Local TV. It's So Bad, It's Good.
Well just spent the weekend with the BGB kids. We had an adventure camp which started Saturday night, and ended Sunday morning. Thank God my manager Doreen allowed me to go for it, otherwise, I'd still be working at the boutique this weekend. Walked from Woodlands, to Choa Chu Kang, to Hillview (where we made a pit stop at my place, haha.), to Bukit Batok, and back to to Bukit Timah Hill within 9 hours. We got at the foot of the hill at 530am, and proceeded to climb to the summit, via the extra long 1 and a half hour way. Took a nap in the afternoon, and now I can't sleep. Haha.
Anyway, Dan and i were just talking about local English TV and how it's really, REALLY hillarious, for all the WRONG reasons. Do you guys remember watching TRIPLE NINE? Or how about the now defunct VR MAN. HAHAHAHHAAH! Poor James Lye. That stigma will forever stick. Or did you get pants peed on watching "Shiver"? I remember one episode Darryl David was playing a corpse, and he blinked! Hahahaha.
Dan was recounting how James Lye came to ACS(I) to give a talk as a banker (He's working at Citibank now apparently). The minute he came into the auditorium, the whole school broke out into chants of "VR MAN". Poor bloke.
The only reasons why people had to watch Triple Nine or VR Man were, #1 we had no cable in the early 90s, #2 it's just damn entertaining to see how corny the story can get.
Let's review what happened in the last season of Triple Nine. Wong Li Lin gets raped, James Lye gets killed by a gun shot, Lim Yu Beng...did he go senile? Anyway, Robin "I'm all American" Leong replaces Lye.
For fans of Triple Nine, yes, all 3 of you, If you would like to see the "never-produced" 25th episode of Triple Nine's 4th sesson titled "Old Wounds", check out this link:
http://www.andylogam.com/scripts_1999.html
If there's any local English show I miss, it's The Ra Ra Show. Bring back Kumar!
Before James Lye became VR Man.
You'll Never Walk Alone
If you were wondering what the 20000 Liverpool fans in Istanbul were singing as Steven Gerrard raised the Champions League trophy...
"When you walk through a storm
Hold your head up high
And don't be afraid of the dark.
At the end of a storm
Is a golden sky
And the sweet, silver song of a lark.
Walk on, through the wind,
Walk on, through the rain,
Though your dreams be tossed and blown.
Walk on, walk on with hope in your heart,
And you'll never walk alone,
You'll never walk alone."
*sob* Damn touching.
I've Been Tagged
OK Nydia, I'll do it.
Here's how it works. Choose five occupations from the list below and fill in the blanks. If I tag you, you're supposed to answer in your own weblog. If you don't want to, let me know so I can tag someone else.
If I could be a scientist...
If I could be a farmer...
If I could be a musician...
If I could be a doctor...
If I could be a painter...
If I could be a gardener...
If I could be a missionary...
If I could be a chef...
If I could be an architect...
If I could be a linguist...
If I could be a psychologist...
If I could be a librarian...
If I could be an athlete...
If I could be a lawyer...
If I could be an inn-keeper...
If I could be a professor...
If I could be a writer...
If I could be a llama-rider...
If I could be a bonnie pirate...
If I could be an astronaut...
If I could be a world famous blogger...
If I could be a justice on any one court in the world...
If I could be married to any current famous political figure...
Here goes:
If I could be a scientist...I'd prove evolution and the big bang theory wrong, once and for all.
If I could be a doctor...I'd specialise in plastic surgery and move to Miami or Los Angeles. "So tell me, what don't you like about yourself?" I'd probably wouldn't be a good one though cos' I'd prob try convincing pple how they actually look ok. But hey, what a job it would be!
If I could be a missionary...I'd go to Africa.
If I could be a chef... I'd give Crystal Jade a run for their money.
If I could be an athlete...I'd run alongside Gerrard and Carragher in a Liverpool jersey. I'd wear no. 17 (no, not because of Fandi) and have G Tan embossed on the back of my jersey. The Kop would chant my name everytime I hit a 20 foot scorcher into the goal.
Yeah Nydia, it was fun. OK, if you happen to read this, I tag ya. You and everyone on my "Groovy People" links! Hey, I've called you groovy, the least you could do is complete this task!
Wah Damn High Crass Ah
You know before working there, I've never bothered to go into any of the Polo Ralph Lauren shops, knowing that there's no way I'm gonna pay 120 bucks for a collared shirt.
It's been an interesting few days attending to the customers. There are the nice ones and the nasty ones. You have your usual tai tais, tourists, and businessmen decked out in Hugo Boss, but once in a while, you get a humbly dressed guy decked out in plain t-shirts, shorts and slippers. Don't let appearances fool you though,
The other day, this guy entered the shop and started looking around the Men's Classic section where I'm stationed. He was wearing a really worn out Real Madrid jersey, and came in slippers. I attended to him and he started picking out shirts like mad. Spent about 500 bucks plus. In another incident, this respectable-looking businessman scolded and shouted at my colleague for telling him the wrong discount for a pair of pants he wanted. Retarded. You can spend hundreds on all the Gucci shit you're carrying, and you get so worked up over paying 10 extra dollars for a pair of pants? Where's the logic in that?
Anyway, I just have to say my colleagues have been a hoot to be with! Michael, Wanwen, Joslyn, Esther, Nor, Chris, Ming Wei, all very easy people to get along with. Thank God!
Oh by the way, does anyone have a copy of "The Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy"? I promise to keep the book in good condition!
Liverpool. Champions.
Without a doubt, one of the best games I have ever seen. What a comeback. How do you put 3 goals past an Italian team like AC Milan in a space of 6 minutes? Ask Gerrard and Co. Nobody gave Pool a chance by the first half, but the Reds fought with such spirit and triumphed in the end. Amazing.
Make Or Break
2 hours till the BIG final between Pool and Milan. This is it. This will decide whether Pool will have 20 million extra pounds to spend next year. This will decide whether Stevie G stays or wears blue next year. A dismal season in the premiership can be salvaged with this win. It all hinges on these 90 minutes of play.
As sad as it may seem, this is why S'poreans support English soccer more than Geylang United.
I got a feeling I'll be catching naps in the storeroom at work tomorrow.
Go Reds~! Whoop Italian ass!
Living On A Prayer
I'm just amazed at how God provides for everything. Been praying for a job, particularly hard to come by especially since I'll be taking 10 days off for Church camp and Mt Kinabalu, and then starting school in August. Need one quite urgently to raise cash for the trip and for my personal expenses.
So Tse Siang and I were walking at Suntec with the intention of approaching Balaclava if they needed waiters. They happened to be closed, so we decided to go watch Episode 3 instead.
Upon passing by the Ralph Lauren store, I just made a comment that a friend used to work there, and mentioned that the pay was quite good, about $6+ an hour. With nothing to lose, we just went in and enquired about part time vacancies. To our surprise, the store manager, Doreen, happened to be looking for staff as it was the sales period.
Doreen: "So when can you start work?"
Gabe: "How about, NOW?!"
I'm especially thankful that the people at Ralph Lauren are super friendly and approachable. Hit it off with my new colleagues quite well. Hopefully it stays that way. They're quite flexible too. Told them I couldn't work this weekend because of the BB/GB Adventure camp, and Alvin, the asst manager, was OK with it.
I was quite worried I might have to sacrifice the camp, but thank you Lord that I didn't have to!
Gotta sleep now. Another day of work awaits.
Kinabalu Prep
Spent Sunday afternoon trekking through Bukit Timah Hill with the BGB guys and gals. check out the photos below! 1 month to Kinabalu guys!
Lunch with Dad's Italian client today, followed by Episode 3 with Tse Siang. Guess it's better than the first 2, but quite cheesy at some parts right? Especially Anakin and Padme scenes. Haha.
Starting work at Ralph Lauren tomorrow. Hope it goes well! Praise God I managed to get it!
Ah Long doing the Haka.
The stairway to heaven. Daniel: "C'mon guys! You can DO IT!"
The BGB gang. Today Bukit Timah. Tomorrow Mount Kinabalu!!!
Kua Si Mi
Smile ladies!
Sorry Scholes
For the first time in my life, I actually feel sorry for Man U. They really should have won that one. That was one amazing match. It's like there was some huge unknown force that just didn't allow Man U to score. To be fair, Jens Lehmman played really well, even if Arsenal were playing really negative football, obviously stalling time to get to penalty kicks. Ah well. Such is football.
May 26. Liverpool marches on to European glory in Istanbul. It's ONLY AC Milan they have to beat. Only.
Welcome Back Eric
To the blogging fraternity that is.
http://thatbeme.blogspot.com
*champagne POP*
MSN 7.0
Is it me or is there something wrong with MSN Messenger 7.0? I can't see the names of contacts and can't start any conversations. Once you click on a contact to chat, it just says "We are unable to start a conversation with XXX. You may want to try again." Does anybody else have this problem?
Wassup Mr Gates?
Now Let Me Shoooow Yooo The Shaaaape Of My Heart
Got this off Jon's blog.
The Keys to Your Heart |
| You are attracted to those who have a split personality - cold as ice on the outside but hot as fire in the heart. |
| In love, you feel the most alive when things are straight-forward, and you're told that you're loved. |
| You'd like to your lover to think you are optimistic and happy. |
| You would be forced to break up with someone who was emotional, moody, and difficult to please. |
| Your ideal relationship is lasting. You want a relationship that looks to the future... one you can grow with. |
| Your risk of cheating is zero. You care about society and morality. You would never break a commitment. |
| You think of marriage as something precious. You'll treasure marriage and treat it as sacred. |
| In this moment, you think of love as commitment. Love only works when both people are totally devoted. |
What Are The Keys To Your Heart?
Wednesday Night
Last night's music was fantastic! On the main Mambo dance floor no less! It was very radio friendly, with the usual classics (Square rooms anyone? Ho ho!). The energy level was just kept really high throughout the night. Could hear the crowd just screaming with approval with each song the DJ mixed. WOOT WOOT! Damn Ah Beng sia...
Spent the night at Jem and Jer's. Thanks guys! Jem! I was just out of practice last night! Must have a winning eleven rematch SOON! Thanks again for the ride Kai Lynn!
Was great meeting up with Tiff and Mitch just now! Tiff, I so wanna work at Stand Chart. I'll take anything right now man!
Pretty broke right now, and it doesn't feel right asking my folks for an allowance when I haven't started studying yet. Need a temp job quick before the church camp.
Trusting God for providence.
Stand Up. Speak Up.
1.5 pounds. That's how much the Stand Up Speak up bands cost in London, which equates to about 5 Singapore Dollars. How much are they selling it on eBay.sg? S$ 20!!! Who buys them at such an absurd price?
Anyway, for those of you who are wondering what's with people wearing all the black and white intertwining wristbands, it's part of a Nike Europe campaign to raise awareness about racism, especially with footballers of darker skin colours having to endure insults because of their race.
I never thought of racism as a big issue, and it's something I always took for granted, especially since Chinese are the majority in S'pore. When in Europe, I couldn't help but fine myself being stared at certain times, and being spoken to differently, like in a more condescending tone.
Example. I go queue to buy tickets for entry to some museum. The ticket guy smiles and greets the Caucasian customer in front of me. When it comes to my turn, he just sounds a lot colder and doesn't even smile.
Another example was our tour manager, of which I won't go into too much detail. But the 7 of us that went to Europe did get vibes that she was treating us differently and less friendly as compared to the rest of the Australian/ New Zealander/ Canadian guys.
At first I thought I was being oversensitive. But it just became too apparent to ignore.
Thankfully, such instances didn't occur often, and the people all over Europe were generally very hospitable and friendly. It's just a minority of idiots out there that act that way. Racism, however, still exists.
If it's one good thing the S'pore government has done a great job with over the years, it has to be integrating all the races to become the society that S'pore is today. The race quotas in the HDB estates, creating awareness of racial harmony, etc. Then again, I am in the Chinese majority, so I won't know how our Malay,Indian or Eurasian friends feel. Anyone wanna shed light on whether you think racism exists in S'pore? I'm sure it does, but to what degree?
For more info about the
Stand Up Speak Up campaign, check out the following URL:
http://www.nike.com/standupspeakup/en/home.jsp?page=home
I Thought I Was Done With Walking!
A belated happy birthday to Kelly once again! She had her little birthday celebration at a function room in Swissotel last night. All decked out in her bridal gown and all. Heh.
Got home at about 1 am only to be awoken by Elliot's phonecall at 4am. The rest of the guys (Elliot, Danny, Leighton, Daniel, Marilyn, Juliana, Diane and Lionel) had already started walking from Si Ling Sec @ Woodlands, down to Choa Chu Kang, past Bukit Panjang, and were gonna pass by my place at Hillview. Yes you heard right, WALKING.
We were supposed to recce the route for the upcoming Boys/ Girls' Brigade Adventure Camp. So the rest started at 11pm while I got my 3 hrs of sleep. We proceeded to Bukit Batok Central and headed to Bukit Timah Hill. Supposed to go Kismis Avenue, but decided to give it a miss. Climbed the super long way up to the summit, which took us an hour and a half. It poured half way up, and I could not help but imagine how wonderful it would have felt to sleep in on a rainy Saturday morning. =(
Suddenly, reminders of those army days came flashing by, where your morale hits rock bottom once your socks and underwear get drenched, and you're walking through the jungles with no idea how long the trail is.
Anyway, the breakfast at Bukit Timah Market was reward enough. Can't really complain about being tired seeing as how the others walked a much longer distance. Woodlands to Hillview. No joke. Heh. I hope I can stay awake during Nydia's play later. Go Nyd!
The 80s party: Chasely, Alex, Kelda, Kirsty and Marnie.
Da brit kids + Jacque!
Jon, Matt (Mr Bloom himself) and Jerry.
How Now Brown Cow
Finally decided to add a counter, cos I'm quite curious as to how many people read the blog. To my surprise the counter jumped to 110 within the first day. Yikes! I thought no one really bothered to come here. Post a comment if you're passing by folks! Would like to know who's reading! Heh.
Anyways I'm still groggy from jet lag. Yawnz. Just came back from Causeway Point. Met up with Elliot, Sarah and Danny to plan for the upcoming Boys/Girls' Brigade Adventure Camp at the end of the month. Developed 140 of the 1200 pictures I took. I really cannot imagine using film again man. Think of how many rolls you'd have to buy!
So what's gonna happen now that I'm back? Uni's still 3 months away. Prob start clocking community service hours for SMU. I'm looking at the list and some of it is quite interesting! Tour guide at Singapore Art Museum, helping out at homes, etc. Another overseas trip coming up in June. Quite looking forward to church camp and the Kinabalu trip. Prob only work a good month before orientations start in late July.
When you have so much time on your hands, your mind can't help but wonder about the future. I've sorta got a vague idea of where I wanna work and what to do if it doesn't work out. I'm just afraid I'll neglect so many things once uni starts as I did in JC. Good thing SMU doesn't have stay-in-halls, wouldn't want to eat, live and breathe school. Once SMU moves to Bras Basah, I'll probably associate Orchard Road with school in future though so that doesn't seem too cool!
Friends from other institutes: I'm bored! Let's go to town!
Gabe: NOOOOO! I go there everyday! Let's go Changi (for the nasi lemak, wat were you thinking?)!
I can see that happening a lot in future.
On a sidenote, I watched Kingdom Of Heaven with Caleb yesterday and IT SUCKED. Straits Times gave it 4 and a half stars? Obviously bribed by the movie distributor. Should have listened to the British press, they gave it 1 star out of 5. The only reason you should watch it is if you're a fan of Orlando Bloom who, most girls agree, looks better as an elf.
By the way, did I mention there was this Aussie guy on my tour that really looked like Orlando Bloom? No kiddin! Just add pointy ears!
The seedy red light district of Amsterdam. Beware of pimps.
Mmmm...beeeer...
Niketown London. Mmmm...such beautiful feet.
Arnold Schwarzenegger's 'house' in the Austrian Tyrol.
Getting desperate at the Swarovski Factory.
Check out some of the Eurotrip photos! Nice pad guys! Clockwise from left: Jacque, Jia Kai, Xianna, Jon, Ming Wei.
By Jove! It's the Big Ben!
Yes I'm for Liverpool. But since we're at Stamford Bridge...
Anne Frank's house. We'll never forget.
So it's actually cheaper to grow them in your backyard you say?
Br..rr...rr.
Smashing view. And we're only half way up!
The Vatican beckons.
When in Rome...
You don't always have to use your hands.
Ferraris, Lamboghinis, Maseratis. It can only be Monaco.
So long Paris. I'll be back...some day.
Sweet. =)
With that, my 3 week Europe adventure comes to a close. Just arrived this morning at 10 am.
I've had a wild time. Aussies are hardcore party animals man. How do they keep hitting the bar/pub EVERYDAY?! I was spent by the 2nd week. So many pple who made this trip such a fab one.
To WenZheng, Jon, Jerry, Joel, Jem and Jerald. You guys were fantastic company to be with. Thanks for being patient with me for having to stop every few minutes to take photos, and for me wandering around without telling you guys. Haha. What can I say man, I'm in my own world sometimes. Hope you guys are having fun in Cambridge. Oh and Jerald, a big thank you for doing most of the coordination, sending out the mails, etc. Kudos to you for getting the planning started (well doing most of it actually). I'm sucha slacker!
To Jacque: a BIG THANK YOU for showing me around London, and for cooking up a great dinner! I'm especially grateful since I was broke by that night. See la! Pull me into so many shops! Haha. Was great catching up with you man.
(Note to self: London is not exactly the best place to do retail therapy, except if you're at Lilywhite's. But I'm on holiday, so what the hey!)
To Jia Kai, Ming Wei, Jon and Xianna: Thanks for having me at your cosy pad guys!
To Chiong Wai: Was great to have met you man. Thanks for offering your place (or did Jerry insist? haha)!
To the Mei, Jemma, Jackie, Dee, Melissa, Matt, Micah: Thanks for the great company guys! May we meet again. After all, the world is such a small place.
It really was an eye opener.The lights of Paris. The living time capsule that is Rome. God's amazing creation shown in the Swiss Alps. The cultural richness of Florence. The charming canals of Venice. The seedy streets of Amsterdam. There was just so much to explore, so little time. I'm now determined to get a job in London once uni's over man. Garrr....
Too lazy to go into detail at this point in time. I'm actually thinking of starting a new blog just to chronical our europe experience. Let's see if I get down to it.
Damn tired right now. 12 hour flights with a transit in KL does nothing good for the body. Will be taking a snooze and probably hibernating for the next few days until I don't feel jet lagged anymore.
I'll be dreaming of Europe.
Sex, Drugs, Rock & Roll. Amsterdam!
It's pretty amazing how tolerant the Dutch are about sex and drugs.Just had a walk about Amsterdam's famed red light district. It's quite unreal how the girls put themselves in front of a mirror and parade themselves in their lingerie. Like real life manequins. And how the "coffee shops" all over Amsterdam sell joints.
This past week has been just amazing. From the beer halls of Munich, to the mountain tops of the Swiss Alps.Downhill (or mountain actually) cycling in Austria must take a special mention. 7 minutes of down slope going at 60-70km/h is such a rush! Bed and breakfast in a small German village, Watching Liverpool beat Chelsea in Lautenburren (Go Reds!), it really doesn't feel like it's been 3 weeks already.
I must really be thankful for the wonderful company I've been having on this tour, and the great new friends we've made along the way.
Europe has been everything that it was made up to be.
Visiting Anne Frank's house and the Heineken brewery tomorrow. Free booze! Woohoo!
