Goodbye Sidney

For the last five years or so, I have been following the exploits of one woman. She is young, vivacious and rather flexible. A jetsetter, based in LA, she's been all over - London, Rome, Paris and other wild joints like North Korea and Nepal - shaking her groove thang. 'Lithe' is a good descriptor. She's quite emotional and tends to be soppy about her past and the people that have come in and out of her life.

She had a screwed up childhood. Her mother died early on in a car accident. So her dad became her bastion of stability. Sidney grew independent and strong emotionally. In her first year in Uni when she got recruited into a bank. Her dad was against it because he wanted her to focus on her studies. Studies before work.

Then things got a little complicated. It turns out the bank was a front for the CIA! How nice for Sidney, the newbie with verve and passion for saving the world. She moved up quickly to field agent, kicking ass as a spy. Ah, those nubile full body spins. When it all seemed to be nice and dandy, the agency had her fiance 'rubbed off' because Sidney told him she was a spy. How shitty is that?!

Later, Sidney had her life, beliefs and commmitments turned upside down once again. She discovered that the agency she worked for were the bad guys. Ta-dah! So much drama, so much intrigue. And I lapped up every torment-ridden, kungfu-action, multiple-costume minute of it. The best was yet to follow - Rambaldi, Anna Espinoza, Sark, the return of Mom!, losing 2 years of her life, losing her handler and hubby Vaughn, Vaughn's wife Lauren who turned out to be a bad ass, Arvin's return, Sidney's sister Nadia...

Alias - Great writing, great megaplots, superb actors. Kudos to a great five years.

Pizza, Tarts and Dog

It has been a really short work week. To some, a painful reminder that we need to work (albeit not as productively) to make the money we spend without care or concern on Friday nights. To others, the three working days post initial CNY celebrations were a sweet escape from gatherings with nosy relatives and noisy children.

Last night, Friday night, was spent in the company of some folks from Hall 6 where we dabbled in theatre work. There was a wide age spread within the partygoers as theatre knows no age limit when it comes to putting on an act. Vincent was in his final year when Mary and I were in our first. George started his first when I was a year from graduating, giving a potential of an 8-year range between us friends.

I left work like it didn't matter and dashed off with jumbo fishballs and succulent popiah in hand to meet Mary for dinner at her place. Scratch and sniff with Samson the husky (woof!), conversations over pizza, tarts over TV and discussions over American Idol finalists ensued.


Putting on a good show were Sara Leaw, the baby girl captured in motion below, as well as the 2005 Windham Estates Pinot Noir Bin 333. The house pet, Samson the husky, was a show stealer too. Those puppy dog eyes, giant white paws, lovely fur and friendly yet saliva-laden disposition were more than enough to win me over. Double woof. Let's not forget Russell Crowe in Gladiator on Star Movies at 1am. Bravo all, and dog.

BTW the man with the balls, fishballs, is Vincent. You may have seen him on TV. His showreel is online at http://www.vinceli.com.

In The Wee Hours Of The First Pig Day

Gong Xi Fa Cai.

Last night, or rather, this morning, I saw the worst film of the year - Epic Movie. On trailers it's fine - funny and cheesy. But to sit through an hour plus of stupidity, bad lines, worse acting and dumb ideas is torture. The two out of the six writers that made Scary Movie who wrote this disaster were probably the worst two. I feel sorry for the Indian guy 'Kumar' from Harold and Kumar Go To White Castle - not a good performance to add to the portfolio man.

Listen up. If you're gonna make a spoof film, make it snappy and not have too many close ups. Aiyoh. Don't watch it, please.

Post movie, the hunger pangs began. I ended up at the perennial McDonald's at Admiralty MRT where I had a latte. It was good. I mean really good. A pleasant surprise at 3am.

Mat Rempit By Hitz FM

I heard the music from Zul's Sony Ericsson handphone (great sound!) at Kim's birthday party. He got it while on reservist (interpersonal electronic communication is a big part of the army life). A spoof of Tokyo Drift, a tune most Ah Bengs will recognise.

I was blown away at the quality of the production - bloody incredible with funny lyrics and superb delivery. Brilliant lah. Here's a taste of the lyrics:

Many many cars all driving,
Cutting here and there, no signal-ing.
Scream-ing, scolding-ing, horn-ing, speed-ing
None of them even look-ing.
I don't wan to pro-be-lam,
Need to get to work so please faham.
Turn-ing, cutt-ing, chilla-ting(?), thank you
Pray hard I don't get sum-mon

The tune is about driving on narrow roads and general Malaysian road life. A Mat Rempit is someone who rubs up against you, when driving I presume. Ahem.



So well done. Kudos.

The CDs Are $6.50 Damnit

Music soothes the savage beast and all you devils and monsters out there having had a hard time this season of joy and merrymaking are in for a treat. With single discs going for $6.50, please pay a visit to ST Music World on the ground floor of Shaw Tower to pick up a few bargains.

I bought 15 CDs yesterday. Here's the rundown:
- Jeff Buckley - Grace
- Kasabian - Kasabian
- Stan Getz - Jazz Moods Cool
- Alex Gopher - Youmybaby&i
- Aimee Mann - Bachelor no.2 or the last remains of the dodo
- Q-tip - Amplified
- Jill Scott - Who is Jill Scott? Words and Sounds Vol 1
- Hooverphonic - Sit Down and Listen To Hooverphonic
- Duncan Sheik - Daylight
- Angie Stone - Stone Hits, The Very Best Of Angie Stone
- Dave Clarke - Archive One (The Red Album)
- Natalie Imbruglia - Counting Down The Days
- Fueled For The Future dj mixed by Yukihiro Fukutomi
- Fueled For The Future dj mixed by Kyoto Jazz Massive
- Fueled For The Future dj mixed by DJ Spinna

There's still a lot of good shit left - lots of rock CDs (Foo Fighters, The Coral, Korn, Eagles) and jazz. Go, now. And stop downloading.

A Girl, A Bear and CNY

It is Chinese New Year's Eve today. Yesterday, like gazillions of Chinese folk making a mad dash, Cheryl Lim Lah Moh packed her her large suitcase in the early hours and dragged it off to work. At her desk, huffing and puffing, she unzipped and exposed the contents of her luggage. Mostly laundry and a smothered teddy.

I christened the nameless, smelly bundle of polyester put-together of childhood comfort Dickie. I had to.

It turns out Dickie accompanies Lah Moh while she watches TV. He was asked this morning if we would want to return home too. Apparently, bear-bear gave an affirmative response and was stuffed in. Bon voyage Dickie.

Valentine and Thereabout Birthdays

I have one friend with a birthday on 13 Feb (well, there was Mukri from primary school but we haven't talked since 1986. My first birthday party was his in 1981) and three on Valentine's Day - Wee Han, Kim and Terence Chen (a friend from secondary school who I occasionally bump into at Sun Plaza).

So on 13 Feb, the usual suspects brought one or two unsuspecting friends to Union Bar (where else?) to celebrate Fon and Wee Han's birthday.

Fon was all set to party the night away. Wee Han, new father and all, was muted in his corporate getup. Nonetheless I had to shake things up. A couple shots each, soon we were yapping. Actually, we yapped a lot and drank more. It was fun.

On Valentine's Day, I bought red currant tarts from Marks and Spencer (because they were on sale!) and made a call about soup. The tarts of sugary, sour joy were spread around the office to complement all the excess foliage. That evening was party time again! This time at Kim's.

Mental note - there are no taxis to be flagged down or called upon on Valentine's. SBS and SMRT to the rescue. Pardon my tardiness, hee hee.

The food was KFC. the cake was from Breadtalk. The company had all seen all of Heroes, except me :( I brought soup from Marks and Sparks for the birthday girl in addition to the contribution to the BIG GIFT. The makan accompanied rude conversation about people on TV as well as other humourous photo-taking antics. A good evening overall. Now to catch up on TV...

Happy birthday Fon and Kim and Wee Han and Terence. And Mukri.

Union Bar Set To Close

Shock and horror. I have been advised by the folks at Union Bar that the place is closing in about a month. My first reaction was "Where the hell am I gonna go now?".

This sucks. Big time. I keep thinking about the friends I've made there, friends I brought there and the folks at Union who have come and gone, people I know by name, people who know mine. And all that Hoegaarden.

My rescue plan is to win Toto and take over. Fingers crossed.

Post Steamboat Union

All Steamed Up

This dinner was planned for a week. From an email that began as 'Let's go mabuk', we settled on the debate on dinner with a decision to steamboat our way through. Carolina, pictured unflaterringly with a boiled prawn below, introduced us to The Sheep Mongolian Steamboat Buffet closer to the Beach Road end of Tan Queen Lan St. I being Indian am not a steamboat afficionado and was hence skeptical of a good dinner. Indians don't really steam anything, except maybe some desserts. We boil curries, that's it.

To my surprise, the 'non-beef' half of the steamboat contraption was filled an exceptional spicy stock in which a great number of veges and meats had been thrown in. I gulped the soup, and teared as the spice and piquancy shot through my nasal passages. Heavenly.

Proceedings were interesting as we dunk and dipped, scooped and probed, ate and slurped. We discovered most of the table despised liver - I nearly died when I was fed liver off a hor fun when I was five. We also found that Carolina has a talent for peeling prawns. Like magic, her deft fingers relinquish the prawn body from its encapsulating shell in 30 seconds. What results are two separate entities, one succulent morsel to be enjoyed, the other perfect semi-transparent pink sheath to be discarded. Gastronomic art.

Thank you Kublai. $22 after tax.

SG vs TH - Yay But Did You Notice This?

1. It took one fella's individual effort to score that SG goal. Khairul Azmi has got the balls to take the ball to the back of the Thai net. It was pure solo brilliance. He saw the chance and went for it. We need more players like that - certainly Mustafik Fahrudin had a chance or two for solo glory but opted to pass the bloody thing, into pointless oblivion.

2. Our defence was in shambles. It's a miracle the TH score didn't go up. Aide Iskander, captain no less, had the gall to casually back heel the ball to another defender! Scary shit man.

3. How come that Thonglao fella didn't get a red card? Noh Alam Shah proved that he could step on someone in a late challenge and get away with it too.

4. Ho Peng Kee stole a second opportunity to give away a trophy to Noh Alam Shah. The expression on the Thai official's face was priceless.

5. Aren't Lionel Lewis' shorts a little tight?

6. Our lady physiotherapist got a good deal of exposure on TV. Good thing the slacks were tight enough to stay up hip-level.

7. Are those muscle strain anti-pain sprays ozone friendly? The TH team sure was liberal with spray usage.

8. I think the Thai manager's grasp of the English language is better than Raddy Aramovic's, as evident from the post match interview.

The Pig That Wants To Be Eaten

I was recently at Kinokuniya at Bugis with an urgent need to spend money when I spotted this book - The Pig Wants To Be Eaten and 99 Other Thought Experiments by Julian Baggini. It was alarmingly yellow with red typeface and Wilbur on a silver platter. Dandy. I had to buy it and tickle the grey cells silly. Because the writer wanted readers to think about each experimental case, I felt it would necessary to list out my thoughts, ideas and opinions.

So I did - go to my other blog - The Pig That Wants To Be Eaten at thepigthatwantstobeeaten.blogspot.com/.

Thinker types should go get the book. Philo, ethics, sociology and law students will have a blast with it. Good for creative thinking too.

My Sister's Married

This is my elder sister, Rinda. Dressed in her wedding sari, she tied the knot (well, there is literal tying of knots if you know what happens in a Hindu wedding) on Monday past. I was there to do "bride-side" things and enjoy the food after. Here's wishing Rinda and Maran all the best.

Now what are going to do with the spare room? :)

A Virgin Blogger...Introducing Tasty Jesus

This is Ravi. He's the copywriter where I work. He was also featured visually in my post on the company bowling soiree. He recently met my blog. Taken, he started his own one afternoon in the office (refer to distractions explanation in previous post). So to blogger.com we went and ran through the 1-2-3 set up process. Though simple, the hardest thing he had to do was come up with a name for the blog. After great deliberation, he came up with Tasty Ravioli. I burst out laughing and there may have been a tear or two that streamed down the jovial cheeks. Hence, let me introduce you to Blog and Booger at tastyravioli.blogspot.com.

See the back of the spiffy Adidas jacket he's got on? It says El Salvador. My primary recollection of this Central American nation is that it featured in the 1982 World Cup (I made money from selling football team stickers found in tins of Ovaltine to my class mates) and its capital is Managua. The point of this is that "El Salvador" means "The Saviour", an obvious reference to Jesus Christ. So with Ravi donning the jacket and starting a blog with a crazy name, it is only natural i christen him Tasty Jesus (you gotta pronounce it as Hey-sus, as they do in Spanish, the language of El Salvador). Ay caramba.

Works Sprouts Badly

I have a problem with work. I can't seem to get it done. Somehow there is always something else to do. Distractions and lack of focus often lead to delays and lack of completion. Or maybe it could be general lack of interest coupled with the lack of fulfillment/satisfaction that numbs me into inertia. Sian man. And the monster that is work grew an extra head, breathed massive tongues of fire at me and my colleagues as we enjoyed the office environment into the wee hours and weekends. Some projects just crawl up your ass and sprout blisters. Whoevers reading this better keep their lips sealed, or else. Haha.