Exclusive Channel 5 Movie Marathon 2007

Last friday, I received unbelivable news. Mediacorp had sent me an email to inform me that I was one of 42 lucky people chosen to attend the exclusive Channel 5 movie marathon on 24 Feb 2007. How flattering, especially considering the fact that so many people took part in the contest. Yet, they shortlisted me!!!

The invitation via email

The winners were each entitled to bring one guest along with them. My cousin wanted to go, so I asked her along.

Anyway, so the day came and we went to the Cathay for the exclusive movie marathon. Ahh you know, I really like the word "exclusive". There were a total of five movies to be screened, including Babel, The Queen, Letters From Iwo Jima, Notes On A Scandal & Dreamgirls. All of which were Oscar-nominated movies.

Babel's plot was very good, but the camerawork was too "shaky" for my liking. At times, the camerawork got so bad I felt dizzy. The Queen was fairly good, and the directors managed to inject moments of humour into the story even though the story was meant to be serious. Great performance by Helen Mirren, if you ask me. It's never easy trying to act as the Queen of England, but I thought she pulled it off very well.

Letters From Iwo Jima - that's my favourite! I've always loved war movies and it's even better when the story is told from an unusual POV, this time from the Japanese's. There's a magic about the movie I can't quite explain... maybe you should watch it for yourselves to see what I mean!

Then it just went downhill from there. Notes On A Scandal and Dreamgirls were not exactly movies I'd say I've enjoyed. Don't get me wrong. I think they're great movies, just that their genres did not really appeal to me. These movies would definitely appeal to moviegoers who enjoy movies with a lot of drama, music and information-drenched conversations. Notes On A Scandal had a complicated plot. It was very heavy-going and had lots of talking without much action. Dreamgirls... err well, let's just say musicals aren't my type of movie.

By the time the movie marathon ended, it was already past 9pm. Well, at least everyone who stayed had something to cheer about - a bag of movie premiums for each and every movie maniac!

The bag of movie premiums

Overall, I thought it was a great experience. Thank you for the invitation Channel 5! Your ESP are so much better than those LCCSP. What's that? Now, you figure it out yourselves!

Chinese New Year '07

The last time I wrote, the 4 day break had finally arrived.

Today, the 4 day break is almost over. Time seems to fly by when you're enjoying yourself, doesn't it?

On Saturday night, I went to my paternal aunt's place with my family for reunion dinner, as we usually do every year. We enjoyed a steamboat dinner... no no no, let me correct myself. They enjoyed the steamboat dinner. Not me. Steamboat dinners are bland, tasteless and utterly revolting. Luckily for me, they made curry and other yummies too so I was not too turned off by the steamboat dinner. :p

After dinner, I met up with Jason and Sherlyn at East Coast's Coffee Bean. To say we went there to chill-out is an understatement. It was crazy. We spent what, some forty bucks on drinks and pastries? Heck, and when I got home, I realized it was already around 2am and that meant I had missed the live telecast of the FA cup matches! Nothing else up so off to bed!

Sunday 18 Feb 2007. First day of the first month in the lunar calendar. I woke up quite late today actually, at 11am or so. Made my way to my maternal grandmother's home. This was where I collected the majority of my ang pows. While there, my grandmother prepared food for everyone, the adults played mahjong, and a bunch of us watched the "Step Up" DVD my cousin had brought from home. Good movie I'd say. Will definitely appeal to dance fans.

After dinner, some of us decided to go visit my 3rd aunt's new home, which is kinda far away from where we live. Hadn't had the opportunity to visit her new 6 room flat before today. My aunt bought it at quite a steal I thought, at around $330k. A 4 room flat in the prime areas easily cost that much these days, so what a deal for a 6 room flat!

Then, just like a rush of blood to the head, my cousins decided that they wanted to catch a midnight movie. I wasn't too confident about being able to get tickets though, on a night where you'd expect many people to hang out late because they didn't have to work the following day. Fortunately, however, one of my cousins had a credit card and we therefore were able to pre-book the tickets online.

The movie we decided to catch was Protege, a Hongkong film about heroin. Heroin abusers, heroin traffickers, heroin whatever. And it was so-so. My cousin drove me back to my maternal grandmother's home after the movie, and I spent the night over there.

The next day was the 2nd day of CNY. Despite being extremely tired, I managed a fitful sleep at best and woke up around 9am. Went to MacDonald's for breakfast with some relatives. When we got back, we played cards until late evening. After dinner, it was time to go home. 2 days had passed just like that - so quickly, so swiftly.

Today, I'll be going for a BEC gathering at John's home. After which, I'll be visiting my paternal relatives. A long day ahead, if you ask me!

A Small Celebration

Let me say it for myself. And let me say it for everyone.

....... The 4 day break is finally here!!

And the fever didn't just start today. Though we had to work on Friday, I could see that nobody was really in the working mood. I think it will be worse when we get back to office next Wednesday. Oh well, why talk about it now.

Had a CNY lunch celebration with my colleagues on Friday at Sushi Tei. Sorry, no pictures though. Didn't bring my camera along!

We ordered the usual stuff plus 2 plates of 'yu sang' (don't know how to translate this into English!). Thought the 'yu sang' was kinda costly at almost 30 bucks per plate including service charge and taxes. A bunch of us played some silly but funny game while waiting for the food and the losers had to eat a portion of the wasabi.. woah!!

Anyway, we left the office before 12 for our celebration at Raffles City and only came back around 3. That's a good THREE hours for lunch! And that's because we spent two good hours cracking jokes. Was supposed to go dutch but our supervisor paid for everything eventually.

So thank you boss and a very happy new year to everyone out there!

Snowy's ONE Year Old

Snowy turned ONE year old on Wednesday. And guess what day that was? Valentine's Day!!! Yes, this sweetie was born one year ago on February 14. And I'm not kidding - it's stated on her cert.

So although many people celebrated Valentine's Day with their spouses or spouses-to-be, we celebrated Valentine's Day with Snowy. She loves eating apples so I bought some apples and bananas for her. My sis also bought some pet food for her. Bet she was having the meal of her life!

Sore Losers!!!

PATTAYA, Thailand, Feb 7 (Reuters) - Thailand have escaped disciplinary action following their walkoff protest in the first leg of last week's ASEAN championship final against Singapore, the ASEAN Football Federation (AFF) said on Wednesday.

The AFF have reprimanded the Thais, however, after the entire team stormed off the pitch to protest a dubious late penalty.

The furious Thais sat on the sidelines for 15 minutes before eventually returning to the field, only for Singapore to convert the spot kick to take a 2-1 aggregate lead.

Singapore secured a 1-1 draw in Sunday's highly charged return leg to win 3-2 on aggregate and take their third ASEAN championship title.

'There was a lengthy deliberation on the facts of the case and the Committee decided that there was evidence of dissent on the part of the Thailand team and this resulted in the delay of the restart of the match,' the AFF said in a statement.

'Having regard to the facts produced at the inquiry, we are of the opinion that reprimand would be fitting punishment in the circumstances.'

Worawi Makudi, secretary-general of Thailand's soccer association (FAT), said Thailand respected the AFF's decision.

'The tournament is our tournament, as part of the ASEAN family, and we want to make it better and to be without any problems,' Worawi told Reuters.

The penalty incident caused outrage in soccer-mad Thailand, prompting thousands of Singaporeans to cancel plans to attend the return leg for fear of reprisals.

Thai newspapers had launched scathing attacks on the Singapore team, dubbing them 'cheats' and 'robbers'.

The incident came amid growing bad blood between the two countries following last year's $3.8 billion takeover by Singapore's Temasek of telecoms giant Shin Corp, which belonged to the family of ousted Thai prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra.

Thailand's coup-installed government recently suspended a nine-year exchange programme with the city state and tore up an invitation to its foreign minister after Thaksin was the guest of a Singapore cabinet minister.

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Someone tell me why these kids escaped punishment. If it had been a match in some professional European league, they would have been called up for a disciplinary hearing, fined heavily or have league points deducted from them. We see so many controversial decisions being made week in week out in professional competitions such as the World Cup, Premiership etc but you don't see many people behaving the way these kids did, do you?

Thai newspapers had launched scathing attacks on the Singapore team, dubbing them 'cheats' and 'robbers'.
What cheats? Our player didn't even dive. He got pushed and the referee pointed to the spot. Such accurate reporting! Third world standard! If there's someone you need to blame, blame the referee. Besides, I do not think Singapore's robbery rate is very high. In fact, it seems yours is much higher. And you do not just have robbers of money, mind you, but robbers of parliamentary power as well. So you tell me now, who's the real cheats?

'The tournament is our tournament, as part of the ASEAN family, and we want to make it better and to be without any problems,' Worawi told Reuters.
Don't give me that bullshit about wanting to make it better and without any problems. Fact is, your team already created a big hoo-ha, a big problem by walking off the pitch the way they did.