Last thurs, while on my block leave, I met up with Zishen in orchard. My initial plan was to tagged Zhiqun on his usual Ion Orchard stalking drawing sessions.. but it was quite impromptu so the police can't meet up. So the 2 of us caught Evangelion 2.0 in cine instead. There ain't many good movies recently, really.
But the show wasn't too bad. Non-stop explosion sequences that had kept me entertained throughout the 110 mins was pretty epic. The ending theme song, acoutic version of "Beautiful World", was notably sang with the familiar voice of Utada Hikaru. =]
Nevertheless, we still brought along drawing materials for the post-movie chill-n-drink. The 2 of us camped at Heeren's Spinelli Cafe a while longer. We agreed it's definitely therapeutic to take the time out to fiddle with the pencil, esp after much hiatus.
Here's the Eva-inspired (unfinished) piece I did.. I rushed it but it's still incomplete...
K I'm setting off to Taiwan, flight scheduled at midnight. It'll be my first time drinking the bubble tea there, ya. See you guys back on 13th dec! Take care. =]
I've always been on the look-out for upcoming talents, with plus points for songwriters.
There are like hundred times more music competitions around the world in this decade than it was 30 years ago. But still talented individuals can hardly be discovered. It seems as if the real talents have decide to keep themselves hidden from the cameras, or go the indie way. Whereas limelight seekers on the screens mostly makes me cringe, especially the locals.
Tay Ke Wei 鄭可為 is one of those rare exceptions. The Singaporean girl was roped by David Tao 陶喆 into his world tour concert as backup vocalist, has been on the music voyage ever since.
From Mandopop to English Jazz, she made a small name for herself in various solo acts. The erhu player also performs for weddings with her co-founded company Yours Truly. She took part in the 5th season of 超級星光大道 too.
Here's some youtube vids of her self-recorded perfomances. Plastic Mannequin Love, a song inspired by one laid in garbage patch, is one of her original songs.
Her soothing vocals seems to works better in English songs. I liked how she tackled the high notes in the choruses of these 2 songs; Bleeding Love and 流沙.
And I as much as tried to focus on her talent, her onward appearance still proves to be, er, a little distracting... She just looks so hot la.
LCP S G He reporting. Attended Daryl's 21st bday party on the 10th Oct 2009, right at his house. I thought it's gonna be a HUGE gathering of unfamiliar faces like Amelie's 21st or Amanda's farewell. But hey! No it was kept "real" with just the dogs, his childhood friends (Ken and Sean), his family members and of cos, Marie.
Amelie already made a recount on her blog but I'll make one as well. Full album of the photos can be found inside Facebook! Those here are usually centered around your truly.
First off, food! I'm not a fan of BBQ (or whatever you call it) but they did it right by removing the useless soup pot! Gosh, if only my mum learn it! We satisfy our never-ending crave for Salmon and Beef. Yumyum. The nurse ensures each of us eat the veggies indented. Hey, you're talking to a carnivorous bunch. The Bear scored full marks at his statement of the day~
Li Xiong: We love veggies!.. But we don't eat them. We hate meat, man!
Totally 10/10!! Hahaha.. epic. The bear did a great job at beef-wrapped asparagus too (which I cant seem to get the hang of).
We entertained ourselves with the Wii set. Rayman Raving Rabbids is such a party game! Not only are the concepts hilariously stupid, the gameplay is pretty interactive too. There's one which I get to choose other player's action, therefore the Bear doing the bunny ears. Kekeke. =D
Next up is Guitar Hero. Man, I'm just not borned for that..? The supposedly spontaneous game become an engrossed straight-faced one where everyone was trying to concentrate hard...
Cake time! It's a choco-coated banana cake from Secret Recipe.. I was expecting Daryl's mum to bake one herself, but guess this aint the year. And I thought mango is the only fruit that won't screw up a cake... but then again, it's not mine. =x
We had some group photos taken before the Presents Parade. Some heart-touching, tears-jerking moments in there. The bday boy tries to hold back the tears as he searches helplessly for words. I thought giving a gen2 x-mini was a great idea, but the Turtle Dick (picture not shown here) Val gave was brilliant, too. =]
As the clock strikes twel.. er, ten, it was time for me to leave. Guard duty on sunday la, what can I say. Huihun and Edwin managed to take over me as soon they escaped from Huiwen's party. Heh. Some last minute photo-taking of "Daryl and his gang of ahbeng friends"... Wait, ah beng? How do I fit into the equation?? o.o
Just completed the ICSB(Infantry Combat Skills Qualification Badge) challenge which comprises 32km route march, river crossing at the 24km point, various technical handling test, and live-firing at the end. Thanks to Gilbert for lending me his wife as mine kena IA after the river crossing.
The stores are for once handled by the HQ side. They did a great job ensuring food and beverages at all the resting points. I had night snacks (preferably swiss rolls!), 100plus, H2O, and many many Red Bulls. I myself bought 4 cans of "ang gu" with me. We were marching overnight and require as much energy needed.
I'm just glad it's over and done with. We're left with nothing much except Taiwan ROC and ATEC. Looking forward to slack-til-ORD. Actually thinking again, being under PTP batch is not bad. 1 extra month of pay whilst doing nothing, as I ploy ORD plans.
I'm deployed again for a week. Seems like I cant meet for the weekend (or for ZS bday). Sorry =(
AGHHGHHHH!!! Oh gosh I forgot to mention an important event. Mr Calvin Tan "created" a new work recently, and his best so far, named Abigail. Yea, I've never heard before this name either... but anyway it is what it is! His first child with Ms Gwen Lee was born on the 24th August. (sorry for the belated announcement..)
24th August! That, will make her zodiac sign on the line of half-leo half-virgo, also known as The Cusps. It is said they tend to be highly secretive, able to accurately determine the right time to do something, experts at the art of effect, and reluctant to allow others to share in personal feelings... But I say, people born under this sign is blessed with innate talent of immeasurable potentials... Hahaha.. Got my point? =D
Think it is too late to give wishes... No? Ok, Congrats then!!
Anyway the MAIN purpose of this post is to show... Ris Low interview video. Nah, just kidding. Go goggle it yourself if you haven't, for something that go boomz. This blog shall do what it is meant for. Some doodles on my notepad during my employment days...
Highly intuitive, on-the-spot kind of thing. I found that's the way to create original designs. If you keep planning thoroughly you'll end up with something boring, dead-poised, what have already drawn before.
As I draw, less is cared about what it is and how it functions. It's more like a journey of solving compositional problems. Eg, "too plain over here, let's add something", "drawn too many round shapes, add some straight lines", "drawn too many bipeds, this one shall have no/four/hundreds legs", "you expect me to draw here, but no..."
A shout-out to the Bear: You're not alone! Gimme some time, man. I need a "drawing mood" to draw.
Lol well, not exactly. But on the other hand, You Belong With MeIS the best female video! That's why I feature that in my blog some while ago, right? Talk about having good TASTE. Hehe.
Ok so if you haven't known what happened at the MTV awards 2009, you either 1) don't speak English, 2) cut of from the social world, 3) spends half of your life in virtual world of WOW, 4) watches nothing but only anime, 5) or says you don't care about pop songs and awards (but in reality just oblivious about world events).
I'm kinda over it already but still, I have my say about that douche-bag somehow. I mean THAT WASN'T THE FIRST TIME he crashed a stage. Back on the Europe MTV awards where he loses to Justice and Simian for Best Video award, he crashed when the awrds are being presented to them. So much for a a guy who can't sing and use Auto-tune to up the octaves of his otherwise monotone vocal.
This time round he crashed for someone else that has nothing to do with him. Totally attention-seeking, totally uncool. Totally. What did Taylor did to him to deserve this anyway? I'm REALLY scared he might do something to Kris Allen for singing his Heartless 2000 times better than him.
Oh why can't you see~ ~ ~ You don't belong on M~ T~ V~~
Many people (fans or plain appreciators of music/manners) have gave their 2 cents, but here's a good one. I know the clip from The Downfall is overused, but these subtitles meant what I want to say.
ROFL at "Why didn't he just twitter that he was unhappy?" and "Go through my iPod and delete all his songs". hahaha
Oh! I think someone just sent me loads of songs to my inbox, gotta check them out.
Weekends are precious and certainly not to be wasted for sleeping! I usually sleep at 5+am while waking up at noon... Speaking of weekends, my deployment gonna start soon again. And yeap, no weekends. =\
Anyhoo, here's some food places I've tried over a short span of 2 weeks..? That includes my 21st birthday celebration which is so so so delayed... And for those who doesn't know about it's existence, it's not your fault. It happened on a monday (24th aug) when I was on one of my "untimely off days". Figured out that the rest are in camp, I didn't send out the invitation.. But hey, here's the summary of what happened.
1) Canelé Pâtisserie Chocolaterie (still having problem pronouncing that)
Firstly a big thank you to HuiFen for almsot forgetting my birthday until I told her, which she hurriedly "organised" a mini-celebration for me. (Actually, her job is just to tell ZhiQun about it... lol.) We decided to meet at Orchard so we can shop and have a VERY good meal.
Well, not so much about the shopping. Uniqlo seems... fine. But not exceptional. Perhaps I'll visit there alone next time. But most important to me that day has to be the food. We kinda wanted Aston, which is located at Suntec and Dhoby Ghout, but not Orchard. But I wanted to try Canele Patisserie for so long but never did. I figured out that day will be the day. And gladfully, everyone was supportive! =D Thanks everyone...
So we made our way opposite Scott Square (it's called Shaw Centre?) and entered the classy-ambient restaurant. The MAIN reason for visiting is the DESSERT, especially after Amanda had described it so heavenly. But we decided to have the main course there as well. Count it as laziness...? Nah, the food looked decent as well!!
Here comes. I ordered an interesting-looking pizza with a sunny side up on top (what? it looks like plaster prata?!). ZhiQun ordered er... a kind of sandwich with beef in between. Next the undeadly, I mean, Amelie, ordered a chicken stew that comes with pasta. Huifen spent a nong nong time deciding, and finally went with what set her eye at first - a smoked salmon pizza.
Then, SOMETHING happened outside of plan. See, there's 2 young ladies (seemingly atas) having their meal right next to our seat which distracts me and HuiFen alot. We happen to take notice of the one with cap. For me it's all the guy's rights and reason to look at cute girl. But for HuiFen, she suspected her being a Mediacorp actress - Dawn Yeoh.
Huihun: Is that... who's the one... Dawn Yeoh right? Me: Nah, if she is, I would have already know!
Well, after taking a FEW more looks... I'm more convinced she is! Oh my god. (That made my previous cocky statement look stupid). Knowing that Amelie has got her camera with her, they suggested that I should take a photo with Dawn since it was my bday anyway. ZhiQun being a kind guy, offered to help me ask.
I wondered why. They seem pretty excited and gusto at first. But when I gave a quick flat response, "Ok let's do it." Others kind of backed off the idea! You guys didn't see it coming eh?
HuiFen: You want now or later, she seem having a meal. It would be disrupting... Me: Now. Others: O__O
ANYWAY, we did it. Or at least, ZhiQun did. (Thanks pal! I'll remember that favor..) It was pretty awkward!! X3 She seems pretty polite and easy about it, and wished me happy bday too. Sorry for not recognising you for your make-ups... er.. Ok let's not judge.
Yea... I was happy, but more awkward/nervous than happy I guess. Hm... Anyway our desserts came! I ordered Jupiter and Tarte Citron, memorise those names so you can order too! Jupiter is a rich dark chocolate pastry and Tarte Citron is a zesty lemon cream puff. Sweet + sour combo really compliment! I could not have finish the sweet stuff alone but thank goodness the girls shared it.
Overall, an exceptional experience..! Ok, Dawn aside, the food there is a real deal. I'm particularily fond of the smoked salmon pizza HuiFen ordered. We can try other food on the menu next dawn! I mean, dusk. Er.. evening! -.-"
2) Kenny Rogers Dined with the dogs from yet another failed attempt to eat ASTON! Hm.. I miss the medium-cooked rib-eye...
Oh Kenny Rogers. Famous for their roasted chicken, I ordered a quarter of it (thankfully they gave me the thigh). It comes with 2 choices of side dish, so I had a cold potato salad and a hot macaroni with cheese as Josh recommended. The Kenny's roasted chicken tasted great, well-marinated and cooked over fire. The potato salad is great as well, and I think maybe the macaroni is too heavy for me?
Still a decent place to have your stomach satisfied for the night. On to the next one.
3) Gelare
Over-hyped, at least for me. I was looking forward to the tuesday (when waffles are half-priced!) me and coy mates will have our waffle with ice creams. I ordered a choc chip waffle with 3 diff scoops of ice creams; namely Cappuccino, Macademia Nuts and Cookie&Creme. We waited real long and the result wasn't satisfying. I can't taste coffee in cappuccino one, and macedemia nuts is vanilla with real nut chucks in it...
I barely finished mine as it was too tiresome to taste. Our stuff from the menu looked simply made from average-quality product, where you can make your own. I don't think I'm revisiting there any time soon.
4) Bistro Deli-France
The friday set meal comes with a sirloin (pronounced 'salon'?) steak, brocolli & carrot shreds, a choice of soup or salad, dessert, and coffee/tea. In total, it was half-assed. The sirloin steak was thin and stretchy, its black pepper sauce failed to mingle with the meat. The brocolli and carrot is plain and raw, so I just dig on the salad instead. I didn't have the soup because it was cream of corn. I had tea, which was served as hot water with a lipton tea bag, with packets of sugar and creamer to go along. Tea doesn't go with steak... The raspberry mousse dessert was nice, though. Quite a failed lunch.
The lesson I learnt from all that is; Don't spend money on bad food! I'm not a gourmet or connoisseur, but I'm picky when it comes to food. I don't scrimp cents on them. But if I'm going to payfor and waste my effort eating it, it must be good. Some places have big names but the food is mediocre. I seriously don't mind paying bit more to enjoy nice food from Aston (again), New York New York, NYDC, Billy Bombers, etc.
If YOU have any good places to dine in, do tell me about it! Or, find a time where we can visit there together! Now now... I heard the baked potato from Deli-France Cafe is good. Yet to try! =pp
