Golden & Silver Excesses

Best part of last night (this morning rather): Chin Fee tells Sherry the dou sha bao joke.

CF: Who killed Ah Bao? Ah Dou, because dou sha bao!!

Sher: Uhmmm, wah, okay.

Everyone: Chinfee ah, Sherry doesn't understand Chinese...

CF: OMG. *shrinks in horror*

posted by Brian @ 6:00 PM 2 comments

If Wingyee can bao zha then so can I....

......

......

......only if my life were half as happening. For me one week's worth of bao zha very good already.

Unfortunately my final ultra-long weekend has come to an end and I won't be able to enjoy another one till I clear leave in May, but nevertheless it was a rollercoaster ride, no doubt orchestrated by one very short person. (Just kidding Yingyi.)

My off day started Wednesday afternoon, but wah lau I burned the whole day unlocking characters on Naruto GNT4 for Gamecube... Christmas shopping was like, totally unimportant compared to this. What was I thinking!! Saved the day by going to Union Square. Finally got to see short-hair Trudy after she MIAed for so long - the haircut seems to suit her a lot better! Also danced with with Chinfee/Soongfee, Phelicia and co. I'm fairly happy that improvements are finally in order. :D

The nearby prata for supper afterward was quite unusual cos normally I'd be sitting with Trudy's group, but this time I was in the company of the super zai dancers (as in Eddie Boon Chinfee etc) and I sort of feel that I click better with them. The guys in Trudy's gang are mostly older, the youngest after me being Darren at 27, so I'm just a frigging young punk lah! I don't want to say generation gap but really, there's simply a lack of common topics.

After supper I gave Boon and Josee a ride back. While Boon was in the car I just kept bashing fucked up money-hungry Singaporeans. Hehe that's SO me. After I dropped Boon, Josee seemed pretty sombre - she talked about how most of us don't really get the music because we don't know Spanish. It's like dancing without feelings, somehow, not knowing the lyrics but just following the beat, it's like we lost a whole dimension of the dance. Listening to her voice, quavering and bordering on tears, it seems so true that she was drawing a different level of emotions and reactions from her dancing - then again, bringing your own personal issues into the mood of the dance may not be appropriate in our context (although you may not be able to help it). Hope that girl's gonna be okay.

---------------

Thursday started with more Naruto, before I finally hauled my ass to town at 4pm to start foraging for presents. After picking up a couple of presents, I met up with Little Girl to pick out Geraldine's present. We started with this flowery thing from Guess? which wasn't too shabby, but I thought it did seem a little frivolous and didn't reflect the necessary sophistication for a 21st birthday gift. So off we went to Tiffany & Co. thinking we'd find something perfect. And I guess we did, but... we now know how disillusional and unenlightened both of us are about the price of Tiff & Co jewellery...

So finally we rolled over to Goldheart at Wisma, with the clock ticking because I had to leave for Casino class at LADC. After missing last week's class and having the whole lot of girls wait for me, I felt freaking terrible lah. Thinking back at all the primal screams I made while being helplessly stuck in the traffic jam, I was adamant not to repeat this impunctuality... but with Little Girl being as indecisive as she was, wah my patience was at the end of its tether!

After 15 minutes of sorting through all the designs we narrowed it down to the pink heart shape "Sweetie" and the white gold and opal "Circles". I kept saying that Circles was the obvious choice but noooo YY was like "Gerri quite sweet what, the pink heart shape totally suits her!" Completely wrong image mannnn... In the end she had to call Sherry to do a Win, Lose or Mentally Draw over the phone and seek a second opinion between Sweetie and Circles. But do you think Sherry really got the picture? All the way I was just grumbling to the sales guy like, "man I hate girls..." and he was giving me this very sympathetic face. Haha. Eventually my patience burned out and I started walking out of the shop, and magically Little Girl was like "OK OK we'll buy Circles!"

Sheeeessshhhhhhhh....

I ran like hell through the throngs of crowds to the carpark, machiam like a snatch thief evading capture. Drove like a madman too, thankfully someone up there decided to give me an early Christmas present cos all the traffic lights were in my favour. I managed to make it being a mere 5 minutes late! Casino was super fun with the Repeata Repeata Repeata torture during the Enchufa el Centro stages. I'm starting to think I enjoy Casino more than normal salsa...

---------------

Friday was even more Naruto. Fast forward... lunch with Vivien was nice. :) We ate at BigO before doing some more last minute Christmas shopping, including her own present from me (naughty, lazy kid I am). After much arguing with YY on what a 23-year old ought to wear and whether stripes are for young kids or true men, I found Eddie a nice shirt at Topman, where I also ran into Dennis Tan and Shu-en. Long time never see that guy liao...

Geraldine's party: interesting characters abound. I told Kiathan straight away, "I'm SICK of magic tricks! Stop trying to boggle my mind!" before he can even take out his cards, haha. Gabriel's commentary certainly proves that the man is a match for the legend. But of course these amusements were fairly secondary to Porshee's Christmas presents - several condoms in disguise handed out, but for mine he had to go all out with the Dashboard Boobies. Brrrr it'll be a cold day in hell before I stick that on my car, the police will probably pull me over for creating a public obscenity. x_x

After the party we made a dash to Barcelona before ending the night at Union. There was quite a ruckus caused by YY that night but bearing Sunday night in mind, this was child's play...

---------------

Saturday: SKJ Christmas gathering in the afternoon. This is what I spent all that time on Naruto for, unlocking characters so we have a more fun selection in 4 player mode, but lo and behold Junyan pulls a fast one on me: "I don't support modding of any kind so my Gamecube can't play Japanese games!" -__- Ended up watching some very boring PS2 games, and my interest only perked up upon seeing the death-defying stunts of Prince of Persia. Then I ran down to Botanic Gardens for Xmas family dinner at Halia, which for some reason left me awfully lethargic and I decided that sleeping through Christmas Eve wasn't such a bad idea.

---------------

Sunday, what a day! After making preparations at Jervois for the guests, I had dinner with Porshee, Kenneth, Geraldine and Jingsheng (who is also in my camp, yay new Armour-brother-in-suffering) at Sun with Moon. The birdcage they served Posh's green tea mooncake in made for some irony - because the guys were more or less sightseeing, perhaps should I say birdwatching...

After dinner we left for Jervois, where YY and Phelicia joined us. For a terrifying moment, I thought we were going to spend the whole night watching The Princess Diaries, but with some very deft thinking Porshee and I managed to divert everyone's attention to the highlight of the night: PASS-OUT the drinking game...

Sidenote: I discovered in horror that Jervois doesn't have any bottle openers or wine corkscrews. WTF is a party without these? We had to sheepishly borrow the corkscrew from the neighbours upstairs. Thank goodness they were nice about it (but I bet they were the ones who complained later...).

We began with shots of white wine, and once the 2 bottles of wine disappeared we were ready to move on. And... wait a second. SHOTS of white wine?! Wine was made to be sipped, not gulped in shots! Oh, such a travesty, how we trample upon the dignity of wine and upper-crust society.

Moving on to a little bit of the hard stuff, I cooked up a mix of vodka with Ribena and cranberry juice, with some Chivas available by the side, but it seemed that a few of our competitors were stumbling past the fine line of inebriation... See Porshee's photos and you can guess what level of smashed-ness they were headed for. I bet someone enjoyed that kiss too, even if they claim "I'm absolutely terrified". (Hey, one silly kiss against 5 or 7 shots?)

We cut the game when Ken and Jingsheng decided to head back, so I escorted the two out of Jervois, leaving the very sober Phelicia to fend for herself against her devilishly drunk sister. How sia like that. Eddie managed to come in shortly afterwards, but the numbers remained unchanged, since Geri unfortunately met her match with the game and well, effectively Passed Out.

Now, how did we deal with the little devil? Fetch some holy water and yell "GO back whence you came from, demon!!" Yeah I half expected an Emily Rose-esque confrontation, and for all I know it might as well have been, given the Battle of the 8800 on the couch. If my phone were not made of sturdier stuff, I suppose that would be 2.5 months of my pay drowned in the clutches of alcohol. Like, phew.

Eventually YY sobered up a little (and mysteriously got a hangover too, how quick) and with such great timing, Chinfee, Soongfee and their cousins made their appearance. We played a bit of Secret Agenda, which proved to be a lot more complicated than I initially believed. Still fun though, with some really wacky topic-behaviour combinations mostly involving sexy behaviour or trash talking. Subsequently we went for XO fish head sliced fish soup at River Valley, which brought much needed salvation for the dying Porshee and YY.

Just about everyone left after that, except Posh and Eddie, who continued to practise salsa movements at 5am. (Think about it! 5am, fucking Revillie Zero Five Hundred Hours!! What is it with our gang and continuing to practise moves at ungodly hours?!) My ears remained open for conversation but my body pretty much gave out and lay in a heap on the couch. Eventually we decided to clean up a bit and go home, concluding one of the nuttiest nights I have borne witness to... despite the material crises I don't regret it at all :D

--------------

I met up with Guoliang and Ben on Monday evening to chew the fat, as we are always wont to do. Dinner was at Nirai Kanai, this Japanese restaurant at Tanglin Shopping Centre that serves authentic Hokkaido cuisine. It was a different taste for a change, and GL's stories of Williamsburg are seriously hyping me up. 6 more months, ah.

Okay I'm damn sian after writing such a long entry, machiam like writing school essay like that. Sian already lah. And I should hurl myself into a hot vat of oil for sounding like Xiaxue at various points of this entry! Enough already.

posted by Brian @ 6:29 PM 0 comments

(Ed: This isn't directed at anyone in particular. Treat it as the Surgeon-General's warning for general dissemination.)

To me, there is only one thing worse than being forced to listen to Chinese music or radio stations for 12 - 24 hours straight (or perhaps one full month if you consider my Taiwan trip):

Waking me up anytime before I expect to wake up.

While I have been known to keep late nights as an immediate result of joining the salsa fraternity, this does not extend to my routine life at home; if I come home at 10pm I will expect to be asleep shortly after 12. What to do? I'm still a slave to the SAF and I have to get up around 6am every weekday morning. My body is still stuck in this miserable cycle - the late nights on weekends only serve to throw that cycle out of whack and cause me suffering during the week. I mean, it's worthwhile lah, but you know.

Like I told Chinfee yesterday - my first love is my BED. (Or any vaguely bed-like and comfortable surface. The sofa at Jazz@Southbridge almost counted.) Anyone who makes an attempt to tear me away from my wishedly-uninterrupted sleep will score a black mark in my Book of Misdeeds.

Now typically there are only two perpetrators: my mom, or idiotic army colleagues who know I'm having an off day but can't resist calling me at 8.30am while knowing I'm blissfully sleeping. However as of recently, I've been receiving calls and messages at the ungodly hour of 2am (it's ungodly when you sleep at 11.30pm on a quiet night) and well... I can only apologise for my behaviour. I simply cannot entertain calls under such circumstances, unless #1: the subject is about to commit suicide or a similar misdeed, or #2: I am for some unknown reason really, really besotted with the person in question. Either way won't stop me from being pissed off though.

So forgive me for my rudeness, but on your part, please don't call me at that kind of hour unless it's really urgent! I will thank you in many other ways for the peace you provide me.

posted by Brian @ 11:24 AM 0 comments

Because I want people to tell me what they want for Christmas (so I don't have to rack my brain), I'm going to tell you what I want. Tit for tat.

Maltesers. No, really. I already got the Krispy Kremes so no need for exotic gastronomic delights. I'm just a Mary Jane.

Okay, seriously if you want to get something substantial, think of a cologne. I don't wear cologne, EDTs or whatever (I perpetually worry that I have BO or ratty bad breath, you better tell me if I have ok) so if you can find something that matches me, I'd be delighted.

Also, DVDs are welcome. No need for DVD boxsets but in general I keep missing a lot of movies (Constantine, Sin City come to mind) so I think you can't go wrong as long as you don't buy me a !@#$%^&*# B-grade movie like The Cave.

posted by Brian @ 12:07 PM 1 comments

What does your handwriting say about YOU?

They say,

"The results of your analysis say:

You plan ahead, and are interested in beauty, design, outward appearance, and symmetry.
You are a person who thinks before acting, intelligent and thorough.
You are negative, fearful, resistant, doubtful, and/or selfish.
You are reserved, shy, cautious, and thoughtful.
You are self-confident and like to bring attention to yourself."

I say,

My handwriting sucks. (It's written using a mouse! Come on!)

posted by Brian @ 11:59 AM 0 comments

I remember Thursday. It was not a funny Thursday, but a mundane one spent in camp doing shit all. Then the night started - I picked up Sherry at Specialists' Centre and the rest of the night burned down in absolute wackiness.

HRC Salsa Night again, with Sherry, Chinfee, Jared, Yingyi, Felicia and Peter. A little girl might be good at concealing herself but getting a little girl to hide a big pictureboard is a little off-kilter! o_O I'm damn lucky that HRC didn't intercede wrt our celebrations or I'd have to stand on the bloody chair to blow the damn candles out. Phew. Salsa-wise it wasn't bad at all, plus I met up with the twins Linus and Silvinus, Tienyew and Matt. The supreme killer came later at Coffee Club - the Night of the Living Dead Ants... lameness incarnate.

Friday - I2, then Fiesta which was mostly boring. Then... err... Union for like 30 mins (my $15 vanished into thin air, man...) and then off to Barcelona AGAIN... and then to Arab St for Lychee Temptation, shisha and The Revenge of the Dead Ants! *scream

Saturday - I1 makeup, merengue and Body Movement class back to back pretty much killed me for the rest of the day, when I got to Hope Street it was so bad I fell asleep during all the cartoon segments (Mr Shhhhh rocks :D). Nevertheless it was an awesome show and actually I'm beginning to think I should have seen on Friday as well like what Doug was saying. But I don't have so much money to burn lah hah.

Met up with the long-lost Xing Ning, Toe, Amanda and Kenneth (from a meeting a long long time ago in a galaxy far away) for some drinks after the show. It's not everyday you see people coming back... Kenneth mentioned that now's the perfect opportunity to chill after a long productive year and meet up with friends who're back from overseas. I'm really happy to hear him talk about his great year and chasing his passions; in a way I guess this is what Mum means to just be happy for people, instead of festering with envy and self-hatred.

Union was a downer though. Won't go into details but I was simply sick. Sick with the same thing I'm always down with....

posted by Brian @ 12:25 PM 0 comments

Cannot take it... my body is too weak...

Friday Fiesta was "empty" or so Geraldine complained, but hey, twas fruitful enough for me. Mei Pin says I'm improving a bit. Yay! Went to listen to Reverie again (the hot Aussie waitress was missing this time! Damn!) and Jon just keeps niao-ing our salsa gang. When Shane came over to talk shop... ahaha. SUAVE, huh.

Nearly ended up going KTV but luckily for my sanity, there weren't any more suitable timings so we postponed it to Saturday. Subway & Coffee Club for supper, and lots of opinions shared but my brain was unfortunately simply OFF. Being awake for close to 24 hours without any caffeine does that to me. Okay fine my brain wasn't that dead, I could get home fine, but I must have seemed real dead to the other guys! >_<

Saturday, 2pm: I get up and oh shit oh shit I'm super late for class.... not.... Lionel comes in real late. Which in turn makes me go oh shit oh shit I'm super late for Body Movement... and outta the blue, I see my phone after Int/Adv and Yingyi's like "Brian save me! The bus went the wrong way and I'm headed for PS!" Wah. If I pick her up, confirm late like nobody's business.

But alas I chose to the chivalrous thing (PUI! Me, chivalrous, as if that ever helped my case with girls...), and dashed over to pick Ying up before rushing to ADS in record timing. CMI lah, when we got there, we were stuck so far back in the crammed studio that I couldn't see myself in the mirror to check my body isolation, despite my height!

After class I brought Jared and Ying for dinner at Carl's Jr. Then we went roaming around. Oh, Jared must be real scared of AC girls now... any more of Barbie and the Magic Pegasus and I think we'd have turned into stone...

Jared left and along came Porshee, Ken and Sherry for KTV. Now, I am probably the biggest detractor of KTV I know. Given that KTV goers typically sing Chinese songs, KTV is the ultimate embodiment of taboo to me, being sick of listening to 93.3FM all day long in camp for the last 13 months. Besides, I can't sing for nuts! I regard myself as musically impaired.

So it was surprising that we had a fairly fun time - probably because we sang all the ridiculous ENGLISH songs *phew* and it helps that Sherry has an awesome voice. And come on, anywhere in the world you try it, attempting to do Phantom of the Opera on karaoke will simply slay you with laughter! Aaaaaaaa-aa-ah aa-ah aa-aa-ahhhhhhhhh....

This afternoon I stuffed myself silly at Sun with Moon. Nice place. Lazed the day away till dinner with MC, Simin and WJ at Curry Favor, then it was time for Chestnuts Episode III: Revenge of the Shooting Stars which I've been following ever since Hossan Leong's debut in the series 2 years ago. This one was a bit insipid at times when I think back of classics like the Matrix's Architect spouting his philosophical mumbo-jumbo in Hokkien. Wah lau, the bit with oogling "Allan Wu" was especially horrendous. Nevertheless, the political satire is smashing as always, and OMG, if you know anything about Emily of Emerald Hill you will simply die... I don't think it was totally worth $40 but if you're familiar with the Sound of Music and know a bit about the Singapore theatrical scene, then check it out.

posted by Brian @ 11:25 PM 1 comments