Baggage allowance to Canada and US are based on piece concept and the rest of the world is based on weight concept. Piece concept: 2 pieces of baggage, not more than 23kg each Weight concept: less than 20kg of baggage for economy class, 30kg for business class posted by Yee 11:36 PM . . .
we had a jc class outing yesterday evening. it was some sort of a Christmas dinner cum gift exchange. not many people could turn up. attendance list: me, wanyu, yilin, kaisiang, huiyi, choo, kaili, yanfen, fadzli, IJ, junjie, yiming. 12 people for a Christmas party, it's just nice. lucky we didn't have 13 though, hehe, otherwise i don't think i can resist talking rubbish and simply freak everyone out. anyway, i didn't know yiming could make it for the dinner. i asked him over msn the other day, if he could make it on friday. no reply, so i went off. later on, when the date was changed back to thursday night, allan said all three of them wouldn't be able to make it on thursday because he and mervyn had prior appointments, and yiming had fyp. so, i just scraped all their names off the list. it didn't even occur to me for a second to get back to yiming. however, wanyu smsed me on thursday afternoon to tell me something entirely different. apparently, yiming thought the class outing was confirmed as friday so he couldn't go. he asked wanyu to inform me that he couldn't make it on friday and she was like "no! it's tonight!" oh dear. he immediately shot to jurong point toys 'r' us and got the gift exchange. and he came all the way down to eunos to meet us. how nice. it made a difference, not just rounding off the number to a nice 12, but also the effort to join us. something else worth mentioning, it was huiyi. she is such a classic ditsy scatterbrain. wednesday night she suddenly smsed me in alarm, asking me if the budget for gift exchange was min or max 10. now in reaction to this first sentence, you would be thinking, oh dear this is bad. but what was completely unexpected was the second line. "i thought it was 5!" *faint* why she bothered putting in the first line, i have no idea. haha... well she managed to get the right thing in the end anyway. can we get into details of the gathering? hehe we were all starving by the time we met at eunos mrt. everyone felt he/she could eat a horse. simply 4 pizzas didn't seem enough to feed 12 people, 5 of which were guys. so, we got a holly classic meal from pizza hut, and 4 large pizzas from canadian pizza. it was such a pity that the canadian pizzas simply weren't as nice. but anyway, it wasn't like terrible. yiming looked at the meat lovers pizza and went, "this looks so awful. i don't know how we're going to finish it." goodness. can't he just keep that to himself? IJ commented more than once,"i've never seen so much pizza in my entire life," complete with shaking his head in resignation. after the food, we got down to the gift exchange. they wanted to just tag it with numbers, but i convinced them to tag it using christmas song titles. it was so cute! o holy night, sleigh ride, winter wonderland, o come all ye faithful, joy to the world, don't save it all for christmas day, hark the herald angels sing, what are you doing new year's eve, have yourself a merry little christmas, mary did you know, silent night, the christmas song. of course, i chose the christmas song! i like that one... and anyway, it's the only full song i can sing. haha... ok, siew choo got my sudoku book in the gift exchange. i'm not convinced she's not disappointed by it, but she might come to appreciate it in time. it sure exceeds the minimum requirement in price though. and i chipped in more for the wrapping as well. you think the pretty flower doesn't cost money? in my gift exchange i got hagen daaz vouchers, courtesy of fadzli. $10 voucher! ice-cream! i'm sure my face completely lit up upon seeing it. haha... some of them were likte, does she really like ice-cream that much? somebody rebutted, who doesn't like ice-cream?! but i say, they clearly weren't there at swensens to see me with my five scoops of ice-cream and the final empty dish. haha! all in all, it was quite fun, though the organization part was somewhat a nightmare. i'm glad 12 people made it in the end, and i'm glad kaisiang's dogs (the ferocious german shepherd as well as the friendly golden retriever) were leashed. i hope the rest of them enjoyed it too. =) posted by Yee 11:00 PM . . .
4D4N Jakarta/Bandung trip Itinerary: Thu night: arrive at jkt late at night, to accomodate your usual working schedule in the day. no dinner will be provided, except the in-flight meal. supper, however, can be requested. consists of macaroni and lil sausage smokies. in-flight entertainment is provided on the SQ flight. many choices of movies, but wallace & gromit and must love dogs is recommended. earphones are not provided though, so you'd better be able to read the tiny chinese subtitles on the tiny private screen. upon arrival at accomodation, hot water bath will be available. Fri: more lil smokies for breakfast. when the transport is available, we shall head to megamal. timing will be off peak hours, so you will not be stuck in a traffic jam. upon arrival at megamal, you are free to explore the shopping area, though the things are rather poorly made and ugly. at matahari, fila shirts are quite pretty, and priced reasonably. my suggestion? get 2, provided it has your size. blue star on the ground floor has plenty of nice clothes too, but is a tad expensive if you don't buy more. there is promotion if you buy 2. nice three-quats, and some nice tops. lunch will be at mutiara restaurant. recommended menu: sapo tahu seafood, kodok goreng mentega, fumak, juice apulkat. after shopping at megamal, head to ratu plaza for an ocean of 3.1459-rated dvds. well, provided they haven't just been raided and buried under plastic sheets. discs are priced at 7000 each. quality will be compromised, and you are expected to have to breathe in plenty of low end cigarette smoke. after ratu plaza, dinner will be at ah yat seafood. the food is nice, high end stuff, but still cheaper than sgp food. you are encouraged to eat your portion of everything ordered, unless you are feeling sick and are at risk of throwing up everything you swallowed, including the 60,000 bamboo oyster. Sat: Bandung trip, one day tour. due to set off at 8am for a 2 hour drive to bandung. however, we need to accomodate for lateness, so you might be made to wait until 10.45 before you can begin the drive to bandung. there will hardly be any traffic jam, because of the new highway. you can arrive in 2 hours, but if you want to eat at sapu lidi, expect to spend more time going there. the air will be much fresher, but the food will not be exceptionally special, though it will still taste good. the house recommends the fresh strawberry juice, but not us. it is expensive, and the portion is miserly. hot tea may seem desirable after the meal, but it comes in a package, togtether with an insect in it, complete with wings. after lunch, expect to spend some time wandering in kampung daun, which isn't fantastic but interesting enough. finally, the shopping spree will begin. first stop is rumah mode, which has a huge collection of clothes as well as crowd. 5 pcs are allowed in the fitting room, but the queue will be extremely long. second stop is blossom, which has nothing nice to offer, so we can skip that. third stop is jetset, where you can buy nice jeans. the fitting room sucks though, because it's facing the open at it's only curtains. if you have to misfortune of being near run-amok kids, you might be attacked while you're changing. fourth stop is episode, which is highly recommended. the place is not too crowded, since it is quite new. the things are cheaper than the other stores, and there are fitting rooms at different corners of the store. you are only allowed 2 pcs, but no one will be watching so you can even bring the whole bag in. make sure you have enough time to spend at the GAP section, and enough money to pay! fifth and final stop in grande, which has brands like esprit, burberry and fcuk. the clothes are not so nice, with a smaller variety. the price is very cheap though, and the fitting room is well organized. dinner is next, at sierra cafe and lounge. the air is great, but there is no view (it's at the mmiddle of a hill) and the food is only mediocre. omelette would be a safe choice. be careful not to turn the wrong way on your way out. the drive to the highway while you're still at bandung will be tricky and potentially jammed. once you're on the highway, it's a smooth ride. too smooth, actually, so you could get very sleepy. it would be nice if people around you tried to help keep you awake. Sun: breakfast consists of expensive lovely delicious cheese sausages. enjoy. shopping will be at taman anggrek where you can buy plenty of undergarments, cheap. lunch at sapo oriental is recommended, but you are advised to request to be seated safe in the non-smoking section. strawberry juice here is recommended. it tastes great and is much cheaper than at sapu lidi. don't bother ordering nasi goreng nanas and sapo sapi ala hong kong. you are encouraged to concentrate on sapo tahu seafood, udang bola mayonnaise and nasi goreng kampung. it is expected you will be tired by now, so after getting kueh lapis, if you want, you will be sent back home for a rest. dinner is planned at basara, so you can mampir ratu plaza to exchange any faulty dvds you had bought. however, something might crop up such that you can't dinner at basara, so paregu is another option. enjoy the buffet yakiniku. Mon: no transport is available today, so you will have to walk to the nearby citraland. lunch will be at kfc, which is quite cheap considering the set meal (drink, rice, 2 pc chicken) is only 19,000. it tastes good too. have a walk around the mall and have tea break at bakmi gang kelinci. the juice apulkat there is great and in a generous portion, though you must remember to ask them to separate the gula, otherwise it is too sweet. you'd be really tired now, so prepare to head home. don't forget you need to walk back. you have some time for packing, and then catch your flight back! posted by Yee 12:09 PM . . .
watched SPL with lap tonight. it was so good. really a great movie. the review was right, you can hardly remember anything weaknesses of the film because the thrill is simply overwhelming. i'm experiencing nothing short of an adrenaline rush now. how to sleep??! the best gungfu scene in the show was the one in the alley between donnie yen and wu jing. one knife (more like parang, actually) versus one baton. you may think the knife has an advantage, but the baton (longer) wasn't what you'd call a disadvantage. both of them were extremely skilled, though it seemed like the part was sped up digitally. but nevermind, because it was still highly captivating and exciting. honestly, with scenes like this, who cares whether or not they have a good reason for fighting? just show me the action! the storyline itself mah... come on i do remember it ok... did you think i'd be too enthralled by the action to remember what the story was about? that wouldn't be impossible though! well... given that the name of the movie is sha po lang, coming from the names of three stars in chinese astrology, there is enough of a hint as to how pathetic the ending would be. you shouldn't even expect anyone to live. but throughout the show, there is too much going on to let you remember the hint. and you certainly wouldn't want them to die. i'm glad the ace-killer Jet was killed though. he was so brutal and sadistic, he deserved a more painful death man. but well, he got his (almost) just desserts, so forget about him. the rest of the deaths were really tragic. why should they be given that kind of fate? inspector chan's team mates were a really close bunch, all loyal and efficient. i would not say their actions were completely right, but they weren't unjustified either. wah-kor was highly loyal to chan, caring him in more ways than just speaking. the other two never question chan. they trust him completely and willingly sacrifice (i'm talking about their lives) for him. chan himself is a righteous man, even though he tends to take things into his own hands. the team is highly close knitted, and it is hard for the newcomer-to-the-team, ma, not to get involved personally. disagreeing with their logic was one thing, but he had already subconsciously been following the same kind of logic since a long time ago. what really did it for him was having to witness deaths of his own people, seeing them brutally murdered yet unable to do a thing. that's enough to generate immense amounts of anger and fury in him to propel him into some sort of "killer-mode". he's determined to get revenge, he is. but he did not lose his sympathy. men. you get a totally different perspective as to how "brothers" work in "jiang hu". amazing. po is ruthless, he will go to any lengths to achieve his aim. but at the end of the day, he was only human, and he loved his family dearly. nope, the cops may be corrupt but they are not despicable. they didn't attempt to harm his family. ma even softened a bit when po's family was involved. but neither parties took advantage of the situation. amazing. okok enough of my talking. i should go sleep. got tuition in the morning, don't want to be drowsy during lesson. goodnight! posted by Yee 12:45 AM . . .
must do it justice. must post it here. http://www.lovehkfilm.com/reviews_2/spl.htmSPLAKA: Sha Po Lang Year: 2005 Director: Wilson Yip Wai-Shun Producer: Carl Chang Writer: Wilson Yip Wai-Shun, Szeto Kam-Yuen, Ng Wai-Lun Action: Donnie Yen Ji-Dan Cast: Donnie Yen Ji-Dan, Sammo Hung Kam-Bo, Simon Yam Tat-Wah, Wu Jing, Liu Kai-Chi, Danny Summer, Ken Chang, Austin Wai Tin-Chi, Timmy Hung Tin-Ming, Kenji Tanigak, Chan Tat-Chee The Skinny: SPL is a stylish return to HK-style grim-n-gritty action noir and one welcome motion picture. Nothing new really happens here, but that's just fine. Easily the best Hong Kong action film of the year. Reviewby Kozo: It's finally here. SPL has long been on the Internet radar as the Hong Kong movie to watch. Early Internet buzz pegged it as the answer to every Hong Kong action fan's prayers. Finally, a return to the eighties glory days! Gritty action! No popstars! And a plot where IT ALL GOES TO HELL! The hype on film forums and in-the-know sites has been deafening, and this is their message: if you're a Hong Kong movie fan, then SPL is the movie you've been waiting for. Are they right? Or is this the ranting of action fans wearing rose-colored glasses? A little of both actually. While SPL is probably better-regarded because it has no contemporaries, it's still a good little action noir in its own right. In short: see this movie. Simon Yam is Senior Inspector Chan, a hard boiled cop with a raging grudge. Back in 1994, Chan was caught in a car-on-car smash-em-up that took down a key criminal witness and his wife. The one who benefited: triad kingpin Po (Sammo Hung, sporting nifty tattoos and facial hair). The couple's young daughter survived, and Chan now cares for her. Meanwhile, Po is desperately trying to conceive with his wife. Cut to three years later (now it's 1997, hmmmm) and Po now has a baby son. Chan still has the young girl, plus his grudge against Po is still mighty potent. Enter Inspector Ma (a tan and eternally posing Donnie Yen), who's supposed to take over Chan's unit when the still-angry Chan steps down in three days. Chan's three subordinates (Liu Kai-Chi, Danny Summer, and Ken Chang) are also rightfully pissed off, and are willing to go to extreme lengths to take down Po before Chan retires. When Ma realizes the steps these guys are willing to take to achieve justice, his temper flares up too. Meanwhile, Po is pissed at all these cops who keep bothering him. That's a lot of angry people. But anger is good, because when people are mad, they break things with wild abandon. And a lot of stuff gets broken in SPL: tables, lamps, windows, bones, and probably your eardrums. If SPL and Dragon Squad are any evidence, the key to making an action picture nowadays is cranking up the sound. Punches and kicks have the sonic force of minor cannons, and the score by Chan Kwong-Wing (composer for those dinky Infernal Affairs movies) is bombastic with a capital "B". Still, the bombast is not overbearing; director Wilson Yip brings an assured and powerfully gripping style to the neo-noir underworld of SPL. This is a stylized cops-and-robbers world, where the good guys are corrupt but still righteously cool, and the bad guys are irretrievably nasty but still pathetically human. True to Wilson Yip's earlier films, he loads SPL with minor nuggets of character and recognizable humanity. This sort of genre/character cocktail once typified Yip's films, and while the effect feels more obligatory here than in Yip's earlier works (see Bio-Zombie or Bullets Over Summer for classic Wilson Yip), the moments are not unfelt. The emotional sequences sometimes stop the movie cold, but at other times they provide a minor, and even subtly compelling break in the action. And yes, there's action. While not as nonstop or balls-to-the-wall as the hype machine might lead one to believe, SPL features enough fists-flying, body-slamming action to satiate the Hong Kong Cinema faithful. Underrated action star and former Wushu champ Wu Jing (Drunken Monkey) shows up as Jet, Po's pet killer, and he makes the most of his rather minor role. The first half of SPL features a protracted setup as the players get introduced, and the major conflict (Chan wants Po taken down now, but Ma objects to Chan's ethically-challenged methods) delivered. Donnie Yen struts his lightning-quick kung-fu stuff in a few short sequences, but it isn't until Wu Jing enters the picture that SPL hits action overdrive. Wu's movements are convincingly fast and deadly, and the actor looks like he's having a ball as the deliciously sadistic Jet. Yen is no slouch himself, and the alleyway knife vs. baton face-off between he and Wu is the highlight of the picture. Their duel feels less like a choreographed action sequence and more like two very skilled guys going at it; as they attack and retreat in quick succession, they seem to be studying each other's moves and picking up on each other's strengths and weaknesses. The sequence is as enthralling as martial arts action gets. Sammo Hung gets to strut his stuff too. The Venerable Large One cuts loose midway through the picture in a building lobby brawl where it takes upwards of three guys to contain him. He's also around for the film's coup de grace, a glass-breaking, body-slamming battle with Donnie Yen that's a bit over the top, but still quite fun stuff. The rationale for the fight is a bit weak, however. At a certain point, it seems that characters forget where they're supposed to be and simply hang around because they're scheduled for a fight. You'd think that after most of your goons get taken out, you'd order up some more lackeys before an exceptionally tough kung-fu master cop enters the building. No dice. Sammo has to face Donnie mano-a-mano, and the fact that it even gets that far lacks any sort of narrative credibility. But hey, who cares? By the time the fighting rolls around, SPL has engendered so much audience goodwill that Chow Yun-Fat and the 12 Girls Band could come crashing through the roof on ziplines and the paying audience wouldn't bat an eye. As an ace crime thriller, SPL is more generic than genuinely enthralling, but like the great HK movies of the eighties (e.g. Tiger Cage, also starring Simon Yam and Donnie Yen), it's not the story, script, or acting that necessarily wins the day, but something that can only be called cinema panache. SPL has it in spades, such that its minor debits can be easily forgotten. Slow second act? Doesn't matter. The usual Donnie Yen preening for the camera? Forgotten. Borderline pointless symbolism? Not a factor. Actually, SPL is much better than most current wannabe crime thrillers, and possesses a satisfying, if not unpredictable series of Hong Kong Cinema "moments" that fans should cotton to pretty damn quick. For longtime fans, SPL is a gift. Please enjoy it. (Kozo 2005) posted by Yee 12:38 AM . . .
class gathering yesterday. only 11 people turned up. but what's new? me, wanyu, aiping, choo, huiyi, yilin, yanfen, jo, kaili, fadzli, kaisiang. we're not surprised that the 3 musketeers didn't turn up, bcs they usually come in a package. allan said he wasn't coming, so we deduced that the other 2 of the triplets won't come either. not surprised that eric didn't come. jiaen and mag said they could make it, so i thought they would at least turn up, albeit late. but no, no sign of them nor the other 2. ij and jj didn't come either, not even for half an hour. haha.. we met at the mrt station, waited for the latecomers (as usual) and made our way to marina square. it's been renovated, and i haven't been there since. it's quite nice, but completely inaccessible. they said there were plenty of stuff to eat there. we ended up with swensen's. it was halal, so fadzli would have no problem. not that there really was, cos he wasn't as rigid about these things. i think, as long as they didn't actually eat pork (on purpose), it should be alright if the food preparation process involves some pork somewhere... i dunno, people differ. anyway, i had chicken baked rice and topless five ice-cream. in case i ever forget, only the strawberry and cookies'n'cream flavours are nice. the rest of it completely sucked. it was so milky, yet not rich. i didn't like it that much. i loved the amount though! haha.. after dinner we went around taking pictures. took a walk (after dinner walk!) outside esplanade. after many a failed attempts of capturing the night skyline of singapore (rather mediocre, though) i finally got one of the merlion and one of fullerton. bah. stupid. on the whole, the night's trip out was not very happening. i don't know why we spent so much time though. we arranged a next class gathering already. they converted the little christmas gathering at my place to a larger scale (at least the venue is larger) at kaisiang's place. everyone in the class is welcomed, but i doubt many of them will turn up. duh. who cares anyway. oh yes, there will be gift exchange. minimum of $10. no cap on the price, but not like people will bother buying something expensive. the gift has to be unisex leh.. i dunno what to get now, and i don't know how to wrap it. haha, it is not compulsory to wrap, but it's my hobby! do i look like i want to let off the chance to play with the wrapping materials? hee... i'll try to shop for something back in jkt. wrapping materials are about all here. shouldn't be too hard. oh well. posted by Yee 10:01 AM . . .
