museum walk

We went and paid a visit to the Singapore History Museum on Hari Raya. It was rather similar to the exhibits I saw at the National Museum years back. Kinda disappointed. But it is ok.



Clarke Quay is very nice now. Gonna be great when it is done. Colourful!!
After the *snooze* history museum we walked over to Liang Court and had lunch at McDonald's. There was a line-dancing demonstration in the lobby. Agnes and I stayed to watch for a bit.



After all that fun, we drove over to Empress Place. Heard people raving about how great the Asian Civilisations Museum is. Had to go and see it for myself. I must say it was great. All museums should be like that. The way they used mood lighting and music really made each display come alive. There was also a clever use of modern technology to tell stories and bring history to life.



After that we headed back to Agnes place. We hung out a bit before all of us headed out for dinner. Brought Agnes and family to Ban Leong Wah Hoe's near my place. We were lucky to get there before the crowds came. By the time we finished dinner the place was packed to the rafters like it always is on weekends and public holidays.



Had wanted to use it as an opportunity for our folks to meet,but mum & dad had already made plans to meet Leo and Lynn. Anyway my dad (and mum to a lesser extent)is kinda pissed with the wife of the owner of Wah Hoe's because she loves to gossip. Dinner was ok. After that I drove the lot of them back to my house for a look-see.



They hung around my house for a bit and watched a little TV. After that I sent the lot of them home. Agnes and I then drove over to Changi Boardwalk for some private time. The place was quiet and it was a cool night. A good night to be under the stars. Had a good chat before heading back home, as I had to work the next day.

Some pictures above were reproduced with permission from www.scottcorboy.com

The birthday weekend

First let me show the gifts I got.
My mum and dad got me a ...dry box! Now I have my own...umm...dry box. To keep stuff dry. I put all my game cd's and DVDs inside along with a token camera.



Agnes bought me a watch. It took us 2 days of shopping to finally find one I liked. It is a metallic black watch with a red face. Like I mentioned it matches my new glasses with the same black & white theme...



Hasli got me yet another mug.

That is about it as far as gifts go.

Sunday
Met up with Agnes and we went to watch April Snow at GV Bishan.
After that we went to meet Yew Kwang and Lyn at Suntec Swensen's. They wanted to meet for lunch or dinner but everyone had something on at the time so we had to settle for tea. We ordered a regular Earthquake. Was nice.
After that we went home.



Saturday
We had wanted to watch April Snow but they did not have any afternoon or evening shows.

Monday
I had wanted to go to the HSBC Tree Top Walk at MacRitchie. Problem was they close on Mondays for maintainance and research. So we had to can that idea. I picked Agnes up from her place. Our first stop was The Johore Battery at Cosford Road. I had read and seen pictures of the place but never actually seen the actual gun. In fact the gun on display is not one from WW2, but a replica of the actual one. There are also tunnels below the gun which are inaccesible to the public but you can see the layout from above.

Excerpts: "Built by the British in 1939 for the defence of Singapore, the Johore Battery is a gun emplacement site consisting of a labyrinth of tunnels. The tunnels were used to store ammunition to support three monster guns that could fire 15-inch shells.

The guns were the largest installed outside Britain during World War II. They were destroyed before the surrender of the British army and the tunnels were sealed up after the war. The location remained a secret until the Singapore Prisons Department rediscovered them in April 1991.

Today, replicas of the monster gun and 15-inch shell sit at the Johore Battery. "


The place was rather quiet, we were the only ones there, and no one was attending to it. Quite a pity.

After that we dropped in to the nearby Changi Chapel & Museum. I managed to take some pictures. I did not realise that cameras were not allowed until the curator ticked me off about it. :( I really did not know. Did not see the signs at the entrance mah . :'(

Anyway these are some of the pictures I manage to steal...



To see the full set of Changi Chapel & Museum go here.

After that we headed to Bukit Batok Nature Park. I been there only once and it was only for a while, so I relished the opportunity to go there and take some pictures.



The full set of Bukit Batok Nature Park can be viewed here.

After that we headed home to rest and get ready for dinner. We had dinner at the Jack's Place at Ang Mo Kio before heading home for the traditional cake-cutting ceremony.

Tuesday
Finally got to go to HSBC Tree Top Walk. We parked at Venus Drive and walked in via the new path. Along the way we spied an old grave stone. Not sure to whom it belonged. I heard that there are some Japanese graves in MacRitchie. Maybe that was one of them. The weather was hot and did us no favours. The walk in was ardous and it was also rather crowded with it being a public holiday and all.Being so crowded it was not possible to spend as much time as I had wanted on the suspension bridge as I would have liked. The worst part of the journey though was getting back to the car park after the bridge. The path back was long,windy and full of stairs upways and downways. Sometimes I question the logic of spending so much time to get to and return back just for less than 10 minutes on the actual bridge, but like they say life is a journey not a destination. I could think of a few other analogies but this is a PG-rated blog. I managed to also climb atop the Jelutong tower! Yayyy....good on me. The view from up there was not half bad. Too bad I had no one to share it with. Agnes opted to wait for me below...

See...








And the full set can be viewed here. Tree Top Walk

Flightplan

I am a fan of Jodie Foster's body of work, but this definitely not one her career highlights. The main problem are all the holes in the plot and logic. It makes Flightplan one of those films where you have to leave your brain at the door. The second problem was how Jodie's character is portrayed as neurotic and highly strung rather than smart,resolute and a tower of strength. As a result it is hard to be sympathetic to her character, as you are compelled to believe she is a crazy bitch even at the dramatic resolution of the piece. Lastly, the silly story itself. It is not sure what it wants to be. It starts off as a drama, aspires to be a suspense type film and ends up being an action film. In between we have all the usual stereotypes (read:arabs,red-necks,arrogant lawyers,oversexed air crew, pilot with a heart of gold, dysfunctional family etc). The reveal at the end was all at once a little unexpected only because you do not think it is a film that tries to be smart at that point, yet totally un-mind-blowing in that you just kinda knew it was him all along. When you finally find out that Julia was indeed kidnapped and held captive in the planes hold and who is responsible, the film loses whatever momentum it had to start with. It then devolves in a play it by numbers action flick.

RATING: 2 inflight movies out of five

The 32 Year Old Virgin...not...

Watched The 40 Year Old Virgin with Agnes on Wednesday.

I rather liked the show despite it being a little ‘talky’ towards the last third. The first part dealt with the revelation to his office ‘pals’ that Andy was *gasp* a virgin.! His friends try all manner of ways to set him up for some cherry-poppin’ action. That we go to the part where he finds someone he actually likes but does not know how to go about it and all the necessary mishaps along the way. When he finally does ask her out and actually dates her he has to overcome all the usual obstacles a virginal geek faces on the road to attaining the highest form of gratification. You know like finding out your girlfriend is a grandma with 3 daughters, an oversexed book keeper and the awkwardness of confessing your pure sexual state and stuff like that.
All in all, a film with heart and a moral to the story, as Tan Ah Teck would say. Just goes to show it is better to wait for that special someone whom you are gonna grow old with.

RATING: three and a half used condoms out of five

untitled

So precious, so pure
Lost forever in this vapour
Paying the price for someone else’s sin
In this battle we knew all along that we could never win
Does not matter where you been
For the love of God and kin

Peace comes through the barrel of this gun
Or so they tried to sell to me
To a place I have never been
I have to go to set the captives free
To be the man they say I could be

Empty spaces, broken dreams
Swept away like someone else’s bad dream
Containing all that I am in this box
I can see you, but you are so far away
Is it a better world now outside your window
Now that I have gone away to do what was right?

Lit a candle, sold a dream
They said I would live forever
If this one thing I would do
Did it all for you
Lies never rung so true

Up in smoke, tattered memories
Strewn on my mothers bed
What a heavy price to pay
To circumvent all the pain
Another forgotten face, a human stain

Side by side they lay
Each one as anonymous as the last
Just another statistic of a distant past
The freedom they promised that never did last
The die that they cast
Just another cog in the wheel

Voices cry up from the ground
The blind that I chose to follow
The lost that I tried to find in me
All left hanging as a ribbon on just another tree
Knocked on that wooden door
When the man inside had thrown away the key

weekend stuff and all

Birthday season is in full swing.

Friday: Met the girls at Raffles City. They were looking for a gift for Kristin. In the end they bought a bag. *yawn*.Then Agnes and myself went around looking for a gift for me...me...me! In the end could not find anything I liked. In a perfect world I probably will not need an actual gift but people just feel compelled to buy you one despite all protestations. And even though you do not need anything really, you just like to know someone remembered and maybe even that they 'cared' enough to give you a card. Speaking of superficial stuff, don't you just feel all nauseous like when insurance people send you birthday cards and greeting cards on festive occasions? These are people who probably would not give a @$^&#@!!# about you under normal circumstances , but somehow see the need to send you a card just so that you do not forget them on your special days. Grr...

Saturday: Spent yesterday at Tampines mall with my sweetie. We went to every shop that had something of interest. In the end I bought a watch. I will post the pictures tomorrow or wat. It is a metallic black watch with a red face. Loved it when I first saw it but still shopped around but in the end decided to get it. Now I wear it so proudly. Best part is that it matches the frame of my new glasses so well, with the same black and white combo.

Sunday: Watched April Snow with Her Mushi-ness. I kinda enjoyed it despite the plodding storyline and overly sentimental err...sentiments. Par for the course when it comes to Korea romantic dramas. How two cheated-upon spouses find love with each other after the heartbreak of finding out about their respective partners affair after they get involved in a horrific accident and end up in comas. At least that is my synopsis. Probably should work on my full stops and apostrophes.
RATING: 3 box of tissues out of 5
After the movie drove down to Suntec to meet Lyn and Yew Kwang. When we got there we shopped a bit looking for a shawl for Aggie but the ones on offer were on the high side pricewise. We then headed to Swensen's to meet Mr & Mrs Poh. As we already had a late lunch before our movie and it was still too early for dinner, we ordered an Earthquake. Lyn had a milkshake of some sort, greenish in colour, and Poh had a coffee which took a while in being brought to our table. After dinner...I mean... tea...we headed back to our respective cars, which coincidentally or not were both parked at Milenia Walk. Then we headed back to my place for a while before having dinner at one of the coffee shops up from my house.