August 9 - Movie, Makan & Mambo

The long overdue watching of the movie-of-the-year took place on 8 August. Hurriedly, 5 persons from my office left at 6pm to make it to Plaza Singapura for the 620pm screening of The Simpsons Movie. You have to love the Simpsons to watch the show. There were countless crazy, humourously noir moments the series is famous for, enhanced for the big screen (more fun poked at politicians and current affairs). There were also the semi-tear jerky bits like when Marge taped over her wedding video to say her goodbyes to Homer. Whoops, did I give that away? Blush.

Post movie, we had dinner at Glutton's Bay at the Esplanade. With big Makansutra signs everywhere, I expected great food. It was so-so self-serviced slowly-dished dishes. It was not easy getting a place to sit as well. Well, the best thing that came out of dinner was that I tried Gong Gong. It is not a reference to a stupid person but a sea snail/slug. Unsure as to how they are prepared, but they arrived shell and all, warm on a plastic plate. They taste like squid, thank goodness. The thrill in eating a Gong Gong is perhaps overshadowed by the physical endeavour in extracting the chewy morsel of rubbery meat from the pretty shell. Now that's man food.

I then went to meet some ex-colleagues at casa de nana, en route to Zouk. Yes, it happened to be my second Mambo of the year, and was planned to be a smashing affair with many people, some older than thought necessary for the Mambo crowd, gyrating to 80s hits and falling over after many a screwdriver. In the end, I was there with Allan. After the queuing in the Velvet line, the ex-colleagues were put off the sign that read "Velvet ticket holders allowed to enter Zouk after 330am". It was then 130am, and they skittled off to sing at a KTV. After all that had to be said and drunk, we got into Mambo at 3am and danced like mad people till 5am. I even ended up being the subject of a bet (Hi Gladys). Prata followed at River Valley. Then home, to bed at 630am.

I woke at 5pm on National Day. Like WTF I thought. The whole day gone, and now NDP by the sea. Well what could I do but settle in front of the TV to watch the 'new' NDP. It was nice to sea our navy in action. Our MPs wore the masks from the goodie bags (so cute). There was one bit where I thought PM Lee was taking out a Toto ticket from the front pocket of his pristine white shirt. There were roller-bladers that fell, live on national TV. Cool. There was a segment with mature Singaporeans being relatively uncoordinated at Taiji, Silat and Yoga. It was a nice change from previous NDPs. Though I do have a few questions:
1. Why weren't the buildings at Raffles Place all dolled up? Free marketing man.
2. The president wasn't singing Majulah Singapura. Hmmm.
3. Are they going to use the stage for other things? Football match? (The commentators mentioned twice that the floating platform was 120m by 80m) (Some numbers stay in my head)

Well, that was it then the midweek holiday. Dinner was prawns in a pepper-potatoes cook up. Nice.