The following day it was pretty much an easy day for the two of us. Given the surprise Blue Party just the day before the Chief tried getting us to spill if there was another party in store on Saturday. We honestly told the Chief that there was no such party planned, but neglected to mention that it was because we were taking the Chief for a dinner at Hard Rock Cafe, somewhere the Chief always wanted to try.
Wasn't an easy task given that we've been telling the Chief that we wanted to go on a shopping spree that particular weekend, starting with Bangsar on Friday, KL on Saturday and about Damansara on Sunday. The Chief suspected a birthday party to actually happen on Saturday, and when the surprise happened on Friday instead the Chief was a bit off-guard and had to just play along for the following days, heh.
We guess the Chief wouldn't have suspected much if we managed, as planned, to go shopping around 3pm for a few hours before deciding to head elsewhere for dinner - HRC's a bit out of the way at Concorde Hotel and not walkable from Bukit Bintang.
Unfortunately for us we only ended up leaving to shop at Sungei Wang around nearly 6pm. With dinner reservations made for 7.30pm, we only had a hour or so to shop before we had to bugger off to HRC. We ended up walking about Sungei Wang for a bit before heading over to Lot 10 to check out California Fitness at the 8th floor, then heading back to Sungei Wang to leave.
Heading to Bukit Bintang with intent to shop, only to leave after and hour? Definitely suspicious. Whatmore even so when we turned down the Chief's offer to eat at KFC located oh so conviniently at the lower ground floor of Sungei Wang, instead giving the excuse that we had cravings for something Western (oh we told the Chief that we had cravings for mango sticky rice dessert on Friday).
So the Chief suspected something after we'd left Sungei Wang, but decided to go along and see where we'd planned for dinner. We even tried to distract the Chief while on Jalan Sultan Ismail, where as we were about to drive past the Concorde Hotel and Hard Rock Cafe, we pointed to some random spot away from HRC, telling the Chief that there was some Chinese restaurant of note to look out for. We made that bit up about the Chinese restaurant, but it turned out that there actually was a Chinese seafood restaurant, but it looked like it had closed down for a while now.
After we parked at the Concorde Hotel, the Chief casually asks if we could eat at HRC. We told the Chief we'd do so next time, we were eating at the Japanese restaurant U-Zen in Concorde for now.
We then directed the Chief with a slightly disappointed-looking Chief towards Hard Rock Cafe and away from the entrance of U-Zen (which was just next to HRC), and was led to our reserved table.
Good dinner. HRC didn't let us preorder for just two people so instead of ordering what we already had in mind, both of us looked through the menu in case there was something else the Chief was interested in instead. From the initial order of the Grilled Salmon Steak and Hickory Smoked Bar-B-Que Chicken, we ended up with...
The Jumbo Combo. From appetizer to main meal. The Hickory Smoked Chicken Wings was spicy and head us sweating a tad, the Tupelo Chicken Tenders good, the Spring Rolls smelled of Indian spices and the Onion Rings...well, we love our onions raw and so in this case the onions didn't do much for our tastebuds. The 4 sauces (Thousand Island, probably mayo, sour cream and ketchup) weren't used much, instead we obtained a bottle of chilli sauce, heh.
Our salmon fix, the Grilled Salmon Steak. Yummy.
It was still Happy Hour when we arrived so we got 2 Long Island Teas for the price of one!
Am getting the Chief to start collecting Hurricane glasses from different cities instead of the HRC City T-Shirts. After all, we've already started with a Hurricane glass from Barcelona!
Early into the month and we thought, "Great, let's start planning for the Chief's birthday early."
Then we had a look at the calender and went, "Shit, forgot we're going Genting on the birthday weekend! Need to hold it much earlier!"
Thus we hurriedly started sending out the invites, hastily made using the Comic Touch and HiCard Suite apps for the iPod Touch. And came up with something like this:
This is the front cover for all invites (except that instead of a hand-art peacock it was a picture of the Chief)...
This one for the bloggers...
Then there's one more for the guys (TTDIans? Taman Tun-ites?)...
As last year we only managed cake and drinks with the bloggers, this year we've decided to have a dinner party. We certainly cannot remember what made us choose Basil Thai Nudle Bar ofr the venue, save that we wanted it to be somewhere out of the city centre due to after-work traffic. Friday night in Bangsar seemed like a probably spot (not to mention that it was near enough for us to set up the party!).
And so, we had three birthday party projects to juggle. Firstly, Project Blue Party.
We actually made a few trips to Bangsar Village to get this ready!
There was the concern about the venue - we've dined at Basil before and remember that they didn't have tables set out for 15 or more people. Which, based on our initial emailing list, was the estimate number of guests should everyone confirm their attendance.
After confirming that they would have the space for 18 confirmed guests, we preordered the food - instead of everyone ordering a la carte dishes, we chose an easy menu to feed everyone, also so that they could prepare it all beforehand, ready to serve once everyone was settled in.
Then we somehow got it into our head that we wanted decorations, and remembering Balloons & Bouquets was nearby, we headed there to enquire regarding their prices for helium balloons. While in the store we sort of wandered a bit and started looking around at party favours such as horns and whistles and clappers and all sorts of noisemakers, save poppers - we didn't want to shock people in a restaurant when a popper goes off.
Anyways, we resisted the urge to turn the dinner party into somewhat like a kiddy garden party, complete with paper hats and such and just stuck to balloons. Instructions was that the helium balloons to be in two shades of blue (initially dark blue and white but then we saw a light blue shade).
We left Basil to manage the table decor, having no time to go get blue paper napkins and confetti for the table.
We'd been to Delicious, Baskin Robbins, Marmalade...couldn't find a satisfactory birthday cake. Bisou's cupcake prices and Haagen Daaz's cakes were out of our budget, unfortunately. So it was rather timely that Adrienz happened to be asking us for feedback regarding the branding for his sis' cupcakes. And so we decided to get cupcakes from Adrienz for the birthday! Small bite-sized cupcakes that wouldn't be too filling after dinner, with directions to have 'em decorated in blue.
Heh. We told Leggie about having the tables and chairs covered in blue cloth, and he aptly says, "Oh my god. Poisoned in Blue."
Come day of the party, we'd sped off after work to head to Bangsar Village, rush to Basil to meet with Adrienz's sis to collect the cupcakes, rush out to Balloons & Bouquets to get the balloons, walked back through Bangsar Village and to Basil to tie a balloon to each chair (we would very much like to have some tied to the chairs and some floating above the table but we have this rather cynical thought that they might find their way into somebody else's hands), then rush off to fetch the Chief, telling him we were late as we were held back by extra work.
After taking the Chief on a slight goose-chase about Bangsar Village with us claiming that we wanted to shop, we slowly made our way to Basil. Arriving at the entrance of Basil the Chief didn't even suspect a thing because our party table was out of sight, and when the Chief saw the table the Chief initially thought that there was another party going on and wanted to avoid it!
Suffice to say that the surprise work! Once again, thank you everyone for making time to come and celebrate the Chief's birthday together! Let's have plenty more to come!
Now this has been something that the Klangite guys, once introduced by the Eurogames Evangelist 'Nic, always enjoyed. Admittedly this game is fun to play anywhere, but when we're all up in Camland (well we only remember the Camland trips and not the rest because we've never been able to make the more recent trips, unfortunately) and you've got an apartment full of guys with no city distractions...well, this was something everyone could immediately have fun doing.
And now, it comes in a brand new packaging! We've been asking for it in a few stores already but it's always been out of stock due to its popularity. We actually would have just settled for the starter set but well, the new pack has everything for a good price and looks impressive. Take a look at it compared to our iPod Touch. Impressive, no?
And it's now very aptly called Bang! The Bullet! Very muched shaped like a shiny one too.
And inside it we find all the Bang! expansions for the game! All still currently in their packaging as we consider laminating everything as soon as possible before we start playing. And of course, we've got to start refreshing our memory of the rules of the game.
What's Bang! about? Think Werewolf/Mafia, but with more structure and using cards. The game has the Sheriff and his Deputies against the Outlaws, with a Renegade thrown in in bigger crowds to further confuse everyone! If the Outlaws and the Renegade dies, the good guys win! If the Outlaws kill the Sheriff, they win! And the lone Renegade, if he slyly gets everyone else to kill each other and emerges the sole survivor, he wins!
And from the looks of the cards and the rulebook, the icons have been updated. Still, we wonder if we'll be playing many games with the expansions, especially A Fistful Of Cards. The last time we tried playing with that expansion it became far more difficult.
Ah well. Another game to our collection! Bought this when we happened to be passing by a store in Bangsar Village and just casually asked while looking Magic: The Gathering Planechase cards. Almost ended up buying not only Bang! The Bullet! but was sorely tempted to throw in a couple of Planechase decks too!
Control...breathe...best get a couple of starters to reintroduce the Chief to the game, and with the new Magic 2010 rules.
Wee Wog settled herself nicely on Young Master's quilt and leaned on the bolster. The air in Young Master's room is cold, everything on the bed is soft, so she'll just sleep while Young Master goes about doing what he needs to do - after all, he just came back, and now that they've played a while, Young Master will go and B-A-T-H in that room with water before sleep time.
There's the sound of water gushing in the white water bowl. There's that raining sound. Wee Wog shuts her eyes and rests.
Young Master comes out from the other room, and soon will come to bed! He'll open up the quilt so that the quilt can double up as a nice soft mattress and to cover Wee Wog from being too cold at the same time.
Oh, Young Master has gone back into the room again. And there's the sound of water gushing into the white water bowl again. And the raining sound.
Young Master comes out from the room! Sleep time! Young Master gets into bed. Open blanket! Open blanket! Wee Wog peeks out through slits from her eyes without moving, it's very comfortable. Much more comfortable here compared to her box.
Young Master is not opening the blanket...Young Master is getting out of bed and going back into the room again.
Young Master is out from the room. Hmmm he's going in again...oh he didn't close the door this time. Hmmm is Young Master going to drink from the water bowl? Oh, what's that noise Young Master is making?
---
So the whole of Saturday night till Sunday morning was spent purgin' and regurgitatin' dinner and after-dinner vodka. There was some food poisoning or stomach bug from our dinner at Paddington's, which amounted to our stomach having zero solids before hitting the alcohol.
Talk about a bad combination. The alcohol made our situation worse as we ended up heaving just so to get rid of the alcohol from our body faster. Everytime we thought we could crawl into bed and try to sleep we ended up heading back to our toilet...it wasn't a very pretty sight. By 6am we were thinking whether we should get our stomach pumped to make it easier, but decided against it. By 7am we were exhausted and our stomach wasn't any better - but we've pretty much almost empty out everything.
That, and a mild fever with body aches, meant that Sunday was spent in bed after stuffing ourself with Panadols and iModium to keep everything at bay.
We were done installing the iPod Touch software 3.1.1 today when we were thinking of a new wallpaper for the iPod Touch. So for something different we recalled something we saw in Magic: The Gathering's Arcana section and decided to give it a shot.
Headed over to Wordle's and plunked in our blog address, and came up with this.
We even printed it out to probably use as a folder cover or summat. But a white background wallpaper on the iPod Touch just would do, so we made another one with black.
So now our timetable's getting more packed whatwith three YKLS rehearsals a week at KLPac. Our gym schedule has been juggled from it's usual Monday slot onto a more fixed Tuesdays, Thursdays and/or Fridays, and Sundays, although this means that every day's spent out till late without often going home early for dinners or even for a night spent home doing nothing. Unless we needed to head home to pack for the gym, and end up napping a while before heading to the gym and then it ends up too late because we'd slept for over 2 hours...
Not to mention, if so happens if anything pops up, it'll be our gym time that we have to forgo.
Interestingly this year with a different director, a choreographer, and someone to teach us breathing exercises to boot for the upcoming YKLS production, we're bound to have some form of workout every week!
On our gym days, we'll be mucking about at the resistance machines and the free weights. We're cutting down a lot on our cardio classes (FCI has already complained that we don't go for his classes any more) but interestingly enough we don't seem to be missing much of BodyJam nowadays too...we attribute it to the fact that the choreography isn't as fun as a couple of years back. And it's rather a relief to be able to work out anytime without having to beat the jam just to make it in time for classes too.
And on rehearsal days...we're brutally abused by our choreographer who makes us all do Yoga stretching exercises.
We're definitely past our prime for Yoga. Our hamstrings, they scream like a violin in untrained hands.
So it looks like we'll be looking at a timetable like such:
Being an OC is not an easy job when it comes to planning for a big group, as lad tried to get everyone to confirm attendance and agree on venue and dates for ethancya's and Lemon's birthday celebrations. Still, he did a great job pulling off not only a yellow-themed porky dinner at Karl's Beisl for the August boys, but the same gang headed for the Skytrex Extreme Challenge in Shah Alam the following morning!
From suggestions of going for a quick trip to Serendah, to caving in Seremban, a quick suggestion at paintballing, finally to Skytrex which was first suggested in April...
Lad: I called Skytrex Lady and she says we have to book online and PAY online at the same time. So we have to confirm who's coming asap. There are 3 courses, Big Thrill would be our target but it seems to be almost fully booked with 6 slots left. We could probably go for Little Adventure, then rent some bicycles (we can teach esteban and Puddy) to relax the rest of the day with nature. I'll bet all the ex-Scouts will be looking forward to sitting on the grass relaxing under a shady tree with the birds, ants, snails, slugs... :P Puddy: EXTREME CHALLENGE :) Janvier: EXTREME CHALLENGE even if we will regret it later.
So yes, we admit it was us who'd got everyone going through a slight gauntlet of pain, but when we thought about it, it was better to have done it now while we're still able to! And yes if Big Thrill had enough slots for our group we would have opted for that for our first Skytrex experience.
Everyone was enthusiastic about Skytrex, even after Puddy had sent us all a link of someone else's experience at the Extreme Challenge to help mentally prepare us for what we were about to face. And as there was a picnic area set up at Skytrex, Puddy started planning for our picnic! She'd prepared sandwiches, and others prepared pasta salad, egg mayo, drinks and ice!
Leaving TTDI early in the morning at 7ish and arriving at Taman Pertanian Malaysia in Shah Alam with nary a problem, well at least no problem for those of us coming via the Federal Highway as there were road signs in addition to the map we'd printed out. Those who came via the NKVE had a bit of navigating to do as Skytrex didn't give directions from the NKVE.
Everyone met up at the car park, and Puddy fed everyone else (who wasn't in the same car as her) breakfast sandwiches, much to everybody's joy. Skytrex on an empty stomach, especially when we've opted to go for the circuit that demanded a lot, is a very daunting task. When it was time to board the bus to head up from the Taman Pertanian Malaysia's entrance to Skytrex, we were the only group who had brought along not one but TWO ice boxes!
At Skytrex, we'd bought our RM3 gloves, shared for two lockers to dump all our valuables, had our harness strapped on, and were ready!
After a quick introduction to the what-to-dos and the our-record-is-still-clean-let's-keep-it-that-way (when enquired if anyone died haha), a demonstration and a practise run, off we went to start the Extreme Challenge.
Which involved us all climbing up a ladder more than halfway up a tree, about 17m high? Looks easy, but we learnt to dislike the ladder being made from half of a PVC pipe - it makes good footholds, but if it wasn't for our gloves we would have found ourself slipping from the ladder with sweaty palms after a while! Halfway up and we felt that gravity has some sort of grudge against us.
Once up on the platform, it was time for our first flying fox! While waiting or climbing up the tree to the platform, we could hear far-off shrieks as people zipped past on said flying fox, adding to the excitement. And once atop on the platform there's the initial jellylegs we slowly got used to being high up.
Not that we're afraid of heights. We're ok with heights, but our body tends to remind us to be a bit respectful when we're rather high up in the air. It's the heights we should be afraid of, our body'll go. It's not so much falling that we also should be afraid of. It's the landing smack into the ground that must not happen.
After zipping through a couple of flying foxes, we got used to the safety routine of locking our carabiner and pulley onto the safety cables. The flying foxes helped take the height off our minds too. Then came the other obstacles that tested our upper body strength.
Our first (non-flying fox) challenge involved suspended logs to walk across, with a cable above to steady ourself. That was easy, and we traipsed easily enough until we reached the middle, where the whole thing started swerving about. Caught off-guard we had to stop to steady ourself before continuing at a slightly more cautious pace, and slowing down a tad at the end as the logs tilted to the right.
This obstacle itself made it clear that there were no extra advantages for being tall or short...if you were short, ladder climbing might be a tad longer and you'll feel the stretch in your arms reaching for certain cables, but someone as tall as ethancya was almost squatting as he went across!
Monkey bars came next, and then a short rope swing, before the (to our opinion) toughest challenge of the entire circuit. We're not sure what it's called but it consisted of horizontal tubes suspended by ropes to look like swings.
This was one effing challenge as we were swinging back and forth trying to get our balance when moving from one tube swing to another. We were shouting profanities throughtout that obstacle that we forgot children might be cycling some 22m below. That bit really needed balance, upper body strength and patience.
We wish we'd brought our iXus along, but with the battery flat from photo-taking the night before during the birthday dinner, and us worrying that we might just drop our iXus while up in the trees, we'll just have to depend on others for photos this time around.
After the tubes, there was the V-ropes, more flying foxes, tightrope walking (with supporting cable heh), more ropes, more cables, more ladders...but all of them comparatively easier than the tubes bit where we cussed nonstop.
We reached a point where there was an instructor idling by on a platform where the circuit split into two again. We casually mentioned, "We're not gonna ask you how many more obstacles are there..." when he replied, "This is the last one. Do you need a demo?"
Consisting of ropes and tube platforms we were suppose to swing our way to freedom. Easy to say but took a bit of figuring out how, as some basically jumped across while holding on to the ropes. That done with, we reach the exit!
Somewhere midway through the Extreme Challenge we'd completely burned off breakfast and was thinking of glucose tablets and a nice icy-cold 100 Plus. Coming down the exit Germ quickly warned us not to slide down as she took photos of everyone. Seems like someone actually slid down the exit and Germ scurried away before she was barrelled into.
After the Extreme Challenge, our picnic was a very welcome sight! Icy cold cans of 100 Plus and mineral water, kept chilled in iceboxes filled with water and four bags of ice from 7-Eleven, sandwiches with tuna and ham and tomatoes and the likes, pasta, fishballs...Everyone was indeed happy campers.
Will we be doing this again? Probably for the Big Thrill! Once more, a big thank-you to our OC for organizing this and to all who contributed to food!
Now usually all our desktop PC activities take place at night between the hours after dinner and before sleep (or, if we have any DVDs to watch, before we get the telly). That's when we transfer photos from the iXus to the hard disk, rename photos, check the iTunes Store for free stuff, sync the iPods, blog, play games etc.
Granted, time for the PC nowadays is tighter as rehearsals do take a good chunk of our time that when we're back home we've normally only time to shower, rest up a bit, check out online stuff via the iPod Touch, then sleep.
But not since we've open the box.
Last year we were introduced to Professor Layton and the Curious Village, which had most of us solving puzzle after puzzle while in Camland, and recently, the sequel, Professor Layton and the Diabolical Box has finally been released! With yet another 100+ puzzles to solve, this game has definitely been monopolizing our nights, and combined with the fact that we do our online surfing via our iPod Touch, we haven't turned on the PC for a week (hey, new stuff appears weekly on the iTunes Store!)!
Here, ponder on some of the puzzles. Coupled with the 'One Turn (or in this case, Puzzle) More' syndrome, there's really no way we're gonna get anything else done until we've finished the game.
Today, we had otousan lift our weight, then heard him moan and make assorted sex noises, then proceeded to have him blow us.
And it reminded us of DanHen's phrase when he took Amiable Aix for a ride. After DanHen had had Aix work out on resistance machines, free weights and other assorted exercises, which we missed as we were late, we were told by DanHen that he gave Aix an ass-drilling.
And so happens that we bumped into otousan today when we're halfway through our workout. Being the hyper gung-ho fler that he is he wanted us to work out with him (and to show him what we've been doing too).
Don't mind the fact that we're a lightweight fellow barely weighing 60kg, and he's much more stronger than us.
Starts off with the chest incline resistance machine and we're telling him to go for heavier weights, specifically the heaviest he could do just 6 reps. Male ego and gungho meant that instead of working his way up to the appropriate weight, he straightaway set for 55kg (we're not really sure, someone correct us if them resistance machines are measured in pounds or kilos) and pushed.
After his second rep the exertion on his face was like a scrunched up plasticine model of his face.
By his second set he grunted and made noises and stopped when we commented that it sounded like he was having sex.
Since his legs were pretty much in good shape (the only bits still in good shape, can the gf comment?) he wanted workouts just for the upper body. Hence triceps, biceps, more variations of chest workouts... By the time we got to doing dumbbell flyes, his breathing was like bellows hard at work. Standing over him to make sure he didn't drop the dumbbell on himself meant we got a full force gust to the face.
But with him around we finally have someone to spot for us, especially for free weights bench pressing!
Janvier had had a fruitful day at the gym, with enough time for a workout, BodyJam, and after cooling down with cups of 100 Plus, some time in the sauna. The aftermath was that his body was telling him he was an old man already - he wonders if he could do back-to-back classes again. Seriously, he thinks, no more sauna. Sweat like crazy only.
As he leaves and heads back to iKano where Aidan awaits, he decides to stop by iKea. Not to buy something for free parking, since he didn't have anything to buy at the moment and would just rather pay the RM1, but there was something he wanted to try out.
He prepares, then head to the counter.
"Next please!"
"Hi! Kita nak muka tebal sikit, ya."
"Ya?"
"Kalau kita tak beli apa-apa, masih boleh dapat teh atau kopi percuma tak?"
"Ah you bagi saya coupon tu, saya akan bagi you cawan la."
"Oh, OK!"
So it turns out being an iKea Friends just gets better.
Now the Nut has been putting up memes for the last couple of weeks which provide good fillers should Janvier run of out something to blog about. Fact is, it's not that he's coming up empty on stuff to write, it's just that the time he spends in front of his PC is now relegated to time spent in front of the telly watching DVDs.
It's no secret that Janvier had bitten the forbidden fruit long ago, and it has consumed his soul ever since. It's not been easy for the Chief to be around Janvier at times since they will inadvertedly end up looking at Apple stuff, but the Chief thank the stars that Janvier has not started acting like one of the staff in the iPhone/iPod Guided Tour videos.
Nevertheless, Janvier read the memes and the one about having his iPod play songs at random to answer questions (there's been a variant of this about online already, yes?) tickled his fancy. See, initially he had this idea where he'd use the Comic Touch app and answer every question for the meme in a photo. Like for the first question.
Of course, while Comic Touch allows Janvier to make quick and easy comics using photos he already has, the number of questions and finding appropriate photos to use for each question makes this not worth the effort, and so he'll just stick to shuffling songs on his iPod to answer the meme.
So, the rules:
1. Put your iPod on shuffle. 2. Press forward for each question. 3. Use the song title as the answer to the question.
What does the next year have in store for you?
No Need To Argue, by The Cranberries. Janvier likes this answer, as he is naturally a peaceful innocent angel and does not like conflict and will live happily ever after. The photo above says it all.
What does your love life look like next year? Bye Bye Bye, by N'SYNC. This should mean that Janvier and the Chief are saying goodbye to arguments!
What do you say when life deals you a bad hand?
Dirt Lands Theme, from Heroes Of Might & Magic IV Soundtrack. Possibly Janvier is meant to take a trip to the countryside in Ireland or the highlands and take it easy. Or survive on dirt.
Song that reminds you of good times? The Dream Of Olwen, by Richard Clayderman. Spooky, because if Janvier met someone he knew who he'd thought had passed away, he might be reminded of good times he'd had with said person. If there were any, of course. Then he can go get freaked out.
What do you think when you get up in the morning? Tangled, by Maroon 5. How very true! Janvier wakes up most morning tangled up between his two pillows, two bolsters, iKea knee prop and his quilt. Thus waking up feeling all aching and liable to just continue hitting the snooze button while he untangles himself.
What song will you dance to at your wedding?
Leto Atreides II, from Children Of Dune soundtrack. Not really what Janvier would expect to dance to, knowing that Canon In D would feature heavily if he had any say. But this piece is nice. Think flamenco!
Your favourite saying? Welcome To My Life, by Simple Plan. You won't hear Janvier say this in a tired, defeated tone, or in an ironic manner, in fact you won't hear Janvier say this at all actually.
Favourite place? The Contest, from Sweeney Todd soundtrack. Well it's true that Janvier has a morbid interest sometimes, but it would take some rather serious levels of boredom for him to go all the way to a marketplace to watch a contest between two barbers.
What song describes your best friend? Servant To The Slave, by Capercaillie, from Celtic Circle II. How very odd. While Janvier can say that his friends can be obliging, he doesn't think any one of them are welcome mats to be taken advantage of, really!
What song describes your ex? Harkonnen Force, by David Arkenstone, from Emperor: Battle For Dune soundtrack. Whoa. Ruthless? Janvier's thankful he doesn't have an ex then!
What song describes yourself?
Kiss, by Artist Formerly Known As Prince. Now this one Janvier felt was better described in a photo.
Where will you be in 10 years? Canon in D, by Pachelbel. Not sure. Does this mean that our life would be like a canon, each year while have some echo of the year before repeating?
Your love life right now?
Super Mario Sunshine, Mario Scat Version, by The Big Band Of Rogues. Chirpy a capella and bright sunshine!
How will you die?
Flight To The Ford, from The Lord Of The Rings: The Fellowship Of The Rings soundtrack. Janvier loves all the tracks that feature the Nazgul lietmotif! And listen to that! Grand right the bit before they start singing (sounds like our death is a very dramatic moment!)? But will this mean that we die at Weathertop before Aragon saves us? Or that the river will not drown our enemies?
Now here's something Janvier never knew - Jaya One has a Live Arts stage for performing. He wonders if this is the open stage where there bands play live too at night. Anyways, The Electric Minds Project had an earlier show some time back, but it clashed with Janvier's Australian Week at KLPac (whatmore their venue being near Pasar Seni at the time).
This time around they've come up with The Things That We Have Lost, and it sounds rather depressing. Don't take our word for it though, it's just the impression we've got from their poster.
We wonder if you can bring your own blade to cut wrists. Go watch, and if we hear about suicide rates going up, we'll know it's them who'd done it.
Janvier has always been dagger-eyed by some people because they take a look at his waistline and turn green. While it happens to be his favourite colour, Janvier doesn't think green on the face would be healthy - especially for him when others may do more than just shoot daggers with their eyes.
Certainly he does appreciate the fact that he doesn't need to buy new clothing because he doesn't come across the feeling that his clothes are getting tighter. Although he would also admit that in the past he'd never really had a penchant for clothes shopping so most of what he has are M or free size tees, and comfortable cargoes and jeans.
So he's been told that he's blessed, especially sometimes when they see him eat. What they don't realize is that, Janvier was cursed e'er since he was young.
See, in the early formative years Janvier was walking one day through the lalang (weed) field beside his house to get to the main road, he came across what looked like a bundle of clothes on the small path. As he walked past it, the bundle groaned like an old man, and Janvier jumped. The lalang was as tall as Janvier, at some parts even taller than him (of course, Janvier was still a wee thing then and was still growing up) and anyone could possibly hide undetected in the lalang.
Janvier too a quick look around him, didn't see anyone, and was about to head on when he heard the sound of an old man clearing his throat. Janvier decided that it was probably the wind carrying the sound of some old man, when he heard someone call out, "Boy, help me boy."
Understand, that this was in the early 1990s, when Janvier was still in school being bombarded by Pendidikan Moral and sex offenders weren't too much of a commonplace threat.
Janvier wondered whether the voice was referring to him, but he didn't call out in reply. That would have been like something out of an Enid Blyton book, and somehow Janvier would have felt like an idiot calling out, "Yes, who's there?"
Thinking that the voice likely originated from out of the lalang patch, Janvier turned and was about to walk on when the voice called out again, "Boy, stop! Help me, please! I'm down here!" and the bundle of clothes started shuffling towards him.
Sex offenders may not have been a commonplace threat at that time but snakes in a lalang field definitely were.
Janvier was out of the lalang field in seconds, and he could still hear the voice going moaning sadly.
"Boy, please help me find my badminton racquet...I need my badminton racquet."
Probably his lack of imagination meant that Janvier never thought of the possibility of a ghost. But the voice pleaded so pathetically that Janvier hesitated, and in that instant he saw the handle of a badminton racquet sticking out between blades of lalang. He reached out for the handle and pulled out a badminton racquet - an old wooden badminton racquet, made all the more heavier because it was still in a badminton frame (a wooden square frame clamped about the paddly end of the racquet protecting the racquet).
Armed with the racquet, he walked back into the lalang and reached the bundle of clothes. Not knowing why he did it, Janvier tossed the racquet onto the bundle.
"Thank you, boy! You've found my racquet!"
Janvier refrained from saying how that sounded like a cliched textbook reply, and merely shrugged and said, "Er, no problem," to the bundle of clothes when a tall white stranger dressed in tennis togs walked out from another part of the lalang and picked up the racquet.
"As a reward for finding my racquet, I will grant you a special gift, boy," said the stranger who turns out to be the owner of the voice.
"Er, who are you?" Janvier asks while biting back from adding, "And why do you speak like from some fairytale script?"
"My name is Marre," the stranger says and smiles brightly, showing rows of pearly white that would have put the Darlie face to shame. "Mussel Marre," he quickly added when he saw Janvier's face with an eyebrow raised up in a look of utter skepticism.
"Sounds like a girl's name."
"No it isn't."
"But it does."
"Look, do you want a reward or not?"
"Um, what is it? If it's big and heavy I won't be able to carry it."
"I will give you the power to get ripped, have perfect pecs and chiselled rock-hard 6-pack abs with the least amount of exercise!"
"Er, what are those?"
"It means that if you do regular exercise, you will get all that."
"Errr...exercise ah?" There was an uncertain look on Janvier's face. "This thing you're offering doesn't really sound fun too..."
"You utterly lazy thing! Fine! That you refuse this gift, we'll give you something then! Take the Hardgainer's Way Of Life! May what you eat burn off as you metabolise even faster!"
The stranger than bashes Janvier's head with the racquet, but by dint of good luck only the strings hit him and so the racquet bounced off.
When the stars finally cleared, all Janvier could see was a pile of clothes. Wondering what he was doing standing in the middle of the lalang patch when anytime a snake might just slither out, he quickly headed out and went for lunch, all thoughts about the incident forgotten.
"I am going to die," thought Click-Taktak (Click-Taktak's language is of a guttural tongue, there is no proper way to pronounce his name). He was currently treading water looking for a hold on the smooth, wet surface of the trap, made even worse because he can look out through the glass wall. Thankfully the water level wasn't high, but he would probably have prefered it to be much much higher. High enough for him to reach the opening of the trap so far up at the ceiling.
His tribe has never had trouble if they'd fallen down wells and such before - they've always been equiped such that any wall would always provide enough traction for them to find a grip. Not this trap, though. Someone had evilly devised such a trap where he not only find a grip, but the walls curved inwards, like a cone tapering at the top.
A sudden, disturbing thought: a large pitcher plant. This water, is it just water?
Click-Taktak tried the wall again.
***
It was just past midnight when Janvier got back from a musical and supper (A&W's onion rings, ice cream waffle and root beer float, yum!) and was a tad thirsty. Locking the front door as he walks into the house, he takes out his iPod Touch and waits for it to connects online, smiling at the joys of having a wireless router installed at home. After a few seconds, he's online and begins checking his emails. After his emails, he switches to Facebook as he's waiting for a particular reply.
During all this, he proceeds to the kitchen, gets his Starbucks Mug, ice and proceeds to pour himself a glass of water. The house is dark save for the light at the staircase and the kitchen light. Janvier's eyes never left the iPod Touch as he pours himself a glass of water - just like how he always has his nose in a book while eating.
Little did Janvier know, Click-Taktak's fate were in his hands.
***
Click-Taktak doesn't feel tired. He's just feeling a bit lost, wet and confused. It's a while now and he doesn't feel anything from the water except for getting wet. No burning, no itchiness, and he doesn't notice any peeling or reddishness. That's a good sign.
While the trap may be made of glass, the images were distorted. So much so that when someone approached the trap he looked like a deformed giant to Click-Taktak! His heart pounding, Click-Taktak didn't dare move a muscle, hoping that whoever it was approaching the trap was not his captor coming to enslave, or worse, kill him...
After a while, Click-Taktak realized he was holding in his breath. He exhaled slowly and noted that the giant did not pay him any attention, although he was clearly near the trap. Click-Taktak was unnoticed as of now.
Slowly, he backed away to the wall away furthest from the giant and tried climbing again...
***
Emails took a bit of time getting through, and the ice in Janvier's cup had already melted by the time he took a second sip of water. He hadn't gotten his reply yet, and guess it'll come in tomorrow morning instead. He finally takes his eyes off the iPod Touch and turns to finish his cup of water.
***
Click-Taktak's heart was pounding. The giant was taunting him, tormenting him, like a cat to a mouse! No, not a giant, but a monster! Whichever wall Click-Taktak was near by, horrible shadows loomed over him and the walls thundered!
"Please let this be a dream..." whimpered Click-Taktak. He can't even be sure if he'd relieved himself, he was wet all over as the water spashed all over.
***
Janvier continued staring at the jug of water with a grim look on his face, his lips pressed so hard together they formed a thin line and his eyebrows a V on his forehead. We don't feel like throwing up, in fact we don't feel nauseated, he thought. That's good. If we had felt bile rising and the urgent need to go throw up, your fate would have already been decided.
Janvier just sat there, looking into and occasionally slapping the sides of the jug. He had a tricky decision to make here.
Should he just leave the jug alone, and let mum learn the truth the next morning? Most likely, things might have taken a turn for the worse and the jug would have to be thrown away.
Should he wash the jug now?
While thinking about it, Janvier updated his Facebook status:
Janvier Soldat the humanitarian contemplates a lizard's fate.
In the end, Janvier took the jug out to the back lane, threw the water away into the general direction of the neighbours drain, checked that the lizard was no longer in the bloody jug, filled it with water and soap and went to shower.
Some Saturdays ago, Janvier was out and about town, namely the Bangsar area. Having been informed that Bangsar Shopping Centre was finally opened, he planned to go wander about BSC and Bangsar Village and finishing with dinner somewhere, with the Chief in tow.
Window shopping is fine, really, but sometimes the best way for window shopping to remain as window shopping, you need the correct company. Already an evangelist for the 'Don't Think, Just Buy!' movement, it would not have gone well if Janvier headed out alone or with other members of the movement.
Upon reaching home at the end of the day, Janvier suspected that he was missing something. A card holder.
"Accio card holder!"
Nothing. There was a perplexed look on Janvier's face as he scanned his bedroom.
"We're pretty sure we brought it along. Maybe Aidan has it," he thought.
When Aidan turned out empty-handed too, Janvier got slightly worried. He sent word to the Chief, who also turned up with zero results.
There was no choice but for Janvier to zip back to all the places he'd been to ask about for his card holder. Not only were there various membership cards, but to keep the bulk out of his wallet Janvier had also placed in a few credit cards in said card holder.
He was vexed with the fruitless results...that he went to the gym to work it off and sink into escapism and denial.
By Monday Janvier decided that he had to call the companies to have the cards blocked.
A quick conversation with Citibank and Janvier was informed that the RM50 service charge for blocking and replacing his card would be waived when he sends them a police report. Allianz Alliance told him the same thing. RHB replaced it FOC. To Janvier's relief, there were no charges over the weekend when the cards were missing.
Deciding to make the police report (his first ever!), Janvier stepped into a police station one fine afternoon, feeling unsure of what to do. Police at the counter were seeing to civilians, and so Janvier took a seat and waited, certain that they'd have noticed his presence and would summon him soon. With a clear conscience (some scrying previously had revealed to Janvier that he has no traffic offenses with the police) Janvier waited his turn.
What would look like a fairly quick process of explaining to the police the situation and lodging a report took 2 hours as Janvier had to wait for a family to finish explaining to the police about how their child was bullied by an entire school of student and teachers to how there were murderous intent against mummy dearest.
"Think of the service charges being waived...think of the service charges being waived..." Janvier thought to himself while wishing how he had a Time-Turner.
Soon enough it was Janvier's turn to make his report, and Janvier resisted snatching the keyboard from the policeman because the policeman was fingertyping. Next time, Janvier thought, we will draft out the report and then come here. Although Lord forbid that there should be any next time. We wonder if we can make the report in English?
All in all, the police report took 15 minutes - and Janvier soon had owls deliver it to the companies.
Dat ppl write so differenly wen on GTalk or MSN or smsing? Sumtimes read also de way ppl write liddis vely sien wan. Lol. V admit v oso got write short form but v dun tink v write until watever can shorten must shorten n it sounds like v r Chinese who dun speak English a lot. Rotfl. Gtg.
Just as we mention about The Secret Of Monkey Island: Special Edition for the PC, and had the thought to just download the game for keeps until we get a PC powerful enough to run the game (and all other games like Starcraft 2, Diablo III, Red Alert 3, Street Fighter 4 and Command & Conquer 4, oh the list goes on and on), the following day we hopped onto the iTunes Store to check for freebies and updates.
...and find The Secret Of Monkey Island: Special Edition as a featured app in the App Store. USD7.99 for 351MB with all the goodness: voice acting, new and old versions, in a custom iPod Touch/iPhone interface. We do wonder why the vast difference between the PC version of USD9.99 for 2.5GB. But still, it wasn't written that the app was only for half of the game or anything, and so it was a spontaneous click on the 'Buy App' button and watching Poirot's 'The Mysterious Affair At Styles' while waiting for it to download.
On the iPod Touch controls are slightly clunky, as we had to slide the cursor wherever we wanted to go and the cursor moves and a unforgivably slow rate, but now that we've gotten used to the controls (our finger doesn't have to be positioned on the cursor to move it wherever we want to, which makes it easier to navigate now!), all we plan to do with the game is enjoy all the voice acting. Insult swordfighting, here we come!
"...quoting old stories/situations," said lad on GChat. We actually did feel that way too although not at that moment ranting about how, er, pirated games aren't so easy to install anymore. There are other things we'd thought on about how different it was then and now.
Basically it's like this.
Back then when original PC games probably were in the vicinity of RM100-150, and CD games were on the rise making diskette games slowly obsolete, anti-piracy measures went from password authentication every time you would start the game (how we enjoyed Prince Of Persia's password dungeon, where you've to check the manual for the requested letter, then find the potion with the corresponding letter and drink it to continue the game) to CD-Key authorization upon installation.
Now...back then in the DOS days of diskette games we had manuals for looking up passwords (and understanding how the game works...how we love poring over the manual of a game sometimes), or in the case of a game that somehow lacked a manual, photocopied or otherwise, or because it was from somebody else (original games didn't come easy or cheap but did have whacky box sizes and shapes), there used to be a .BAT or .EXE file that will help bypass the password or other security thingamabobs on the game.
Oh, and viruses were quite obvious in what they do. We remember our early 386 getting infected before by some virus that had the letters 'SW' appearing on our screen before every game loads. Then again it's because there was no internet or world wide web to get connected to and 'malicious software that allows other people to take control of your computer' and all that.
Back then CD games didn't need much to bypass security save a provided CD-Key and a patch file (ahem).
Then came a point when Civilization 4 came out and there was all this need to install some program first, or install the game then install this other program then launch this game from there, or copy the entire DVD to the hard drive then run a program to create an image of it so that instead of a directory it's treated as a DVD instead...
Just isn't as simple any more.
Fact is, games still aren't cheap enough to buy without, er, trying it out first to see if it can work on our 6 year old desktop, as well to make sure the game was worth coughing out RM100 or so.
Even when it's a game like The Secret Of Monkey Island Special Edition, with new graphics and voice-acting but still essentially the original game with no changes, new system requirements means we can't buy on a whim except probably as for keeps (until we get a new PC, and we wonder if we shall buy Street Fighter 4 for the PC instead of a console too). Still, it would be a pleasant surprise to find that the game could work on our desktop.
Would have been a pleasant surprise.
From what we read online, not only installation would unpack some near 3 gigs onto our hard drive but we would also need to install some version of DirectX and probably some file under a directory called DotNet95 too. The fact that a commentor mention something about "Installing a dodgy version of DirectX," doesn't sit well with us. Someone else also mentioned about making an image of the directory, which seems a lot of unnecessary hassle for old fuddy duddy us. And we don't like the idea of installing any more programs we have no idea does what (we mean generally, not the DirectX), if it isn't a 'malicious software' it would just pretty much slow down our PC.
Perhaps it's time to just pay full price and download the entire 2.5GB. And with the original there shouldn't be any hassle. At USD10 it's pretty much paying for a premium app from the iTunes App Store.
Forget the fact that we actually do own the original Secret Of Monkey Island game CD that came together with our Soundblaster some what, 14-15 years ago?
And so it was a Sunday night at the Gentlemen's Club (well it is now modern times and ladies are members too) and in the Vin Room a group of members consisting of nouveau riches and old money sat down to discuss matters on trading and properties.
As the hour was already late with Sir Soldat arriving last after a family gathering, and thus discussions started quickly with everyone showing forth some properties rather than starting from scratch. Lady Lin, CEO of Lin Enterprises took the aggressive front and brought out..., had hotels built and proclaimed them ready to accomodate our needs. It's no surprise that Lin Enterprises is very focused on profit, and their company logo of a Sack Of Gold shows that just as much.
Much as Lady Lin calls the hotels the 'Mediterranean Avenue Hotel' and the 'Baltic Avenue Hotel', we all saw it for what it really was - accomodations for the ladies of the night. And to our shame a few of us were caught in Mediterranean Av. Hotel a fair number of times.
Soon enough negotiations began when all properties were revealed to belong to different members. Lord Lad and Viscount Vin settled into partnership for the development of Park Place and Broadwalk, negotiating on shares and development costs. At last a deal was struck with Viscount Vin managing the properties and Lord Lad taking a 40% cut from profits.
Sir Soldat suffered in the early stages as he owned the least properties and did not bargained well, but eventually struck a deal with Lady Lin when she gave him the rights to manage the Water Works in addition to the Electric Company which he already owns for a 50-50 partnership in the utilities monopoly.
Later then, in order to survive the upcoming influx of hotels, Sir Soldat agreed to join forces with Earl Otousan to build up St. James Place, Tenesee Av. and New York Av. Sir Soldat was given management for the properties as well, as Earl Avenue busied himself playing with trains, especially since he owned all the stations.
Datuk Shelton (pronounced 'Shell-Tan') Esteban also brokered a deal with Viscount Vin, predicting that Viscount Vin's properties would bring in good profits and it wasn't long before Kentucky Av., Indiana Av. and Illinois Av. (aka the Red Zone) sprouted hotels to lure the unwary. You could have imagine the scandal when Lady Lin was spotted in Hotel Indiana Avenue and unable to pay her rent!
You can see how the game is now played at the Gentlemen's Club. Gone are the days where the game is more on exclusive ownership - now the game has partners and shared ownership with the objective of bankrupting someone to end the game, haha.
Ever since Prisoner Of Azkaban, we'd come to accept the fact that the Harry Potter movies weren't going to faithfully follow the book word-for-word. And that was okay, because the first two movies did a good job at that and also point out the fact that if they did used the book as script, we'll be already watching Goblet Of Fire in 4 hours or more, or as a two-parter like how Deathly Hallows is going to be.
So we did a expectation shift and thought that, so long as they get the storyline in with nothing to drastic a deviation, we should be able to accept the show.
And with that, we got to enjoy the Harry Potter universe from a different angle. School uniforms, their dress suits (which look snazzier with the robe), admittedly werewolves didn't look as scary as the Grim (heh), spells you never heard mentioned before ("Bombarda Maxima!"), see lots of picturesque views of the castle and the surrounding landscape, the way wizards duel (forget about Snape vs Lockhart, see how the Death Eaters and Order Of The Phoenix all hold their wands and their stances as they fought in the Department Of Mysteries), the Daily Prophet's newspaper format and fonts, the way they speak to each other.
It's like Lord Of The Rings in a sense - if everyone spoke exactly as how Tolkien had wrote in the book, most people would be lost or falling asleep.
Only now that it's already the sixth movie, and it's quite a given that you should be somewhat familiar with the backstory in order to fully appreciate what's going on in the movie. And more importantly, we feel, is to NOT READ THE BOOK just before the movie. Otherwise we'd be busy looking for all the missing bits than paying attention to how the movie's going. A quick summary of what the Half-Blood Prince is all about if you need, and then read the book after the movie to fill in the gaps.
As we remember Half-Blood Prince focused a lot on school life once more and the exploration of Dumbledore's memories regarding Voldemort's history, and everyone was worked up over the Potions textbook that once belonged to the Half-Blood Prince that Harry's currently using for Year 6. The novel focused quite a lot on these bits that it wasn't really a gripping read until the last part of the book.
That the movie kept straight to the storyline with only a few diversions and still took two and a half hours? Yes, we can see why Deathly Hallows is going to be a two-parter rather than a straight 4-hour movie. The flow of the movie was certainly much better than the book and it's much easier to understand what Dumbledore was up to with muddling around with memories. And the blossoming relationships were a hoot to watch.
And we think that if the movie was not called 'Harry Potter And The Half-Blood Prince', they wouldn't even bother so much with explaining about the Half-Blood Prince. The movie didn't emphasized a lot on it, after all.
Now only if they don't take too long to show the Deathly Hallows.
So it seems that Science and Maths will soon be thought back in BM. Well in our view it's a bit like taking a step back to where we were in the start. After all, when we were in school all this was thought in BM, no?
Then again, we do remember back in our Form 4 and 5 days where we'd actually looked up the English translation of whatever we'd learned (yes, we were pro-English back then already). Not as if there was anywhere we could have used English terminology - we would have thought that answering a Chemistry Paper 2 in English back then would have automatically earned us a duck's egg, or severely low marks because the examiner would have thought us incapable of spelling as he circles every electrons and corrects them as elektron among other things.
Physics and Maths wasn't so bad as it was all mainly formulas. Of course, we can't remember what was the Malay term for differentiation and integration now, although admittedly even doing an integration problem might take some time now since it's all so rusty. Of course for Physics it's more than just formulas as there were quite a fair bit of terminologies too, and more explainations such like how sound can be viewed as waves and how these waves move both horizontally and vertically and the likes...
It's not as if we're such a snob that we support English all the way. It's just that, somehow, whatever we hear in a different language, be it Malay or a Chinese dialect, gets translated into English as we register it. Honest! Which is why sometimes when someone speaks to us in Chinese we can interpret it wrongly (what more our deplorable Chinese vocabulary).
Already we had the Chief correct our Cantonese at one point when we told the Chief's mum that we were leaving, and the Chief said that us saying, "Ngor hui xin," (which, to us, translates directly to "I'm going first,") was used in context of passing away, and that we should have used, "Ngor zhau xin," ("We're running away first," to us, which we thought less polite somehow) which was more appropriate.
Anyways, back to the topic at hand. There's the argument that, "We've studied Maths and Science in BM back in our days and we'd no problems what," and we could say the same for us, except in our case we did look up the English terms and translations and so when it came to our college and university years things were smooth sailing. We guess it's only when you're fair fluent in only one language when this becomes an issue, otherwise we'll think the move to switch teaching a subject from one language to another would be shrugged off.
And in our parents' time they were still studying everything in English!
We're not sure how it goes but if tertiary education and universities will be teaching said subjects in English, having the subject taught in English at an earlier level would be much more useful, no? And you'll be practising your English at the same time too. We just think it more important that we build up our proficiency of English so that others don't make fun of us and we'll stop getting foreigners telling us that their surprised we speak rather good English.
Oh well we would have suggested the subject be thought in both languages (and the exam papers to be in both languages where the students can answer in whichever language) but we think teachers all around would kill us for the extra work.
We first read about this on someone's status update on Facebook. Tried to follow the tinyurl link but it didn't load. Then when minishorts posted about it we got to read a bit more on what it was about, and even see the article scan.
In a gist, Muslim reporters have gone undercover to spy in a Catholic church and even participated in the Holy Communion.
Total. Disrespect. For. Others.
Now we're not getting riled up because it's an attack on our religion. God knows how we are with regards to our faith, but faith is always a personal matter. Plus it's a Catholic church here, and we're not Catholic. Still, it's the idea of you, of one religion, entering incognito into another religion's place of worship, participating in their ceremonies and rites that not all would participate in unless they were ready, leaving only to write an article that is both disrespectful and insulting.
Yes, you've also been told already that, if the roles were switched and that if another religion would enter your place of worship and do the same, you would have caused an uproar and your followers would be out on the streets creating a ruckus. We remember how you got uptight over the use of the name of your god in another religion's magazine.
We wouldn't have minded the intrusion much if all you did was go in and look around without participating much. There's no need for you to act like a Catholic and participate in the Holy Communion even when there are Christians who aren't prepared for it.
We wouldn't have minded if you've acted decently and upon receiving a 'tip' that there's been Malay teenagers going to Church, you had gone to request permission to send someone to investigate during service one fine Sunday? After all, people do bring their friends to church and they are not expected to do things a Christian would do. You don't have to sing hymnals just because everyone else is singing them. You don't have to join in the ceremonies or feel forced to because everyone around you is doing it. After all, you'll be a guest and you're not coerced into it. You just have to respect your hosts and the things that they do.
We're also put off by the way you treated the accusations bought to you - you've heard of Muslim youths forsaking Islam and embracing Christianity, and better still, that the cause for this is that Christians get paid to 'recruit' believers? And get paid more should they get Malays to convert? And that should people convert, they are offered incentives or rewards like a cash allowance? This is a serious accusation indeed - an accusation that a religious establishment of being a multi-level marketing organization.
And we don't see how your sneaking into a church would help matters. Yes, you might probably find out if there were Muslim apostates (and you did not). Are you hoping to see, in some room, members of the church being paid money along with verbal communication of how they have brought others into the fold?
But no, you didn't stop there. You can write about how impressed you may be at how the congregation treated each other with respect and goodwill, but clearly in your article you don't do the same when it comes to the Christian traditions and ceremonies. Instead, you choose to write your article in an offensive style, twisting things such that to say, "They do this and this which which is correct, as it is how we do it and is how it should be done, but they do this and this which is wrong and deviant and misleading!"
Is this how you write your articles? Push that your religion is better than others? Make fun of another's religion? Couldn't you just report your observations without comparison?
In what is suppose to be a multiracial, multicultural nation, you're grossly disrespectfully spitting in someone's face in front of everyone.
And we gather you know that what you are doing is wrong, because as you write, you feared discovery while in the church.
Again, what we're ranting here is the sheer disrespect you've treated another establishment. You've painted a bad name for yourself.
Now we are admittedly big into Agatha Christie, and thankfully our school library had quite a number of her books for us to go through. Like many others we love Hercule Poirot and Ms Marple! It was sometime then too when we caught an episode of Poirot on TV3 one Saturday afternoon, but it didn't hit us then that we were actually watching a Hercule Poirot tv adaptation, even when David Suchet was the most accurate adaptation of Poirot!
Took us a while after that episode (since we happened onto that episode halfway through) when it all registered in. Moustache. French portly feller. Murder mystery.
Only...either we weren't free on Saturdays to watch it, or TV3 finished its run. Never did get to watch it entirely. Sigh.
Of course, we've been hunting about for the DVDs everytime we're shopping (even if we never do buy anything) and we've even seen the series selling at La Ramblas in Barcelona last year. Unfortunately the price tag of 30 Euros per season stopped us from making an impulse buy of all seasons we could get our grubby hands on (because we know, we just know that we won't stop at the Poirots but snag ever Ms Marple series we could find too!) and four seasons of both Poirot and Ms Marple would set us back an estimate 240 Euros.
We're not rich enough to do that. Plus it was likely to be bootlegs so we didn't dare trust the quality unless we happen to be going back there pretty soon.
...Come to think of it, we keep forgetting to check HMV when at Sporeland. But even then a price tag of SGD100 would mean we need to exercise control when buying.
But in any case, we've been checking out the, ah, local DVD entrepreneurs should they happen to stock them, seeing how they can keep all sorts from BBC documentaries to National Geographic specials. Yes we totally bypassed Speedy and the likes because they be pricey and Poirot doesn't seem like a title easily available (not to mention all the store assistants, even the entrepreneurs, would give us a puzzled look when we mention the name Poirot).
So came a time early this year when we were checking out titles at the DVD entrepreneur near our place, when we came across a DVD of Poirot! Can't remember which season but we were surprised to find that yes, we could find Poirot here!
Thing was, we already getting some other DVDs (can't recall, was it Battlestar Galactica?) so we decided to put the Poirot on hold till another day. The Chief was with us, and knowing how we were interested, helped by hiding the DVD somewhere at the back of the stack where we found it so we could grab it another day without having to hunt for it. Only when we got back to the store another time the DVD was gone. Searched through all the stacks to no avail and even the fler manning the store told us that stuff in those stacks, if you see them you better grab them, gone means gone.
'Course, we were plenty disappointed. Also resolved to just grab it next time we saw it. And that's how we ended up snagging both Season 1 and 2 when we saw it in another store today!
Pure happiness. And to top it, while still browsing the store we overheard some girls saying, "The Colour Of Magic," and we gravitated straight to them to find Sky's take on Terry Pratchett's The Colour Of Magic! We thought the movie was still in the works! We were looking more for Hogfather rather than Colour Of Magic, even though we're quite apprehensive of how Hogfather will turn out based on how reviews tag it as a 'love it or hate it' show (the Illustrated Screenplay doesn't calm our fears either).
Admittedly a closer look on the cover it says 'Terry Pratchett's The Colour Of Magic Part 1' but since we're on a roll why stop...and the first 10 minutes of the show gives us the impression that it's gonna be something like the Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy movie - slightly different but still humourous.
So now we have a telly series to continue now that Battlestar Galactica's done with. Gossip Girls, get to the back seat.
It starts off with us trailing our fingers over the skin, using the tips rather than our fingerpads as we wanted the tactile feel of it to be very sensitive. Narcissism and necessity makes this something that we would prefer to have done in front of a mirror, so we can fully see everything that we were doing.
We'll begin slowly, gently. Circling the bump before we start applying some pressure. No, not squeeze it straightaway. That would just be painful and off-putting. Not long there will be a small white dot affirming us that we're doing it right.
Then we apply a bit more pressure. Bit by bit.
Admittedly after a while it gets harder to breathe. And thankfully we're in the comforts of an air-conditioned room, so we don't end up sweating.
It comes to a point when we know we're close and it'll burst through. And it does. The relief when it finally comes out and we can breathe easy once again, no describing that.
Except that we might just end up with an effing scar on our nose for a while if the whitehead turns out to be a rather large one.
Battlestar Galactica, that is. All fourfive four seasons (bloody Season 2.0, 2.5, 4.0 and 4.5...) of it.
We've not been one to really follow tv serials much post-uni due to a few reasons, and we must say that we find it liberating to have kicked the tv habit. Gives us more time to do other stuff. The only show we'd watched (asides our Sailormoon) was Heroes, and that was because lad and Joery was kind enough to pass us all the episodes to devour one after another without waiting an entire week for the next episode. And even for Heroes we've yet to start on Season 3.
So why the sudden urge to watch Battlestar Galactica?
Not sure really.
Probably 'cos every time sis comes back we both end up at the local DVD store picking out movies and tv series.
Probably 'cos the iTunes Store was featuring Season 4 sometime back early this year. Also with free webisodes that we'd downloaded.
Probably 'cos we'd stumbled onto the Battlestar Wiki and started checking up what's the difference between the old series and this new one.
Probably because there was that episode where Xena, Warrior Princess first show up.
Probably because it was only four seasons long and that it has just finished, so we wouldn't be caught halfway in some cliffhanger, and the general reviews said that the show ended with a good finale.
Whatever it was, we finally decided to pick up Season 1 in April and work out way from there.
What we weren't prepared for was the first two episodes to be 2 hours long each. Seriously. We picked up Season 1 on Saturday, popped Disc 1 at night, and next thing you know it was morning before we even see the credits, and mum coming down to the living room stating that we're going to church soon. For a moment we thought that they intentionally made the DVD version sans opening and credits between episodes, but it turns out that the first two episodes were miniseries to build up the storyline. Episodes 3 onwards were the regular 45 minute fare.
Plus it wasn't easy finding time after midnight just to catch an episode. Especially on some episodes where it ends in a cliffhanger - once you start you can't stop.
And now we've finally finished the entire series! Now to store the boxsets somewhere, and figure if we shall take a break from nighttime DVDs or to start on Gossip Girls, since we're curious as to why some people are so worked up over this series.
Music Director: Janvier, can stand straight? Janvier: Cannot. Music Director: Why? Janvier: Stomach ache. Music Director: When? Since you come to the front or earlier? Janvier: This whole week already. (Tenor two members on back row shuffle away from standing directly behind Janvier)
Above scenario was very much akin to a teacher in class talking to a primary school kid. Really.
It's been six days now that our stomach has been acting up, in that way which suggests that we either 1) took some milk or dairy product that caused our lactose intolerance to kick a fuss; or 2) have some sort of stomach bug thriving on our stomach flora; or 3) we're under some antibiotic therapy that's wiped out stomach flora and thus it's open season.
Since we don't recall taking any milk the last week (unless coconut milk in our curry laksa is the new thing in lactose intolerance), and the fact that it's been going on for over 5 days, it's hardly likely to be (1). Since we're not on (3), we think it's (2). Which would lead to (3). Only, since our last experience with (2) at a serious level was sometime last year, this time it was rather bearable and so we figured it was rather a mild stomach bug.
Still, whatwith us being the finicky person when it comes to toilet hygeine, our quality of life did take a slight dip, because there's really no place like home when it comes to taking a dump. Soft tissue papers, a quick shower off and once again smelling of Dettol Cool, and the air-conditioned room to chill until we've the strength to face the outside world again. All right, we'd also settle for four- or five-star hotel rooms and bathrooms.
And we've yet to pay a visit to the clinic, nor have we started popping the antispasmodics. We've really never liked taking meds to stop diarrhoea, because, we'd end up feeling like we need to go, that even passing gas would be disastrous, but come showtime it'll be a no-go because of the meds. But in all those times we took it anyways because it was really, really bad. This one, we can ride out. The Chief accurately observes that we would only drag ourself to the clinic if it gets worse.
And things seem to be on the mend now! Much joy and relief!
The Jumbo Combo. From appetizer to main meal. The Hickory Smoked Chicken Wings was spicy and head us sweating a tad, the Tupelo Chicken Tenders good, the Spring Rolls smelled of Indian spices and the Onion Rings...well, we love our onions raw and so in this case the onions didn't do much for our tastebuds. The 4 sauces (Thousand Island, probably mayo, sour cream and ketchup) weren't used much, instead we obtained a bottle of chilli sauce, heh.
Our salmon fix, the Grilled Salmon Steak. Yummy.
It was still Happy Hour when we arrived so we got 2 Long Island Teas for the price of one!
Am getting the Chief to start collecting Hurricane glasses from different cities instead of the HRC City T-Shirts. After all, we've already started with a Hurricane glass from Barcelona!
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