It's been a week full of meeting friends, old and new, and having a nice dinner of some catching up and talking about the good old days. First, I met up with the ex-instructors of my days as an instructor in OCS, at Thai Express in Holland Village. I had a hard time getting there though. Mabel, my usual vehicle commander had to attend a company dinner so I was off alone to meet the guys. I spent 20 minutes wandering in the car parks trying to get a slot, and in the end I gave up and parked at a HDB multi storey car park and walked over to Holland Village, which wasn't that far. At least my knowledge of roads in Singapore is slowly building up.
We didn't manage to take any pictures, but promised each other to meet up more often. It was fun talking about the fun we had together as instructors, and although almost all of us have since left OCS, those times we shared we unforgettable. We could forget Simon's mambo dances, Peng Pork's crappy jokes and mosquito impersonations, Tang's birthday cake and shoulder dislocation incident, JJ's quail in a box stunt, Simon Lee striking fear into the cadets' hearts, Eden's pail over-the-head dance move, Harvey's red card collection (from Wing Comd), Azmie's Ryan Sim Lye Guan and Lim Siow Lye confusion, Raymond's outfield cooking expertise, Ryan's ATS syndrome, Sam's "What time are you going to sleep tonight", and many many other memorable events and people. We even met Jack in the restaurant though let's hope to have another gathering soon, this time with more people who missed out on this one.
Second gathering this week was for a major event! We celebrated Ultraman Lah's second anniversary, and as well as Ian and Adrian's birthdays! Sadly, Ian couldn't turn up due to a sudden personal commitment, but the rest of us turned up in full force for this joyous occasion. We had a sumptious Japanese dinner in a function room, courtesy of Tony for booking and letting us know of this restaurant, and Veron for recommending the nice dishes since the menu's totally in Japanese. Yes, I could read it but still having no pictures I can't really tell what is what.
After dinner we present to Adrian a Ultraman Lah customised cake! It looked fantastic and we even gave it the 2 candles to represent the site's 2nd anniversary. There were also a bunch of presents to be given to our birthday boy Adrian, and it even included a ultra-sexy red thong thingy which baffled us on how anyone's able to wear that thing. Sadly no pictures as of this writing but perhaps I'll update this post at a later time. The cake tasted great and I got the portion with the word "Lah" on it (refer to top pic). We had a good cock talking session after dinner, and it was hillarious hearing of Adrian's stories in JB and all the bad encounters that he had to go through. Hopefully the next gathering will come soon, and we can also celebrate the upcoming birthdays (Chris and Ryan).
And thanks to Sze Huat, who passed to us the Ultra Hero series: Ultraman Mebius Infinity mode figure during the dinner. That's one down and many more to go, going by my checklist which I've also written down in last week's post. I'm hoping to get the SIC this week, and hopefully before long the Berserk Garo figure as well. Same problem again month after month: too many new releases, too little money. Guess I'm going for cook house lunches this entire month. I'm also in the midst of repacking all my figures and stuff, in anticipation of my new place being ready in the near future. New place = new space = more toys! I've also made plans to customise 2 new display cabinets to place my stuff in, so hopefully I can get enough toys to make a more impressive display (yeah lame reason to get more toys I know but I feel less guilty this way).
After several sessions of discussions, we have (almost) finally decided with our designer from Ciseern the design theme/style and colour of our new apartment in The Coris. The blue print you see on the left is the original one, but we've made many modifications and hacked away many walls, and even changed the positions of 2 main doors. It's quite a massive effort, and according to our designer will take around 2 months for the renovations to complete. Mabel and I spent a long time talking about the colour themes, and even choosing a wall paper took us an eternity. Too bad I can't show you guys the completed design, but even if I could I'd rather keep the surprise till the house warming party, most probably by the end of the year in December. For those who can't come (either I forgot to invite you or you don't know me or you're from overseas) , I'll definately post up pictures here as well. Both me and Mabel are really excited as renovation work will begin in 2 weeks time. It means a busy time for the both of us but having already waited so long for this, we can't wait to see our designer put our ideas into life, and having our own place really means a lot to us as well. The countdown begins soon! :)
Message to Mabel dar dar:
After our hourse renovations are completed, I'll begin plans for another holiday next year as promised, perhaps during Valentine's day, to either Taiwan or Osaka. Yes, another Japan trip is on the horizon! Woo hoooo!
Mabel and I also visited the Philips carnival over at their ware house this week. And as expected, the place was packed as many of their electrical appliances were on clearance sales and it was quite a bargain. We got for ourselves a 26 inch LCD TV for our room in the Coris, and a vacuum cleaner, an electrical flask, an iron, and even a rice cooker, all at bargain prices. It never fails to plan early, and since these items were going at attrative prices we'd figure we might as well get them early.
It's been another week of courses for me, and for the past month I've been averaging only 2 days per week in my office, due to 2 CPE courses over at the National Institute of Education, 1 GSI Safety management course at Seletar camp, and one last minute insertion for a Problem solving & Decision making course over at FTC. The last 2 were last minute insertions while the CPE courses were part of my quota for the year. Additionally, I will also be going for the Basic Intelligence Officer course next month, which trains battalion S2s. It's a good break from work but now I need to catch up on lost time, especially with the overseas trip coming up in 2 months time. I'm still disappointed because I will miss my Japanese Language Proficiency Test 3, which takes place internationally on the same day and happens only once a year. While, work still comes first and I'd have no choice but to take next year's exam. I'll still carry on with the next level's courses and lessons though.
Me and mabel caught the korean horror movie "The Host" yesterday, as I've heard from certain friends that the effects were done by a US company of Hollywood standards. And sure enough, the movie features outstanding CG which were better than anything I've seen in Asian cinema. However, I didn't really enjoy the movie very much. Here's a mini review from me, so do stop reading as it contains several spoilers, should you want to watch this movie while it's still screening in most theaters. First, I'm not particularly impressed by the main character of this movie. Argubly, his daughter should have been the main star instead. The protagonist, however, is a character with not much charm and even his screen dad claims theres something wrong with his head. There's nothing which he does in the movie which attracts the audience. Well, maybe 2 events, when he tries to save the people trapped inside the caravan and the ending of the movie when he gave the finishing blow to the monster. Other than that, he can be indirectly blamed for the death of his father and the abduction of his daughter. And even after his daughter's "death", he was only that depressed on could even complain of hunger while inside the hospital's custody.
Ok, main character aside, there were still a few mis-cast characters, such as the WHO representative who looked more goofy than a cartoon character, and the sudden inclusion of a street refugee who became the hero of the day. I've got a lot of nit picks when it comes to the plot, and the pacing of the story too. There are just too many loop holes in the movie, and too many unanswered questions which I thought were not very logical to begin with. Eg: What was the monster anyway? How did it grow to such massive proportions? Why weren't the korean military doing anything about the monster after the first attack? Instead the infected family was the one who did all the investigations! Why did the USA lie about the virus? What was the agenda they had for introducing Agent Yellow? And where the hell was the military again at the end of the movie? They had police to go against the rioters but no military to guard the Han river?
And the brain surgery the main character under went.... what was that all about? As you see, too many plot holes. And the pacing of the movie was draggy at so many scenes I concluded that the producers had to do this due to lack of funds for more monster CG scenes. End of the day, my advice is to wait for the televison broadcast or just rent the VCD/DVD. The idea of the movie was good, just that the execution could have been done much better.
The Ultraman Mebius & Ultraman Brothers movie opened country wide in Japan yesterday! Story: It is an occurrence of 20 years ago. Ultraman, Ultra Seven, Ultraman Jack, and Ultraman Ace were fighting with U-Killersaurus which goes to the earth in the universe. After intense fighting, U-Killersaurus was sunk into the offing in Kobe and sealed with Final Cross Shield. However, they used up the power of light by Final Cross Shield, and it became impossible to change to Ultraman. The present after that. Mebius is fighting with monster and alien on the earth. However, the alien union which is going to revive U-Killersaurus was approaching the earth.
Mebius is the youngest of all the Ultra brothers and has a lot to live up to. He is chosen as the new protector of the earth. This series is set in the same universe as the original timeline, when Mebius first appears to fight a monster, it is mentioned that this is the first time an Ultraman has appeared in 25 years. Under the guise of Mirai Hibino, Mebius joins Crew GUYS, the monster attack force of this series. And because it's Ultraman's 40th anniversary, this movie is dedicated to all the Ultraman fans, with the return to the big screen of the original Ultra Brothers: Ultraman, in his Type A face no less as a hompage to the orignal series (see below for explaination), Ultraman Jack, Ultraman Ace, Ultraman Taro, Ultra Seven, and Zoffy.
Ultraman's face mask have changed since the beginning of the series. The first, called A type was shown during the first few episodes. His face was uneven and looked much like an alien. The second type, called B type was made much smoother and he looked much better. The final version, called C type, is the one we're most used to. It's difference with the B type is that the mouth is made wider and chin less sharp.
I rushed over to Mike's store at Lucky Chinatown last week during my Japanese lesson break time (ahh the perks of having a car), and collected my S.I.C Volume 34: Kamen Rider Ibuki and Zanki. Refer to last entry for my list of must-gets this month. Hopefully I would be able to save up enough to collect my Berserk Garo end of this week. I've packed most of my other figures ready to be shifted to the new flat, which renovations is due to start next week.
It's still pretty much a dull week so far, but things will definately be looking up soon enough. Our designer is going to confirm our quotation for the flat this week, and work is scheduled to commence next week. We'll start the hunt for the other furniture and accessories soon, and perhaps the electronic appliances as well. So much commitments, but at least we've got most things planned out. Well, most things, yeah. :) Let me end of the entry with one of my fave Ultraman commercials of all time. It's an oldie, but definately a goodie.
