The City Never Sleeps

Dear God,

I would like to make a New Yr resolution.

1. Peace. No more wars of whatsoever shit. I'm tired of all those wars around me. To those bitches n assholes who wants to create a WW3 around me, Fuck Off! I am tired of it!!!

Oh god...forgive me, for i curse and swear just now. Please let me make this resolution again:

1. Peace. Everyone learns to love one another. No war, ho hatred among one another, just simple love and peace. =)

2. Love. As i said just now, everyone learnt to love one another. So may love be in the air.

3. Relationship. May god please drop me a beauty like Julie Delpy or some nice French babes for me. And please drop a nice guy/gal for my friends around me who are still single. I am desperately in need of someone beside me rite now.

4. More money please...

5. Power and protection. I am going into the army for sure. Please give me the power to protect myself from all kinds of harm.

6. Strength. I need strength to keep things going on.

2005 is a good and bad year that i've been thru. Don't think i need to say more.

In a few hours time, i am going to welcome 2006, the year that will change my life drastically.

Goodbye!

Life has completely go haywire...

Take a moment if you dare
Catch yourself a breath of air
There's another life out there
and you should try it

Dead ends high on every street
Look before you place your feet
Cracks and fissures keep the beat
and you're inside it

Every thought you never dared to think
Every mood you always knew would sink
Every line you spoke out loud in a jest
All the time you took to be your best
Soon forgotten

The sun must never touch your skin
It could expose the dark within
You're paranoid about the paranoia

And panic hits without a sign
You worry about it all the time
Every perfect moment is a hidden warning

Cos everything makes your pretty head spin
Nagging thoughts are starting to sink in
With everything this way it's better to forget
Than end up in a place with something to regret

Your transatlantic shopping spree
Your health forever guarantees
Organic bio
life's a breeze in cozy prison

Hiding out in a salad bar
Isn't going to get you far
and bottled wine is vinegar tomorrow

Everything around it makes your pretty head spin
Its piling up high and you're back where you begin
Moments you try so hard to forget
promising to have been the best one's yet

Everytime you shut your eyes it begins
Everytime you trace your steps back in
None of your convictions have the same old ring
No doubt you found a place for everything
Cozy prisons

So if you're careful
You won't get hurt
But if your careful all the time
Then whats it worth?

Cosy Prisons - A-Ha

And i am sipping my chamomile tea away, with the scent of shortcrust pastry linger around my finger. Bet that some of the keys on the keyboard smell of mince fruit pie that i had just now.

Just wonder: is X'mas eve and X'mas itself a day for people to eat and drink? If that's so, then one of the 7 sins - gluttony, has been committed by all people celebrating X'mas, since X'mas is the day where people feast on turkey, ham, pies, log cakes, chocolates, beers and spirits...

9.10am: hit the school gym and learnt to pick up the pieces, after failing my NAPFA miserably.

10am: out of the gym, head down to the opposite street to get some protein from soy milk at 7-11, but, it happened to run out of it, except the 1L pack that is sitting quietly at the corner of the fridge.

11.25am: had another serving of Hydroxycut and watched Eros - The Hands again, together with a bit of Rice Rhapsody. Just feel that i had a penchant on Wong Kar Wai and his actress in cheongsam in his previous works. Gong Li is still that cheo in cheongsam, even though she looks like she is dying soon at the end of the show. (In fact, she died in the story.)

1pm: Last minute X'mas rush shopping. Cold Storage Parkway runs out of Fruit Mince Pie, so went to get it at CS Taka, since i am going to Borders.

2pm: Heaven shows no sympathy for people doing the last minute rush shopping. It rained heavily and many were caught in the rain. But in the end, i found several box of Fruit Mince Pies lying on the shelves. My instant reaction: as excited as Daniel Bruhl who found his mothers' old Eadt Germany marks that worth several thousands in the old wooden cabinet that has been thrown out of their house.

3.30pm: Pull myself out of the madding crowd and head towards Borders. Apparently, the makan guide on M'sia published by Sunday Times food reviewer are not only selling like hot cakes, but also it has been wiped out totally by food lovers. This gives me one signal: i must throw in tonnes of X'mas greetings into Wong Ah Yoke's mailbox.

3.55pm: Buy a X'mas present for myself, even though i bought 2 big presents for myself: my Creative Zen Neeon and my new spectacles. Bought a red tee from FRGL, where the design was featured in FHM.

5pm: Back to Cold Storage PP to fight for my can of cranberry sauce, milk and yoghurt. Bought 2 cans of Ski yoghurt, and i didn't know that the 2 new flavours are out in the market for long: Caramel Cheesecake and Chocolate Orange. Collect honey glazed ham from Giant a while later.

6pm: Sis sliced the ham, her bf came for dinner, had ham with cranberry sauce, fruits and fresh uncook veggie.

7.30pm: Just do not know what to do for X'mas eve. So drowned myself in Once Upon a Time In Mexico and Ski Caramel Cheesecake. The result: a pretty violent thriller with soury taste in my mouth. Not really ideal for X'mas eve. Cos, cheesecake is sour, yoghurt is sour, mix them together and you get an extra sour yoghurt. Mix a bit with caramel, and you get... omg, the taste is unimaginable. Tash never liked caramel, and definitely this is not a yoghurt for him.

9.30pm: check my mail, and both Rabil and Jeremy from PRDS wished me a lovely X'mas. Oh, you guys still remeber me. I am so touched, sob sob...

To all, Merry X'mas.

To Tash, i remember you. Learnt to love X'mas. Merry X'mas. =)

Should i say, i am slogging like hell, or just simply lazing around?

Completed my SIP report (finally. If i just simply collect dust by putting on my table, i will never forgive myself for it.) and hand it over to Mrs See. Oh thank goodness, she was there (and sai that i look good with my new spectacles on. ;0) ). At the same time, consulted Mrs Chan SK on how to eat X'mas ham and what to go with (cos honey glazed ham with cranberry sauce will be on the dinner table on X'mas eve.)

The rest of the time was to laze around at home. Watch Rice Rhapsody and see how hard Sylvia Chang and Martin Yan trying to play the role of Singaporeans, where it becomes a failure eventually.

Watched 3 trailers for 3 upcoming new films:

Derailed - Clive Owen and Jennifer Aniston were both married to their respective spouse, but they had an affair, just like Bae Yong Jun and Soo Yee Jin in April Snow. The difference was: no road accidents involved, no weepy ending. Instead, you got Vincent Cassel who barged into their motel room, had Aniston raped, and robbed both of them. For fear of their exter-marital affair being exposed, both kept silent about the rape cum robbery. Instead, Cassel got hold on their secrets and threatened to expose their affair if they do not listen to him. As he goes near towards their family, Owen deiced to took the matter in his own hands...

Not your usual X'mas movie, where Swedish director Mikael Håfström turns the story from print to screen, and we have 2005's version of Fatal Attraction. While Glenn Close comes after Michael Douglas, threatening to kill him and his family, Anne Archer had her killed at the end. Seeing the poster of Derailed at Princess and Lido reminds me of the ending scene of Fatal Attraction, on how Close slashed Douglas, and was shot dead by Archer eventually. While Fatal Attraction is about how a one night pasta and sex ended up destroying a relationship, which eventually jeopardising the lives of a family, Derailed focused on a robber who bumped onto a couple having an affair, got hold of their secrets, and eventually destroying their lifes.

If you can't wait to see how Owen and Aniston ended up in the hands of Cassel, and how to free themselves out of this situation, go and rent Fatal Attraction as your warm up exercise first.

The Matador - An action comedy about Pierce Brosnan and Greg Kinnear plays a hitman and a salesman who had an encounter at a bar in New Mexico City. Think Once Upon A Time in Mexico, but in a comical version.

Brokeback Mountain - Ho Ho Ho !!! Santa Clause is dropping the highly anticipated arthouse fare by Ang Lee into the cinemas through the chimneys. But, only selected household will get to see the presents, cos this present is for adults only mah. Imagine 2 cowboys who developed a relationship from friendship to love, and still loved each other even though they are married with their respective girlfriends and bear kids.

However, it will not be here during X'mas. More rather, they will be here during, before or after CNY period. Not an ideal period for them to be played in the theatres, but it is always better to be late than never.

And...it is much more better than some crappy movies where a monk can fall in love with an alien, or a cheo bu who is trapped in between a slave who can run super fast, a general who is much much more older than her and a duke who can throw his fans around.

GNC is having a promotion on weight loss and building of muscles at Suntec Convenction Hall today. For today only, i bring home another bottle of weight control pill.

This is one of the sale where you can get health suppliments such as Hydroxycut, weight control pills, protein shakes, meal replacement programmes at special price. Hydroxycut are now selling at $76.40, instead of the usual $138.50. Yeah, that was pretty worth it.

However, after consuming the pills for close to 2 months, i found out that it does nothing but maintained my weight. I don't see signs of shedding down those extra kilos, despite my effort on controling my diet, doing frequent exercise and so forth. Thus, i was wondering if i should give Hydroxycut another chance.

In the end, i decided to give Stallone Instone Leanfire a try. Just in case you do not know what is this pill about, it shares the same function as Hydroxycut, and mabey the content of the pills are similar. Fine Stallone familiar? Sylvester Stallone is the founder of the Stallone Instone line. Yeah, he is now the chairman of the chain of health suppliments and weight control products.

The price: i only have to pay $47.60 instead of the usual $119 for a bottle of 120 pills. Hope that it will not give me another false results, just like Hydroxycut.

To reach my $50 purchase so as to receive a free $50 Haach voucher, i top off the remainder with a chocolate peanut butter bar. Thinking of using it for my NAPFA test before Tues, as it is high in sugar and protein. And protein is what i need most to help me repair my worn out muscle after a workout.

Oh yeah, this fair also attracts lotsa 'monsters' aka muscular people who spend their life hitting the gym. They are here for the cheap bargains: protein shakes, whey powder, meal replacements, shakes and bars.........

Though those bars looks tempting, just llike those ordinary chocolate bars made in NY (think of Mars, Snickers etc...), but, they are not your ordinary chocolate bars for snacks. And you know what i mean. = )

Just watched 2 movies on Ch 5 and Ch U: Die Another Day and Demi Haunted.

Let me begin with James Bonds 20th Omega watch first. He used different kinds of watch as one of his gadgets, and each time, the watch serves different purposes. This time round, the watch can blow up something. (To those who have watched it before, think of Zao's expensive acne.)

If the watch cannot do the trick, Jinx's Sony Ericsson mobile phone can be the next alternative. Just plug a pin from the watch into a block of explosives/connect the mobile phone on a block of explosives and viola, you can blow up something.

What else? Loads of CGI effects, where it turns the 20th James Bond franchise into a hit and a boo. Hit for the box office sales, where ticket sellers constantly hear the tills ringing. Boo for the review, where it seems to be super artificial.

What else? Critics marks Halle Berry's downfall after the Oscars from Die Another Day, Pierce Brosnan calls it quits after his previous 3 007 series, Madonna made a special apperance as a lesbo fencing teacher, South Koreans are unhappy with it due to political issues... All of this factors trys to pull Die Another Day down.

Now, Brosnan passed the baton to Daniel Craig in Casion Royale, the upcoming 007 franchise, with Cecile De France as (the next Bond Girl) ?

At least Halle Berry do have a set of worthy figure in this film.

As for Demi Haunted, it was a 2002 production featuring Eason Chan and Joey Yung as two Cantonese opera troop actors/actress. The difference was: he is a human being and she is a ghost. Joey plays an actress who played the male role in Catonese opera. She falls in love with a rich man's son (Nicholas Tse took such pathetic role, where he becomes a sidekick aka an extra.) and broke the taboo of playing the female role, for the sake for him. He promised to watch her performance as a lady, but he did not show up. A freak accident took place and her face was sliced into 1/2. She died, and so does her spirit turns into half.

She reincarnated three times, first as a rooster, second as an Italian who sings soprano, and Eason was her third. She wants him to fufill her wishes by finishing the unfinished performance.

All i can say was: it was too ridiculous to see hip hop mixed into Cantonese opera. It was so freaking lame and dumb that (those cheesy dialogues were blended in too), unsurprisingly, it is a flop back in 2002. This is just one of the film where it leads to the downfall of HK film industry.

Unsurprisingly, when Paul (a friend of Tash) metioned in his blog that the director of Himalayan Singh should be executed for directing such a dumb show. Yeah, in deed. It is dumb to see a HK productiuon that trys to be the next Bollywood film, where everyone dressed up as Indians. Cecilia Cheung even claimed that ladies from HK will go for saris after watching Singh. I bet she dumped her saris aside after seeing the downfall of Singh.

If that's not dumb enough, both Nicholas and Cecilia become the leading cast of The Promise, the upcoming swordfighting film by China arthouse director, Chen Kaige. Together with Hiroku Sanada, Liu Ye and Jang Don Guan, it was labelled LOTR -Lord of the Rings of China. Apparently, Chen will be clashing with the man who put LOTR on world map this week: Peter Jackson and King Kong.

After watching the trailers of two films (Promise and King Kong), my verdict: i would rather see a gorilla create havoc on the streets of Manhattan (or LA?) than to see Cecilia becoming a human kite and allows Jang to fly her.

To Jang and Chen: go fly a kite. A human being can never be as light as a kite. To Chen: you are good in directing Farewell my Concubine and Temptress Moon, but don't allow your failure in Killing Me Softly to put you into a big mistake. Isn't Zhang Yimou a very good example? To Jang: go back and complete your military service.

Bought myself a copy of Eurythmics: Ultimate Collection at Chinatown for $16 this afternoon, so as to ease my addiction on Annie Lennox and her partner Dave Steward's wonderful 80's pop.

The album states: Ultimate Collection. Yeah, ultimate, but not fully ultimate. As a greenhorn to Eurythmics, please pardon me for saying some of the songs are boring. (This message is applicable to Eurythmic's who love Eurythmics) Give me sometime to explore this wonderful classic duo and their 80's works.

Lennox sounds so wonderful in the songs (in fact, she was the lead and only vocal in the 80's pop duo.) that it makes me want to go for more. And what can i say about Lennox? She looks so much like Ms Tirzah (my Corp Comm tutor) in the MTV of Missionary Man. And the chorus goes: Don't mess with the missionary man, missionary man, missionary man...

Where it brought me to what i've seen today: Chinatown.

Chinese New Year songs are playing on the streets of Chinatown, and decorations hits the streets before Santa Clause fell from our rooftop. Found a stall that sells Sarawak noodles, but the shop is corwded. Just wonder if Sarawak laksa is sold there. If it does, oh yeah, i will go immediately, cos i missed the laksa so much...Yeah Tash, thank to your lovely Sarawak laksa, i am addicted to it rite now. Where are you, laksa?

(come across this song that i splaying on the player rite now, also from Ultimate: There Must Be An Angel (Playing With My Heart). Have to comment on this song that it sound so much similar like those 70's and 80's Chinese love songs from M'sian singers. )

And as usual, head straight up to Yangtze. This time round, it has an different encounter: walked pass the massage parlour outside Yangtze, and there was this lady in fleshy clothings, where she tried to called me, but before she could catch me, i had left. She was like... : eh, wait wait Mr...

Before she could say anything, i had walked straight down. This woman, apparently, has the feeling that a handsome young man has fly off, together with the chance of serving a decent young man after handling so many ah peks & DOMs.

Please do not look for me massage ladies, if you are thinking of something else besides massage. At least Lennox's Sisters Are Doin' It For Themselves works better than any massage rite now. I feel energetic and have the urge to dance rite now.

Oh yeah, wonder if anyone of ya had catch Chestnuts Ep 3: Revenge of the Shooting Stars by Hossan Leong and Jonathan Lim? Was talking about that with Yao Ming yesterday. Somehow i wanted to go for the show, but thinking of: spending $30 on 2 people yakking and cracking other people's ass as jokes...

Two days ago, was in town with Yao Ming to go for lunch, for him to get his books at Books K and free drinks at Starbucks. You know, the charity drive for Salvation Army where you get a free drink, and donate some $$$ at the same time. We go for 2 rounds for a good cause, cos at least we did donate some $$$.

However, when i was reading ST Forum's on how ugly some S'poreans are where they just want free drinks and do not want to donate a single cent, i just feel that mabey Hossan and Jonathan can crack such ppl's ass for jokes.

It was pretty disheartening to hear some S'poreans going for free drinks, yet they can give all sorts of excuses on not wanting to donate a dime, such as: i don't have spare change, i got only big notes, or even worst, IGNORE. In fact, when both of us hits the outlet at Liat Towers, there was a group of students around our age, where they called their friends to cut the queue rite in front of us to go for the free drinks. They did spare some dime though.

At least they are not those bunch of S'poreans where they called their family, peng you, neighbours, kaki, their 3rd aunt, 4th uncle, 6th grand daughter, grandpa and grandma to come down for a free cup of latte or frappes.

Did i mentioned the whole generation to come down for the free drinks?

If these people does, then they have become part of the Ultiimate Collection: Ultimate for Free Drinks.