The City Never Sleeps

As mentioned in my previous blog post, I am flying off to Macau and Hong Kong for a holiday. (To be precised, it is a weekend trip.)

Fast forward to leaving the house at 4.40pm, taking a cab to the budget terminal, check in, had some snacks and drinks, before taking off on the 6.10pm flight by Tiger Airways.

Being on an aeroplane for the first time, it was excited to see and feel how the plane take off from the ground. Just like a little kid, i could not help to constantly look thru the window, and exclaimed how does the earth looks like when the plane is several meters away from the ground.

The plane reaches Macau International Airport at around 10pm, and the first thing that I feel when I step the ground of Macau: the air is fresh, and it is cold. (It was about 21 degrees celsius at night.)

Oh yes, not forgetting the feeling of the first breath of air abroad. A mixture of wind, with a hind of wood and engine oil. Hehehehe.

The first impression of Macau International Airport: clean and empty. Perhaps it was late, isn't it?

Brother and I took a cab to Metropole Hotel, located at Macau Island itself. (Note, Macau is a combination of 3 islands - Macau, Taipa and the other island...unknown. Can't remember what is the name.)

Upon check in, we decided to go for dinner at a tea cafe nearby. We came across Macau Restaurant, a cha can teng (tea cafe, just like your neighbourhood kopitiam in Singapore.), which serves really great grilled Portuguese pork chop with fried rice.

Before we had our dinner, we decided to take some pictures.

As you know, Macau is just like the Las Vegas of the East, which houses loads and loads of casinos. So, here are some of the photos we took on the first night of arrival in Macau.

Emperor Hotel, which was owned by Emperor Group, which is into movie productions, jewelleries, hospitality and so own.

Pawnshops for anyone who needs cash desperately...

Public houses...And here you have the 2 casinos: Grand Lisboa and Casino Lisboa, standing side by side with one another.

Last but not least, the interior design of Grand Lisboa casino and hotel. This is the reception area, which right beside is the entrance to the casino.

Apologies for no photos on the casino, as no photo taking is allowed. All I can say is that, the gamblers consist a healthy mix of Hong Kongers, Macau natives and Mainlanders from China. With each bet at a minimum of MOP $100 (ard S$21), one can enjoy a game of Blackjack, lucky spin, jackpot machine, and not forgetting the dice game which the Chinese loves it the most: Big and Small. (it is a game where 3 dices will be shake each time. After the dice has been shaked in a covered cylinder, one will place their bets to guess if the total points fallls either small, which is 3 p0ints to 9, or big, which is 10 to 18.)

Not forgetting that smoking in an air-conditioned casino is a norm, since one can smoke in a open air area, and air-condition venues. So, bear the second hand smoke if you must visit the casinos.

To continue on the trip to HK in the next post...

On Wed nite, bro inform mum that the trip to Thailand has been cancelled, but since no refunds will be given, he will take the offer provided by Tiger Airways: he will be going to Macau for holidays alone.

Mum says: bring your di along. (meaning: bring your younger brother along.)

10 minutes later, an air ticket to Macau was booked, for me.

I was so....loss at speech of words.

I've never taken a plane for the past 24 years in my life. (Initially, the first flight should be few weeks ago, a reservist trip to Taiwan for 3 weeks. MINDEF cancelled my trip at a very last minute, leaving me in a current state.) And so my wish has more or less, fufilled.

(My wish: my first flight will send me to HK.)

ok. Hong Kong, here I come!

Ever after since I had become officially unemployed (sounds better than jobless, isn't it?), I am doing what I've feel like doing. More rather, doing something which I could have never done before for the past few months. 2 years of NS + 9 months in TP = 33 months of keeping myself occupied with something.

Somehow, knowing that I am jobless, I just felt that I've got nothing to fall back on. I mean, when one is jobless, he/she will tend to laze around, or to send endless job application so that they could have something to occupy their mind. Right?

First 3 months of NS - Practically no life at all. Yes, spending my time going thru thick and thin with my platoon mates. The next 21 months is swimming with the sharks in the deep blue sea. At least, I had duties to be completed, and this prevents my mind from wondering around. Even though it seems to be dreadful about training (not so much on training though. More on duties) the next day after Sunday, I told myself: look forward to the next day. Tomorrow will be better.

Guardroom is given with a copy of Straits Times daily, without fail. Even though we are soldiers, we still need to be updated with what is happening around us, right? PY loves IT section, everyone learns a bit of everything from Mind Your Health, and I look forward to the sweet treats on Urban, which in the past falls on Thurs (the sub copy of IT, MYH and Urban has been shifted to a day backward for now.) Also remembered how everyone wants to snatch the copy of Life! away, so as to stop me from reading movie reviews (cos they believed that I am a movie dictionary.)

Having Urban to go along with my favourite lor mee and kopi ice is the best time to be in the guardroom. I know, weekend is coming soon. So it's the usual makan session with friends, movies and shopping. Yes, Fri nite movie at Princess with it's $7 weekend ticket for a Chinese show, Lido on a Sat evening or The Picturehouse on a Sat afternoon. What a way to enjoy my weekend.

All this goes on for 21 months, until I've reach the next stage of life: WORK.

9 months in TP Corporate Communications and I could apply the skills I've learnt in TP Business school to work. Reaching out to the secondary school kids, promoting TP, work on events and occassional rubbing shoulders with celebrity. It's a added bonus when I pick up Corporate Communications. Hahahahaha.

Talking about rubbing shoulders with celebrity, I am referring to working with them to ensure that the programme runs smoothly. Leisure wise, I do met a few movie directors to know more about the style they are presenting in their movie. Not forgetting that these are some really good directors who presents us with high quality productions, not some crappy D-graded directors who creates trash out of money.

Some of the movie directors I met from NS till today:

-Royston Tan (3 times!)
-Kelvin Tong
-Tsai Ming Liang
-John Woo
-Wayne Wang
-Yasmin Ahmad (the talent who directed short films for MCYS and Petronas)
-Oliver Stone (the latest addition!)

Lessons learnt from them:
-Royston Tan: Nothing is unachievable. Bravo for our former TP DES student!
- Kelvin Tong: NIL
-Tsai Ming Liang: his movie will never make it to the Malaysian market, despite being a Malaysian and won several European film awards.
-John Woo: study hard when you have the opportunity. Education is important.
-Wayne Wang: the first step towards success is thru selling boxes of bra and panties, and that will give you valuable lessons in life.
-Yasmin Ahmad: always direct and simple, with values in it. Every race can live harmously together, and race and religion is not a barrier to know people around you better. Be forgivable to other people's mistake and you are being kind to yourself.
-Oliver Stone: making movies to keep a slice of history. What's happening around us will be going in 60 to 70 years time. Make a movie out of what is happening around us, especially something relevant to you, will do good for the future generations, so that they will not forget what they had today does not come free.

YES. A slice of memories for everyone of us.

Too lazy to think of any title, and do not want to crack my brain to think of a title. So put it simple. I named it April.

Yes, how time flies. April...a month of roller coaster ride.

I lost my job on April's Fool. Nah, it's not a joke. My contract ends on 31st Mar 09. So currently working as a househusband. Yes...I lost my job. No....I'm jobless. Yes...No need to wake up at 7am and drag myself to face a group of a******* and b****** who think they are f*cking pretty or smart. But at the same time, I need another source of income to support my basic necessities in SIM when term starts in July.

I woke up the very next day and found myself moving up a box under the age section in an application form. 24...such a good number. Yeah...at 24, you had lived the 3rd year of the particular zodiac animal you are born in. 24 means you are either getting a degree/NSF/work (select one that suits you most). 24 means you can have as many plastic magic cards as you want, which grants you to shop till you drop, and don't have to fear about getting rob for carring a big stack of notes when going out. 24 means one should start the 3rd stage of a love life aka getting married. (Francois Ozon mentioned the 1st stage of love life is knowing each other, 2nd being falling in love, getting married at 3rd, having a child on the 4th place and splitting up for good when the love is lost on the last stage aka DIVORCE.)

So being a 24er, Yaoda and I head down to Filmgarde @ Iluma Bugis for Shinjuku Incident. Derek Yee is a fantastic director who discuss a social issue with a punch in his movie. Jackie Chan did not fight back (and you can tell that he goes for surgery on his face to look younger.), which marks another highlight in the movie. Daniel Wu is no longer a pretty boy in the movie. He turns into an uncle and a demon...

Took a coach to my hometown few hours later for QingMing. Went to Ipoh for shopping, makan, sight seeing, and comeback to Singapore.

Househusband again for the next few days till the moment I am writing this article.