Weird Dream : The Flying Saucer and The Singapore Flyer / The Illegal Immigrant

Ok, so the number of weird dreams that I've been having lately has gone up. On Monday 5th Oct 2009, I had another weird dream. I dreamt that I was walking along the street with a friend near Marina when I saw a huge flying saucer hovering above me. It was scary and looked very real. There were flashing lights and it looked very much like a scene from the X files. I could feel the wind blowing our hair and we looked up frozen with fear. I wanted to say something but my friend asked me to keep still for fear of getting abducted by those aliens. The aliens, however, didn’t appear to have noticed us and the flying saucer flew away. We decided to rest at a nearby bus stop. We saw the space craft heading toward the Singapore Flyer which was not very far from us. That's the huge observation wheel a.k.a. Ferris wheel located along the coast of Marina. To our horror, the flying saucer started shooting laser beams. Sparks flew and soon the Singapore Flyer came loose from its mechanical system. We could hear the many screams of people down the street. There were people on board the Wheel at that time too. Maybe the aliens thought that the Wheel with its lights on was another spaceship. With great speed, the Singapore Flyer started rolling down the road and past our bus stop. The screams continued. It seemed so real in that dream. The huge Wheel rolled down the road and was suddenly sucked into the flying saucer. Then shortly after that, a huge atom-like thing, similar in size to the Singapore Flyer rolled past our bus stop too. I think I've seen that symbol somewhere. Maybe it was on iTunes.(haha!) I have no idea what was that but people were still screaming. I woke up with a fright after that... what a bad dream it was. Gee..

I had the second dream about two nights ago. In this dream, I dreamt that my colleague was an illegal immigrant. I was walking down this underpass near Parkmall when I saw him (in real life this underpass doesn't exist). He appeared to be selling stuff like clothes and souvenirs with some of his friends. The police suddenly appeared and a commotion started. Every one of them was arrested and put on handcuffs. On the way out, one of the officers pointed at him and told us that he was an illegal immigrant. Hmm... I wonder why I had that strange dream.

Would Hiding The Truth Make A Difference?

It was two days ago. I came to work as usual and prepared for another day of battle. The phone rang at 8.40am and I picked it up grudgingly. I was expecting to hear that somebody would be either late or on MC for the day but instead the call came from a familiar but unexpected voice. It turned out to be Mystic (that's not her real name) and she wanted a favour from me.

Mystic is this elderly lady from HR who had often kept to herself and only spoke to me whenever there was a need to and it was usually on an official basis. On several occasions, I had seen her around my neighbourhood either before or after work so I knew that her home was not very far from mine. On those occasions, I had caught up with her to have a brief chat and Mystic was always careful not reveal where she lived. Only once did she give me her block number as the one adjacent to mine and quickly changed the subject. She was always quick and evasive so I kept my distance because I didn't want to make her feel uncomfortable. Then late last year, I stopped seeing Mystic around work. I learnt from her fellow HR mates that she had gone on a prolong illness leave and that nobody knew when she was coming back. So when Mystic called me that morning, I was indeed very surprised to hear from her. Mystic needed to return the key to her drawer and she would like me to drop by at her place to collect it. I sensed a note of reluctance in her voice as she was asking me for that favour but I said ok. Mystic however had some conditions. She would only reveal her address when I could 'really confirm' that I was really dropping by her place after 6pm. Yeah… I thought to myself, how weird this old lady was. She seemed afraid and yet she wanted my help. I wondered why her immediate colleagues weren't helping her but I decided not to ask. She was even reluctant to give me her home number so she asked for a one-to-one exchange of our mobile numbers. And believe me, I was equally reluctant to exchange mobile numbers with this oh-so-secretive lady. I mean, what if she was a psycho or something? Ok, I was just kidding. I myself do not like colleagues to be calling my personal number on work so I never give my mobile contact to any colleague. And this secretive lady was so strange…I hardly trusted her, even though she is from HR. (Kwa! Kwa! Kwa!)

At about 6.15pm when I was ready to knock off for the day, I made that expected call to her. When she told me her block number this time, it was the block across the road from my block and not the adjacent one as she had told me 2 years ago. Now why wasn't I surprised? She said she was too weak to walk down the stairs and she asked if it was okay if I could come up to her apartment. No problem, I said. And she promised to look out for me from her corridor and wave when she sees me coming so that I wouldn't get lost. And no, I wasn't kidding about that part. J

Mystic lives on the second floor. Her block seemed a little more rundown compared to mine. When I reached her floor, I saw her standing right at the end of the corridor. I could tell that her neighbours had probably lived there for years. There were so many things outside each door. They ranged from laundry to chairs and boxes. In short, there was plenty of junk and the passageway was narrow so I had to worm my way through to get to her. There was a musty putrid smell coming from one of the apartments. I thought it was urine. Eww.

Mystic was clad in colourful pajamas and a cardigan, a direct contrast from the career woman image that she bore in HR. Her face was very pale and the colour seemed to be drained from her eyes. Her hair had grayed a fair bit and she looked very sick. I thought to myself, she looked like she had gone through some chemical treatment on her body. Was it chemotherapy? Oh dear!

She greeted me shyly and said, "I had a fall and hurt my leg lah." I looked at her legs but they were not on any casts. Instead, they were both covered with dark green socks on slippers. "I now have to depend on a walking stick to move around." But she was leaning on an umbrella as she was talking. I nodded politely and shared with her that my mother had gone through two operations on her legs a few years back. So was she going for physiotherapy regularly? Mystic looked lost and faraway. She suddenly snapped back and asked if I would like to come into her house. "It's ok, I need to get home as dinner is waiting" I thought I saw a look of relieve on her face.

Somehow something didn't seem right. Was she hiding the truth? She looked rather weak and sickly. I brushed it off and excused myself to head home. The whole picture didn't look right but would the truth matter? I was determined to finish this errand and move on.

The next day I went to the HR department to look for the person she had told me to. Let's call her Zoe. I thought Zoe would be expecting me but no, she was very surprised. Mystic had actually told Zoe that she would be coming back over the weekend to leave her keys in her drawer so that explained why her immediate colleagues did not offer her any help on collecting those keys. Zoe wanted to know how was Mystic and I told her about her claim on having a fall but Zoe shook her head confidently. Mystic had a reputation for hiding her personal life from everyone so she had kept everyone else guessing about her illness for the past year. However, her MCs revealed that she was going through either chemotherapy or radiotherapy at some clinic and Zoe suspected it was breast cancer. Oh dear… but why would Mystic want to keep such a secret from her colleagues? I also learnt that the company would be ending her contract soon and that Mystic would be retiring as she could no longer be put on the prolong illness leave anymore. Isn't that sad? She wanted to keep her distance and suffer quietly. It has been two days now and I'm still thinking about it. Would hiding the truth really make a difference? I can never understand her intentions….

Weird Dream - The Big Green Scaly Thing and Michael Jackson

I had this dream last Monday night after watching an episode of "The Fringe". This was one of the weirdest dreams I’ve had for 2009 so far. In this dream I was preparing to go to work in the morning. As I was putting on my shoes, I noticed a huge green scaly thing walking past our window but I didn't give it much thought and left the house. Then when I took the lift down and got to the void deck, I noticed a few people standing around looking very worried. They were starring fixedly at the car park. One of them appeared startled when he turned around to face me. He then placed his finger on his lips to indicate that I should not make a sound. I looked out and saw a huge dinosaur, the size of Godzilla, walking around the car park! He was taller than all the HDB flats in the neighbourhood and he looked really mean. Surprisingly, he didn't knock any buildings down or smash any cars. Godzilla didn't sense our presence at the void deck so we appeared to be safe from him.

As I recall, since I could not get to work, I decided to take the lift back up to our apartment to rest. It was Monday and the dinosaur saved me from facing the Monday blues. Hooray! My mother was waiting for me at the door when I emerged from the lift. "Thank goodness you haven't left!" she said. "You could have been eaten by that frightening dinosaur!" Now that wasn't the kind of thing your mother would say to you every morning. (Ha Ha!) Everything seemed so exciting that morning. I turned on the news and learnt that a science experiment had gone horribly wrong at the National University of Singapore and we now have a few dangerous extinct creatures roaming around the island! The government refused to comment further as this is a top secret experiment and everyone is to stay indoors while the Singapore Army and Civil Defense Force try their best to put these creatures down. At that moment a cave man filled the whole TV screen. I couldn't remember what happened in the rest of the dream. In fact when I woke up, I had forgotten all about this dream. It was only when I saw the janitor pushing her cart of cleaning detergents near the loo that I had a partial recollection of this funny dream. Weird huh?

In another dream, Michael Jackson was still alive. I had this dream a few months ago right after his death. In this dream, Michael Jackson was in a wheel chair. I was at some family gathering but I've never seen those relatives before. They all looked so much like me! We were all sitting at this long table having a meal together and Michael was our guest. He looked very Indian with curly hair, slightly darker skin (like his younger photo) and he had some shades on. He was also wearing a black shiny leather jacket and those famous white gloves. Some uncles who were sitting opposite me were trying to impress Michael with all sorts of stories but Michael appeared very shy and soft spoken. Later after the meal, I joined some cousins who were sitting around the garden. Michael wanted to compliment the person who cooked our meal so he asked me to hold his bag while he rolled into the kitchen. The bag he handed me was a 'Cold Storage' plastic bag with a picnic mat inside. I thought what a strange thing to bring along at a party like this. I couldn’t remember the rest of this dream either. Maybe I was thinking of him after his death ….that's it for weird dreams for now. See ya!

Life is a journey and not a destination

This week we received lots of shocking news at work. That brought me to reflect on a PowerPoint slide that I received sometime back and found rather meaningful. I couldn't find that file now but I do remember that it goes something like this:

Life is like a journey on a train. And along this journey we will meet people who will come and go in our lives. Some of these people may board this train and accompany us on our journey along the way. Some may just alight half way through to board another train. Sometimes, we ourselves have to leave this train and board a different one to get on with life. That's life and it has to go on, no matter what.

Many people will come and go in our lives. There'll be those that we may be reluctant to part with and there may be those that we feel relieve to never see again. There may be those who taught us something new and there may those who changed our lives forever. Nevertheless, all these people usually leave us a memory of them and shape our lives. Likewise, we ourselves may do the same for the other people who is travelling along the same route too. Time is irreversible. We should make the most of what we have and what we got before its gone. As Tommy Page once sang, all the bits and pieces of images that we have are like paintings in our minds, faded memories of another place in time. It's something worth reflecting upon…

The Announcement

It was the week after the latest secret office party. The boss wanted to give us an announcement and he planned to do it with a department lunch. A few days before this announcement, there was a lot of buzzing going around the office. There were many meetings and closed door discussions taking place. I sensed that there was something wrong with the mood around the office but I didn't know what it was. The boss's calendar showed that he was meeting a few people for lunch separately. Lots of people were curious about the upcoming announcement. There was even speculation that he just wanted to celebrate his birthday with us but I ruled that out because he was the sort of person who didn't like attention. Some people appeared to know what it was but didn't want to share. "Just wait for the lunch and we'll soon know what it's all about", declared someone who didn't care what was going on. She didn't think it was anything serious.

The day and moment finally arrived. Minutes before the gathering, I had seen him pacing up and down the office nervously. Something wasn't right. We gathered at the staff lounge and waited. There was a huge birthday cake in the middle of the room with the words "Happy Birthday BOSS" on it. Something told me that the cake wasn't part of the announcement. The boss appeared surprised and touched when he saw the cake. As we sang him a birthday song, I felt the uncomfortable mood in the air. He thanked everyone with a shaky voice and began his awkward and strange presentation. That was so unlike of him. His voice appeared shaky and cracking. He showed us a slide with some words all jumbled up and told us about how the brain is still able to interpret jumbled words after some try. Then he spoke about mountains and how fascinated he was about them. He told all of us that we all have our own mountains to climb and we should all find our own mountains to climb if we didn't have one. I wasn't sure what he was getting at. All through the years that we have worked with him, he was known for talking in codes and analogies to us. He was never direct. Most of the time, we could never quite figure out what he was saying because they were always ambiguous. At the end of the presentation, he finally dropped the bomb. He was leaving us and Mr. Suck-the-boss's-ass has been promoted to be his successor. The room was heavy with silence. At that moment, we just simply froze. He tried to sound cheerful as he quickly changed the subject that we should all began our lunch but nobody moved. He seemed surprised that we were surprised. He assumed that everyone already knew about his plans to leave.

Finally but slowly, some of us started heading toward the buffet table. Some people started to approach him. There were people who broke down to cry. I walked toward the buffet queue in a trance. I couldn't believe what just happened. So that explained the buzzing and the many closed door meetings. How on earth did Mr. Suck-the-boss's-ass get promoted? He is one of the members of the group that partied whenever the boss was out of the office. He seemed like a slimy guy. Can we trust him? Will he be a fair boss? His gang was of course happy for him. They've got one of their own who will be sitting at the top. He will be the guy who will determine our bonuses, salary increments and happiness with this work environment. I hope that he doesn't comprise his management role with his personal friendship toward his gang. I really hope he will play fair and not show any favoritism.

The week had too many surprises. Just too many for me to accept.

Secret Office Parties

I was feeling hungry one afternoon as my lunch was already digested by then. I was planning to get a snack from the pantry when my fellow hungry colleague called my extension.
"Psssst! Do you notice that a party is about to take place in the staff lounge?"
"Yeah," I replied. "I sure did."

We had both seen a big cake, probably a birthday cake of some sort, and some boxes of food neatly stacked on the table in there. There was a few people busy laying out the food nicely on the table. The boss had forbidden food to be brought into the lounge but certain people had the privilege to flout the rules. I saw that one guy was busy taking pictures of his colleagues and another lighting the candles on the cake. It was also the umpteenth time that month that a party was being celebrated there. It’s usually the same group of people.

"Do you think it's for the boss?" My colleague was curious because the boss's birthday was indeed coming soon.

"I don't know. But even if it was, I don't think we would be invited." I told her. Most of the people in that room were of the same gang. They're the ones who kissed the boss's ass whenever he was around but took long breaks whenever the boss was out for a meeting. In this office, there was such thing being in or out of that group. Those who were out, didn't like them. Those who were in were proud to be one of them. Being in or out of a group has its privileges, especially when the group has certain people who feel rich with power and use it to gain popularity. There'll always be people who will get away with murder. That's life in this organization.

"Let's not go to the pantry so soon," replied my ever hopeful colleague. "If this was the boss's birthday, I'm sure they would invite us. They have a lot of food in there." As she spoke those words, the group in that room broke into a birthday song. The walls in the office were very thin and we could hear the song loud and clear. However, we couldn't quite make out whose name it was.
"Did you hear the name?"
"Nope"
"Do you think it was for the boss?" I looked up and saw the boss leaving his room and heading for the lobby. He had returned to his room to grab something and leave again. The lounge was totally out of his sight. He had no idea there was a secret party behind one of those walls. "Nope, I just saw him leaving the office. He didn't seem to notice."
"Dang!"
"Yeah, let's get some pantry food."
Life is never fair.

The Proposal

Verdict of the cinema
I watched this show at The Cathay Cinema (theatre 2) on 30th August 2009 at 3.20pm. The movie theatre's great. It has lots of leg room and the seats are very comfortable. The toilets also come with a hand dryer that allows you to watch movie trailers as you dry your hands. I have a good feeling about the place whenever I go there. J You can buy your tickets either at the ground floor, basement or on the 5th floor.

Verdict of the show
The movie was directed and produced by a woman. (Yay!) Overall, the story left me a lasting impression. It was the sort of show that I kept thinking about and reflecting upon for days after the movie ended. The show is very funny and very interesting. It has a similar story line to "The Green Card" but only better.

The main character is a slave-driver lady boss (played by Sandra Bullock) whom nobody likes in the office. Margaret is the chief editor in a publishing company and she has a 'secretary', Andrew (played by Ryan Reynolds) who is supposedly an assistant editor to her. When Margaret's visa expires, she cooks up a plan to blackmail Andrew into marrying her so that she wouldn't have to be deported back to Canada.

The plot has a lot of surprises and twists, a hook factor. At the beginning of the story, Margaret is seen as a slave driver and fearsome boss who is always throwing orders around. As the story progresses, we see a more human side of her and learn to feel sorry for her. Her parents died when she was young and she has forgotten what it was like to be around a family and be loved. So that is why she has turned into a cold person over the years.

Andrew is the good guy who has been taking all her phone calls, doing her errands and even buying coffee for her in the mornings. As Margaret follows him home to celebrate his grandmother's ninetieth birthday, we learn that he is actually a rich man's son who owns several business empires in Alaska. His father wants him to take over the family businesses but he only wants to go to New York to be a writer. As the story progresses, power is transferred to him and suddenly, he is the one who calls the shots at his boss during the weekend stay.

There'll be hilarious moments as they have to lie to his family that they are in love and want to get married. They have no choice but to share the same room and kiss passionately in front of the family. Watch for Ramon, the guy who seems to do almost everything on the island. He's a waiter, exotic dancer, shop assistant and even minister.

The story will have a nice Cinderella ending style. He does actually love her and really want to marry her. I love everything about the story and it's a really, really good show to watch. The story left me reflecting on the plot for several days.

The Skiver

The Monday morning blues were getting heavier. Most of us had to battle the peak hour crowd and drag ourselves to work. Starting the week is never easy. It is so much different from ending the week on a Friday. For some reason, most of us are more productive toward the end of the work week rather than the beginning.

I glanced around the stillness of the office as I turned on my computer. Most people were late as usual. I saw the boss making his usual rounds as he headed out to take the lift down. God knows where he heads to every morning at 8.30am. I wonder what is usually on his mind when he's walking around the office in the morning. Does he make a mental note of the early birds and the latecomers every day? Does he count the number of cups at the sink before tossing them into the bin? Lately he's been having this fetish for trying to make the cups disappear from the sink that's been left around for too long. No matter how many cups he threw away, they just kept reappearing the next morning.

By 9.00am, the row of desks near me slowly came to life with keyboards clacking, CPUs beeping and phones ringing - an indication that work had finally started. At 9.15am I walked past the front desk and noticed that it was still in another time zone. Perhaps that area was an hour behind our local time. The place was still in darkness. It was still Sunday in this part of the office. A dispatch guy impatiently dumped a parcel on that desk and strode off.

At 9.15am, I could finally hear the whirling of the PC behind me. The sound of the flask and the smell of bread and coffee told me that the person behind was having breakfast. Ah, the luxurious smell of someone having breakfast at this hour. The email finally came at 9.30am. It was from the one who had just finished her breakfast. The lady in front was not coming in for the day - again. It was either Laura or Hardy who had to help out and they had done so many times already. They were fed up. The bitching and complaining would come shortly. It was dreadful but there was no running away and there was nothing much I could do. 'Why couldn't Flip-flop lady be in the rotation?', they would ask. They had seen her taking frequent naps, surfing the net, looking at photos and watching videos while claiming to be extremely busy. They simply detested the Flip flop lady. The breakfast lady always turned a deaf ear. Flip Flop lady and Sour faced slob (a.k.a. lady in the front) were her best friends. She would never betray them. Never. This was work not kindergarten, she ran the team like the latter.

Reluctantly I got up to present the problem to her. It wasn't the first time and it would not be the last. It was going to be a waste of energy but Laura and Hardy wanted me to something badly. I saw the look on her face. It didn't look good. She would avoid me if she could. I could tell that she wished that the floor boards below us would swallow her up whenever I came to her with a real life problem of what was happening. "Could you put Flip Flop at the front desk today instead? The others feel they could use another hand." I asked her the forbidden question again. She didn't seem to know the answer to that one though.

"I will look into it," was the famous reply. She needed some time to think as always. (Translation: I hope to escape this one again. Well, I just like to sit on problems and wait for them to vaporize into thin air. Why, is there a problem with that? )
"When would that be?" I asked.
"Maybe I'll let you know next month." (Translation : I'm waiting for the cows to come home. As you know they have four stomachs and they need to eat grass like forever. So that would be like never and then I wouldn’t have to come back to you at all. )
"Can we not wait too long?" (Translation : Is that a cobweb that I see on your face? Oh, there's even a fly caught on it. Eww!)
"I'll get back to you. I'm busy" (Translation : Scram!)

This scene would always be like another ground hog day whenever Sour faced disappeared from work. It was frustrating. Do you know that we actually have people who do not work 47% of the year on the payroll of our organization? I bet you wouldn't believe it but I actually did the math and worked it all out. No kidding! Sour faced lady only worked 53% of the year. Just add the total annual leave, unpaid leave, medical leave, public holidays and weekends and you'll know what I mean. *
Does the boss know? If I told on her, would he believe me? There could be bigger problems with her later too. What about Laura and Hardy? We can't go on like this forever. I'm in a tough situation here. Help me pray for a miracle. God, please show me the way. I really don't know what to do.

* The calculations:
1) Number of days during weekends = 52 weeks x 2 = 104 days
2) Public holidays = 10 days
3) Annual Leave = 14 days
4) Medical Leave ( yes, she actually consumes all of it for the whole year.) = 30 days
5) Unpaid leave = 15 days
Total = 173 days
To work out the % , take 173/365 x 100% and you'll have 47% or thereabouts.

The She-Lecher

I pressed the lift button and waited. The LCD screen above showed that the lift had descended from the 20th floor and stopped on the 16th. Somebody was getting onto the lift on that floor. I glanced at my watch. It was 8.20am. My eyes remained on the LCD screen as the lift slowly descended again and made its way toward my floor. I adjusted my bag's strap on my shoulders and got ready. The lift was finally here. It was time to get moving.

The doors to the lift opened to reveal a rather peculiar looking old lady. She had messy shoulder length hair and glasses that was half way down her nose. I must say she did look like she had a few screws loose in her head though. She stood standing lop sided in the corner of the lift and stared at me patronizingly. I ignored her and stepped into the lift. Little did I know that the lift ride was going to be the longest one ever as I pressed the 'door close' button.

As the lift slowly descended from the 5th floor, I felt a pair of eyes studying me closely. I looked at the old bat beside me and felt extremely uncomfortable with the way she was starring. I saw her eyes run up and down my body slowly. What a sick old lady she was! What is wrong with this lunatic? Oh yeah, she's crazy but isn't she a woman herself? I was wearing dress pants and a long sleeved blouse. There was nothing revealing about it. I tried to ignore her and looked at the lift's LCD screen. It was only the 4th floor but the lift seemed to be taking forever to get down! She whistled and I flinched. I looked at her angrily but she continued to stare lewdly.

Eeeeeeee! I would have liked to hit her with my bag but on second thoughts, what if she was my mother's friend? It's supposed to be normal to have weird people in my neighbourhood but this was one of my worst encounters ever. Yuck! Yuck! Yuck! I made a mental note to ask my mother if she knew any old ladies from the 16th floor when I get home.

I felt so relieved when we reached the ground floor. The she-lecher headed for the nearby shops and I quickly hurried off toward the train station. It bothered me so much that I couldn't stop thinking of the incident for days. She's a crazy old bat, get over it, I told myself but I couldn't. It would be miracle to finally move out of this neighbourhood one day and I would really like to move to a better one. I've always missed our old home. Sigh...

I had a few other encounters with the she-lecher after that. I bumped into her at the void deck once but I quickly walked off and zig zagged among the pillars to avoid her stares. The second time I saw her in the lift again (I had a complete déjà vu feeling of how it was when lift door opened the last time), I gave it a miss and waited for the next ride. I swore I would never get into the same lift with her again. Ever!

I soon developed certain paranoia for this she-lecher. Every morning I would check if the lift stopped on the 16th floor before it stopped on my floor. And every evening when I got back, I would look out for her from a distance so that I could take a different route and avoid her. Gosh! Am I slowly becoming like one of the weirdoes in this place? Please tell me I'm normal!

Ok that's it for this yucky tale of the she-lecher. So until I save up for a better place in the future, wish me luck in avoiding this crazy old bat around this neighbourhood. Eeeeeewwwww!

Year One

Verdict of the theatre
I watched this show on 27 August 2009 at Eng Wah, Suntec City at 3.10pm. (Theatre 3) The theatre was very cramp. The row in front was very close to my row and I had little leg room to stretch my legs in front. Fortunately it was the off peak hour (office hour) and my row was empty so I could turn either to the left or right to stretch. After the movie, My knees felt stiff and it took a while for me to be able to get up and walk down the stairs properly.

The Plot
It's quite a comedy with some explicit jokes. Year One is a comedy about the old testament in the bible with some its stories being stretched and told in rather a creative way. It's about two cavemen Zed and Oh meeting some familiar characters such as Adam, Eve, Cain, Abel, Abraham and Isaac. The story is written by the guy who brought you the Ghostbusters and the one played the role of Splegler ( I can't spell his name but I know his character collects moulds, spores and fungus in that movie).

Verdict of the Movie
Although I had a good laugh in the movie and found the story very creative, it wasn't a movie that left the same impression I had as The Hangover. Perhaps the writer was trying to include too many details into the main storyline. I don't know but it just doesn’t have that much of a wow factor for me.

In this movie, the protagonist's objective is to leave his village and explore the world. Along the way he discovers that world was not flat at all. Somewhere at the beginning of the story, there was some mention that the world is flat and that it rested on the back of a giant turtle in space. Now does that sound familiar? (I'm also a fan of Terry Pratchett's books, hee hee!) The usual boy likes girl but girl prefers someone else line is also included in this movie along with the zero to hero storyline.

I shall give a rating of 5 out of 10 for this movie. It's just so-so.

The Suicide

It was just another day. I was having my breakfast one morning when we heard a very loud noise outside the building. It wasn't unusual to hear loud noises downstairs. Our neighbourhood is hardly peaceful anyway. Sometimes car horns might just sound continuously or there were would be the blaring of car alarms. Even vans loading and unloading stuff in the car park may make a din while they transport their goods to the nearby coffee shop and provision shops. Oh and not to mention, we would sometimes hear the screeching and howling of some aunties and uncles at the Karaoke Corner below because we have a residents corner on the ground floor. We were just used to this noisy neighbourhood no matter what time of the day it was. So although it was just 7am in the morning, we weren't in the least bit perturbed by the loud noise that morning.

My dad was just back from his jog when he announced that somebody had committed suicide. The person had jumped from the eighteenth floor from our block and the police had sealed off an area of the courtyard below with yellow tape and covered the body with a canvas.

I remembered going to work that morning thinking to myself what a miserable neighbourhood this place is. There is always a funeral here every month because there are many senior citizens in this area. I've often wondered when I would be able to move to a better neighbourhood at all.

It wasn't until I got back from work that I learnt the identity of the victim. My heart sank when I heard the tragic story. It turned out to be the old lady who lived on the sixth floor right above us. She was ninety, depended on a walking stick to move around but otherwise she was still looking healthy. I had met her in the lift a few times. She was friendly and tried to make some conversation with me whenever we met. I often felt awkward in front of her because I always never know what to say to someone I hardly know. Nevertheless I stayed polite and replied with a few words and smiled. All that while, she didn't appear to be troubled at all.

According to the cleaner, she had seen this old lady having her breakfast at the coffee shop before taking a lift up to our block. A few minutes later, she jumped from the 18th floor. This old lady had lived with her son who had stopped talking to her for a long time.

Perhaps she was tired of living. Perhaps she was lonely. At 90, most of her friends had probably crossed over to another place by now. But isn't it a waste to end it off just like that? Not many people can make it to 90 years of age. My last conversation with her was just 2-3 weeks before her death. If I had known she was so lonely, if I had known that she merely wanted a friend to talk to, I would have spoken to her a bit more. If only, if only...

Life is unpredictable. Look around you, at your friends and family. Each day is a precious gift from God. Spend more time with your family and friends when you can. Sigh... isn't it sad?

The Hangover

The Theatre:

I watched this movie on Monday, 10th August 2009 at Eng Wah -Toa Payoh at 3.15pm. It has been years since I've stepped into a neighbourhood theatre and the place seemed rather rundown and old. Although it was a public holiday, there were many seats still available during that time. It wasn't the movie but rather the location because my friend who had a caught the same movie in town found the theatre crowded over there.

Summary of Plot:

This story is about four guys going to Vegas to have a bachelors party but end up waking up the next morning with no memories of what happened the night before. The story is pretty hilarious and I would say that this is a guys kind of movie. Nevertheless I had enjoyed the movie all the same.

The groom had invited his two best friends, one a dentist and the other a school teacher together with his brother-in-law-to-be, the underdog character. Unknown to them, the underdog spikes their drinks thinking it is Ecstasy when it is actually Roofus. When the guys wake up the next morning, they find the groom missing, a tiger sitting in the bathroom, a baby in the closet, a tooth missing in the dentist's mouth and a hospital bracelet on the school teacher's wrist.

As the story progresses, the dentist discovers he had also married a stripper the night before, they had stolen a police car and that they had gambled and won $80,000 but the money is missing and some thugs are after them. And to make matters worse, the groom is missing and they have to find him and get him back in time for his wedding. There were many more shocks along the way too. Watch how these guys try their best to retrace their steps and finally remember where they had left the groom the night before. It was quite a laugh.

The Characters:

Bradly Cooper is looking good in this movie. I don't really know the names of the other actors but I know that they are all comedians from other shows. The groom is played by the guy who acted in National Treasure (both movies).

The groom has only a minor role in the movie. You'll only see him at the beginning and the end of the story because he is missing throughout most of the story and the guys can't remember where they had left him the night before.

The underdog character may appear silly and not very smart at the beginning of the story but he'll turn out to be quite a smart guy at the casino where they try to win another round of $80,000 and succeed in order to save the groom whom they thought was abducted by the thugs.

The dentist is this guy who is planning to marry his long time girlfriend who hen pecks him and he has to lie about his trip to Vegas with the guys. During his drunken spree, he ended up marrying a stripper and was challenged by the underdog to pull out his own tooth to prove that he is a good dentist. In the end, this dentist will leave his girlfriend and give it a chance with the stripper.

The school teacher is this guy who is married and has a son. He is the charm of the team and appears to be the 'leader' of the group.

At the end of the story, the guys recover a camera and see the pictures they took the night below. They make a pack to delete the pictures and never speak of the stuff they did in Vegas.

My Views:

Have you ever wondered why of all the nights, guys choose to fool around with women especially during their bachelor party? I mean why bother getting married in the first place if they treasure their single-hood so much? Shouldn't a guy be truth to his wife or wife to be at all times? Trust is important. But these are just my conservative views. I guess Americans are more open minded in such stuff and their brides don't mind. Whatever...

Happy National Day!!!

Hey there, I'm now watching the NDP2009 on television and surfing the net at the same time. So far the show has been spectacular.

Wow!! They're playing really cool music right now.


HAPPY NATIONAL DAY FOLKS!

Cheers.

Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince

Based on a book by JK Rowling
Stars : Daniel Radcliffe as Harry Potter, Rupert Grint as Ron Weasley, Emma Watson as Hermione Granger

I watched this movie on Sunday 26th July 2009 at the Golden Village, Plaza Singapura (2pm slot). I've read all the books and watched all the movies so far. And my verdict for this movie is... the movie's just ok but if you've only watched the movie without reading the book, you would have missed a lot of important details in the story.It's no secret that Dumbledore will die in this episode but don't worry folks, his character will still be around. That's because you'll still get to see him as his ghost and some flashbacks from his past life in the final installment of the series According to the entertainment news, the final book, "The Deathly Hallows" will be shown as two movies. Oh no...it is ever going to end?

For those of you who remembered, the young Tom Riddle a.k.a Voldemort from episode two was played by some red headed guy. In the Half Blood Prince, the young Tom Riddle has a totally different face and black hair. Check him out and those side partings. He looks a bit like Justin Long. (Ha! Ha!)

You will not get to see the Dursleys and Dobby in this movie although they are definitely mentioned in the book. I can't remember if Madeyed Moody was there at all. And even Dumbledore's funeral was omitted from the movie. Yeah, yeah...but nevertheless, the whole movie was still very long. It lasted for nearly three hours or thereabouts. Perhaps they couldn't put too many details in this movie because the book is too thick for that.

If you've already watched the first five movies, you might as well watch the rest of it. Don't forget to read the books as well! My overall rating for this movie is 3 out of 5 stars.

The day the Liverpool FC players came to Novena Square.

It was shortly after 2pm when I noticed that the office seemed somewhat deserted. Lots of people were not at their desks and it was already 30mins past lunch hour. Ah, I suspected it was because the Liverpool FC players were in town and they were right here at The Velocity, which was just below our tower. Then I heard a couple of girls giggling excitedly as they headed toward the lift. I knew where they were heading. Without thinking, I followed them into the lift. As they say, if you can't beat 'em, join 'em.

In the lift, we met somebody from the HR department. "Hem-em, where are you going?" she asked cheekily.
"Where are YOU going ? " Chirped my colleague in a playful way.
"To the ATM machine."
"Yeah, right. And we're crossing over to Tower A. Haha."
The lift stopped on the 15th floor and in walked in another staff armed with a camera. More joined us as the lift headed down. Ok, so we know that half the company could be out there looking for their football idols right now.

The crowd at Velocity was huge. So many Liverpool fans were out there wearing their jerseys and caps. Students, mostly from the nearby St Michael's School, were distributing foolscap papers among their classmates as they prepared to get autographs. It was all pretty exciting. I've never been a football fan and I know nothing about the game except that we see many guys chasing a small ball around a field. Heh heh!

"Torres!" yelled a fan who was sitting on his friend's shoulder to get a view. Lucky him. He was probably getting the best view up there. I could see nothing from where I was except for the many heads and bodies surrounding us and none of them belonged to the Liverpool players at all. I tried standing on tip toe and peering from behind shoulders but it was no use. Me and my colleague tried to worm our way through the crowd but it was difficult. There were so many fans out there and the stage was completely blocked by the throngs of people surrounding the area . The angle of the building and the limited standing space made it difficult to see anything at all. Sigh. I was never going to get a glimpse of them.

I glanced at my watch and decided to give up. Oh well, there was work to do. However, I did learn a name of one of the Liverpool players though.. My colleagues have been raving over how handsome Fernando Torres is. He's the guy with the blond hair and I've yet to take a good look at him. I'd probably have to pay more attention to the news tonight and look up his picture on the net. Haha! Well, the upcoming football match between Singapore and Liverpool will be a most watched event. Will Singaporeans support Liverpool or our home team? Now that's a tough one. Hahaha! As for me, nah…I don't understand football. I'd rather be catching up with my 'zzz's. (snore….)

Sorry folks. I have no photos to share of this event.

Catchy Banner

This is a catchy banner found outside a church in Orchard Road. What a smart way to reach out to the youngsters!

The demise of Michael Jackson

I couldn't believe it when I heard that Michael Jackson had passed away yesterday. I felt so sad and shocked. He contributed so much to the music scene and so many people loved his music. Lots of people tried to imitate his dance moves too.

I remember being a young kid and watching the Grammy Awards on TV with my then teenage sister in 1984. That was the first time I heard and seen Michael Jackson's MTV on "Beat It". It was also my father's favourite song and we used to listen to his cassette tape over and over again whenever we had car trips. Those were the days. I kind of prefer his looks back then compared to his later image when he returned with the Bad album.

Although the strange stuff he did were sometimes controversial on the news, I never really cared because that was his personal life. He had a very protected life and didn't have much a of chance to live like a normal person in the first place.

I also never believed in those child molesting allegations that were made against him. It did look like he was being exploited for his money and taken advantage of for his friendliness with the kids. I'm mean which parent would simply accept a few million dollars in exchange for settling the case just like that? If the molesting had really taken place, and if I were the parent, I'd feel that nothing could undo what was done. A million dollars wouldn't change what was done. But it would just make the family a lot more richer. That's just my opinion here. Anyway, only God knows the truth and He would deal with the real culprit in time to come. After all, dirty money can only lead to dirty endings for the guilty party. If he was really innocent, I wonder how he felt about getting his heart broken by those 2 kids who accused him.

When I first learnt of Michael Jackson's death on the news, I couldn't help but wipe some tears away. I just thought it was too soon for him to pass on. I hope Michael Jackson would rest in peace. I'll keep him in my prayers and I hope that you would too.