CHANGI,
SG 02/29/2008 6:19 A.M. IMPORT SCAN
Friday, February 29, 2008
Thursday, February 28, 2008
Wednesday, February 27, 2008
hehe: one great thing about the falling USD....my purchases are coming. Bought a whole new camera set (actually, 2 cameras, since I sold one off at bargain basement prices and gave the other one away as it was a little spoilt). I hope the equipment is fine -- I can't wait for my 18-200mm VR lens. I am such a geek.
Status:
Packed: Total: $1,471.70
February 26, 2008
Tuesday, February 26, 2008
Be still my heart. Apple today launched updated Macbooks and Macbook Pros. Each time they do this I have a compulsive urge to go buy one. Of course I stop myself each time, because what would I do with one? After I bought my Mac Mini I realise I do absolutely nothing on the computer except surf the net and occasionally watch movies. All my plans of editing my pics and stuff haven't really come to fruition -- I have no idea how to use Adobe Lightroom. So it makes no difference to me frankly whether I use a Mac or a PC, except for work. I HAVE to use a PC for work purposes, because all the commands on Microsoft Word are hidden somewhere in the Mac version, and I have no idea how to access them.
A sign that I am turning Ah Pek - I caught myself surfing for second hand Mercedes C class cars on sgcarmart.com. It's actually pretty good value - about $80k for a 4 year old model. But then I think about the depreciation on the car and how little I drive it -- it makes so little sense to be paying $1,000 a month just for depreciation, when you spend all of about 1 hour a week in it. And so I guess I'll be stuck with my Getz for a while. At $20,000, one could hardly ask for a cheaper car (minus those PRC makes). It's a great little car, and carries 5 people fairly comfortably when needed.
Last Friday I invited some of my colleagues over where er I sort of cooked dinner. None of them died of food poisoning so I guess it must have been ok. We polished off 3 bottles of wine (woke up next day with a semi hangover). In the state of "heightened senses" I pledged myself to a temporary phase of a lifestyle in pursuit of hedonistic pleasures to make up for my geeky and very unadventurous past. Yes, that was me in the VJ library back in 1998 when I skipped chemistry lectures to read the Economist in the library. Pfft. Geek. It starts this Friday where I'm supposed to go to Wine Bar and make eyes and wink at hot sexy women. Maybe I'll wake up in an unfamiliar bed harhar.
A sign that I am turning Ah Pek - I caught myself surfing for second hand Mercedes C class cars on sgcarmart.com. It's actually pretty good value - about $80k for a 4 year old model. But then I think about the depreciation on the car and how little I drive it -- it makes so little sense to be paying $1,000 a month just for depreciation, when you spend all of about 1 hour a week in it. And so I guess I'll be stuck with my Getz for a while. At $20,000, one could hardly ask for a cheaper car (minus those PRC makes). It's a great little car, and carries 5 people fairly comfortably when needed.
Last Friday I invited some of my colleagues over where er I sort of cooked dinner. None of them died of food poisoning so I guess it must have been ok. We polished off 3 bottles of wine (woke up next day with a semi hangover). In the state of "heightened senses" I pledged myself to a temporary phase of a lifestyle in pursuit of hedonistic pleasures to make up for my geeky and very unadventurous past. Yes, that was me in the VJ library back in 1998 when I skipped chemistry lectures to read the Economist in the library. Pfft. Geek. It starts this Friday where I'm supposed to go to Wine Bar and make eyes and wink at hot sexy women. Maybe I'll wake up in an unfamiliar bed harhar.
Tuesday, February 19, 2008
I think I might be turning alcoholic. Last night, I finished 3/4 of a bottle of wine all by myself. At first I poured a glass to accompany my home made pasta sauce (nobody seems to make it the way I like it) for dinner. Then I thought I needed another glass to finish the dinner. Then as I watched House, I decided I needed another glass. As the show progressed, I poured myself another glass. At 2 am in the morning I decided to stop watching House, and decided that I needed another glass to finish the night before going to bed.
It's amazing I didn't wake up with a hangover.
And tonight, I'm finishing the remainder of that bottle. I don't even know where I bought the bottle from. I think I'm running out of supplies.
It's amazing I didn't wake up with a hangover.
And tonight, I'm finishing the remainder of that bottle. I don't even know where I bought the bottle from. I think I'm running out of supplies.
Among the various "intelligent" debates we have at work:
If you had to choose, would you rather be good looking but stupid, or ugly but smart? It seems the conclusion is that it's better for women to be good looking but stupid, and for men to be ugly but smart. This is derived from the fact that one sees fat ugly men with trophy wives driving around in porches, but rarely the other way round.
I was watching House last night (I really love the show), and there was this scene that particularly struck me. The dying patient refused pain medication, and wanted to die in pain, so that the doctor would remember him. He has no family, friends, and never held a proper job and was afraid of disappearing into nothingness. I think again about how lucky I am to be blessed with half a brain (seems to be my greatest attribute), a half decent job, an unbroken family in the pink of health (relatively), and friends whom I can relate to.
If you had to choose, would you rather be good looking but stupid, or ugly but smart? It seems the conclusion is that it's better for women to be good looking but stupid, and for men to be ugly but smart. This is derived from the fact that one sees fat ugly men with trophy wives driving around in porches, but rarely the other way round.
I was watching House last night (I really love the show), and there was this scene that particularly struck me. The dying patient refused pain medication, and wanted to die in pain, so that the doctor would remember him. He has no family, friends, and never held a proper job and was afraid of disappearing into nothingness. I think again about how lucky I am to be blessed with half a brain (seems to be my greatest attribute), a half decent job, an unbroken family in the pink of health (relatively), and friends whom I can relate to.
Sunday, February 17, 2008
NU$ Ch0ir revisited
The sound
It's been 5 years since I left this choir and boy has it changed. It's quite obvious that the quality of the singers has improved by leaps and bounds. Whereas just 5 years ago we struggled to have each section sing with a well blended tone, and struggled still more with getting chords right, today's choir had very few such problems. That's not to say there isn't room for improvement, but it's a very good start. The quality of individual singers has also improved tremendously -- they have some very good soloists.
The soprano section is easily the strongest -- I think they are held up by the 2 soloists. However, they have a tendancy to go flat (it could be the placement of the sound), and if the 2 soloists did not cover the section, many more split notes may have been more apparent. The fact that they had very good covering voices means that unlike before, the notes above a high F did not sound screechy -- they do a better job than VJ or VC with those Gs, As and above, and I think there was a high C somewhere in Verano Porteno. Well done.
This is followed by the altos, whose section's sound is led by the male alto. I've always been fascinated by the countertenor voice -- there's something ethereal about the sound. It's androgynous -- neither male nor female. It has this wonderful richness and results in a rich alto sound which is lacking in most of the choirs in Singapore. However, he needs to learn a little control and improve his technique on the notes above C -- I am not sure whether he was forcing himself too hard, but I found some of those higher notes somewhat harsh and a little offensive. They pierce right through the section because of its unique quality. His soft passages were very good though, and this was very apparent in some of the softer songs involving a lot of chord holding -- the wonderful rich alto sound just filled up the chords marvellously.
The guys were unremarkable -- with the basses being slightly stronger than the tenors who sounded weak most of the time. The tenors have a nice controlled tone, I think this started with this guy called Wei wei or something like that who sang in that manner, and, being section leader and student conductor, the rest just followed. It was either this control or the lack of numbers, but I found that for much of the concert, they were too soft to be audible.
No comments on the basses.
Overall, they had a very refreshing mature (yet not old) sound -- much more so than VJ or VC who sound very young. That suggests that their forte (sound wise) would be the more serious western pieces.
The program
The fact that they had suitable voices to sing Western classical pieces didn't mean that they did it well. The first half was Haydn's Nelson's Imperial Mass or something to that effect. I'm not familiar with the piece, but I'm sure it doesn't sound anything like that. It seemed to me to just sound like an hour's worth of warming up the singers' voices. Entries in the faster movements were consistently late. The pianist's timing and the choir's / soloists were out of sync at various points in time. It suggests that they did not have enough time practicing together with the conductor and the pianist, because these are things which could easily be fixed. A lot of choirs (and their conductors) seem to think these combined pieces can just come together without much work -- well it can't. There's no substitute or shortcut for practice time so far as this goes.
The second soprano seemed to struggle initially with her placement and often started flat and dull, creeping into the correct pitch. It may be the hall's poor acoustics -- she might not have been able to hear herself. I remember when we sang in that hall the sound would just disappear right after leaving your mouth, leaving you no feedback to adjust your sound.
The singers could not appreciate the layering of the parts. The loud and soft passages seemed contrived and forced, as did the ritards. So the whole of the first half was just basically one big shouting match and lacked any form of musicality. A wall of technically correct sound (though questionable at various points), devoid of any musical value. A practice session leading up to the second half perhaps. Ghastly. I was quite tempted to leave after the first half but did not.
The second half began with some forgettable Hungarian songs. The second song sounded distinctly out of tune.
The Japanese songs were probably the best of the second half. I really liked To The Island which was done beautifully. Nice chording, musical passages. My only regret was that they cut out the second repeat. Oh, and the tenor solo line -- what notes or key was that?
The South American pieces were ok. Verano Porteno was done at a very controlled pace, and lost a bit of the verve and energy. Personally, having sung this song for some 3 - 4 concerts in NUS and having heard it countless times elsewhere (it seems to be a popular recycled song) I'm a bit weary of the song, but the rendition was commendable.
Technically, the Filipino pieces are the most demanding in the concert-- more so than the Japanese pieces. The first piece was interesting -- the 2 soloists singing to each other. Again, the alto tried too hard, and the notes above C sounded forced. I felt perhaps that the nasal effect for the choir could have been emphasised more. The second piece involved a single solo -- I think either he must have been off form today, or the part is just too high -- I could see every vein on his neck pop, and he just could not reach those higher notes. He should probably have sung it a key lower on the spot and it wouldn't have been noticeable, because after half of the song, the choir sank into some hitherto unknown key combination with many decidedly strange and very out of tune chords.
Indonesian song was typically gimmicky with funny actions, but the song itself was weak.
They ended the night with Linden Lea. To set the record straight, it's only recently been a tradition to sing this at the end of every concert. Certainly, we never sang it between 1999 - 2003. I think we sang The Music's Always There. The melody for Linden Lea is beautiful and simple. The choir did it a bit too fast which took away some of the beauty of the song. Tuning was also a bit flat. The sops kept going flat on the F, and the tenors couldn't seem to sit on an E flat in pitch, resulting in many of the beautiful chords going slightly under. It's probably something in the placement of the sound.
Overall, I am ambivalent about my experience at the concert. I didn't particularly enjoy the song selection, and the singing didn't particularly wow me. I didn't really have a touching moment either to bring home with me. Having said that, I think the choir has a lot of potential, and I look forward to their concert next year.
It's been 5 years since I left this choir and boy has it changed. It's quite obvious that the quality of the singers has improved by leaps and bounds. Whereas just 5 years ago we struggled to have each section sing with a well blended tone, and struggled still more with getting chords right, today's choir had very few such problems. That's not to say there isn't room for improvement, but it's a very good start. The quality of individual singers has also improved tremendously -- they have some very good soloists.
The soprano section is easily the strongest -- I think they are held up by the 2 soloists. However, they have a tendancy to go flat (it could be the placement of the sound), and if the 2 soloists did not cover the section, many more split notes may have been more apparent. The fact that they had very good covering voices means that unlike before, the notes above a high F did not sound screechy -- they do a better job than VJ or VC with those Gs, As and above, and I think there was a high C somewhere in Verano Porteno. Well done.
This is followed by the altos, whose section's sound is led by the male alto. I've always been fascinated by the countertenor voice -- there's something ethereal about the sound. It's androgynous -- neither male nor female. It has this wonderful richness and results in a rich alto sound which is lacking in most of the choirs in Singapore. However, he needs to learn a little control and improve his technique on the notes above C -- I am not sure whether he was forcing himself too hard, but I found some of those higher notes somewhat harsh and a little offensive. They pierce right through the section because of its unique quality. His soft passages were very good though, and this was very apparent in some of the softer songs involving a lot of chord holding -- the wonderful rich alto sound just filled up the chords marvellously.
The guys were unremarkable -- with the basses being slightly stronger than the tenors who sounded weak most of the time. The tenors have a nice controlled tone, I think this started with this guy called Wei wei or something like that who sang in that manner, and, being section leader and student conductor, the rest just followed. It was either this control or the lack of numbers, but I found that for much of the concert, they were too soft to be audible.
No comments on the basses.
Overall, they had a very refreshing mature (yet not old) sound -- much more so than VJ or VC who sound very young. That suggests that their forte (sound wise) would be the more serious western pieces.
The program
The fact that they had suitable voices to sing Western classical pieces didn't mean that they did it well. The first half was Haydn's Nelson's Imperial Mass or something to that effect. I'm not familiar with the piece, but I'm sure it doesn't sound anything like that. It seemed to me to just sound like an hour's worth of warming up the singers' voices. Entries in the faster movements were consistently late. The pianist's timing and the choir's / soloists were out of sync at various points in time. It suggests that they did not have enough time practicing together with the conductor and the pianist, because these are things which could easily be fixed. A lot of choirs (and their conductors) seem to think these combined pieces can just come together without much work -- well it can't. There's no substitute or shortcut for practice time so far as this goes.
The second soprano seemed to struggle initially with her placement and often started flat and dull, creeping into the correct pitch. It may be the hall's poor acoustics -- she might not have been able to hear herself. I remember when we sang in that hall the sound would just disappear right after leaving your mouth, leaving you no feedback to adjust your sound.
The singers could not appreciate the layering of the parts. The loud and soft passages seemed contrived and forced, as did the ritards. So the whole of the first half was just basically one big shouting match and lacked any form of musicality. A wall of technically correct sound (though questionable at various points), devoid of any musical value. A practice session leading up to the second half perhaps. Ghastly. I was quite tempted to leave after the first half but did not.
The second half began with some forgettable Hungarian songs. The second song sounded distinctly out of tune.
The Japanese songs were probably the best of the second half. I really liked To The Island which was done beautifully. Nice chording, musical passages. My only regret was that they cut out the second repeat. Oh, and the tenor solo line -- what notes or key was that?
The South American pieces were ok. Verano Porteno was done at a very controlled pace, and lost a bit of the verve and energy. Personally, having sung this song for some 3 - 4 concerts in NUS and having heard it countless times elsewhere (it seems to be a popular recycled song) I'm a bit weary of the song, but the rendition was commendable.
Technically, the Filipino pieces are the most demanding in the concert-- more so than the Japanese pieces. The first piece was interesting -- the 2 soloists singing to each other. Again, the alto tried too hard, and the notes above C sounded forced. I felt perhaps that the nasal effect for the choir could have been emphasised more. The second piece involved a single solo -- I think either he must have been off form today, or the part is just too high -- I could see every vein on his neck pop, and he just could not reach those higher notes. He should probably have sung it a key lower on the spot and it wouldn't have been noticeable, because after half of the song, the choir sank into some hitherto unknown key combination with many decidedly strange and very out of tune chords.
Indonesian song was typically gimmicky with funny actions, but the song itself was weak.
They ended the night with Linden Lea. To set the record straight, it's only recently been a tradition to sing this at the end of every concert. Certainly, we never sang it between 1999 - 2003. I think we sang The Music's Always There. The melody for Linden Lea is beautiful and simple. The choir did it a bit too fast which took away some of the beauty of the song. Tuning was also a bit flat. The sops kept going flat on the F, and the tenors couldn't seem to sit on an E flat in pitch, resulting in many of the beautiful chords going slightly under. It's probably something in the placement of the sound.
Overall, I am ambivalent about my experience at the concert. I didn't particularly enjoy the song selection, and the singing didn't particularly wow me. I didn't really have a touching moment either to bring home with me. Having said that, I think the choir has a lot of potential, and I look forward to their concert next year.
Thursday, February 14, 2008
Barely into the CNY, it's Valentine's day. I must say I have such sensible teammates. One girl hates flowers so the husband doesn't have to buy anything for Valentine's day or she'll get angry. Another guy says he and his girlfriend don't celebrate Valentine's day. Oh and we were all in the office until 10.
I maintain that Valentine's day is a purely commercial creation for no purpose other than to milk every last dollar out of the consumer. Rumour has it that one of the colleagues' boyfriend forgot to order flowers until last night. Cost of his forgetfulness? $400. For 10 measly stalks of roses. Apparently had to pay a premium of 400%. That is just stupid in my view.
No future woman of mine will ever get flowers on Valentine's day.
I maintain that Valentine's day is a purely commercial creation for no purpose other than to milk every last dollar out of the consumer. Rumour has it that one of the colleagues' boyfriend forgot to order flowers until last night. Cost of his forgetfulness? $400. For 10 measly stalks of roses. Apparently had to pay a premium of 400%. That is just stupid in my view.
No future woman of mine will ever get flowers on Valentine's day.
Tuesday, February 12, 2008
Wanderlust
I've often wondered what it would be like visiting all these exotic destinations I often read about in the papers. Straits Times' Tuesday travel supplement is one of my favourites.
With Chorale now out of the picture, perhaps its time to start planning all those exotic trips I've always wanted to go.
Russia. Egypt. Turkey. Peru. Tibet. Nepal. The Trans-Siberian railway.
Oh man.
With Chorale now out of the picture, perhaps its time to start planning all those exotic trips I've always wanted to go.
Russia. Egypt. Turkey. Peru. Tibet. Nepal. The Trans-Siberian railway.
Oh man.
Sunday, February 10, 2008
CNY2 etc
As predicted, the usual CNY questions on dating status, and no. of months' bonus came flying from left right centre. I don't really see how these are anyone else's business, so usually I get a bit irritated when I get asked, and I guess my face colour must somehow change to a blacker shade. One of the cousins (or is it uncles) must have noticed it and remarked to his inquisitive mother that I don't like to be asked these questions, to which I kept quiet, and the questions promptly stopped with a little awkward silence.
I really quite dislike these CNY visits to the relatives. I have nothing in common to talk to them about. I can't even converse in the same language.
Consequently, I spent most of the time in Malacca watching my movies on my laptop. Talk about antisocial. Frasier is great! I've finished season 9.
It seems I have new readers on the blog (hello Siying!) to which I totally blame Gabriel Cheow Chee ...(fill in the blanks).... for linking me on his blog. I told him to at least remove my name so that I can't get googled, but he has been rather delinquent on this front. I hope none of my colleagues are reading this. It'd be awkward.
My new year resolutions involve searching for new Plebian adventures. No more high brow choral and opera shit. It's time to dumb down to popular music.
On that note, my brother and I are two completely different personalities. If I'm the North Pole, he must be the South pole. He's tall and skinny. I'm the opposite. He likes licquer, things like whisky. Beer makes him bloated since he can't burp, and he hates the taste of wine. I love beer and wine. He likes cantopop (or so I suspect), I like acapella and choral shit. He gets along with all my relatives. I don't. I'm academic, he's not. I'm somewhat ambitious and impatient. He's less so. THE STRANGEST THING IS THAT HE CAN CURL HIS TONGUE BUT THE REST OF MY FAMILY CAN'T. I'm wondering how this came about. Maybe he's adopted, or the baby cots at the hospital where he was born got swapped by accident.
I really quite dislike these CNY visits to the relatives. I have nothing in common to talk to them about. I can't even converse in the same language.
Consequently, I spent most of the time in Malacca watching my movies on my laptop. Talk about antisocial. Frasier is great! I've finished season 9.
It seems I have new readers on the blog (hello Siying!) to which I totally blame Gabriel Cheow Chee ...(fill in the blanks).... for linking me on his blog. I told him to at least remove my name so that I can't get googled, but he has been rather delinquent on this front. I hope none of my colleagues are reading this. It'd be awkward.
My new year resolutions involve searching for new Plebian adventures. No more high brow choral and opera shit. It's time to dumb down to popular music.
On that note, my brother and I are two completely different personalities. If I'm the North Pole, he must be the South pole. He's tall and skinny. I'm the opposite. He likes licquer, things like whisky. Beer makes him bloated since he can't burp, and he hates the taste of wine. I love beer and wine. He likes cantopop (or so I suspect), I like acapella and choral shit. He gets along with all my relatives. I don't. I'm academic, he's not. I'm somewhat ambitious and impatient. He's less so. THE STRANGEST THING IS THAT HE CAN CURL HIS TONGUE BUT THE REST OF MY FAMILY CAN'T. I'm wondering how this came about. Maybe he's adopted, or the baby cots at the hospital where he was born got swapped by accident.
The House
I am back from the jungle that is Malacca, into the civilisation that is Petaling Jaya. Hang on a minute, I need to go to the toilet to take a dump which I've been holding since Malacca to avoid having to use a squat toilet in the grandparents' house.
Ah I'm back. Relief. Where was I? Ah yes. Every year we make a trip back to my mum's side and stay in this pre-WW1 shophouse where my grandpa and aunt lives. My mum stayed there when she was young (or was she born there?), so the stuff in the house is like 50+ years old. The fridge, in a feat of Japanese engineering marvel (National rocks), has been sitting in the same spot since before I was born. The house is so old that it's subject to rent controls.
Naturally, the house is devoid of all the usual modern appliances. The only mechanical things are (and I think I've listed this before somewhere): 1 fridge, lights, 3 electric fans, tv. A phone was added about 15 years back. Washing machine and gas stove (cooking was done by charcoal before that) only added about 3 years back.
It's been somewhat of a challenge to get used to it for 3 days 2 nights. Bathing is done by scooping cold water out of a cement tank made by sealing up a portion of the bathroom with a cement wall. Nights are mosquito infested -- I keep an electric fan blowing on me the whole night so that mosquitos don't feed on me, and we surround ourselves with electric mosquito mats (the modern equivalent of mosquito coils which we used to use up till about 5 years ago). Still, there'll be one mosquito buzzing around regardless.
The house sits on a main street with 3 places of religious worship -- a mosque, an indian temple, and a 2 taoist / buddhist temples. There is an altar in the house downstairs, and an electronic device reciting the same Buddhist chant 24/7. This seductive chinese woman sings some unintelligible chinese words, and the melody goes g, abDbag, abag, e, gedbed (some bells chime in the background) repeat ad infinitum. I get used to it after the first hour or so.
At 12 am, a rowdy group of drunk tourists walk past, followed by the blaring of those 2 stroke engines favoured by the mat rempits. At 5.30 am, the grandpa and the aunt gets up to do their daily routine. At 5.45 am, my brother accidentally kicks the fan off the low table, startling me awake. At 6 am or so, the loudspeaker from the nearby mosque starts blaring Allah hu-akbar, signalling the Muslim morning call to prayer. I curse at it. The blaring goes on for the next 3 minutes or so. I can't help but notice that the guy's voice is rather low. Must be a bass. Oops, that D is rather out of tune and strained. The note is offensive. Put in some diaphragm action there you lazy sod!
(Interestingly enough, the day after, the blaring was by someone else, obviously a tenor. Slightly more in tune. Somewhere in the far background, there is another mosque blaring the same thing in a lower key. The notes form perfect fifths, which isn't really a chord typically found in muslim music. I curse anyhow. I am going to hell I'm sure for religious intolerance.)
At 7.20 fucking am in the morning, a LION DANCE TROUPE starts playing down the street. It's loud enough to wake up the dead. At this point I've had enough and finally wake up and go downstairs to stuff my face with breakfast. Miraculously I haven't been eaten alive by the mosquitos overnight.
I'm back home. I'm exhausted.
Ah I'm back. Relief. Where was I? Ah yes. Every year we make a trip back to my mum's side and stay in this pre-WW1 shophouse where my grandpa and aunt lives. My mum stayed there when she was young (or was she born there?), so the stuff in the house is like 50+ years old. The fridge, in a feat of Japanese engineering marvel (National rocks), has been sitting in the same spot since before I was born. The house is so old that it's subject to rent controls.
Naturally, the house is devoid of all the usual modern appliances. The only mechanical things are (and I think I've listed this before somewhere): 1 fridge, lights, 3 electric fans, tv. A phone was added about 15 years back. Washing machine and gas stove (cooking was done by charcoal before that) only added about 3 years back.
It's been somewhat of a challenge to get used to it for 3 days 2 nights. Bathing is done by scooping cold water out of a cement tank made by sealing up a portion of the bathroom with a cement wall. Nights are mosquito infested -- I keep an electric fan blowing on me the whole night so that mosquitos don't feed on me, and we surround ourselves with electric mosquito mats (the modern equivalent of mosquito coils which we used to use up till about 5 years ago). Still, there'll be one mosquito buzzing around regardless.
The house sits on a main street with 3 places of religious worship -- a mosque, an indian temple, and a 2 taoist / buddhist temples. There is an altar in the house downstairs, and an electronic device reciting the same Buddhist chant 24/7. This seductive chinese woman sings some unintelligible chinese words, and the melody goes g, abDbag, abag, e, gedbed (some bells chime in the background) repeat ad infinitum. I get used to it after the first hour or so.
At 12 am, a rowdy group of drunk tourists walk past, followed by the blaring of those 2 stroke engines favoured by the mat rempits. At 5.30 am, the grandpa and the aunt gets up to do their daily routine. At 5.45 am, my brother accidentally kicks the fan off the low table, startling me awake. At 6 am or so, the loudspeaker from the nearby mosque starts blaring Allah hu-akbar, signalling the Muslim morning call to prayer. I curse at it. The blaring goes on for the next 3 minutes or so. I can't help but notice that the guy's voice is rather low. Must be a bass. Oops, that D is rather out of tune and strained. The note is offensive. Put in some diaphragm action there you lazy sod!
(Interestingly enough, the day after, the blaring was by someone else, obviously a tenor. Slightly more in tune. Somewhere in the far background, there is another mosque blaring the same thing in a lower key. The notes form perfect fifths, which isn't really a chord typically found in muslim music. I curse anyhow. I am going to hell I'm sure for religious intolerance.)
At 7.20 fucking am in the morning, a LION DANCE TROUPE starts playing down the street. It's loud enough to wake up the dead. At this point I've had enough and finally wake up and go downstairs to stuff my face with breakfast. Miraculously I haven't been eaten alive by the mosquitos overnight.
I'm back home. I'm exhausted.
Thursday, February 07, 2008
Day 1 of CNY
ok CJ7 sucked. What happened to the glory days of Hong Kong movies?
I have a headache.
In the tradition of CNY in Malaysia, we had a water supply cut in my area for half a day. No pre-warnings, or any sign of when it may come back. Just no water. Surprisingly noone complains. We're used to it. What do we do when there is a water cut? We go out to the shopping malls and enjoy air conditioned comfort. 3/4 of the shops are shut. Presumably nobody can get workers for CNY. When we come back, the water's back on. All we need now to complete the experience is for a power cut to happen, following which we sleep on the marble floor to keep cool and become targets for blood sucking mosquitos.
I'm starting to really like my office IBM X60 laptop. It's very well built, not too heavy, and sits on my lap without broiling the nether regions. The keyboard's great -- I like to bash on the keys (since it's not mine) -- it gives great tactile keyboard. I know that if I ever dropped it, the harddisk would survive. What a great laptop. I doubt Macbook Air is as hardy.
I'm going to my cousin's house tonight to play mahjong. In my cousin's words (in Cantonese): "Another waterfish to chop" (suay yu bei yan duk).
Two days ago I went to the driving range with two of my sec school friends to whack some golf balls. Oh boy my shoulders hurt after that. I am incredibly out of shape. Actually, come to think of it, I'm perfectly in shape. Round is a shape. The experience made me wonder what life would've been like if I had been working in KL. I'd be working much less hours I'm sure, but I'm not sure I can get used to staying at home again, having lived by myself for the last 10 years. And I'd be poor. That is the biggest tragedy of it all. Maybe this is why Malaysians are anxious to get married -- to get out of the parents' home.
I have a headache.
In the tradition of CNY in Malaysia, we had a water supply cut in my area for half a day. No pre-warnings, or any sign of when it may come back. Just no water. Surprisingly noone complains. We're used to it. What do we do when there is a water cut? We go out to the shopping malls and enjoy air conditioned comfort. 3/4 of the shops are shut. Presumably nobody can get workers for CNY. When we come back, the water's back on. All we need now to complete the experience is for a power cut to happen, following which we sleep on the marble floor to keep cool and become targets for blood sucking mosquitos.
I'm starting to really like my office IBM X60 laptop. It's very well built, not too heavy, and sits on my lap without broiling the nether regions. The keyboard's great -- I like to bash on the keys (since it's not mine) -- it gives great tactile keyboard. I know that if I ever dropped it, the harddisk would survive. What a great laptop. I doubt Macbook Air is as hardy.
I'm going to my cousin's house tonight to play mahjong. In my cousin's words (in Cantonese): "Another waterfish to chop" (suay yu bei yan duk).
Two days ago I went to the driving range with two of my sec school friends to whack some golf balls. Oh boy my shoulders hurt after that. I am incredibly out of shape. Actually, come to think of it, I'm perfectly in shape. Round is a shape. The experience made me wonder what life would've been like if I had been working in KL. I'd be working much less hours I'm sure, but I'm not sure I can get used to staying at home again, having lived by myself for the last 10 years. And I'd be poor. That is the biggest tragedy of it all. Maybe this is why Malaysians are anxious to get married -- to get out of the parents' home.
Wednesday, February 06, 2008
Kung Fu Dunk
Chinese new year always brings with it a string of new Chinese movie releases. In KL they are showing 2 versions, one in Mandarin and the other in Cantonese. I'm usually quite a stickler for the original language, and this being a Taiwanese production, I opted to go for the Mandarin version. Except for some reason I ended up in the Cantonese theatre. No matter -- half the actors were speaking Cantonese and the other half Mandarin, so there isn't really an "original language" so to speak.
The movie has quite a lousy and weak plot, but oh boy is it cool. I couldn't help but feel a tinge of envy in that why couldn't I have been the cool basketballer kid who can slam dunk instead of that fat pasty kid who spent his time playing computer games and reading in the library. I am so not cool.
Jay Chou is really cool -- I don't know what music he sings, but it doesn't matter, I want to be just as cool. My next aim when I get back to Singapore is to go get myself some Jay Chou CDs. I hope it's less of that Taiwanese rap stuff they showed in the movie. Oh, and he's my age. Goddammit why am I not cool.
Tomorrow I'm watching CJ7. No idea what it's about, but it stars Stephen Chow so hopefully it'll be funny.
The movie has quite a lousy and weak plot, but oh boy is it cool. I couldn't help but feel a tinge of envy in that why couldn't I have been the cool basketballer kid who can slam dunk instead of that fat pasty kid who spent his time playing computer games and reading in the library. I am so not cool.
Jay Chou is really cool -- I don't know what music he sings, but it doesn't matter, I want to be just as cool. My next aim when I get back to Singapore is to go get myself some Jay Chou CDs. I hope it's less of that Taiwanese rap stuff they showed in the movie. Oh, and he's my age. Goddammit why am I not cool.
Tomorrow I'm watching CJ7. No idea what it's about, but it stars Stephen Chow so hopefully it'll be funny.
Monday, February 04, 2008
Singaporean-ness
It's funny how those awful Singaporean expressions have inadvertently creeped into my vocabulary. Just talking to my friends, I remarked: "Guiness is such a lao ah pek drink", and they stared at me blank eyed, not understand what I said. Passing a car, I remarked: "wah, the guy there is such a cao ah beng". Again, silence.
Jialat.
Wahlan.
HELP ME!!!!!
Jialat.
Wahlan.
HELP ME!!!!!