2359hrs

Listening to: Electrico - Fabled Angst Machine


While driving home from Eileen's party on Sunday, I passed by a road in Katong with a charming name: Peach Garden.

Peach Garden brings back many memories. One of my JC classmates used to live there in a beautiful grand bungalow. You know how sometimes you past by really nice houses and just think to yourself: "I wish I lived here"? Well, this house in Peach Garden was one of those for me lah.

A blast from the past - March 1, 1998:



The night before the release of our 'O' level results, some of my class guys decided to hang out overnight at Qiqi's place and go to school together the next day. Boy that was a great day. Check out dec's "Sex" magazine-teeshirt. Muaha. ;)

1932hrs

Listening to: John Mayer - Daughters


Spent my Sunday afternoon and evening rushing from one place to another! First up was ghim lay's surprise 21st birthday celebration at the Esplanade. Went to get her present just before that, and I thought I was late... but as it turned out, I was really, really early haha. Word of advice to all: surprise celebrations should only be undertaken by trained professionals. ;)

But anyways, the birthday girl was surprised by us all (despite her abnormally high levels of suspiciousness, lol), and here are some pix lah:



Jess and Guiqing went to get the cake earlier in the afternoon... but by the the sun had set by the time we cut it! So it was kinda melted already...



Ghim with the cake (which was quite nice, I had two slices haha)...

 

Group photo! (mental note: not all wait staff are good at taking pix...)


And after that, I headed down to the East for eileen's birthday thingie! More pix:



For some strange reason, someone actually thought I was xiu's younger (?!) brother. What the...



serene and I had a good time catching up. Have yet to fulfill the annual NYDC date... ;)



While waiting for the birthday girl to cut her cake, esm and audrey amused themselves (and also the rest of us)...



... with some stupid balloon antics! Wahahahaha :P



eileen making her birthday wish...



I really miss intersem 2002. Those were really the days man.



... and finally, birthday girl #2 and me. :)

1225hrs

Listening to: Aimee Mann - Save Me


NeLi celebrated her 21st birthday at The Trevose yesterday, and I was most pleasantly surprised to be invited! Some pix:



The birthday girl and her dad! Check out her pink hair lol. Same colour as her shorts. :P



"All of these kids belong together
All of these kids are kind of the same
But one of these kids is doing his own thing
Now it's time to play our game
It's time to play our game!"



And when Pat's around, we of course have to take the obligatory zi pai zhao (self-taken photo)...



Finally, me and the (belated) birthday girl, who's all red from drinking liao hahaha. :)


One thing I hate the most about birthday parties (besides making awkward conversation with people you hardly know) is getting the right present... thankfully, I think I made quite a cool choice this time around:



Travis - Singles [DVD] (2004)

A message from Yvonne this morning: "Hey dude thanks for coming last nite! Love your prez it's soo cool!"

Heheh. I think so too. ;)

More party (parties? hmmm) to come later today! Busy weekend...

1102hrs

Listening to: Electrico - The Story Of Slantboy


After a six-week break, it was back to watching Electrico live again! But this time round was a little special, 'cos we had with us three people who were watching the band for the first time!



Yup, it's xiggy, kay lii and eggie! (muahaha that rhymes.) The latter two are trying to signal to me: "Just take the picture of us two leh..."



Meanwhile, the two gig veterans (fifth time for agent s. and sixth time for hucks! :O!!) tried not to look tired... zzz...

The crowd consisted of mainly teenaged boys and girls, and also a sizeable number of international school kids. These two guys sitting in front of us were suitably hard-core:



Scorpions and RHCP t-shirts! *lol*

And of course, we were all camped out at Youth Park on a windy Friday night to catch them:



It's the MTV Asia Awards nominee for Favourite Music Artist (Singapore)! Yup, those four entertaining guys and one hot girl again. ;)

The gig itself was not bad I guess... could hear they were a little rusty during the first two songs (and Daniel was also half a step off-key (n)), but they warmed up quickly, and it was also nice to see them reshuffle the set list. And for the first time live, they played "Runaway"! :)

 

During the slower-paced "Good Time", this one weird bloke was happy to wave his lone lighter in the air...



And during "Studman", two crazy fellows decided to get up to the front of stage and do a version of, urm, dancing? Heheh.



Crazed fan after seeing Des on the KFC ads: "Can I have two Colonel's Specials please?"

I must also mention that germ made a cameo appearance... but like at the mahjong session last week, she was kinda, urm, busy again...



Everyone was quite pleased after the gig... check out the \m/s hahaha ;)

And finally, it's time for The Joke Of The Day:

While crossing the road to Cineleisure, xiggy sees someone standing on the road divider holding on to the "One Way" sign. And so she says: "Where is this guy bringing the sign to...?"

We made her take this photo as a memento of her faux pas:



Heheheh. :) Anyways, hope you had fun last night people!

1117hrs

1859hrs

Listening to: Tanya Chua - Wu Di Dong


My college is having its Senior Dinner & Dance (otherwise known as the graduation prom) tonight. Thinking back, I can still remember mine quite clearly.

(Yes... my memory is quite good. Haha.)

Unlike subsequent graduating classes which had their SDD at the swanky Ritz-Carlton, poor us had ours at the stupid Pan-Pacific (n). Haha... proms. Spending lots of money for lousy food you don't even eat much of, the whole evening is like one long photocall. Taking pictures with people you will probably not see for the rest of your life. Et cetera.

But there's also good stuff I remember about that fine day, five years ago. Opening the door to a room on the 55th storey of the Westin and taking in the spectacular view. Walking to the Pan-Pacific in evening wear, much to the amusement of passers-by. Taking lots and lots and lots of pictures. Finishing half a bottle of XO on the hotel room balcony at dawn...

Ah well... that was a long time ago. And at the risk of getting killed by someone, here's a pic from my prom:



Hohoho. Yes that's me on the right there omg... yucks =X

1100hrs

Listening to: Taufik Batisah - I Dream


A star is born.


                                                                 ST photo

TAUFIK IS THE MAN. Coming through confidently with all three of his songs at the Singapore Idol final last night, he totally outclassed his opponent Sylvester Sim. Sly probably had no complaints about being edged out by "the Soul Man", who showed that he could break out of the tag and deliver a funky classic, a rousing ballad and a slow-burner with much aplomb and style.

The atmosphere at the Indoor Stadium looked pretty electric (though the "red carpet" segment was quite stupid lol... except for the appearance of Nadya, omg). From the pink brigade of Sylvester the Cat-toting teenaged girls to the all-white troop of Taufik fans (those five media whores in white veils... buay pai seh man tsk tsk), everyone seemed to be having a good time.

At home, the situation was kinda tense too. Dad, the über-Sly fan, pretended to be nonchalant about the proceedings, coming to the TV set periodically to make anti-MediaCorp comments, but not really sitting down to watch. My sister relieved her teenage years all over again ("Taufik is so good/versatile/he has such nice eyes/did I mention he has nice eyes?"). And as for me, well I have to admit that I was quite kan cheong just before the results were announced... a bit like before O level results, haha.

While the show was pretty slick by MediaCorp standards (thank goodness they upped the audience volume level after the first couple of songs), there were many laughable moments. Is it just me, or did the opening sequence look like something out of a very bad workout video? Haha. And Jerry is still annoying. :X But the string section from the NUSSO and the backing vocals from the VJC Choir (yeah!)... not bad not bad at all. (y)

So it's finally over after almost three months. No matter what grouses you have about the show, I guess Singapore Idol has been a success for the very fact that it is the talk of the town, and probably will still be for a while to come. Whether you are a Taufik fan, a Sly fan, or even a Lemon Tree dude fan like myself (lol), SI has given Singaporean kids some fellow heartlanders to look up to, and made Singaporean adults (like my Dad) behave like kids all over again.