CONflict with the RADicals

14th September 2009, Monday

So the weekend that I had anticipated for a while gone and in the most satisfactory fashion I supposed.
Spent quality with the missus, totally rested my rigid bones, indulged ourselves in plenty of good food, spend till the credit cards busted and of course taking a great opportunity to hang out with my buddies; It was not spectacular but ain't shoddy either.

The day began at ION Orchard, the new center of attraction in Singapore's most popular shopping street.
The architecture truly stuck out in the backdrop but did not really blemished the mood of the area, instead setting a distinct feature of its own.

We had intended to purchase the JR Pass in the JTB Salpon but that did not go according to plan as we were simply too hasty.

We did had the traditional coffee, kaya toast and half boiled eggs at a cafe which bore decor which was most astutely made to resemble a high class cafe in Great America during the early 20th century or something.

The massage session at The Ultimate Wellness Haven at Shaw Center was set at 11.30 am; the entire penthouse setting was pretty grandiose and looked to cater for the tai-tais with cash to burn and the secret location looked like an exclusive clandestine of sort.
The package the missus was cajoled to buy was done a year back and she was still settling in in th form of a monthly installments.
The whole experience ain't that bad with decent massage therapy and body scrub which rid the rigidness in my muscles around the neck due to my incessant hours in front of my workstation 5 days per week and the tightness in my thigh and calf muscles from all the regular jogging.

We left for Conrad International Singapore as planned but traffic around town on a Satueday afternoon especially with COMEX, another one of those gargantuan IT convention held at Suntec City, was not going to be forgiving.
There was a near alteration when a Comfort Delgro Hyundai Avantis model unreasonably cutting the lane and close to gracing the boot of our car.
A horn of frustration ensued from the offender and from account by the flabberghasted missu, the obnoxious taxi driver still had the cheek to give her the middle finger.

The foul mood immediately evaporated when we made our way to Room 803 where we would spend the night at.

We did not lingered long in the room after settling down as one of the objectives of the weekend for me was to buy myself a decent set of suit for the important wedding procession I would be involved in for the month of October.
Prior to traveling from Orchard Road to Marina, we had took a detour to the Zara outlet at Wheelock Place and had my eyes on this particular made of real soft synthetic material which is well stretchable which is advantageous for someone like me with that kind of irrational figure.
In the end that was what I purchased.
It nearly did not transpired well with limited stock (make it one set only) in the outlet at Marina Square.

We had some rest in the room till it was dinner time as we expected our guests to be coming in around 7 plus.
The buffet at Oscar's had quite a budding reputation for a buffet which serves fresh seafood which did not really whet my appetite but it did looked quite amazing to see a good 8 types of oysters including Coffin's Bay, Irish and Scottish.

There was a "Treat of Nagoya" for limited time as the chefs laid out some exquisite Japanese cuisine from the central Japanese city.
We warmed out stomach and worked that gastric juice before the rest arrived.

Eventually TW and Peiling made their appearance, a good half hour before CS and Lili who was caught in the usual Saturday evening jam on the CTE arrived.
Despite the setting of the table and the constant topping of our plates, the 6 of us had a jolly good time chatting on each others' dining preference and a myriad of topic like the COMEX, the funny incidents in CS' workplace, TW's impending big day and of course spilling the beans from each other's can.
In the pipeline is also the "Tokyo Wreckers" 10th year anniversary" tour which CS lobbied aggressively for and something nice to look forward to the next year.

The dining and the hearty chatty lasted till an hour after the buffet stopped its operation but the restaurant was gracious enough not to hustle us out for making our usual din and even granted us a good deal as I was a patron of the hotel itself.

The gang left after taking a look at the room as the night petered to watching "The Devil Wears Prada" on that 52 inch Sony Bravia.

On the actual birthday of the missus, we began with more guilty indulgence as we overworked our intestinal factory with a fulfilling breakfast at the Oscar.
Before we knew it, it was checking out time as our little escapade for her birthday came to a close, with a parting shot of the view from our room:

Japanese word of the day:ザリガニ~Za-ri-ga-ni~(Crayfish) It seems like every love unshelling those crustaceans, making a whole mess just for that little bit of meat.

South Park- The Unchartered Territories

7th September 2009, Monday

Spent another weekend confined at home.
While it was great way of damage control to the wallet, I really had nothing in view that would pry me away from the comfort of my room the entire weekend.
In truth, I was conserving myself for the hotel stay at Conrad this coming weekend with the buffet dinner with my buddies and their partners certainly the reason that got be through the days for the past fortnight.

So back to fixating myself to the LCD monitor, trying to work my brain cells to write in my most eloquent command of English for my prime passion of late, story-writing for my game of Football Manager.
It really works as a form of therapy, for what exactly it was left to be seen.

It also enabled me to go through the fast burgeoning playlist of my K Lite Media Player which always bring me all sorts of entertainment, be it from Hollywood, Japan or the more ecletic world cinema.

Of course I needed my weekly dosage of laughter and I decided to keep some true Frat Pack classics as last resot for rainy days, I turned to one which had been sitting around for a while, Trey Parker & Matt Stone s' "Team America: World Police".

Similar to South Park, the duo would satirise on the folly of the Big Brother of the World, the United States of America on how they always thought they did the right things but in the end brought about more distraught and created more chaos with their interventions.
The movie made with an entire marionette cast definitely was a breath of fresh air back in 2004 and even perhaps now when CG animation rules the scene.
It left no stone untouched in poking fun of some of the world's most notable personality, surprising no previous President of USA, the joke known as W.

It of course reminded me a lot of "Thunderbirds" which I had only caught one TV special of the British series when I was really young and was blown away by it (back in those days I was blown away by almost anything); however when you have the duo of Parker & Stone, the focus of the film would be more on the madcap jokes and insults.
It was low brow but I am loving it like the double layer McSpicy.

The show definitely was stolen by Kim Jong-Il (with no effort to parody the name as of all the characters based on real people like the actors in Film Actors Guild (F.A.G)).
Voiced by Trey Parker, there was a strong remnants of foul mouthed Eric Cartman from "South Park:" with the stereotypical aspect of Asian conversion of "l" to "r" though I thought that should purely be owed to the Japanese.
Kim was a badass with a hefty ambition with a emotional side..heehee
But the "North Korean medley" which he put up for the world leaders during the supposed "World Peace Summit" was the one that really pushed me off the cluff into controllable fit which my missus though I might had been possessed or something.

After the movie, i was yearning for more foul mouth low brow joke from the duo and led me to get myself acquainted to the entire series of "South Park" which i had been abstained for a while since everyone back in my college days were very much into it.
There was all 13 seasons (season 13 is on a sabbatical of late) to catch up but I wonder would I get tired of the vulgarities hurled by those kids in the fictitious red neck town in America and whether I might just felt unsympathetic over the deaths of Kenny McCormick.

Another surprisingly good show I caught was "Smiley Face", a stoned out indies movie which might made people who do not understand the marihuana culture of North America turned off as the lead portrayed by Anna Faris was in constant state of stoning, forcing her to just drifting around and at some part very unlikeable.

While she was backed by a great supporting cast of Danny Masterson (Steven of the 70's Show), John Krasinski (Jim of The Office), John Cho (Harold & Kumar) & Jane Lynch), it was definitely a break out show for Anna.
Then again she had always been typcasted as dimwit simpleton like her guest role as the woman that gave Monica and Chandler her baby in Friends, the mother in "Scary Movie 4" and in the "House Bunny".
But Anna is still very charming and like actresses like Amy Adams, Emma Stone, Elisha Cuthbert who I have been following of late, is very pleasing to the eyes.
Will look out for more movies from Anna for sure.

Japanese word of the day: 下品 (Vulgarities) One thing that truly turned my missus off...I can empathize with her though