Afterthoughts of Macau Holiday Trip with The Changed Man (Day 2 of 3)

Day 2/Dim Sum Breakfast/Macau Island/0900hrs

It was a really cold morning and our stomachs were grumbling for a nice hot breakfast. Not knowing which shops were opened for business, we donned on our jackets and started searching the streets of Macau until we found a corner-sited Chinese restaurant selling dim sum. We ordered meatball porridge, shrimp dumplings, some roasted pork buns and washed them down with hot Chinese tea. Satisfied, we pored through the tourist map, deciding that day to be spent visiting the various world heritage sites on Macau Island.

Day 2/Visiting World Heritage Sites/Macau Island/1000hrs

We started by heading towards the famous A-Ma Temple at the south-western tip of Macau Island and as we walked through streets of Macau Island, I could not help but be amazed by how narrow the pedestrian walkways were and how the residential houses reminded me of Hongkong. They were really tightly-packed, a tad dirty and gloomy but all of these were muted by the shivering cold in the morning. We passed by only a handful of locals and odd backpacking tourists before we arrived at the already crowded A-Ma Temple - so that was where they gathered in the morning.

Both the Changed Man and myself bought huge incense sticks and began praying at the main temple hall (there were quite a few small temples including a huge Tai-Yi stone at the top of the small knoll). There was also a bronze cauldron for people to try and rub their hands on until the cauldron vibrates but we were interested in pressing on as there were at least another ten more sites to visit.

Subsequently, we visited the Lilau Square, the Mandarin's House, St Lawrence Church, and stopped at St Joseph's Church. The latter was worth a more detailed mention here because it was such a beautiful Portuguese church, with every nook and corner filled with something divine and related to Christianity. The whole place was imbued with a solemn and stately feel that one cannot help but keep one's volume down to really enjoy the visit there.

We then moved on to visit the signature Senado Square, Ruins of St Paul's, Mount Fortress and of course, the Macau Museum at the summit of Mount Fortress. The Museum was very well-decorated with relics from both Portuguese and Chinese heritage, which showed the fusion of the two cultures on Macau itself. I loved the display formats within the museum as they had very clear and different ways to present actual artifacts or even replicas with minimal barriers so one can get really close to the artifacts.

Day 2/Buying Local Goodies To Bring Back Home/Macau Island/1200hrs

The Changed Man dragged me into this store Koi Kei Bakery to buy some of the local goodies to bring back which includes black sesame biscuits, almond cookies and egg rolls. Not wanting to miss out since I like to eat, I bought as much as I could carry before we headed back to Metropole Hotel to unload and take a small break from all the walking up and down the slopes, nooks and corners for the entire morning.

Day 2/More Casino Visiting/Macau Island/1500hrs

The Changed Man fell asleep again and not wishing to wake him up, I took the liberty to watch more television until he managed to rouse himself up again. The poor sod was overworking and the trip was more like some form of escape from the drudgery. Feeling hungry again, we hunted down the elusive Portuguese egg tart store (which I could not remember the name..haha) and shoved down some egg tarts before proceeding to visit more casinos - Casino Wynn and Casino MGM Grand. I remember Casino Wynn better because we managed to catch a mechanized performance of some golden tree and a beautiful rooftop that opened up to reveal a gigantic chandelier. A lot of the gamblers were throwing money onto the tree, hoping to get some good luck for their gambling later on. Casino or not, I like places that offer a twist for the people milling within because they add that kind of excitement and anticipation which is seriously lacking in Singapore's shopping malls.

Day 2/Dinner at Portuguese Restaurant/Macau Island/1900hrs

The Changed Man wanted to watch some soccer match at any pub he could find in Macau so we went to look around but after more than one hour, we still could not find any working pubs. We settled down for a nice dinner at some Portuguese restaurant located at the south-western tip of Macau Island with red wine and a five-course dinner. I remembered I had some appetizer vegetables, soup, some really interesting sardines, steak and desserts with some odd nut powder I could not recognize. It was one slow dinner but we were more than happy to be out of the way of the coldness.

Day 2/Soccer Pub Hunting/Macau Island/2200hrs
Rejuvenated by the food, we kept on asking passers-by until we managed to find a small stretch of soccer pubs on the far side of that section of shops near Avenida de Sagres. Most of the pubs were quite poorly decorated and the only one which seemed decent enough with a proper screen and live singing performances was that place called Moonwalker. On hindsight, Singapore has a much better pub culture - more variety, better pubs and crowds. We ordered some gin volka and chicken wings and watched the match before Manchester United and Wolves but the Changed Man was actually trying to find the Arsenal match. By around 0100hrs, we were heading back to Metropole Hotel again for the closure of the day.

(Stay tuned for the third and final blog post on Day 3 of the Holiday Trip to Macau)

Afterthoughts of Macau Holiday Trip with The Changed Man (Day 1 of 3)

Day 1/Prelude/On a cab towards Budget Terminal/1030hrs
A chance to go on a holiday - finally - after slogging for a year at work and attending a couple of volunteering camps in December. The trip to Macau was planned within the space of a few hours because The Changed Man (A VIP friend of mine) was so busy with work that he could only grab leave from work on the day before and he was actually in full work attire when he turned up to meet me at the Budget Terminal in Singapore prior to our flight itself.

We packed really light and with no exact plan in mind, we hopped onto the flight we booked and off we go on a holiday together to explore Macau - a group of three islands - the casino city of Asia.

(Photos are still inside The Changed Man's superior camera phone. Will upload them once I have them on hand.)

Day 1/Budget Terminal/Singapore Changi/1230hrs

My first time taking Tiger Airways from the Budget Terminal in Changi. The seats were really cramped and there wasn't any entertainment onboard. I must have looked so bored from studying the lines on my palms that the Singaporean middle-aged couple offered their Straits Times newspapers for me to read. Thankfully, that helped me pass some time for the four hour flight.

Day 1/Macau International Airport/Taipa Island/1630hrs

Customs are tough and vague in Macau International Airport and after several attempts, I finally got the arrival and departure blue slips right by running to and fro from the check-in counters to the writing counters several times, much to the amusement of the customs officials. Hey, it's my first time in Macau and nobody told me that the slips are to be filled in together in the midst of all the frantic rush by the frequent travelers.

The first thing I grabbed after clearing the customs was a tourist map of Macau. The map was one bizarre labyrinth of streets clustered with hotels, sightseeing venues, casinos, residential housing, colonial fortresses and churches. That would take some head-scratching to interpret them all to plan some decent itinerary.

The weather was blisteringly cold when we waited at the taxi stand. An icy northern wind was blowing across the whole island and temperature plummeted to 12 Degrees Celsius in a matter of hours.

Day 1/Metropole Hotel/Macau Island/1730hrs

Finally checked into the hotel that the Changed Man had booked last minute. The room rate was unfortunately higher since it was done at last notice - around 660 SGD for a 3D2N stay. I was a little skeptical since the hotel was nothing much to look at from the exterior - a bland-looking building smack right alongside a busy mainstreet road but I was delightfully surprised when we entered the room. It was on the top floor and was actually an executive suite with sofa, two televisions, two bathrooms, one bathtub, bedroom on the second floor and an excellent view of the island of Macau itself.

Day 1/God of Kitchen Restaurant (食神)/ Macau Island/1830hrs

Our first dinner was at a fairly large restaurant tucked at one of the many streets of Macau Island nearby to our Hotel. The Changed Man ordered some salted egg toufu, green kailan, duck meat stir-fried with beans and Peking Duck.

Day 1/Touring The Grand Lisboa, Lisboa/Macau Island/2030hrs

Casinos are the main attractions in Macau and obviously I am not going to miss the chance to tour the casinos even though I don't even gamble at all. After dinner, we made our way down the streets and came across The Grand Lisboa and Lisboa Casino - brother casinos of the same company and their differences - the stakes at each time. Lisboa is the less glitzy one with stakes from HKD200 while Grand Lisboa can easily be at HKD500 onwards. They have every game imaginable - baccarat (the most popular one), blackjack, slot machines, dominoes, texas poker, dice, roulette and many discreet VIP rooms for the high rollers whom I imagine to put at least HKD10,000 per hand. I shudder at the sheer amount of money that changed hands in the space of just one night in one casino alone, let alone the twenty odd ones in Macau itself.

Being the less experienced when it comes to casinos, I asked The Changed Man what the average working hours of the croupiers are and the answer came in: easily more than 14hours. No wonder some of the croupiers were haggard looking and yawning away whenever their supervisors were not looking. As I have studied a couple of modules in architectural design when I was still an undergraduate, I turned my attention to the designs of the casinos - high ceiling, plenty of glided gold, ambient light to reflect on the glitz and glamor intended to seduce the customers with extra wads of money to spend on.

Day 1/Metropole Hotel/Macau Island/1030hrs

Lazing on the bed watching B.I.O channel on the bedroom wall. The Changed Man was fast asleep and snoring away. I had a hot shower to fend off the coldness in my bones and was trying to figure out about compulsive hoarding which is being featured on the television program then. Maybe gamblers themselves are also compulsive hoarders too - they hoard winning streaks to boost to friends and peers? Hmm...maybe...

Yes, I am a weird person who suddenly watches psychology related shows in the middle of a holiday trip. Oh well, I like to learn new things everyday, no matter where I am and I knocked out around midnight. Zzzzz....

Stay tuned for the next two blog posts on what I did for the remaining impromptu trip at Macau. ^__^

World Vision Singapore 30 Hour Famine Camp 2011 @ Ngee Ann Polytechnic from 17 June to 18 June 2011 Camp Review and Afterthoughts

Finally, after a long hiatus at blogging, I've finally found something to blog about extensively - my most recent camping experience at World Vision Singapore's 30 Hour Famine Camp 2011.

The 30 HOUR FAMINE Camp in Singapore aims to transform the mindset of youth in Singapore towards issues of poverty, and to motivate campers to take action steps towards achieving change.



This is the third time I joined them as a Camp Facilitator to try and do some good. My primary objective is, of course, to help World Vision Singapore reach out to the youths of Singapore through experiential activities in the camp to raise awareness about poverty and hopefully, spur them further to help impoverished children around the world through World Vision Singapore's various programs. My secondary objective is to do something I enjoyed all my life - camping and leading groups to achieve something for themselves so they can grow to become better persons through camping.

For this particular camp review and afterthoughts, I shall be going through the key activities within the camp which started from 17 June 2011 at 1300hrs and concluded at 18 June 2011 1900hrs and bring across my thoughts about the hits and the misses of the camp. It is intended to provide a clear reflective view of what has transpired through what I have seen for myself so that readers of this camp review can have different perspectives through which they can understand the camp better and learn more about it if they have not experienced it themselves during that duration.

To conveniently sum up my thoughts for readers who wanted something to reflect all those wordy paragraphs, I will use a blue ☺ to signify my personal approval of each key activity or a red ☹ to represent my personal disapproval of each key activity.

Click the subheadings for beautiful camp photos provided and uploaded on Facebook by Eric Chow, one of the volunteer photographers of the camp.

Without further ado, here we go...

Day 1/1300hrs/Opening Ceremony:

The Camp Facilitators, Logistics Warriors, Game Masters were already waiting in positions to receive the newly-minted campers from the Convention Hall of Ngee Ann Polytechnic. None of these groups actually attended the Opening Ceremony of the 30 Hour Famine Camp 2011 because we had plenty to do - final administration work and program briefing for the facilitators before the campers were released, logistics (primarily water and securing of the bags of the campers) to be moved around, game stations to be set up and checked by Game Masters so that campers can enjoy Day 1's experiential activities without a hitch. Personally, I would love to enjoy watching the Opening Ceremony with the campers but I suppose this arrangement, which differs from previous Famine Camps I had attended, is better because there was so much more groundwork to be done and those groundwork was better coordinated if all those three groups of camp volunteers were not inside the convention hall for the Opening Ceremony. ☺ X 1

Day 1/1430hrs/Beginning of 4 Phases of Experiential Activities:

One of the major highlights of Day 1 is the experiential activities which are divided into four phases. Once the campers has been grouped into "families" of different "countries", they are briefed by the Camp Facilitators about their objectives which will included accumulating iconic food, water, health vaccinations, education and monetary savings in Game Dollars for their respective families to survive in simulated Third World conditions. The Campers were then to explore Ngee Ann Polytechnic with a very simple map and a token sum of 10 Game Dollars for the entire "family" which averages around 10 family members comprising of Family Head, Family Vice Head, Adults and Children. I loved the series of experiential activities because it allowed the Campers time to bond together and interact with one another to solve problems at dozens of Game Stations scattered around the campus grounds of Ngee Ann Polytechnic. I am glad World Vision Singapore did not deviate from this and continued to use interesting Game Stations to test the strengths, tenacity, intelligence and even wits of Campers. ☺ X 2

Day 1/1500hrs/Dialogue In The Dark (D.I.D):

Dialogue In The Dark is a completely new program in the camp itinerary compared to previous 30 Hour Famine Camps. This is like a blind man's trail but it is conducted in a completely dark maze and small groups are actually led by visually-handicapped guides through a selection of tours with different themes. The idea is to let Campers experience the loss of use of their sight in the maze so they have to rely on other senses to find their way inside, listening to instructions, learning how to trust their fellow group mates, overcoming simple obstacles within and learning how important it is to communicate in such a context. As a Camp Facilitator, I have already experienced D.I.D and I thought it was quite a challenging and intriguing experience which lasted approximately about 20 to 30minutes.☺ X 2

Day 1/1500hrs/Bottleneck outside D.I.D:

A problem developed when one of the groups inside D.I.D was delayed long enough for other groups to start gathering outside, creating a bottleneck as only five Campers from each "family" got to experience D.I.D, which meant those five members had to suspend their Phase 1 or even Phase 2 activities to wait outside D.I.D and that actually defeated part of the experiential purpose of the Phase 1 to Phase 4 activities as the "families" were split up and thus could not really bond well enough to be tackling Phase 3 and Phase 4 as a closer "family" unit. Personally, I thought D.I.D should not be interjected within the experiential activities, which would disrupt the flow of the activities but it should be made as a separate activity on perhaps Day 2 instead, alternating with some of the written work activities. This bottleneck obviously was not a good thing in the camp. ☹ X 1

Day 1/2300hrs/Sleeping Arrangements:

The female Campers and female Camp Facilitators were to sleep in LT56 while their male counterparts are to sleep in Block 50. So after collecting our bags in the holding area, I made my way to Block 50 with other Campers and Camp Facilitators. Block 50 was a way off from the Convention Hall area and the bag holding area so it was quite a trudge for many who were now running on empty engines and fatigued from an entire day's worth of physical activities. Most of the male Campers were too restless, however, to fall asleep and they were trying to clean themselves up as best as they could since there was no shower heads available for anyone to use. The Camp Facilitators were quick to fall asleep as they knew they had a long day ahead the next day. After briefing my roomful of Campers about how to overcome some of the possible "uncleanliness" from the story I had heard from Ngee Ann Polytechnic Campers about Block 50, I turned in at around 12.30am and woke up at 5.30am, giving myself a full five hours of undisturbed sleep. The next morning, a number of Campers and Camp Facilitators were grumbling about how cold the place was for all the sleeping rooms had air-conditioning within. For me, I think the accommodations were much better than most of the other camps I had attended. ☺ X 1

Day 2/0900hrs/Fish To Infinity:

Fish To Infinity is one of the less physically demanding activities in the camp which requires Campers to break into small groups to come up with a business proposal to help children. The Campers were given some parameters to work with and they had to submit the proposal after consulting information within a catalogue provided by World Vision Singapore. As the Camp Facilitators were not briefed or trained to provide any direct guidance to help the Campers, most of the Camp Facilitators just left the Campers to their own for their brainstorming sessions. I felt that forty-five minutes were a little too short for proper organization of a decent proposal and some of the Campers made use of this time to take naps instead of participating. Perhaps, more could be done if Camp Facilitators had a preview of the catalogue and a better idea of how to assist the Campers instead of milling around. ☺ X 1 + ☹ X 1


Day 2/1100hrs/R.O.M.A.S:

This is an outreach activity aimed at Campers to interact with members of the public outside key shopping venues along Orchard Road so as to raise public awareness of World Vision Singapore, its 30 Hour Famine Camp, as well as the plight of children who are in dire need of help. It involved photo-taking sessions with members of the public, as well as Campers to take jump shots and creative shots of themselves to be uploaded to a specific Flickr account created by World Vision Singapore. My group had only about less than twenty minutes outside Paragon to accomplish all the activities and I thought it was far too short compared to the originally allocated ninety minutes so most of the photos taken were hurried though the Campers enjoyed the short excursion away from the confines of the camping grounds.

I thought the outreach was successful to a good extent but it could have been better if the Campers stayed at Orchard Road longer with more planned activities to keep them in the limelight. Then again, activities along Orchard Road always had to go through stringent checks and approval from the Singapore Police Force. ☺ X 1 + ☹ X 1

Day 2/1400hrs/Reflection Time:

Reflection times are necessary in such camps as they involve more cozy discussions about learning points which should be aligned with the learning objectives of the various camp activities and overall camp focus - awareness and action. Most of the Camp Facilitators had gone through at least two and a half day's worth of training, which is a good thing but the reflection time in that afternoon stretched more than three hours till 1700hrs. That posed a serious problem for Camp Facilitators whom some of them commented that they were running out of ice-breaking games to play and were worried that idling time would bring the thoughts of hunger back into the minds of the Campers who had then been keep busy since the moment they woke up.

Fortunately, the Camp Facilitators from my country, Ethiopia, whom I wished to commend publicly here, were a resilient bunch who tried their best to keep the Campers entertained after reflection time by combining all the "families" under Ethiopia for mass games. A total of three mass games were played which somehow worked the Campers to peals of laughter, brought smiles to their faces and thankfully took one hour off the possible idling time. I guessed somehow this lengthy time slot did bring the Campers and Camp Facilitators closer. I just thought more ice-breakers taught to the Facilitators, some of them who were completely new to facilitating groups, during pre-camp training, would have helped a little more in situations like that. ☺ X 1 + ☹ X 1

Day 2/1800hrs/Closing Ceremony:

The Closing Ceremony was much more entertaining than the previous year as the performers were much better prepared and they took efforts to whip up the mood of the audience who were hungry but ecstatic enough to enjoy popular English songs. Some of the more energetic ones even stood up to dance! I recalled games played by deejays from FM91.3, a cheer-leading performance, two sets of songs performed by Jack and Rai and a female singer whom I could not remember her name at the moment. There was then a countdown event though the official Break Fast timing was supposed to be at 1900hrs (which marked the official end time for the 30 Hour Famine Camp itself) but the Closing Ceremony ended at around 1920hrs.

Dismissal from the Convention Hall was also delaying the collection of the break fast meals and I thought the delays were probably excruciating for those Campers who had already made plans after the Break Fast timing of 1900hrs. After more than thirty camps under my belt, I completely understood that no camp could end exactly on the dot but the thing was that the Facilitators were not briefed on such a contingency and thus some of them were a little lost when Campers asked about delays and collection procedures of the Break Fast meals.☺ X 3 + ☹ X 1

Day 2/1930hrs/Break Fast Meal Collection:

That, in my opinion, was the biggest and most visible glitch in the 30 Hour Famine Camp 2011 because by the time my group of Campers were dismissed from the Convention Hall where the Closing Ceremony was held at, it was already past 1930hrs and without knowing exactly where to collect the meals, I only managed to spot two queues forming outside the Hall. I joined one of them only to find out that that was but the drinks queue and the other one was actually for the food. Deciding to collect drinks first since I was far ahead in the queue, someone then shouted to the Facilitators there to get a helper from the Campers since there was a lot to carry. That posed an immediate problem because I had already dispatched my Camper to the allocated Facilitation Venue which was at least 400 meters away from the queue. So I took out some large plastic bags to try and carry every packet of drink and food for my group as I moved to queue the food queue.

To my utter dismay, the food distributors announced that they ran out of rice and thus everyone had to wait for at least 15 to 20 minutes for the next batch of rice to be cooked. The time on my watch was nearly 2000hrs so I decided to head back to my group of Campers and dismiss them straightaway without the Break Fast meal as they would be waiting far longer than 20 minutes on empty stomachs. It was, of course, not a good piece of news, because some of them seemed really keen to break fast on an official note but a few were really in a big hurry to leave the Camp as their parents were waiting. I made the decision but I was in quite a foul mood as I thought the Break Fast was an important finale to the Camp and should have been more well-prepared instead and that it was not the first time World Vision Singapore had organized a 30 Hour Famine Camp. After talking to the various members of the organizing committee, I finally verified the reason behind - the newly appointed food caterer was not well-equipped to handle the sheer number of people requiring food to the point that one of their two rice-cookers broke down in the midst of cooking. It was one spanner in the works thrown into the final hour of the camp when everything else was relatively smooth and the hiccups paled in comparison to that rice-cooker problem. ☹ X 3

Nonetheless, I felt that the 30 Hour Famine Camp 2011 was all in all much better organized than the previous ones with a lot more attention on Camp Facilitators' training, clearer program objectives, more variety of programs to keep the Campers engaged, and much better camp accommodations so that everyone was better taken care of.

Of course, there is still room for improvement and every Camp Facilitator had even received an email which asked for their feedback about the camp. This alone speaks volumes of how World Vision Singapore remains pro-active in improving themselves and their activities. ☺ X 1


I believe this blog post would suffice as my reply. For now, I am already looking forward to attending World Vision Singapore 30 Hour Famine Camp 2012 because it surely has the potential to become one of the best camps in Singapore!

Thank you for reading such a long and lengthy post. I'll end with a Youtube video of photo montage of the camp itself. Have a great week ahead! ^__^

Movie Review: Harry Potter and The Deathly Hallows Part 1 (2010)

Movie Review: Harry Potter and The Deathly Hallows Pt 1 (2010)

Well, it was a tough choice between Red and Harry Potter since I am limiting myself to watch only one movie per week and the latter finally got my vote because I thought the movie preview was a little reminiscent of Lord of The Rings: Fellowship of The Ring where Harry, Hermione and Ron had to travel through so many scenic places to reach somewhere. I am not a fan of Harry Potter but I just like to visit those magical fantasy movies once in a while to dazzle my imagination with spells, fireballs, dragons, etc.


The movie starts off with Harry, Hermione and Ron leaving their homes because Voldemort has successfully infiltrated and eventually took over The Ministry of Magic. The trio of close friends barely escaped with their lives under the cover of their friends and family and they realized they must venture to find Voldemort's Horcruxes since Voldemort had imbued seven items his soul and hence can always resurrect himself whenever he dies. They must find these seven items and destroy them to defeat Voldemort.


Of the seven Horcruxes, an Elder wand, a Resurrection stone and a cloak of invisibility are the most powerful items because when these three Horcruxes, when brought together, will give the wielder the power of Death itself. Henceforth begins a long quest spanning unfamiliar landscapes to find clues to find these magical items without the help of their friends, protection from their Hogswart professors and perpetually under deadly pursuit by the Death Eaters.


Patience, tolerance and friendship between Harry, Hermione and Ron were tested amidst bitter words, jealousy, nervous intimacy and frustration when their inner nature were periodically corrupted by one of the Horcruxes in the form of a locket which they could neither destroy nor discard until they finally discovered the use of the Sword of Gryffindor.


I shall not provide too many spoilers there but expect the touching scene of a burial of a memorable and likeable character when this character narrowly saved Harry and his companions but sacrificed his life to do so.


I was hoping for some good magical action scenes but other than the forest chase scene, most of the others were too fast to be truly enjoyable for a non-fan viewer like me but the acting was subtle and good and at least the graphical effects were good enough and the treachery ran deep enough on the side of Voldemort who managed to find one of the most powerful Horcruxes to use against Harry Potter and his friends in Part II.


Blog Modifications and Changes:

I realized that some of my links on my blog are no longer working and it's high time that I updated them and change some of them completely. So here are the most recent blog modifications and changes made:

Blog Roll:

Olivia Ong's Facebook Group is included at http://www.facebook.com/pages/Olivia-Ong/41155493643

-> Started off in Japan as a singer specializing in bossanova, Olivia Ong came back to Singapore with a big bang and received more accolades for her comfortable singing style and her squeaky clean image in her latest album "Olivia".

Tay Kewei's blog url is updated to become http://taykewei.com/

-> The Singaporean singer-songwriter-vocalist is moving on to bigger events and gigs with her latest album "Come Closer...with Kewei" and now has her own website. A true inspiration to all that such dreams can be realized in Singapore.

Serene Koong's blog url is included at http://blog.omy.sg/serenekoong/

-> The Singaporean singer-songwriter from Funkie Monkies Productions has came quite some ways to reach where she is. Her hard work paid off when her most recent album "55:38:7" was well-received in the region.

KTVClub SG's blog url is included at http://www.ktvclub.blogspot.com/

-> This is an interest group for singing enthusiasts to gather for karaoke outings and regular singing competitions. The leader of the group, Nigel Tan, has been making admirable efforts to organize such activities to bring together more people.

William's blog url is included at http://moveondaily.blogspot.com/

-> The artiste manager of Royal International Group has a blog updating his artistes' events as well as his own feelings about the highs and lows of artiste management.

Serena's blog url is included at http://workingtowardsmydream-serena.blogspot.com/

-> Another artiste manager of Royal International Group maintains a blog about her artistes' events as well as her own thoughts about grooming young artistes in Singapore.

Elson's blog url included at http://elsonsoh.blogspot.com/

-> A Singaporean artiste under Royal International Group who has been working hard for the past few years to get his fledgling career up into the air. He is earmarked to release his album in November 2010 with a newly-released track, Saranghamnida, on the radio station FM93.3.

Shanice's blog url included at http://www.silvergrandeur.blogspot.com/

-> An even younger Singaporean artiste who is also trying to get her dream as a singer realized. Her stellar appearance has already drawn invitations from modeling and acting agencies even before she has found her path in singing.

Joseph's blog url included at http://josephhuiblog.blogspot.com/

-> A boyish looking Singaporean artiste recently recruited into Royal International Group. Being already a founder of the local artiste group Youthbox, Joseph is actually more experienced on the stage than he looks in his profile pictures.


Alright. Signing off with a quote from Flora Whittemore:

"The doors we open and close each day decide the lives we live."

That's all for now. Have a wonderful weekend ahead, my faithful blog readers! ^__^

Blog Post on 30 October 2010

28 October 2010 (Thursday):

Attended the publicity concert for the Singapore FM93.3 Hit Awards at IMM Jurong East Garden Plaza to watch three of Singapore's best - Olivia, Kewei and Serene to perform. I did not regret the long trip down (especially since IMM is not exactly accessible and the parking there is hard to get). I reached the venue around 6pm to have my dinner before venturing to the Garden Plaza at 6.30pm, only to find only a handful of photographers standing in front of the stage. There were a few supporters seated early at the nearby benches but I was most impressed by Serene, who was already at backstage practicing her songs and testing the sound system.

Serene interacting very well with the emcees onstage at the mini-concert. (For illustration purposes only. Photo credit goes to this site)

I waited patiently and finally, the mini concert began at 7.10pm where Serene kicked off with very entertaining performances, followed by Kewei and wrapped up by Olivia. Most unfortunately, the turnout was a mere fifty odd, probably due to the fact that it was a weekday and there wasn't that much publicity about these ladies appearing at IMM.

Here's Kewei singing So In Love and I loved her powerful voice, which was ideal in delivering the song to perfection.



29 October 2010 (Friday):

I tuned in to FM93.3 for the awards ceremony which was aired live for viewers like me who did not want to turn up because personally, I disliked sitting there for nearly five hours so I'd rather hear it from my own speakers instead. The best moments were the following:

1) Hebe Tian of S.H.E commenting about Selina's recovery and urged the entire audience there to pray for Selina to come out from the crisis. As far as I know, Selina still has a long way to recover because her third-degree burns from an explosion during the filming of a TV series in China covered more than 40 percent of her body. I am not exactly a fan of S.H.E but they sure worked hard to become what they are today and I did not wish such an artiste to disappear forever.

(For illustration purposes only. Photo credit goes to xinmsn)

2) 黄小琥, a very experienced Taiwanese singer, received the best performing female artiste award and she was completely taken aback by her win. I thought amongst all those who were shortlisted, she definitely could lay claim to this award. Don't believe me? Hear for yourself to determine why she rules in performance capabilities with her voice.





This is Olivia Ong singing a duet with Jeff Chang. I thought these are two of the most beautiful and soulful voices to have performed on the same stage.
(For illustrative purposes only. Photo credit goes to xinmsn)

30 October 2010 (Saturday):

I started today by climbing the staircase for 24 floors because I am supposed to train for a charity camp which I had promised to attend so I must keep myself fit if I am to be useful in the camp. After breakfast, I actually wanted to go for the KTV.sg Club KTV Idol Grand Finals at Swee Lee Cafe but considering that it was a sold-out event so I did not want to bother the organizers to try and squeeze in a seat for me if I suddenly gate-crashed the event.

I hope it's a successful event (it's still ongoing as I typed) because I attended their auditions and the contestants were very good indeed. It's really a good platform to singing enthusiasts and the club is really friendly and warm to be in.



Thus I spent my lunchtime eating a deliberate and delicious meal of salmon and mushroom spaghetti and a serving of sticky chewy chocolate before getting myself a nice book to read from a library. I tried to find a new game Fallout New Vegas but it was out of stock so no luck there. I also skipped into a shop selling camping equipment to determine what to replenish before my trip begins.

On reaching home, I decided it would be a good time to blog since I have been neglecting my blog for more than a month and here it is.

Movie Review: The Devil (2010) NC16

(Image credit goes to this url website)

Initially, I was daunted by the length of the movie, which is but a mere 81 minutes, but I was really intrigued by the storyline of how everything can be compacted so tightly within an elevator so I went ahead and watched the movie anyway.

I did not regret my decision - it was worth a full five popcorns rating. If Avatar is widely recognized as one of the best action movies of the year, I think this movie will go well as one of the best suspense/morality thriller of the year. The story revolves around how five strangers in a office building's elevator were trapped and suffered a series of horrifying experiences which led them to believe that one of them was the culprit. The story is then narrated by a South American security guard who goes on to reveal that according to a folktale by his grandmother - the Devil sometimes transforms itself into human form and punishes a group of sinners in the most bizarre ways unimaginable.

Expect a lot of deaths and blood in the movie, which explain its NC16 rating but for those readers who are able to watch this movie, please don't miss it. A strange suicide off the 35th floor of a building with the victim holding onto a string of rosemary, a brilliant and hardworking detective who recently lost his family, a temp security officer, a senior-looking office lady, a rough man with a missing red sack, an arrogant and talkative mattress salesman and an attractive girl looking for a lawyer. The story brings all of these people together a way to explain how the Devil manipulates the fears, doubts and suspicions of people in the modern world who have so many secrets hidden in their lives.

The detective works as hard as he can, summoning policemen, mechanics, firefighters to the scene as well, but as he begins to realize that none of his excellent detective skills and logical reasoning is able to make sense of the scene, he begins to believe the South American security guard that something supernatural is involved in the whole scheme of things and that he is actually the intended audience for all that is about to happen in that fateful elevator.

Why is the detective chosen? Will any human being actually make it out of that elevator alive with the Devil lurking as one of the passengers? I won't spoil the surprise. Please do not go to Youtube to read the comments because some of them have actually posted full spoilers ahead. Go with an inquisitive mind and an open heart about The God, The Devil, The Man and how all these three beings can possibly interact and have a great 81 minutes in the movie theater!

Movie Review: Resident Evil: Afterlife (NC16)

I ain't a fan of Resident Evil but I thought the movie plot's backdrop was really interesting. A virus known as T-virus was accidentally released into the human population and it turned them into killer zombies. The very few human survivors struggled against the endless and tireless zombie hordes as they barricaded themselves against the flesh-eating zombies.

The female protagonist, Alice, is one formidable survivor because not only she is the only human with genes capable of merging with the T-virus and survived without the zombie transformation, she is also experimented upon by the mysterious Umbrella Corporation (which is the culprit behind the T-virus) and is implanted with powers beyond the ordinary human.

Alice, in this installment of the movie, tries to find the location of Arcadia, which has been broadcasting over the radio waves that it is a sanctuary against the T-virus, providing shelter, protection and food for all the remaining survivors who have managed to elude and evade the zombies across the world. Alice arrives at Arcadia, only to find an empty island full of aircraft supposedly left behind by survivors who were lured by the radio broadcast. Alice then goes to Los Angeles with her two-seater propeller plane and discovers a small group of survivors besieged within a city prison. Will Alice manage to rally and rescue this band of unusual survivors with conflicting interests and find the true Arcadia and the rest of the survivors who abandoned their aircraft? I won't spoil the movie here.

Personally, I think the movie is only passable because beyond the movie's exciting and fiery firefights and zombie slaughtering, which usually end with blood-splattering to the head by the twin powerful shotguns or the samurai swords carried by Alice, the movie lacks depth and explanation on why some scenes are not continued through properly and just fizzled, expecting the audience to figure out the ill logic behind them.

For example, for all her skills and agility, Alice was actually overpowered by the leader of the Umbrella Corporation so easily and assuming all her superhuman powers were removed by the latter in that blow, how could Alice have survived the catastrophic plane crash without breaking a limb or two? There were also some cheap scares without truly showing the tenacity of the zombies, so despite their numbers, the zombies seem to be more functional as mere cannon or explosive fodder than to actually push the intensity of the movie. In short, the movie becomes Alice vs Umbrella Corporation with the zombies and other survivors as mere forgettable expendables.

I would only give the movie a 2.5 popcorn out of a possible 5.0 because it has so much room for improvement especially in terms of character development and zombie action. Most of the blood shed could have had more meaning than a simple scream and struggling limbs.

Movie Review: Toy Story 3 (2010)

A snapshot of Toy Story 2's main characters - most of them pulled through the storyline and made it to Toy Story 3 but a few of them, accordingly to Woody The Cowboy, were adopted by other children and did not continue with them for the next adventure.
Sunnyside - a seemingly sunny-looking place for abandoned and second-hand toys where they get to be played by children from the day-care center in the neighborhood. Seems like a good deal the toys when they misunderstood Andy's intentions about their fate when Andy (their original owner who was then17 years old) was about to head off the college.


Upon their initial arrival at Sunnyside, the toys were totally bowled over by the sheer size, colors and spaciousness of the day-care center's playroom. There were also many other interesting toys whom they made friends with. Only Woody seemed worried about the place because he was more interested in getting back the attention of Andy.

Toy Story 3 is one movie about how a group of toys struggled deeply with their loyalty to their original owner and with their desires to continue their lives as playable toys with integrity rather than risk being stashed away in the dark attic or thrown right out to be incinerated as trash.

As the toys generally decided to try their luck at continued survival at Sunnyside Daycare Center, what seems to be a friendly cohort of new toys belies a dangerous and tyrannical regime of anger and rejection of love. Realizing they need to get back to their original owner, the toys planned to stage a daring escape from Sunnyside but there were numerous obstacles in the way.

How will they get past locked doors, alert patrols, floodlights and a sleepless, screaming monkey with surveillance cameras installed all around the godforsaken place? How will they make their way back to Andy without freaking out the neighborhood if they are seen trotting down the streets? Will they be united with their owner Andy who will be leaving for college in a matter of hours?

I shall not elaborate any further and spoil the fun for all you readers out there. Go catch the latest and epic five-popcorn-worth story of the toys at your nearest cinema now!

All I can say is that, by the final scene of the movie, I was close to tears as it brought back memories of how I could have chosen to save so many of my childhood toys but I chose to throw them away instead. My toys cars, my plastic toy soldiers, my magic drawing board and my only LEGO set. If only I had caught this movie then, I would have fought every objection from my parents and kept all of them or recycle them.

I want to watch the movie again - this time - with the only surviving childhood toy - Blackie - a brownish teddy bear from a toy factory many many years ago. It's still sitting there at my study table. And I will see to it that it will remain by my side till the end of my days. I swear it.

Movie Review: The Karate Kid (2010)

I finally found some time to watch the movie - a newer version of the original Karate Kid trilogy many years ago. The movie is about how a reluctant Detroit-born kid is forced to move to Beijing to start life anew because her mother Sherry (Taraji P. Henson) is transferred to a new workplace. New to the neighborhood, Dre Parker (Jaden Smith) tries to make friends with the children, especially to a violin prodigy Meiying (Wenwen Han) but instead has a series of bad encounters with the local bullies. During one of the deadlier encounters, Mr Han (Jackie Chan) finally intervened and stopped the bullies in time.

After much pleading, Mr Han accompanied Dre Parker to the martial arts school where the bullies learned their arts, only to realize they were trained to be cruel, unthinking fighters by their teacher Master Li (Rongguang Yu) inside. Master Li arrogantly put up a challenge and Mr Han reluctantly agreed to train Dre Parker to meet Master Li's disciples in a national martial arts tournament.

What follows is a series of interesting training sessions, including the seemingly-mindless "Take off your jacket-put up your jacket-take it off" routine but what is truly captivating is when Mr Han takes Dre Parker to what I believed to be Mount Wudang (one of the top martial arts sect in China where Taiji Quan is originated from). Dre Parker witnesses all sorts of martial arts and is deeply moved by the concentration level of all the master practitioners there.

All these while, Dre Parker tries even harder to develop a love relationship with Meiying, only to be rebuffed by her strict parents, because Dre takes off with Meiying from a violin practice session without permission and nearly costs Meiying's violin auditions with the Beijing Academy of Music. A sincere reading of an apology to Meiying's father finally wins the forgiveness and the two young lovebirds are together again before Dre's impending martial arts tournament.

The tournament is one exciting affair and the audience is treated to a spectacular display of agility and aggression from the various promising young martial artistes. Dre Parker, after the initial confusion, finally gets the hang of the competition rules, and starts delivering excellent moves, match after match but suffers a horrific injury to his thigh at the semi-finals when Master Li instructs his semi-finalist disciple to break his leg. Dre Parker pleads with Mr Han to use an ancient bulb-heating healing technique to temporarily heal his leg and he forces himself to enter the finals only to be floored badly by his nemesis bully and with his thigh twice injured, Dre Parker struggles up for one final technique which he learns on his own (a snake stance which he witnesses at Mount Wudang) and delivers an amazing flip kick to gain the final point for his victory.

This is one movie worth watching because you get to enjoy an innocent love story beyond racial lines, an unusual martial arts training regime, an exciting martial arts tournament and even a emotional scene between Mr Han as he shares the reason why he has a car in his house's living room. I love the acting and chemistry between Mr Han and Jaden Smith and also the realism between the mother and son relationship as they struggle to cope with a completely alien culture.

I will give a four popcorn out of five for this not-to-be-missed movie, which really influences the audience, especially the young movie-goers who are just re-enacting the moves even as they leave the cinema. I hope they will also understand not just the beauty of martial arts but also the deep philosophies behind the value of them as a way of living and respecting oneself and others as well.

"Kungfu is in everyday life!"

This is an edited version of the original Karate Kid which shows most of the footage of their version of karate tournament. Hope you enjoy this as well... ^__^

Worldvision Famine Camp 2010 Afterthoughts

I AM HUNGRY! THEY'RE STARVING!

This year's Worldvision Famine Camp 2010 had intended to focus on increasing the awareness and the empathy of Singapore's youths about the plight of starving children across the world. The camp was organized around a series of experiental activities for a duration of 30 hours to bring across the message and hopefully stir the youths into action to help the starving children.

The Symbolic Bite Before The 30 Hour Famine:

One of the main activities on Day 1 was the symbolic bite of a delicious Crystal Jade bun by all the participants - campers, facilitators, and organizers before the actual camp commences and I thought it was a fabulous idea to mentally and physically prepare all the participants about the hardship to come.

The Experiental Games As A Family:

The campers were separated into 8 different countries with approximately 10 families in each country and every family group has a family head, vice-head, a few adults and a few children. The concept is for each family to try and figure the best way to achieve the experiental games' objectives - $100, education for all the family members, vaccinations for all the family members, 40 kilograms of water and 10 kilograms of food. The family has to make collective decisions on how best to juggle school, work and even illegal jobs to fulfill such needy objectives, thus mimicking the life conditions of a typical family in 3rd world conditions. This game concept was as realistic as it could get because the campers were made to decide under imperfect market conditions - most of them have to rely on guesswork and persuasion, subjecting themselves to simulated harsh treatment by various station masters who acted as employers for jobs or disgruntled workers from 3rd world hospitals or schools.

However, a major drawback from that, unlike a limitless supply of water from last year's Famine Camp, this year, each camp participant only had a refillable 125ml mineral water bottle, with which they were told to refill whenever they were thirsty. The problem was the camp never really gave any time for breaks for refilling of such water as the experiental games were really intense and most of the campers seemed to be really parched from all the running and games. Personally, I thought that was an schedule oversight, especially when the campers were then both hungry and thirsty and tired when they did not have to be subjected to such a punishing camp schedule.

Talks, Videos and Presentations:

After the grueling experiental activities which lasted from nearly 4 hours, the campers were finally able to take a reprieve from the heat, confusion and physical fatigue by listening to a series of talks, presentations and videos at the main hall as Worldvision Singapore had invited the speakers to give their views and share their experiences about working at difficult, and sometimes dangerous, places to secure the safety, freedom and integrity of the much needy people in other parts of the world. One of the speakers' talk was pretty dry and bored many of the campers as the speaker droned on and on but another speaker managed to capture the attention with a more lively talk and an interesting video about the plight of street children in Asia. A further question and answer session perked up the morale of the campers once more before the talks, videos and presentations concluded and the campers made their way to dinner - packet drinks before retiring for the night.

1,200 Campers Sleeping In For The Night:

This was one of the logistical nightmares of the camp because it was really not easy trying to arrange 1,200 camp participants into a sports hall, with all their belongings, decent sleeping space and of course, enduring the noise, smell and clutter. Most the waking night before the lights out timing at around 1am was spent arranging the sleeping bags and making sure none of the camp participants slipped out at night without permission as Worldvision Singapore actually hired two professional guards to keep watch over the camp participants. This was considered as a nice touch as most of the camps that I had attended (no less than twenty) had very little concern over the security of the place at night. Another major plus was that the camp facilitators did not have to endure late night debriefing sessions (which lasted till nearly 4am last year) and most of the facilitators actually managed to squeeze some decent hours' of sleep for this year's camp.

Area Cleaning Before Departing For Orchard Road:

It seemed like many of the campers, who were students in various secondary schools and junior colleges, had trouble trying to clean up the camp. Many were reluctant to clear the litter and the rubbish bins and were groaning throughout the entire exercise. I thought it sort of acted as another unintended experiental activity since many of these students had maids at their beck and call back home but had to personally clear and clean up in the camp. After much complaining, the camp was tidied up and everyone fell back to the assembly hall.

The Arduous Waiting For The Buses:

All the camp participants spent most of the second morning waiting for the buses to get ready to bring the whole camp to Orchard Road Scape Park and thus the organizers used the time to practice the mass dance for the event. The dancers were brought in and instructions and rehearsals were conducted. I must say the dance was pretty interesting but there seemed too little time for everyone to learn a dance within an hour and deliver the dance competently and confidently on Orchard Road in front of so many strangers - this was later translated into a less enthusiastic-than-expected dance because most of the campers were still unfamiliar and shy about dancing in front of complete strangers on the busiest street of Singapore. As a facilitator, the second morning was also one of the greatest challenges that faced me because I had to try and motivate and cheer my group on since the waiting was amplifying the hunger. Most of my group were already bent over from the hunger but fortunately the dance practices cheered them up somewhat.

More Waiting at Scape Park Orchard:

When my group finally reached Scape Park Orchard, yet another two challenges awaited us. One of them was that there weren't enough buses to bring all the 1,200 campers to the venue so the buses had to make multiple trips - this easily translated into more waiting time - about 2 hours before all the camp participants were present at Scape Park Orchard for the mass shelter building for some world record. The second challenge was the intermittent rains which prevented the activity from happening until the organizers decided to go ahead with everyone setting up cardboard shelters (one per family of eight campers) under slight drizzling conditions. Although the weather was looking gloomy, everyone seemed a lot happier to be doing something rather than waiting for something to happen or some instructions to filter down. After about 45 minutes, all the shelters were up and everyone got ready for the mass dance and flash mob along Orchard Road.


The Mass Dance and Flash Mob:

My group was assigned to do the mass dance in front of Takashimaya Singapore and alongside with a number of families, the contingent swelled to about 350 people and it was really prominent as we were in bright orange and green T-shirts saying "I am hungry! They are starving!". As the timing was in the afternoon around 5pm, I took the audacity to allow my group to do some window-shopping and have a stroll inside the air-conditioned mall since all of them had just built the shelter under drizzling rain and subsequent hot sun. The mass dance was activated upon the timing with an impressive display by dancers from the Singapore Youth Festival and there were even mascots to bring the mood even higher. Unfortunately, not all of the campers were energized enough to deliver a properly coordinated dance so I myself thought we could have more practice and preparations for such a public display before we commit ourselves on Orchard Road. The Flash Mob was done with more gusto than the mass dance but it was suddenly limited to just one venue along Orchard Road instead of the briefed three locations. Such last minute changes also caused much confusion amongst the campers and facilitators alike.

Finale Concert and Break Fast:

The Break Fast, after an arduous 30 hours of activity and waiting, was quite a disappointment. Although it was mooted from Crystal Jade Restaurant, it only consisted of white rice, two small slices of chicken in some unidentifiable sauce, two small cauliflowers and a thin slice of carrot with a small bottle of mineral water. This less-than-expected meal triggered a small uproar amongst the campers who began to filter out of the Finale Concert watching area and started to head to collect their own bags without permission from the organizers. Apparently, most had the idea to find more rewarding food to satisfy their hunger pangs. The Finale Concert was thus being neglected by most of the hungry campers even though there was a slight perk at Jack and Rai's performances but it went downhill from there onwards as almost 500 campers were already making their way to the bag collection room five floors above the concert area. The human traffic jam there was spectacularly chaotic and after much impromptu crowd control, most of the bags were collected by the campers after another arduous hour of waiting and pushing by the mass of hungry and eager-to-go-home campers.

By the time every major event concluded, my fellow facilitators from the same country and myself were so exhausted that most of us chose to find a nice, cozy Japanese restaurant to tuck into some ramen and ice-cream and rest our tired feet (we had been sitting on the floor for no less than 4 hours for the entire second day of the camp). The general consensus was that the camp was enjoyable in its own rights but some parts of the camps were rather lacking organization whilst overly-ambitious and the camp organizers were underestimating the cumulative effects of hunger and fatigue working against both campers and facilitators, especially resulting in the ragged morale and exhaustion on the second day.

Personally, I am still thinking if I would still join Famine Camp 2011 because ultimately, I would not want to dismiss the good charitable cause behind the Famine Camp 2010 - more awareness was indeed created amongst youths about hunger and starvation and the poor living conditions of children across the world, even though the organization of the camp was weaker compared to last year.

I think there was a saying which goes something like "Hate the sin, not the sinner". Perhaps that saying would sum up my afterthoughts for this camp after all...

(Thank you for reading the extensive afterthought blog post. Time to bathe and sleep ^__^ Tomorrow will be a better day.)

Pending Posts: Worldvision Famine Camp 2010 Singapore and Singapore's Children's Society Anti-Bully Camp 2010

Hmm..it's been so long since I last blogged. Been so busy and lethargic about blogging that I have to admit the guilt of neglecting my poor old blog. I have intended to blog about the two recent camps that I have just attended and this pending blog post will be long and as detailed as possible to satisfy those faithful blog readers who are still popping over to take a peek once in a while (I know because I have a good counter program embedded).

I promise the blog post will be up before the weekend is up. For now, time to rest my exhausted feet and mind from the camps before I rush off to work tomorrow morning again. Goodnight everyone! ^__^

Movie Review: How To Train Your Dragon (2010)

The movie is about how Hiccup, the young son of a Viking tribal chief, becomes a dragon rider after realizing he has an affinity to dragons, rather than a self-induced thirst to kill one to prove his place in the tribe and subsequently saves his tribe from a powerful dragon.

Hiccup lives in a Viking village where it is perpetually being harassed by pests, not rats, snakes or wolves, but dragons - many different types of dragons which grabs their livestock and set fire to their houses.

"More than three generations of Vikings have lived since the village started and all the houses are new."

During one of the dragons' raids on the village, Hiccup managed to spot the most elusive and seemingly deadly dragons they have encountered - The Night Fury, and fired off a shot which successfully captured the lightning ball-breathing dragon. Although Hiccup was tempted to kill the dragon to put an end to the laughing he had endured as the most incompetent dragon-killing Viking in the village, he was won over by his own compassion and started befriending the injured and fish-eating Night Fury whom he named "Toothless".

As their unusual friendship grew and he began to try and modify the dragon's injured tail wing and fly with the dragon, Hiccup had to pretend he was interested in the dragon-killing training approved by his Father and trained by the village blacksmith. For a while, Hiccup found his double life as a dragon trainer and a dragon killer useful as he studied Night Fury's behavior and learned how to control other types of dragons without resorting to bashing their brains out with a Viking war hammer. His long time love interest began to suspect something was amiss when Hiccup became an expert against dragons over a short space of time and found out about his friendship with Night Fury.

An unexpected flight in the mist led the three of them to the Dragons' Lair which they found to be a resting place of a gigantic dragon and all the raids were actually conducted to feed the enormous appetite of this might dragon, contrary to what the villagers thought all along. When Hiccup's father finally discovered Night Fury and the location of the Dragons' Lair, he led the entire tribe's warriors to the lair, hoping to expel the dragons and stop the raids but without realizing the presence of the much more powerful six-eyed ancient dragon, Hiccup's father's army was defeated and routed before Hiccup arrived with the other young Vikings-in-training on the backs of lesser dragons.

A dragon fight ensued and I am not going to tell you what happened in the end because it would be such a spoiler to do so if you haven't watched the movie. Haha.

I particularly loved the part where how Hiccup and his father were trying to communicate about their diverse interests in dragons and how the awkward scene was portrayed so accurately with all the nuances in expressions and body languages. The graphics were great but unlike some of the proponents of the movie, I thought the flying scenes were not that impressive. It's probably because I have already seen Avatar The Movie and thus thought lesser of another protagonist flying on the back of a dragon-like creature. The thematic concerns of the movie were good though, showing how people may struggle with expectations of others and realizing that things do not have to happen in the ways in order to come up with a better solution to the seemingly impossible situation.

I would give the movie a 3.5 star out of 5 and it would be considered an entertaining and humorous movie to spend your movie money on.

Movie Review: The Green Zone (2010)

When Master Warrant Officer, Miller (Matt Daemon), realized that his special WMD (Weapons of Mass Destruction) Search unit had hit yet another empty site after being given "reliable" intelligence from the US Army in Iraq, he began to suspect that he was being led into a wild-goose chase. An out-of-the-blue tip-off by a seemingly ordinary Iraqi citizen brought Miller and his team to intervene in a meeting by the top generals in the then-defeated Iraqi Army and when Miller finally captured a suspect in the meeting and got hold of a encrypted notebook, Special Forces members suddenly arrived in helicopters and took away the suspect while Miller hid the notebook away. The bizarre and unexpected arrival of these mysterious Special Forces operatives further fueled Miller's suspicions that something was amiss.

I thought the movie was pretty well-made around MWO Miller, a one-legged Iraqi citizen, an imposing and elusive Iraqi general, a CIA chief, a top US official in the Iraqi Interim Authority, interspersed with realistic gun battles on the streets of Iraq, moments of tension within the various operating units of the US Army, teething moments of political cunning and outbursts of frustration by Iraqis who wanted peace and stability but faced such real threats of surviving the harsh post-war conditions.

It was a movie that I enjoyed watching and following the action, which was evenly and cleverly-spaced out between the acting and the unraveling of the storyline of what might truly have happened during the fateful Iraq War - it could have been just an excuse for war - there was no weapons of mass destruction and many have died in vain. I encourage those who wanted to learn more about the field conditions of the post-war Iraq then to watch this absorbing movie. A 3.5 out of 5, worthy of the movie ticket price.

Chinese New Year Celebrations and more photos of food during outings.

Birthday Celebrations with The Changed Man and his girlfriend at JurongPoint:

Outing With Ex-Student At West Mall Swenson's Restaurant Before He Goes Into Army:
Chinese New Year Eve Dinner Preparations In The Kitchen:








Sumptuous Chinese New Year Eve Dinner:

An after-dinner glass of red wine as traditional of my family.

Chinese New Year Day One Breakfast- Fusion of Western and Eastern Goodies:

Chinese New Year Day Three Lunch:

Chinese New Year Day Eight Lunch With YuSheng: