We have filmed these video clips back in 2004 when Cynthia and I visited Bangkok doing all the shopping, dining, and sightseeing. Today I have picked up where I left off years ago and put them together into a simple short video clip. I chose the fifties style because these clips are sort of … dated. Enjoy!
I thought I was taking my mom and sister to Fraser Hill, Malaysia but Cynthia has booked us into Cameron Highland for a night instead. Sticking to the speed limit took us nine hours to reach the hotel. Heavy rain and road work slowed us down a bit. Just imagine, a mere 10% increased in traveling speed can easily shave off close to an hour of traveling time. It is mind boggling to imagine if I was to go another 10% …
I have been sneezing since yesterday. Either it is a cold or allergy. Both are bad for my voice. Hope it’ll go away before weekend.
I will be landing in Singapore in approximately 8 hours and I guess it has been a smashing holiday: Disneyland, Lamma Island, lots of good food in different kinds of restaurants, lots of shopping, spending time with family, and clubbing at Insomnia for the countdown. And yes, after I save this chapter, I will be heading to a final round of Dim Sum. How I love Hong Kong.
Almost every year I do a reflection. I doubt if year 2005 would have been kinder to me had I gone through my resolution. Most likely I won’t bother to do one this year.
I am going to share seven “Believe it or Not” with you (good things come in seven).
Believe it or not, my family bumped onto Alan Tam – a (once) legendary Canto-Pop singer – on our way to dinner this evening. Inside the lift, everyone was holding our breath. He is much older, shorter, and fatter than we thought he is.
Believe it or not, I realised last evening that my credit card limit is busted by seven hundred odd Singapore dollars. I panicked and called my UOB banker at midnight and she told me that I would not be able to use my credit card till I make payment. I answered her that I use GIRO (interbank transfer) and what date would that be. She told me 22nd Jan. I panicked and told her that UOB credit card is the only card I have. She raised my limit temporarily and I ended the overseas call with a “Happy New Year”.
Believe it or not, during the long wait up to the changing room today, I had a wonderful application for 3G phones. How nice if I could call my wife using 3G phones while I change and she could comment how well or not well the clothes fit without me walking out of the changing room. Year 2006 is a year of 3G for sure!
Believe it or not, when I first filled in the declaration form to apply for my new Hong Kong Identity Card, I put Singapore Citzen on the Nationality column. Then the officer paused, turned the form around, and asked me if I have my passport with me. I did not. My mother asked if it was necessary to declare myself as a Singaporean. The officer replied that some people filled in “Hong Kong” and some filled in “Chinese” and she looked away. Now, I am not going to blog what happened then (you will never know how the Singapore govenment scans her citizens’ blogs). I thought it was an interesting experience.
Couple of days ago, I was viewing my father’s self directed, self casted, and self scripted “Tai Chi” DVD and believe it or not, towards the end of the DVD, I could see steam rising up from his head – totally shocking. It must be some kind of real kung foo he was doing.
Believe it or not, I have been hunting for Mai Kuraki’s new Japanese album “Fuse of Love”. My friend told me that it is sold for more than S$70 in Japan and it costed roughly the same in Singapore HMV. Then I resisted buying the CD at a sale price of S$55 and it was sold out in a matter of days. I have been searching for all the HMV’s in Hong Kong and finally found it in one of the local Hong Kong record store – selling at rougly S$50. Some kind of obsessions I have.
After a long hiking at Lamma Island (I will post the photos when I am back to Singapore) and after a last minute of shopping for winter clothes (yes! I can throw away all my old ones that I brought from Singapore), during dinner (after we bumped onto Alan Tam) I have perhaps solved a riddle that my friend JS gave me more than seven years ago. Many times JS asked me to give up but I insisted in solving the riddle myself. What is the riddle? If you are under 18, just skip the rest of this blog.
How can 2 couples (i.e. 2 men and 2 women) having a foursome with just 2 condoms?
I have been that innocent for that long? Sigh. And believe it or not, it took me seven long years to solve that.
Woke up late recovered from the new year party that Cynthia and I only managed to get home this morning. The write-up on the Insomnia experience was somewhat short (I promise you three interesting stories if you read on) as after getting rid of the cigarette smell off my body from head to toe, all I wanted was my bed.
Anticipated the big crowd at LKF, we have arrived relatively early. Although this was the second time I tried to make my way to LKF, it was impossible for us to get lost. There were big signs saying: This Way to LKF. Along the way, roads were blocked and policemen and police vehicles were stationed. For those who are new to LFK, there were casualties couple of years ago when a big crowd collapsed on a slopped road during the countdown.
Entered into Insomnia and ordered our drink. There is no entrance fee but the waitresses do not hesitate to make you feel bad and say: if you stand here, you must order a drink! We found our little relatively peaceful standing area away from the cigarette puffers and away from the flow of traffic (people making their ways into the toilets and out). We ended up standing right in front of the stage, which was nice. As we were dancing to the Hip Hop music, I have overheard the following conversations.
A girl’s voice said, “What type of girl do you like?”
That question suddenly pulled me away from my trance state of Hip Hop and I smelt a new story. I turned around and saw this pretty young girl, short hair, trendy, nice feature, and with her was her friend looking way ordinary compared to her. Long hair was all I could remember. The man was fat and he looked Mediterranean. He was soft spoken and I could not make out what he reply was but the pretty one continued, “This is my friend.” But I gathered that the fat one preferred the pretty one to the ordinary one.
The pretty one continued, “Today I am on holiday. I will be at work next week. Call me and we shall meet.”
I could only guess what sort of profession the pretty one was having. Okay, that is story number one.
I swear there were more ladies – beautifully dressed up – than men in Insomnia. On the front row of the stage are the fans and friends and family members of the live bands. I knew it by seeing how the band members greeted them like good old friends. One of the waitresses asked the middle aged lady in front of me to order a drink and when she refused, the waitresses was about to give her a hard time. That was when the middle aged lady pointed to the keyboardist on stage and said something that I could only imagine as: he is my son. Immediately the waitress’s attitude changed and even brought the middle aged lady a glass of warm water. On the far right was a young girl – tall, long hair, unblemished skin, wearing yellow – who throughout the show ogling over the bold, handsome, and tall Southeast Asian bassist. The chemistry between them was overwhelming.
During the break, the bassist was at the back stage and the young girl was signaling to him openly that she wanted his phone number and would call and meet him. The word “signaling” was an understatement. She was aggressively gesturing him that she was all his had him taken up the challenge. Yes, she challenged him. Perhaps it is because of the club policy that he did not take up the “challenge”. Or perhaps, the bassist is dating one of the hot female vocalists? Who knows? Girls these days really go all out to get the ones they want.
That is story number two. We wanted to leave Insomnia at twelve-ish – after the countdown and after the live band’s second session. When we stepped out of Insomnia, we were faced with a huge crowd and decided to go back in and hide for a while. In retrospect, we were faced with an even larger crowd when we left Insomnia at two-ish. There were bouncers controlling the crowd entering the club.
For the third session, there was a new band and there were two vocalists – male and female (I suspect all the in-house bands have such a mix). Both were tall and not particularly good looking (I have this theory that if you don’t look good in an in-house band, you must sing well). When the female vocalist took the stage and sang “My Happy Ending” by Avril Lavigne, her friends at the front row all screamed and pointed at the male vocalist who was standing besides her oblivious to all these gestures. Even the female vocalist made a light gesture (a sad face nodding to her friends) to acknowledge the fact. That song was sung with so much emotion that I felt moved. The lyrics of the song can be found in here. “My Happy Ending” is not a happy love song. It is rather sad about unfulfilled love.
Insomnia is where my wife and I did our countdown to year 2006. The club is located at Lan Kwai Fong – one of the popular locations for people to spend their New Year Eve evening. The party was smashing, the in-house bands were great, and the girls were hot.
It is great to start a new year with such a great party. I am sure this year will be great.
Happy new year you all!
I have to be careful in writing this chapter after recent news of Singaporean bloggers jailed for blogging materials that are racisim in nature. I doubt if any Singaporeans will be stupid enough to openly admit anything that may get them in jail.
There I was in the mall 298 looking for blank CDs, I observed couple of shops selling pirated software. The setup is as such. As you walk into the shop, you will be greeted by rows of empty plastic packages displaying software titles. You will be encouraged to seek assistence from the shop assistances – teenages – because the shop space is small and you will be kicked out of the shop if you spend too much time blocking other potential customers.
The shop assistances seems to be very well versed on the software and upon making your selection, he or she will write the software code onto a piece of small blue square paper and ask you to pay outside the shop.
So, carrying the small blue piece of shopping list, you will meet with a middle aged man who speak Mandarin. You pass him the money and he will make a phone call, make some writing onto your piece of paper, and ask you to come back in half an hour’s time.
From time to time, you will see a delivery boy carrying a bag full of pirated software all packed nicely with tag numbers. I did a fast count and I reckon they earn HKD5,000 to 10,000 (S$1,000 to S$2,000) for each 15 to 30 minutes.
Now, if they don’t have the software you are asking for, you will be given a piece of white paper with the shop assistance’s phone number and he will ask you to come back tomorrow. Of course you could demand your money back but these are gangsters.
And as the business continues, the middle aged man who collects cash, places orders, and distribute packages will periodically pass the cash back to one of the shop assistances. Just imagine how much cash he would hold had he not off-load the money.
Four hours to year 2006!
Finished “The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time” by Mark Haddon. From the readers’ review at Amazon.com, the book is accurately written from the mind of an autistic child. My next novel to read is probably Slow Man by the nobel-winner J. M. Coetzee – another book bought by my wife besides the doggie book.
Back to the topic of this chapter. I had four dreams last night (could have been more but I could not remember) and two of which I was so glad that they were just a dream.
In my first dream, it was back in my university days when I lived inside the university together with my band members in different rooms. One night when I got back from study, I found that my room was broken into and I have lost all my guitars! I was so sad and I seeked out my band members for solace. Then I woke up and thanked God that it was just a dream.
In my second dream, again at night, I was taking a tram with one of my lady colleagues and one of my lady clients. It was initially crowded and in the end, just the three of us with the lady tram driver. The street was dark and deserted and the driver parked the tram in the middle of nowhere. We got out of the tram and then I woke up. I wanted more!
Daytime, or lunch time to be precise. I took my guitar and effect and mixer and the cables to a music store to fix my unwanted noise problem (real life problem indeed and I am eager to fix that when I return to Singapore). Somehow they took too long and I was very late to get back to work. I was so worried that my big boss was going to give me a hard time and thanked God, it was a dream.
Last dream that I can remember of, I have arrived at a college ball with my wife and my sister in the evening. Aparently I was not properly dressed. I searched through the suitcase for something proper and could not find one. So I asked if I could visit the store room (during the school holiday back in the university days, most students would put their belongings into the store room and headed somewhere to stay for the 8 weeks holiday) and the official said no. In the end I found something to wear inside the suitcase and I woke up.
I wonder if all these four dreams mean something. Anyway, year 2005 is ending in 6 hours’ time.
Finished “One Hundred Strokes of the Brush Before Bed” by Melissa P. Hard to believe any girl would subject her body to such humiliation. Then again, diaries of this sort are often shocking – like “Prozac Nation” on depression. Moved onto “The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time” by Mark Haddon written in the form of a diary in the mind of an autistic child investing a dog found dead in a neighbour’s garden only to discover secrets after secrets of the neighbourhood. The author succeeded in bringing out the sound mathematical mind of a small boy despite the disabilities. I was down to a few pages left as of last night and am definitely looking forward to how to ending turned out.
Remember the accident I was talking about (see chapter 9)? On the same stretch of the road, I saw something very rare tonight. Two businessmen flagged down a taxi for his friend (late fourties I reckon) and his escort coming out from a nightclub. She looked elegant. The last time I have seen a nightclub escort was years ago when there was a nightclub on the ground floor of my apartment (now replaced by a music store). I had a glimpse of an escort dashing from the taxi and into the nightclub. It is rare to me because even though there are a few nightclubs within 5 minutes of walking radius of my home, I don’t get to see the girls who work inside.
Quite honestly I did not expect to type the paragraph above. Once you start to write down the highlights of your daily life, you may find that life is indeed pretty interesting.
Coincidentally, of the three books I have brought along from Singapore, two of which are actual diaries of the authors. Today, I have finished the three volumes in one “A Prison Diary” by Jeffery Archer and started “One Hundred Strokes of the Brush Before Bed” by Melissa P. It is quite a transition because all of a sudden, I have switched from an established author in his sixties writing about his experience in prision, his view of the system, and the drug problem that UK faced – to a new author in her teens writing about her love and sex experience. Both have good reviews and interestingly, the diary entries of the two books overlap. Think of it this way, while someone was writing about his prison life in England, someone else was writing about her love and sex life in Italy. One is full of humour, compassion, and maturity while another one is full of passion about life. Perhaps diary has become popular these days. And perhaps if I start writing a book titled “A Songwriter’s Diary”, it may even sell.
My another favourite diary style of book is “Prozac Nation: Young and Depressed in America: A Memoir” by Elizabeth Wurtzel.
During my Dim Sum with my family – my third time having Dim Sum in this short stay in Hong Kong (and on the same day, my dad had one in the morning) – I was catching up with my mother with people whom I know in Hong Kong. Two love stories worth mentioning.
One of my mother’s childhood friend has a son who is younger than me by close to ten years. He is one of the most disciplined kids I have seen. Hard to believe that he is now working as well as dating. How many of you have come across someone who is aspired to be a fireman? This kid is one. He would stay at the fire scene for hours just to see how the firemen do their jobs. Last year, unfortunate enough, he has injured his wrist before the fireman test and he was disqualified by one point. This year, he has developed a bit of short sightedness and failed again. Poor chap.
He loves working outdoor hence even though he is an university graduate, he worked as a life guard (at the beach I suppose and again, how many of you have know a friend who …). Now that he is in love with a girl and been dating for two years, he has given up his life guard job and took up accounting – something he was trained for. In order to advance his career, he takes up a night class for his master degree. I bet he would be a lot happier to pursue his dreams but then again, reality sinks in (doesn’t it all the time?). Ironically, his parents are the one who give him the freedom to choose his career. Love has a twisted way to change one’s life.
The second story left me in shock. This story itself could have been expanded to be a full story (perhaps I shall send this blog to one of the publishers). My mother’s another childhood friend just came back from Canada. She was married to a local businessman with one son and one daughter. We had Dim Sum once and from the conversation, I was puzzled about her marital status so I asked my mother during Dim Sum, “What happened to her hushand?”
“They are separated,” my mother answered.
“Really, how come? When did it happen?” I put on my writing hat and inquired.
Aparently, her ex-husband was in love with one of his employees (his first love) long before he has met my mother’s best friend. After one big fight between him and his first love, they broke up and he dated my mother’s best friend. After she was pregnant, they have decided that it was time to get married. However, since her ex-husband and his first love worked in the same company (owned by him), very soon they got back together. From then on and throughout their marriage, his first love was very much part of her life.
I was shocked and said, “This can’t be true. Didn’t she know about all these affairs?”
My mother continued the story and told me that even her children accepted their father’s mistress. I was dumbfounded and asked, “How?” The answer was as shocking.
“Simple,” my mother answered, “The mistress spends a lot of money buying gifts or simply handing cash to my best friend and her children. Mind you, her money come from my best friend’s ex-husband. Ironically, her children may like the mistress more than their mother.”
“This doesn’t make sense, shouldn’t your best friend be rich as well?”
“Ah, she has two weaknesses.”
“And that is?”
“Greed and being stingy. My best friend hardly spends money on herself nor her children and she was greedy to accept the gifts from her ex-husband’s mistress,” my mother answered.
I was speechless and secretly marveled at the mistress’s secret of success. My next question was how did she get divorced then. The answer goes back to that one fine day when her ex-husband has decided to purchase a bigger apartment to house both his family and his mistress under one roof and my mother’s best friend could not take it. In the end, she was offered a few properties and a generous monthly allowance. He is now a free man to wed his first love instead.
What a love story.