JC Chalet

The class chalet...can be aptly summed up by 3 words: Fun, Food and Laughter. Been a long long time since we last had a JC Class Chalet, and it was a rather good turn-out too ;)

Lotsa food (SINFUL!), lotsa mahjong, lotsa xBox-ing...overall, it was cool. Everyone had something to do. Mahjong day and nite definitely rulez. Started off with meeting Aloy, Peiwen, Gen, Mich and Hark Kah at the bus stop for the shuttle service to NSRCC. Gosh..first time they are early...haha. :P

Booking into the chalet, the mahjong table is the first to be set up, and playing started almost immediately. Meanwhile, the rest went to buy some more food for the BBQ later on in the evening. The remaining people, well, played cards. :) When the food for BBQ arrived, all helped in the preparation...prawns, chicken wings, hot dogs etc. Well, it was a nice BBQ/TV viewing/Mahjong dinner, so those BBQing passed food to those glued to their seats playing mahjong, and those BBQing also had their attentions trans-fixed on the google box, for the 7pm show of Dolphin's Bay. Weichuan's version of the banana chocolate was great...a great mix of sinful choc with banana.

After that, the google box continued running, to the Ch8 serial at 9, and then...Amazing Race! =D All the while, the mahjong never stops...haha. And Shuwei brought in chocolate and cookies 'n cream ice-cream! Wah...good sia :P *sluurrpppp~!*

Wed night was also UCL night, and I was a lil' shack, and with a nice couch to lie on whilst watching, I think I was slowly drifting to sleep...with PSV leading 1-0. Then, the second half came, Maldini rightfully substituted and PSV suddenly created another goal and the whole game was tense thereafter. With the introduction of Jon Dahl Tomasson, the whole game burst to life. Milan got a goal back on the dot of 90 minutes, and with this away goal in hand, PSV had to get 2 goals to advance. I was so damn sure of Milan's entrance into the final, that after Ambronsini scored the Milan goal, I trudged upstairs to sleep...and half-way up, Guanyu called me to let me know that PSV had scored one! A quick reply, indeed. Sadly for the PSV people, They could find no more chances, and had to settle for a 3-1 victory but not going into the UCL Finals. Overall, Milan had a lousy game, Nesta and co were out of sorts and seemed content to defend their 2 goal lead from San Siro...

The next day ah...morning start already mahjong kakis assembled. And...before bfast there's always mahjong! So...started playing a couple of rounds :) Bfast was a simple bread + snickers spread, and it was good! Sinful, again *hiakz* The ice-cream which Shuwei bought were also good sia :P Pizza ruled the afternoon, and I was so tempted to run, that I changed into my gear and ran with Mich, only to find it raining after we were about 600m away from the chalet. Bad bad weather... Waited out the storm for about 30 mins in a small shack near the East Coast Yachting club...man...NSRCC is well-placed, it's along the jogging trail from East Coast Park to Pasir Ris! I think the distance is 8km or more, so it's a relatively good training ground ;) Bowling was also fun. Been some time since I last bowled, and I reckon I need more and more training to 'perfect' the basics. Haha.

As the rain was heavy, gone was the notion of going to Changi Village (which was quite near) to makan. So we ordered in KFC for the dinner (sinful...again!) and chit-chatted whilst watching the tee-vee. :P Mahjong stopped...for the stomach rules over the mind at times like this lol. xBox-ing with the Tennis game and Froza was amazing. Nice graphics and great games. Another cute game was the ninja fighting one. A new game learnt: Shithead! :P

Kudos to Weichuan for organising this chalet...Man of his words (cos the last time round, he said he'll organise a chalet sia.)

Some Pictures:

Card Games Ahoy!


BBQ


Food! Food! :D


Mahjong Madness! ^-^


Mahjong Part Deux :)




Shithead! Game lol.


X-Box-ing


Weichuan the Accountant - At Work

Current Mood: Sleepy

Current Music: Move - Around The World

Star Wars cometh!

In line with the ever-increasing Star Wars fever...It's time to go back to our roots

luke: ahhhh...wo eh chiu ah...
Darth: luke,li kar wa lai orh orh chik peng
luke: dan gu gu ah
darth: luke,wa si lin lao bei
luke: bo kor leng, wo lao bei si liao
darth: li xiu kua mai,li dio eh zai liao

* SPOILER WARNING *




"Revenge of the Sith" is, quite simply, f ucking awesome. This is the "Star Wars" prequel the haters have been b itching for since "Menace" came out, and if they don't cop to that when they finally see it, they're lying. As dark as "Empire" was, this movie goes a thousand times darker - from the triggering of Order 66 (which has all the Shock Troopers turning on the Jedi Knights they've been fighting beside throughout the Clone Wars and gunning them down), to the jaw-dropping Anakin/Obi Wan fight on Mustafar (where - after cutting his legs and arm off, Ben leaves Skywalker burning alive on the shores of a lava river, with Anakin spitting venomous sentiments at his departing mentor), this flick is so satisfyingly tragic, you'll think you're watching "Othello" or "Hamlet".

I saw a gorgeous digitally projected version of the flick, and lemme tell ya': this is a beautiful looking film. The opening space battle sequence is the best in any of the six "Star Wars" movies. Grievous and Kenobi's lightsaber duel is bad-ass, with Grievous rocking four sabers. The Clone Wars end rather early in the flick (about the halfway point), leaving the rest of the film to concentrate on Anakin's turn to the Dark Side, and the resulting slaughter of the Jedi.

Perfect example of how dark shi t gets: remember the Younglings - the kid Jedis in training from "Clones"? As a result of Order 66, when Anakin invades the Jedi Temple with an army of Clone Troopers, he enters the Council room to find a gaggle of said younglings hiding behind the seats. They see Anakin and emerge, asking "What should we do, Master Anakin?" The query's met with a stone-cold Anakin firing up his lightsaber. The next time you see the kids, Yoda's sifting through their corpses on the floor.

Yes, it's just that dark - and rightfully so. This is the birth of Darth Vader we're talking about. The only comic moments in the flick are given to R2D2, and while good, they're all pretty few and far between; the order of the day is dark, dark, dark.

Ian McDiarmid and Ewan McGregor steal the show, but Hayden Christensen silences any naysayers who wrote him off as too whiney in "Clones". This is the flick that feels closest to Episodes 4, 5, and 6, because - for the first time since "Return of the Jedi" - there is a clear villain. And for all the shadow-play Palpatine has been upto in the last two flicks, his treachery is about as subtle as John Williams' score in "Sith." Whether he's slowly drawing Anakin toward the Dark Side during an opera/performance art piece with his promise of the Sith's power of life over death, or he's engaged in a balls-to-the-wall lightsaber duel in the Senate with Yoda, his "Little, green friend" (his words, not mine - which I kinda dug, because, interestingly, I think it's the first time anyone's acknowledged that Yoda is green in any of the "Star Wars" flicks), this is the Emperor's movie.

The last fifteen minutes dovetail nicely into Episode 4 (or just plain "Star Wars" for you non-geeks), and the movie is full of link-up moments as well.

- At flick's end, Threepio and Artoo are given to Captain Antilles (with the caveat that the Protocol's memory be wiped).

- The twins, natch, are split up. Leia heads to Alderann with Bail Organa, and Obi Wan hands Luke over to Uncle Owen and Aunt Beru (indeed, the closing shot is Owen holding Luke while looking out over the setting suns of Tatooine - mimicking the shot of the adult Luke doing the same in "Star Wars", complete with callback cue from Williams).

- After he succumbs to the Dark Side, Anakin tries to convine Padme that he can overthrow Palpatine, and together, he and Padme can rule the galaxy as husband and wife.

- Vader and the Emperor stand beside a younger Grand Moff Tarkin on the bridge of a Star Destroyer, overlooking the earliest construction stage of the Death Star.

- Yoda telling Obi Wan that, as he heads to Tatooine to hand over Luke and go into exile, that he should spend his time learning to commune with those who've crossed over to the next stage of life, as Yoda maintains he's been doing with Qui Gon (and Ben will later do with both Luke and Yoda, in "Empire" and "Jedi" ).

- And, hands-down, the best link-up to "Star Wars" moment that I enjoyed the most: Bail Organa and Yoda stepping into the hallway of the Rebel Blockade Runner that opened "Star Wars". Unlike all the high-tech CGI wizardry of the rest of the prequel Trilogy, this is a low-tech looking set, right out of circa '77, and for some reason, it really captured my imagination. I mean, this is the same exact hallway in which we got our first look at Vader, oh so many years ago, and I appreciated the hell out of Mr. Lucas including it - because it really felt like a nod to the hardcores.

Look, this is a movie I was genetically predisposed to love. I remember being eight years old, and reading in "Starlog" that Darth Vader became the half-man/half-machine he was following a duel with Ben Kenobi that climaxed with Vader falling into molten lava. Now, twenty six years later, I finally got to see that long-promised battled - and it lived up to any expectation I still held. I was sad to see the flick end, but happy to know it's not the end of the "Star Wars" universe entirely (I've read stuff about a TV show...).

"Sith" doesn't happen; "Sith" rules.

- Excerpt from Kevin Smith's "My Boring-Ass Life" online diary

Current Music: Star Wars

My Condolences...

...to our late former President, Mr Wee Kim Wee

In loving memories,

Dr Wee Kim Wee
Fourth President of the Republic of Singapore
1915 - 2005

*Salutes*

*1 min of silence*

Integrated Resorts

The Electic New Paper's Article titled "Please SIR, (Singapore Integrated Resorts) I want work"

OF course I've lost the bet.
Click to see larger image

It was only with myself - that I would not add another word to the ca.... subject, already over-debated in an incessant drone.

However, the promise of neon in one's twilight is too enticing to pass over.

(By the way, someone irate e-mailed two names over: Sodom and Gomorrah. Which someone else read as Slot'em and GoBorrow.)

In the year 2009 I would have attained official retirement age and the game plan is just that: to re-tire. There's life in the old bone-shaker yet, just give her a new set of tyres.

Like my country of choice, Singapore, I too am on the re-make.

The projected figure is 35,000 jobs. Take this as my queue number, please SIR (Singapore Integrated Resorts) I want work.

Will there be two lines though, one for foreign talent/immigrant workers, and the other for the rest of us?

And will the prospective employment be mostly for wait-and-serve crew and housekeeping? An honest way to make a living doubtless, but why not take the opportunity to create paradigm-shift out-of-the-box positions?

Having been to Las Vegas more than 20 times - and lost less then SM Goh in total - I am eminently qualified to work in a mega entertainment hub (can call IR MEH?).

Give the aunty a WonderBra and make her the Greeter.

Greeters are important as they are the first people you meet, flesh-and-blood welcome mat if you will.

Greeters are the ones who can sway you into their establishment, usually with lots of handouts.

And suppliers of these freebies will have their work cut out, manufacturing supersize dice, miniature chips, chequebook of redemption play money, collapsible croupier visors, rabbit's foot.

Uncle can be a bucket-stacker and scooper-upper. A casino never sleeps, someone has to go round and place plastic buckets for coins on every machine. Plus, stick his hand in the mouth of the jackpot bandits and clear whatever coin may have been left behind. Of course not while someone is still playing on it.

There are stories of 'coolers', people who unwittingly are Jonahs, bad luck charms. On the payroll of the house, they join the table where there's a player on a winning streak (so as to break the run).

Interviews for that one should be interesting. (If he's a Jonah, what are the odds of his getting that job eh?)

And if life is a crapshoot, then naturally I intend to be the cooler's opposite number - the hottie.

Please SIR,
(Singapore Integrated Resorts)
I want work

* ~ * ~ *

Damn interesting read haha...

Anyway, we all know the foregone conclusion of not 1, but 2 IRs (Integrated Resorts) in Singapore, one in downtown Marina Bay and the other in Sentosa, with the latter being targetted at the family.

Lotsa news and articles written at full length with so much interesting information, statistics that makes one wonder which article is speaking the truth. Or maybe, all are, since they quote different aspects of, say, a statistics report generated by the Department of Statistics.

* ~ * ~ *

Goodness gracious for the availability of another long holiday, this time, with Labour Day on a Sunday. Great day for being with the family also. But, wished that I had signed up for a dive trip instead, need to start learning....argh...Today, was the driver going to Mount Faber, HarbourFront, Toa Payoh...yeap. So, it was a great day, as the roads ain't congested and I was able to drive at a relatively okay speed :D

I wish for more such long holidays sia...haha! Long holidays = More time with car.

On another note, time to get a job...Job agency have yet to reply...

On a last note, saw a hilarious version of Jay's Qi Li Xiang MTV on the net...should I place the link here....? ^_^

Current Mood: Happy

Current Music: Jay Chou - Qi Li Xiang

Integra

Integra...damn...fast car. Behind the wheels of a 6-speed manual, sure feels different. Especially the heavier steering, difference in suspension, turning radius, blind spots etc. Also, I admit my changing of gear downwards is not that great, probably cos the gear shifts are small movements, while I'm already too used to big gear changes....Overall, nice car to drive ^_^

The difference between sitting in a car opening VTEC and that of driving it...sure feels...good ;) Sure would wanna try again :P

Current Mood:

Current Music: Little by Little - Kanashimi wo Yasashisa Ni

APD...Over!

Last minute insertion to do 'calefare' job of VIP ushering, under B2IC's command. Assisting B2, other than me, were CPT Eleana, CPT Katie, Allan, Tiam Huat and Pearly. Pretty small and 'elite' group to usher to VIPs, who are those big shots with at least 2 'crabs' on each side of their shoulders.

The count-down to the event got more and more pacy with less and less time remaining. From conceptualisation 3 months ago to the final product delivered today, it was great to see how an event became alive and real, from paper to reality. Although I was not involved in any of the work, planning or discussions, I somehow felt that this major project which my unit undertook had been well-done.

Throughout the entire process of planning and doing up the entire event, you also get to see the true side of others, how limited their views were, how much emphasis was placed, and how devoted people are to the entire event. Indeed, it would be an understatement to say that the Secretariat was not the one who pushed the entire event through, right until the event day. {Although by then, the damage, if any, was already done and cannot be rectified.)

So, here I was, doing a minor role in whatever I can do to help the unit out to make the event a success. Ushering the big shots is not easy, as we have to be courteous and let them know where the VIP lounge room is, even though they always like to be viewing the exhibition area. Well, we just did reaction-by-fire, and the plans changed when COA left his office late. More or less, our duties were done without much hiccups, and the minor problems we managed to sort out without much fuss ;)

And...it was only after the event that we managed to get a sip of water...I guess any water from anywhere would have been heaven to me...haha.

Learnt a new thing too today: Ladies need to wear heels often to get accustomed to the 'tip-toe' effect (which CPT Eleana told me). This was evident in the blisters which occurred for CPT Katie...heh.

Joke of the day: Where do you get plasters for blisters from? Answer - From CARMO =D

Current Mood: Sleepy

Current Music: Cyndi - Chi Pang

I Passed!

My feeling is now over the moon~! whEE~! lolx.

Just passed my driving test today. Yea....TODAY :P I just need more practice parking on real road conditions, I guess...hoping to take dad's car out for a spin ;)

And...hoping to get my contacts soon...*crosses fingers*

Current Mood: Happy

Current Music: F.I.R. - Love Of Thousand Years

Night Life in Spore...

Just returned from a session of 3hr badminton @ PA, then steamboat dinner @ Marina South, followed by KTV at PartyWorld near Clarke Quay area at midnight till 3am.

Was going out for food with my pals after that, cos stomach started to feel...a lil' hungry :P Went to a nearby kopitian near the KTV with the intention to munch on some stuff, but got turned off by the pricing, and had a drink instead. And it turned out to be a blessing in disguise.

Had a rare 'chance' of viewing a public brawl between 2 men happening less than 3m from us. What happened was that the girl was slapping a guy (most likely her bf) and making a big ruckus, which resulted in many ppl turning in their direction to find out more. Curiousity killed the cat, as the saying goes. I turned away, cos I din wanna get involved in any bgr-public-dispute, esp. past midnight at Clarke Quay...Turned out that a senior patron somehow got involved, things started hurling here and there, and the girl got hit in her face. By what, I dunno, but hell, all ppl started to evacuate as the bf strode menancingly over to the senior patron and a scuffle broke out. Some vulgarities spewed, and the bf actually managed to get hold of a glass bottle lying on a nearby table and attempted to swing at the senior patron. It missed, but still delivered a cut.

Luckily, some patrons broke up the scuffle and the police arrived almost immediately to prevent the 2 from clashing again. A lot of other patrons ran off in fear, cos the 'damage zone' was where most of the bf/gf friends were o.O"

In just under a minute, all hell which had broken loose became peaceful again. 3 more patrol cars arrived on the scene and policemen started questioning the eyewitnesses and the people involved in the incident. The senior patron had a cut to his shoulder/neck area, whilst the girl had fainted. And her bf was still thinking he was right in punching the guy... As overheard, that is.

I was wondering how come their good friends did not break up the petty quarrel they had. Furthermore, the lady was ALREADY slapping the guy, and she spewed vulgarities in the direction of the other patrons for looking at them. I immediately sensed that something was about to happen, and we were lucky to be away from the 'battle-zone'. Nonetheless, it was definitely an eye-opener.

So, I left hurriedly, since it was late and I wanted to sleep on my bed. All things sorta returned to normal there, and it seemed just like a passing typhoon. Still, the nightlife of Singapore, with its pubs, clubs and all (plus upcoming casino?) makes one wonder whether is it still safe to go out at night w/o being hooded by some unknown dude.

Current Mood: Exhausted

Current Music: Zhou Jie Lun - Wa Jie

I just wanna have fun...

*sigh*

I just wanted to have fun, yet, you ppl are not giving me a chance. To play with the "pros" or better players, I mean.

I always thought that joining this group of kakis allowed me to both interact, play with the newer players, and also those more advanced. The better guys give the advice and allow me to upgrade myself, something which I've always wanted to do.

Yet, I find it lacking, or maybe it was just today. So much so that I was wondering whether should I continue joining them in the games. I mean, I wanted to play, yet not given a chance. :(

- || - || -

Just to deviate, today was an otherwise good outing for badminton, movie outing for Miss Congeniality 2 and Muddy Murphy cum soccer watching. ^_^

Current Mood: Confused

Current Music: Guang Liang - Tong Hua