So fast, first full dress combine rehearsal yesterday. 5 more shows (3 NE, 1 Preview, 1 Actual) to go and the journey ends. Last night's rehearsal was attended by SAF Friends and Family, so at least we performed in front of audiences.. still quite blur about the finale dance but they promised to release a video for us to learn at home...

Generally, just felt that the finale was not as 'emotional' than previous years =p Probably due to the arrangement of the songs, it just did not bring you to a 'high', and until the point of pledge taking and anthem singing, I dun really experience the 'choking' effect =p hehehe...

Anyway, music for this year's show is super 'mambo'.. hahaha.. like stepping into Zouk. The theme song is by Electrico "What Do You See". Personally, the song is pretty 'forgetable' hahaha.. it is nice but will probably never achieve that kind of success previous songs did.. like Home by Kit Chan... hehehe

Behind the Scenes

At least I enjoyed one of the musical during my Beijing trip, showcasing Shaolin Kungfu and various type of acrobatic dances. The story is simple but the pace is fast, exciting and full of action, so at least I was kept 'awake' throughout the show even after a tiring day... hahaha...

Of course, going thru the tour guide, the tickets were quite ex compared to buying from the theatre itself but at least the Tour Guide value-added by queuing early and got us a good front row seat.

It is not a bad show, worth the time...

This is the best part of the whole NDP dance this year.. hahaha.. cos the beat is happy and the dance is fun to do =D

Had considered skipping last Sunday's rehearsal cos I brought Moochi to the SKC Dog Show and wanted to stay a little longer but well... I guess NDP rehearsal is more important.. anyway, can always go to the next SKC show in 3 mths time.

Today we learnt the Cha Cha portion of the NDP dance. So fun, really wished it was longer. Click on the video if you want to listen to the full dance song. PA dance is near the middle, after the Dikir Barat song... I kind of like the Dikir Barat beat also. Had not heard it for a long time since my Victorian days when my Malay Cultural Group classmates will perform during special School events. I love the drum beats, hand and body movements even though people perform seating down =D

From the movie "10 Promises to my Dog"

I give my Moochi my 10 promises also =D

Ha... could not sleep so I might as well update on my trip to Esplanade to watch Cats 2 weeks ago. Yes, I went to the right place this time... after going thru 2 ERPs during peak hours + cut-throat parking fees... hahaha...

Was actually contemplating if I should catch the musical since I had already watched the DVD version previously, and frankly, I thought it was quite boring... hahahaha... but in the end, decided to, since the last time it came to Singapore, I missed it as I was just a poor sec school student... hahaha... and if I miss it now, I dun know when it will return again.

Bought tickets on the higher circle seats and I thought the design on the stage floor was really distracting... so colourful!!! cannot see some of the dancers properly. Overall, the show is not bad and the singing/dancing was great. There were also some additional scenes which were not in the DVD which I saw. I am just not happy that they charged $20 for the show booklet... so I refused to buy.  If they had priced it at $15, I might even consider but $20?!? That's like 1/5 of the price of the ticket that I paid.... I might as well pay to get a better seat =D

Well, I guess most people came without any 'research' on the show... cos I heard several comments during the break like "I totally do not understand the plot", "What's the story?", "You understand the songs?" etc etc.. hahahaha.... the best comment that I overheard? "I might have considered spending $20 on the book if I had understood the plot"... hahahaha.... from an Ang Moh girl...

Actually there is not really an obvious plot in Cats, unlike Phantom, Saigon or Les Mis... the whole musical is based on a collection of poems by T.S Eliot (Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats )... so basically just go there and enjoy the dancing and songs =p

Anyway, my next target is "Sing Dollar" musical cos it is produced by the same people who brought us the "Dim Sum Dollies", and I love "Dim Sum Dollies" Hahahahaha... it is always fun to laugh at ourselves with their Singaporean/Political jokes =p

I was extremely surprised to receive the letter from my unit the other day, informing me to collect my NS service medal and watch. During my last ICT, we were told that only those people with full ICT records will be entitled to the watch as a reward for completing all the 10 ICT cycle. I still owe them 1 high-key ICT due to my disruption during my studies. I will not get the watch since my reward will be that I can MR earlier.

Nevertheless, if this is another 'cock-up' by the SAF, then I am actually glad they did =p So this medal and watch will be my last souvenir after 2.5yrs + 10yrs of contribution.

With it, I guess this special chapter in my life finally comes to an end...

 
service medal...

the watch... 

the pin... 

Went to dig out my other stuffs given by the Army also... not very impressive but I guess it feels good to be 'appreciated' in one way or another.

I met a guy (I think hokkien peng) on my way to collect the MR 'reward' and I can sense some happiness from him when he asked me to explain the contents of the letter and whether he have the watch as well... he did...

  
presented to me during my active days... still remember it was
my birthday month and the reward was a meal with the CO...

 
given by my reservist unit during one of my ICT (etec year?)
for being 'guai' and never 'complain' too much... hahaha

What started out as a potentially disastrous night turned out to be really enjoyable afterall =p

Dunno why, I kept thinking that the musical was at Esplanade and drove there after work... After paying the 杀人放火 parking of $5.50 per entry at Esplanade, I took out my tickets and realised that it is at the Drama Centre instead!!! OMG... only 15mins to reach there!!!

After some very 'exciting' driving, I managed to reach the theatre at 7:58pm... Hahahaha... did not even have time to buy the show booklet and I heard the bell ringing to signal the start of the show. Rushed to the ursher, ran up the stairs, got to my seat and the show started promptly =D

Loved the music. If you enjoy 梁文福's compositions like me, then you will probably enjoy the musical as it is largely based on his collection of 新谣 songs. His songs brings back a certain nostalgic feeling inside me, it is a carefree period in my life which I missed =D

I feel that the musical is a major breakthru for local Chinese Theatre, been to mostly English musicals and Chinese plays.. but never musicals and I think this production is very very good.... Good singing, props, live orchestra, great actings and of course nice songs. 

Do catch it before it ends, the cheapest tickets are less than $30 and the most ex ones are only $60++ Support local Arts =p

Found a promotional clip for the musical made during its 2007 run... The casts are different now, except for the main actor.

Saw  梁文福 after the show and wanted to get his autograph.. but cannot find a pen =( damn....

This month, I want to watch several musicals and concerts. Wonder if I should just book all or be more selective? How huh?

1) 《天冷就回来》 IF THERE'RE SEASONS... (16 Apr - 10 May)

2) Cats (10 Apr - 3 May)

3) SINGAPORE ARTS FESTIVAL 2009Distant Worlds: Music from Final FantasyAsian Premiere (22 May - 23 May)

4) Wei Song, Si Song (Garden of Music) Concert 2009伟菘 偲菘<好友音乐派对> 2009 (18 Apr)

... and I guess it is time to put thoughts into action!!! Time to be more serious on a healthier lifestyle =D And yes... still looking for a dog also =p

No NDP rehearsal this week cos we were too good! Hahaha.. Seriously, I think the moves are just too simple and short =p We basically completed all the dance steps by last week's training and what remains from now till Aug will be refinement of the movement so that we all look 'slick' =p

Went to Malaysia with Uni pals last weekend and it was great fun driving around.. hahaha...  will post the photos next time. 

Was driving home along AYE on the 1st lane and this irritating cab driver kept tailgating me. He was so close that I think I can even see his face clearly from my rear mirror, beamed his lights at me somemore...

I was not even driving slowly. Was driving at around the speed limit of 90km/hr and it was not as if the road in front was empty and he can speed all the way if I give way. Right in front of me at about 2 or 3 car length away was another vehicle, so if I give way to him, he will still be stuck behind another car driving at the same speed.. so is he going to 'bully' people all the way?

Such drivers should be ban from the road for putting people's life in danger, what if there is an emergency and I need to brake? I doubt he can stop in time, and that is what I did... I just kept stepping on the brake to light up my braking lights every so often =p Then I purposely slow down to allow a big gap in front of my car so that people from the 2nd lane can cut in if they wanted to. Wanted to make the stupid cab driver behind 'pek chek'. And when he tries to cut to the 2nd lane to overtake my car, I delibrately sped up to close the gap and stay in line with other cars in the 2nd lane so that he will get stuck behind the 2nd lane car. Then he have no choice but to move back behind my car in the first lane if he wants to continue to drive 'fast'.... 

Did it for about 2 times and in the end I think he decided to attempt to overtake from the 3rd or 4th lane but too bad.. the cars are even slower there and I lost him when he got stuck behind the vans and lorries... =p

Stupid driver... 

Yes, 1Q of the year is already gone and I am heading for yet another 'milestone' in life coming Apr -.- Planning to get something special this year but I think I am facing some extreme resistance =p but nvm, I shall push on... hahahaha...

About exactly a month ago, I attended my last ICT. It marks the end of my military liability to the country and strangely, I am actually more 'sad' than 'glad'. Of course, I am really happy to be released from those irksome rules and regulations but somehow, I am feeling down that I will no longer be able to meet my Army friends in the future.

All the best to all of them and hopefully I get to see their updates on Facebook (thankfully).

Also organised a short get-together near the end of Feb for Huiling and Jeffrey before they fly off to USA. Will definitely miss them. In fact, I think Sat nights will not be the same anymore. They are usually the more 'on' couple among the group of married people that is game enough to hang out for dinner or outings after volleyball, the rest usually just go home.

Anyway, had some really fun time at the chalet and hopefully can do it again soon.

 
 
BBQ night...

 
 
desserts... 

 
 
breakfast, settlers and guitar hero world tour... 

 
 
shopping for steamboat, chef ong preparing nice BBQ wings... 

 
 
yummy, yummy... 

 
 
 
after dinner world tour, citadel and settlers... again... 

 
 
breakfast, settlers... again... lunch... 

Hahaha, seems like we are playing a lot of Settler recently, all hooked =p

Lastly, I passed my audition for this year's NDP passed. Rehearsal started last week and this year, it is a bit different. Less formation, more dancing. The guys are doing Wushu with giant fans... =D

This is probably going to be a long post since I had not update for some time... too lazy to upload the photos and videos... hahaha... =D

Had dinner with my CR gang on 31st Jan. Meet up with Vene who stop-over at Singapore for a few days before flying back to Aus. Thanks to Khimmy for organising the yearly gathering cos I know doing such events are usually tedious and troublesome. Besides booking a place for so many people, still have to handle the namelist and those people who 'fly-kite'... =p

Khimmy...

Had a nice dinner at Tony Romas. A few of them went clubbing after dinner but I decided to go home. Figured that I am too 'mature' for such things and sleep is more important. Hahahaha... Heard that Vene became a Merlion that night.. ouch... hahaha...

The next day, Ben Wong, Jimmy and Yongjie came over to my place to 拜年. Decided to play tennis while Jimmy had to rush to complete some assessment markings. Hahaha... touching 'books' on CNY, sure to lose money. Should have played Mahjong with him. =D

I try to take some photos while Ben and Yongjie is playing... my photos make them look so 'pro' right? =D

Of course... poor Jimmy is still busy marking his scripts... in style no doubt...

Went to Chaowarat's place for lunch after the games. This is one of my fav CNY event cos Chaowarat dishes out the best Thai cuisine. Simply the best. Even though Ben passed away for almost 5yrs, Ben's parents carried on the tradition of inviting the group of old classmates to their place for a meal during CNY. I am happy to see them being more cheerful as the years passes by...

 
 
 
chicken wings, thai salad, green curry, hokkien mee,
my fav 'dong fen' and superb tom yum... yummy...

Chaowarat also made lotsa CNY snacks. We suggested that she open a shop but she said no need. She had asked Bernard to setup a website and she is already selling them to neighbours and friends... wow... impressed =p

huat ah!!!

Near evening, we dropped by Jimmy's place for dinner. His mum prepared a food feast for steamboat... wow... we basically ate for the whole day.

Just when I thought everything is over... mum called to ask me to go back so that we can 'lou hei' again at home... ouch... eating too much...

My dad will usually prepare some part of the ingredients himself and top up with lotsa abalones.

Now for some Office CNY celebrations... being 'volunteered' into this year's Dept Rec Comm, the first task is to organise the 'Lou Hei' event. Budget cut, so no more Sakae Sushi =p bought from the coffeeshop downstairs. 

 
preparing the tables for the event...

 
 
 
 
angpow from Boss...

 
section 'huat ah' 

 
 
following that is our own section CNY lunch from KFC =p

 
more food...

random photo... look at the EMPTY reefer block...

Yanling also invited us to her place last Sat. Her place is so windy that it is like her personal sea breeze right at home... so nice. Of course, we played boardgames, watched TV and eat more food... sianz, must really start to diet after this CNY.

 

 

 

Evelyn and her hubby invited us to her new place for a simple gathering this year. Instead of the usual steamboat, we decided to save the hassle and ordered all the food in while Evelyn made some Pasta and supplied the drinks. It was a simple affair and it was a tradition among the few of us to meet up yearly. But I guess, like what Ivan noted, the number is getting smaller and smaller every year... a pity actually, cos now, some wun even be bothered to reply yes or no to the email invites anymore. I guess most of us are now busy and moving into a new stage in their lives and priorities have perhaps shifted somewhat...

Nevertheless, I am still grateful to those who took the time to support the yearly affair =p and to Evelyn and Vernon for allowing us to make a mess at their newly decorated abode. The dinner started traditionally with the 鱼生 tossing... less messy this year =p 

The pasta is nice but I still love the Tiong Bahru Siew Mais =D 

Eve's place is really nice and it does not feel small compared to all the other new HDB flats. The kitchen space is squarish and so, you do not feel 'cramp' when 2 or more people is inside, the master bedroom is huge... big enough for a walk-in wardrobe to be constructed =p The living room + dining area space is also generous. 

Speaking of walk-in wardrobe, reminded me of a fantastic Heineken Advert posted by Melvin on Facebook.. really funny...

Anyway, the colour combi is easy on the eyes, the overall design is classy and seems to have came from an expensive designer =p but of course, Eve made all the design decisions and furniture choices herself... love the uses of wallpapers and patterns selection...

After dinner entertainments includes the ever so popular Wii console gaming and some boardgames which I brought over. Playing Wii with friends is always entertaining for a social gathering. There's laughter and joy for the players and also the audiences.. hahaha...

Corina doing Wii Fit...

4 people dancing in sync is hilarious...

4 people making music is also hilarious...

While some stayed with the Wii console, a few of us moved on to the boardgames. Eve won both the games we played... hmmm... By the time we finished entertaining ourselves, it was already 4am.. gosh, we played for like 5 or 6hrs =p

Ivan took my car for a ride and wow.. he did things with the car which I dun even know how/dare to do =D 

  
 

after many tries... a good 'family' photo...

-*-*-*-*-*-*-*- 

After the tiring night, Jimmy, Yongjie and Benjamin came over to my house for tennis the next day. It was a great session =p We imagined ourselves playing for the "French Open", "Australian Open", "US Open", "Wimbledon" and "Olympic" titles... 

Jimmy and I won the French, US, Aus Open and the Olympics while Yongjie and Benjamin won the Wimbledon.. hahaha.. of course, Yongjie said all the matches does not matter cos winning the 'Wimbledon' is the most important title of all.... 

We were cracking stupid and silly jokes. Luckily my place is quite quiet and secluded, else people would have thought that we were crazy. =p Being novice players, we lost like 4 balls to the neighbouring Condos... hahahaha....

Went over to the Railway Mall for a super late dinner and to perhaps celebrate Yongjie's promotion to Asst. Mgr =p We demanded a good treat... hahahaha... I was so tired that I was practically falling asleep in the middle of dinner...

Played this game last Sunday and it is actually quite interesting and fun. Vernon invited us to his place for a pot-luck party and the main entertainment was boardgames and console party games.

I kind of like 'Settlers of Catan'. A little bit like those computer civilisation game where you try to get resources and upgrade roads and cities and try to win by earning points from your cities and special cards.

Also played 'Gravediggers' and 'Bang', the all time lunch favourite game, even had to buy 2 sets for the dept cos there's 2 groups wanting to play at the same time. Hahaha...

Had some friendly competition with 'Guitar Hero' =p and Meow Meow won... it's her first time playing.

challenging each other on 'Guitar Hero'

there were lots of food...

a total of 6 bikes in the house, worth a lot... how much?
hmm... it's like parking a Honda Jazz in the living room =p

I think it has come to a point where I run out of space to 'stash'/'hide' all my stuff to make the room looks 'neat' and 'clutter-free'.

Now, I have to assign a corner of the TV table to permanently 'stack' all the books and then another corner to dump all bags that I use frequently.... Maybe I should just store the books into the storeroom since I dun think I will ever read them again.

At least my PC area is neater now compared to previously when it was filled with books, papers, vcds, boxes... 

I need a bigger room... 

 
 
Books, Magazines, Bags...
accumulated over the last 3 or 4 years since I moved...

 
Neater PC area, right side used to be filled with
random items, now, only my WoW things

The theme song for the Fann Wong and Christopher Lee movie 大喜事 is 我们的爱. Part of the tune comes from my favourite "The Wedding" song. At least it caught my attention to do a search for the MTV after hearing the song on radio. But... I still prefer the original... =p

The new 重编 version sounded abit too pop for me =D

 
我們的愛

The Wedding

I slept at 2am yesterday. I was going through all the old photos I had to recall names of forgotten friends and tried to search them on Facebook.

It was pretty tedious because frankly, I cannot remember most of their full name or the actual spelling. I pretty much cracked my brains to recall bits and pieces of their name and then browsed thru pages and pages of mug-shots.

I tried all the names I can recall from Primary School to Secondary School to JC to Army to Uni. Tried to scan thru all my email folders to locate forgotten emails address of missing friends, hoping that they still use them.

Some names are pretty unique and were easy to find. I was really happy to locate a few of them and hope they will log on soon to acknowledge =p but some common names became a frustration. It was made worst as some people tend to use photos totally unrelated to themselves, super 'abstract'/artistic postures, are super super tiny or worse, no photos. There is really no way for me to correctly pin-point some of them from the hundreds in the list.

As we grow older, suddenly you want to find out how your old friends, who had once went thru the journey with us during special phases in our lifes, are doing currently. Are they well? Happy? Married? What happened since the day we parted? etc.. etc.. etc.. so many questions... I hope they do remember me as well. Well, at least I am on a crusade to locate them all!!!

It is actually quite difficult for people of my generation to keep in touch after seperation. Internet, emails, handphones were not popular during those times and once our path seperates... it is very difficult to meet up again. You move on to a new phase with new friends and soon, all contacts with your old friend stops because there is nothing in common anymore. Such a pity but very true. 

When I was moving house a few years ago. I located my old primary school autograph book. It was so nostalgic. There were poems and pictures and short notes wishing you good luck and promises to keep in touch... but it is difficult to do so when we all move to different schools, change addresses etc etc... 

Recently, I started an email thread to located all my JC classmates. It started with 1 people, then each of us started to put in more email addresses and now, we have about 10 people. I hope to find everyone soon. It was really nice to read thru some of the anecdotes written and they brought back fond memories... I cannot believe JC was more than 10 years ago... 

A group photo during one of my bomb disposal exercise on
Pulau Senang during my active days. A few of them are no longer in the
same ICT unit due to various reasons and contacts were lost.
Oh... where are all of u? Hope to be able to tag all of you on FB soon...

 +   +

= Wedding Photos

Told myself that I must eat these 2 items at least by this week... Just for closure...

Wanted to eat Peranakan dishes and Yongjie told me there is a Eurasion Cafe serving great Eurasion food near his school... which includes some peranakan dishes... Feel like trying it one of these days... Yongjie told me the owner only opens the shop and cook for passion. So she does not work on weekends and opens only until 5pm daily.. OMG.. so 'attitude' lor... hahaha 

... are so tempting. Just a short 'tour' around the new Jurong Point Extension and I've broken my new year resolution to save money yet again -.-

Jurong Point practically doubled.. or even tripled the floor area for shopping and dining. They took over the entire area where the old bus terminal was and extended another 3 floors of shops. Every shop was on sale =(

From my Army days of only 1 simple building, JP has come a long way... I remember we could not do much in JP during my army nights off except to watch movies and arcade... now, there are so many things to do. Too bad the Library is gone.. one of my fav activity was to borrow books back to camp to read then.

Anyway, next time I must try to go out without credit cards... 

Hahaha.. having been to Shanghai recently, I've decided to add some cina music to my blog =p Wanted to add 上海滩 initially but thought it was too cheesy.. =D Anyway, the current song can probably give you the Old Shanghai feeling too... loves the music from that era of HK drama series...

Anyway, Shanghai is a little greyish... probably due to winter and the scenery is super foggy. Of course, the sole purpose of going to 上海外滩 during my short 1/2 day transit is to snap a few "been-there-done-that" photos... hahaha... Luckily the super fast Shanghai Magnetic train takes only 8mins (compared to 90mins by public transport) to travel from the airport to town and it is quite cheap actually =p only about $20 for a return trip and can travel at a max speed of 431km/hr.. 

I left the airport for town at around 9am, and still manage to return to the airport hotel by 1230hrs to checkout and get ready for my flight back to Singapore...