Photos + exciting F1nish

The first ever F1 Night Race in the world just concluded in our humble island of Singapore. But firstly..

Went to watch Vicky Cristina Barcelona on saturday. It's mature, it's lyrical, it's damn funny!
I give the movie:



(Rated: M18)

Of course it's M18. The smokin' hot Penelope Cruz and Scarlett Johansson locked lips in one scene... for a brief 5 seconds. But you know what they say - good things are worth the wait, and before you know it, it's over.

BUT! That is hardly the main point of the show. Far from it. (Like my friend's friend called him a "erotic lesbionic freak" for watching the show, but it's all a misunderstanding). Although that comment is rather funny =x

Vicky Cristina Barcelona has a very interesting storyline - and it features some hilarious moments, mostly thanks to Penelope Cruz's depressed-but-freakin-funny character, Maria.

FINAL SAY: For those mature enough, I recommend you to watch this show. I'm sure you'll like it as much as I did =) Funny and nice storyline that'll leave you pondering about life..
~

Okay, I just had to recommend that film. It's nice. Even after I left the theatre and went to eat Astons I was still talking about how good it made me feel (not in the mature kind of way, thanks).

Speaking about Astons, I think $11.90 for a plate of sirloin steak is friggggggin' worth it.
Price includes two choices of side dish, which I chose the classic baked potato (pity it didn't have toppings of bacon bits and sour cream like Jack's Place, but their touch of melted butter is fine for me) and the can-never-go-wrong onion rings. Yum.

Avocado Lemon ice cream. Not from Aston's, but from The Indulge, also at The Cathay. It's light and tastes a bit like that Split lime ice cream with the milk in the middle. Yes, those cheap ones. This is $6.80 =x

Dang, Dbl O with zhiwei fungi and szern was cancelled. But nevermind, next friday, here we come! And szern, I hope you're still not considering bringing mooncakes there. Thanks.
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Went for photography trip @ Arab Street area with Kim. Bleah, not a very fruitful trip. But here are some interesting photos:
Derelict building @ Kampong Glam. I like the blue boards on the house.

Literally wall-flower.

Needs no explanation.

Tucked in a little corner in Kampong Glam. Contains some forgotten treasures:

Clockwise from Top-Left: Yay, trumpets; Freaky looking Ronald McDonald and Hamburglar; Retro fridge; Dusty and confirm-undrinkable Coca Cola.

(L-R): Old flask, vase and radio; wooden blocks used to make mooncakes!

Even Singaporeans like us have never been to such places in Singapore!

Eye-catching painted patterns on an old shop-house.

Parkview Plaza - that Gotham-City-like building @ North Bridge Road.

Trying to catch the sunlight. I need a better camera for full-effect.

Does this look ominous? Wait till you see...

...it in sepia tone. Spooky.

Don't worry, that's just me.

It's definitely spookier in black and white.

Korea's got Stairway To Heaven. We've got Escalator to Heaven. Haha! Ok, not very funny.

Didn't learn much of DSLR from Kim today but at least I finally learnt how to do that shot where you set a very slow shutter speed and snap, then you slowly zoom out of the picture. The effect is that the lights in the picture will appear as straight long streaks in the photo. Okay that sentence is only for the visually-imaginative =x

Got no visual examples. Next time when we bring a tripod out I'll probably take a good photo of it.
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And yep, finally on to the Formula One SingtTel Singapore Grand Prix!

...also touted as the First F1 Night Race in the World!

I could hear the revving of the engines even when I was at Plaza Sing, on the night of the qualifying rounds. That's how exciting it is.

Watched the finals at home with my family. It was the first time I watched an F1 race and I must say I was hooked. The crashes. Massa (leading in pole position) driving off with his fuel hose attached, causing him to finish in 12th place. And Hamilton's confidence. And of course, Alfonso's beautiful racing.

Why aren't S'poreans more excited? I personally feel it's an honour to have these world-class sportsmen (that's Lewis Hamilton, man!) racing on our streets, with our skyline in the backdrop, making history in front of millions of viewers worldwide.

Just FYI, the S'pore Grand Prix will be held for the next 5 years. So people, let's start getting interested.

Some F1 Fast Facts to get you started:
> Drivers lose up to 5kg of body weight (water-loss) every single race because of intense heat in the cockpit
> The cockpit is so tight they have to remove the steering wheel for the driver to get in and out
> F1 drivers are not insured because of the extremely high-risk nature of the sport. Which explains why they're so highly-paid
(F1 Fast Facts taken from 8Days)

Alfonso officially wins the S'pore leg of the F1 Grand Prix. But it is Hamilton that is currently leading in points (84, compared to second-place Massa's 77). He is tipped to win the entire Grand Prix. The winning team (in Hamilton's case, McLauren-Mercedes) will drive home with US$80 Million.
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Yup, this was one long post.

Took off on Monday. =)

Take care, peeps!

Britney's Back!

Remember my post same time last year when Britney Spears' career crashed and burned? Click here to recall. It was the Video Music Awards '07 where she pranced around on-stage looking fat, lost and giving a very bad lip-syched performance of Gimme More, which got audiences shouting "Gimme No-More".

Well, the once-Pop Princess is officially back, triumphing at the 2008's MTV Video Music Awards, the same event that destroyed her last year. Funny how showbiz works, eh?

Give you more on that later (pun not intended).
~

But firstly, some photos. Went to SAF Seaview Resort @ Changi Village for battery cohesion. It's a damn beautiful place; the only problem being it's too ulu-ated and there's nothing much to do except play mahjong (which I did, hehe) and BBQ (we also did).


We also spent a good half of the time playing this zombie board games. Kang and Choy simply love their board games. I can foresee a board game mania after I ORD =P
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Celebrated Jia Min and Bao Yuan's birthday @ JM's house. Forgot to take pics! Anyway, it was a mahjong day and we watched 881. It was an okay movie - too depressing for my liking, actually.
~

Played mahjong again with zw, fungi and sk on sunday. Monday off. And I've booked my driving practical test date! 5Dec2008. My first practical lesson is on Hari Raya. Got jm the same instructor. He seems like an experienced guy. Old, pot-belly, speaks in a drawl - that's how an instructor should be, I guess =x
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Now for the Come-back of the Year.

This was last year:


And this is NOW:

Nope, she didn't perform (actually, a good thing, since I'm sure last year's nightmare-ish bikini dancing of Gimme More is still fresh in people's minds), but she did become the BIGGEST WINNER of the night.

Britney bags these 3 awards, including the most prestigious:
> Best Female Video of the Year (for Piece of Me)
> Best Pop Video (for Piece of Me, again)
> Video of the Year (yep, you guessed it, for Piece of Me)

Is it a sympathy thing? Seeing that she is recovering from her mental illness and the lost of custody for her two kids? BUT.. it seems like not. Judging from the standing ovation she got when she appeared on stage to open the show, looking stunning in a silver dress, and another standing ovation when she won the first award, it seems this woman is poised for a come-back.

And guess what?

Circus, her 6th studio album, is slated for a December release in America. And this is a leaked single from the net, entitled Mannequin.


It's strange how she got more famous after being infamous for so long. Blackout is already a classic among fans (and probably her most critically-acclaimed effort, yet). Just accept it, people. Once Circus is out, the bit*h is officially back. Lol =x
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Okay, I'm happy I settled my private driving instructor so fast. Hari Raya is my first lesson. Practical test date also book already. Thanks jm for this. If she didn't force me to go call up the guy I wouldn't have gotten it done within these two days. But thanks ah, I did all the job and you got yourself an instructor minus all the hassle =p

Booking in later. Confirm a lot of stuff waiting for me when I'm back.

Happy recess week for the uni-ppl!

Take care, peeps!

Birthdays + 中秋

September babies: My grandma. Jiamin. Eugene. Colin. Baoyuan. Bernard. My dad. My neighbour..

..and the list goes on!

My previous post was my grandma's birthday. I shall start off this post with my ORD-ed army buddies' birthdays.

Colin & Bernard's
Celebrated at Spaggedies @ Marina Square. ALL of them ORD liao. Either working or studying. Soon, it'll be my turn. *Glances at ORD clock* It's coming!!!!!

Sorry, everytime I think about ORD I get carried away. It's just that recently, it's been really, really, really busy in camp. A lot of my campmates say: "Aiya, Wilson, ORD liao lah. Don't have to care about so many things."

But there's still endless work to do. And irritating stuff are beginning to happen on a regular basis, which just makes me happy I'm leaving that place soon =x

Anyway, the guys (above) seem to be enjoying whatever they're doing. Especially Colin, who was telling us an interesting (horror) story about a girl that stalked him; and jiayi's got a gf, junming still not showing us his, yongqin's got a job...

Makes me tensed a little, cos I've got a lot to catch up on after I ORD!
~

中秋节 and Dad's birthday
NUMBER ONE Proof that you've really been too busy: Forgetting your dad's birthday =X

I'm not proud of it! Argh. I opened the fridge in the morning and asked my mom: "Eh? Why got cake?" Then, my mom and aunties and uncles started scolding me.

Of course, in the end I paid for the meal that day (it was a family pot-luck thing). We celebrated 中秋节 too. Here are some nice photos!!

Russell rocks! (and my digicam, too)

'O'... 'D'.. 'O'..'R'..'D'.. ORD!!

This pic is quite scary. Where's her left arm!?

The mini S.H.E.

Random cute photo of Ashley.

Who.... lives in a pineapple under the sea? SPONGE-BOB SQUARE-PANTS!!

Dad's cake. He's 50.

~

Okay, that's all for birthdays. Now for something I bought.


Tanya Chua's latest called My Space. Not to be confused with the social-networking site.

It's a beautiful, personal and pleasant collection of her songs - all in unplugged version. Great listening for those who enjoy acoustic-guitar-pluck-and-sing-a-longs.

Tomorrow's battery cohesion day @ Changi Village seaview resort. Don't know how it'll turn out. Just hope I can play mahjong =x

Take care, peeps!

Celebrate with 苏智成 & 陈天文

Can you imagine army guys, 20 years of age, going "Waaalll Eee"? What's worse, they try to do it with a robotic sound.

That's the effect the latest Disney/Pixar film has on people of all ages. Caught this masterpiece of a film during my nights-out with my army buddies, and yeah man, it was good.
I give the film:



We know Disney/Pixar can never go wrong. Toy Story, Monsters Inc, Finding Nemo, Ratatouille... just to name a few modern classics.

And to add to that list, now there's Wall-E.

Astounding animation aside, Wall-E carries an important message for us humans living on Earth. The media and the entertainment industry have cooked up many 'save-the-environment' campaigns recently that it's getting sick. (e.g. The Live Earth concert that wasted more resources than it aims to save; Leonardo DiCaprio's Eleventh Hour half-baked documentary; and M. Night Shyamalan's retarded movie The Happening)

But all it needs is one beautiful animation to make us all sit up and take notice.

FINAL SAY: Charming. Romantic. Adorable. Relevant.
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Celebrated my Grandma's birthday at my uncle's newly-opened Teochew Kitchen restaurant @ Changi Village. Even celebraties like 苏智成 & 陈天文 were there.


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Wow, there are seriously a lot of people's birthdays in September.

Yay, celebrating mid-autumn festival next week together with dad's birthday. Looking forward to another day of good food.

Take care, peeps!