say it has been the best start to 2009 -- the economy is going bust (I'm sure that's affecting a lot more other people other than myself), I'm still looking for a proper job, London is cold, dreary and just plain lonely. With my laptop still out of commission, my Xbox 360 games left behind in Singapore and my stock of instant noodles running low, the outlook isn't very good at all. In fact, I've reached a point of desperation where I've resorted to playing Xbox Live Arcade games like Sonic the Hedgehog 2 just to keep myself entertained. Talk about blast from the past! Well, on a positive note, I managed to finish the game -- something I couldn't do when I first played it on the Sega Saturn 15 years ago. Other than that, I keep finding myself hoping that school will get busier than it already is, only so that I can watch the day fly by in the midst of classes and workshops.

Speaking of school, it has been busy alright -- but plenty interesting, nonetheless. Our Globetown placements, specifically Bangabandhu School for Preetha and me, have been going well. Working with kids is always an exhaustive affair, but it's nice going out there to primary schools here in the UK and checking out how the school system here works. It's now the third week of the Globetown project -- my how time flies! This will run for two more weeks before the final performances. I'm really looking forward to those!

Lunar New Year this year has been a significantly quieter affair. This is actually the second year in a row where I'm not celebrating it with my family, and I must say I really miss it now. Last year I was away on a holiday in Hokkaido, and this year I'm stuck in London. And seeing how I don't foresee myself going back to Singapore for Lunar New Year next year either, I think I'm going to sorely miss all those ang pows. Come to think of it though, it does feel like yesterday when I was last with my family during Lunar New Year, celebrating at my grandma's place and going on those visitation house-calls on all my mom's friends. How time flies! (Dammit, I should stop saying that.) I still vividly remember a 2007 Lunar New Year where I was so obsessed with going to the gym that I actually did that on the first day of the New Year. Talk about a no-lifer!

Anyway, this year I "celebrated" Lunar New Year in a very different fashion -- I had absolutely no plans lined up on the eve, so Preetha invited me over to her place and she cooked for me! So instead of the usual abalone and king prawns, we tucked into potato soup, pita bread, hummus, salad and tea. Talk about Middle Eastern flavor! After that we took the hookah out and chilled over even more tea. (Oh did I say Middle Eastern already?) Thanks Preetha for always accommodating me -- you're a star!

It's so funny how time seems to fly, yet everyday can be such a bore. It really puzzles me so. A day could seem to stretch on forever, especially after the sun goes down. Yet every Sunday I look back at the week and wonder where it really went. In the meantime, I shall consent my life to a never-ending diet of instant coffee, ready dinners and plenty of Beatles music. Now I do know where all the lonely people come from.

"Ah look at all the lonely people, where do they all come from."

- Eleanor Rigby, The Beatles

Christmas Journal

2009-01-13T03:45:00.025+08:00

The big post to kick off 2009 is finally here. I've got so much to put down I honestly don't even know where to begin. Well, one thing's for sure -- I'm finally back in London. And mind you, I'm not saying it in terrible glee. The only thing I'm looking forward to the coming months is probably simply school. The Globetown Project kicks off this term and I'm really looking forward to that. And Folk Ensemble, of course. Other than that, there's just about nowhere I'd rather not be other than here.

Needless to say, I'm still trying to get settled in after spending just about the best Christmas and New Year in my life. Three weeks of pure fun and joy in the States is really not good for the system when one is trying to get back to the pace of school and mundane life in London. Seems like I'll be need plenty of nights out (with drinks, of course) with Dong Young just to get settled.

The first two weeks in December '08 was a whirlwind trip back to Singapore, where I had a great time catching up with old faces. The company of Joanne, Foi, Albert, Rey, Vanessa, Pin-Ji and Ruth all made me realize again why Singapore is indeed home after all. It was over all to soon, however, and on the 21st I hopped on a plane to Houston to visit Annie dearest and my favouritest siblings -- Vic and Albert! Life in Katy is mind-blowingly relaxing (yes, I don't know how that works but it does!), and I love it to bits. We went to watch the Houston Ballet's performance of The Nutcracker on the 23rd with Mio and her family, and boy was I duly impressed! Combine that with a couple Rock Band nights and you've got just about the perfect homestay holiday.

The faux guitarist and the faux.. electronic musician.

With the Ong and White family at The Nutcracker.

On Christmas Eve, we headed over to Richard and Kathy's place for a scrump-dilly-umptious traditional Christmas dinner loaded with plenty of turkey, ham and champagne. And dessert. And gifts! Everyone had a great time unwrapping presents, unloading stockings and taking pictures by the tree. The next morning, Christmas Day, saw us zip to the airport for an early morning flight to Albuquerque, NM with Kitty & Holly followed by a road trip to Taos Ski Valley, where we stayed for the next three days for some hardcore skiing. Well, hardcore meaning aching feet, muscles and joints, not impressive skiing stunts or black diamond trails.

It was my first time on skis and boy was it quite an experience! We were hit by a huge blizzard up on the mountains on our first day; not very conducive for a newbie like myself. Still, after lots of perseverance and even more unglamorous slips onto by bum, I was able to tackle a couple blue trails by the third and last day. Kitty joined us on the second day where the girls headed out for some snowboarding. For our last day in Taos, we headed down into town for some quaint breakfast, shopping and a visit to Kitty's ranch. And when I say ranch, I really mean huge, expansive land with a grand house complete with a barn filled with goats and llamas.

Kitty frolicking with Addy-bo at a pit stop; en route to Taos.

With the girls and their boards.

Falling oh so gracefully.

Albert and me, at Kitty's ranch.

Getting better at this.

The next day we embarked on the long drive back to Albuquerque, stopping by in Santa Fe for lunch. It was then off to Las Vegas, NV for some glitz and glamor all in time for the countdown to the New Year. We arrived on the evening of the 30th, where we caught Lance Burton's magic show at the Monte Carlo, where we were staying. I could go on forever about how amazed I was by all his tricks and teleportation acts, but I'll just keep it short and say it was fantastic. I feel that being good at stage magic is quite a feat -- you've gotta be creative with your tricks, and be an entertaining host at the same time. Lance Burton was definitely both!

After the show, Vic and me headed out for a stroll down the strip for a "photo hunt", as she would call it. We stopped by the Harley Davidson Cafe for a drink, before heading over to Paris Las Vegas for a trip up the Eiffel Tower. Stunning views aside, the highlight of the night was definitely witnessing a proposal -- with me being asked to video the entire thing down! The bloke who was proposing just shoved me his camera with the video recording running, and before I could know what exactly was going on he went down on one knee and popped out an engagement ring! She said yes, of course.

New Year's Eve was spent mostly in Chinatown for lunch, then shopping at the relatively new Planet Hollywood Resort and Casino. By 5pm, a good portion of the partygoing crowd and already spilled out onto the streets for some pre-drinks, readily available from the numerous Coors beer trucks dotted along the Strip. 7pm was our LOVE Cirque du Soleil show at The Mirage. This was my first Cirque du Soleil show ever, and ultimately the best live performance I would probably see in years to come. I think the only thing that can beat it would be to watch another Cirque show! The show was essentially a show which combines (re-produced and remixed) music of The Beatles with an interpretive, circus-based performance by the godly and talented artists and dancers from Cirque.

The LOVE theater was indeed a marvel in terms of design, from the rigs to the lifts to the seats. To give you a sense of how lavish everything was, each individual seat is fitted with three speakers, including a pair in the headrest. I found it quite challenging to sing along to half of the songs as well as gasp in amazement at the acts.

At the Lance Burton theater, Monte Carlo.

Interior of the Harley Davidson Cafe.

All set for more winning at the Paris Las Vegas.

View of the Strip atop the Effiel Tower.

Vic & me with the newly-engaged couple.

The musical fountains in front of Bellagio. We could barely stay to
watch as we were rushing to The Mirage for Cirque du Soleil!

Psychedelia to the max! After the LOVE performance.

After a late dinner, Vic and me joined the huge crowd gathered along the strip for the mass countdown and fireworks. Alas, our holding position across from New York New York wasn't as strategic as we thought it would be -- we only barely caught a glimpse of the fireworks. Nonetheless, the electrifying atmosphere and the unbeatable party mood that swept through everyone was quite the experience!

The next morning, we kicked off the new year with a great champagne breakfast at the Monte Carlo itself, before heading over to the shooting range (yep, shooting range) at Albert's behest to literally start the first day of 2009 with a bang! The place we went to was aptly called The Gun Store, where you can take your weapon of choice (be it a H&K MP5 SMG, M249 SAW or a blot action KEL-TEC, they have it all!) and let it rip down the shooting range. Of course, at about $20 per 10 rounds of ammunition, you'll be sure to want to aim properly.

Soon after, it was time to head back to the airport to catch our return flight to Houston. With that, Vegas was over all too soon. Life back in Katy, however, was pleasant enough. Waking up at noon, stuffing my face with Annie's awesome home cooked food, playing Prince of Persia on their 61" LCD TV all day, meeting up with Sabrina and her pals for dinner and drinks, going photo hunting with Gesi and Vic, trawling the mall with Cherie and Ellen, soaking in the pool with Albert, shooting little kids in Laserquest and the list goes on! I extended my stay in the States for one more week and boy, did that week just fly by! On my last day in Katy, Annie organized a huge dinner party and invited everyone over. We had so much food brought over (Singaporean fare, no less!) it was really quite like a food festival.

Photos of the dinner can be found here.

Victoria & me counting down on the Strip!

Revelers enjoying a New Year snog.

On the way back to London, I decided to make a stopover in NYC to visit the Tay twins, Marcus and Fion. It was absolutely freezing the first day I was there -- plenty of snowfall and wind. We didn't do much sightseeing matters, but it was really great to meet up with Jon Tay and the rest of the MDC folk. Most of my time in Manhattan was spent eating, actually. And hanging around K-town along with Laura (who's studying violin in Julliard!). The next day was Sunday, and Fion and me headed to Times Square Church for service -- it was such an amazing experience! Jon Tay joined us after and we headed to Top of the Rock -- the rooftop observation dek of the GE Building at Rockefella Centre.

The rest of the day was spent eating (again!), and we had some really, really good dessert at this place called Kyotofu (at 49th & 9th) before I had to rush back to the airport for my return flight to dreary London.

The customary shot at Times Square.

At M&M's World, Times Square.

Supper at K-town with Laura & JCT.

Inside Times Square Church.

Fion playing model at Top of the Rock.

Yep, those fingers spell 'NY'.

And with that, my action-packed, fun-filled, globetrotting Christmas holiday came to an end. Thank you so much Annie for everything, and to all those that I met, got to know, caught up with and left behind -- I'll be back! Definitely sooner than later, for sure. This weekend it's off to Wales for me for the Mapmaking project with Guildhall. Prepare to freeze!

Best Wrapped Up

2008-12-11T11:35:00.008+08:00

Indeed, it has been a long sabbatical break since the last time I updated something here. Well, admittedly life has been busy and everything's been pretty much a whirlwind, I don't even know where to properly begin! Well, I guess first things first -- I'm in Singapore now till the 21st of this month before leaving for the States. I've been busy running errands ever since I got back; this time round I don't have a return flight back to Singapore and I don't know when will be the next time I'll ever be back.

Admittedly though, I really do miss life here -- the food, the people, the familiar faces, the familiar streets and basically just familiarity in general. Well, no time to harp on it, best to get out there and enjoy as much as I possibly can while I still can! So, picking up from where I last left off -- I was writing about the London Jazz Festival. Well, that does seem like a distant memory now, but still pretty unforgettable! Indeed, it was such an honor to be sharing the same stage as other established jazz bands like the Neil Cowley Trio and the Kit Downes Trio.

These people really epitomise what a young jazz talent is supposed to be -- Kit Downes is still a student at RAM! The amount of jazz talent in London is astounding, to be honest. And most, if not all of them, are young upstarts with a fiery passion for music and consummate skill to boot! I can confidently say that if you take a pebble and throw it towards the direction of the stage of any established jazz club in London, you'll probably hit an instrumentalist that is better than any locally-trained and bred jazz musician in the entire of Singapore. (Read: locally-trained and bred.)

Anyhow, getting to do one set with Tyler Rix and the rest of the trio was really enjoyable, and definitely a gig that I'll fondly recollect in years to come. In other more uplifting news, I've managed to find a piano teaching job in London. The pay's pretty decent, and I start next term. What would be nice though would be to land more gigs -- not even the regular sort, just one-off gigs here and there at the bigger clubs would be nice! Well, I'm sure most people will agree, London's not a place for opportunities to come your way -- you have to go out there and hunt like mad for your own slice of the pie.

In even better news, I was informed during my term-end tutorial on the last week of my term that I've been granted a year's advanced standing for my course (apparently due to stellar performance). Which is indeed very good news! That means I don't have to complete the remainder of my PGDip year that I've been originally doing, and from next term onwards I'll be following through with the MMus course itself. Which means my entire length of course is shortened by one year, from three to two. I guess the biggest implication now would be that I pay significantly less fees, which is what I'm most glad about!

The last week of my term, however, was not all smooth sailing -- I got struck with a chest infection (bronchitis, apparently) a few days before I was due to return back to Singapore. What started out as a running temperature turned out into a 39.5 deg Celsius fever and acute bronchitis within two days. By the second day I was so deliriously ill I checked myself into the A&E ward at University College Hospital. So there you have it, my first term in London and I've already benefited from their infamous NHS coverage. Which is simply great when you're a broke student desperate for some proper antibiotics! Thankfully the treatment and medication worked -- I was almost as good as new in two days and now I'm almost done with my course of antibiotics.

The last day of term was the Guildhall Festival, of which most of the folks in my postgrad course were involved. For the festival I performed with the (newly-formed) Guildhall Folk Ensemble, which was basically a very riotous, a very fun and a very energetic half-hour set. Admittedly, this term was my first proper encounter with folk music throughout my musical development and career, and I must say it has been most fun! Daphne came to watch as well, and she very kindly took some awesome photos of the show.

Paloma looking dazzlingly vibrant in red!

Tom on guitar and Aileen on double bass.

Eiko and the fiddlers having a ball!

Striking up the band.

And the next thing I knew, I was hopping on a plane the next day for my return flight from Heathrow! The most unfortunate thing happened to me on this flight -- as I got this flight after changing it from another date, I was given the 'lowest priority' in terms of seat choice. Which basically means I couldn't choose my seat at all. Which also basically meant that I was guaranteed a damn lousy seat, which in this case was a window seat. The horrors! And, to exacerbate things, the two old fellas who sat on my right seemed to have failed kidneys -- they almost never went to the toilets at all during the entire 13-hour flight!

I tried getting some sleep but all I could think was the impending bursting of my bladder. So in the end I stayed up and distracted myself with some inflight entertainment, in the form of these four movies: Hellboy II, Tropic Thunder, Meet Dave and the docu-film Where In The World Is Osama bin Laden. Tropic Thunder was such a hilarious film, and I actually caught myself laughing out loud a couple times on the plane! Robert Downey Jr. is spectacular with his role as Kirk Lazarus; apparently his role was created as a way of lampooning the great lengths that some method actors will go to depict a role. I'm sure those who've watched the movie will know what I'm talking about!

Once I landed it was then a mad rush to Raffles Town Club for a wedding gig! Yes, I really miss doing those so much I couldn't say no to Ginny when she offered me one just two days before I returned. Monday night was actually Ginny and Edmund's wedding, of which I had the pleasure to attend. It was so good seeing familiar faces again, such as Jon Lim, Kewei (and Ke-mei!), Ein Ein, Zheng Quan, Chanel, Alfredo and of course Ginny and Edmund themselves. Congratulations to the both you! Her wedding was nothing short of a musical extravaganza, where all her friends (including myself!) went up and took turns performing a couple numbers onstage for some enthralling all-night long musical entertainment!

After the wedding, Jo and I went over to Thumper to meet her friends Darelle and Dennis for some post-dinner beers. I actually do miss those pints of Heineken served in your standard Heineken pint glass! Strangely enough, they don't seem to have those in London. The next day was back to the airport for me -- but no, I wasn't going anywhere else! I went to pick Foi up who flew in from Switzerland and will be staying here for about a week or so. It's so good to have that girl around!!

We then wasted no time that night and headed out went for drinks; I also asked the boys out for some drunken debauchery at the sorely-missed Cuscaden Patio. Towards the end of the night it was a rowdy crowd of us consisting of Vannie, Junsheng, Albert, Dennis, Tony (and his new girlfriend Lisa!), Jo, Foi, and her friends Nicky and Citra. Now you see why I miss Singapore so much -- the familiar gang was really such a joy to hang out with! And of course, it's always so hard to deny $10 jugs of beer on those miserable Tuesday nights. After Cuscaden, we went over to Balestier where I finally had my first go at the dish that I've missed so much back in London -- bak kut teh! The feeling of having the soup envelope your taste buds is pretty indescribable, I must say.

So yes, apart from all those errands that I've been busy running, I've also tried to maximize time and meet up with friends as much as I can -- I really don't know when's the next time I'll be back! Yesterday I met up with Pin-Ji (she didn't wear her sunnies!) for a arthouse flick outing. She's really a definitive source for all your up do date arthouse movies! We went to Plaza Singapura (god, I missed that place too!) and watched this Taiwanese rom-com music-drama film titled Cape No. 7. It turned out to be a very heartwarming and insightful movie for me. I usually enjoy movies which are completely written out of the normal predictable context, and usually these scripts come with some sort of insight into a lifestyle or culture which is relatively unknown to most people. In this case, it showcased the livelihoods and lifestyles (albeit in a slight comedic way) of the Taiwanese aboriginal people.

Well, that's pretty much a warp-up of all the ongoings since my last post -- which does happen to be quite a bit! In the meantime, I shall return to my long list of to-dos that I've managed to compile. That's if I don't get distracted by my Xbox 360 -- I've just finished Gears of War 2 (in a short span of one day!) and now I'm back to Infinite Undiscovery. Yes, I finally bought the strategy guide for it! Ah, choices, choices...

Round Midnight

2008-11-25T01:38:00.001+08:00

Weather's starting to dip here. It's been hovering a little below zero degrees alot lately. Guess it's a signal of the end of the mild weather we've been enjoying recently. The gig for the jazz festival went pretty well; I've so many thoughts about it running through my head now but I'm too tired to organize them and put down into words at the moment. Here's a short video clip of the first number we did.

Have to say though, apologies for truncating the video halfway. The camera toppled off my piano after some heavy key-banging towards the end of the sax solo! In more mundane midnight news, I actually managed to tidy up my table tonight. Kudos to me, I suppose. It's amazing how much trash you can accumulate in one short term. I was rifling through my stuff when I chanced upon the short but very sweet note which Foi wrote for me on my birthday in Switzerland. It definitely put a big smile on my face. I miss you, girl!

Onboard Serenity

2008-11-18T08:59:00.004+08:00

It's just a couple minutes shy of one in the morning, and the perfect time to do some blog updating! Foi was in town for a surprise visit to Dong-young over the weekend, so that simply meant more gatherings involving Korean food and even more glorious takju. Of course, the surprise visit itself was really quite a joy, and it was really good seeing familiar faces again. Having Foi over reminded me again of the wicked times we all had and enjoyed during last month's Swiss trip.

Well, of course, good surprises have to be planned, I gladly played wingman in this cunningly crafted visit by Foi. Dong-young (along with the rest) had completely no idea that Foi was coming, so as you can tell, when all was revealed I definitely couldn't miss the opportunity to get it on camera. And here it is: my award winning, 2-minute reunion video! Filled with mistimed appearance cues, moments of shock and my terribly asphyxiated laughing in the background, this is definitely a must-see. Also, I don't quite know if the song fits, or if the Korean title is accurate, but who cares. We're going for 100% tacky here!

Not bad, eh? I quite like it myself as well. Heh! Well, Foi managed to squeeze out a grand total of 5 days for her trip, which will be repaid very much in kind when Dong-young, In-woong and Lee head off to Geneva on 3 Dec without me! No thanks to my killer term-end performances lined up during the Guildhall festival on the 5th.

I've just finished watching the entire season of Firefly on DVD, along with the follow-up feature film Serenity. Lee lent me the boxset of Firefly, and I've been stuck on it for two weeks since. It started out as a Summer Glau obsession (she's in it), but now I've become quite the fan of the series as well as the movie itself. Firefly is basically a western sci-fi series, modeled and influenced by Western movie themes with a little bit of Star Wars-ish elements thrown in here and there.

Given the very likeable characters, a well-picked ensemble cast, great story arcs and impressive set designs, it's every bit of what a good TV series should be. Personally, I love the witty humor found in every episode. It's created and directed by TV genius Joss Whedon, also responsible for the Buffy and Angel series. He also wrote and directed Serenity, of which the film itself is a rare occurrence in the industry: a short-lived TV show continued as a major motion picture. Back in 2003, Firefly was cancelled after 11 of the 14 episodes went on air, mainly due to poor executive decisions by FOX and not screening the episodes in its intended order.

Still, it's never too late to pick up a DVD boxset (or turn to torrents!) and give it a watch. Okay, I'm stopping before I sound like a deranged fan. In other news, I'll be returning to Singapore in the 2nd week of December before heading off to Houston and Taos for Christmas, and Vegas for New Year's. I'm really sorry if I won't be able to keep any commitments I've made (Cindy, Evelyn and Titus especially!), but Christmas plans are really difficult to shift around. Also, my next term starts early (first week of Jan 09!) so that means it's back to the UK pronto. Still, please call me out for a beer when I'm back. I miss Cuscaden. And some (badly-needed) gigs.

Woche Nr. sieben

2008-11-11T06:43:00.005+08:00

It's been a rainy week so far, with plenty of rain falling faster than the temperature. Can't believe I'll be back in Singapore within a month, and that's the end of my first term. Time seems to have just flown by just too quickly! I really need work when I'm back home, though. I'd be lying if I said I wasn't worried about not getting any gigs when I'm back. So if you have any, please give me a call! I look set to back in Singapore by 9 December.

The last weekend was completely tied down with a CPD training weekend course, with one more on the way this weekend. I had a great time though, and it was a great complement to the masters programme. Today was a day off from school, but I went down still for a rehearsal with Tyler Rix and the quartet for the London Jazz Festival. First gig in the UK, finally! That happens on the 22nd of this month.

Things are getting busier towards the end of the term, with the Guildhall Festival just round the corner. I was hoping to go back to Switzerland in the first week of December, but now I don't think I can make it, with the festival happening and all. I managed to meet up with Ben, Shoujie and John Chua for dinner and drinks a couple times over the last week; it was good meeting up with MDC folk again.

Guess where we are. Yep, eXchange Bar.

Ben's back to Manchester for now, but I'd love to visit one day. Still have yet to check out the Lake District, I've heard so much good things about it. Well, next year I suppose! For now it's back to gig hunting in Singapore, and job hunting here in London. I so need a damn job!!

Chum-Churum

2008-11-05T22:41:00.002+08:00

Chum-Churum soju's latest advertisement is out! Shot in both Korean and English on location at the Swiss Bernese alps, it's set to boost its sales all around the world. Remember, only drink Chum-Churum soju! Dong Young, Foi and myself having a blast at First, a summit located above Grindelwald in the Jungfrau region of Switzerland. As you can see, we were doing much more than just enjoying the gorgeous scenery. Like shooting this video, for instance.

Seriously, watch this. It's awesome.

If you want to watch an official Chum-Churum ad, click here. Theirs is only slightly better than ours by a very little bit because it features the absolutely gorgeous E Hyo-lee (이효리)!

The Weekenders

2008-11-04T04:49:00.004+08:00

It's been more than a week since I've been back from Switzerland, and I must still say I miss that place to bits! I've put up an album of pictures on Facebook here, so do check it out. Or just find it from my profile! I still have another half of photos (and plenty more degrading videos), but they're in Dong Young's camera and that brother only got back today after extending his stay for five more days! I'll be getting all of the good stuff from him tomorrow, hopefully.

This weekend has been an absolute blast, thankfully. Joanne was in town on Saturday and we spent the entire day tramping around the city eating, walking, shopping, drinking, then eating again. I also went to The O2 for the first time to join her for the Body Worlds & The Mirror of Time exhibition. The first time I caught a Body Worlds exhibition was back in Singapore in 2003, so this time round I was glad to see that they had more new and intriguing stuff. They had plenty of real exhibits and human specimens denouncing the detrimental effects of smoking, so Jo and me were looking at each other ominously throughout most of the exhibition!

Hansel joined us for lunch at Kiasu, where we gorged on authentic tasting food at not-so-authentic prices, according to Hansel. To see what I really mean, click here. Yep. Still, it was most satisfying and we definitely scraped our plates clean. Jo took me to A&F for some all-American shopping as well. I didn't even know we had A&F in London until she showed me where! It's quite a sizable boutique store, though, so it'll be sure to satisfy. After dinner at dim t, we headed to Waterloo where Hansel joined us again for drinks and much more laughs for the rest of the night. He's such a talented fella! I can't remember the last time I had this much random fun in a day, really.

Looking awesomely windswept outside The 02 dome. It looks great from afar,
but nearby it simply looks like an oversized tent!

Happy hour at Waterloo station!

Intoxicated smiles to end the superb night.

On Sunday I had a masterclass in school with Panamanian jazz maestro, Danilo Pérez. He really is such a musician with so much vision, someone who has a very clear sense of what his mission in life is. I think it's really important that, as a musician, you need to have a clear overview of what your mission is, and that was what he touched on most of the time during the masterclass. Of course, apart from being a great improviser, he was also very inspiring in terms of different ways of music interpretation, and how to approach it with a philosophical point of view so as to make it for engaging and fulfilling. It was a really beneficial masterclass, and I'm sure it's something I wouldn't have had the chance to experience back in Singapore.

I watched Quantum of Solace today, as sort of a spur-of-the-moment thing. Overall it wasn't too bad, but it did feel a tad lengthy at 106 minutes. I won't spoil the story either, but the ending seemed a bit hurried and rushed. I was, however, rather lost right after the Jack White and Alicia Keys opening theme song ended, as Quantum of Solace picks up right where Casino Royale ended, and I forgot most of the plot of the earlier film. There are less gadgety scenes in this movie, and definitely more cat-and-mouse chase sequences, making it feel alot like a film from the Bourne trilogy. So if you choose to catch Quantum, be sure to download Casino Royale or just wikipedia the plot for a refresher, unless you're just going in to watch Daniel Craig and his over-buffed body in a tux, or the gorgeous Olga Kurylenko.

Speaking of the Bourne trilogy, I recently downloaded all three movies again and watched them in reverse order, from the third to first. Thoroughly enjoyable; I'm a really big fan of the Bourne franchise. Even read the books and played the game! I hope the fourth film comes through. With Paul Greengrass directing, I'm sure it'll be great!

Swiss Sayings

2008-10-23T17:57:00.000+08:00

Tuesday came and went, and I spent a very enjoyable quiet evening in Bulle, Switzerland here with Foi and the Glion company. Foi cooked me mee goreng for dinner, and they even came prepared with a very fruity cake. Not forgetting how I celebrated my birthday in old-school fashion: cake only with no alcohol. Yes, amazing ain't it?

Just a quick question though: when it's that time of the year and everything is singing your happy birthday song, do you sing along? I remember singing "happy birthday to me" at Wala's onstage last year when I celebrated my birthday. I did it again this year, as you can see, because it felt weird not to sing and just stare at the cake!

Switzerland has been beautiful so far, but I haven't got much done since I got here except stay indoors and complete essays for Foi and her flat mates. Of course, I charge, though my rates are pretty cheap. The current going rate is 10 Fr. per 100 words, so a 2,500-word essay will only cost you 250 Fr.! It comes with complete in-text referencing and bibliography too. Not bad, eh? I've done a couple essays and editing work since I got here. Maybe I should just move here and set up an English tutoring business. Or open an English language school. Heh!

Still, we'll be heading out to other bits of Switzerland over the weekend, so that should be fun. Still have yet to pig out on cheese fondue and chocolates! Foi and I went down to Lausanne to pick Dong Young up earlier this morning. They're really the sweetest couple right now! I would go on how they were mollycoddling up to each other on the train in front of me, but I guess pictures would work better.

Romantic picture #1

Romantic picture #2

Romantic picture #3

Oops, sorry, wrong photo for the last one! Alright now, that's just about enough. Winter's setting in now and it's getting pretty damn cold over here in Bulle. The elevation here is more than 700m above sea level, so as you can imagine it's rather chilly here! Still, it's definitely way better than London. The air is so fresh and crisp here you almost wish you could eat it.

A Birthday Note

2008-10-22T01:05:00.000+08:00

Just to put a quick note in before my laptop battery dies. Thanks so much to all who sent me very kind birthday wishes! I guess it's only once a year when you wake up and find more than 50 new notifications on Facebook! Heh. Wish I could be celebrating it in Singapore, but guess that'll have to wait for now.

I'm sitting at the airport lounge waiting for my flight to Geneva, where I'll be spending my birthday night there -- can't wait! Will post pictures up soon. Much love to all!

Edit: Notifications just went up to 77. Whoo! Bulle, Switzerland is awesome.

Racial Murmurings

2008-10-20T08:36:00.004+08:00

I've noticed something quite interesting that's been happening recently since I got here. This evening I was at the Tesco's near my place getting some beer, and I got carded. Well, no big deal, right? (Since I look so unnervingly young, thank you!) So I proudly handed my Singapore NRIC to the cashier, who happened to be this nice Puerto Rican lady. Upon looking at my IC though, she remarked, "Oh my god, why is your race printed on your identity card?!"

Indeed, this isn't the first time it happened; last week I was also carded (at the same Tesco's), and the dude behind the cashier who as a Black British also remarked in dismay how my race was printed on my IC. The first time it happened, I was rather nonchalant about it as everybody gets their race printed on their IC in Singapore. However, I did have quite a difficult time trying to explain to him that Singapore is a multi-racial country and we have four majority races in Singapore, hence we are distinguished from each race by having it printed on our IC.

I suppose to both the cashiers, they found that the act of printing one's race was an act of subjugation by the government, where racial labels like these have been applied to us for perhaps more sinister reasons. I can completely understand why they felt this way, though. If you think about it, having your race printed on a card seems to be parallel to how Nazis made Jews wear armbands during WWII, if only to segregate them from the rest of the community.

Having my race, Chinese, printed on my IC seemed to them as an act of oppression, where one needs to be identified as such for whatever the reason. However, back home in Singapore, I guess nobody gives two hoots about our race being printed on our IC, because back home racial tensions are minimal and everybody gets along fine in a multi-racial setting. However, here in UK where racism, though not rampant, is still an issue, having your race stated on an IC might seem like a very harsh thing to be dealt upon.

So, the question now is, even though race-labelling on Singaporean ICs might be nothing more than an administrative procedure, do we really need this? Do we really need our race displayed on our ICs for all to see? Six years back ICA removed the blood group detail from our ICs. It was first introduced for times of emergency, to facilitate blood transfusions. But from what I've heard, now they just go ahead with the transfusion of O-positive blood in emergency situations, hence negating the need for our blood group to be printed on our ICs. So then, exactly what purpose does it serve to have me identified as "Chinese" on my identity card?

Absolutely Wicked!

2008-10-18T18:14:00.000+08:00

Admittedly, I've been feeling rather lazy to post updates recently. Still, there's so many random thoughts flying through my head I don't really know where to start. Oh wait, yes. There was that cab ride which I took two nights ago that lasted a grand total of 10 minutes but cost me a whopping £17! I've taken cabs a couple times here before but this has got to be the most expensive yet. I swear, they have different meter tariffs at 12am and 2am!

I managed to catch the West End smash hit musical Wicked last Thursday, with Sarah and her colleagues when they were in town. As usual, I always come out of a West End production blown away, telling myself this has got to be the best musical I've ever watched so far! In short, it was worth every penny of the ticket price. I won't want to spoil the story for you, but it was very well-written as sort of a different perspective to the well known The Wizard of Oz storyline. This musical is based on the book of the same name by Gregory Maguire. I should be giving that a read sometime soon now!

Most noteworthy though, was Alexia Khadime's absolutely brilliant performance as Elphaba. I've never heard "Defying Gravity" sung in such stunning fashion before. Each time she opened her mouth to sing, my hair stood from end to end! She's really such a talented performer, singer, and actress all rolled into one. Stephen Schwartz really wrote a clincher with this very beautiful song.

Some photos from before the musical started. As usual, Sarah is never shy when it comes to dragon-like poses right in the middle of the aisle of the stall seats. Oh, not forgetting how she couldn't keep her eyes off the actor who was playing Fiyero onstage, Oliver Tompsett.

Sarah doing a pre-show pose. Awesome.

Sarah, Jolene and Cody and an awesome copy
of the Wicked programme.

Before I go, here's a quote for you that lifted a smile on my face today.

"At times, doing a good job is like wetting your pants in a dark suit, you get a warm feeling but no one else notices."

The Boating Beatboxers

2008-10-13T14:34:00.000+08:00

What better way to pass time on a sunny autumn's day whilst on a rowboat than to form your very own vocal percussion ensemble? Check us out as we bring da house down yo, right in the middle of the lake at Regent's Park!

Featuring MC Bruce Lee, DJ Potty, The Fart King and, uh, Foi the Drummer.

Yes, we're cool this way! Kudos to Charles Wong who showed me how to beatbox decently for the very first time. He's the champion! Check out his beatboxing videos here.

Weekends & Whatnot

2008-10-12T09:41:00.001+08:00

It's been two very crazy weekends since I last updated, and much has happened since. Not everything was as cheery as I hoped it would be, most unfortunately. The weekend in Sheffield went very well though, I must say I enjoyed myself a bit too much! It was nice meeting Robyn & Jinn, as well as their friends in Sheffers. All of them were accommodating and just about as fun-loving as one can get, so it was all good. Nevertheless, these weekend getaways also involve plenty of binge-eating, so I guess that means stepping up the calorie-losing regime. Not that I've been having a great start to it in the first place.

This weekend was spent mostly with Foi, who's in town for the week. In fact, she was supposed to return to Leicester on Friday, but two days later she's still here. Guess Switzerland isn't working out too well for her either! On Thursday evening we checked out the club METRA, along with Andree, Lee, Dong Young and Dong Hoon. Yes, that girl -- always reveling in plenty of attention from adoring males! (Did I say Koreans?)

Getting in some touristy shots with the lion statues
at Gerrard Street, Chinatown.

Partying the night away!

We even had time for "artsy" shots in the middle of the dance floor.

The Asian gang at Trocadero.

Friday saw us ambling around Chinatown again for most of the night. We had Korean for dinner, followed by a stroll to Trafalgar Square to allow Andree (who was in London for the first time) to soak in the night sights. We managed to procure some beer en route, so we just sat around, chilled out and took more photos before our game was discovered and we got asked to leave. Yep, drinking isn't allowed on the square (when in UK you can drink on cross country trains and in parks)!

After that we headed back to The Exchange Bar (a common haunt of late), where we went for another round before deciding that it was FINALLY time for Andree to leave. Originally supposed to catch his bus to Aberdeen at 11:45pm, we rushed to Victoria only to have Andree discover that the coach was full. Since he failed to buy tickets in advance, he had no choice but to stay for one more day (along with Foi). Right after that happened, we launched into a very mad rush to find a hotel for the night. It was only then we discovered that it is almost impossible to walk into a decent hotel and expect an available room here in London at 12 midnight. After ambling around the city like lost puppies for over an hour, we finally managed to find a room at Thistle Marble Arch.

Here are a couple of whacky photos we took at Trafalgar Square. Note how none of the photos contain pictures of landmarks, and only pictures of us goofing around. As usual.

The great piggyback competition.

Lee putting his newly-formed biceps to the test.

Saturday was mostly spent at Regent's Park, where we went boating and had an impromptu champagne picnic on deck chairs whilst watching the sun go down. Oh, not forgetting the awesome lunch we had at Bayswater -- yep, you got it, we had duck! I'll be posting up a whole slew of really crazy photos and videos up soon, so watch for it.

In the meantime, I shall leave you with this absolutely hilarious video taken during Music Idol, which is the Bulgarian version of the world famous TV format, Pop Idol. This, really, is a must see.

Absolutely classic, Ken Lee.

Stripped Bare

2008-10-06T21:56:00.003+08:00

Just got back from Sheffield earlier today, only to realize what a bumbling fool I was. In my dazed state of packing up from Robyn's place this morning, I grabbed my laptop but left my laptop charger behind at her place. Dammit! So right now, I'm writing this blog entry using precious battery power (67% remaining!) and I'll probably be able to hold off for one more day before my laptop dies out on me.

I've asked Robyn to post it back from Sheffield for me, hope it doesn't cost more than me having to go back up myself to collect it. Oh boy, the horrors! No working TV, no microwave, spoilt fridge and soon-to-happen no laptop. Great. I wonder what's going to go next, the heating?

Trudging Along

2008-10-02T22:38:00.000+08:00

It's barely half a week here and I'm already half-wishing that I never left Singapore. Went for my first class yesterday, and I must say it was really good. I've a good feeling about the rest of my coming term, and I'm really looking forward to the rest of my classes. Music college here is quite different from Singapore; everybody is ahead of their game and musicians (or at least my course mates) here are all mostly like-minded.

But, other than that, London's a real drab. It really is. I've been staying indoors most of the time, watching movies and the latest episodes of Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles. Summer Glau just looks simply amazing, it's hard to keep my eyes off her. The season debut for Season 2 was such a great episode! It's a pity that viewer ratings in the States are dropping for this series; it would be such a tragedy should the studios decide to can this excellent series after only two seasons.

I also managed to catch Hancock, Speed Racer, The Happening and Forgetting Sarah Marshall. Okay, the first three I watched on the plane here. I actually quite enjoyed The Happening. Actually, I've always quite enjoyed all of M. Night Shyamalan's works except for Unbreakable (which was quite favourably reviewed by critics). The Happening was apparently a bomb among critics, but I really did quite like it's premise and setting. Mark Wahlberg was a cringe to watch in terms of acting though, I don't know what went wrong with him in this one. It was simply dreadful. Co-star Zooey Deschanel was even worse.

I've been doing mostly administrative stuff over the last few days, trying to settle in. Things like trying to open a bank account, getting a UK mobile number up and running and getting a Criminal Records Bureau check done are just about the most mundane things you could possibly come up with. What loathsome chores indeed, especially if you're trying to work around the lack of efficiency that so permeates every pore of society here.

I'm heading up to Sheffield this weekend to meet up with Jinn and Robyn. I'm really looking forward to that, I think seeing warm familiar faces should soothe my nerves just a little. Speaking of which, I better go pick Robyn a birthday present for her before I leave! Also, it's be good to get out and mingle (in Sheffield, no less). I've been living with the caveman syndrome over the past few days; this streak of alcohol abstinence just isn't quite my game yet.

Contact Update!

2008-10-01T21:30:00.002+08:00

I've got my UK mobile phone number up and running. About time, right! Please contact me here instead over the next couple months till I'm back in Singapore on 24th Dec. The number is...

+44 7826 143 044

I'll still be keeping my Singapore number, and it'll be switched on at all times. However, I won't be carrying that phone around with me wherever I go, so I guess the UK number's best. Thanks!

Touchdown 10-23

2008-09-30T23:17:00.001+08:00

Finally, I'm here, halfway across the globe in the world's dreariest city -- London. Yup, as you can tell, I'm not as half as excited to be here. If not for the fact that the only thing I'm looking forward to is my course. It's been drizzling non-stop for most of the first day I've been here, starting from the moment I exited Paddington station.

I went down to Guildhall today for enrollment but hardly got things done. Like everything else around here, administration for whatever setting (banks, schools, even the police) is unbelievably slow and I can only be fully enrolled by tomorrow. I just received my school timetable in my email and took a careful look at it. It's quite relaxed, with compulsory sessions taking place only once or twice a week, with the remaining projects listed as optional. Well, it is a postgraduate course after all.

Still feeling a tad jet lagged, as how I always do on the first day of getting off the plane. I had to re-pack at the airport due to overweight baggage, and as a result I was the last passenger to check-in for the flight. And because of that, I got assigned the worst seat imaginable. On my right was this big-sized guy who was so big he couldn't even use his tray table, and on my left was a noisy albeit cute toddler girl. The horrors!

Alright, I gotta catch some shut-eye soon. Hopefully I'll have a few more positive things to scribble about over the next couple days. Miss you all in Singapore. Homesickness is a little more prevalent than I expect!

F1 star Tay Kewei made a special appearance at
the airport -- thanks, babe!

The send-off gang at Changi Airport. Thanks you all!

Oh, and a big thank-you to my very sweet friends who took time to show up at the airport to send me off to London. I know I've changed my flight umpteen times but you guys were still so patient over the entire week to really wait until my real flight took place! Especially Juliet, thanks so much for rushing down after work and say goodbye over a mere five minutes. I really appreciate it!

Fruity Beers & Such

2008-09-28T03:50:00.006+08:00

Alright, before I even start on anything, here's a video clip which I chanced upon while browsing through Charles' blog. This is absolutely hilarious and a definite must-see. Now I know why I love the Japanese so much -- it has to be their unbeatable crazy antics! Well, chocolate-flavoured bananas, anyone? Heh.

Went down to Zouk on Friday night for a wee bit of partying. Haven't been to Zouk for quite awhile now (Winebar doesn't count!), so it was good to revisit that place a bit before I head off to London. Met up with Huishi and her friend, Shakun and had a couple drinks at Winebar before heading into Zouk for some Agnelli & Nelson. We weren't there specifically for them, they just happened to be spinning that night. Pretty good stuff though, I do quite like their brand of trance.

Huishi had a bit too many hotdogs from the hotdog stand though, so by the time Vanessa joined us (with her newly-found pal from Nethearlands!), she couldn't stay long enough to finish the bottle of G.H. Mumm before she had to head home and slowly digest all those hotdogs and mash! Well, nothing like some official F1 champagne to get into the F1 mood, I suppose.

Saturday night was spent at Holland V with dear April and best buddy Vyomar, along with Carol and Eftoni. Most of the night was spent at 2am: dessertbar, with the bunch of us wolfing down a chocolate tart, a twix and bottles of fruit beer faster than you could say "fat hips". Janice was very nice and hospitable and even gave us a free scoop of sorbet while we were still sitting by the bar, before heading over to the plush cushions. April fished out her camera and I took a couple "beer shots" for good measure.

The Timmermans were just simply heavenly!

It was a really great chilled out night, peppered with moments of remembering old acquaintances (aka bitching), updating each other on the latest ongoings (aka gossiping) and picture-taking (aka cam-whoring). Pretty much unavoidable, really! Definitely a great way to spend your weekend evening though, I must say. More to come, I hope!

Unhealthy Hate

2008-09-27T12:12:00.001+08:00

This is just driving me crazy. I'm this close to wanting to slit the VFS receptionist's throat every time I speak to her. The people there have absolutely no knowledge about things called customer service or corporate responsibility. Their line is always engaged, and mind you, there's only one listed number which you can contact them at.

Ooh, how I wish I could just go there and run a sharp blade through the receptionist's throat, and watch her gurgle to death in her own blood as she slowly slumps over her keyboard/desk/phone, staining the entire area dark red. Okay, this is really driving me nuts. I think you can tell. By god, I'm so sick of their terrible excuses every time I call.

"Oh, the application is still being processed!"

"We don't know what's going on with the KL High Commission!"

"It's the peak period now, everybody has to wait..."

"When we say 8-10 working days to process, it's just the average time..."

Oh man, die already, all of you! Incidentally, I read up on Wikipedia that VFS Global was embroiled in a scandal whereby the company's online UK visa application system was flawed and insecure allowing applicants identities to be stolen. This was, according to them, due to "organizational failures". Yes indeed, your entire organization is one big failure. Following official inquires and investigations, the UK Foreign Office has stated that they will terminate its relationship with VFS. I really wonder why this hasn't happened already.

Anyway, last Tuesday was another "last night at Cuscaden" business with the boys. As you can tell, I would've though the previous Tuesday would be my last night there, but to be honest I won't be entirely surprised if I have another "last night at Cuscaden" on the 30th. This time, Dennis managed to join us as he's currently in Singapore for a couple days. That poor fella was out by the time he finished his first jug!

JCT, I bet you miss us "tards", don't you!

Glamorous Albert after two jugs.

At the end of the night, Dennis actually threw up and guess what, he was forced to cough up $80 as a fine! This was, of course, immediately met with protests by all of us present. The management then took out a piece of A4-sized paper that stated out this "company policy", whereby which we were all taken by surprise. When queried further, the boss actually let us around the pub and showed us that there were indeed similar A4 posters put up at very discreet corners of the place. Which is ridiculous, of course. I've been there so many times, yet I've never seen it before!

Dennis, however, is quite the pacifist when he's drunk. Without a word, he took out his wallet at promptly paid on the spot! Upon further negotiation, we managed to reduce his fine to $50, which incidentally happens to be the amount you have to pay if you spit within the pub's premises. I kid you not, it's right there on the company policy poster!

The Frustrating Countdown

2008-09-26T11:26:00.003+08:00

Haven't being doing much over the last few days; have been mostly sitting around at home playing Tales of Vesperia, meeting friends for dinner and drinks and stressing out about my visa. It's quite funny actually, I've been meeting friends thinking that it's going to be the last time we'll see each other for some time, only to meet again for another round of drinks or whatnot. I guess I'm not fated to say farewell for now.

Just checked this morning, my visa is still not ready. And oh, guessed what. Remember how I complained that their visa tracking isn't really tracking because all it tells you is whether it's ready or not? Well, I guess VFS read my last blog post about that, because they put in an additional message for me when I went to "track" my visa application. It now says,

"Your application is still being processed. Please avoid calling/emailing the Application Centre or the High Commission for an update. The website will be updated as soon as the documents are ready for collection. Your visa application has been forwarded to the British High Commission."

Usually what I get is simply just the last sentence, but I guess they've recognized me by now, going how I've been calling them everyday. But hey, it's for good reason! I didn't pay $267 in visa application fees only for them to doodle around and take their own sweet time. Such f**kers they are! Once I finally get my visa I'm going to submit a very heavy-handed complaint to VFS.

I spent the entire day yesterday playing Tales of Vesperia (it's really addictive!), and only stopped to meet Yiling and Lingna for dinner. I sympathize with those two, twice have they prepared themselves to go to the airport after work to send me off, only for me to ruin their plans at the very last minute! Still, we thought since we were all free anyway we decided to have dinner at Causeway Point.

Here's a great way to take a photo of someone
and yourself at the same time!

Cam-whoring after dinner.

I met up with Pin-Ji again a couple days back for another "farewell dinner" (a common tale of late). We were talking about arthouse films, specifically Boy A, and how difficult it is sometimes to get someone to watch an arthouse film together. Then, out of some burst of sudden spontaneity, we decided to just go "mainstream" and go catch Bangkok Dangerous! (Of all the worst movies one could watch, right?)

So we went to the box office at Shaw, only to be sidetracked by another movie which we went for in the end. The movie was titled Step Brothers, and I went into the movie theatre having absolutely no idea what to expect. Well, it turned out to be an immensely funny flick, with Will Ferrell being his usual obnoxious self to the utmost degree! I'm sure those who watched it will agree what a gut-wrenching moment it was during the scene where Will Ferrell's character took out a certain anatomy of his and started rubbing it on the drum set. (Yes, you read correctly: drum set!)

Well, I guess it's back to mucking around at home, trying not to spend more money when I've already stopped working. That means planting myself in front of my Xbox 360 and TV in hopes of trying to distract myself from thinking about the damn visa. Oh man, enough of this shit already!

Visa Woes

2008-09-25T14:03:00.003+08:00

Dear all, I guess some of you might know this by now but today I had to change my flight for the second time again. This is all in no thanks to the bumbling, incompetent and lacklustre fools working at VFS Global. VFS is a commercial company, "working in partnership with UKvisas and the British High Commission here in Singapore providing services to help people apply for UK visas.".

I put that sentence in quotation remarks because, despite them writing that down on their website, it is to me just utter, complete nonsense. So if VFS claims to do exactly that, I would like to question how "working in partnership" means having to send visa applications to the British High Commission in Kuala Lumpur for processing when Singapore has one right here. I would like to question why your one and only telephone line is engaged all the bloody time. I would to question why your so-called "VFS Tracking System" only tells a person whether it's ready, or not. That's it, only two options. How does this qualify as "tracking"?!

I would also like to question why VFS takes 8-10 working days to process a simple non-settlement visa when, from your very own website, it states that UKvisas themselves process all straightforward non-settlement applications within 24 hours, 99% of the time. So is this now a case of UKvisas being actually productive, whilst the incompetent lot of you at VFS are taking your own sweet time sending courier dispatches up and down the North-South Highway? Is that it?

You guys have been a pain in my ass, a thorn in my side and a splint in my eye for the past week. I hope to never have to deal with such a bunch of unskilled, hopeless and ineffectual people like yourselves ever again. I have now changed my flight to the 29th, which is next Monday. If I can't leave by then, I swear my grievances towards VFS Global will go beyond just a simple blog post.

Poetic License

2008-09-24T17:59:00.004+08:00

So, you must be wondering where did that poem come about. Believe it all not, it's actually a poem that Tony and me came up with, taking alternate turns to come up with the lines. (I did the 1st and 3rd line, Tony did the 2nd and 4th line). For those of you who can't read Chinese, it talks about a person leaving his hometown in search for greater things ahead, not knowing where fate will bring him. However, the memory of his supportive friends back home help keep him sane.

Interestingly, this is always what Tony and I do whenever we've had a little too much too drink, and the intoxication is fuelling our emotional and literary tendencies. Then again, I guess that's how it was always done during those ancient days in China! This is definitely not the first time we've come up with something like that. Admittedly, I did receive quite a bit of help for the 3rd line!

In his inebriated state last night, Tony also wrote another poem dedicated to my departure. (That sounds a tad off.) I'll be putting it up soon!

Peachy Pêche

2008-09-23T23:10:00.000+08:00

Pianissimo Pêche all the way straight from Japan, courtesy of Rachel! Who, by the way, had to go to so much trouble to get it for me. Ever since Japan introduced the new ID verification system on certain vending machines, tourists or visitors haven't been unable to buy anything from these machines without a proper taspo card. (The horrors, right?) So, Rachel had to scour supermarkets that were selling pêche by the pack and not by the carton, all the while trying to navigate her way through with only a handful of Japanese phrases. That's real dedication!

Well, the accompanying (and very fitting) lighter is also Rachel's, from Japan. The Japanese really come up with the craziest stuff! There's actually a little mini figurine floating about inside the lighter fluid. How ingenious is that. Well unfortunately I finished the pêche in a day and a half. Gone all too quickly!

Last Sunday I went to catch Babylon A.D. with Rachel and Cindy. Michelle Yeoh was in it and boy, was her character an exact mimic of her character in her previous movie, The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor. In both movies, she plays a mother/mentor figure to a girl who, from young, has been destined for great things or endowed with great powers. She then accompanies this girl through a series of adventures where both of them discover themselves and grow closer, only to have them bitterly separated through Michelle Yeoh's premature death towards the end. In her dying moments, her character will then whisper to the girl's love interest or to the protagonist, asking him to take good care of the girl when she's gone.

If you've watched both movies, you'll know exactly what I'm talking about. I just find it amusing how, for both back-to-back movies which she starred in, her characters could have so many uncanny similarities. Still, despite all these stereotypes, it's good to see a prominent and talented south-east asian actress like her getting some good screen time in Hollywood, through hard work and proper acting talent. Definitely beats the skin-deep character that Fann Wong played in Shanghai Knights, which I thought was quite dreadful to watch. In Hong Kong, the South China Morning Post actually stated that she "seems set to displace Lucy Liu as Hollywood's Asian babe du jour". What utter rubbish!

The Angel

2008-09-12T12:51:00.003+08:00

Last night, she paid me a visit. Clad in white, face aglow; you could see that look of tenderness almost mixed with a tinge of bitterness and sorrow. It was almost ethereal: her presence, her voice and her touch. She stood over me and smiled, whispered gently in my ear while I laid in bed drowning in a stupor of misery and poignant thoughts.

My eyes half-closed, I could feel her comforting presence, the warmth and tenderness of it all welcoming me into another realm of peace. She then took me into her arms and studied my face, my expressions, my thoughts. A sweet lullaby escaped from her lips, and it was one full of hopes and dreams for the days, months and years to come. My consciousness floated in and out of paradise, soaring above the waves and clouds as I beckoned her to follow me.

She rested my head against the pillow, and ran her hand through my hair, leading every follicle of my being towards her gracefulness. A parting shot, a departing murmur, a longing sigh. Then I looked up, and she was gone.

I, Gossiper

2008-09-10T13:50:00.003+08:00

I guess I woke up this morning feeling particularly bitchy, so today will be the day where I'll finally post up the infamous "can-I-get-to-know-you" message Kewei received on Friendster a few months back. Now, I must tell you to steady yourself before reading this as this will most probably land you in stitches by the time you reach the end of this paragraph.

Note that I've not made any changes whatsoever to the paragraph below, so you can grasp the inanity of it in it's full glory. Formatting remains the same too, but for sanctity's sake I've left out the poster's name and number.

good evening.just eaten dinner .did not went anywhere . just sleep after come back from work at abt 1pm. not feeling too well .... having headache and diarrhoea .eaten congee for dinner .do remember to grab yr dinner soon .drink plenty of warm water as weather quite cold .raining .mind be a friend ?.let me intro myself first ... A*** here, 23yrs old Singapore Chinese guy , height 1.72m n weight 60kg .
Short profile of myself. Single.completed army last year sep . wrking in sale line for coke. Tend to care for others more. Tend to be truthful to others .wrking hard and hope to get my car licence so can drive mitsubishi lancer .love to eat dim sum and drink Soya bean.hardly clubbing , maybe once a year ,no smoke .do sincerely hope you give me chance to know you more.sometime do help out in housechores . tend to always help others .always tend to care for others .do hope you give me a chance to let me know you more.but i do drink , only abt twice in half a year .
hi . as i seldom log on to friendtser as my friendster got some problem . you can sms me at 9******* if you don mind de .do sincerely hope you able to recieve your sms .
next time am i allowed bring you go into malaysia to eat?do sincerely hope you give me a chance to know you more .
next time i make beer fried chicken wing for you to try.
do sincerely hope you give me a chance to know you more .

Wow, awesome stuff, eh? I think he would make a great example on how to attempt to pick girls up online. The only thing worse about this is poor Kewei, who probably receives random messages such as these so many times over!

To Remember Is Divine

2008-09-09T02:40:00.003+08:00

I was just looking through my Singfest ’08 photo album and realized again what an awesome festival it was to attend. Rocking away with Rey and Dennis, getting to meet April and Vyomar, desperately trying to get in some good pictures of Alicia Keys, wolfing down kebabs like hungry ghosts after the show; all great times!

Tonight was an unbelievably wet night at IndoChine. Rain seems to pouring at the most random times of the day in Singapore as of late, and I’m not even talking about that hot Korean star. Tonight’s torrential downpour started at 11 at night. Coupled with the fact that it’s a Monday night, there were only like 6 customers left at IndoChine by the time Linda, Daniel and myself were done with our last set.

I went clubbing with Kewei, Dennis, Phoebe and a bunch of random friends last Saturday. Like, what’s new. It seems that as of late, imbibing alcohol has become quite a pastime for me. Not that I’m complaining, but it does make me think that there has to be some better vices in life to aim for. Or so I would think! Well, I guess being blameless and pure would be a better option, but for that one I’m still working on it. We dropped by Taboo, where they were having their BodWatch fashion show featuring Sportsmen Asia products.

Now according to their website, they claim to be “the Definitive Men's Shop for the trendiest sportswear, swim wear and underwear”. For the fashion show, however, the focus was definitely on the last two listed products, and not the first. I think Dennis and myself were more dismayed by the fact that we have such inferior, dreadful physiques (as compared to the hunky models) rather than the fact that we were two heterosexuals trying to look like we were having fun at a (gay, no less) male underwear fashion show.

We headed to Butter Factory shortly after and met up with April (left) and Alfred, who were already partying the night away with their respective friends. Dharni was there as usual, and it was good to see him. That lucky *beep* is opening Kanye West’s show here during his Glow in the Dark Tour. Gotta give it to Dharni man, he’s the real shit!

Ah, damn. Just thinking about the very busy week ahead of me is enough to stop me from thinking what else to fill in for this post. I’ve got a couple weddings lined up, plenty of rehearsals, the usual gigs and most importantly, I need to get my damn student visa done. It’s been quite tough over the past week, having to break the news of my sudden departure to all my students. Underneath every student’s mother’s congratulatory remark, I can tell that inside their brains they’re fretting over who to get as their next piano teacher!

The Orange Payphone

2008-09-08T02:06:00.004+08:00

So, over the weekend I dropped by Tat's place to help out a little with Kewei's ongoing recording project. It was my first time to the famed Tat Tong's famed home studio, and boy did we manage to get things flowing! All of Kewei's tracks are sounding better and better with each passing day, under the maestro hands of Tat, who is helming almost if not all of Kewei's music production.

After our little jam session, we headed down to Purvis Street for some good ol' chicken rice at Yet Con. I'm sure anyone who's been there before will never forget how impressively old-school this restaurant has managed to remain. Established all the way back in 1940 (according to some quick online research!), this Hainanese eatery is famed for the elderly gentleman who we all assume is the owner standing at the counter, watching the room with an eagle eye and barking orders at the matronly staff while running the accounts on his abacus. Yep, a real abacus.

But we spotted something just as interesting as a real abacus sitting on the counter as well -- it was one of those nostalgic orange public payphones which used to be found aplenty at your void deck kopitiam! We were so awed by the sight of it that we didn't dare to pick of the receiver to check if it's even a working phone, lest we accidentally defile and deface a national history monument.

The phone that was all the rage back then.

Yeah, I remember my lower primary school days, using these phones to ring up my mommy from the mama stall where I used to frequent after school ended and telling her I'd be heading out to cycle someplace somewhere before heading home. And of course, who can forget the iconic 8-step illustration printed on the phone to demonstrate to every user the proper way to use a coin-operated payphone? Awesome, isn't it. Then there's also that little vintage LCD display at the bottom which would reflect whatever number you were dialling.

Back then we had pictorial guides for everything too.

After dinner, Tat left for Joo Chiat while Kewei and me went shopping at Raffles City before stuffing ourselves silly with J.Co donuts. I was quite surprised when we walked past J.Co and Kewei took the initiative to walk in and start queuing for donuts without any prompting from me. We settled for half a dozen of those heavenly things, and proceeded to gobble them down without much guilt. At one point Kewei remarked, "I feel I must relive the good old KL days!" For those who don't know, it was in KL where Kewei had her first taste of J.Co donuts. I can safely say she has never looked back since.

Posing with our bounty.

After that, we then proceeded to Taboo, then Butter Factory with random groups of friends joining us throughout the night. Speaking of which, I must mention my randy new green shirt which I bought just before the donuts. See, I thought I'd jump on the bandwagon with the SAF changing their No. 4 camo to a digital print pattern and all. Well, that was the closet to a green digital print pattern I could find at River Island. Whilst hoping that perhaps the camouflaging nature of my shirt would serve to hide my beer gut, I was severely proved otherwise after our donut-indulging expedition.

Moments of Inebriation

2008-09-03T11:50:00.003+08:00

So, here’s a wrap-up of what happened over the weekend – but, first things first, I’m glad to actually announce that I’ve been sleeping quite regularly for the past four days or so. This, all should know by now, is quite the phenomenon for a grossly irregular sleeper like me. Anyway, my work load seems to be lighter for the start of September, so I’m trying to make the most of my time at home, spending time with my family and doing normal things like drinking coffee in the morning. Not quite there yet when it comes to that elusive morning jog, but hopefully things will get there.

I met up with Phoebe and Cindy over the weekend, where we went to dbl o and we were joined by Celyn and Si Ming. I don’t pay a visit there often, so the $3 shots proved rather formidable after a couple trays ensured that everyone was sufficiently sloshed, most of all Cindy. (That’s Celyn on the right though, not Cindy. She’s going to have my head for this picture should she ever stumble upon my blog!) Still, the bak kut teh which we had at the end of the night served well to clear our heads before heading home.

Come Monday, however, Cindy & I were still really game for another round of drinks so we met up for dinner after work before heading to Winebar with Phoebe for another session of martinis and Hoegaarden. Still, it was a decidedly more reserved night that night, with almost nobody at Zouk (except alcoholics like us).

And as if we couldn’t get enough of each other, we met up again yesterday for coffee and KTV, this time joined by Rachel and Wei Yap. It’s been a while since I’ve gone KTV-ing twice in two weeks; the last time this happened was when Ben, Shi Wei and I were crazy about belting out Mandarin hits at the wee hours of the morning. It being a Tuesday, however, I had to end the night with my regular beer-chugging session at Cuscaden Patio, and for that Albert very kindly obliged in joining me for some drunken debauchery.

Well, and before you know it, it’s already mid-week Wednesday. Feels like yesterday when I went to catch WALL-E with Vanessa last Thursday. Great movie there by the way; everything about it is so polished I don’t know where to start. I never knew, though, that an animated movie about space-faring robots falling in love would be able to tug at my heartstrings. Quite amazing, indeed.

Kukrusann

2008-08-27T10:37:00.003+08:00

Yeah, reliving the good old days, all right. I was going through some old photos when I chanced upon this montage made for us by Joel. Indeed, memories of yesteryear, ain't it? These photos were taken during our Rockhampton trip back in November 2006. The esteemed members of Kukrusann are, (from L) Charles Wong, myself, Jon Tay, Toshi Moriyuki, John Khoo and Mark Su!

Interestingly, our Kukrusann blog is actually still up online, although it's not really updated anymore.

And She Said

2008-08-27T08:52:00.004+08:00

I finally logged into the Windows Live account this morning, and read your saved email. The video made me tear, only because the lyrics, which would have once made perfect sense, now seem to be only mocking me over & over again. Thanks for the account, I'm sure it'll come into very good use one day.

Surprise
Surprise
Never something I could hide
When I see we made it through another day

Rise & Shine

2008-08-25T10:41:00.004+08:00

I woke up at 5 this morning, owing to the fact that I went to bed at 7pm last night. Didn't even catch the closing ceremony for the 2008 Summer Olympics. However, I must say though, it must have been years since I woke up at 5am actually feeling fresh! Quite a good feeling, actually. To be able to breathe in the fresh morning air and actually not thinking what a crazy all-nighter I just had. But I don't think I can upkeep a "sleep-at-7pm" routine anytime soon, so I'm sure this is going to be just a one-off thing.

Life, what a conundrum, eh. Mood swings took over most of my weekend over the last few days, and the feeling is nothing short of terrible. I've never experienced so much joy, fear, regret, bitterness, disappointment, dread, apprehension, confusion, remorse, nonchalance, relief and insouciance in just a short span of a few days. It's terrible, but I know it's going to continue for a few more weeks.

Just to soothe my nerves, I actually fished out my old copy of Final Fantasy XII, popped it into my PS3 and played the Bahamut/final boss battle segment again just for old time's sake. It was fun and really nostalgic, thinking about all the 200+ hours I've invested in this game back in 2006 when the game was first released. Fast forward two years later, and now we're all eagerly anticipating Final Fantasy XIII's release.

I actually had quite some difficulty defeating the final incarnation of Vayne, even though I had lvl. 83 characters across. Shows how much I've lost touch with that game! Even though, it's always really nice to just crack out all those past RPGs that you've played over the years and give it a short run, just to relive that old-school feeling of sitting in front of your console and TV for hours at an end, busy levelling up and clearing dungeons.

Well, I'm trying to remain positive for the good start of the day so far. I'll be attempting to clean out my wardrobe later. That ought to be daunting enough!

The ERP Reich

2008-08-25T06:34:00.003+08:00

I stumbled onto something that I must say is pretty damn funny and clever whilst surfing YouTube this morning. I guess most people have seen it already (knowing how slow I am when it comes to interesting YouTube clips), but I thought I'd just post it up for comedic relief in these dark times.

Sorry if it appears to be a little insensitive. Well, it's Hitler after all. Anything about him can be construed as insensitivity.

Decided Fates

2008-08-23T21:28:00.003+08:00

Here's something I just came across from a devotion. It says, "Sometimes, when God doesn't give us what we want, we say that God didn't answer our prayer. I would say that He did, because 'no' is as much an answer to prayer as 'yes' is".

That's really food for thought, isn't it. But it does make complete sense. To you, I can only say I'm sorry I've betrayed you and brought shame to what we've both shared and held precious. I will take your parting advice, only in hopes that I can prove to you, and more importantly myself, that I can be better than this.

A Note

2008-08-23T20:32:00.001+08:00

Write a note, some say. It helps with the grieving process. So okay, I'll write a note. But right now I have no idea what to put down. The dull ache of misery, hopelessness and regret is far too stinging to bear.

And yet, things can only go worse. A badly-painted scenario so warped, so wrong, yet so real. People always say, what's done is done, you can only look ahead. And so very true, yet so very hard to master. Am I sorry? Yes, but perhaps not as much as I should be. Do I regret? Definitely so.

What you have, you don't want. What you don't have, you wish you had. Isn't that the bitter nature of us humans? How a single act of selfishness and mistrust and overturn everything in a blink of an eye. There's this quote which I stumbled upon, which I find most apt.

Two things are infinite: the universe and human stupidity; and I'm definitely not sure about the universe.

There will be more demons for me to face, demons that won't surface until the time is right. Till then, this wait will continue to haunt me, forever and beyond. Time to pick up the pieces. Time to face the facts. Time to move on.

Staying On

2008-08-18T02:59:00.003+08:00

It's Day 5 in Katy here, and by all rights I should be on a plane en route to Amsterdam right now. But, as they say, things never happen your way! Through a series of very endearing circumstances, my stay here has been extended till the 19th. That means I only leave on Tuesday, head off to Amsterdam for a 14-hour layover then arrive in Singapore on Thursday the 21st.

I went down to accompany Annie to bring Victoria and Albert to their new high school, Seven Lakes High School for their open day. There, I brought Albert to see his new teachers, get his photo ID done, collect his school supplies list, buy his books and stuff. Their school is pretty new in the Katy district, and seems really well equipped. They even have a black box and performing arts centre within the school. Now that's what I like to see!

And even in the school, I managed to get some shopping done -- I bought a SLHS sweatshirt and and a tee. Not bad, huh! I even managed to take a photo in front of the school with my SLHS sweatshirt on, posing as a senior. I think I looked quite the part! Will post photos on Facebook once I get back to Singapore.

Other than that, the past few days have been pretty relaxing. Went for a spot of shopping at Memorial City Mall after watching Clone Wars, where I contended myself with purchases at GameStop and Victoria's Secret. (Yes, it's can be fun shopping in a women's boutique too.) Oh, and eating alot. Well, just as well, we're heading out for dinner soon. ¡Hasta luego ás-ta lwé-go!

Outworldly Fun

2008-08-16T01:23:00.005+08:00

It's Day 3 here in Katy and I'm still a little jetlagged. Thank god for Red Bull which happens to be cheaper than the price they're selling it for in Singapore! Groceries here seem to be really cheap compared to Singapore, and definitely way cheaper than the UK.

We'll be heading down to the NASA Space Center Houston afterwards for some touristy fun -- I heard that place is quite out of this world! That aside, I've been pretty much having a great time chilling out here. Annie's new house is splendid, and she's been spoiling me silly with her great hospitality and food.

Sadly enough, I'll be leaving in 2 days' time. Better not get used to it!

At Last, An Update!

2008-07-23T01:36:00.003+08:00

And so, here we are. The 23rd of July, almost coming to the end of the month now. How time flies! It's 1:35am as I'm typing this and I'm feeling as ravenous as an alligator on a diet. Today was the second (and last) day of the Les Chansons Français show that I did at the Esplanade, together with Bevlyn and Jonathan Lim, as part of Esplanade's Jazz in July series.

All in all, it was a fantastic show and both nights went very smoothly and enjoyably. For tonight's show, Bevlyn's friend Jason came down and took a couple of pretty sweet photos of us; I'm looking forward to seeing those! Well, admittedly, some of the shots of me were posed, but then again I never look good when I'm onstage so I think some necessary measures have to be put in place!

The week has been quite a blur, but I suppose that's always good when you're feeling aimless at times. Last night I met up with Monji (so glad she's back!) and some of my other friends from UK like Ping and Edward for drinks, first at IndoChine then at Balcony. As usual, all of us had a ball drinking up and making plenty of fun of Monji (did I hear someone say horse?)! As you can see on your left, Monji sometimes makes the most excellent faces, spurred on by Ping's never-ending enthusiasm.

That aside, I've had quite a ball of a weekend as well. I had two wedding gigs at Sentosa over last weekend, so I booked a room at Amara Sanctuary Resort Sentosa for one night and had a sleepover of sorts. Well, in the end it was down to five of us men in one room, so you it was pretty much like back to the BMT days. Nonetheless, we had a great time and Tat and I actually managed to continually drink for 9 hours!

I also met my cousin Karen the next day at the other wedding; she and her hubby were back from NZ to attend their friend's wedding, who was the groom. It was indeed great to see her again -- she's just about the only cousin that I can still say I'm pretty close to.

Oh, I've also managed to put in some nice bonding time with my PS3 over the last week with the game Uncharted: Drake's Fortune, which I borrowed from Albert. It's a farily short game, but it didn't fail to impress thoroughly with it's mindblowing graphics, addictive gameplay and dramatic score. The VA for the game was also excellent, mainly becuase the voice actors also did the motion capture themselves, providing for seamless blending of motion and voice.

Tomorrow it's actually back to Sentosa, for the MINDEF Volunteers' Dinner. Kewei & Co. actually got hired (by SAF, of course) to perform at that event. This will make it my 3rd MINDEF Volunteers' Dinner show, with the first two with MDC. Talk about never being able to run away!

Nocturnal Schedules

2008-07-10T05:22:00.002+08:00

I guess there's always time for a quick blog post before bed! I just got back from quite the hectic night -- was working at Indochine as usual, then met Foi and her girlfriend for drinks at Living Room, before heading out for supper (again) with Vannie and Shu.

The nocturnal life is getting abit too busy for my liking. Only because I have to wake up in three hours to teach! In Kembangan, no less. Okay, allow me to go scream in my pillow now before drifting off to sleep!

So What?

2008-07-09T17:30:00.003+08:00

Life's such a bore at times. With most of my students gone back for the summer, I feel this drop in teaching activity to be suddenly quite monotonous. There are actually days where I'm not working for the entire day now; this feels weird. This, in turn, has fuelled my erratic sleeping hours where now I find myself going to bed at 8am and waking up at 4pm, like clockwork everyday.

I mean, there has to be so much more than that, right? So, anyhow, last night at 2am I spontaneously decided to head down to Balcony for food and drinks with Shu and Vannie, just like that. There, we chilled out all the way till 5am. Then, wanting to save on the midnight surcharge, we loitered at Cheers opposite the street until it was six before heading home.

That was fun. I ended up feeling more tired than I expected I would, but it was fun nonetheless. Suddenly I'm craving for some Azuki Freeze.

Warped Discussions

2008-07-03T06:59:00.004+08:00

I swear, you always read the funniest things on online forums. So last night, I watched Rambo 4 on my laptop (which was pretty entertaining) and I went on IMDB.com to just pass my time away by reading the forums of the movie. And here's what I read about this poster who had the subject "Horrible moment of violence where this film went TOO FAR".

There is a scene in this film where someone is shot, with a gun. Its only quick - but if you watch the film carefully you can clearly see blood where the bullet has supposedly entered the victims chest. Granted, they probably used one of those fake-blood pouches, but the visual illusion is of a person actually being shot, with a bullet, in the chest. It only lasts a few frames, but I was very surprised, and very shocked, to see this.

You think that's ridiculous enough? I mean, come on! Do bear in mind this is about a Rambo movie we're talking about here. Below is what another poster replied. This one's a killer!

I too was expecting a film where rambo gives everyone hugs and teaches them about the magic of nature and how rainbows shine on us all, good or bad.

I was sure the guns were made out of chocolate and would shoot caramel syrup but was shocked to see actual armor piercing bullets shred burmese into roast beef.

And then it gets even funnier. Another kind-hearted poster then tries to clear up the situation with this well-intentioned (but really hilarious) reply.

i think hes actually saying that John Rambo is a snuff film and that it actually shows someone being killed (for real) what a plonker......as if!!!

So you think that's the end of the story? Then the original poster comes back and says this.

No, seriously. Its about 40 mins or so in. If you watch carefully you'll see the bit I mean, there is some red on a guys upper half, where he has been shot. The guy definitely dies as a result of being shot.

Indeed, I've never encountered someone as retarded as this. There are definitely some very moronic people on this planet. And it doesn't even end here. For the whole thread, please click here and go agonize yourself over some people's inexplicable stupidity.

We Are Singapore

2008-07-02T17:02:00.001+08:00

Finally, it's out! Well, at least, finally I've got my hands on a copy. This version of We Are Singapore was recorded right before I ORD'ed; my last MDC contribution so to speak. A pretty big contribution, might I add. Recorded by Jacintha Abisheganaden, the MDC Vocal Ensemble (that's us!) and, uh, the choir from a local JC. VJC, I think.

Established music maestro Iskandar arranged this version, and I adapted it into TTBBB format for the VE. Everyone in the VE (back when I was still around) recorded their own tracks. The fine people I've had the pleasure of working with include Viknesh, Nicholas, Samuel, Jarrod, Dennis, of which my VE working experience would never have been that exciting without these guys. However, on top of that, I had to record a track for every voice part except Tenor 1 and Bass, which as you can imagine turned out to be rather tedious. This is so that the studio could have enough samples to work with. I still vividly recall the days stuck in the studio trying to vocal direct each singer, pushed to the brink of exhaustion at times!

Well, so here you have it. A preview of this year's version of We Are Singapore, to be performed at NDP 08. I can't be too sure exactly when this segment will be onstage, but I heard it will be sung (with Jacintha and the combined school choir) before the President's arrival. VE members onstage will be Viknesh, Jeremy, Nicholas, Samuel, Jarrod and Dennis, so be sure to look out for them!

I would have loved to be part of the team singing onstage, but as you know how MDC is always looking to cut costs (read: stingy), they would never be willing to pay my rates and put me onstage when they can used the current VE (read: free labour). Nevertheless, I'm really glad with the end result and am happy to have contributed a little part to this year's parade. Guess a bit of MDC in me still lives on; the forbidden desire to show off just a little at every NDP.

I've uploaded the song here (look to the right side of this page), so do give it a listen and throw in comments should you have any! I can't believe NDP 08 is almost already here. They've already put up Singapore flags, decorations and whatnot at the condo estate that I live in! Feels like yesterday when I just co-hosted the NDP 08 media launch with Zarinah during October last year. Ah, the good old days...

My Desired City

2008-07-02T16:49:00.002+08:00

Took a really short BrainFall.com quiz earlier just now out of boredom. This one finds out for you which city would be the most suitable for you to live in, based on your character and behavoirial patterns. Below is what I got. Not bad eh? I haven't been to Rome before but I definitely will in the near futue. I'll see it for myself then!

What City Should You Live In?
	You should live in Rome. You avoid conflict and take life a little slower than most. Rome's sun, culture, food, and siestas are a perfect match for your easy-going attitude.
Find Your Character @ BrainFall.com

The Week Condensed

2008-06-30T01:51:00.003+08:00

My past week has been pretty packed, looking back at these past events now that today's Sunday. How time flies! As some (or rather, most) of you should know by now, no thanks to my incessant bragging, I bought myself a PS3 last Sunday on impulse when I was just browsing through Funz Centre at AMK Hub. I spotted the MGS4 Edition 80GB PS3 on top of a shelf in the store and I couldn't take my eyes off it. Next thing I knew, I was walking out of the store with exactly just that!

Having said that, I've been (naturally) clocking in some serious MGS4 gameplay hours over the last week, and I must say it has been a thoroughly rewarding experience! I bought the PS3 for the sole reason of playing PS3 exclusive games only, as I would still much prefer my Xbox 360 for multi-platform games. Anyhow, I think Hideo Kojima and his team have really outdone themselves again with the excellent gameplay, graphics and most importantly, storyline.

Those who have had the fortunate opportunity of getting some hands-on experience with the game will agree that MGS4 is more than simply just an apotheosis of the entire series, but rather a perfectly-blended game that appeals to hardcore MGS4 fans and more casual players like myself. To be honest, I've never completed MGS1 or MGS2 before (I started but never finished), but MGS3 totally blew me away and got be hooked onto the franchise.

Thus, MGS4 was a good reason enough for me to finally get my PS3! This splendid game features, once again, my favourite modern day composer Harry Gregson-Williams, who has also previously wrote music for this game series. The climactic battle towards the end of the game is nothing short of dazzling and emotional, and is sure to tug many gamers' heartstrings.

Interestingly, game magazine Edge describes the game score "to be superior to that of many Hollywood offerings". Which is excellent news, as this marks another step in progressing and emphasizing the importance and necessity of good music in games. And of course, more credit for Harry Gregson-Williams himself!

In other happenings, Dennis came over last Tuesday from KL and stayed over at my place for one night before his Lunchbox gig at the Esplanade with Kewei. I made a "return" trip back with Rey last Friday, where we headed up to KL to catch Dennis and Kewei's gig at Bangkok Jazz. I've uploaded photos up on Facebook, so do check it out here. ↗

It was quite a misadventure for a trip, as Rey left his passport behind on the coach and there's was quite a fair bit of panicking going on. Also, because there were some changes to our accommodation plans, we had to check into a hotel room at Sunway Pyramid at 4 in the morning, after supper! Speaking of supper, I had the spiciest ayam laksa in my life. It was rather daunting!

Check out those killer lashes!

Otherwise, it was a good albeit extremely short break for me; heading to KL for the gig was enjoyable enough! A took a break on Friday at Indochine, something which I was rather unwilling to do at first but actually quite enjoyed it in the end! The remainder of the weekend just flew by with the usual mix of gigs and teaching, no surprise there. Well, here's to another week! I'm bracing myself already.

Blue Tent

2008-06-20T13:20:00.002+08:00

Here's a little something random that I thought I'd share. Last night, after a regular session at Loof with the usual gang, Roland sent Judy and myself back. As I had a wedding gig before that at Holiday Inn Parkview, I had to leave my keyboard there before heading down to Loof, and so we were on our way there to pick it back up.

As we drove down Cavenagh Road, we passed by Orchard Plaza, where the lup sup canto club 97 is. Af first, I spotted a few police cars from afar parked along the street, so I didn't give it much thought as I thought it was the usual police presence. But then, when were stopped at the traffic junction, Judy suddenly piped up from behind, "Oh my god, did somebody die? Why is there a tent there?"

And yes, apparently someone got killed last night, probably due to a very dumb reason which triggered off a very dumb fight. And that resulted in a blue police tent by the side of the pavement. How tragic, really. Well, as Judy put it, "Yes. we have one less ah beng in the world tonight."

Life is indeed inconceivably fragile.

Pad Thai & Umbrellas

2008-06-08T22:41:00.004+08:00

Woke up with a pretty wham-bam hangover this morning -- no thanks in part to Saturday's activities at Loof, celebrating Nadine's birthday and ingesting copious amounts of Asahi. Unfortunately, there's never rest for the wicked. I had to get up at 9 in the morning on Sunday for an ALD wedding lunch at Orchard Hotel.

After the wedding, Zheng Quan and myself stopped by at the Royal Thai Embassy at Orchard to have a look-see at the Thai Festival 2008. Boy, was it crowded! But the fun-filled atmosphere really made the entire place feel like Little Bangkok. They even had an entire area dedicated to Thai street food -- you could buy pad thai served on one half of a styrofoam box, just like how they do it in Bangkok!

They were also offering authentic Thai massages (on the spot!) at the fair, and Zheng Quan and me decided to give it a go! We opted for the back and shoulder massage, but our masseurs did the whole shazam -- back, shoulder, neck and scalp! I thought it was really money very well spent indeed. $15 for 20 minutes for a Thai massage right in the middle of a fair! Shopping wise, I managed to restrain myself from switching to Bangkok shopping mode, no thanks to the Singapore prices. I did, however, buy back some awesome tasting packs of Thai banana chips.

When we strolled back to the main stage, there was a interaction segment going on, where people were prancing around to Rihanna's song Umbrella whilst holding a, uh, umbrella. Here's a video of it.

Gosh, I wonder if those two participants ever read my blog. I think they would die from embarrassment upon finding out that some random stranger just took a video of them doing one of the stupidest things they'll ever do in their life and put them online! Well, my weekend's almost over now; time to embrace the weekdays so I can start yearning for weekends which make me hope weekdays come soon. Ok, my life's a messy cycle.

Wrecked Nights

2008-06-06T08:43:00.003+08:00

Can't believe I stayed up all night and stuck myself at playing Forza Motorsport 2 for 7 hours straight. Talk about wasting your time away on a 2007 game. Oddly enough, for someone who doesn't really fancy racing games at all, I found FM2 to be rather addictive. Definitely better than the last racing game I tried to have a go at -- NFS ProStreet.

It's Indochine tonight, and only that. Thank God. No harrowing driving lessons, no teaching, no nothing. Just three sets for the night. Sometimes I really treasure my free time so much I end up gaming or watching videos more than I intend to, just so that I can tell myself that I'm maximizing my free time. How warped is that!

Ok, time for bed. For those of you who aren't sleepy, you can follow what I did. Go read up the Casimir effect on Wikipedia and learn something new today!

Ten Billion Trillion Trillion

2008-06-05T14:06:00.003+08:00

Yes, that's a mind-boggling number, isn't it? Well, actually, that happens to be how many carats the largest diamond found in the universe has. I was randomly reading Wikipedia earlier today when I stumbled upon the page for diamond. Under the Extraterrestrial diamonds, it says:

Some White dwarf stars are believed to have a carbon core. The largest diamond found in the universe, so far, is located 50 light years away in the constellation Centaurus. The Harvard Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics believes the 2,500 mile-wide diamond was once the heart of a star. It is estimated to be ten billion trillion trillion carats, more or less. It was named Lucy, in honor of the Beatles song "Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds".

By god, just imagine! A 2,500 mile-wide diamond, enough to satisfy every single girl on Earth so many times over. It just makes one think how small and insignificant we are in the whole grand scheme of things (i.e. the universe). I know this sounds strange but I've ever mentioned to a few friends before that I regret not being born in the generation where space travel is established.

In other more shocking news, something very dramatic happened to me last Tuesday. I signed for a practical driving practice slot at the very last-minute, and as such I was assigned a different instructor from the one I'm usually under. Which is not much of a surprise, I must add. Before the lesson began, I bumped into my regular instructor and chatted him up a little, and added that I was under a different instructor today.

So the lesson commenced, and everything went smoothly. My new instructor was very friendly and chatty, and he seemed really easygoing so I thought it was going to be just fine. On that particular lesson I was actually supposed to remain within the circuit as I was learning parking, but he suggested that we take the car out for a 'spin' as the circuit is usually clogged up during the first 15 minutes of every session.

Well, that made sense, so I just went along with the routine. However, 15 minutes into the lesson, when I was driving along Bukit Batok East Ave 5, he suddenly suffered from a stroke in the car. You had no idea how petrified and shocked I was! At first, he kept yanking at my steering wheel, so I thought he was trying to swerve me out of the way of some vehicle, even though there was nobody else around.

Only moments later did I realize (when I glanced at him) that he was definitely not feeling too good. I pulled over, stopped the car and just kept shouting at him, asking him if he was alright, until the convulsions stopped. I know that couldn't be good, so I scrambled out of the car and called for the ambulance in my very panicked state.

What are the chances, huh! I also called the school, and they sent a supervisor down along with a senior instructor. We waited until the ambulance arrived, whereupon they took my instructor to NUH. The best bit was, my regular instructor actually drove past the whole entourage of cars and ambulance and saw me standing by the road side looking very frazzled. His face was one of utter amazement mixed with shock!

Be Informed

2008-05-20T03:20:00.006+08:00

I write this blog post with a sincere and honest appeal to my Singaporean peers and friends out there -- isn't it time that all of us be more aware of the socio-political situation in Singapore? Easier said than done, that's for sure. For example, how many of us have heard or read about the latest event that transpired between MDA officials and organizers of a private screening of a movie on Lee Kuan Yew? Don't think many of you did.

The paragraph below is extracted from a website.

Film on Lee Kuan Yew seized by MDA

"It was a private screening but that didn't stop officers from the Media Development Authority (MDA) from seizing a copy of the film, "One Nation Under Lee", at the Tulip Room in the Peninsular Excelsior Hotel.

The film, produced by activist and artist Seelan Pillay, was a narrative of how Minister Mentor Lee Kuan Yew subjugated various institutions in Singapore, such as the press, under the government's control during his time as Prime Minister. It also depicted how the social divide in Singapore is a result of the People's Action Party's policies. The film included interviews with former Solicitor General Francis Seow, political detainee Said Zahari, opposition politician JB Jeyaretnam and scenes of various public protests which had taken place in Singapore."

Now, how many of us are actually aware of such events taking place? And if we aren't, why not? Is it because of political apathy? Or simply a case of reigned press? I really don't know which is more pathetic. It is with this line of thought that I direct you to watch this video yourselves. You be the judge.

Simply visit http://sheepcitytv.com/ and click on the video titled One Nation under Lee, where you can then see for yourself the lengths our Singapore government has gone to maintain complete political dominance. For more information on the abovementioned event that took place at Peninsular Excelsior Hotel, you can read up about it here. ↗

Now, before I start getting branded as a leftist without a cause, please don't get me wrong. Firstly, I agree that Singapore has seen remarkable social and economic progress over the last three decades. I agree that the Singapore government has done a splendid job in maintaining public law and order and safety. But, at what cost? Do all of these outweigh basic constitutional rights such as freedom of speech and peaceful assembly? The PAP has done great things for us. But who are they to say that anyone else will fare worse?

What have we Singaporeans sacrificed for this utopian facade that is Singapore? Truth be told, most Singaporeans are stuck in such an apathetic rut that they can't be bothered to see for themselves. They don't even want to be given a choice. The illusionary concepts of freedom and democracy have been force-fed to us all since our childhood days to a point that we have become agreeable tools of governmental policies.

This isn't a call for us to protest, or for us to take up arms and march down the streets. I just wish to share this informed opinion that I believe every citizen should have the right to. Watch the video, and share it with your family and friends if you feel it to be informative. I sure have.

On another related note, I read recently in the papers about the issue on why NSFs who have not reached legal voting age are not allowed to vote at elections, but are still deemed old and responsible enough to bear arms and defend our country. (Read more about it here. ↗)I await with bated breath at another cheesed-up response from the government. Having just recently ORD'ed myself, I look back and realize that being an NSF brought me only two viable advantages.

1) Being able to receive free medical care at governmental clinics and hospitals. Ok, great for all those days where I didn't feel like working and needed an MC to cover.

2) Receiving an additional $100 for the progress package. Which I view as nothing more but public funds disguised as bribes for political reasons (read: elections).

Such two-sided views on our fine young men are simply a scratch on the surface of how bias our own government has become. What separates us from other oppressed states is that our government masks these shortcomings with pretty outlooks of "economic progress" and "social stability". I beg to differ. It's time for all of us to be informed and educated. The time to abolish political apathy is now, and the time to make informed choices has never been sooner.

The 200th Post

2008-05-13T23:10:00.005+08:00

This actually marks my 200th blog entry since I started this blog, um, three years ago. Well, I know it might not count for much for most people, but considering how infrequently I actually post something up here, it's actually quite a milestone for myself. Come to think of it, this blog has served more than just the purpose of letting others have an insight into my life.

Whenever I'm in the mood for it, I'll go trawl through some random old posts that I've posted up before. And every time, I'll have such a good time looking back and reminiscing through all these past events and emotions that I get drawn into them and continue reading more and more. For example, take a look at my 100th post, where I was talking about this local parody of the Gary Oldman Nokia N93 ad. Come to think of it, nobody even uses the N93 anymore!

In any case, lots of progress has been made in one year, at least I can be thankful of that. Well, like how I'm finally attempting to take my driver's license, for starters. Damn, I'm such a late bloomer, I swear.

I just received a call from GSMD to give me an update regarding my appeal for entry into a different course. (For those of you who don't know, I appealed for entry to another course, MMus in Leadership.) Apparently the course dean will be giving me a call tomorrow morning UK time. I just hope I'm not teaching then. Ah screw it, I'll answer it at all costs! I'll even take a cab to wherever I have to be if that means not having the conversation on a noisy bus or train.

Anyway, here's a nugget of really random info, but I thought with all the disastrous ongoings in Myanmar, I thought it'd be good to know. Apparently the capital of Myanmar isn't Yangon, like how I (and most other people) have thought it to be. It's called something I've never heard in my life before -- Naypyidaw. Seriously.

Now that I've completed Lost Odyssey, my nights have been filled me fervent streaming of LOST episodes from Season 4. I accidentally watched one episode of LOST on Channel 5 that night and I've been hooked on it since. I fondly recollect all those days where I was religiously ingesting episodes of LOST from Seasons 1 and 2, analyzing and speculating all sorts of LOST mythology in careful detail.

Speaking about LO, I must say it has been an absolutely fantastic game. Bloody good storyline, best graphics ever for a proper RPG and contains every single old-school element that a JRPG should. In all, clocked a total of 80 hours on this game, which isn't alot by RPG standards -- but through smart and consistent grinding, I managed to attain lvl. 80 for most of my characters by the end of the game before calling it a day.

Also, I unlocked 900 gamerscore for that game -- not bad, considering how I only manage to usually get only 500 or 600 gamerscore for an normal game. (One game usually carries a maximum of 1,000 gamerscore that can be unlocked). But, still, I think FF XII trumps LO by just a bit in terms of character development (not character backstory), and that is always a huge draw for me when playing RPGs. I clocked approximately 200 hours on FF XII!

Ok, I'm starting to get into gaming geek mode. Not good. Well, it's back to whiling my hours away in front of the laptop. Vexille has almost finished downloading! (Gah, I seriously hope nobody from MDA reads my blog.)

Road Rage

2008-05-12T10:53:00.002+08:00

I think I'm going to be a very impatient driver. I get mildly irritated even when someone cuts infront of me when I'm practising driving on the circuit. Not good! Ah, well... I just can't wait to get everything over and done with as quickly as possible, and just get my damn driver's license.

Dammit.

I have five sets tonight -- two at BarStop, three at Indochine. That's after two practical sessions that I'm having today. Think I better get some rest. I woke up at 6:30 in the morning for my 8am lesson! The next one is coming up at 2:10pm, so it's back to BBDC for me. A bit too ambitious there. On a separate note, I've uploaded some photos of our very fun Loof sessions on Facebook. Check them out! ↗

The Windows Funk

2008-05-06T06:11:00.005+08:00

Well, before I launch into my usual rant, here's something really interesting that I'd like to share with everyone first. It's a video of a music track that is made up of only sounds from Windows 98 and Windows XP. It's really good stuff -- real musicianship, I say! Check this out, and you'll never look (or listen) at those annoying Windows sounds again.

Heh, good stuff isn't it. If only I wasn't clocking up that much time (still) on Lost Odyssey, I could perhaps think up of something like that. Ah damn, it's half-past six in the morning now I only just got off my Xbox 360 not too long ago. Talk about nocturnal lifestyles! Nowadays I just wake up, teach, have dinner, go back, and start gaming.

Anyhow, as some of you might already know by now, there's been a change of plans. I won't be studying in London anymore, so that's bye-bye to my music therapy course in GSMD for now. I'll be applying for VCA in Melbourne, but the new term doesn't start until next year so I guess I'll be staying put in Singapore for the remainder of this year.

In more uplifting matters, I'll be starting at Indochine Waterfront at Empress Place next Monday onwards, on the 12th. I'll be playing every Monday, Wednesday & Friday with Kewei and Daniel, so do come down and check it out if you're free or in the area. I'll be sure to do a dedication for you! Daniel and Kewei are excellent in their craft, and it's going to be great fun working with them.

Turning to something more touristy, Shu and me went onboard the Singapore Flyer last Friday for some sightseeing fun! This was part of Shu's "one-week birthday celebrations" program. Not bad, eh? I've uploaded the photos on Facebook here, so do check them out. The Singapore Flyer isn't too bad as some people make out to be. The terminal is very nicely done, the views are pretty splendid and the price isn't too expensive at all!

However, my only grouch about that structure is that it just looks a tad too boring aesthetically and architecturally. Compare Singapore's wheel to the London Eye (ok, I must admit that one had slightly better views -- you can't beat Parliament House!), where it looks much better and well-designed from the outside. Oh, and for the obsessed, there's even an interactive Singapore Flyer application on Facebook!

Ah well, check it out for yourself, I always say. In the meantime, I'm off to bed -- need to rest up for more grinding tomorrow!

Laptop Bricks

2008-04-24T05:02:00.003+08:00

Ok, so check this out: my old Presario 2500 is so slow and laggy now, it downloads internet content faster than it can load it. That's how jialat it is right now. Plus, it's so damn thick and heavy that the common saying in this household is, if one of us went to war with it and used it to hammer enemy soldiers, it would actually work. Right, random fact.

Anyway, I've been clocking up some really serious time on Lost Odyssey -- 5 to 8 hours per night, to be exact. To add on to that, my body clock has completely screwed up. Now, I go to bed at 6 or 7 in the morning and wake up at 2 or 3 in the afternoon. Talk about living in different time zones, man. I experience so little sunlight in a day I'm almost a licensed vampire.

Which is why I'm still up at this unearthly hour, updating my blog and surfing around aimlessly on Wikipedia. No joke, that day I was still reading about the Mandlebrot set and the Lorenz attractor at 7am. How random is that! Surprisingly though, I managed to fit all that new knowledge into my head, so you could say that was rather productive.

Well, LO awaits, but I think I'll crap out if I have to deal with any more targeting rings or GC levels. So, that's it for the night (or morning) I suppose. Time to get some shut-eye and resume my endless RPG worship tomorrow! Oh wait, one more last random fact: can you believe Pokémon actually triumphs Final Fantasy (which is ranked 2nd) as the most popular Console RPG to date?! That's ridiculous!

Music & Drama

2008-04-22T23:30:00.005+08:00

Glad to say I've finally obtained my pink I/C after all these years! Well, two years to be exact. But trust me, I could barely contain my excitement when my chief clerk was rifling through her drawer where she keeps all our I/Cs until our time is due. I went down to MDC today to finally settle my clearance as well as collect my COS.

I must say, though, even though there has been much trials and tribulations (that's just a nice way of saying there was tons of shit to handle), I wouldn't want to serve my NS anywhere else other than MDC. Truth be told, if I were posted to some combat unit, I wouldn't even know if I'd still be playing the piano or singing right now. Especially if I had to stay-in, and not being able to work or teach. I think I'd just die!

So, I'd like to thank the good Lord from the bottom of my heart. For giving me these terrible eyes so that I could be bumped down to PES C, and for granting me the only posting I ever wanted for my NS. Before I enlisted, I did mull over the dreadful thought of not being able to do what I was currently doing once I was called in. Thankfully, everything has worked out pretty well.

It was good to hold on COS, service transcript and pink I/C in my hands. Not so much because I have finally ORD'ed, but more towards reflecting on how fast these two years have flew by. Two years of memories than I will cherish for a long time to come, especially MDC's trip to Rockhampton. In fact, if I weren't starting school in September this year, I would definitely request to tag along this year if MDC is going.

Well, seems like the next stage of my life is going to come in a 2-year block as well -- my MA in Music Therapy course at Guildhall School of Music & Drama will last over a duration of two years. I am looking forward to that, I must say. Seems kinda poignant, doesn't it. I'm moving from on Music & Drama to another Music & Drama. Seems to be the only two things occupying my life lately, actually.

Well, I guess my riotous life in MDC is very well-summarized in pictures in my Facebook album 'MDC Madness Mania'. I still browse through the entire album every so often to recollect all those fun, crazy and bittersweet moments that we've encountered. We all had our fair share of laughter and tears and fights over our own two years; I'm sure Jon Tay can attest to that!

Well, we're all headed our separate ways now. Deon is off to Berklee, Jon Tay is off to MSM, Joel went off to Melbourne, Ben is joining me in London... And the list goes on and on. Soon new guys will come in, and we will all be just whispers of the past, old MDC alumni. I just hope the legacy of my magazine lives on in MDC. I'm sure those who know what I'm talking about will concur! Haha!

Well, enough on the reflections now. Time to look forward. Before I go, here's a hilarious photo of four horses. I kid you not!

They hexed our beer to make us act like horses!

Yup, I think all those name-calling on Monji has started to take effect. She makes the best horse faces around town these days, let me tell you. Aww... just kidding, babe. You know how much we love to make fun of you. See you soon!

Homecoming Affairs

2008-04-19T00:43:00.004+08:00

I'm back! And I'm doggone tired. These long flights aren't really my cup of tea! As (bad) luck would have it, I didn't get an aisle, or even a window seat on the way back. Had to sit in the middle again; how harrowing!

I managed to catch three movies on the way back: Sweeny Todd, No Country for Old Men and 27 Dresses. Yes, yes.. A musical movie, a gritty film adaption of a novel and a rom-com all in one sitting. Well, how's that for diverse! Sweeny Todd was really quite entertaining, although I don't quite fancy Sondheim's tunes and lyrics as much as his ability to even come up with a musical about a serial killer!

London was not much warmer then the last time I was there two months ago. Seems uncharacteristically cold for spring, I must say. This is it, our global weather is going completely haywire. I hope I'm not in the generation where ozone layer depletes or something! The interview and auditions went fine, I'm pleased to say.

There were 6 interviewees during the group sessions (I think there are 10 applicants in total for my course for this batch), and would you believe it, three are actually Singaporeans! Including myself, of course. Now this is definitely a milestone, especially for a course like music therapy. Hooray to local presence, I guess! The practical auditions went very smoothly, thankfully. That was also because the school kindly allowed me to use their practice studios to practise on the two days before my auditions.

Having a pint at the Exchange Bar.

Well, of course it wasn't just work and no play. I managed to meet up with Angus a couple times during my trip for drinks and food. That dude's hair is so long now, it ain't funny! But wait till you hear his story on how he got scammed £390 by an Italian man named Mark Anthony.

Ah well, you can read all his adventures in London (and the EU!) here on his blog. Enjoy!

Pressing Forward

2008-04-16T18:36:00.004+08:00

Part 1 is done. Phew, a moment of relief, at least. Part 2 commences tomorrow at 10 in the morning. I have three separate interviews; talk about thorough! Gonna be a tad touristy today and head down to the London Dungeon later. That's sure to take my mind off things, so that's good. Hope it's fun!

Maybe a little more alcohol tonight should soothe the nerves. Haha! I'm just (half) kidding.

Dawning Moments

2008-04-16T07:41:00.008+08:00

Shouldn't have gone for drinks out with the gang tonight. Now I'm really worried about my audition tomorrow. Oh God, please, help me out this time. I really need this to work out! 10am it is then. I will not oversleep.

Coffee & cake at Knightsbridge.

Met up with Monji today, we went to Patisserie Valerie before dinner. Terrible attitude among the staff, and the service sucks to the core. Don't blame us just because we ain't French! Cakes look better than they taste. But at least the coffee's good!

Ok, time for bed.

Dæmons & Planes

2008-04-15T16:18:00.007+08:00

The flight here was just plain horrid -- sometimes the only reason why I keep taking Qantas and BA is to accumulate frequent flier miles. Really. To start off, I couldn't get an aisle seat. Okay, that really isn't BA's fault, I guess. But they could really do with making their seats a little wider!

Next, we were stuck in the plane on the ground at Changi Airport for an hour because the a/c for the rear of the plane (that's us poor economy class folks) completely wasn't working. That's right, step on to BA where in in-flight sauna is not optional! And finally, when we took off, the a/c still wasn't working, although the captain did come on the PA to say that it would take about an hour in the air before everything would return to normal.

I don't even want to go on describing how harrowing it is to sit in a cramped seat with virtually no ventilation available. Oh, the long-suffering travelers we are! I managed to catch two movies en route to London -- The Kite Runner and The Golden Compass. I quite enjoyed both, actually. I was actually quite drawn to the dæmon concept in Golden Compass, whereby a person's soul resides outside the body in the form of an animal called a "dæmon".

I also managed to catch a video of Mika live in Paris. To be honest, I absolutely hate electro pop, his whiny voice and his mop of a hair, but I gotta admit his songs are damn catchy!

Audition dawns tomorrow. Make it or break it!

The Muted Finale

2008-04-11T17:48:00.003+08:00

Black Orpheus is finally out. Thanks much to Sumardy, who helped us record, engineer and mix the entire thing!

Today was my last official working day at the office. Ironically, I stayed all the way till 5pm proper before leaving on my last day -- something which I must admit I don't do all that often! Reason being was, I had to practise for my audition repertoire, and that was enough to take up most of my day at work today.

The rest of the VE guys left way earlier, leaving me and Albert (of all people, can you believe it!) behind because Albert also wanted to get some practice done too. On a different note, I've finally settled on my audition repertoire, which is quite a relief for me in many ways. Now all that's left is to practise like a madman and try to hone everything to perfection.

Today, I also had to undertake the arduous task of packing up everything I've accumulated in the VE room over the past two years and bring them home. And whilst doing that, I started getting bittersweet memories of all that time spent in that cosy practise room. Didn't help that I happened to, coincidentally might I add, put some really emotional Brooke Fraser music on. Suddenly my entire NS life was flashing in front of my eyes like those slideshows you see at weddings of the couple growing up.

Ok, enough talk for now. My flight is tomorrow and I've not packed a single bit. Hope I don't lose my check-in luggage in T5, man. Better pray real hard! Alright, I really should go. My fingers should be on another keyboard, not my laptop's.

Miles Accrual

2008-04-08T17:06:00.004+08:00

And off to London, I'll be. Leaving on the night of the 12th, Saturday, and back on Friday evening, the 17th. I'll be going for my admissions interview with GSMD, and I am so unprepared. Simply too caught up with Lost Odyssey and Assassin's Creed everyday! Better get something done.

Need to fly off to Woodlands to teach now. I'll groan to myself on the way out.

Records of Late

2008-04-04T01:10:00.002+08:00

I've been holed up in recording studios as of much lately, mainly with Iskandar's NDP project with the VE guys & Jacintha; as well as the demo that Xiao'an, Evan, Deon and myself have been working on in MDC itself.

The four of us have formed an impromptu quartet of sorts, namely guitar, bass, drums and keys. We just finished recording Black Orpheus on Thursday after nearly six hours of multi-tracking in the MDC recording studio. We did a take of it last week, but that was with a whole lot more instruments and that turned out a bit messy.

The tracks are in post-production now, but I'll definitely post it up when it's finally done. I'm also quite looking forward to hearing out the We Are Singapore acappella arrangement is going to end up sounding. That one was done over three separate sessions at Pavane, at will be used for this year's NDP 2008. The VE guys will be onstage with Jacintha for that item during the NDP itself as well.

Iskandar has asked me to perform for NDP as well, but that's in August and I'm not really willing to say yes it yet. Especially since after I've done two consecutive NDPs with MDC! But, of course, if the price is right, I'll be glad to take it up.

Anyway, I used the bathroom scale the last time I was at Pavane -- I've ballooned up to 72.5kg. The horrors!!

We've Dunnit Again!

2008-03-26T01:54:00.004+08:00

Here's another sickening event that clearly demonstrates Singapore's desperate grasp at trying to maintain a totalitarian, oppressed state where social opinion never counts.

PHOTOS: Singapore Police Manhandle & Drag Away Peaceful Protesters
http://pseudonymity.wordpress.com/2008/03/15/photos-singapore-police-manhandle-drag-away-peaceful-protesters/

This is definitely a plight that I sympathize with. For long enough has our monarchical government try to gag the opposition is the most possible ridiculous manners. Click here to read the blog post if the above link doesn't work for you.

A reply was recently posted on Arts Comm, which I find very true. I'd like to share it with all of you who read my blog, and I urge you to think carefully about the apathetic political scene in Singapore and how or what you can do to help our nation progress. I wholeheartedly agree with what the sender has said, and I hope this is a positive sign that the public is indeed watching after all. I have changed the name of the original sender for privacy's sake.

-----Original Message-----
From: artscommunity@yahoogroups.com On Behalf Of Michael Teo
Sent: Sunday, 16 March, 2008 2:43 PM
To: Viknesh Palay
Cc: artscommunity@yahoogroups.com
Subject: Re: [capacity-building] Re: Singaporean protesters arrested for World Consumer Rights Day event

Hi,

The Singapore Police Force is getting very useless and very ineffective and very disappointing.

The standard has dropped to below that of Malaysia.

Has the top terrorist been caught? Who's stupidity resulted in him "limping" to freedom? And to think that Singapore is paying the highest salary to public servants who just dont deliver. And now they are wasting their time disturbing some harmless protesters who are protesting peacefully.

When will they ever learn? Took Leng How strolled across the Custom without a passport. One eye dragon drove into JB after shooting dead a man in Hougang. Both men were caught by the Malaysian polis. In QRP, one chap ran off after being charged with murder in Pearl Centre. And Indonesian polis caught the #1 terrorist Mas Selamat only to let Singapore 's inefficient terrorism departmetn let him ran off, or rather, LIMP off.

The list of police cock up goes on and on... not forgettting the countless victims of senseless bashing who called up the police only to tell the victims that the culprits wont be caught since its not a seizeable offence.

Malaysians have woken up. Isnt it time for this tiny dot wake up? How many more billions can we lose? We cannot afford to lose not even once cos we are resource-less.

Cheers
Michael

The Haphazardness of Me

2008-03-25T23:43:00.002+08:00

The VE guys and myself headed down to Pavane this morning to do some recording for one of the opening items for NDP 2008. All the way to Redhill at 8:45am, no joke! It was good to finally get the open, non-condensed score from Iskandar today, although there were still a few hitches here and there in the arrangement. I'm supposed to take over the arrangement and tweak it tonight, but I still have yet to receive the original soft copy. (Argh!!)

Hence the free time for this quick blog post.

Jacintha came down to the studio today as well; it was good to see her after two years. I call the the Idol years. Well, looks like she's back on track and giving her bit for NDP this year, which is definitely something to look forward to. She did her recording segment before us, and because we were given the new score only today, I ended up having to record and multi-track all 5 voice parts because the rest weren't familiar enough with the score by then.

I had a few problems here and there with singing out the key changes earlier today. Well, granted it was a semitone up key, I had to do a few takes just to get my pitching laid down. Sometimes things like these worry the hell out of me.

Oh, here's what else that worries me. I was in the washroom of the recording studio, and there happened to be a bathroom scale inside. I went on it, and to my horror I saw that I had passed the dreaded 70kg mark for the first time in my life. The scale read 70.5kg, and mind you, I haven't had anything to eat for the day then. I kept checking and re-calibrating the scale to make sure the reading was correct.

This is so, so distressing. Really.

After the recording session we went down to town to catch Step Up 2 the Streets. To be honest, I wasn't too keen, but since we ended early, and I didn't have to teach today (rare occurrence!), I went along. I expected the storyline to be a complete bore, but it did surprise me with a few good "drama" bits, not just scenes of people taking to the streets and doing their thing. Well, there were plenty of those bits too, actually.

The pace of the movie was draggy and some points, and some scenes could have been left out. However, this movie has made me a fan of Cassie Ventura. She is smokin' hot!

Well, there you have it. The comings and goings of my monotonous life. Thank god I only have 24 days to go. Hell yeah. Charlie finishes up his service tomorrow. Literally. No reservist cycles or whatnot due to his PES E status. You're in a good situation, mate. One that I would definitely love to be in too!

Saw XIII

2008-03-20T18:09:00.004+08:00

We went hospital visiting at NUH yesterday, to check on our dear Jeremy to see how he was doing from his ambitious extraction of not 2, not 3, not 4 but 8 teeth! Well, four were wisdom teeth, the remaining were extra teeth that had to make way as he was going to put braces on in the near future.

I vividly recall my own experience of having to extract perfectly fine teeth before undergoing braces of my own. For one particular "sitting", I had it done in the dentist's chair under local anesthesia. The dentists hacked and drilled at it, but it just wouldn't come out. After 15 minutes, he simply abandoned his current tactic, reached into a drawer and pulled out one huge-ass pair of metal pliers (ironically wrapped in septic packaging), took it out and started to yank my tooth out forcefully. Naturally there was no pain, but I could feel my entire head and neck rocking back and forth to the pulling. Yikes!

Anyway, Jeremy showed us his 8 teeth nicely packaged into this small plastic bag, bloody and all. Charles commented that it looked like something that could be used for promoting the movie Saw VIII. Well, they're only at number four now, but I'm sure they'll get there!

Here's a picture of the jolly bunch. Get well soon, Jeremy. I'm sure you'll be quickly on your way to eating solid food again! And besides, I don't want to do shows anymore! Heh. And yes, Charles, what's up with the fedora hat!

Of Buses & Convicts

2008-03-17T22:18:00.003+08:00

It's been way too long since I blogged. So here goes my first post of 2008 (finally!).

Well, I guess the first and foremost piece of news is, I'm going to ORD. I can't believe it's been already two years since I got on the Penguin ferry to Tekong looking all fresh-faced. And come April 18, 2008, it will signal the end of two wonderful yet tumultuous years with the SAF Music & Drama Company.

And I guess the next thing that I would like to rant about in my monotonous, busy life (is that an oxymoron? I actually my life hectic and monotonous at the same time) is our esteemed convict idol, Mas Selamat bin Kastari. As of late, feeder bus services around the Woodlands and Marsiling area have been diverted every now and then, especially during peak hours.

This means that a simple 10-minute journey would entail an anguishing, antagonizing and arduous wait of 30 minutes, just for a feeder bus to show up and send you to the nearest MRT station. Why is that so, some might ask. Well, that's simply because there have been massive jams around the Woodlands Checkpoint (this is where I start visualizing myself skinning Mas Selamat alive), and buses have been diverted to prevent a bottleneck of available buses during peak periods.

I was affected earlier today, as I made my way back from Woodlands after teaching. Trust me, at the point of time I was so fuming mad I was wishing for really terrible things (which can't be mentioned on respectable blogs like mine) to happen to certain family members of Mas Selamat, only in hope that our convict on the run will surrender and turn himself in.

Ah well. I hope he gets caught anyway, and the person turns him in only for monetary gain. I hate how our government expects us to turn in him without posting a reward, because our dear Home Affairs minister expects the general public to do it because "it's the right thing to do". I, for one, am not going to sit around while Singapore goes around heralding to the rest of the world the virtues of having an Internal Security Act and continues to exercise and assert its governmental right to arrest and detain individuals without trial.

And now, when a muck-up like that happens, they expect Singaporeans to help clean up their mess. Well, what would one expect?!

Winter Escapade Ep. XIV

2007-12-14T21:33:00.001+08:00

The last two days of my winter break came at last. All too soon, I had to say. But I definitely made the most of it this time round -- I finally fulfilled my London Zoo dreams with Monji! She was nice enough to traverse down all the way to Regent's Park with me to see the animals in action.

Earlier in the morning, I accompanied her to the Indonesian embassy at Marble Arch for her to renew her Indonesian passport. After some brunch at McDonalds, we decided we were ambitious enough to take a bus from Camden Town (that's Zone 2!) to the London Zoo. Admittedly, we did get a little lost in Camden Town, but thankfully we managed to get there without much hassle.

Most of the day was spent there, watching penguins being fed, getting upclose and personal with hairy caterpillars, and posing for pictures with llamas. Quite fun indeed! We hung around until the zoo closed, then we walked back to Great Portland, cutting across Regent's Park.

We then decided to catch a movie at Leicester Square (hence forgoing the LOTR musical), some arthouse flick titled Rescue Dawn. Which, as it would turn out, wasn't too bad at all! Christian Bale is really one heck of a talented actor. After the movie, I accompanied Monji home and hung around at Foi's until it was time for me to take the last tube back to Oxford.

The day after, I spent most of my time packing and trying to squeeze everything into my backpack and hand-carry. Trust me, it was much more tedious than I expected! Still, I couldn't resist some last minute shopping at Paperchase (love that place!), and met Patrick, Foi and Monji for a late lunch at Inn Noodle.

The sky was already turning dark when we finally finished lunch, thus heralding my impending flight back home. However, I insisted on giving the winter funfair at Leicester Square a visit before heading back! And huge fun it turned out to be! We went on rides and tried our luck to win giant plush toys, which we never succeeded, of course!

After that, it was the usual mad rush to Heathrow for my return flight back to Singapore. I had to brace myself for the humid weather when I finally went groundside on this sunny isle!

Photos of my trip can be found on one of my Facebook albums, just follow the link here.

Winter Escapade Ep. XII

2007-12-13T09:42:00.000+08:00

Daph had to leave for Singapore today (Sunday), which meant I would be in London for two more days before joining with her back home. It didn't help that we woke up much, much later than planned, so we had to scrap our lunch plans, Daph had to rush her packing and we had to almost run to Tottenham Court so she could grab some last minute shopping!

Before I knew it, it was 3:30pm and her car was downstairs. Ok, I must admit I'm terrible: I was too lazy to go all the way to Zone 6 to send her off at Heathrow, so I just said goodbye downstairs! Well, I did try to pull the "We're not saying goodbye, we're simply saying see you later!" line, but it didn't quite work to my desired effect!

After she left, I headed down to Knightsbridge to meet Jeslyne for tea at this place which she recommended, Patisserie Valerie. It's quite the atas place, where the menu is almost completely in French, but the prices are reasonable and the pastry and cakes are excellent! We were joined by Mon and her friend as well, with all their Selfridges shopping bags. I got there when it was almost 6, and Jeslyne had to catch her train back to Manchester at 6:30pm! In the end, we didn't stay long; in fact, I'm surprised she even made it for her train!

For dinner, Patrick brought Mon & me to this Chinese/Japanese restaurant near his place in Russell Square called Hare & Tortoise. I had their version of laksa, which had a more curry-based gravy. I quite liked it! Recommended starters would be the spicy wing stick and Chinese greens! Don't be fooled by the latter, it's just vegetables topped with oyster and garlic sauce which you pay £2.95 for. But damn was it good!!

Foi joined us after work, and when we were done with dinner we headed down to the pub round the corner, Marquis Cornwallis, which served our favorite Früli strawberry beer! Definitely a fantastic way to end this gastronomic day! (Notice how I avoid the word 'glutton'). Some pictures of the day.

Winter Escapade Ep. XI

2007-12-11T08:27:00.000+08:00

Saturday was definitely a day of no-gos and canceled plans. The day before, Mon, Daph & me agreed to head out to the London Zoo for a day excursion of sorts, and we were to meet at a godforsaken hour of 9:30am. And we did do just that! But by the time the three of us gathered at Regent's Park tube station, there was already an incessant drizzle that didn't seem to go away. And it didn't help that it was absolutely freezing!

We reckoned it was way too cold for the animals to come out anyway, so we scrapped our zoo plans and went for breakfast at the Pret cafe along Great Portland. We wanted to try some of the hot wraps, but apparently we were too early for a Saturday morning and the wraps weren't made yet. Ah well, with Daph still half-asleep and the weather below zero, it was a perfect excuse to sneak in for coffee and croissants anyway.

Following that, Mon followed us home so we could rest for a bit (and wonder what the hell we were to do instead). We finally decided on going to Harrods to get the Prada bag Daph had been eying earlier on when we went there a couple days back. En route, the Piccadilly line was severely overcrowded, no thanks to overzealous Christmas shoppers out and about on a Saturday afternoon. We took the tube to South Kensington instead and walked there.

However, we were all distracted halfway by the grand facade of the V&A Museum, which is just a couple blocks from Harrods. And being the focused, dedicated (and perhaps a little uncultured) shoppers we were, we decided to forgo the exhibits and just check out the museum shop instead! Well, not that I could afford much of anything that was sold inside anyway. See for yourself! Mon did end up buying a very stylish couture 2008 organizer though, which I'm pretty sure she won't end up using!

Well, as they say, there's no rest for the wicked! We headed down to Harrods after, Daph got her Prada clutch, we went down to Krispy Kreme, etc. Oh well, you know the drill. We managed to spot a gigantic stuffed Paddington bear in one of the departments, though! See picture below. By the time we emerged, it was already dark and it was still raining. Mon managed to drag Patrick out for dinner, so we went back to our all-time favorite (I use this term loosely) Chinatown to have dinner at this apparently well-known Japanese restaurant, Misato. I had some heartwarming sake sashimi, katsu curry rice and ebi tempura. Note: the portions are obscenely huge!

After dinner, we went over to this bar that we've spotted a couple times, but never entered, along Chinatown as well: The Exchange Bar. Plenty of angmohs inside though, for a place in the middle of Chinatown! Drinks are affordable and very well-mixed during "essential hours", which if I recall correctly is from 5pm to 7pm every weekday. The virgin mojitos were a godsend for Patrick, who was still recovering from a hangover the night before. And Daph, of course, who isn't exactly alcohol's best friend.

Mon & me, on the other hand, were feeling the need to exploit the one-for-one offer on all cocktails. And I needed a beer. Ah, choices, choices. So we got all in the end! A bottle wine was going for £7, how could I resist! So we got a bottle as well. Unfortunately, I must admit I was abit too enthusiastic about getting Daph to drink the wine -- she didn't feel too good shortly after!

We didn't leave the place too late; Patrick had to go back and study (that brainiac!), and Daph had to go back to pack as she was leaving the next day. Mon still wanted to go out though, so we headed back to Daph's so she could finish up her packing and get changed into something more party-ish. Michelle and gang were already out, and they suggested going to Astoria 2 in Soho, so we readily agreed. Mon had to drop off Foi's dinner at Marylebone before that, so Daph & me accompanied her.

On our way to Marylebone, however, Mich texted to say she was too drunk to go clubbing (they were drinking beforehand), and Mon's friend, who was supposed to meet us, canceled out at the last minute too. Talk about spoilt plans! In the end, we finally decided that the stars just wasn't aligned for us to go out, so we all conceded defeat and headed to our own homes for the night instead..

Some pictures of the day, enjoy!

Winter Escapade Ep. X

2007-12-10T01:14:00.000+08:00

Another seriously touristy item was in the works on Thursday: Foi, Mon, Daph & me trooped down to Waterloo today to go on the BA London Eye! The London Eye is one of those things where people who live in London won't want to admit being eager to go to, but will readily agree when you have someone else who doesn't mind doing touristy things (like myself!) ask them to go along.

Besides, Daph & I still had the London Eye vouchers which we still hadn't redeemed when we bought the Madame Tussauds package. Since Daph had been on it in the daytime before, we agreed to go on it during sunset so we could catch the city lights. Mon had just come in to London from Leicester, so we went for lunch first at Inn Noodle (we love that place!) before meeting up with Foi at Waterloo.

When we reached, it was good to see there was hardly any queue; Mon told me of the last time she passed by and saw huge throngs of off-putting crowds queueing to get on. Pre-booking tickets does help plenty; we collected the tickets, queued up, had our bags checked and were in our capsule all in less than 10 mins. I must admit it was quite exhilarating as we got on it! The Singapore Flyer, however, is actually going to bigger than the London Eye by 15m in diameter, although it doesn't look quite as aesthetically glamorous as it's British predecessor.

Of course, we were indulged with great views of almost the entire central London, including the Parliament House, Westminister Bridge, St. Paul's and so on. Each capsule is big enough to hold approximately 25 people, so there was enough room to roam around and snap away at different directions. The city lights were no short of dazzling; I'm it sure it was definitely more spectacular to visit it in the evening as compared to during daytime. (Daph confirmed it!)

I've uploaded all my London Eye photos on a Facebook album here. I'll put some up here on my blog.

The foursome.

Doesn't this look exactly like the London Midnight habitat?

On the top of the world.

A ride (or 'flight' as they call it) costs £14.50 if you pre-book (50p more if you don't) for the standard one. Discovery flights come with a guide in your capsule who will point out to you the highlights of London and describe to you a bit of history, all for £3 more. We weren't that touristy to go for that! But you have to check out the London Eye shop. They really have the coolest Eye stuff! Fancy some eye confectionary? Or eye playing cards?

After our little excursion, we had some time to kill before dinner so we headed back to Covent Garden. I really love that place! It's such a one-stop fashion and shopping zone, especially the market. Quaint stores lined up in a cramp fashion, beckoning you to enter with their myriad of different products. There are throngs of small stalls set up in the middle of the market selling homemade bags, jewelry, shoes and such.

I managed to get Yee Chong's soap from Lush at last, and of course I got some for myself! There's also one at Carnaby Street but that one seems to close at the earliest moment possible! Daph and Foi did their shoe shopping fix at ALDO (I'm surprised Mon managed to resist!), and we couldn't resist another visit to Ben's Cookies for a cookie and hot chocolate.

It's really great just sitting there watching people go by, or watching the buskers do their thing at market square. Oh, and I've finally figured out why they have a logo that looks like a sketch out of a Roald Dahl book. Their logo is actually illustrated by Quentin Blake, whose illustrations for the stories of Roald Dahl have brought him international fame. There you go!

Following that, we went to Chinatown to have dinner at the same Korean place we went to last week. I met up with my former LaSalle classmate Serene (left) as well, and she brought along her current flatmate Jonathan with her. It was good meeting up with old, familiar faces, ironically in a place halfway round the world away! We recollected on the good 'ol days when we were still students at LaSalle-SIA, as well as our crazy Laos study trip we went all the back in 2005. Ah, how time flies.

Anyhow, it's quite amazing when you watch Foi and Mon eat -- they are such desparados for ridiculously spicy food. They add chili powder and/or chili oil to absolutely everything they eat! I've eaten with them enough times to verify that. And that's after they ask the waiter/waiteress to make their food extra spicy when they do that. And then there's their homemade chili from back home in Manado which they bring over -- just a pinch of that makes my eyes water, and they eat it like it's soy sauce or something!

After dinner, we headed over to Foi's friend Han's place where he works as a manager -- a Korean/Japanese karaoke bar called HIBIKI in Holborn. There, we opened up the soju and whisky and drank away! Mon and Foi sang their Korean songs (which they are so good at, somehow!), and we played blackjack with our newly bought London Eye playing cards.

Well, I did try to sing a Rain song, but I didn't do very well at all. Ena, I think you would have disapproved! Daph did sing a couple songs with me though! Not bad at all! As usual, I always say, the Indonesians and Filipinos get all the natural-born talent: Foi and Mon are such good singers you'd think they had some sort of professional voice training! But of course they didn't. Daph and me stayed till 1am; the other two and Han, on the other hand, stayed till 7am!

The gang at dinner.

Friday morning, Daph rushed to work on her project (which was due at 2pm!). I accompanied her to school (Central St. Martins) after to have lunch with her, but we didn't have much time as we were running late and she was still trying to finish up her work at the cafe itself. I helped her paste some strips of paper on her project! Ok, ok, I know it's no big deal, but if you know me, I'm such a terribly helpless person when it comes to art (espeically fine art!), so you could say I was pretty proud of myself.

I bought some lunch back for Foi & Mon (who just woke up!) and went over to Foi's place at Marylebone to just hang out, having nothing else to do. I ended spending the better half of the afternoon and almost the entire evening there, and Daph joined us after she finished school. We lulled the time away watching Korean music videos with Han (who stayed over), Charles' beatboxing tutorial videos and Indonesian singer Inul's videos, all on YouTube!

You really, really should check out Inul's videos; she is a dangdut singer who can shake her booty better than Beyonce, Shakira and J.Lo combined! Don't believe me? See for yourself here! We had a great time watching, learning and laughing away. Ok, don't mean to offend any of her fans out there who might actually be reading my blog. Go check her out! She's good. Really.

A truly captivated audience.

Daph & I finally left Foi's past eight, and we headed back for a quiet start to the weekend. We stopped by at Tesco's at Great Portland on the way back to get some groceries, and Daph cooked a late dinner and we stayed in. On the dinner menu for tonight was pork fried rice! I finally had some of the beer which I stupidly brought back all the way from Leicester last weekend. Gotta say though, I do enjoy the occasional Friday night indoors!

Winter Escapade Ep. IX

2007-12-08T06:20:00.001+08:00

Finally, I dragged myself out of bed before 10am to make my way down to do something exceedingly touristy: visit the official London residence of the British monarch, the Buckingham Palace. Another reason why I chose to head down on the 5th is because the Changing of the Guard only takes place on only odd numbered dates during fall and winter. Yes, very touristy I know.

I got off the tube at Green Park and made a very wintery stroll (is that a proper description?) across the park to the palace proper. I was already running a tad slow by tourist standards; most of the good sections along the signature black railings very already plastered with tourists, cameras at the ready.

Opposite, Victoria Memorial was also crowded with people trying to get a vantage point of the proceedings inside the palace grounds. I scoured along the length of the front gates and finally found a 'weak spot' in the tourist chain and squeezed myself nondescriptly until I secured my spot along the railings, with a pretty decent view of the entire forecourt of Buckingham Palace.

Soon enough, the guard mounting ceremony started with much pomp and grandeur, with plenty of fanfare. One would suspect this intricate ceremony is put up more for tourist spectacle rather than tradition, but nevertheless it provides a great representation and display of the British's long-standing, rich customs. For those interested, Wikipedia has a great writeup and section about the mounting of the Queen's Guard and it's procedure here.

What was rather interesting was that when it was the New Guard's turn to form up a semicircle (picture) and play a repertoire of music to entertain the New and Old Guard as well as the watching crowds, they played a medley of contemporary and jazz songs, including Something Stupid in full military orchestral style! The entire process was quite the entertaining spectacle, and the crowd (including myself!) enjoyed it thoroughly! Here's a wide angled shot of Buckingham Palace taken from Victoria Monument.

I must admit, though, it was quite fun being in the throngs of touristy crowds, with my face pressed against the railings and camera stretched through the railings straining for the best shot! It started to drizzle heavily halfway through the guard mounting process, but it died down soon enough. Everyone's mood was definitely unaffected, and kept their eyes glued to every single proceeding taking place on the forecourt.

You can view all the photos taken at Buckingham Palace in a photo album on my Facebook profile here. Click here and here for a picture of the Old and New guard respectively for that day I visited. Sorry I'm not that much of a fanatic to find out the exact regiments!

After the ceremony ended, I walked along the exterior of the palace for abit, stopping by the Queen's Gallery shop to have a look-see. It was quite a feat to resist buying everything in the store that was prettily adorned with logos of Buckingham Palace. They had everything, ranging from tea towels to travel & cosmetic pouches to t-shirts to confectionary to dog baskets! Yes, they have a royal collection for dogs too.

After which, I met up with Daph after her class and she took me to this place near her old school campus where she used to frequent for dinner: The Print Works. It's located on Farringdon Road, and is a great place to chill out over grill, deli sandwiches and good ol' beer! The interior is warm and welcoming, and the selection of cheap and good beer will please any drinker's palate.

After some mixed grill, a cheeseburger, chili con carne and a whole load of chips between two people, we pretty much stuffed ourselves silly for the day. After that, we decided to indulge in our favorite pastime (which I'm sure echoes in many others' hearts): shopping! Daph took me to this mini-Covent Garden called Carnaby Street; it's just right off Oxford Street, about 5 minutes' walk.

Carnaby Street is a fashion and lifestyle heaven, with many small boutique shops carrying independent brands lining both sides of this pedestrian street. It remains is one of the leading destinations in central London for those who seek cool fashion, bars and restaurants. It was decked out with Christmas decorations at this time of the year, and the entire area was 'linked up' with giant colorful paper chains.

After doing a whole load of shopping, we decided to end off the day with one last stop: the holy mecca of Oxford Street, the four floors of pure shopping nirvana: Topshop and Topman! Well, I almost spent an hour and a half just at Topman alone, trying out jeans, shirts, tees.. I managed to seek out a £20 hoodie sweatshirt, which was considered quite a good deal. They also have great accessories that go for £5 to £10, and winter essentials that look absolutely fabulous (but useless in Singapore) that I had to resist very hard not to buy.

We loitered around the shop looking for "things which look good but of absolutely no use yet irresistible to purchase" until it was about to close. Talk about ending your day on a high note! We wanted to check out this pub near Daph's place (for the longest time already), but that unassuming place turned out to be packed with mid-week revelers eager for a drink or two, so we decided to head home instead.

Ah well, to put in positively, the more I spend, the more I get to claim VAT refund when I go back! Heh heh.

Winter Escapade Ep. VIII

2007-12-07T06:33:00.000+08:00

Tuesday really just seemed to pass by; it's the weather I say! It's been rather wet and gray in London over the past few days, definitely not my type of weather. Daph had no school so we stayed in and keep feeding off each other's lethargy until it was almost five and the sky was completely dark by then! Daph did cook some of her great pasta for lunch, though.

I suggested watching Avenue Q earlier that day and Daph readily agreed. So we finally emerged into civilization (you should see how uncivilized Daph's room has become, thanks to me!), and went down to Leicester Square to buy tickets. We still had a couple hours to kill then, so we headed to Knightsbridge to drop by the famous Harrods for a bit of shopping. Not that I was prepared to buy much anyway, knowing how exceedingly expensive everything is there!

Of the over 330 departments in Harrods, we managed to trawl through the men's and ladies accessories (£140 Paul Smith wallets and a multitude of Prada bags!), children's toys and books, perfumes as well as the Food Hall. Interesting, Wikipedia states "In 1898, Harrods installed what is claimed to be the world's first moving staircase (escalator); nervous customers were offered brandy at the top to revive them after their 'ordeal'."

If only such a thing still took place in present day! Here's a photo of the exterior of Harrods taken from opposite the street.

Of course, one of the highlights of Harrods (for me) was the presence of a Krispy Kreme outlet in the Food Hall! Alas, KKs don't come cheap here though; one original glazed is a few pence short of £1, and an assorted costs £1.30, if I recall correctly. Talk about feeding an expensive habit!

What this KK outlet has, though, is a special edition Harrods donut that is just about as sinful as it gets. A chocolate double-coated donut filled generously with chocolate cream, topped by chocolate flakes and ornately decorated with a slice of white chocolate with the Harrods logo printed on it. After having one, I could already feel the sugar rushing to my head, no kidding. Oh, look what we have here!

Donuts are bad!

After which, we headed down to the Noël Coward Theatre for Avenue Q. What's so unique about this musical is that most of the characters in the show are puppets operated, voiced and sung by actors onstage. Both the live characters and puppet characters sing, and short, hilarious animated video clips are played as part of the story. Also, several characters are recognizably parodies of classic Sesame Street characters! Rather than the usual, established puppet-child themes, the characters in Avenue Q use profanity, and the songs concern adult themes like sex, pornography and homophobia.

What I found rather amusing was the scene featuring "full puppet nudity", where one character (puppet of course) takes another home to have some particular loud sex. There's even a song for that one! Songs-wise, they're rather catchy, with lyrics that really get stuck in your head because they use plenty of everyday catchphrases in their songs. I'll try to put on up here soon. Interestingly, there's also a song titled "Schadenfreude", where the character sings just that: about taking pleasure from someone else's misfortune!

Also, what was impressive were the actors onstage who were operating the puppets and providing both their singing and speaking voices. Having to talk in a puppet-like voice is no easy feat, such as giving it a particular nasal or throaty voice; but having to sing in it is even harder. And they all do a great job at it! In addition, the characters who are not puppets relate to the puppets, rather than to the actors holding them. The puppets also speak directly to each other and never to the actors operating them.

In the musical there are also two characters called the Bad Idea Bears, two innocent-looking cuddly teddy bears who appear repeatedly through the story whose purpose is to side-track and tempt the main character into doing bad things. They are irritatingly cute in an evil sort of way. There's actually a scene where they encourage him to ply his date with Absinthe Daiquiris so he can make her drunk and bring her home for some passionate lovemaking. (Hence the full puppet nudity scene!)

There are also ridiculously funny songs such as "I'm Not Wearing Underwear Today", "The Internet Is for Porn", "Everyone's a Little Bit Racist" as well as the main theme song, "It Sucks to Be Me". The soundtrack is quite a gem in that aspect, although I suppose due to restrictions with operating puppets, set changes were limited to a minimum. They do have "costume changes" for the puppets though, with a different puppet wearing something different (or nothing at all) for different scenes.

The London production of Avenue Q is directed by Christopher Key and co-produced by Cameron Mackintosh, with Douglas Whyte as MD and Stephen Oremus for Music Supervision, Arrangements and Orchestrations. A very talented local cast include Delroy Atkinson, Daniel Boys, Mary Doherty , Mark Goldthorp, Rebecca Lock and Yanle Zhong.

Anyhow, Avenue Q turned out to be a great production; something refreshing and entertaining in relation to all the musicals I've watched. Well, that's three down, and maybe one or two more to go! Well, the LOTR musical is definitely on the books, it's just a matter of when!

Winter Escapade Ep. VII

2007-12-05T14:30:00.000+08:00

Monday was a relatively slow and relaxed day, owing to the fact that we had to wake up at 8am in the morning to catch a train -- which is pretty darn early for me, at least. Daph decided to take me to the Tate Modern for another look-see; my second time there actually.

To be honest, I like the Tate Modern for what's outside and around it, not necessarily what's in it. To put it straightforwardly, I enjoy straightforward art and paintings like what you might find in the National Gallery: 13th to 18th century paintings which are much more orthodox in nature, where each depiction is uncomplicated and pretty much self-explanatory. A lot of attention is paid to detail as well as technique.

Daph, on the other hand, much prefers something more abstract, something which can be left to open interpretation and something that can be conceptualized, figured out and understood. And the Tate Modern houses exactly such art. Currently on display outside the Tate Modern, however, is an extremely impressive and huge sculpture titled Maman by renowned French artist Louise Bourgeois. This sculpture is basically a huge, 10m tall spider with an egg sac full of eggs; I'll leave the interpretation of how a pregnant spider relates to art to your own research! (They do explain it there, but I can't recall it for the life of me.)

Then there's also the Millenium Bridge leading right up to the Tate Modern; I really like that bridge for obvious reasons. What I did enjoy inside, though, was the currently site-specific installation in the Turbine Hall. Currently on exhibit is Colombian-born sculptor Doris Salcedo's Shibboleth, an installation that takes the form of a 167 meter long meandering crack in the floor of the hall itself.

Abstract interpretation aside, I was quite marveled by the scale and complexity of this sculpture; how painstaking it must have been to carve a meandering crack on cold, hard concrete floor. On close inspection you can actually the steel grid frames that were part of the hall's concrete floor. I particularly quite like the second photo from the left; it's a photo of the hall (with the crack obviously showing) taking from a viewing platform on a higher floor, set to a 2" shutter speed. Here you can see how the crack stands out, a jarring black against white as visitors below attempt to trace it from beginning to end.

Daph and I then trawled the rest of the Tate Modern, viewing the rest of the exhibits on site. Those interested may wish to know there's an exhibit specially dedicated to the life and work of Louise Bourgeois. Before long, it was 6 in the evening and we had to leave. From there, Daph brought me to the Whitechapel district where she used to live during the first year of studies here. It's located in East London and is definitely a gritter, darker side of the English capital.

She took me to this area where she used to frequent back than, a place called Brick Lane. Here is pretty much like a Little India of sorts, with countless Muslim/Indian restaurants, grocers, tailors, and retailers lining both sides of this street. We had absolutely fantastic burgers at this outdoor burger stand, although Daph was pretty much too cold to really touch much of her food!

Brick Lane is essentially the heart of the city's Bangladeshi community, and it's name is derived from former brick and tile manufacture companies that were very much commonplace on this street back in the 15th century. In present day, though, this area is better known for its cheap and cheerful food, and for allowing customers to bring their own beer (often the curry houses itself will not sell alcohol as most are run by Muslims). Touting seems to be a major problem, though, when I was there at least.

This area has also quickly become a vibrant art and fashion student area, with considerable exhibition space, which could clearly explain Daph's affinity for Brick Lane. Having lots of infamous Banksy graffiti along this street helps, I'm sure! I must admit, however, that I'm quite taken to his works as well.

On a sidenote, there will be a movie adaptation about Brick Lane which will be released in Singapore on 20 December. Based on a novel of the same name by British-Bangladeshi writer Monica Ali, it portrays the story of a Bangladeshi immigrant girl sold off to marry in the UK.

After dinner, we went back to Genesis, the same movie theatre we went to last week, to catch Hitman. Unfortunately I have nothing much to say about this movie; I didn't really play the game so I wasn't that connected to the movie in a gamer's sense, although I could see some elements that were cleverly reproduced in the movie from the little time I spent on the game.

Timothy Olyphant looked better with hair (in Live Free or Die Hard), and Robert Knepper (T-Bag from Prison Break) wows with his solid acting as usual. I got lost with the storyline for a bit, admittedly because I'm a very lazy listener during movies and I usually rely on the Chinese subs which we get in Singapore movie screenings to follow what's being spoken onscreen!

Winter Escapade Ep. VI

2007-12-04T13:04:00.000+08:00

First up, I've managed to get my UK number (about time!). I think I'm gonna flip when my next month's StarHub bill comes. Anyway, the number's +44 7909 615 637, so contact me here instead. It's uh, 15c to send an overseas text from Singapore, but 10p to send a local text within the UK. Oh, the unfairness of it all!

Well, I guess it should be known by now that Paris turned out to be a no-go 'cos Daph mistook the dates when we booked the tickets. So I guess Disneyland will have to wait for now. I might still be going to Paris this weekend if plans fall through with Justin. We had no idea we booked the wrong dates until we were right at the Eurostar ticket counter at St. Pancras!

In the end, I suggested we go up to Leicester to visit Monji and Mimi instead. So over the weekend, we spent our time at both Nottingham and Leicester shopping, ice skating, and doing a whole deal of eating (and some drinking). We headed up on Saturday morning and got back on Monday morning just in time for Daph's class.

Friday though was one bleak day with plenty of depressing rain. Daph had her crit so I spent most of the day by myself, preparing and packing for Paris, actually. I did head out for a bit though, and my original intention was to go to Holland Park and walk around a bit and grab some lunch. The tube, however, decided not to cooperate with me that afternoon. Apparently, a "suspect package" was found on a train at Holland Park and the services on the Central line were severely disrupted the entire afternoon.

Finally, I decided to head down to London Bridge for some touristy pictures. Not that there was much to see or take, given the drizzle, overcast sky and premature sunset. Following that, I headed over to the Tower of London for even more touristy pictures.

On the London Bridge.

At the north end on King Williams St.

The skating rink right beside the Tower of London.

I met up with Daph at Holborn after her class and we headed down to St. Pancras (with overnight bag and all) where we realized we wouldn't be crossing La Manche for the weekend after all. Well, no point moping around, I say! So we trekked through the heavy rain and gale, crossed the Tower Bridge where I indignantly insisted we stop in the middle of the rain on the bridge so I could take more touristy pictures; and headed back to the area around London Bridge for dinner at this great, upscale Asian-speciality restaurant called dim t. I had, uh, laksa with the soup tasting like lontong.

dim t is this place along the London riverside along Tooley St. where you can enjoy a stunning view of Tower Bridge while you dine. Visit their website to see! In addition to my laksa, Daph had lemon chicken rice, and for starters with had ha gow and duck spring rolls. We opened a bottle of rosé to share between the both of us, but as usual I over-estimated her drinking ability. She was already rather flushed before finishing half of her first glass! Some photos now.

In the middle of the pouring rain.

Dinner by candlelight.

View of the Tower Bridge from dim t.

Cocktails, anybody?

Saturday morning, we headed back to St. Pancras to grab a train to Leicester to meet up with Monji. The ride was short enough, taking a little less than an hour and a half. The three of us then immediately headed down to Nottingham where we spent the day shopping at the Christmas market, spending money on Christmas'y knick knacks and candy, chilling out at Starbucks, gawking at street performers, ice skating (again!), walking around the Old Market Square, and the list goes on.

Ice skating again was fun, although this time it was much more crowded than when I first did it at Kensington. Monji's friend Zoe was really nervous on the ice, while Daph tried to go really fast but it was much too crowded for that. interestingly, I quite enjoyed the cheesy music they were blaring out on the rink! I'm actually getting the hang of it, and quite liking it too. Think I'll definitely go skating again before I head back!

For dinner, we met up with Monji's Uni Leicester flatmate Gerry and her also visiting boyfriend Roy for dinner at this quaint Thai restaurant. What was it called? Hmm.. Oh yes, Siam Thani. Here's a barrage of photos we took in on Saturday.

All ready and set to go.

Northbound to Leicester on the train.

Daph & Monji getting chummy with a kangaroo.

Everyone on the ice!

Dinner at Siam Thani.

That night, Monji was very nice to let Daph & me sleep over in her room in her hall residence, while she slept over at her cousin Mimi's room next door. But before that, the whole bunch of us, with Monji's flatmates, played Texas hold 'em and bridge all the way till past 5 in the morning.

With next day being Sunday, Monji forewarned us that there would almost be nothing open in Leicester central. And she was right! Well, to start off, we got up really late -- it was almost past 1pm by the time we stepped out, only to be confronted by huge winds that could've been in the 50-60 kph range. First stop, we sat down for a long lunch (being the lethargic creatures we are), at this Chinese place called Noodle Bar where we stuffed ourselves silly with mains, hor' dourves, and pecking duck wraps (again!).

After that, we went for a short walkabout at Leicester central (click to see picture), where I couldn't resist popping into GAME (thankfully it was open!) and got the latest game strategy guides which you can never, ever find in Singapore somehow. Even their game release are sickeningly up to date. Argh, why must everything be in PAL format??

We then met up with Daph's friend Nat and her boyfriend Dan from Loughbrough who came down to Leicester to have dinner with us. Being too early and still too full from lunch, we went to have coffee at Caffè Nero where I had a very, very sinful Caramelatte (click to see picture!). Daph went quite crazy over the luscious amount of caramel sauce and whipped cream, though. Heh!

Dinner was at this highly recommended place by Monji called Curry House, where we once again sat down and stuffed ourselves silly with papdums, naan, curry and dessert! It was really a decadent day of overeating, I assure you. After that we went down to the pub down the road where we washed everything down with plenty of beer. I had my first taste of Früli strawberry beer -- and damn, it was good!! Dan couldn't really take the curry and beer combination and he got sick for a bit, but recovered soon enough!

Leicester Square by night.

Dinner at Curry House: me, Daph, Nat & Dan.

Chilling out at after-dinner drinks.

It so happened that it was a Sunday night, and there were plenty of drinks that were going for £1 by the pint. That's right, that's S$3 for an entire pint! For the uninitiated non-drinker, that's about five times cheaper than back home! Oh, the unfairness of it all! (I say again!) After all that, we went back to Monji's where we played another round of Texas hold'em all the way till 2am. I lost, again. Shucks!

Yesterday morning was a mad rush -- both of us struggled to get up in time to catch the 8:56am train back to St. Pancras 'cos Daph had classes at 11am! We made it to the the Leicester train station just in time, but alas we were denied entry onto the platform as, apparently, we needed to be there 10mins before the train arrived. Which, as you could imagine, was extremely frustrating!

Thankfully, there was a 9:30am train to St. Pancras as well, and we managed to get into London a little less than 10 minutes before 11. From there it was a quick-step/run medley all the way through the tube until we finally got to Holborn where Daph's school was. Turns out she wasn't really late after all -- she stepped into the classroom only seconds after her tutor! Phew.

So there you have it. That's how my weekend that was supposedly for Paris ended up, which, if I must say, wasn't too bad at all!

Winter Escapade Ep. V

2007-11-30T09:33:00.000+08:00

That's the stuff that art dreams are made of: a Paperchase boutique store that's not one, not two, but three stories high. Impressive, isn't it? Well, definitely stuff you can't find back home. Daph brought me to Paperchase today along Tottemham Court Road so she could get some art stuff for her art project for this week.

That's taken from the, uh, 3rd floor.

Everything you could possibly think of that's art-related, they have it. Christmas being round the corner, they also stocked up on numerous Christmas decorations and such, of which I got some to bring back for mom. If she's putting up the Christmas tree this year, that is. I got a couple, uh, balls and stars. Coated with lots of glitter.

Monji, you'd be glad to know they actually have a Caffè Nero in Paperchase itself, on the second floor. As well as at least two more Caffè Neros along Tottenham Court Road itself. I seem to be seeing everywhere ever since you started craving them on Monday. How strange, eh? And there are also two more on Oxford Street. Just in case, you know.

Oh, and just mostly for fun, here's a linear view of Oxford Street from Tottenham Court Road to Oxford Circus. This looks pretty handy, doesn't it? Click here. So let's see, Inn Noodle is actually quite a decent place to get your fix of la mian; Daph & me had dinner there today. Then there's Waterstones, the bookstore that looks like a library you could find in Hogwarts.

No. 143 houses Japanese-brand of cream puffs that's insanely popular in Singapore, Beard Papa. Haven't got any, yet. In fact, I've never tried any before. Heh. No. 187 has muji, with all their very functional, utilitarian yet exorbitantly priced stuff. I'm still eyeing their £120 coat. Very nice.

On the other side of the street, there's No. 100, GAME. Yup, it's as self-explanatory as it gets; it's a UK-based video games retail company that sells loads and loads of video games. That's what I need: speciality! I do remember, however, stepping into the store excitedly when I was first here in September only to have the store clerk tell me, "Sorry mate, you can't buy anything in this store except for PSP and DS games due to NTSC/PAL restrictions."

Oh, great. Like who really, really buys PSP and DS games, right? Eh, Vik? Nic? Albert? Justin? Heh heh. I suppose browsing will just have to do, for now. Unless I get a PAL system Xbox 360 too? Hmm.. Anyway, it'll be Paris come this weekend. Which means we're leaving tomorrow night. And boy, am I all set for my very first Disneyland experience at 22. Oh, for the love of all things good, finally!

Winter Escapade Ep. IV

2007-11-28T18:36:00.000+08:00

Tuesday night, Mich, Krys, Elias, Daph & I trooped down to Whitechapel for some movie fun. Only, I was too tired to really, really enjoy the movie. Which was quite a pity, considering we went to watch a Wes Anderson arthouse flick: The Darjeeling Limited.

This movie's premise is basically a comedy-drama portrayal of a journey through India by three brothers, played by Owen Wilson, Adrien Brody and Jason Schwartzman. All three are on a "spiritual quest" to find solace and unity among each other, after having not spoke to one another for a year before the trip. This quest, however, doesn't fail to tumble off-course in no time, with hilarity and drama ensuing as the three brothers try to overcome each other's ego.

When they come to a realization that they have become literally stuck in the innermost recesses of India, they decide to embark on another unplanned course of their journey, taking them full circle to where they first began. As with any Wes Anderson film, The Darjeeling Limited continues to include many of Anderson's signature themes and styles. Forbidden love, parental abandonment and/or death, sibling rivalries.

All's good and interesting, however, I was already quite tired out that day so I did doze off at certain bits of the film. Not good! Curiously enough, movie theatre seats here have really little leg room. Which I suppose isn't too comfortable for the european man's physique, is it now? Nevertheless, I must say I quite enjoyed the movie. For some reason Daph seems to think Adrien Brody is hot (I think he's just alright), so I guess that was a little bit more eye candy for her!

Yesterday, I decided to hit the outdoors for abit. Well, that's only because Foi invited me to go do something which I've never done in my life before: ice skating! That's right, I've never gone skating on ice before. Well, I do rollerblade abit, but I'm not good at that either! But, I suppose since I had all the time in the world, and we would be going to an outdoor skating rink, I readily agreed.

Foi and I went to the outdoor skating rink located right beside the National History Museum. You can view photos on my Facebook album here. This staking rink had a special viewing platform for spectators and visitors, where Foi and I grabbed a quick lunch of sandwiches, chips and beer (yes, beer!).

Our skating session started at 2:45pm and lasted for an hour. When I was strapping on, I was actually feeling pretty nervous. I was already coming up with a good contingency plan on how to fall gracefully, which I felt would be very possible. However, once I got on the ice, instinct kicked in and I managed to actually stay topside throughout. Having gone rollerblading before did help quite abit in maintaining balance, turning and so on.

Foi was great in slowly prodding and guiding me along; she's better than me by a mile. Although she hadn't skated for 10 years (according to her!), she looked pretty smooth. Ok, she did fall once, though. It was my fault, however; we were going too fast and my left leg accidentally hooked her right!

Fifteen minutes into it, I was pretty steady and good to go by then. There were times where I almost slipped but it seems easier to recover for a loss of balance as compared to skiing or rollerblading. Strangely enough, I thought I'd be freezing my face off on the rink, but it seemed warmer when I was skating away. Having the Natural History Museum as a backdrop really livened up the entire atmosphere, giving it a very festive mood. Pity I won't be spending Christmas here!

After we were done on the ice, we went for some really good fish & chips right at the courtyard of the National History Museum. They actually have a website for their food. Check out http://www.theseacow.co.uk/.

Foi & I ready to hit the rink.

Trying to get the hang of it!

Not quite "Disney on Ice" standard yet, but getting there!

Foi going crazy over, uh, fish & chips.

For dinner, Daph, I and her friend Mei Shi went to this placed called 97 in Chinatown for dinner; they serve the best Peking duck pancakes and bubble tea! (I went there once earlier when I was here in September). After that, it was time for another musical: Mary Poppins at the Prince Edward Theatre!

::sidenote:: I just suddenly realized as I'm typing this that Laura Michelle Kelly was playing Mary Poppins before she came to Singapore to do A Twist of Fate with SRT. Pity I couldn't catch her as Mary. The character of Mary Poppins is currently played by Scarlett Strallen. Kelly, on the other hand, is currently playing Galadriel in the musical adaptation of The Lord of the Rings, which I intend to catch while I'm still here.

Before stepping into the theatre, I was slightly apprehensive about watching another family musical with nanny themes, but was I so foolish to think that I wouldn't enjoy Mary Poppins. It turned out to be one of the best musicals I've ever watched, right up there with Miss Saigon which I caught in Melbourne earlier this year.

Admittedly, I must say that the songs aren't the best, although they are extremely singable and get stuck in your head most incessantly. For this production of Mary Poppins, it was the set design, flying rigs and choreography that really, really amazed me. There is a particular scene during the song "Step In Time" where Bert actually walks up the side walls of the stage all the way to the flyloft where he sings literally upside down.

Choreography and costume designs were fantastic, especially for the signature song "Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious". This production of Mary Poppins is directed by Richard Eyre, with Matthew Bourne as co-director and choreographer. Scenic and costume design is by Bob Crowley, and James Dodgson does musical direction.

For the ending scene, Mary Poppins rises up into the air, and, through some amazing rigging, proceeds to hover above the audiences seated in the circle. Yes, she was literally flying above me. Priceless! The kid in me really exploded at that point, I must admit. Definitely worth every penny of my £30.

To be honest, I'm going quite crazy on wanting to watch tons of West End musicals. Maybe because everything is so inaccessible back home. Back in Singapore, when musicals like Oliver Twist came, or when local musicals like Cabaret came out, there was a huge furore massive and publicity blitz. Over here, productions like Rent, Chicago, Billy Elliot, Grease, Hairspray and so on run on a regular, daily basis with very healthy audience attendance. And this is barely scratching the surface, mind you.

After the musical, the whole gang (i.e., Daph, Mich, Vince, Elias, Krys and me) went down to this bar called Edge at Soho Square for a couple beers to finish off the day. It turned out to be a gay bar, but we had plenty of fun nonetheless. I managed to get the bartender's Facebook contact and email, much to Daph's chagrin. Heh.

We're not much drinkers, really!

Today, on the other hand, has been pretty stoic, we slept in today as Daph had no school. We ate in and had some of Daph's aglio olio and pretty much lazed the day away. It's approaching about late afternoon now, but we might head out tonight for, uh, shopping? Oh yeah, baby!