Sanity… is for the Weak

In the meantime, I was tickled pink by this little comic strip

We just caught Initial D the Movie…

2 words : Jay Sucketh…
Another 2: … Big Time.

Granted, the character he’s portraying’s supposed to be this bored young man, who’s usually spaced out and daydreaming. Unfortunately,the feeling that came across was a “I’m too too good for you” look; the kind of look that makes you feel like punching the little twerp in the face the moment you see his face.

Other than that, the cars and the racing was superb. The writing team and directors took rather free reign with the original manga and animation, so many of the character’s relationships were vastly different from the originals. But then again, why would I pay $7 (it’s a monday ~ we saved $2.50 each! ~ more on this later) to see a show that I’ve already read and watched on anime?

I think my friend’s advice is valid: whenever Jay comes on screen, just close your eyes… and the movie will rock.

Redeeming points:
1) Chapman To is extremely funny as Jay’s sidekick! In fact, I think he saved the show from being just another mediocre made-in-HK crap.
2) Race scenes. It was awesome to watch it on animation… the fact that they’re doing this for real with real people and real cars is… mind blowing. Wow.
3) Kenny Bee. Wifey was raving about him… still very good looking for a man in his, what, 50’s?

Back to the movie price rant:
WHAT THE HELL IS THE PROBLEM WITH MOVIE PRICES?!?!? It’s freaking daylight robbery to watch movies on weekends! $9.50 for a bloody ticket? If we catch the show on mondays to thursdays, it’s only $7.00 ~ a $2.50 difference! Between the 2 of us, we can catch 3 weekday shows for every 2 weekends! Seriously,, while I understand that there is such a thing as inflation, but wasn’t the idea of having movie multi-plexes able to give us more movies at cheaper prices? Sheesh… and I still remember being able to get Circle seats at Capitol for just $6.50, or even Stall seats at the old theater at mom’s for $3.50.

Finally back from the weekend dive trip ~ looking at the logs, our last visit to Pu Aur was actually in July ‘02!

It’s been 3 years and Divers Lodge seems to have run down quite a bit; it still has a rather rustic feel to it now, but on closer inspection, the wood’s starting to come apart, the paint’s peeling, and it looks a lot more shabby now, compared to the previous picture I’ve posted.

It seems that there are less divers visiting this spot; the reefs are showing quite a bit of new life, especially the corals - never in my life have I seen a carpet of new and tiny staghorns and soft corals. I hope that the infestation of Crown-of-Thorn Starfishes don’t kill off the new growth - we counted quite a few of the stuff. I guess that if the missus isn’t with child by August, we could go and join up with Project Aware to do our but for the environment.

On the other hand; the marine life is not quite as abundant as before… I suppose that the reef has to be mature before it can support the bigger fishes?

Oh well, it as an enjoyable trip - back to reality tomorrow… >_<

There is no remedy for love, but to love more.
- Henry David Thoreau (1817 - 1862), Journal, July 25, 1839

*muaks*

Diving day! w00t!

It’s been a totally mad day. Rushing, rushing ~ strangely though, I don’t feel tired at all. Wonder why?
Let’s see now:
1) Woke up at 4am - phone started to complain because it was running low on batt. I SWEAR I’m gonna get rid of that cheap piece of Made-in-Singapore crap of a mobile phone! It complains when low on juice, and keeps on going until it dies… a process that takes anything up to 2 hours.
2) Boss went on leave. Yay… problem is, he hasn’t approved my leave for tomorrow!!! Arrgh!!! Solution: Jump the chain of command and go one level higher ~ HoD.
3) Totally forgot that I had to be at the Parliament House for the lecture on International Law by Prof Phillipe Sands. When Chief Clerk came in and asked why wasn’t I gone yet, the first response was *Blink*… “Doh!”… “Arrrrgggghhh!!!!” Result: Rush from work to home, change to civvies, rush from home to Parliament House, all in 40mins. Not bad eh?
4) Supposed to pick up the script from David for his wedding. (sorry David! m(._.)m ) but it kinda got bumped from dinner today to lunch tomorrow.
5) Got home and got packed for the weekend dive trip! Somehow life just seems easier with a tank on my back and at least 3ft of water over my head. ~sigh~
6) Changed the bed sheets. It’s been there for 3 weeks… I know Mr. Sandman’s supposed to visit when you sleep, but a sandy-feeling bed is a little uncomfortable.

Things to do tomorrow:
1) Ensure leave gets approved! (Weekend depends on this!)
2) Pickup script from David ~ he’s buying lunch; but then again, he owns the store. Fair’s fair I guess.
3) Pickup *NEW* passport from the ICA. (Again, weekend depends on this!)
4) If I have time, maybe pickup a nice book or something? If not, then I guess it’s Project Gutenberg to PSP time.

Oh, and I got arrowed to organise the Forum outing for next month. What joy. sigh.

Whee!
One offshoot of dinner on sunday, was that we all decided to go diving

We were supposed to divide up the work of calling the operators to get the best rate for either Tioman or Aur, but turned out that Tammy was damn bored/free/whatever that she did everything for us. LoL…

So here we are, going off to Pu Aur on friday.

Oh, that’s Diver’s Lodge, Pu Aur, Malaysia by the way… nice place, if you dig the rustic feel. I quite like the place - peaceful, quiet, beautiful. However, the diving’s… a little lacking. Not much to see, compared to, say, Maldives or Manado, but still pretty respectable. Then again, anything’s better than the pea-soup that passes for sea-water in Singapore…

And we didn’t want to get out of bed…
Thunder and lightning came as if on cue this morning - 6:30am sharp. I know, cause I just hit the snooze button on the phone.
And man, was it loud!
So loud that wifey managed to do a jump while laying horizontal… first time I’ve ever seen it possible .

Hmm… dinner on Sunday was a success (as usual ^_^). They liked the appitizer, though Tammy wasn’t too keen on the baked eggs (she’s not too fond of vegetables, see?) she still ate it all up. Looks like my “Baked Scallops wrapped in Bacon, with Tangy Lemon Dip” will be my signature dish from now on.

Failures: The Pear Creme Brulee. Well, Kea liked it - sweet tooth! - but I thought that it was a disaster; the $#@! sugar on top didn’t melt as usual, and I sent it back to the oven for another round of baking… forgetting that’ll melt the custard.
Damn.
Gotta get me one of those flame-thrower thingy chefs use to melt sugar for caramel.

What is it about saturdays? You wanna stay in and laze… get up in time for lunch and back into bed again… *EXCEPT* the dog starts whining at 8-sharp and I gotta haul my lazy ass off to walk the both of ‘em. ~sigh~

Anyway, tomorrow’s going to be a busy day; Father’s Day… well my dad’s waaaayyy outta town, so we’ll have lunch with the in-laws; also Tam & Kea’s coming over for dinner, and here’s the menu for tomorrow:

1) Appitizer- Baked Scallops wrapped in Bacon, served with Tangy Mandrin Sauce
2) Main - Sautee’ed Pork Chops marinated overnight with ground Black Pepper, Smoked Garlic, Olive Oil, some Sugar and Salt. Side of Mushrooms and Brocoli, with either Coffee sauce (if I can wing it) or Mushroom sauce.
3) Dessert - Pear Creme Brulee with crusted Caramel topping

Vino - a ‘03 German Reisling and Port for after.

Oh, and Coffee from our brand-new Bodum Siphon Coffee maker *slurp*

It’s been a while…
I know I haven’t been diligently updating this. So, many, many apologies to all my loyal fans (yeah, all 2 of ya!) *muaks!* m(._.)m

On with the show!
This here is the Astronomical Clock in Prague - shows not only time, but the seasons, and what star sign it is. Built in 1410 - legend has it that every person who is tried to maintain or decipher it’s inner workings have either gone mad, or committed suicide….