Chinese New Year Garden Party 2007

Last Sunday, I was invited to the Chinese New Year Garden Party for Grassroot Leaders 2007 held at the Istana. The invitation was for two but my partner had another important event taking place at Changi Airport.

This party is a whole day event but due to the big number of grassroot leaders and the limited space, we were invited at different time-slots. The purpose of the party is for all grassroot leaders to be able to meet the Prime Minister and his Cabinet Ministers. This is the time for us to rub shoulders with our PM and MPs!!!

The invitation card had been pre-autographed by the Prime Minister and Members of Parliament! So there was no need to rush for autographs.

That is the Istana above and the party is at the garden below which is a walking distance from the stairs.
This fountain is at the centre of the garden.

Nice display of oranges!



The Singapore Chinese Orchestra performed live and they took a group photograph with PM Lee.

This group was standing-by to get a snapshot with our PM.




Do you recognise these two MPs?

Yummmy!
Food glorious food!




Eurasian handicrafts were being displayed.
Look at how they decorated Miss Piggy!

The art of Chinese calligraphy. That is the sign for the Pig.

The Malay group wrote in Jawi.
You name it, we write them!

The Indian Society provided henna painting.
Look at the intricate patterns.


The crowd is everywhere!
But where was I?



Yup! Posing in front of the Istana.


Everybody was given a doorgift which is a bag containing two oranges and a red packet (hong bao).

Red Letter Day.

I made an online purchase for two tickets for the movie Letters From Iwo Jima.

Yes .... a midnight movie on Saturday. Well ... Both of us are not working today, so we decided to watch this movie.

It seems that I have been watching foreign films these past few days -- Apocalypto, The Protégé and now Letters From Iwo Jima.


Letters from Iwo Jima tells the story of the battle for the Japanese island of Iwo Jima from the Japanese perspective. Clint Eastwood shot this movie back to back with Flag of our Fathers. Both of us did not manage to see Flag of our Fathers due to our busy schedules. (Anybody has the VCD or DVD yet?)

The film focuses on General Tadamichi Kuribayashi ( Ken Watanabe) and Private Saigo (Kazunari Ninomiya). Kuribayashi has taken the job of commanding the defense of Iwo Jima after a more well known general passed on it.


Having spent some time in the United States during more peaceful times, General Tadamichi Kuribayashi is more used to the bureaucracy of the war then to the actual fighting of it. Due to his close ties with his American friends, many of his commanders do not trust him, and end up going against his orders in crucial moments.


Private Saigo is just a soldier recently drafted to the army. He used to be a baker and has a wife and a newborn kid he has never seen. Unlike the others, Private Saigo views the General differently. You can say that each individuals may have their general and private views of any characters ... (hahaha sorry ... I can't help it.)

The movie revolves around how the General wanted to win a lost war and how the Private wanted to end the war and go back to his beloved family. It turned out that the General saved the Private in 3 occasions.

The first was when Saigo was being punished for his non-patriotic remarks while digging trenches to thwart the imminent American attack.

The second incident was when Saigo's head was about to be decapitated by his own commander for running away and not die with his unit.

The third and last occasion was when the General told Saigo to stay behind while the whole Japanese army or whatever balance left on the island go on a suicide mission against the Americans who had gained control most of Iwo Jima.

Saigo was supposed to burn all papers in the Japanese underground Headquarters. He found the letters that was written by those soldiers in Iwo Jima. These letters had not been posted out yet eversince the Americans landed on the island.

Thanks to Private Saigo's burying the sacks of letters in the cave grounds, Clint Eastwood has enough materials to direct such a wonderful Oscar nominated film.

View Trailer

Featured Soundtrack:
Letters from Iwo Jima (Music from the Motion Picture)
Kyle Eastwood and Michael Stevens

Seeing Is Not Believing.

Click on the pictures to enlarge!

"Rotating snakes"
Circular snakes appear to rotate 'spontaneously'.

Don't Panic

The pictures here are not animated.
If they look like they are in motion to you, then you might be suffering from an Optical Illusion.

The Pig, The Bore and The Protégé.

It is still a holiday in Singapore as the year of the Pig is being celebrated here. I was not working today but my SM is busy with her work schedule.

I did not take breakfast due to a sudden lost in appetite. Having checked the TV programmes and found nothing interesting, I became bored and restless.

I took my time walking to Tampines Mall
(ooops ... Now you know the area I live in).
It was crowded.

McDonald's was swarmed by hungry Singaporeans. There goes my hope of having a bite there. There's Metro and the sale is still on! hmmmm .... I miss my SM. We could have gone shopping.

I went up to the 4th Floor. Too many students in line to buy movie tickets at the Golden Village Cinema. So I left.

I'm B.O.R.E.D!!!

I walked across to the next building, Century Square wanting to go to the Nokia Shop. Maybe my N95 has arrived. Nope.

The next stop was Century Cineplex. I realised that the crowd was not large. They are more elderly folks there than the younger generation at Tampines Mall.

I scanned the movie listing and found out that most of the movies have started and that the next show will be more than two hours from that time.

The Protégé will be shown at 3pm! In that instance, I told my seat preference "Centre, centre!" to the ticketing staff.


I laughed at myself for buying the movie ticket on impulse. Well it wasn't on impulse but out of boredom. Anyway, what better time to watch a Chinese movie but on Chinese New Year?

But what is the movie all about?
I do not know ... yet.

The Protégé is a Chinese movie starring Andy Lau, Daniel Wu, Zhang Jingchu, Anita Yuen and Louis Khoo.

It's a Chinese version of Miami Vice whereby Daniel Wu plays an undercover Anti-Narcotic Officer going after the drug lord portrayed by Andy Lau.

Nick (Daniel Wu) finds himself involved with drug trafickers and drug addicts in his pursuit of the Drug Lord. He became very close to the Drug Lord who wanted Nick to marry his sister-in-law so that they can trully be 'brothers' by law.

Nick got involved with his female neighbour (Zhang Jingchu) who was a drug addict with a pre-teen daughter who lacks funds for school. The neighbour was running away from her husband who brought her into the drug world.

This is a nice movie. It shows how Nick managed to get the trust from the Drug Lord who eventually taught and handed over his business to Nick. Once Nick owns the business, the Drug Lord was captured.

It shows how Nick hates drug traffickers and how he would rather help a dog than helping the opium traffickers.

When his neighbour died due to heroin overdose administered through the vein on her neck by her husband, Nick made the husband sign a form to release his daughter to Nick. Nick is now her godfather since he was the person who feeds her and make sure she goes to school.

But revenge was on his mind. Nick wanted the husband to pay for his crime. So he employed the husband to be his trafficker who was sent to traffic high quality drugs in a country where crime does not pay.

What country am I talking about? Hey, I'm a Singaporean and I was surprised that the husband was stupid enough to traffic drugs in clean city, fine city, SINGAPORE!

As soon as he arrived at Changi Airport, he was arrested!
Hah! That was an easy plan, wasn't it?

The ending made me laugh. Is Singapore really that bad to live in?

Speaking of laughter. A funny incident happened before the show starts.

Look at the ticket.

Yeah, I got my centre, centre seat. When I entered Cinema 4, I went to row G and sat on the centre seat. The cinema was packed and the seats beside me were vacant. I looked in front. What luck!!! There was no one seated in front of me!

When the show was about to start, a group of adults came to my row. They looked at me. A young guy approached me when his female partner kept pointing at me.

Young Guy
Excuse me. This row is for my group.

Lonely Guy
Okay. You may tell them to be seated.

Young Guy
But you are sitting on one of our seats.

Lonely Guy
Is that so? Did you get G9 too?

Young Guy
G?? Row G? This is row F! The empty seat in front is yours.

Bashful Guy
Oooops .... sorry.

Hahahaha ... what a comedy.

By the way, if you realised when looking at the ticket, I bought it at 2pm and the show was at 3pm.

I had a solid ONE HOUR to wait.

Within that hour, I walked into Metro and bought myself these --


I got myself 3 pairs of socks and 2 boxes of Levi's *ahem*
With the 20% discount, I paid only $40/-

Wanna know how I look in my new, fresh *ahem* ????

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V

Fashion Statement Or Emotional Breakdown?

This is an old picture of Britney Spears. The I'm not a girl, not yet a woman image she portrayed was perfect.

She is now in a different stage emotionally. Has she lost her head?

Not really, but her hair!

The world is talking about the sudden change in her image.

For me, her songs matter most and this particular song has a sentimental effect on me.

Maybe, at this time, I am entering another emotional phase just like Britney Spears or maybe it's because I'm missing my SM.

Just enjoy this video clip.

Watch the end part as it is different!

Everytime Lyrics
by Britney Spears

Come notice me
And take my hand
So why are we
Strangers when
Our love is strong
Why carry on without me?

And everytime I try to fly
I fall without my wings
I feel so small
I guess I need you baby
And everytime I see you in my dreams
I see your face, it's haunting me
I guess I need you baby

I make believe
That you are here
It's the only way
I see clear
What have I done
You seem to move on easy

And everytime I try to fly
I fall without my wings
I feel so small
I guess I need you baby
And everytime I see you in my dreams
I see your face, it's haunting me
I guess I need you baby

I may have made it rain
Please forgive me
My weakness caused you pain
And this song is my sorry

Ohhhh

At night I pray
That soon your face
Will fade away

And everytime I try to fly
I fall without my wings
I feel so small
I guess I need you baby
And everytime I see you in my dreams
I see your face, it's haunting me
I guess I need you baby

After all...
After all...

Gong Xi Fa Cai

I would like to extend my sincere greeting

to all those concerned a

Happy Chinese Lunar New Year.

May the year of the Golden Pig

bring you prosperity

and good fortune

all year round!