Movie Review: Nights In Rodanthe (2008)

Well, I am not the usual romance movie-goer but The Busy Bee had been wanting to see more in-depth movies so off we went to The Cathay Cineplex yesterday afternoon. I must say the movie is well supported by the seasoned acting of Richard Gere and Diane Lane.

Richard plays a top-notch plastic surgeon who came to seek forgiveness from a family whose member died on his operating table due to a bizzare one-fifty-thousand allergy to the anaesthetic used. He was a man of great pride and it took him a lot before he could finally realized that all he needed was a genuine "sorry" instead of rationalizing the incident in such a cold and objective way.

Diane Lane plays a mother of two who was going through a difficult situation with a wayward husband. As she overwhelmed herself with the responsibility as a mother, she gradually forgot about living her own life as a whole individual and began resenting her life in a deep, secretive way.

The two of them met at a loding inn near the sea and a romance blossomed in the middle of a terrible storm. Both eventually helped each other to grow stronger to face their own inner demons and became much better persons afterwards.

It's a sweet movie about growth, courage, love and tenacity against the changes in life. We all wanted to be good but perhaps many of us were too stubborn to change what we have been so used to and BE the person we genuinely craved to be.

Big Feast at Birthday BBQ and New Balance HomeTeam NS Real Run 2008

Big Feast at Birthday BBQ of The Married Soldier:

The Married Soldier celebrated his birthday with a barbecue - an activity which I have not had for many years since few people organize good barbecues as there are a lot of preparation work involved. But Saturday night was a good one - plenty of food, good pit fire, lots of drinks, mosquito coils to chase away those flying bloodsuckers and a nearby water tap to wash all the grim away. I had not the time to buy a proper birthday present for The Married Soldier so I made myself useful at the barbecue by helping out as much as I could.

Pardon the camera phone I was using because it was hard to capture in the poor light conditions and oily slippery fingers. There was a lot of food around - kebab sticks, banana slices wrapped in bacon, satay sticks, chicken wings, cheese-filled sausages, sweet potatoes, pork slices, orange cordial, cucumber slices, etc.
The barbecue pit fire was well-maintained for there was only a small fraction of the food was burnt - most of it was deliciously cooked over the nice charcoal fire.
The hand belongs to a friend of The Married Soldier who was very good with cooking. Both of us were cooking with one hand, and eating with the other. It was really fun as we inspected the food in the semi-darkness illuminated only by the glow of the pit fire.
This was only one of the two trays of food that we managed to cook. There was a lot to eat and obviously we could not finish. And no, that long thing is not a sausage but a stick of youtiao. Why is it there? Because The Married Soldier wanted to see if such things could be barbecued - it could be because I ate one half of it after it was done. All in all, I gobbled two chicken wings, three sausages, one kebab stick and twenty satay sticks. A glutton right? I wished I could eat more but I have a 10km run the next morning so overeating is not a good option that night.
This was the birthday cake for The Married Soldier. Although it was delightful, I don't know what it's called. All I know it was some chocolate cake with a biscuit base from Four Leaves Bakery.

New Balance Home Team NS Real Run 2008:

I went for the 10km run at the behest of The Busy Bee because she could not find anyone to accompany her for one of the toughest run in Singapore - a cross-country trail at Changi area so I went - wanting to find out what such runs are all about and whether I could survive one given the fact that I am not a great runner myself.

I don't have photographs to show during the run because the sun was so hot and the run was so full of people that I did not want to risk knocking my camera phone off onto the hard, rocky trail but the 10km run was really impressive - good scenery, challenging terrain and a good mix of runners. The terrain was alternating between soft sand, deep sand, rocky roads, hard roads, coastal sands, nature trail and I was thoroughly enjoying myself pounding through all those terrain challenges.

The Busy Bee had a harder time because she was still nursing a strange humming pain from her leg so we had to stop frequently to walk. She persisted and we finished the race in a approximately 1 hour and 26 minutes. I only managed to take three photos because I was too sleepy - I had to wake up at 3.45am to prepare myself but it was worthwhile experiencing such a run.

This was taken at around 6am this morning. It shows the nearby water features of Changi Exhibition Centre. I was on a shuttle bus and there were many people onboard, catching up on sleep or wolfing down breakfast before the run at 7.30am.
This was Exhibition Hall One, relatively empty with only about one hundred people inside. It was to change very quickly and the hall was packed with runners of all ages and groups by 7am. I was slumped against the wall, trying to stretch my legs whilst waiting for The Busy Bee to take a cab down.
This was taken after the run was completed. The hall was full of runners resting after the gruelling trail. We saw one girl being stretched off in the hall whilst the ambulances were heard wailing their sirens a couple of times during the run itself. I hope the casualties would recover well. The Busy Bee and I left the place with our goodie packs at around 10am and we ate a slow, tired lunch at White Sands Pasir Ris before we headed home.

My legs are still aching from the run as I type this but I think I'll be running this run again next year round because it's fun and very different from the normal clock of everyday life.

Memorial Blog Post For My Family Pet Goldfish "Fat Lady"

Departed peacefully at 2345hours, 14 October 2008. Lived happily in our home aquarium from somewhere in 2004 to 2008. Fondly remembered as "Fat Lady" - the goldfish with the sunny personality.

This was "Fat Lady" at her prime when she was really fat and round three months ago. She was around inside our aquarium four years ago together with twelve other tiny goldfishes. All the rest left for Goldfish Heaven within the first couple of months but "Fat Lady" ate and ate and ate and managed to survive for respectable four full years in our home aquarium.

"Fat Lady" was absolutely the personality of the home aquarium with big, bulging eyes and a great affinity to human presence. She would look intently at anyone approaching the aquarium and would carefully observe what the human beings in my house were doing - be it brushing teeth, hanging out the clothes, cooking meals, etc. Over the past two years, she could even respond and came over whenever we signaled her to come closer for us to watch her. Her favorite past-times were to dive under the water fountain to do a somersault in the water and, of course, to eat as much as she could stomach.

Today evening, at 2140hours, after I finished dinner, I went over to the home aquarium inside our kitchen and saw "Fat Lady" bobbing quietly near the surface of the water. She was still breathing but I could tell from her expression that her time was near. So I called for my mother, who was the chief caretaker of the aquarium, and she brought along a chair to accompany "Fat Lady" during her final moments and switched on a radio playing some Buddhist scriptures (she is a Buddhist).

For the next ninety minutes, we spent time watching "Fat Lady" doing her final somersaults under the water fountain as she bobbed her way around. The other fishes in the aquarium seemed to be aware of her imminent departure and went over to nudge her occasionally. "Fat Lady" made use of the water currents from the fountain to make her way around to say her goodbyes to her fellow fishes, touching almost all the fishes in the aquarium and after her final farewells, she just froze in the water and departed.

Strangely, she never flipped over like the others who left before her so she was completely upright as if she was still alive and swimming. It was only when two of the most senior fishes in the aquarium actually went over to nudge her did we realized "Fat Lady" had departed to Goldfish Heaven. My mother put "Fat Lady's" mortal coil in a clear plastic bag alongside some fresh flowers and filled it up with water for her water coffin before sending her off.

I'll always miss her - for her sunny personality in the home aquarium and her incredible resolve to survive so well for four years, entertaining other fishes and my family with her somersaults and her big intently-looking eyes. *Waves Goodbye* ~~~

Treetop Trail Walk, Lazing At Pacific Coffee, MOE "Teach" Career and Networking Session

Treetop Trail Walk:

Upon the recommendation of the Married Soldier, The Changed Man (along with his girlfriend whom I had not found a suitable codename yet) and I went off to the Treetop Trail. I have only heard of it on the newspapers so this is my first visit. We started off at a visitor's center near Telok Blangah Heights and here are some of the photos I took during our trip over the F1 race weekend. The visitor center was beautiful. Luxuriant with wood finishings and plenty of water features. It feels like some huge condominium clubhouse. Nobody's sitting on those sofas though because the day was very sunny but I like. A bridge to nowhere? I think it's meant for the disabled to edge closer to the water to enjoy the scenery beyond. Very picturesque view of the surrounding forested area. I could never imagine such a place in Singapore until I visited it myself. The large assembly area of the visitor centre. I particularly like the high wooden roofs and the openness of the views. Very relaxing, especially since the whole bunch of us wanted to escape the noise and smoke of the F1 racing in the city. I didn't notice the man in yellow before I quick-snapped this shot. He must be taking the photo of the bridge in the midst of the greenery too. I must admit the bridge seemed like some ordinary pedestrian bridge so I didn't notice how it actually marks one of the stops for the treetop trail. Here we go on the trail now... First few moments of the treetop trail reveal a maze-like walkway. There wasn't much to see initially because this stretch of trail is still above the highway roads below but The Changed Man's girlfriend was already jittery because she is afraid of heights since we are walking along metal grilles which one can see through to the bottom. The height above ground is already 8 meters. The treetop trail eventually smooths out to much more luxuriant greenery and it was nice and comfortable walking amidst it because you can literally touch the trees right in the middle of the forests. At this point of time, we got used to the height, which was easily 20 meters above ground or more. A pity that few animals and birds were spotted because there was a crowd of people on the trail during the weekend. I even bumped into my secondary school friend who was accompanying her parents there too! This was the part where The Changed Man and his girlfriend (who wore slippers) started to tire out. As you can see, the treetop trail started to climb up Telok Blangah Hill gradually and we were only 2.4kilometers onto the supposedly 10km trail. By the time we reached the top, they were too tired to go on and we turned back. I cheerfully suggested that we should come more prepared next time and finish the trail together as a group. I am looking forward to getting up close with nature again. Dinner after the treetop trail was settled at IKEA where The Married Soldier was persuading us how delicious the Swedish meatballs (which came topped with jam) was. Whilst we shared the meatballs, I myself ordered a salmon dish which tasted not bad either. The place was crowded though but we enjoyed our dinner after a good 2.5 hour walk on the treetop trail.
Lazing at Pacific Coffee @ Marina Square:

Last Saturday afternoon was spent with The Busy Bee. We ate lunch at a Hongkong food mini-outlet at the basement of Raffles City before we took a short browse through the Marina Square mall. She was looking for some clothes for her friend's wedding but found none suitable there. We eventually propped ourselves down at Pacific Coffee near Marina Square and spent a good part of the afternoon reading away. We found sofa seats near a strange screen which showed the latest stock market rates as well as weather forecasts for several cities (some of which I have never heard of before) but some on-screen information provided visual relief from reading. The Busy Bee was reading some hedge fund book whilst I was trying to revise the first-aid manual book. The Busy Bee was tired from reading after a couple of hours and started to use MSN on her phone and snap photos of the cafe itself. I like the cafe a lot because it's quiet, the people are well-behaved, the sofas are comfortable and the music is soothing. We probably were lucky because moments after we were seated, the place was nearly completely occupied. You can see a little bit of me seated opposite The Busy Bee's shot of the cafe. Most of the people were reading quietly at their own seats and you could also see how messy our table was - newspapers, books, drinks, hand phones and stationery.

MOE "Teach" Career and Networking Session:

For the frequent readers of my blog, they would know that I am a tutor so naturally, I would be interested to hear what the Ministry of Education in Singapore has in store for people who love teaching. I wanted to know if there is still a possibility that I can teach in government schools but the session proved to be a disappointment which reinforces my belief that I can function much better as a private tutor rather than as a government school teacher.

Although the session was glamorously held at an esteemed hotel in Singapore, in my opinion, it will probably fail to attract mid-career professionals (it's targeted group) due to the following reasons:

1) The speakers were too young to convince the mid-career professionals that the session was genuinely meant to impress and attract people to teach. I thought they looked amateur at best onstage, stammering away with poor self-confidence and conviction. The most experienced one seemed to harp on her nineteen years of teaching experience even when some of the audience looked probably much more experienced in their line of work than she could ever boast. She kept mentioning "distinguished-looking" as her adjective for describing the audience but never went far to say why, which I thought sounded more like plain flattery.

2) The highest ranking speaker was a Deputy Director but I thought that was not high level enough to attract mid-career professionals to switch their jobs. I thought a Director level or Minister level speaker would have carried more weight and respect to the mid-career professionals who took precious time off to see what the Ministry has to offer/showcase to them.

3) There were Powerpoint presentations attempts to inform and impress that teaching is a good career option for the mid-career professionals but I was bemused by the choice of presentation. Most of these professionals would have seen countless presentations and would have been easily bored by them, no matter how well-made they were. I thought much more would have been achieved if they conducted a Q & A session which would be much better than a confusing networking segment where the venue was too crowded with people, food and noise to be effective. I believe there were so many questions unanswered in the minds of the audience.

4) The session's punchlines were "Changing Lives", "Passion" and "Vocation" but the speakers did not seem qualified to mention "Changing Lives" since they looked too young to be "preaching" about such a principle to the audience (some looked like 50 years old whilst the speakers were mostly 30+). The word "passion" was mentioned at least five times but none of the speeches were even close to passionate (they sounded very measured and well-rehearsed). "Vocation" was used at least twice but the presentation slides were featuring alot more technical jargon and career prospects of titles of teachers which meant nothing to people who genuinely wanted to teach.

To sum up all my grouses, the session was expensively adorned but hollowed out in sincerity and effectiveness. It did not manage to answer my foremost questions -

A) How does MOE intend to reduce the unnecessary workload of teachers so that they could concentrate on teaching and deliverance rather than attending seminars, workshops, course, meetings, projects which will definitely take away much of the 24 hours of each day? One can always wax lyrical about "good time management" but I thought one should look to the root of the common problem faced - what about "realistic time management"?

B) How does MOE intend to reduce the unnecessary enrichment classes/programs of students so that they could concentrate on revising their work and absorbing whatever the teachers are trying to impart without burning out?

To conclude, there is still much room for improvement before MOE can truly attract people who have the real passion to teach (no matter how complex or simple the career track is to them).