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1) Nintendo DS Lite
Need I say more?

2) Terry Butterfly Aloha Bicycle Saddle
This has been extremely kind to my ass on long distance rides... and it looks really pretty!

3) Bike & Blade 2006

4) Badminton Tournament Championship & Bowling Tournament 1st Runners Up
This Bowling Tournament is a justification of the improvements we had over the years.
We moved up 9 spots from last year’s 10th position to this year’s 2nd position.
I didn’t get a Turkey but bagged a wining prize of about $70 bucks and a pretty awesome Pin Trophy. After paying off practice fees and taxi rides, I might still have profitted $10!
The Team (Pin Busters) had a total score of 1877.
Personally I did 436 over 3 games, coming in at No. 8 for the Female category out of 44 others.

5) iPod
It was an impulse buy – fun, expensive and something that psyched me enough to own one. It’s still a great music player, but I spend most of my time traveling with the PlayYan watching TV series on the DS.
I really still wanna sell the Nano at a reasonable price. Let me know if anyone is keen.

6) Outstanding Employee Award

7) Hong Kong Disney Land
Probably rated the worse Disneyland on earth and it had to be my 1st.
Still it brought up the kid within me… no wait… I’m easily amused…

8) Singapore Biennale
Sharon and I were buddies on this 1st ever Singapore Visual Arts explosion. After being awe stuck visiting the exhibits at City Hall, we went on these crazy wild goose case to hunt down all the site locations.
Along with the heat was the Biennale Badge Collection. With 100 over badges representing all the artists. The Biennale really opened our eyes and minds on arts and it's effect on culture, society, life...

9) Esther & Ivan’s Wedding
Introducing the Esther & Ivan (voodoo?) Dolls

10) Dinner & Dance Broadway Dance Performance
After 4 months, 32 lessons with Singapore’s dance instructor and chorographer, Sunny Low we managed to put up a decent opening act at the annual Dinner & Dance.
Broadway dancing with sticks and top hats to “There’s No Business to Show Business”. Fitting act to the night’s theme of “Viva Las Vegas”.

Saddam Hussein was hanged before dawn Saturday in Iraq at about 6 a.m. for crimes committed in a brutal crackdown during his reign. Every era needs a villian. He was one in my time (and maybe Osama). We've always known this man for the evils he had done, the hurt and pain he caused. Still he was someone's son, someone's husband, someone's father...

I don’t know of anybody else who has a systemic (and really kick-ass) movie management system. I spent the whole of yesterday cataloging my HUGE movie collection into this really awesome movie management software - eXtreme Movie Manager. This Italian team at binaryworks.it built the software on the .NET platform where CD/DVD can be cataloged and movie info pulled in from internet sites such as IMDB and TV.com. Little thumbnails of the movie cover can also be downloaded to build a personalized movie card. It’s like having your very own online Video EZ! You can search for movies, write your own comments and give a personal rating. Plus with all the info collected, you can even churn out statistics! Now if that isn’t crazy enough, they even have Loan Management, where you can track down all the DVDs that your friends borrowed but NEVER return!

Apparently, the company also has another software called eXtreme Music Manager for all those music maniacs.

Browse movie by covers!

My movie stats by Genre. Action tops at #1!

Of the 379 movie titles I have cataloged, 142 films I have never watched!
I would never have known that...

Meet Darth Tater & Spud Trooper

Life isn't worth living, Christmas isn't worth celebrating... if not for Jesus choosing to be born tonight...
"neither death nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nothing already in existence and nothing still to come, nor any power, nor the heights nor the depths, nor any created thing whatever, will be able to come between us and the love of God, known to us in Christ Jesus our Lord" (Romans 8:38-39)

Have a Blessed Christmas

It was time again for the Fun Sophisticated Princesses (FSP) Gals Christmas Gathering. Sr. Wendy wasn’t able to join us and she was truly missed. We all just thought it would be really cool to hang out and do silly things since our last “The Little Shop of Horrors” Outing (which really didn’t feel that long ago). I initially thought we could catch “The Nativity” in line with the Christmas spirit, but GV did not list the film for online booking and thought it was taken off the screens; till Wendy found out they had like 1 screening at 1:15pm at Vivo City. We decided to catch “The Curse of the Golden Flower” because it sounded weird and it was another Zhang Yimou epic type of film. More on that a little on.

There is nothing like starting the day early. Vivo City was only starting to get busy and we had the luxury of choosing any restaurant outlet we pleased. We decided on Modesto’s, ordered 3 types of pastas to share and stuffed ourselves silly. Wendy could eat a cow. We were kind enough to put aside a portion of the food since Sharon could only join us later. Then as Wendy was flipping the menu intending to call for dessert, Sharon SMSed and said she could only meet us before the show. We looked over to a plentiful plate of pasta and then looked backed at each other… “Might as well finish up her share”…
As we struggled to split up the remains of the pasta, this irritating fly started hovering around our food (it has to be Sharon’s share). Then Jo started going “If I put the glass of water here (next to the plate of pasta in the centre) will the fly still come?”. Wendy and I were too busy fooling our minds to finish up the pasta. Jo at least said that same sentence 3x before Wendy went like “Yah… the fly would still come… why wouldn’t it?”
Jo: “Oh one of my friends told me that in the jewelry shop the glasses of water in the cabinets were suppose to prevent the flies from coming”
Wendy and I gave each other this puzzled look.
Me: “No… that water is for humidity”
Wendy: “Yah… it’s for humidity”
Jo: “Oh… is it… my friend sounded serious when she told me… so I believed her…”
Then I went into this laughing frenzy till my face turned red.
Well at least Jo knows the truth now…

Now for “The Curse of the Golden Flower”:
This was a highly disturbing film (not in the usual disturbing kind of way). Half the time, there were these servant girls who compresses their breasts till at least half of it overflows out of their dresses. That is actually fine as it is… but then they must go running towards the camera along these narrow long walkways. GV Max at Vivo has a VERY big screen and you can only imagine those lumps of meat bouncing as they come towards you… sometimes in slow motion!!!
Jay Chou had like only 1 expression throughout the film; it was a really forgettable role. We loved the bits when Gong Li and Chow Yun Fat in his rebounded hair did those slow motion John Woo fling off the garments scenes. Despite the film having all these really pretty colourful sets amidst gorgeous costumes the story left us going “Har?” Like why why why does the Emperor want the Empress dead??? And that was solely about what the show was all about. We were left dissatisfied.

The rest of the afternoon was spent Christmas shopping. Jo had never checked out Vivo, so we brought her to the wading pool. I was horrified to see how dirty the waters have become since my last visit. It was muddy brown… very unwelcoming. For some reason, this did not stop the 90% of Malay families there from throwing there children into this non filtered, non chlorinated pool of urine and dirt. Which part of the “No Swimming” sign did they not understand?!?! I did not even dare touch the water which Sharon gladly drank!!! (okie… she didn’t)…

Yipee! Yipee! Yipee!
There's tons of work still happening... lots of hand over to do...
It's been a crazy year at work. I'm really happy to put some decent closure and get some WELL DESERVED REST :)

Where did all the rain come from?
Haven’t had entire days of rain for the longest time. I'm really enjoying the chill weather... beginning to feel like winter in Christmas!

On the down note, the flu bug has hit the family and I'm a little under the weather myself. I over estimated my immunity and the damn bug got the better of me. Had to pay the doc a visit today and will be on anti-biotic for the next couple of days. Started with the massive sore throat on Friday night.

I've always associated having a healthy body to having a well balanced life - physically, mentally and spiritually. Well, the fact that I am writing this at 2am says much about my late nights. I really should be resting earlier...

Thankfully things are looking up and I should be well enough to celebrate Christmas.
To health…

The 2007 Singapore Women Cycling Team (SWCT) Calendar is out for sale.
The calendar is a collector's item!

The calendar is the heart and soul of each of the gals (and some great guys) who helped one way or another in making these calendars a reality in aid of Club Rainbow - Hearts on Wheels.

About the Hearts on Wheels Event:
The Singapore Women’s Cycling Team (SWCT) together with Togoparts.com is organising a charity cycling ride from Malacca to Singapore to raise funds for Club Rainbow.

The ride will start on the 27th of January 2007 from Malacca to Batu Pahat. After a night's stay, the cyclists will then make their way to Singapore ending their marathon ride at Club Rainbow's new Rainbow Family Care Centre at Block 538 Upper Cross Street in Chinatown on January 28th. The total distance is about 250 kilometres.

Hearts on Wheels hopes to raise more than $20,000 for Club Rainbow.

All proceeds and funds raised on the calendar will go directly to the organization.

There are 2 versions of the calendar to order
1) Desktop Version ($20)
Let me know of your order NOW!

2) A3 Version ($40)
Includes free delivery and personalisation.
This unique, fully personalised and customised SWCT calendar will enable you to enter your own personal dates i.e. Dad's birthday, to be printed on the calendar.
Order the calendar online @
http://210.193.37.133/cgi-bin/press/swct/calendar.pl

More amazing pictures by Teo Studio can be found here.

On behalf of all the children at Club Rainbow. Big thanks for the support!

Visiting the dentist is always a frightening affair. There’s something about metallic apparatuses probing into your mouth while you lay in submission to the mercy of hopefully a gentle dentist.
I sorta got some bad vibes after recently catching "The Little Shop of Horrors" where Lim Yu Beng portrayed this insane, sadist dentist. Thank goodness my dentist was nothing along the line of lunatic dentist.

Fortunately I have good enough oral hygiene. I’m particular about a good, clean and healthy set of teeth and a pearly white smile. It’s been a year since my last visit to the dentist and this visit was largely pressured by the year end dental reimbursement. Despite brushing at least twice a day and occasional flossing, I’m surprised that there have been quite some tar-tar build up over the year. There was this 20 inch wide screen monitor facing the dental chair with a camera that takes a digital before and after snap shot of your mouth. The doc was pleased to point out the areas where tar-tar was removed on the pictures. I was rather impressed. The usual flossing and polishing took around 45 mins and I added another strawberry fluoride treatment simply to use up the balance. It’s always good to know the teeth are healthy with no decays, but the doc gave me a short session on taking care of my easy bleeding gums. Showing me rather awful pictures of decay, filled with pass and bacterial. I can’t fully understand why anyone would allow their teeth to come to such a state.

I got myself the new Oral B Cross Action Vitalizer that have these rubber like bristles at the sides which are supposed to message the gums… hmmm… anything for a good sparkling smile :D

Now this is a silly invention that could actually be useful. It's so quirky I want one for myself! The Quik Pod - Extendable handheld monopod pole for narcissistic shots!

Wonder if Allan Photo has this to sell... but I may just be too embarrassed to enquire...

Somewhere between towering HDB flats, right smack in the centre of 577 Yishun Ring Road sits the Evangel Family Church. A modern 4 (or 5) storey church building similar to City Harvest. In all honest truth, I've never heard of Evangel nor Casting Crowns, a Grammy Award Winner who has sold more than 2 millions records. It took an MSN invitation that went something like "Christian Rock Concert" and a website link that sold me.

The Thursday night was filled with numerous little surprises. Starting of with sort of like a little old friend reunion. Dennis went like, we're catching a lift from Sharon De Rosa... I mean how many Sharon De Rosas are you likely to know in your lifetime. We went way back to the YPM days...

There was surprisingly a huge crowd at Evangel. Thank goodness, we had reserved seats. The 2 nights only concert was Casting Crown's its first in Asia. A seven-member group led by lead vocalist/songwriter, Pastor Mark Hall. He had such an awesome voice. He'd make a great country singer, blending his music with so much meaning from his Life Stories book. I'd give the music two thumbs up, but thought it really felt more like a concert rather then a kick ass worship session.

"Are we happy plastic people / Under shiny plastic steeples
With walls around our weakness / And smiles to hide our pain
But if the invitation’s open / To every heart that has been broken
Maybe then we close the curtain on our stained glass masquerade"

- from “Stained Glass Masquerade”


We ended the night with supper at Chomp Chomp. It's been ages since checked that place out. Just a street away is this "2nd Holland Village" hang out place called Maju Mall. I can only vaguely recall how happening this place was in my younger years.