The Weekends

Over the weekends, JD and I caught one play and one movie.

The play, Asian Boys Volume 3: Happy Ending, was meant to be a surprise for JD. He mentioned it a couple of weeks back that he's quite interested but I waved it away due to the price of the tix. Then on Saturday we decided to try out the lifts at the National Library for the infamous cheap thrill. That's when I stopped the lift at level 3, walked towards the Drama Centre, slid our tix to the usher, moved into the theatre and motioned for JD to take a seat. He tried very hard to hide his smile. I had to too.

Then Sunday was The Simpsons Movie. It has been my all-time fav back when the TV schedule for all the cartoons were at my fingertips. Watching it again after so many years brought back all those memories and more excitingly so because it's now on the silver screen. Doing away with my reviews (probably biased), I think everyone (whoever's reading this now) should just go watch it. For nostalgia or just for laughs.

Last Paper

Yesterday officially marks my last day in school. It's perhaps the last time I'll ever see myself sitting in a hall amongst 200 students, racing the clock to finish an exam paper. Schooling days are stressful days especially in such a competitive culture (exacerbated by the influx of foreign talents). But I know this is but the beginning.

Anyway after the paper, JD and I met for dinner and some shopping around. But not before we 'PDA-ed' in front of Sgt Rocky at the former SAFRA.

NDP '07

Just received the photos from JR whose DSLR was in JD's hands during one of the NDP rehearsals. Tickets are especially hard to get this year since the grand stand can only hold so many (whoever got tix to the preview or actual parade is super heng!), so we simply parked ourselves by the waterfront that fine Saturday evening to catch a sneak of the parade.

JD took control of the DSLR immediately after I placed it in his hands, and he started snapping away at anything that caught his attention (including his own camera). It's his first time handling a Canon D50, but I think his shots of the fireworks look pretty impressive.

Important Person

Yesterday evening, I received news that a friend's mother has passed away. I attended the wake and heard that it was due to a road accident. Her mother was walking along the side of the road when a motorist trying to avoid collision with another vehicle, veered into her. Her injuries were fatal.

When I saw my friend at the wake, she was clearly devastated. None of us schoolmates who visited her knew how to console her for it was such a sudden blow. I think it is something that everyone has to go through one stage in life and a wound that only time can heal.

Throughout the wake, I felt that JD is one person that is so important to me at this point in time that I don't ever wanna lose. All of a sudden, I wanted to talk to him, and I did. I rushed home immediately afterwards and we talked on the phone for over an hour. Luckily he has free-incoming...

Kayak

JD and I went kayaking yesterday afternoon at ECP. The weather was just fine and the waters were mildly choppy after a passing shower. Since it was a weekday, we had the entire open sea to ourselves. We then had this who-gets-capsized-the-most game where JD scored 2 and I scored 1. Then we had a mini-race which I think JD purposedly "put water" and let me win. Argh... All in all, it was a fun-filled day!

And this adds on to our list of common pastimes.

What Tarot Card Are You

You are The Magician

Skill, wisdom, adaptation. Craft, cunning, depending on dignity.

Eleoquent and charismatic both verbally and in writing,
you are clever, witty, inventive and persuasive.

The Magician is the male power of creation, creation by willpower and desire. In that ancient sense, it is the ability to make things so just by speaking them aloud. Reflecting this is the fact that the Magician is represented by Mercury. He represents the gift of tongues, a smooth talker, a salesman. Also clever with the slight of hand and a medicine man - either a real doctor or someone trying to sell you snake oil.

What Tarot Card are You?

Retired

After weeks of ploughing through my overdue work for the organisation, all of it finally came to a conclusion this morning. At least now that everything is in order, I can hand over all responsibilities to my understudy with no worries.

At this very moment, I feel rather carefree.

Reaching My Limit

JD makes demands, a lot of them, but he doesn't accepts No for an answer. I would give in to him but there is a limit to it. If this goes on, I'm seriously going to explode very soon. Hopefully that don't happen while the base is so shaky now.

Hong Kong Trip

It's been almost a week since JD and I got back from our Hong Kong trip. JD promised his blog readers that he gonna put pics in his blog but didn't, so I'm gonna do it for him instead, in a picture + description format.

Day 1 280607

0530 hrs
After catching some shut-eye at his place, we arrived at the airport. My specs dropped out from my bag while I unloaded my luggage. I only realised it upon checking in but it was too late. I found it crashed on the road where we alighted. Anyway JD like me in contacts.

0630 hrs
We boarded the plane, but not before JD did some shopping in the check-in lobby and bought books to keep ourselves busy on board. He read "For One More Day" by Mitch Albom and I read "Blink" by Malcolm Gladwell. We sort of doze off after about 20 pages.

1530 hrs
After all the arrival procedures, transfers and checking-ins, we arrived at Wong Tai Sin Temple (黄大仙) to pray. I prayed for JD and my family but I forgot to pray for myself. After that JD prayed for two divinations (签) while I prayed for one.

2000 hrs
Having our fill at a 10 course dinner, we headed to the breathtaking summit of Victoria Peak (太平山顶). JD and I took super a lot of pictures there. The place is just so cool (pun intended)!


2045 hrs
A short walk into the mall and we were at Madame Tussands Hong Kong where lots and lots of waxed figurines of famous people are housed (including MM Lee).

2130 hrs
Taking a short transfer, we were at Avenue of Stars (星光大道). We kinda missed the light show so I guess we'll be back again. After that we took a ride on a roofless bus to Jordan and did some night shopping at Women's Street (女人街). JD bought lotsa stuff there. We returned to the hotel at about 1am.

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Day 2 290607

1200 hrs
I kinda overslept and we only stepped out of the hotel at noon for a quick lunch. He got dumpling noodles while I got sliced chicken noodles. The noodles here are almost twice the cost of those in SG!

1330 hrs
Taking near an hour of transports, we arrived at the Po Lin Monastery on Lantau Island (大屿山) to visit the big Buddha. Low-lying clouds shrouded the Buddha at first but somehow cleared after we made our way up the long flight of steps.

1615 hrs
We arrived in Hong Kong's Disney's Land. Though a bit late but we grabbed whatever time we had and took almost every ride that we saw. Of all the rides, JD liked the Space Mountain so much that we took it thrice.

2100 hrs
9pm sharp, street lights dimmed and Disney's Land daily fireworks spectacular sparked off at Sleeping Beauty's castle, Disney's signature landmark. It lasted for a mere 10 mins but it was enough to magically conclude our fun-filled day.

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Day 3 300607

1030 hrs
We made our way to way to Shenzhen at 9am and arrived at our first pit-stop, Shenzhen Xinyu Mineral Museum (深圳市星宇地矿馆). There JD bought one name stamp and two cans of tea leaves. The day continued with JD buying a backpack, a pair of Adidas shoes and a very nice lime green Puma polo tee at dongmen (东门).

1930 hrs
We rushed back to Hong Kong because a local guide told us there would be fireworks at 8pm at the Victoria Harbour. We later found out that he got the date wrong, so ended up walking around in New World Centre (星界中心) and there happened to be a collectors' car exhibition.

2000 hrs
This time at least we were in time for Hong Kong's permanent light and sound spectacular called A Symphony of Lights. Music is being broadcast along the Avenue of Stars while buildings on both sides of Victoria Harbour house an array of lights that dances to it. While we admired the show, we wondered how many battery is needed to supply one second of power to all the spot lights.

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Day 4 010707

1300 hrs
Today (Sunday) is sleep-late day so we woke up late. After some packing up and photo-taking, we proceeded to check out of the hotel, but not before I made JD wear the his new polo tee we bought in Shenzhen (he looks dashing in it).

1330 hrs
After some walking about in Jordan while eating cherries, we stumbled upon Yoshinoya and decided to have our lunch there (since it costs as much as any street side food). They serve very nice kimchi as sides.

1400 hrs
We arrived in Central (中环) and toured around the place towards Lan Kwai Fong (蘭桂坊). We were sweating profusely throughout the afternoon.

1700 hrs
JD suddenly thought of paying the TC here a visit to see how the place is like. After some searching, we found the place and popped in for a while. Like their SG counterpart, they have freebies in their lockers in a variety of designs (JD got the brown one while I got the pink).

1910 hrs
JD got the timing wrong and we missed our transfer. We ended up taking a cab to the airport. JD then stopped by Ajisen Ramen for a quick dinner before boarding.

1950 hrs
We took one last picture before boarding the plane back to SG. Love you, JD.

Their Commencement

This evening was the commencement ceremony for the class of 2007. I arrived half an hour early. I saw lots of my course mates, all of them spread out across the hall in smiles and laughters.

I went forward to shake a friend's hand while I smiled in return, sharing her joy on graduation. Except for a few closer ones whom already knew, she would then promptly pop me a question:

"Hey Kevin, why are you not in graduation gown? It's gonna start soon."

I would give her the answer while continuing to smile. She would attempt to smile back and reply: "Oh I'm sorry.", then proceed to take a photo or two. Then I would move on to the next and the cycle continued throughout the evening.

Two hours past and I find that I can't quite smile any more. I left shortly and headed back to office. It's their commencement, not mine.