I hope everyone reading this had a great Christmas! I know i did!
It started off well on Friday with my employer giving us half of the day off, so it was a bit of not-so-last-minute shopping on my part. The Christmas spirit was evident in the office with multiple gift exchanges and well wishes going around, all we needed were some carollers (spello?) visiting (too old for Santa) and it would have been perfect. LOL
Saturday was the quiet day of the weekend, all of us given the chance to catch our breath before the big day arrived proper. We went out with my parents and test drove some cars (Suzuki Swift Sport or SX4? (this article does not help (note: local swift sports get bridgestone potenza tires, not dunlop))), seriously tempted given the upcoming GST hike and our future need of a car as a new family, the service at Champion motors is the best and I would definitely buy a car there, given the high build quality and drivability of their cars. We headed over to Vivocity and had dinner at Tung Lok Signatures (great food, highly recommended) before watching "Curse of the Golden Flower" (colourfully and violently depressing drama-mama). Kinda a long day by any standards but compared to the other days, it was downright relaxing!
Had to attend and play for mass on Sunday before heading over to wibblewamble's place for a feast! Her mum's ham was simply gorgeous and we stuffed ourselves silly. It was preparation for the gorging to come. LOL Managed to head home in the pouring rain to change and prepare for Christmas eve mass.
What can i say about the mass......we ROCKED! Extremely amazing stuff from our band and despite the pressure and nervousness of playing for such a big mass, we still managed to find time and space to improvise! Musicians in the crowd would have appreciated the music that a little more and it feels like we were playing so far beyond ourselves that we were playing out of our skin (i always wondered about that phrase, now i know how that feels). The hallmark of a good growing band is that they listen to each other actively, and if you have ever heard us, you'd be able to hear various question and answer phrases hidden within. We were backed up by a gloriously sounding combined choir who managed to make everything so much more majestic. Kudos to our choir mistress who spent alot of time and effort coordinating, teaching and conducting the choir, patience is definitely her virtue. After the rush of playing for such a big occasion in the most happening way possible (mindblowing even!), i felt so tired and spent. What a mass!
Best bit was that we had to do it again (but with a different choir) the next day for Christmas day mass itself. We sounded good by the standards of any other day except the day after Christmas eve (confused yet?). Christmas day itself was also abit of a rush, had to head over to pick up wibblewamble (last Christmas that this is happening? =)(because getting married next year)) before going for the family photo at my aunt's place. Alot of yelling and shouting happens when you're trying to get 40+ people excluding kids, toddlers and jokingly childish grownups to stand together and man it gets hot! Still we managed it somehow. =))
Then we went over to wibblewamble's aunt's place for dinner. WW's mum really outdid herself this year with her Turkey (yes, it deserves the capitalisation, it was that good) and Ham (another one, different from the day before). These flew of the plate so quickly that if you blinked, you could have sworn that the bird and pig were alot bigger than before and if you blinked again, no more bird, no more pig. They did not die in vain though. *zeenie pats tummy*
After some singing and entertainment and presents, we had to rush off back to my aunt's place for more presents and it was looooong. Santa really outdid himself this year and it was entertaining to see my ns-allergic cousin dress up in an army number 4. Durians followed (weird right?) and we were truly stuffed at this point. *zeenie pats tummy again*
Many thanks to all for the presents received, and a special thank you to wibblewamble for the Liverpool jersey. =)
Tuesday, 26 December 2006
Tuesday, 19 December 2006
Christmas time
You know it's Christmas time here when shops constantly blare out carols and songs about white Christmas, when all we have is rain rain and more rain! Let it rain, let it rain, let it rain, just does not have the same feeling of warmth, although cuddling under the sheets on a rainy day is one of life's little pleasures.
Bought James Taylor Christmas album lately, and i highly recommend it. I actually bought quite a few Christmas albums but his was the only one that impressed. It was only after listening to it once that i found out the sweet melodies on the piano were played by Dave Grusin, he rocks! Absolutely loved his arrangment of Jingle Bells.
Been busy lately with many practices for Christmas mass, i'll be playing for Christmas mass for the first time since coming home so it's kinda special. The band is just rockin' and the choir is sounding sweet so we are all set to have a blast. Interesting thing is that Christmas eve is on a Sunday, so we'll be playing for Sunday mass as usual, then Christmas eve mass, and then Christmas mass the next morning. Phew! I'd bet that the congregation doesn't know we play so often since they'd only attend one Christmas mass. My poor bassist is covering for another, so he has five masses to play for in total over two days. Siong ah!
Christmas day itself promises to be a day of feasting, and if last year was any gauge to go by, we are going to be stuffed! That's because we actually have two Christmas dinners to attend so it is going to be tricky! Thankfully wibblewamble's mother is have her Christmas do on Christmas eve, so that makes it easier.
Just to type the word 'Christmas' a few more times, we would like to wish all readers happy holidays, season's greetings and of course, to have yourself a merry little christmas. =)
Bought James Taylor Christmas album lately, and i highly recommend it. I actually bought quite a few Christmas albums but his was the only one that impressed. It was only after listening to it once that i found out the sweet melodies on the piano were played by Dave Grusin, he rocks! Absolutely loved his arrangment of Jingle Bells.
Been busy lately with many practices for Christmas mass, i'll be playing for Christmas mass for the first time since coming home so it's kinda special. The band is just rockin' and the choir is sounding sweet so we are all set to have a blast. Interesting thing is that Christmas eve is on a Sunday, so we'll be playing for Sunday mass as usual, then Christmas eve mass, and then Christmas mass the next morning. Phew! I'd bet that the congregation doesn't know we play so often since they'd only attend one Christmas mass. My poor bassist is covering for another, so he has five masses to play for in total over two days. Siong ah!
Christmas day itself promises to be a day of feasting, and if last year was any gauge to go by, we are going to be stuffed! That's because we actually have two Christmas dinners to attend so it is going to be tricky! Thankfully wibblewamble's mother is have her Christmas do on Christmas eve, so that makes it easier.
Just to type the word 'Christmas' a few more times, we would like to wish all readers happy holidays, season's greetings and of course, to have yourself a merry little christmas. =)
Monday, 11 December 2006
Interesting Road test comparison
zeenie has been contemplating getting a car, which is something that seems to contradict all financial logical thinking, but this is a car we are talking about damnit! LOL Seriously, we would require transportation for our future plans, thus we shall commence the shopping sometime next year. In the meantime, zeenie will research like hell (and then proceed to throw that research out of the window the moment he tests drives 'the' car for him).
Given hischeapskate thrifty budget, he is only looking at the smaller cars, something around a million hundred thousand dollars that would enjoy a 50% discount. (zeenie damn long winded hah?)
So with the recent flurry of hatchbacks that arrived on our sunny shores, he is given quite a choice, with the colt turbo, swift sport, honda jazz and citroen all contenders. Road tests for some of these can be found quite easily but direct comparisons are a lot rarer, so it was a joy to find this article which drove the Colt and the Swift. zeenie has yet to test drive the Colt but already agrees with the test results, having driven the Swift. =)
Given his
So with the recent flurry of hatchbacks that arrived on our sunny shores, he is given quite a choice, with the colt turbo, swift sport, honda jazz and citroen all contenders. Road tests for some of these can be found quite easily but direct comparisons are a lot rarer, so it was a joy to find this article which drove the Colt and the Swift. zeenie has yet to test drive the Colt but already agrees with the test results, having driven the Swift. =)
Myers-Briggs test
Props to Crufty for this test. =)
zeenie is:
E=7 Extraversion
I=4 Introversion
S=8 Sensing
N=12 iNtuition
T=16 Thinking
F=3 Feeling
J=8 Judging
P=11 Perceiving
You are an ENTP
ENTP - Entrepeneurs, lawyers, psychologists, photographers, consultants, sales represenatives, actors, engineers, scientists, inventors, marketers, computer programmers, comedians, computer analysts, credit investigators, journalists, psychiatrists, public relations, designers, writers, artists, musicians, politicians. Very freedom-oriented, they need a career which allows them to act independent and express their creativity and insight.
Further insights on ENTP from wiki.
I guess i'm in the right field then. LOL
zeenie is:
E=7 Extraversion
I=4 Introversion
S=8 Sensing
N=12 iNtuition
T=16 Thinking
F=3 Feeling
J=8 Judging
P=11 Perceiving
You are an ENTP
ENTP - Entrepeneurs, lawyers, psychologists, photographers, consultants, sales represenatives, actors, engineers, scientists, inventors, marketers, computer programmers, comedians, computer analysts, credit investigators, journalists, psychiatrists, public relations, designers, writers, artists, musicians, politicians. Very freedom-oriented, they need a career which allows them to act independent and express their creativity and insight.
Further insights on ENTP from wiki.
I guess i'm in the right field then. LOL
Saturday, 9 December 2006
movie reviews
We managed to catch two movies lately, both of them at GV vivo city though on different days and with different experiences. =)
If you read from recent comments, vivo is like when taka and later suntec first opened, everyone thought it was huge! lol
The first movie we caught was Casino Royale. I must say that Daniel Craig is quite a good Bond and portrayed the newly promoted 007 rather well. We had originally planned to watch an earlier show but the tickets were sold out pretty fast (about an hour before we got there, on a monday night), but no matter, we had abit of time to walk around the shops and spend a leisurely Japanese dinner at Aji (very good).
The second movie we caught this morning was Happy Feet. We tried to book for tickets for the 1040 show via the phone at around 0930 but was told (after two attempts (i.e. 60 cents, 30 cents per call)) that the tickets were sold out. So we tried to log in via the internet and booked two tickets, gave our name, i.c. number, credit card number, pet's blood group, etc and when we finally clicked 'submit' we ended up back where we started, at the homepage of GV. So thinking that it timed out, we went through the hoops again, this time, typing a little faster. No luck, still dumped us back at the homepage. By this time it was past 10 so we gave up and decided to head down to the place itself to either a) find that we had 2 pairs of tickets or b) find that we had no tickets.
Unfortunately it was the latter case and by the time they got round to telling us that they could not locate our names, it was 1050 and we could not catch the show.
On the way there we had called the feedback line to clarify only to be put to a mailbox and when we tried to leave a name and contact to call back, we found that the mail box was full!
So no choice lor, the next show was 1pm, unless we forked out 30 bucks each and watch the Gold Class version, which we ended up doing since we had ww's birthday lunch to attend. I must say that Gold Class is quite fancy and the seats quite plush, i did feel quite pampered in it. Although i had reservations about watching a family type movie in such fancy surroundings, the sound system did do the show justice and i loved the songs they sang in it. It is still ringing in my head as i type this!
The movie itself was entertaining to say the least and although the ending was a little far fetched, i must say the message did come across quite clear and nicely and i will be checking those cans of tuna to see where they come from before i buy them. I was pleasantly surprised to see some stellar cast providing the voices including Nicole Kidman (oh that voice), Hugh Jackman and Elijah Wood.
Moral of the story: watch both movies, but dun book via internet (but book early hor)
If you read from recent comments, vivo is like when taka and later suntec first opened, everyone thought it was huge! lol
The first movie we caught was Casino Royale. I must say that Daniel Craig is quite a good Bond and portrayed the newly promoted 007 rather well. We had originally planned to watch an earlier show but the tickets were sold out pretty fast (about an hour before we got there, on a monday night), but no matter, we had abit of time to walk around the shops and spend a leisurely Japanese dinner at Aji (very good).
The second movie we caught this morning was Happy Feet. We tried to book for tickets for the 1040 show via the phone at around 0930 but was told (after two attempts (i.e. 60 cents, 30 cents per call)) that the tickets were sold out. So we tried to log in via the internet and booked two tickets, gave our name, i.c. number, credit card number, pet's blood group, etc and when we finally clicked 'submit' we ended up back where we started, at the homepage of GV. So thinking that it timed out, we went through the hoops again, this time, typing a little faster. No luck, still dumped us back at the homepage. By this time it was past 10 so we gave up and decided to head down to the place itself to either a) find that we had 2 pairs of tickets or b) find that we had no tickets.
Unfortunately it was the latter case and by the time they got round to telling us that they could not locate our names, it was 1050 and we could not catch the show.
On the way there we had called the feedback line to clarify only to be put to a mailbox and when we tried to leave a name and contact to call back, we found that the mail box was full!
So no choice lor, the next show was 1pm, unless we forked out 30 bucks each and watch the Gold Class version, which we ended up doing since we had ww's birthday lunch to attend. I must say that Gold Class is quite fancy and the seats quite plush, i did feel quite pampered in it. Although i had reservations about watching a family type movie in such fancy surroundings, the sound system did do the show justice and i loved the songs they sang in it. It is still ringing in my head as i type this!
The movie itself was entertaining to say the least and although the ending was a little far fetched, i must say the message did come across quite clear and nicely and i will be checking those cans of tuna to see where they come from before i buy them. I was pleasantly surprised to see some stellar cast providing the voices including Nicole Kidman (oh that voice), Hugh Jackman and Elijah Wood.
Moral of the story: watch both movies, but dun book via internet (but book early hor)
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