Bintan Bound

My bags are packed and i'm ready to go!!

Hope you guys and girls have a good weekend ahead and i'll be back with loads and loads of pics when i get back on Sunday. :)

Here's something for you to put a smile / laugh on your face. :P

Picture Postcards from RD

This was what stood in front of my monitor when i came home tonite.

(pics to come)

*smile* Like i said i really got the best guy.

Though ironically, this is the 7th lunar month and we're in the middle of the Hungry Ghost Festival. *grin* And what does he send me? Picture postcards of ghosts. *grin*

My monitor is fixed. Yippeee! Don't know what was wrong cos my mom is not really an IT savvy person, plus she was sick today as well. Just glad that my monitor is up and running. :)

Had a training course this afternoon and the training was conducted by a guy in Barcelona, Spain. When i found out where he was when i was corresponding with him over the intranet chat my first two words were : "How exotic." :P *grin* The only bad thing about the training course was hat the first 30mins saw me spending time trying to get those who had registered for the course to call in and helping those who were having trouble calling in. *grumbles*

POUTIE BROWN COW

Am not a happie campie.

Am a poutie brown cow.

Why?

Cos i have been deprived of the internet and my pc since last Friday nite. *grumbles*

Why?

Cos my monitor went KAPUTIE! *pout*

In frustration, i actually left a voicemail on darkmann's machine to whine about it. Imagine that. *lol*

Thankfully, Starhub cable decided that this was the weekend to let us have a sneak peek into the HBO channel. So i had free movies to watch, namely Scooby Doo, The Tuxedo, Maid in Manhattan, Two Weeks Notice and MIB2. :) Not to mention Hallmark had this 2 part movie called Jessica. Which i managed to catch Part 1 of it but not Part 2 and i think it's an Australian production. So yeah, was basically a couch potato on Sat and most of part of yesterday. At least yesterday, after being a couch potato i decided to be productive and read my notes which was rather easy cos it was extra readings that i had to read and they were all journals and articles. :)
Can't wait for this weekend's Bintan trip. Woohoooooooooo!!! The sun, the sea, the view, the water sport.... Weeeeeeeeeeeeeee!!!! *grin* Tons of pics to follow next week. :P

No happie camppie

They've blocked xanga in my office. *GRUMBLES* I was really having serious withdrawals today and it had to happen at the start of a 1 1/2 weeks of my bosses being away.

Boo Hoo!!!!!!!!

Argh!

Mystery of the Towel, Tee and Shorts

Yesterday morning after having a short buzzie buzz at work, i suddenly remembered that i had thrown my sweaty gym stuff into the washing machine on the top floor in the office to wash the evening before. Feeling bad that i might have deprived someone else from throwing in their gym stuff to wash, i rushed upstairs and open the lid. Relieve to find that no one had wanted to use the machine. Cos they would have thrown my clothes into the dryer so that they would use the washing machine. It's just a courtesy that you would do that if you wanted to use the machine or dryer.

*hand reached in to pull clothes out*

Warm to touch. Funny.
I mean if i had left the clothes in their over night the clothes would be cool to touch not warm.

*opens dryer hatch while pulling out clothes*

Empty. Great!

Green towel *check*.

Black socks *check*.

Winnie and Tigger face towel *check*.

White towel *ch..e....*.

Wait a min! White towel?! I don't have a white towel....

*peers into the washine machine*

Oversized white tee

*pulls out with my thumb and forefinger*

Wtf.... *puts tee onto the top of the dryer and peers into the washing machine again*
*looks* *screams*

Male shorts!!!!! Argh!!!!!

*pulls out with thumb and fingers again, open the dryer and throws it in*

Eeeee yuck!

*starts to throw the white towel and tee into the dryer and slams it shut and starts the dryer*

*runs to the shower and opens the cabinet where detergent is stored and runs back to the washing machine and pours a good dosage of it with the clothes and turns the machine on to wash*

Phew.......

*glares at the dryer as if the dryer was at fault for mixing my clothes with the... that man's!*

How dare he!

As one of my co-workers put it, it was like my clothes had sex with the guys clothes.

*thinks of all the old farts who go to the gym*

Ewwwww Ewwwww Ewwwww Ewwwww Ewwwww Ewwwww Ewwwww Ewwwww!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Our new PM is ... errr .... Our new PM is ... ...

Yesterday, Streats ran an article and posed a question to Singaporeans (young Singaporeans for that matter) :

"Who is the new Prime Minister of Singapore?"

It was very very shocking to hear that many youngins did not know the answer. So while alot of Singaporeans were griping about the fact that the new PM is the son of the man who ruled Singapore with an iron fist for a good 30years. I on the other hand find the fact that there are Singaporeans, who will be the future of our country, ignorant of the man who will be leading them for the next decade or more more appalling.

On the other hand, if someone comes up to you and says to you :

"You're so-and-so's child. You must be like your father/mother."

How would you feel? Then think of how our new PM will feel and the pressure he is facing.

Harsh Words

I just want to do a quick poll here :
1. How many of you out there think that the judges on Singapore Idol are harsh?

2. Do you think they are too harsh?

3. How many of you feel that Singapore Idol has exceeded expectations of its viewers?I'll put up my opinions in a bit. :) Just wanted to know what people out there think.

Update :
I read in Streats' Forum pages this morning about how Singapore Idol is a bad production. That it encourages Singaporeans to laugh and make fun of our fellow Singaporeans.

I wonder if the write has caught American Idol. American Idol did not get this much flak from Singaporeans. Why? Maybe it is the mentality of "Haha, lets all laugh at the Americans for making a fool of themselves.". Here's the thing, at least the Americans can laugh at themselves too! So why can't we do the same thing?

There has always been complains that Singapore has no talent. That we need to produce more local talents and this is one way/avenue to do so. So why shoot Singapore Idol down? How different are Singapore Idol contestants from any other Idol contestants in other parts of the world? If you look at the rejects, they are the same thoughout any Idol contests held worldwide. There are bound to be nutcases all over the world and it is no exception in Singapore. There are some contestants who are really really bad who put themselves up to public scrutiny. If these contestant had appeared on any other local staged contests they would have probably gotten the same reaction from us - peals of laughter. So why is it different to laugh at people who make a fool of themselves on any occasions and laughing at them on national television.

If you want to make it in the media industry you have to be tough, you have to be able to take criticism. So kudos to the judges for being brutally honest and i can't blame them cos some of them are just really really really bad. Trust me the judges are just a taste of what it is to come for these potential idols. Their worse enemies are us - the public. Singaporeans are our fellow Singaporeans harshest critics.

So cut Singapore Idol, the pre-production crew, the post production crew and the judges some slack. Just because Singapore has decided to have a Singapore Idol doesn't make it any worse than the other Idol productions around the world. You know maybe for once if we were to support our own local productions, in this case Singapore Idol, with more passion. Local productions can only be spurred on to produce better productions.

Honestly, i have not enjoyed a local production more than i have enjoyed the two episodes of Singapore Idol. If you put yourself in from of national tv to showcase your talents or lack thereof you were just asking for it. :)

INVITATION

I just realised quite a number of us Xangarians actually went for the fireworks on Sunday. :)

Here's an open invitation for those who would like to go for the next one to join me and suaty_huangy and a couple of my other friends to camp out at Benjamin Shears Bridge to wait for the fireworks. :)

Date : 15th Aug 2004, Sunday
Time : 4.30pm
Venue : City Hall MRT Control Station

For those who are interested in joining us, please leave me a comment and i will email you my contacts. :) The more the merrier!

Sparklers, Spoilers & Sillie Uniformed Officer

Well, yesterday was a fine sunny day for fireworks and i was hopign this weather would keep up cos then they wouldn't have to use the wet weather backup plan if it rained. Or us having to scramble to keep our precious cameras.

So met up with my co-worker and her son at the MRT station but the huge crowd that seemed to be heading towards the direction of the esplanade was "WOAH!". Then again there are close to 4 million people on this tiny island! So after a good 20mins brisk walk, weaving thru the crowd and all, we finally found a spot just before the bridge and literally just plopped down trying to catch our breaths. *L* Least i know my jogging sessions for the past few weeks have been paying off. *smile*

So started setting up my camera and was told by the ladies in the group next to me that that area was for the camera crew. So i figured, oh ok they're reserving that spot for their friends. No worries first come first serve. Fair enough. So i moved towards my left a lil bit more.

(Side note : With this spot that was 'reserved' i have a lil story to tell you a lil later on and the organisers will definitely get an email from me.)

Set up my tripod and started to set up the nicest shot of the fireworks and the city skyline as i possibly can. Ruth came about 1hr later and she proceeded to pull out her dinner from the Carrefour plastic bag and my mouth literally 'salivate' in 1 sec! Assorted sashimi salad, salmon sashimi and sweet mini octopus!! *grin* Yummy! Me and my sis feasted on some of the sashimi and mini octopus. :) *heehee* Yummy!

Then of course will our tummies filled and we're all settling down i went trigger happy again. :) *heehee* What's new eh? *heehee*

My sis and Ruth. *grin* Anyone noticed Ruth's new haircut and hair colour yet? I liked it except i think it's a lil too short for her. :)



This is the best shot for the day. I really like this pic. :) Enough to consider printing it out on photo paper. :P



This group of enthusiast starting setting up their base just behind us and while they were prepping up their cameras i just had to take this shot. *smile* How can i not eh? But they had some really pricy looking equipments!! :)









The above few shots are just some shots i thought were nice to take cos it went from the buidlings without the lights on, to the lights being on, to the sun setting behind and the front of the buildings were shadowed. :)

This was the crowd on my left, as you can see all the photography enthusiasts were out in full force last nite. *grin*

More shots of my sis, Ruth and me. *smile* I took off my glasses when i had those shots taken. I don't really like to have my pic taken with my glasses on. Though Ruth had said that with my glasses on my sis and i resembled each other alot. :P That's no surprise, we are sisters after all. :P *heehee*

Right, this would take us to about 45mins before the start of the fireworks. This is when the excitement really started. Remember the spot that was 'reserved' for the camera people?

Well around 5.30pm this middle-aged guy and his companion came over and started setting up his camera at the spot that was 'reserved' and he had some heavy duty equipment. So i thought, so he is the one they are reserving the spot for. Cool, if he is a professional then by all means take the spot. I have the utmost for people who can take good photographs.

So now it being around 7.45pm or so, this group of video camera weilding group came walking to the group, it was rather packed by now, and started to chase this guy and his friend off from the spot. The reason they gave?

"We're from the media we've reserved this spot already."

Just like that. Excuse me???! Do i see a cordoned off area that says reserved for the press/media??? Do i see a sign being placed here that say "Off limits. Press Box."??? No and No. The middle-aged guy now was up against a group of about 10 people and he was definitely outnumbered. The guy said he won't move cos he has been waiting in this spot for the past two hours no way he is going to give up his spot. Which was understandable. First come first serve. You didn't cordone off the area earlier so get the heck out of here. The arguement escalated to a point where this one old indian man (seemingly from the organising company) threaten the guy by saying "Do you want to call the police?". You know lucky for this indian man, this old chap is not looking for trouble and people at his age are afraid to get the police involved. After a few more minutes of dispute, the guy got to keep his spot and the camera guy and just one other person stayed behind to man the camera.

Man, this got me damn pissed off. I mean now i have to move more to my left, lose my view and pissed off that this group of camera weidling men are a bunch of big bullies. So once again i had to set my camera spot again. When i did that i turned to Ruth and said very loudly "This is fricking unfair, just because you are from the media does not mean you can come barging in 45mins before the show and claim your spot when everyone else around you has been waiting here for an hour or more." I also proceeded to say this incident will be going on my blog and that organisers willget a very harsh email from me.

Also, we figured if they were from the media (you know MediaCorp or Mediaworks) they would have the channel's logo pasted all over the camera. But Ruth and i didn't see any and then Ruth pointed out to me that they were going to shoot the fireworks and do a live feed to the big screen just behind us where there was a stage that was set up for a concert that was going on. This was so the fans and the people in the concert area could view the fireworks. Now that got me even more pissed! I mean as an organiser if you had wanted to do that you fricking well set up the area in the morning and claim your spot and not come 45mins before the show and push everyone away.

So yeah, the organiser is getting an email from me. And i hope those who were sitting around the area where the comotion happened would feedback this to the organiser. The group were lucky it was an old man they were up against. If it were me and that indian man had threatened me with the police i would say BRING IT ON. I was here first, you came late. I didn't see no sign that says i can't set up my equipment here. I would have also asked Ruth to call a friend of ours who writes for one of the papers to come on over and we'll see how much bad press they are going to want for doing something this inconsiderate.

BAD GUYS

Anyways, i was seething mad and guess that affected my mood to take the photos. Cos when the fireworks started i kept getting the timing of the shots wrong. *grumbles* Here are some of the shots i managed to salvage.

Luckily there is one final session of the fireworks next Sunday for me to redeem myself.

Well after the fireworks, there was another incident that got me and Ruth really mad. A policeman actually insulted us and another group of ladies while we were waiting for the bus at the stop outside Esplanade. I was relating this incident to my brother over lunch today and he said we should have gotten down his name and report him to the police. He would have gotten into a lot more trouble. If i had know that i would have noted this uniformed man's name! Will relate this incident in a later entry cos this one is getting way too long.

Lets Sparkle Somemore

These were some shots i took while waiting for the fireworks to start on Sunday. *smile* Am really excited about this comign Sunday. *smile*

Many Pretty Sparkles

Well, Team USA kicked off the 1st of the 3 Sundays in the Singapore Fireworks Festival 2004 last nite. :) Me and K stationed ourselves at the bridge to get a good view of the fireworks which would potentially translate to good shots. :) Surprisingly, when we got there around 5pm, we were the first ones on the bridge. Though that didn't last long as more and more photography enthusiasts streamed in laden with camera and tripod bags. I swear there were a good 60 cameras on that bridge last nite. And counting the other accessories and equipments i would say there was 60k worth of stuff on that bridge. If you peered over the bridge and took a side view you would think there was a press conference going on somewhere. Or this is one of the most well-bahaved parparazzi groups around. :P

And since we were next to the expressway you should ALL the motorist turning their head towards us wondering what the hell we were up to. Esp. when it was nice and cool at 5.30pm and i was tired and laid my head down to snooze. Which resulted in K taking a shot of me dozing off without me knowing till after the whole fireworks display and i was going thru his shots!

Definitely worth the wait, i mean people would say it's too short but heh am not complaining. I had the view of the city skyline as a backdrop and i didn't have to pay. :) Going to be going again next Sunday as well. :P Weeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee! :P *heehee*

And i will leave you with this parting shot taken from K and captioned by my bf. :P