Month: February 2008

See you, Broadie

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The only one thing I hate about having pets is having to say goodbye. That sucks big time. I met Broadie in 2002, he was living in a beautiful home along Campbell Avenue in Port Coquitlam, BC, Canada. He was already 9 years old then but still bounced around like a puppy. He was my husband’s family dog and yesterday we had to say goodbye to him. At 15 years old (that’s like 105 human years!!!), while the spirit was strong, his physical body could not make the same fight and they had to make the painful decision no pet owner ever wants to make 😦

broadie just waking up

So long dear Broadie, I hope Patches, Snowball and the rest are showing you around in puppy heaven. Till we meet again, we’ll be thinking of you πŸ™‚

Oscar

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It’s Oscar fever time and this year it happened on my birthday … US time that is, so if I was living in the US I would have had an Oscar theme party but since I don’t, I was catching bits of it, in the office on the 25th of February, a Monday morning that clearly should have been spent at home.

And I didn’t win the office Oscar pool again.

Note to self: pick what I reckon the Academy would want to win and not what I want to win.

All in all I much prefer this year’s winners to last year’s, my only beef is sound mixing and editing. I’m trying to figure out if good sound editing and mixing is:-

  1. so realistic you don’t notice it
    OR
  2. so convincing that you believe transforming robots exist

where the former refers to the Bourne Ultimatum and the latter Transformers. If you can’t tell by now, I was gunning for Transformers but I do recognise it is much tougher to do the former rather than the latter. Oh well … I’ll remember my note for next year’s Oscars … …

Steve Jobs and me

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What am I talking about, me and Steve Jobs in the same line? He’s responsible for two of my favourite companies in the world, Pixar and Apple; while I’m still trying to figure out who I am. I’m Singaporean and he’s from the US. There IS something we share in common though, our birthdays πŸ™‚

So Happy Birthday Mr Jobs!!!

I didn’t necessarily go down your route in life but I’m happy with my lot, thanks to my dear friends, family and an amazingly sweet husband who made turning 23 33 a blast πŸ™‚

Oh yah, to the rest of you Feb 24ers, you know who you are, it’s a great day to be born, pleasure to be sharing it with you guys too especially Nig and Linli. Happy Birthday y’all!!!!

69

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Before you start thinking I’m going to comment on the Kamasutra, it’s actually a book that I thoroughly enjoyed and just finished reading – 69 by Ryu Murakami. It’s a really fun commentary of a couple of 17 year old boys living it up in the year 1969. Who would have thought that a couple of Japanese teenagers were being affected by the Vietnam war, were reading Beat poets, inspired by revolutionaries and wanted “to change life before life changes them”?

cover of 69

Sounds pretty much close to my 1992 when I turned 17 except it was the Gulf war instead of the Vietnam war, Beat was still in fashion and I was equally moved by Kerouac and Che, dreaming up principles to stand for … idealistic youthful exuberance at its best πŸ™‚ So the book brought back good memories and let me into a side of Japan I never knew existed.

I can’t to go there in March!!!

No Country for Old Men

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The latest thriller from the Coen brothers and not unlike their previous projects, it is a commentary about a part of the US no one usually thinks about. The year is 1980 and set in the state of Texas, close to the Mexican border where drug runs go crazy and one man finds a suitcase of cash only to be chased down like a helpless prey.

the predatorthe prey

It has been a really long time since I watched a whole feature film that does not use music of any kind, which gave the film a very indie feel to it. Technically it is kinda an indie film by Hollywood standards but with a US$25m budget, it isn’t quite Singapore indie standard. So needless to say, I was impressed that ambient sound could keep you at the edge of your seat too.

Javier Bardem was pretty amazing as the brutal and accurate hitman. He is much cuter in person, I nearly didn’t recognise him with the distant craze look he maintained through out the film. Josh Brolin is looking more and more like his Dad, and a much better actor too. Then there was Tommy Lee Jones as the ultimate small town sheriff who kinda puts everything into perspective.

the sheriff

However, I left the cinema a little bewildered … I think I missed something and I’m not quite sure what to make of the ending.Β  You know how you feel when you’re real hungry and you go into your favourite restaurant only to be fed with something less than usual.Β  Yah, so despite some cool directorial calls and near impeccable acting, I was unsatisfied to say the least.Β  For that, it isn’t one I’ll recommend unless you’re a big Coen brothers fan.Β  I am going to check out the book though πŸ˜‰

The West Wing

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In 1999, I was completely enthralled with the The West Wing and in awe of Aaron Sorkin. Stories that provoked my idealistic mind and a cinematic visual style that excited my creative appetite. I followed the seasons through the years and in my humble opinion, it is one of the best drama series around. So you can imagine my excitement when my parents came home from Perth with the DVD collection of The West Wing.

cast

I did have other plans this weekend, chill by the pool, pay bills (a chore I have to do every other weekend), catch up on work emails, try a new cake recipe but all of that, even the cheque writing chore gave way to season 1 of the Bartlet administration. I’m happy to report that the DVD is as good as catching it on air the first time round. The tight script still amazes me and I’m hopeful that one day I’ll get to work on such a high quality project.

On another note, if my dream is anything to go by, this may be the only way my hope for a democratic administration can happen – fictionally.

Brunch + Shopping = Simple Days

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Nis, Gen, Shob and I met in 1999 where we all worked on a children’s program for Channel 8. Yes, you’re reading right, Channel 8. It was a Chinese program. Let’s not forget Shob is Indian, Nis is Arab, Gen’s sorta Eurasian (from her Mum’s side) and well, I’m Chinese but I distinctly remember bringing home a Chinese paper where I scored something like 4/120. So the project was a hoot to work on and if you ask our Taiwanese director, AJ (short for 阿杰) he’ll tell you why in the beginning he was extremely frustrated with our Executive Producer for building such a team but alls well that ends well. The four of us have been firm friends since then, it seems difficult to imagine that was 9 years ago.

Deciding to have a taitai day in celebration that Shob’s homecoming, we went to PS Cafe a couple of weekends ago for brunch and shopped around Haji Lane πŸ™‚

PS

When it first opened, my friends and I loved the food, ambience and the fact that not much people went there. Over night, PS Cafe became one of Singapore’s premiΓ¨re poser places to hang out, one that has two sittings for dinner (what’s up with that?) and needless to say, it isn’t one of our favourite places any more. The food isn’t as good as it was before but I have to say the surrounding greenery does make it a pretty nice area to just chill.

NisGenShobMe

Like I always reckon, it’s the company that counts πŸ™‚ Here we are looking as happy as punch while we caught up with our respective lives and made fun on the different situations we’re all in. The mint tea is still pretty good but these days I’m rooting for the one from Cafe le Caire along Arab Street. I had their vegetarian curry which is one of those fusion sort … not bad but a tad expensive, if you asked me. After nicely taking in our brunch and waiting for the rain to stop, we headed to Haji Lane for dress shopping!!

after psat haji

 

All in all it was a sweet and simple day of hanging out … things that make life worth while, I reckon πŸ™‚ With Shob’s leaving for London tonight and it’ll be a while before we get to do this again … I hope you don’t mind while I just ponder on friendships I’m grateful to have πŸ™‚

Happy Valentine’s Day

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I don’t entirely dig Valentine’s Day, at least not since I was 15 πŸ˜› and I’m glad my husband agrees. So we keep it simple and try to make the other 364 days just as special as the commercial world wants this one day to be. Nonetheless, here’s to a very happy Valentine’s day to you and may all your days be filled with love and happiness.

Before some of you Valentine Scrooges start gagging, here’s what I got in the email from a happily married friend:-

“The quickest way to a man’s heart is through his chest.”
Roseanne Barr

“All this fuss about sleeping together. For physical pleasure I’d sooner go to my dentist any day.”
Evelyn Waugh

“I had bad luck with both my wives. The first one left me and the second one didn’t.”
Patrick Murray

The more I see of men, the more I like dogs.”
Madame De Stael

“Sex without love is an empty experience, but as empty experiences go, it’s a pretty good empty experience.”
Woody Allen

“I can’t understand why more people aren’t bisexual. It would double your chances for a date on Saturday night.”
Woody Allen (again)

“I like young girls. Their stories are shorter.”
Thomas MacGuire

“Older women are the best because they always think they may be doing it for the last time.”
Ian Fleming

“I married beneath myself. All women do.”
Lady Astor

“Whenever I date a guy, I think, is this the man I want my children to spend their weekends with?”
Rita Rudner

“By all means marry. If you get a good wife you’ll be happy. If you get a bad one, you’ll become a philosopher.”
Socrates

“I don’t want people to love me. It makes for obligations.”
Jean Anouilh

“Men and women, women and men. It will never work.”
Erica Jong

Don’t forget to tell your parents you love them too coz they’re probably be the only one who will let you stay in their homes for free πŸ˜‰

Presidential Dreams

/ carlenetan / 4 Comments

One of my oldest friends in the world, Yoyo lives in Melbourne and living in the 21st century has allowed us to be in touch on a nearly daily basis … with sms and msn what’s physical distance? We just have to contend with time difference and she ALWAYS forgets Melbourne is a couple of hours ahead of Singapore and right now in summer, they are THREE hours ahead. So when I received an sms at about 5:45am this morning that works out to be 8:45am in Melbourne, I figured she had just got into the office. Thankfully, I’m the sort that falls right back to bed so I did but I had the weirdest dream ever.

I was in the White House … I’ve watched enough episodes of West Wing to know where exactly I was and someone came up to me to tell me that the President and the First Lady will be with me soon. So I’m just looking around, not at all questioning why I’m there at all when lo and behold …

the mccains

the McCains walk in and I’m not in the least bit surprised like I already knew he was the President and she, the First Lady of the USA. I shake their hands politely and introduce myself. We proceed to make small talk and I went on my standard Singapore rant when my alarm clock went off.

I woke up thinking, “Damn, they let the Republicans stay in the White House.” Not that my dreams can foretell the future or anything but in a couple months time I’ll find out if I should quit my day job πŸ™‚ Carlene the Clairvoyant has a nice ring to it πŸ˜‰

Meanwhile, before I go out and buy a crystal ball, I have an approval paper to write.

And oh Yoyo, about your sms, my inner clairvoyant powers reckon whether you know it or not, the choice has been made.

*clap clap* I could get use to this πŸ˜€

Why I don’t need a kid?

/ carlenetan / 6 Comments

There are a couple of reasons but mainly because I reckon I have one big one at home already. Let me put it all in context. My husband and I were chatting, as usual, in our dining room which is on the downstairs of our little maisonette flat.

Me: Do you need the bathroom? Coz I have to shower, prep and then leave. (I was preparing to go out)

My Husband: Yeah, I’ll be quick. (and he runs up the stairs)

I busy myself, cleaning the table and washing the dishes. I slowly realise that the house is real quiet and it has been a while since my husband went upstairs. So I tentatively walk up the stairs and see my bedroom door closed … … I start thinking to myself that maybe my silly husband forgot that I needed to use the bathroom. So I opened the door pretty loudly to find him spring back from the side of the bed and I find this:-

scarecrow

He tells me it’s a scarecrow for our bed for when I’m gone … …