Deflation of $ing Dollar

There has been much hype for $ing Dollar with its aggressive marketing and its star studded cast.

While the first half was fast paced, it was too much of a mish-mash of scenes that it became quite a drag. It was like Selena Tan had too much to say that everything was thrown in like "rojak".

The second half however was much improved. The story was more coherent and each character became more clearly defined as the show progressed. The songs were also much better after the interval.

For those who have been following the Dim Sum Dollies, you will be disappointed at how deflated $ing Dollar is. This is also probably the poorest performance I've seen from the trio of Emma Yong, Pam Oei and Selena Tan. One of the show's few highlights is the highly charged Michael Jackson parody, which drew the loudest cheers from the audience.

Ultimately, the exact things which are appealing about $ing Dollar are the ones which let it down. A case of too many cooks and ingredients spoiling the broth.

civil lives

recently, there was a pay increment..and even though i wished it was mine, but alas it was not to be. rather it was for the people who have sacrificed their lives to serve the country. yes, they are our darling civil servants..without whom, we'd have no rice on our plates (i know singapore has no padi fields but if they don't approve the imported rice, we would have no rice to eat!), no roofs over our heads (we pay for it of course, but if they don't build houses, then pay and pay also no use rite?) and no one to curse at when nothing gets done. don't get me wrong, not ALL civil servants are crap, but when you're on the inside, most will just do as the rest do..basically, nothing!

just a few years back..when i was still "serving the nation", my main job scope was to maintain and repair certain equipment. remember, these are highly important and sensitive tasks upon which our country's freedom depended on!

common scenario
a fault is detected on the highly classified and hi-tech equipment (from another era)
step 1:
officer reports a fault to a specialist a (from department a)
step 2:
specialist a verifies the fault
step 3:
specialist a calls specialist d (from department d, that's my department by the way) to report the fault
step 4:
specialist d verifies the fault (you really need to verify it more than once to ascertain that there is something wrong la!)
step 5:
specialist d calls external vendor to tell them there is a fault on the highly classified and hi-tech equipment
step 6:
external vendor comes down and clears the fault
step 7:
specialist a and specialist d verifies that the fault is cleared (told you we needed to verify it more than once!) and informs officer
step 8:
officer puts down his coffee and resumes normal duties of looking out for faults and singapore is safe again...

if you thought that that sounded like a call center environment, don't even compare..the salary of course!

just a few weeks back, we were holding a charity event to raise funds for refugee children..all donations were to be done via online so no cash was to be accepted..but being the law abiding citizens we were, we thought "better check it out with the charities unit"..and so we did...

i called mcys to enquire if we actually needed a permit for the event and the guy on the other line said have to write in so that he can advise me..over the line cannot advise. and so i wrote him an email. the guy emailed back telling me that we would need a permit..then he followed up with a call (good customer service leh!)...

mcys guy:
have you received my email blah blah blah..everything can be found on the website.
me:
the problem is our event happens within 2 weeks (short of the 30 days application period needed "as stated on the website")..is there anything that can be done?
mcys guy:
sorry..everything can be found on the website. (goodness! am i on gotcha?)
me:
i have already been through the website, that's how i know about the 30 days application period..is there any way to speed up the process?
mcys guy:
in that case, you can send in an application form found on the website and i will help you escalate the case to my superior.
me:
oh, that's great! so how long do you suppose it may take with escalation?
mcys guy:
as stated on the website, it usually takes 30 days...

i seriously wanted to strangle mcys guy right there..i mean, i've heard of word-of-mouth advertising but i never knew mcys was into such an aggressive marketing campaign for its website! but..that wasn't the end...

a few days later, my manager made a call to mcys to verify that we needed a permit..this time, the girl who took the call told us (after checking with her boss apparently) that we would not need a permit from mcys but we needed one from the police..so, we went to the police and enquired..and the police department told us that for such cases, there was no permit needed (the lady even printed out some documents and pointed out the clauses which said so)..fantastic! another few days later, the police called and told us that sorry but in fact we would require a permit..but from mcys...

if you're still wondering why they are paid such high salaries, it is pretty obvious isn't it? honestly they work so hard. when even such straightforward things become so complicated, who's to say they don't deserve their pay increment?

friday, 05 october 2007

The Campaign To Confer The Public Service Star On JBJ
@ drama centre theatre with karen

essentially it is a play taking an alternative (and hilarious) look at the political situation in singapore. acted out by just pam oei (dim sum dollies) and rodney oliveiro, the duo takes on a variety of characters through ultra quick costume changes. the humour while funny at times became sort-of tiring towards the end, or probably karen and i were tiring after a long week...

one joke i remember quite fondly is when rodney played a police officer and he said "nowadays everything is so complicated. this can this cannot. this maybe can maybe cannot. last time was so much easier. everything cannot!"

so let us be grateful for all things that "can", shall we?

magic number 5

friday, 13 july 2007

the dim sum dollies: the history of singapore
@ esplanade with crystal and karen

karen and i have been to every single dim sum dollies since it first started in 2003 at the jubilee hall in raffles hotel..and this year was no different. despite certain "resistance", i persisted and made it to the esplanade! and boy was it worth it! from skits on the guitar playing, corner hiding sang nila utama to the cowardly japanese kamikaze pilots who "pre-ejected" to a certain "lee" (not karen!), the dollies (selena tan, emma yong and pam oei) with their chopstick sidekick (hossan leong) and lo mai guys served up an absolute-"lee" thrilling, humourous and satisfying "pieces of heart"!

and as if to let me know i made a right choice, it was announced that the play had sold out and there would be no further extension! now that..is some really priceless dim sum! ^^

the dim sum dollies in steaming!
(the very first and still the best!)

sunday, 15 july 2007

harry potter and the order of the phoenix
@ gv marina with karen

coincidentally, after our fifth dim sum dollies, karen and i went for our fifth harry potter! even below-average reviews from newspapers and friends did not stop us from wanting to catch this installment of this boy wizard. personally, i quite enjoyed the show..while others have said that it was too dark and serious, but that's the way the story is..the only disappointing part is how the portion in the ministry of magic was speeded up which made the end feel very abrupt.

now awaiting the release of the seventh (and supposedly last) harry potter book..two main characters will die in the book..somehow i do not think harry will be one of them. if i was to take a guess, i'd say snape and voldemort..i quite like snape though! hmmm..

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just finished "tuesdays with morrie" by mitch albom and it's both inspiring and enlightening..the realisation of how shallow the world is and how we are so blinded by inconsequential material things that we forget and forsake what's really important to us..

here, i'd like to share a line from the book which i find really meaningful and i believe true..

Love each other or perish

a midsummer night's dream

that midsummer day

priceless
@ cineleisure with marie

i have always wanted to watch a french comedy for the longest time..but for various reasons, it had always been left as that - a "want". funny then when marie asked me to catch "priceless"..and even more funny that like me, this was her first despite having a liking for french shows too! audrey tautou was at her sensual best while gad elmaleh (the male lead) compliments her charmingly as the love struck jean..the script was both smart and sweet and the cast played out their parts so well that at times, i'd forgotten the show was in french! but after all the brilliant build up, the ending was kind of a letdown..that aside, this has been a quite lovely introduction to french fare! :)

that midsummer night

a midsummer night's dream
@ fort canning park with huiling and yili

The play features three interlocking plots, connected by a celebration of the wedding of Duke Theseus of Athens and the Amazonian queen Hippolyta.

In the opening scene, Hermia refuses to comply with her father Egeus's wish for her to marry his chosen man, Demetrius. In response, Egeus quotes before Theseus an ancient Athenian law whereby a daughter must marry the suitor chosen by her father, or else face death or lifelong chastity worshipping Diana as a nun. The word in this sense is an anachronism. Hermia and her lover Lysander therefore decide to elope by escaping through the forest at night. Hermia informs her best friend Helena, but Helena has recently been rejected by Demetrius and decides to win back his favor by revealing the plan to him. Demetrius, followed doggedly by Helena, chases Hermia, who, in turn, chases Lysander, from whom she becomes separated.

Meanwhile, Oberon, king of the fairies, and his queen, Titania, arrive in the same forest to attend Theseus and Hippolyta's wedding. Oberon and Titania are estranged because Titania refuses to give her Indian page-boy to Oberon for use as his "knight" or "henchman," since the child's mother was one of Titania's worshippers. Oberon seeks to punish Titania's disobedience and recruits the mischievous Puck (also called Hobgoblin and Robin Goodfellow) to help him apply a magical juice from a flower called "love-in-idleness," which makes the victim fall in love with the first living thing he sees when he awakens. Oberon applies the juice to Titania in order to distract her and force her to give up the page-boy.

Having seen Demetrius act cruelly toward Helena, Oberon orders Puck to spread some of the juice on the eyelids of the young Athenian man. Instead, Puck puts the juice on the eyes of Lysander, who then falls in love with Helena. When Oberon finds this out, he makes Puck apply the juice to Demetrius. Due to Puck's errors, Hermia's two lovers temporarily turn against her in favor of Helena. Helena, however, is convinced that her two suitors are mocking her, as neither loved her originally. The four pursue and quarrel with each other all night, losing themselves in the dark and in the maze of their romantic entanglements.

Meanwhile, a band of "rude mechanicals" (lower-class labourers) have arranged to perform a crude play about Pyramus and Thisbe for Theseus' wedding, and venture into the forest, near Titania's bower, for their rehearsal. Nick Bottom, a stage-struck weaver, is spotted by Puck, who transforms his head into that of an ass (donkey). Titania is awoken by Bottom's singing, and she immediately falls in love with him. She treats him as if he is a nobleman and lavishes attention upon him. While in this state of devotion, she encounters Oberon and casually gives him the Indian boy.

Having achieved his goals, Oberon releases Titania and orders Puck to remove the ass's head from Bottom. The magical enchantment is removed from Lysander but is allowed to remain on Demetrius, so that he may reciprocate Helena's love. The fairies then disappear, and Theseus and Hippolyta arrive on the scene, during an early morning hunt. They wake the lovers and, since Demetrius doesn't love Hermia anymore, Theseus over-rules Egeus's demands and arranges a group wedding. The lovers decide that the night's events must have been a dream. After they all exit, Bottom awakes, and he too decides that he must have experienced a dream "past the wit of man."

In Athens, Theseus, Hippolyta and the lovers watch the mechanicals perform "Pyramus and Thisbe." It is ridiculous and badly performed but gives everyone pleasure regardless, and after the mechanicals dance a Bergomask (rustic dance), everyone retires to bed. Finally, as night falls, Oberon and Titania bless the house, its occupants, and the future children of the newlyweds, and Puck delivers an epilogue to the audience asking for applause.
- synopsis of the play taken from wikipedia...

i agreed to watch this play knowing only that it was by shakespeare and that i had watched the movie version before..but i went along anyway not remembering the storyline, not knowing the time or the price! i found out later that it was a "night out" at the park sort of theme as well! interesting...

when we reached font canning park, the first thing that we noticed was the setup..there was no proper stage, a whole maze of planks and lots of pinic mats strewn all around the park..we were to find out later that the whole play was going to take place on those planks. despite our initial skeptism, we got ourselves a pretty good "front row" seat!



it was a truly unique experience having the actors and actresses stomping up and down the "stage" and playing out their roles right beside you..the concept is just so "wow!" despite it being shakespearean, local and modern themes were used at appropriate moments to liven up the play..like the instance where hermia and helena played "lom chiam pass" or where hermia used a handphone in her attempt to locate lysander! some parts were really quite amusing! towards the end, the actors and actresses pulled random members of the audience to join in the bergomask in a chain dance along sort of thingy and..i got asked to dance by emma yong! so cool! ok so i didn't exactly dance with her but i got to hold her hand (well, more of her glove!) for the slightest moment! anyway, it's still so cool la! :)

at the end of the play, i was still so starstruck that huiling kept laughing at me..oh well, this is one midsummer night that i will remember for quite some time! :))

catch up

two weeks have passed and too many things have happened for me to fully put down into words..so here's two weeks in a few words and a few more pictures! :)

friday, 27 april 2007
...company team-building session

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saturday, 28 april 2007
...one-day malacca road trip
...with chris, elise, jingxian, keith and kenneth

lunch was the famous malacca chicken rice balls..
famous, nice to look at but not so nice to eat...

jonker walk is malacca's night market..
we basically ooo-ed and aah-ed from stall to stall..
oh and jinx got herself a new "friend"!

dinner was at this ulu zhi char place which chris, kenneth and jingxian stumbled into on their previous trip..
the highlight was the salted egg chicken..which keith got so addicted to he was scrapping the leaf at the bottom for the crumbs! overall, dinner was pretty good and at just 6 sing bucks per person!

we finally made our way out of malacca and onto the highway around 11.30pm..throughout the journey, chris, elise and i self-entertained and self-amused ourselves with lots of crazy talk and lousy jokes (mainly from chris)..rainy weather meant we only arrived back in singapore close to 4am...

kind of wish we had one more day though..but at least it was fun while it lasted! :) a big thank you to our two drivers, chris and kenneth without whom the trip would not be possible!

all pictures courtesy of jinxy...
for "full-er" account of malacca trip, click here...

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sunday, 29 april 2007
...blithe spirit
this is kind of a play of firsts..

my first play of 2007..
my first at the drama centre theatre at nlb..
and my first with marie..

well, ok the last point is rather irrelevent but three makes it sound more impressive mah! while it was mostly enjoyable and i quite liked the plot twist, it didn't really connect with me fully (probably due in part to my hangover from the malacca trip!)..all said, it is always intriguing to watch pam oei and selena tan in action..they are just so good la!

for "full-er" review of play, click here...

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tuesday, 01 may 2007
...new levi's shoes

this pair of sneakers just shouted out at me the first time i saw them at the levi's boutique in parkway parade the previous day..as luck would have it, my size was out of stock..i was so determined to own them that i made a reservation on the spot (still "the previous day")..and made my way down to the marina square levi's boutique specially just to collect them the very next morning! note: don't expect to see me in them too soon though..i am traumatised..i saw this ah beng dude wear the very same pair of sneakers on the mrt! yucks!

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- caught up -
(more or less)

snippets

1. my dad's birthday at soup restaurant in changi airport terminal 2
- 12 november 2006


2. no "laughing" matter
- the definition of keke

- commonly used by men who pretend to be cute Japanese children on the internet

Player2: llolz pnwned keke
Player3: omg stop it :((((((

- a vagina, the women's reproductive organ

a girl has a keke and a boy has a peepee.

more definitions on urban dictionary, here!

3. my decision

after much contemplation, i've decided to take up the position with manpower singapore over the one offered by the fullerton. it was tough considering that the fullerton had stronger branding and will definitely make my resume look more impressive. but i made my decision based on the learning opportunities that will be available to me and manpower's potential. whatever it is, i'm determined to make this decision the right one! :)

4. jarvis




click here for a review on nme.




5. dim sum dollies

went for the dim sum dollies on friday evening with karen, maurice and christine. still not as good as the first two installments of the dim sum dollies. the appearance of the parking pontianaks was a real good laugh though! :)

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shifting through boxes
looking through the past
relationships that didn't make it
friendships that did not last
familiar names
but so many lost along the way
letters, christmas cards
they once remembered my birthday
of those who remain
we're no longer that close
the innocence of yesteryears
is but a friendly ghost
words betray us
we were supposed to stick together
but we drifted apart
even in perfect weather
but that's just life
bits and pieces we're left with
and if we retaliate
we lose our belief
every envelope recreates
another street in memory lane
even if i could turn back time
i know, nothing would have changed

AD (14th july 2002)

even though we did not reach forever..thank you for once loving me with all your heart..i promise to you that we will move on..and whatever the future holds, only the future knows..just know this, where so many have failed, we have managed to stick together throughout all this time, as lovers and as friends..and i am always grateful and blessed for your companionship! :)

thank you..

super saturday

been quite a super day..went for broadway beng with jinxy in the afternoon..while waiting for her, i went to peninsula shopping centre hoping to take a look at the new tottenham hotspur jersy but it hasn't arrived..along the way i got myself this new drink from spinelli's, choc mint spin..nice..though i still prefer the peppermint one from starbucks last christmas..


we arrived late for the play and had to sit out the opening song..though judging from what we saw on the screen outside the theatre, we didn't miss that much..when we made it in, sebastian was explaining the concept of how the play came about which was quite amusing; something along the lines of how if a beng wants to make it big, he has to perform more than just at seventh month getais, he has to do broadway musicals which, explains the title..the play was a mixture of hokkien and english songs with lots of funny banter in between..besides being quite funny, he has a really solid singing voice! gosh..eat that singapore idols! when he announced the last song, jinxy and i were like "that's fast!" but our handphones confirmed that one and a half hours had indeed passed..so sad..he ended up with a hilarious version of "stand up for singapore"..what i'd like to see is a dim sum dollies vs broadway beng musical! that'd be cool! speaking of which, dim sum dollies will be back in little shop of horrors in november!


after the play, jinx suddenly had this urge for a certain "five star chicken rice" but problem is she doesn't know where it is..so for a few minutes we were like

1) tourists (asking 7-11 store assistants and taxi drivers for directions)
2) game show contestants (calling whichever friend we thought would be familiar with the area) and
3) food hunters (ala mankansutra or those channel 8 ones with bryan wong)

we ended up getting directions from a taxi driver and walking aimlessly down river valley road without knowing exactly where the place was! so we just walked and walked and walked until..we saw great world city! then i realised where she was talking about! it was along a stretch of shophouses where my dad used to bring us for "gai si mee" (sliced chicken mushroom noodles) when i was younger..when i told her my sudden realisation, she said "yeah! correct!"..kaoz..can knock her head siah..as a reward for our persistance and long walk, we had a super filling dinner..more because when we complained about our plate of chicken having too much bones and too little meat (after eating half of it!), the manager changed a whole new plate of chicken meat for us! to digest our dinner, we did what we initially were dead against doing..we walked back to mohd sultan! somehow, when you know your way the walk seems shorter la!

for dessert (yes we had dessert! because jinxy said "there is always room for dessert!"), we went to this place beside her workplace called canele..nice and quiet place to slack and slowly savour the cakes, which despite their "petite" appearances were creamy and rich..we had one called le royale and another coffee one..sinful sinful..we ended up amusing ourselves by disecting the last piece of the coffee cake which was made of (from the bottom up) sponge cake, walnut cream with walnut chucks in it, another layer of cake (chocolate i think) and coffee mousse!



then she had to work..and so i spent the remainder of the evening sitting at the bar at her workplace sipping ice water to rinse off the sweetness of the cakes, occasionally talking to her whilst she whizzed around the bar, heard her boss tell a story about how an angmo held a door for someone and was called a xenophobic in return, watched a bit of the liverpool match before i finally got off my lazy butt and left at halftime..the place was starting to fill up and someone kept reminding me how i said i would leave before the first match started and that since i've stayed i might as well stay until the last match ended! bo ko leng..

now i'm looking at less than 6 hours of sleep before waking for church in the morning, watching click at noon with karen, a football match in the evening and (just maybe only!) dinner out with kenneth, yaling and aileen! i need rest!

Pamdemonium

Went for Pamdemonium last nite with maurice, christine, yingmei and ym's friend (oops! addy forgot people's name again..but it's a chinese name mah..-sulks-)..and it was way cool! I've always admired the way pam oei carried her stage persona so it was interesting to see her being herself (self-declared rock chick!). Though it was mainly her singing with her "explosive" "can band" (with a few corny jokes thrown in for good measure), her energy levels were simply infectious and this got (most of) the crowd alive as well!

The best two parts of the show was when she went into this hilarious indian-accented spoken rendition of "I Will Survive" and "Superwoman"..and when the "can band" (because they anything also "can"..geddit?) all swopped places and the drummer (who is bald) put on a wig to do a mat-rock version of "Smoke On The Water"! The best punchline for me was also delivered during this song when the drummer said "i would like to dedicate this song to..myself and..i hope i like it"!! hahahaha..what the! For $27, this was way worth it! Rock on!

Credits: Picture is taken off Mr Brown's website because i cannot find it on either sistic or esplanade's websites :P

Photograph

Just got home from watching a play by the Singapore Repertory Theatre, A Twist Of Fate with yili, her bf and huiling. Set in the tradition of Agatha Christie, the play is a delicious comedy of twists and turns, false clues and dastardly deeds, set against the backdrop of a Peranakan family in Singapore. This murder mystery musical comedy stars Adrian Pang, Emma Yong and Laura Michelle Kelly (Mary Poppins – Laurence Olivier Award Best Actress 2005) among others performing the music composed by Dick Lee. While the play was good overall, i felt that the performance had the potential to be better. That aside though, the plot and the songs made it a truely truly enjoyable and worthwhile experience. The run ends 4th December, do catch it if you can!

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"when i look back on my ordinary ordinary life..i see so much magic though i missed it at the time.."

Featured song is taken off the 2005 album "Catching Tales" by Jamie Cullum.

Late Entry

Wanted to blog this entry on the 15th of Feb but by the time i got home, i was too tired..ok, rather i was just too lazy =P

Anyway, to begin...
Confessions of Three Unmarried Women - the play directed by Selena Tan - is soooo nice! Sure, there were lots of guy-bashing but well, it's part of what makes it a good play! This hilarious play takes an honest look at getting hitched in Singapore - Why are Singaporean girls finding it so hard to find themselves husbands? Are they too choosy or are the men just getting lousier?

The play begins when Audrey (Melissa Wong), a sweet young accountant decides to marry Robert, a man she met while shopping for instant noodle in a supermarket. Audrey's three friends: Kelly (Debra Teng), the aggressive marketing VP; Patricia (Amy Cheng), the pragmatic school teacher; and Sheila (Suzan Karim), the smart-mouthed doctor with a serious case of marriage phobia are far from being supportive. Through the eyes of these four close friends, Confessions questions the heart's deepest desires and if being single is such a sin, in a humourous yet provocative manner.

After the play, my dear and i went down to the esplanade and it was still so crowded after 10pm! What's with people?! Don't they have bedtimes?! =P Anyway, there was this Malaysian jazz guitarist performing and he was good! Think his name is Jason Wang or something Roger Wang. Stayed around until close to 11pm and just before we were about to leave, he played a jazz version of Emil Chau's "Ming Tian Wo Yao Jia Ge Ni Le"! What's with the marriage thing tonight?! -addy looks up to heaven and wonders-

..Next day (16th Feb), read online that the Man Utd vs Arsenal match - which my gf and i were cursing about missing due to the play - was a scrappy and dull affair. It made the previous night seem even more worth it. Maybe heaven does have eyes watching over us...sometimes...

Before i forget..here's wishing all my friends and pals and whoever reads this blog a belated HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY! =)

Singing In The Rain was not too bad..but not too good either. of course that's comparing it with Phantom of The Opera and Les Miserable! Overall the casting wasn't exactly strong..i love Cosmo (is that how you spell his name?!) though..he's so cuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuute! =P and i loved it when Don Lockwood kicked water off the stage! that was good..though some guy in the front row apparently got angry. it seemed his spirits were terribly dampened! lol...

spent (virtually) the whole night at the beach with kenneth and yaling talking cuz i was feeling down..then it had to rain! and trust me, it was not so much fun freezing in the rain!! well, not exactly in the rain but we were freezing nonetheless (exept kenneth whom i suspect is beginning to lose his sense of feel!).

6am..came home amidst the heavy downpour..been a day of irony for me..mind is very blank now..and that Hanson song keeps replaying in my mind isn't it strange/ how we all feel a little bit weird sometimes?..