rey's ramblings

I crossed the bridge at 11:45 AM

Tuesday, November 22, 2005

From across Riveria

Music: All-Saints - Pure Shores

Just came back from a church retreat over the weekend
across the causeway at Eden Garden Hotel. In all, the whole
retreat was rather well planned although there were a few
complaints that it was too easy to get lost in there! X)

Anyway, went shopping at the Duty-Free Zone with charisse,
joel, vanessa and marcus during our free times. It was rather
enjoyable considering everything was much cheaper there,
especially all the clothing stores. And we had suppers at this
really delicious BBQ seafood centre outside where the stingray
was at comparatively lower prices than Singapore!

I was really shocked at the proximity of the place to the causeway..
Its merely a 10 minute ride from the customs to the hotel and the
complex is also overlooking the Johor Straits so the view was quite
nice, never mind the Sembawang shipyard in the distance...

water-spouting fountain angels!

I crossed the bridge at 5:48 PM

Saturday, November 19, 2005

Midnight Days

Music: Alicia Keys & Adam Levine - Wild Horses

Wild Horses is a really beautiful song. It captures this
abstract sense of young, restlessness and theres's a
nostalgic, wistful vibe that I get from listening to it.

Was out a couple of nights ago at marina square to catch
Goblet of Fire for the second time with javier, sean, john
and changming. We convened at about 8 to have dinner
at Carl's Jr. It was rather troublesome to get a seat there
though. Anyway, we hopped over to the arcade later to
kill time waiting for the movie to begin. It's been quite
a long while since I've been to an arcade of any sort lately
but amazingly enough, the thrill of a 5-way daytona race
still exists! The movie later on was an opportunity to catch
up on more in-jokes, movie mistakes and perhaps note the
various scenes and material that they deleted.

The past few days or perhaps the past few weeks have
been quite crazy because of my topsy-turvy sleeping cycle.
Like sleeping at 4am and waking up at 2pm. This is probably
due to a series of events such as late-night stayovers and
movies where its impossible to crash before the wee hours
of the morning. I had best better catch up on the hours
before I start to suffer from insomnia.

They couldn't drag me away...

I crossed the bridge at 11:46 PM

Tuesday, November 15, 2005

Waltzes at A Premiere Event

Music: Gwen Stefani - Luxurious

Last night's Goblet of Fire gala premiere at Cathay Cineleisure
Orchard was quite exciting, being able to be among the first few
in Singapore, and also the world, to have a preview of what has
a high likelihood of becoming the biggest movie event this year.

Decided to take my sister along for the event as she's a diehard
fan of the Harry Potter series. Upon arrival, we were ushered
to the Level 5 Box Office Lobby where the reception was held.
The place was completely cordoned off to outsiders and there
was a multitude of local celebrities and soap drama regulars
such as andrea de cruz and jacelyn tay hanging around. There
seemed to be some sort of waltz-dancing competition going on
in order to determine the winner of a trip to Leavesden Studios
where the films of the Potter franchise were shot.

Anyway, happenings aside, the movie was entertaining enough
It was a great piece of blockbuster-worthy material, although
fans of the books may have something to gripe about - the plentiful
lack or cutting down of many scenes from the book "in order to make
the movie more like a concise Hitchcockian thriller" according to the
director, Mike Newell. The ever-growing ensemble of characters
is also causing a jostle amongst the many British thespians for
screen time. These quirks notwithstanding, the Goblet of Fire is a
great end of the year blockbuster for everyone.

Went to joseph's house later for han an's silly iso project in which
sleep was a scarce commodity. I pity those who hardly got to sleep
at all! Anyway, thanks again to joseph for very kindly leasing his
house as a holding ground and also for the late-night chats! =)

Why the sudden incurable exhaustion?

I crossed the bridge at 7:55 PM

Sunday, November 13, 2005

Scorched Envelope

Music: The Clash - London Calling

Just received a pleasant surprise in the form of a
pair of invites to the Goblet of Fire gala premiere.
Quite amused since it comes in that traditional burnt
envelope and everything. Kind of a late notice so I'll
probably be going with my sister. Hmm. Should be fun
I suppose.

Speaking of scorched, today's one of the hottest days
this year. Feels terrible just stepping into the sunshine.

Anyway, tomorrow's going to be a really hectic day
besides this premiere which I have to attend. Oh wells.

The inevitable conflict of jealousy.

I crossed the bridge at 5:48 PM

Friday, November 11, 2005

Metal-framed Newspaper

Music: Jem - Wish I

I've actually thought about how useful a blog can be to
you. It could land you in jail for any seditious comments
that you make, depending on the laws of the country
you reside in. But besides that, there are probably also
better reasons why you should keep a blog. Memories.
Yes, no matter how cliched that sounds, that's really why
we do (or should) keep a blog. Its a bit awful to keep a
blog just to state one's presence though. Anyway, it's
also probably something very useful when something
tragic happens and you get amnesia. >< Or short-term
memory. Kind of reminds me of that movie, 50 First Dates.

Watched Sky High with my family last night. It turned
out to be quite good, probably because my expectations
were rather low. The plot was very much throwaway but
I liked the many tiny references to things like family issues
and comic-book cliches, that were etched all over the movie.
Like, for example, as a bit of side-reference for those who
did somehow watch it, the principal in the movie is actually
played by none other than the original actress of the (more
or less) classic TV series Wonder Woman! Hence, the slick
quip by her commenting on the limit to which she could
handle delinquents in the school at the end as she strides out
of the detention room: "I'm not Wonder Woman you know!"

Having some red bean dessert now which just happens to
taste a lot more like green bean. Hmm.

They just keep getting thinner.

I crossed the bridge at 5:36 PM

Monday, November 07, 2005

The million-dollar night

Music: Fall-Out Boy - Dance, Dance

Last night was quite amazing and bemusing on many counts.
I went to Ritz Carlton Millenia for our school's charity gala
dinner which was meant to raise funds for the school's building
extension project. A rather extravagant and exorbitant way of
doing so in my opinion. Apparently our principal wants to make
it a bit more obvious that he's actually expanding our campus
by holding a high-publicity dinner. Well, its all in good taste.

Speaking of taste, there were courses served in the dinner
that I probably won't be sampling again anytime soon in the
future. The 6-course menu was mainly fusion with a bit of a
French influence coming from the foie gras which was not bad
considering it's only the second time i've ever eaten it (the other
time was crystal jade's foie gras xiaolongbao, strange but tasty).
I didn't really have a thing for the white wine there so I stuck
with the Castello di Brolio Formulae Rosso Toscano from the
Tuscany region of Italy instead, which was full-bodied and had this
strong fruity grape taste. Slightly finer than the white one.
The pan-fried cod fillet was without doubt the best serving that
night but overall the quality of the cuisine was still not bad but paled
in comparison if you consider the cost of each person's dinner.

Many thanks to joseph and his dad for giving us the opportunity
to dine and be there last night! Very appreciative of his generosity.
The other people on the table apart from joseph and me, if I'm not
wrong were changming, alexander ng, patrick ong, han an, justin
chiam, charles leong and lastly, two vietnamese scholars. All in
all, the dinner was rather eventful and surprisingly laid-back and
detached, considering the number of bigwigs that were there.

Here are a couple of photos taken there:

At the table. R-L, Alex, Patrick, Joseph & me.

The whole group after the dinner, someone looks
slightly drunk here.

Well, this marks my first time uploading pictures onto my blog.
May be doing so more often during the holidays due to more
leisure time waiting for the photos to upload (which by the way,
takes a really really long time for me).

All the suits & clothing for just one evening, all the lucre for just a dinner.

I crossed the bridge at 7:54 PM

Friday, November 04, 2005

November Rain

Music: Ashlee Simpson - Catch Me When I Fall

Ashlee Simpson debuted her sophomore release I Am Me
a couple of weeks back. Surprisingly enough, it is slightly
detached from the usual loud-punk trash girl that she
used to be, or at least sounded like from her debut with
Autobiography. One of the tracks on her album, Catch
Me When I Fall, has a touch of melancholy with a haunting
piano background. It puts this mental picture in my head
of walking down a dark, deserted street with all the street
lights still on, somewhere in the middle of a downtown city.
There's this feeling that you're not really sad or depressed,
neither feeling particularly lonely or down. At the same time,
truthfully enough, you're not happy. But neither are you
feeling angry. In fact, the emotion that comes out of this
thought is really strange. Its a mix of solace, a slight twinge
of loneliness that there's no one around but at the same time
there's a gratuitous feeling of being content with what you have
to yourself - the entire city. In short, its something undefined.

Its a beautifully tranquil song to listen to in the late hours of the night.

There's a lot of rain recently all over Singapore, blessing
the ground that it hits. The temperature in Singapore's
reaching a scalding high of about 36-37 degrees celsius
and any rain now is a much-needed reprieve from the
overly hot & humid weather, especially when its right
smack in the middle of the afternoon. I was at novena
yesterday coming straight from the airport where I bid
farewell to my aunt who was off to Guangzhou on a trip
that was very crucial to her.

Anyway, it started to pour heavily, a welcome relief
from the sweltering heat. I ran into novena square to
take shelter but not before noticing something. A couple
of kids standing out in the rain, catching the raindrops
on their palm, trying to fill up their cupped hands with
water from above. It struck me then, on how little we
value the importance of water nowadays. Many of us
merely treat it as byproducts of our daily lives, either
consuming or manipulating it in different ways. Hmm!

Now, this may sound really whimsical at first, but
I think that so long as we think that water will be
readily available everytime the tap is turned on, we
will always take it for granted by assuming that the
constant flow of water out of the tap will never cease.
I mean we really shouldn't misuse water just like what
they did in Titanic and perhaps even more shockingly,
hilary duff and her sister in the "Our Lips Are Sealed"
mtv. Water, surprisingly enough, is more likely to be
a precious commodity in the next couple of decades
compared to even oil or wood. Start learning how to
save water, you wouldn't want to pay $50 for a bottle
of water in the future.

Would you catch those raindrops when they fall?

(On a random afternote, it just occurred to me that November
Rain happened to be a Guns n' Roses track many years back.)

I crossed the bridge at 10:27 AM

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