I'm unhappy because my hair feels like Barbie Doll's hair. Yes, that ruined. But, on a lighter note, I'm happy because my brother, Jason, the botak is coming home tonight. Hahah.
And on a even lighter note, here's one movie you should watch. I caught it about two years back, and it is really funny. But there aren't any subtitles so you either get a friend who understands Malay, or you start learning it now!
Anyway, the movie is called : Pontianak Menjerit.
Enjoy!
Part One
Part Two
Part Three
Part Four
Part Five
Part Six
Part Seven
Part Eight
Part Nine
Part Ten
And before I end this post, I would like all of you to have a look at this poster (below).
I bet it's a little too obvious if I were to ask you for the title of the movie. Yes, it's called Twilight. But my friends, I have seen, or heard far too many people literally saying that they watched, or want to watch Twiglight.
Now what the hell is Twiglight? I mean it's okay if you make a mistake because you have not seen or heard the movie, and would honestly accept that it was your mistake of not having to look at the title properly. But to those stuck up asses who still continue proclaiming that Twiglight wasn't as good as the book, and even after watching the movie, you still say the title as Twiglight, then my friend, you need to have your eyes checked.
Stop embarressing yourself and the movie. It's called Twilight, not Twiglight, you twit... You might as well associate it with Twiggies.
Despite being only a quarter peranakan, I have always been intrigued by the culture.
If you have no idea what the Peranakan culture is, then maybe you should catch a glimpse of Sayang Sayang.
Yes, Sayang Sayang is actually a show entirely about the true Peranakan culture.
Well, I don't know why, but the entire culture actually is rather fascinating to me.
From the origins of Peranakans - The Babas and Nonyas
(Taken from wikipedia.org)
Peranakan, Baba-Nyonya (峇峇娘惹; Hokkien: Bā-bā Niû-liá) and Straits Chinese (土生華人; named after the Straits Settlements) are terms used for the descendants of the very early Chinese immigrants to the Nusantara region, including both the British Straits Settlements of Malaya and the Dutch-controlled island of Java among other places, who have partially adopted Malay customs in an effort (chronological adaptation) to be assimilated into the local communities.
The word Peranakan is also used to describe Chinese Indonesians. In both Malay and Indonesian, 'Peranakan' means 'descendants'. Babas refer to the male descendants and the Nyonyas the female. The word nyonya (also commonly spelled nonya) may originate from the Portuguese word dona, which means 'lady'.
To their unique language
The language of the Peranakans, Baba Malay (Bahasa Melayu Baba) , is a dialect of the Malay language (Bahasa Melayu), which contains many Hokkien words. It is a dying language, and its contemporary use is mainly limited to members of the older generation; this is indicative also of the Peranakan culture at large.
To the traditional beautiful marriages
To the beautiful clothing, like the Kebayas , and the precious jewelleries
Peranakans are very talented and dedicated. For example, the beaded shoes they make are all done by hand, with each bead painstakingly but beautifully threaded to the shoe, bit by bit.
To the strict etiquette and delicious cuisines
Till now my mother uses the "Anak lesong" rather than the blender to blender her spices.
And lastly, to the whole religion itself.
If you're just as interested as me, and want to find out more about Peranakans, you can actually visit the Peranakan museum in Singapore.
I think that modernisation has brought about extinction of beautiful cultures like this. I hope the Peranakan Museum can keep all the fond memories of the true Peranakan spirit, and influence the future generations into believing that not only the POP culture is "in". It is cultures like this, that makes us appreciate the beauty in things, as well as serve an eye-opener to youths, to appreciate the hard-work, determination and passion of our ancestors.
Credits : The Peranakan Museum, wikipedia.org, youtube, photobucket,mystory.heritagefest.org.sg
Well, unfortunately the judges weren't impressed with my song and I did not win the "Youth Blogger" title. I want to cry so badly...
Hahaha, no, I'm kidding. I wasn't expecting to win, and like I said before it is already a priviledge to be amongst the Top 10 Youth Blogger finalists in Singapore. I had a great time, especially for the Movie screenings and the Ghost Festival Post.
But, Congratulations to Cheryl aka. Witch Yuki for winning the Youth Blogger title!
Anyway, the ceremony was great. It was located at the Asian Civilisation Museum and I brought my mum there with me. We entered the River Room and were greeted with Food! Yes, we had a buffet dinner there before the results were released.
The food wasn't too bad, there was a variety of food, but some of them actually fell short of taste. But it was still okay.
After the meal, my mum and I headed out to the balcony for a breather and was taken away by the beautiful scene before us. It was basically just the buildings in Raffles, but it seemed as though they came alive in the Night Life. I looked down from the balcony and saw a beautiful restaurant that had a very "cool" ambience, where guests were seated very much like a Lounge Room, but it was outdoors. It set a very dark atmosphere as the sofas were black and there were minimal light present, only from the BLue glow from the frosted bar table.
I was about snap a photo of it, but before I could, we were actually asked to head back inside as the ceremony was starting.
One reason why I hate going to "gatherings" like this, is because if you hardly know anyone, you would be darn lonely. And for my mum and I, we weren't really paying much attention to it, because we were tired of standing (yes, that's the only critic I have, no chairs!) and we were checking out the different types of people there. David Gan, the famous hairstylist was present, and boy, he sure was one great character!
Anyway, the only person that I talked to, at the event, was the Events Co-odinator for the event. He asked how the Food and Ambience were, and why I was here. He was Hot! Hahah.
But speaking about the ambience, it was really a "romantic" or rather soothing scene, and I especially liked the Lights.
The ceremony ended on time, at nine, and I was one of the "kiasu" ones to leave, and so I didn't stay for the photo-taking sessions.
But once I stepped out of the Museum, a strong gust of wind crossed my path, and blew us to Indonesia + China + Thailand = ?
I closed my eyes, and chanted repeatedly "there's no place like home", and when I opened my eyes, I was at another place!
Check out the White House..
It does look like Singapore's Fullerton Hotel though.. Hmm..
Anyway, I wandered around, and had some lovely chats with the locals there.
Really hardworking, and lovely people. I had a great time there, I even went swimming with a bunch of cute, naked boys! My mum couldn't help but burst into fits of laughter when she saw the little kids' exposed "brothers".
When I got up to dry off, I was mesmerized by a beautiful lamp post
And before I knew it, I was back in Singapore, standing near the Fullerton's Hotel!
The Esplanade, the Singapore Flyer, and some other beautiful buildings.
And the pretty fountain at the Entrance of Fullerton Hotel
It sounds very much like the Wizard of OZ, but this time there weren't any OZ nor wizard. But I was exhausted, and so I headed home, in the magical "Harry Potter" train with my mum.
I admit, I did not take Zhi Xiang's advice as to seek help and revise for the upcoming Prelims and O's. But instead, I spent the whole week watching The Beijing Olympics 2008!
The advertisement for the Olympics was so marvelous, that I could not help but be drawn to it. It showed shots of famous Sports "Heroes" and labeled them with their powers. Magnificent, it gave the whole 'Heroes + Harry Potter' feel.
I managed to get it on Youtube.
But the magical feeling did not just end there, I was blown away by the opening ceremony itself.
Quoted from Youtube's beijing2008: "The world watched in wonder as the glittering and astonishing curtain raiser to the 2008 games burst into the night sky of Beijing."
I could not get the embedded coding as the request was disabled, but if you want to watch it, you can click here
I think only such a great country like China, can be able to pull off such a spectacular sight. I've seen articles on how hard the young gymnasts in China trains, I wonder, how hard have these performers been training?
It was crazy, I kept switching from channel 1, 2, 7 , 601, 602, and 603 to watch the different events.
First I watched the volleyball match where Brazil was up against Algeria, I think. The Brazilians were superb, with their spikes thundering to the ground, and their agility so great, that they managed to double-block almost all balls. They dominated the women volleyball match. The match was so exciting, that I could not help but jump in glee whenever Brazil scored.
I'm rooting for Brazil!
Moving on, I caught up with the Beach Volleyball tournament. It was not as exciting as the indoor because each team was made up of only two players, and they had to cover the same area that the 6 players had to. It seemed easy to score, but I was impressed with China's players.
I'm rooting for China in Beach volleyball.
Then, I switched to Basketball, where I was rooting for Spain and New Zealand. And it just so happened that the match I was watching showed Spain up against New Zealand!
Spain had strong shooters and defenders, while New Zealand had a strong play-maker. So in the end, Spain players were hounding on N.Z's play-maker.
Spain's Isabel Sanchez was the biggest contributor to her team with 19 points, three rebounds and two assists. Her teammate Anna Montanana scored 18 points and took seven rebounds.
It was a tough fight but Spain won, ending the match with 85-62.
I then moved on to Women football, where I watched the match between Canada and China. It was a feisty one, with Canada's no.15 injuring 2 China players, and Canada's no.3 getting a yellow card for illegal tackle.
The game was a tie, ending with 1-1.
Then it came down to Gymnastic Artistic.
I was mesmerized by the beautiful swings and jumps ( I don't know what they call it). I could not help but ogle at the bulging muscles of both the male and female gymnast. Imagine the great strength they have to swing themselves about.
Speaking of gymnasts, let's rewind back to 1976, a girl by the name of Nadia Comaneci from Romania, actually scored perfect 10s on the beam, uneven bars and her floor exercise. Can you believe it? PERFECT 10s!
Here are her videos:
Beam
Uneven Bars - Check out the flexibility of her body against the bars.
Floor Exercise - She looks like a fragile yet elegant fairy
Beautiful right?
Anyway, moving on, I spend most of the days watching the Swimming in action. My idols both Micheal Phelps and Stephanie Rice were there.
In fact, Stephanie Rice of Australia beat the world record by 1.67 seconds to win the gold medal in the final of the Women's 400m Individual Medley in a time of 4:29.45. While American swimming superstar Micheal Phelps, after taking two relay gold in Beijing, broke his own Olympic Record in Men's 200m Butterfly prelims at the National Aquatic Centre, clocking 1:53.70.
You must be wondering, why am I, a volleyball player having swimmers as my idols? Well, I haven't mentioned this, but Swimming has been passion since I was a kid. Times were tough, and so I moved on to land sports and volleyball has become one of my addictions. I'm trying to figure a way to juggle the both of them. And it's been ages since I last touched the waters, and I promised myself to return to swimming once I finished my O's.
Anyway, I caught a few glances of Hockey but it scared the shit out of me. It was so violent, and so I changed channels to watch Weightlifting! My dad was once a body builder, and so I was used to seeing bulgy muscles, but boy, the women weightlifters were sure one of a kind!
(Taken from http://en.beijing2008.cn/news/sports/headlines/weightlifting/n214529228.shtml)
Chinese weightlifter Chen Yanqing retained her Women's 58kg Olympic title in Beijing on Monday with a total result of 244kg.
Chen, 29, has become the first strongwoman in the world to successfully defend her Olympic title since Women's Weightlifting entered the Summer Olympics in Sydney 2000.
Marina Shainova from Russia took the silver medal with a total of 227kg, while O Jong-ae from the Democratic People's Republic of Korea got the bronze with 226kg, pushing Thai Wandee Kameaim, who also cleared a total of 226kg, to fourth place due to less bodyweight.
