a la piscine

what good my spanish classes have done me! i could only think of the word for swimming pool in French. but since these two languages are somewhat similar i guess i'm on the right track....

anyway it was a nice hot day, as i was hoping it would be! and so i mosied on down to the buona vista pool (after first getting stuck in traffice at farrer road) and had a nice bit of a swim.

until that is, this whole group of guys came along.

and when i saw a group i meant like a troop. a horde. of ... i dunno ... ns guys?

and they just took up one whole section at the end. meaning that i couldn't swim a proper lap. so i decided to heck with it and swam the breadth instead.

but swimming the breadth really doesn't feel like exercising really....

christmas time is here again

amazing really. christmas came without warning. the end of 2003 is nigh.

but really, merry christmas to one and all.

the storm clouds are a-brewing at the mo tho

and yep i got some more loot (buying christmas pressies for meself this year)
here's what i bought:
School Of Rock OST
Singles OST (to replace my lousy ole tape)
Beth Gibbons and Rustin Man - Out Of Season
Stereophonics - Performances and Cocktails

yeh i think i went a little overboard on tuesday.

loot

ooh got some good stuff today!
Damien Rice's O
Aqualung's Aqualung
The Beautiful Girls' Learn Yourself
Dido's Life For Rent
Longview's Mercury
The Strokes' Room On Fire
~
*happy*

estoy enferma

hmmm i had hoped this sore-throat-that-looked-like-it-was-turning-into-a-cough-and-then-not thing had gone away.

and then while watching Infernal Affairs 3 just now, i started sneezing and when i got home, i began sneezing non-stop for a while! the weather is not helping. it's a little cold-ish for singapore, having rained all of yesterday and a little of today.

honestly the sneezing didn't do much to my viewing of the movie. i was flat out BORED.

and confused initially cos Infernal Affairs was shown last year (i think) and i didn't remember much about it except that it was like watching an MTV cos it was damn slick.

so they jump u right into the movie but cut to ____ days before Yan's death. ___ days after his death. and stuff like that. there was way too much flashbacks and flashforwards that i got seriously lost.

and it was terribly boring and it had Kelly Chen in it for the longest time.

i mean that girl seriously cannot act and she also needs an image consultant. (look at those eyebrows man!)

good buys

forgot to mention that i headed to work real early on monday just to visit the Life! annual sale! The money goes in aid of the School Pocket Money Fund so my $34 was wisely spent. hahaha....

here's what i got: Counting Crows' Hard Candy, Nelly Furtado's Whoa Nelly, Corinne May's Fly Away and Foo Fighters' One By One.

Also Ethan Canin's Carry Me Across The Water, Paul Auster's The Book Of Illusions and some kinda weird book that i can't remember the name of, let alone why i bought it.

and all for 34 bucks! no too shabby there.

i'm listening to Whoa Nelly and i must say that's a great buy. She surprises me, although i've heard some of her radio hits like I'm Like A Bird and On The Radio.

She's not your average pop princess and i'm sure she would hate that title. She's got a pretty nasal voice but her songwriting talent sure makes up for that.

As for Hard Candy, I've no idea why I bought it really cos I just got the Best Of last week! must have been the low low price that drove me to get it.... i am such a sucker for bargains.....

would also like to add that i love the Blackeyed Peas' Elephunk!

I bought it.... well technically i bought it as a christmas present for my cousin but being me i had to open up the packaging and somehow it slipped into my computer and a copy got burned.

This album of course has Where Is The Love? (nominated for Song Of The Year grammy award) and Hey mama which sounds very sean paul and is indeed the iPod ad song.

but the rest of the album is a whole lot of fun too. good buy this one. altho of course not really my buy....

rock on!

man am i glad i decided to go to work yesterday. i had been battling a sore throat and i thought, hey good excuse not to go to work yeah? But that would mean my colleague would be on her own and i hate doing that to people.

So i turned up at work and in my inbox find a preview invite to School Of Rock, the movie I've been dying to see! I'd already missed the previous 2 screenings so I was doubly glad to see this email!

School Of Rock's the latest Jack Black movie. His name might not sound familiar to some but he did a great turn in High Fidelity as the foul-mouthed record store clerk, as Shallow Hal, as the wasted loser brother in Orange County. Well that's all i can think of for now...

He's a loser guitarist with a penchant for 20 minute solos and stage-diving. But his band wants him out and his roommate wants the rent.

So he pretends to be his roommate Ned (played by screenwriter Mike White) and takes on a substitute teaching job at an elite prep school running by the stiff principal (Joan Cusack)

he's in it for the money really but finds out that his students are some pretty darn good musicians. So he gives them a school project -- to form a rock band.

It's a great movie even for non-music fans. Just watching Black kick out the jams onstage is worth the $8.50!

and my first thought after watching the movie was - hmmm gotta go that soundtrack!!

first will see if i can get it off someone for free....ha

(this by the way is not my official review. i'm still cracking my brain over that one. how to write something that's not terribly gushy.... man i hate when i love a movie that i'm to review. it's so easy to slime something....)

sleepless in singapore

yea i've had a rough night. got home from work at 1220 or so, took a quick shower and settled down to work on my piece. i won't say more about the piece at the mo cos i dont want to jinx it. but i was having such a TERRIBLE time writing it.

i'd been thinking about it during the 9 hours or so of work. while subbing a story i'd get an idea and jot it down on a piece of paper. well that's not really true, i can't sit at a computer/table to write stuff. i somehow always write better when in motion -- bus rides are very good and so are walks. but not swims. it's very interesting how my mind totally blanks out in a swimming pool -- must be the chlorine.

so i threw in a sentence here and there. adding bits and pieces to the story. but it just didn't seem right. i had some sort of writer's block.

kenneth was kind enough to deliver supper. mmm fries and coke. those fish dippers thing were getting a little soggy though!!

i tried working on the sofa in the living room, on my bed and on the computer. nothing really seemed to work. my piece was only halfway through and it was already 3am.

i decided that was it. i'd write something, no matter how bad it was and try to reach the 700 word minimum. 700 seems like a terribly short piece. it is but i was seriously at a loss at how to fill those 700 spaces.

so i finally went to sleep at 4.

then i woke at 8.

as in eyes wide open awake.

amazing.

and got back down to work again. the supper did manage to sustain me until now (930am) but my stomach is beginning to grumble a little. a nice milo should do the trick.

but i am done with it. i wouldn't say it's perfect but i'm pretty satisfied. plus i just want to stop thinking about it and forward it already. But i'm so worried that i'll suddenly get some sort of divine inspiration.

just forward it already! the early bird catches the worm doesn't it?

yes it does.

ok here goes.

wish me luck.

sobered

i just learnt that another guy from hcjc passed away last month. i didn't know him but i knew of him. i must have seen it in the papers as he died in a motorbike accident but his name didn't register at all.

another shameless plug

yep doing it again.

this time it ain't a review/preview but rather a list of the best and worst movies of 2003. (sort of)

here's an example:


* The 'What Were They Thinking?' Award: Brad Pitt voices Sinbad in the animated movie, Sinbad
Why would anyone pay to LISTEN to Brad Pitt?

new cds

finally laid my hands on Pearl Jam's newest album. Well technically Riot Act is still their newest as Lost Dogs are a collection of Bsides and other rarities, including almost every fan's fave Yellow Ledbetter. The first CD is a more upbeat rocking collection, which includes surf hit Gremmie Out Of Control, Jack Irons' Whale Song and Stone Gossard singing his Don't Gimme No Lip.

The second CD, which I haven't finished listening to yet - I like to take it slow, listen to it in bits and pieces - sounds more retrospective although I noticed that track no 12 is DIrty Frank which is a crazed drunken-ass type song so maybe not as retrospective as I thought.

What I also like about the CD is that the band adds little notes about the songs. Like Mike McCready saying what he likes about a Vedder song etc. Pretty damn cool.

Yes I'm a big fan. Have always been. Omigod. it's been almost 10 years since their concert here in Singapore (which is of course the best concert I've ever been to - unless I get to see them again that is) at the Indoor Stadium. It was seriously too cool. Mudhoney opened for them and I remember they started with Black, in total darkness. It was crazy in the beginning, with chairs being passed over head, turning the expensive seats (i was in the 6th row!!!) into a mosh pit of sorts. Man I would like to relive that night.

digital bears

ha realised i didn't get a chance to post my thursday outing to the gala premiere of Brother Bear here.

First time i attended a gala premiere so pretty exciting! (haha so sua ku i know)

It was held at the Eng Wah cinemas at Suntec. And the whole complex was for the premiere. So that was pretty cool. There was a mini reception with free drinks and some finger food but we kinda arrived a little too late and were only able to grab a drink. Some weird apple juice thing.

The movie was the usual Disney crap really. Very Lion King - instead of lions, it's bears this time around. a couple of hilarious moments with some moose with dreadful Canadian accents (ie full of Ays) but other than that a regular bore, even more so if you'd seen Finding Nemo. Two thumbs down really.

But what I did like was its crisp, crystal clear quality!!! It was in digital format and truely excellent.

Ah yes, there was also a goodie bag- mouse pad, snacks (cereal and prunes - how terribly good for the bowels!!!), some foot cream (?) and some brother Bear merchandise (unfortunately comprising tissue paper and weird candle things)

but it was fun.

argh

i have lost my post on my bangkok trip! bloody hell....

i am not going to write it out again so here's the gist: 3 nights in bangkok, nice 5-star hotel along the chao praya. did the usual MBK, siam square, chatuchak. bought some stuff but not the shopaholic-crazy-buynewbagcosnomore space- type of shopping. ate some pretty good food. (and finally that great crispy pancake with coconut dessert!) danced at a patpong bar with decent live music (yes....patpong bar, not too enticing but this wasn't too bad). had drinks on the rooftop bar at the Banyan Tree Hotel (on the 60th floor - gorgeous view of bangkok!) all in all had fun, didn't spend too much money, didn't want to go back to singapore and work.