number 1: nope i did not lose my noodles number 2: nope i did not change my name to noodles (in the long time i have abandoned my blog)!
it's been a long time since i've had nissin cup noodles and i got a shock when i opened one up today. where were the ingredients?! the chicken mushroom one used to be full of the little egg bits and chicken dices. well, i reckon that it was hidden underneath the noodles and so i poured the hot water in. minutes later, when i lifted the lid, all i saw were the noodles, one mushroom slice and several mini egg bits (note: really mini and really bits!) floating in the soup! the chicken dices which used to be chunky, now looked like chicken dust - taste like dust too (tasteless)! even the stock which used to make the noodles tasty tasted as though i bought "nissin-light" (the healthier version). if ever there is a need for another gentle reminder of the severity of the current recession, my dear once trusty "missin'" cup noodles has provided yet another reality check! the coldplay concert was waaaaay way waaaaay awesome!
Encore - The Scientist/Life In Technicolour II
did i mention that the whole concert was waaaaay way waaaaay awesome? ;)
i know this sounds defensive..lots of you will question if the lack of blog entries recently is due to excessive paktoring..honestly, i don't know where you guys (those who think that way at least) get such incredulous ideas but i have to say that that is almost true! :P mostly i have been just lazy about it..i have lots of things to say and lots of stories to share but not so lots of energy. yep, it sounds like a lame excuse and make no mistake about it, it is!
19 january 2008, saturday this date was significant for two reasons - 1) it was jay chou's concert (please picture that without making me look/sound like a starstruck schoolgirl..maybe a schoolboy but most definitely not a schoolgirl!) and 2) it has been 7 years since karen and first got together.
given that we did not have the best view in the house, we (aileen, apple (leen's friend), karen, kenneth and i) still had a rocking good time at the concert; singing, jumping and waving our hands along to every song, from the newest to the older ones..and ok, i admit, we did that starstruck schoolgirl/schoolboy thing of agreeing to everything jay said..you know when he goes "are you having fun? (in chinese of course)", we go "yeeeesss! (in chinese also)"..but in defense, what was i to do right? it was between being in agreement or risk being hammered by the throngs of jay chou fans!
now regarding the other part about the 7 years, you do the maths..ok we cheated a bit on that 1.5 years when we were apart but then you know what they say "love is never fair game!"..and we are still very much in love! :)
despite all the hype, this movie was not on my must-watch list..this deduction came based on the trailer, i could not find myself interested in the theme..but after several good reviews (including one from my brother who told me "should watch"!), i upgraded the movie status to "try to watch"..then by chance, i won a pair of complimentary tickets from 77th Street for 881! now if you thought i upgraded the movie status again, you are wrong..it was more more a case of "let's not waste the tickets la"! :P
the show was enjoyable enough and i think creating the movie as a musical using getai songs was a really fasinating idea! but that said, certain parts just didn't connect while others were too "artistic" for my liking..i'd say all in all, it is quite a nice movie..but as i had previously thought, it is just not my kind of theme (yes, even though i watched it for free)...
tuesday, 21 august 2007
some things are meant to be..irrational.. just like how i love you.. irrational-lee...
i've heard so much about womad but i've never actually found myself interested enough to attend a single one to date..for those unfamiliar with womad, it is a festival of sorts, a celebration of world music. so what brought us to fort canning park you may ask? well, you can call me a cheapo but the main reason was that karen managed to obtain a pair of complimentary passes!
but our "virgin" experience at womad was a time we will probably not forget! in fact, it was quite addictive..we danced along and we sang along..not knowing a single word we sang or heard in the songs but just hearing the melody, tapping to the beats and feeling the energy made us one with the music..it was quite magical really. if you see me there next year, don't call me a cheapo, i'd probably have paid my way in! :)
the acts we caught: 1. OKI Dub Ainu Band (Japan) 2. Etran Finatawa (Niger) 3. David D'Or (Israel) 4. Clube do Balanco (Brazil) 5. Youssou N'Dour & the Super Etoile de Dakar (Senegal)
despite my love for animated movies, i wasn't really interested in watching this..afterall, a show about a rat who cooks??? sounds downright cheesy doesn't it? i can't even remember when i started feeling like catching this to be honest..probably when karen asked "you want to watch ratatouille?"! but thankfully for me, she did..because it is great! besides the animation, the storyline and the theme all blend nicely together..the pace of the story is just nice, without overcomplicating matters despite there being two main leads, remy (the rat) and linguini (the son of a great chef who cannot cook)..i also liked that the ending was subtle rather than those overdramatic big bang finishes most movies have these days..ok sure the rat (remy) still cooks (oh and he runs the kitchen at the end as well!) but hey it's a cartoon right?
as an added bonus, there is also a short cartoon called lifted before the main course (ratatouille)..it's about this alien who is training on how to abduct a boy..with hilarious consequences..damn funny! it's been an eventful 2 weeks since i last updated my blog..in there, have been extreme downs and extreme ups..there were times i questioned myself with no concrete answers and more questions bouncing back at me..there were times i just wanted to give up..
in the end, i am glad i persisted.. in the end, i'm with you.. and i hope to be with you until the end...
15 jan, monday wanted to do scaling and polishing today but when i called ntuc denticare, they were all fully booked..then elise recommended me this dental clinic in bedok called bedok dental surgery (i know it sounds corny but that's the name!)..painless and cheap she kept telling me..so i braved the rain and went down (it is located behind bedok 85 market)..when i reached, the first sight that greeted my eyes was how 80s the exterior of the dental clinic was..and when i asked, the lady told me they do not have nets, only cash..after i withdrew the money and got back to the clinic to wait, i noticed that the interior probably has not been changed since the early 80s..dirty yellow walls, untiled cement floor, mouldy plastic chairs, chipped ceiling fan (the waiting area is not air conditioned!), aging cupboard behind a counter, rusty metal trays for the patients cards among other things! when i looked around, there were three patients waiting with me and all three were (i am convinced!) over 50! i was cursing in my mind "elise what have you gotten me into!"..i wanted to back out but since she seemed so convinced that the dentist was good, i stayed on..when it was my turn, i went into the dentist room and noticed how sparse it was, it was a big room separated into two by a dirty cloth-type portable partition..the dentist? well he was a healthy looking old man wearing a white translucent tee shirt and black pants (just like one of those void deck uncles!)..i am like "oh my gosh..here it goes!"..but then after everything, it was a good experience! like elise mentioned, it was fast and painless..the uncle, i mean dentist was really friendly and helpful and it was cheaper than most dental clinics as well! so now i have - well, not white - cleaner teeth for my first day at work! cool!
16 jan, tuesday muse so totally rocks! they rocked so hard that i am now a bit deaf (partly due to the fact that we stood so near to the stage i suppose..but it's like upfront leh! so cool!)..sure, it was crowded, it was hot and there were lots of unidentified sweaty bodies rubbing next to each other but it was a helluva time! the band was super energetic and the crowd responded likewise..jumping up and down, hands waving in the air and clapping to the rhythm of every single song that the band played..super duper cool! i went with jingxian and her friends but ended up with jingheng, chinyong and his friend, amanda ..i think she's really cute, amanda..was dancing with her throughout the concert! :) (in case you were wondering, jinx apparently got swept away from me by a "human tidal wave"..i did not abandon her even though it may seem that way!)..oh and did i mention that muse so totally rocks? well they do!
during the struggle they will pull us down but please please let's use this chance to turn things around and tonight we can truly say together we're invincible...
starlight i will be chasing a starlight until the end of my life i don't know if it's worth it anymore...
if you're wondering why i haven't mention anything about my first day of work..it's because there is nothing to mention la..just induction, damn boring lor!
Didn't really know how to feel when yesterday finally came along..for one i had been sick since last wednesday..yes, that's six days (seven, if you considered i haven't fully recovered today!)! But on the brighter side of things, coldplay were finally back in singapore!!
From the moment the band appeared on stage till they took their final bows, both the sold-out crowd and the band were relentless making the one and the half hours pass by in a flash. Every song the band played, the crowd sang along making every single song an anthem in its own right - from the crowd rockers "yellow", "speed of sound", "in my place" to mellower tunes like "what if", "the scientist" and "fix you". While the band was very much a cohesive unit throughout, chris martin so totally dominated the stage with his dynamism! When he was not at the piano, he was prancing from the left to the right to the front and back of the stage..during the ending of "in my place", he ran the full length of the indoor stadium to the sitting area directly across stage, sang while balancing himself off the rails with fans mobbing him and then ran back onto the stage again at the end of the song..jingxian and i were like "he can really run man!" I can't really describe the feeling it was like last night..maybe fucking fanta-bulous is just right..but you'd have to be there to know it! At the end, it was sad when they had to leave but believe me, it was one hell of a night! :)
After the concert, jinxy and i went to geylang to have supper..wah, the bean curd syrup is a killer for the throat man! but who cares..nothing is going to spoil this night for me! Depression? Sickness? Come back another day my dears..addy is with chris martin (and jinxy of course!) tonight..
* For more concert photos, check out jinxy's blog!
someday you will find me..caught beneath the landslide..in a champagne supernova in the sky.. enough said..what a night..
Sunday, January 12, 2003
Jay-walking
My first concert of the year and pleased to say, Jay didn't disappoint. Ok, so maybe he could have engaged in a little more crowd interaction but i'm pretty sure all those screaming meimeis and jiejies didn't mind it one bit!
Arrived at the indoor stadium close to 8pm and the atmosphere was kinda subdued - probably with anticipation! But at around 8.30pm, when the lights went out, the whole place was suddenly littered in yellow, red, green and blue waving lightsticks. The feeling was electric and thankfully (or not!) there were few "screaming banshees" in my section.
The pace of the concert was quick, song came after song with little (almost none!) banter in between. And when Jay disappeared for his numerous costume changes, his backup singers, dancers and some clips on the 3 giant screens suspended above the stage filled in the gap. Some memorable moments of the evenings include the "old man" who appeared at the start of Ye Ye Pao De Cha carrying a bird cage and walking with a hunchback. And when the song kicked in, the old man who seemingly had problems walking, started dancing! That was really worth a laugh! Then there were the clips on the giant screens showing Jay Chou during his younger days playing the piano. While the crowd were glued to the screens and the clips started to fade out, Jay appeared from "below" the stage sitting at the piano playing the same piece that was in the clips. Of course, not forgetting to mention his gorgeous rendition of Faye Wong's Wo Yuan Yi which made me fall in love with the song all over again.
And even though he announced Zui Hou De Zhan Yi as the last song, he came back for two encores! The first to sing his guitar based songs Xing Qing and Hui Dao Guo Qu mixed with light banter with his guitarists and the second time to end the evening with Kai Bu Liao Kou.
Throughout, Jay's energy and unfaltering diction in the slower numbers was matched by the crowd's unfaltering enthusiasm. Pity though, about the interlude where Rui En took over for one song and the crowd took the chance for a toilet break.
Overall, everything made for a wonderful concert. Though, the guy can be a little prone to over-showmanship at times, like his not too convincing cantonese on Dick Lee's Zui but hey! No one is complaining and i sure had a brilliant time! =)
To Jay, let's hope he never stop walking in his musical journey!
