Wednesday, August 30, 2006

lesson #032: shinobi

Just watched this Jap movie called Shinobi on DVD:



The guy, Jo Odagiri is so damn hawttttttttt. Was alternating between drooling at him and frowning at the plot. Not that there's anything wrong with the plot... The movie just seemed very brief. Hmmm I guess you can say that there's the flaw in the story. And the story is?

"Shinobi" opens with an accidental meeting between ninja warriors Gennosuke (Jo Odagiri) and Oboro (Yukie Nakama). The two are members of opposing ninja clans that have been at war for 400 years; she of the Iga, and he of the Kouga. It's love at first sight, but alas, they are very much star crossed lovers, and as Oboro sighs, only meant to be together "in their dreams".

Oboro and Gennosuke's forbidden love is made worst when the Shogun, fearing that rebels may use the ninja clans as instruments of insurrection, revokes the long-held truce between the ninjas, thereby allowing them to kill one another once more. Doubly worst, Oboro and Gennosuke gets chosen as the leaders of their respective battle squads, and must face off in deadly combat for the right to survive.

-- (from beyondhollywood.com)

There's this cool chick called Kagerou, one of the shinobi from Jo Odagiri's side:


Kagerou with Gennosuke

She's this shinobi who's been fed poison all her life. In her own words in the movie, she'd 'never lain with a man'. Anyone she kisses dies almost instantly. That's how sad, not to mention sexually frustrating hey? I liked her character more than the female lead, whatsername.

Basically it's like Kill Bill minus a lot of the gore. Each shinobi has his/her own special skill, but some of them didn't really get to use the skills... Usually they'll get killed off too soon for anything majorly cool to happen. I did witness Gennosuke's awesome time-bending skill though. HOT HOT HOT. How come I've never seen this guy before!


Hotarubi, one of the victims of early kill-offs. I think her skill has something to do with throwing golden powder around but we'd never know. She died defending whatsername, in a very sad and mediocre way (knives at her back).

There's also this immortal guy who literally can't be killed. Even when he wants to purposely end his own life, he can't. Every stab wound would get healed by worms residing in his body.

Wanna know more about the background story for this movie but the official site's in Jap and I suppose it's quite an underdog movie that nobody outside Japan knows about. Oh well. Time for sleep!

Photos next entry: Vivace and NYNY.

Sunday, August 27, 2006

lesson #031: shoutout!

Thanks Jin Fu for the cooking tips. Though I have a feeling the execution's gonna be way harder than what I can possibly imagine. Will try to minimise any fire in the kitchen.

Thanks my sweet sweet Jess, Addy, Melvin, Jason, Ah Fu again, Josiah, Doug, Gary, Syd (muack!), Chloe, Yang, Zhi, Awedrey, Ms Haotanto (yay for agreeing to come down!), and all the rest who'd bothered and yet remained silent. Though the thing's a bit screwed up 'cos they decided to change the way it's done at the last minute. But the gesture didn't go unnoticed. I think this coming Thursday will be a rocking-ass day, with all the people I love being there. It'll be like an early send-off slash birthday party for me... I'm quite looking forward to it now.

Special thanks to Kunzie (and Cel too, 'cos technically she's the one carrying the barang around) for my outfit for that day! Yayay. Got a kitsch gift all the way from Bangkok.

Looking forward to meeting up with other exchange peeps like Jing En in London!

Not that I've gotten over my fear... I'm freaked out more than ever but also overwhelmed by the amount of help people are offering! I feel really blessed. Excitement's streaming through my veins, mixing with the sadness of missing out on awesome company. Sigh!

Love you.

Love, me.

Thursday, August 24, 2006

lesson #030: this is about fear

I'm afraid of so many aspects of this exchange. I haven't learned how to cook. Could I pick up a few easy dishes in just a week and a half? I haven't bought any winter clothing. Could I find a decent one in just a week and a half? I haven't thought of what to pack. Clothes would be easy, but how about the other stuff? We're talking of uprooting 4 months' worth of stuff into a foreign country. Would need cutleries, Jif's, a fresh box of contact lenses (oh my goodness! Is there time to order?), and... what if I forget stuff?? What if I can't get it over there? What if I can get it over there but it's horrendously overpriced? What if?

Okay, I'm seriously panicking and freaking out. I don't know if I'm ready for this! Living by myself for 4 whole months. I can't even keep my bedroom neat right now! Would I have time to keep the bathroom clean and dry? Would I have time to wash my clothes?

This is just... scary.

Tuesday, August 22, 2006

lesson #029: i shall refrain from talking about the stone-faced jumping poster

Eek! I don't wanna hear it I don't wanna hear it I don't wanna hear it!

Anyhoo, why is it that when I try to be poetic and romantic I end up being teased half to death about... being jailed for a kiss??? Gah. I shall revert back to bimbo-esque posts.

So yesterday was the first day of school for a lot of people (but not for me). Everybody was busy complaining about how boring the first lesson was (except for me), and most people were asking around for the price of second-hand textbooks (but not me). It's rather sad really. I feel rather detached from the hustle and bustle, I feel away from the light. Nonetheless I still went and sat at Pick & Bite to people-watch for a bit with Yang and Zhi, after which Gary joined us for dinner at Din Tai Fung. Oh yes, and in the morning I deposited some books at Verts and hung with Syd, whom I saw at the library, until late afternoon.

Anyways, the distinctly most irregular activity of the day was going to ColdWear to check out winter coats. We saw some decent coats for girls but overall, I think I'd prefer to buy coats from Mango or Zara. I need either a white or a beige-coloured coat to match the beige boots I bought.

Today, I'd wanted to go to the Italian Embassy to collect my long-overdue Visa, but along the way I got rather faint from the most painful cramps I've gotten in a long while, and as I was starting to see spots I had to be sent home in a cab by a certain someone, who saw to it that I was all right before leaving a gentlemanly note in an illegible handwriting.

Finally, woke up and checked my SMU email and as expected, another load of 30 have come in since the morning. Why so many e-mails all of a sudden? Blah!

Shall burn off the frustration by playing Warcraft.

Saturday, August 19, 2006

the prisoner

Imagine our kiss.

My lips, slightly parted.
Yours, tender and moist.
The warmth of your cheek, the touch of your skin.
The blush when our noses bump.
My eyes like glass. Breathless.
And every bad thing in my life vanishes, what lingers is the scent of you.

And it will be then that I become
A prisoner of your kiss.

Wednesday, August 16, 2006

lesson #028: the materialized pictorial update

Go and catch a falling star,
Get with child a mandrake root,
Tell me where all past years are,
Or who cleft the devil's foot,
Teach me to hear mermaids' singing,
Or to keep off envy's stinging,
And find
What wind
Serves to advance an honest mind.

If thou be'st born to strange sights,
Things invisible to see,
Ride ten thousand days and nights,
Till age snow white hairs on thee,
Thou, when thou return'st,wilt tell me,
All strange wonders that befell thee,
And swear,
No where
Lives a woman true and fair.

-- John Donne

Food eaten so far:

4. Bedok 85's ba chor mee
21. Cranberry muffins that mummy bought for breakkie

Finally, pictures!

- BINTAN -


At a bar that's located within the resort pool. Pretty nifty (and wet).


The view from my room. It gets rather green down there.


A soft, sandy beach.


The water is THAT clear. You can see the entire base, sand, rock bits and all.


This is what happens when a buffet breakfast is the only free meal that comes with the package. You load up on the freebies and skip lunch. I think this was my first helping. Had like 3,ooo more pancakes after.

- GIVENCHY -


Got to keep the nifty shades for a night thanks to the pageant peeps. it's worth $420! So diva.

- MINDS -


Last Saturday, went to Minds with Yang, Anna, Jess, Syd, Josh, Doug and Anna' friend (is his name really spelled See How??). WD joined late in the game.

Wore the corset top borrowed from Jing. Supposed to go to a cocktail party in it but that plan falls through.

May I just add that the previous night I went to supper, DRIVING, and sent home both Yang and Zhi, DRIVING.


Yang's expression here is priceless!


You just gotta love that Broke tee.

- MOS -


Syd, Jess, WD, Doug and I headed down to MOS after, out of impulse. Out of THEIR impulse. I actually was very tired and didn't wanna go, but I was aggressively persuaded. Anyhoo it was Teng Ren's birthday celebration. In the end stayed in there until 4am (alternately suffering silently / dancing / drinking free shooters) and only got to sleep for 1 hour. Very bad considering I had 2 photoshoots back to back the next day!


The usual...


WD and his super vacuum puckers.


Syd and I. This piccie woulda looked the same as any other pic we took before, except that in here I looked almost as tan as her! Woo-hoo.


Yawn...


Taken inside the ladies' powder room, otherwise known as the toilet.

Anyhoo, darls, gimme a shout when you want me to send you the pics!

lesson #027: it was supposed to be a pictorial update but heck, i'm too friggin' pissed

Feelin' pretty darn stressed about the UK trip now, what with the recent terrorist attempts not only making it inconvenient to bring stuff onto the plane, but also the fact that it's just downright scary. Up until now, whatever can go wrong with this exchange seem to HAVE gone wrong. From the uptight visas, to the strict budget, to the crappy transport schedules, to the F**KING BOMBS!

The friggin' attacks and wars and shits are REALLY starting to get IRRITATING. What the fuck is it all for? Can someone please tell me why is it so satisfying to kill innocents just to hurt whoever's in charge? And what angered these people so much to be able to cold-bloodedly plan to kill, kill, kill, and KILL SOME MORE? Isn't it pretty stupid??

Correct me if I'm wrong, but, I think when you commit murder, that is considered to be a very bad thing to do, in WHATEVER faith or religion.

Man, this world really needs a Superman.

Wednesday, August 09, 2006

lesson #026: list of food i have to eat before i fly off, not necessarily all at the same time

1. Crystal Jade's dim sum, la mian & XLB
2. Thai Express's sweet & sour squid, phat thai and tom yam soup
3. Holland V's XO beehoon
4. Bedok 85's ba chor mee
5. Suntec City foodcourt's spicy ramen and pork chop hor fun
6. MOS burger's ice milk tea
7. Sakae's raw salmon sushi & soft-shell crab sushi
8. Coronation Plaza's lemon chicken rice
9. Al Ameen prata opposite Beauty World
10. Prata bomb at Thomson
11. SMU City Campus's tom yam yu mian
12. The spicy seafood instant noodle
13. Amoy St's fish soup
14. Adam Rd's rojak and stingray
15. East Coast's satay
16. Magic Wok's beef fried kway teow
17. PS basement's Japanese omelette noodle & octopus balls (er hem!)
18. Old Food Haven's Japanese curry rice
19. Suntec City Congress's wan ton noodle
20. Home-cooked spaghetti bolognaise, pineapple fried chicken & sweet potato tempura
21. Cranberry muffins that mummy bought for breakkie
22. Canadian Pizza's Singapura pizza

Hope to find the time to eat them. Four months in a cold and foreign country without these delish Asian food will leave me forlorn.

lesson #025: reflections on spending the National Day of a country that you're not a citizen of

'of a country that you're not a citizen of' - is there a grammatical mistake somewhere in there?

Anyhoo.

(I realised I've replaced saying 'anyway' with 'anyhoo', the latter pronounced as 'any-HOE', and I don't even recall how that started.)

It's the 9th Aug today, Singapore's National Day. Singapore citizens are busy lighting, watching, and / or getting burned by fireworks, on top of the NDP excitement at that place called The Padang. The question is, is it wrong for a foreigner to partake in the hoo-ha because of the underlying reason behind them? Fireworks = celebrate Singapore National Day = not being loyal to your country of origin. Wearing red = acknowledge Singapore National Day = not being loyal to your country of origin. Wearing red National Day T-shirt that you're given for free = acknowledge Singapore National Day and commit heinous fashion crime = not being loyal to your country of origin.

Rather than contemplate on the possibilities of being accused as a traitor, I've decided to simply ignore all requests to watch fireworks and hope that the senders think I just didn't receive the messages. But now of course they'll find out that I have received them and that I have decided to rudely ignore them. FOR GOOD REASONS! Reasons such as loyalty to my own country and respect to Singapore citizens whose space I might take up, if I go.

Dum dee dum...

Anyhoo. Sky's pretty dark and cloudy yet I have to make a move to school soon so as to pass the SAAT files over to the reviewer. Why? Why? Why must this happen to me? I hate rain especially when it pours when I have to get out of the house. Or when I have to cross the road. Or... whenever. Even when I'm in the comfort of my room all curled up in warmth-inducing blanket I hate the sound it makes, especially so when accompanied by thunder and flashes of lightning! Brrr.

On a more bimbotic note. My daily-use perfume, Escada Rockin' Rio, is finito. Have to find a replacement soon (I have to spritz on perfume when I go out else I would feel naked not to mention smelly). Went around sniffing at Sasa a coupla days back and I've decided that I like My Givenchy as well as Fantasy by Britney Spears. Actually I love Fantasy more but the tacky bottle design and the fact that it is by Britney Spears kinda put me off it. I realise that perfume is one commodity where brand name is everything. You can have a perfume smelling like shit but if it carries the name of Dior, some women would still buy it. On the other hand, you can have the loveliest smelling perfume but if it's called Eau de Dog Poop, no one's gonna go for it.

Anyhoo. Am gonna scout around for some more nice-smelling perfumes. Second step is to find a sugar daddy to help me with the purchase because I don't exactly have the moolah to back it up right now. But one step at a time!

Since I can't ask my Singapore-citizens friends out today, because it is their National Day and I have to respect it if they choose to hang out with NDP at Channel 5 rather than me (sob), I shall entertain myself by playing Shadow Hearts and eating Tim-Tams. Eh but then I think I've polished off the packet of Tim-Tams. So I suppose it's just Shadow Hearts today. Which I'm quite looking forward to because, well, it's fun!

Sunday, August 06, 2006

lesson #024: life is fleeting

Recently I heard of news that made me reflect on how transient everything is. Nothing is permanent, you can't expect the unexpected.

And yet, even when we know we won't be around forever, the living continue to deliberately inflict pain on one another. Physically, emotionally. Why? For what purpose? Have we taken life for granted? Shouldn't we be grateful that we're here and make everyone happier, instead of hurting each other with sticks, stones and words?

I'm disgusted at myself, that it took something like this to happen before I get jolted into a reflection.

I don't know you but I'm so so sorry...

Thursday, August 03, 2006

lesson #023: REMEMBER TO PUT SUNBLOCK!

Burnt to a crisp after my trip to Bintan. Basically I look normal from the front but like a lobster from the back. First discovered the sunburn when I was going to bathe in the morning... I saw my whole back was red and I knew that this was it - I was screwed. I cringe just standing up 'cos the bra straps rub against the most burnt area - ze upper back.

Today I was actually supposed to:
1. Settle Schengen visa
2. Mix the songs for the dance segment
3. Think of video script

But I have instead decided to vegetate and postpone everything to tomorrow. Have a whole arsenal of moisturizers at my beck and call, from Elizabeth Arden's green tea soothing body cream, to Clarins' face moisturizer, to Body Shop's strawberry body lotion. Everything but aloe vera is here. Guess when I head down to school later I'll get it from Watson's.

Before I go to sleep again (slept at 330am last night - this batlike lifestyle is gonna do me bad!) here are 59 pictures from Rummage!


One of my fave shots. Nice colour!


But this has got to be my favourite :)


The boys from Raining Men


The weathergirls


Our last pose


Taken at the afterparty


Ssshhhhh!


Why dancers' bfs have nothing to worry about part 1


Why dancers' bfs have nothing to worry about part 2


While on standby to go on stage


Wait wait wait...


With the Rummage grafitti board that is just SO cool


Latin / hip-hop fusion??


Just the girls. Vik, we said just the girls!


The gangster group. I heart my jacket...


The fierce girls. I still heart my jacket.


My darling and me


Justin's had too many prata bombs!


One of the snow princesses, Alex!


Check out the makeup kit of our artists!


It ain't complete 'til we do our trademark 1-2-3 pose


My only pic with Awe-drey is blurry. Damn!


Mich, head of production!


I wanna learn salsa!


Vik and his seductress Celine.


I want a pose with our hopeless romantic too!


Our make-up wasn't so scary on the second day


Melvin, who's been kind enough to send me home after practices


Eating jackfruit chips. Yummm but looks rather off in the pic.


Liz and Sue. I like Liz's fringe!


Clara & Lixin, their ballet technique is really solid!


Our main choreographer, Carol who never ever loses her temper with us


Justin the Prata Man before he was made up


Yiwei's airbrushed tattoos are nice!


Sheryl, Audrey and Min! So pretty!


With JX the goody-two-shoes.


Ms Tandean!


Huiyi the ticket missus. She's great! Sorry if we put you under a lot of stress!


Fuzzy Wuzzy likes pink!


Group shot with Carol. Nice lighting!


With Jun, who's been running around to our aid doing ten men's job. We're lucky to have you! Thanks for lending me the guidebook too!


Vik trying his best to shed the Sammy image. Furgedabouddit dah-link.


With Kevin, the Indo salsa dancer. Here's to Indo's!


Joshua, whom I thought was shy until he wore a granny bra to dance at the afterparty.


Zhi Min acting on stage


Sue and Alex attempting the monkey face


Erm.. yum!


Our costumes... Messy messy!


With Kunz the Bollywood dancer


Syd looks so darn cute here.


Our very own Barbara Streissand... kind of!


Lixin doing Vida's hair


Jaenny, another Indo and part of our 29125 gang


Sheryl, Stacy and Min looking pretty as usual


I love our mirror lights. But they are friggin' hot.


Make-up on first day = scary


With Zhi Min


Why dancers' bfs have nothing to worry about part 3


Goodbyes ARE hard to say... Rummage ain't over cuz it'll always be in our memories.