happy birthday, sis

happy birthday to youuuu!

too bad you're working today else, could have gone for coffee bean breakfast or something...

hmm... your present is still at the shops, haven't had time to get it yet... :P hehe...

yeah!

heard from the news earlier that the 13-year cycle for nsmen has been shortened to 10 years.

yay! seldom there's any cause for celebrations from the news.

declaring 27th aug a public holiday for presidential elections doesn't count. anyway, there wouldn't be one now since we only have 1 eligible candidate. that's right, there goes our chance to exercise our rights as citizens in a democratic state. oops, i digressed.

actually, it's not that i hate in-camp trainings. i really do enjoy the annual reunions with the folks that have become friends through the course of the many icts. and of course the break away from work. hehe... :P

just that it's such a chore to lug my barang-barang [since i don't drive] to some ulu camp that's so inaccessible by public transport. yes, there's only 1 bus service plying the route. and you can't get any cabs from the camp.

of course the ippt doesn't exactly make the ict a walk in the park but at least i can do something about it.

hmm... maybe, just maybe... i should find a better paying job so that i can afford a car.

but first, i need to learn to drive first. :)

mysterious skin

went to watch this movie out of curiousity as it was given very good reviews by the papers and 8 days. rated r[21] in singapore for mature theme. a rather dark tale of child abuse and homosexuality.

a tale of 2 teenagers with 2 very different lives. neil [joseph gordon-levitt] lives a vicarious life of paid sex with older men while brian [brady corbet] tries to find out what happened to the missing 5 hours in his childhood. was he really abducted by aliens?

in the end, the audience realises that both are just coping with their common childhood experience in their own ways.

contains one graphic rape scene that's uncomfortable to watch.

my rating? 4 out of 5.

gritty.

harry potter & the half-blood prince

yes, i finally finished the book...

i know who died... it's someone from hogwarts. i guessed correctly. :)

the half-blood prince was not referring to voldermort. got it wrong. :(

oh no... i think i'll be a zombie at work today. :P

happy 40th birthday, singapore!

that's right, singapore has turned 40 today.

one of the biggest national day celebrations i've seen so far with 4 other locations, jurong east, yishun, tampines and marina south joining in the main event @ the padang via satellite link-up. fireworks at all locations, massive crowds taking part in the festivities.

what was i doing?

holed up at home catching up on sleep and reading the latest of the harry potter books. ;)

not that i wasn't patriotic or anti-social, but 'cos i'm still recovering from the cold that had started on sat night. i had even passed over the skating this morning. didn't want to exert myself too much before i'm well.

marilyn sms-ed to go and see the fireworks at the esplanade but i wasn't up for it. the thought of the crowds made harry potter that much more appealing. so i doze and read the whole day.

i'm quite a compulsive reader so i'll probably only put down the book when i've finished it... argghhh!

i must be brave

watched "the maid" at midnight @ gv plaza.

you must be wondering why the hell [pun not intended] would me & my colleagues want to watch a scary ghost movie when it's the 7th lunar month now, at a time when the spirits are said to be roaming the earth.

we must have a morbid sense of humour or entertainment. haha...

we're not the only ones though, the 2 midnight shows were sold out. clearly, singaporeans are intrigued by the supernatural. not surprising, considering the myriad rituals and practices the chinese have relating to death, ancestor worship and the hungry ghost festival.

the story is about a new filipino maid, rosa [alessandra de rossi], who had just arrived in singapore to work for a family in chinatown. at first, she's not sure if it's just her imagination going wild in the old and unfamiliar shophouse that is home to her employers.

soon, things became clear that it is not all that it seems. mediacorp veterans, chen shu cheng and hong hui fang put in credible multi-lingual performances, speaking lines in teochew, mandarin & english.

playing their son, ah soon, is benny soh in his film debut. was surprised to learn that acting is not his day job. he is actually with mediacorp's on-air branding & promotions.

my rating? 3 out of 5.

lunch @ marmalade pantry

met up with doris, janet, jason & cayden for lunch.

haven't seen janet & cayden since i last visited them when he was just 2 weeks-old. i think it's their 1st foray into orchard road without the maid... quite a leap of faith, i say.

passed them the baby mickey jigsaw i done up for cayden.

marmalade pantry was fully booked. fortunately doris had made a reservation otherwise we would be left out in hunger with a "cranky" baby.

i had smoked salmon bagel, blush [juice of carrot, beetroot & celery], nutella cupcake and tea. the food was ok but a bit on the expensive side.

cayden had his milk and demostrated how loud he can fart. the whole table heard him.

and i discovered he doesn't burp easily. i guess that's how he channels out the air in his tummy. :P

run!

caught the movie "the island" starring Ewan McGregor & Scarlett Johansson @ orchard cineleisure with my colleague, marilyn.

a very interesting take of what can happen in the future when ethics and morality are thrown out of the window... a future where humans are cloned for harvesting of their body parts & organs.

scary & disturbing, isn't it?

lincoln six echo [played by ewan mcgregor] discovers that the lucky winners of the lottery, are not relocated to THE island, the only non-contaminated place in a post-apocalyptic earth, but instead they're being killed or had their organs removed for transplant to their sponsors.

the clones are products, they're all insurance policies costing $5 million each.

housed in a facility dressed in cool white uniforms & puma shoes in an alternate reality where the genders are separated and all parts of their lives are regulated and watched over, right down to what they can have for breakfast based on their current health report.

the wham-bam action starts when lincoln six echo escapes with jordan two delta and race against time to avoid capture to try to meet their sponsors hoping to expose the illegal cloning of humans at the facility.

lots of explosive action scenes complimentary of the big budget.

my rating? 4 out of 5.

cool!