You've made it man! The dream's a-comin' true! :)

So, yeah, about that wedding...

Yeah, yeah... just getting it out of the way... Was too busy at the wedding to take pics so i'll put them up as and when i get them from Melven. Actually wrote this a while back, so... yeah.

Thursday: Go and read Al's entry on this one if you haven't already.

Friday: Spent almost the entire day wandering around the city with Al looking for various comic, music and hobby shops (but, more often than not, in a completely aimless fashion). Spent most of my time being paranoid about getting in touch with Melven for the wedding arrangements the next day since i didn't seem to have his number, but thankfully this was quickly resolved (thanks for saving my ass again o mighty machine god!).

Managed to meet up with some old friends later in the evening - namely Chai and Zuyi - and had dinner with them while i caught up on all the NLC gossip that i missed out on... (and a fair bit of it there is too!). It ended all too early though since i had to put in an early night for the wedding the next day, but it seems that both of them will be coming down to KL sometime in the near future so all is not lost (for those who are interested, Zuyi will be down here to cover the Sepang F1 race while Chai - despite being a little more hesitant on an actual clear date - wants to meet Zamil again pretty badly...).

Here's some pics of what looks like the two of them... ah... getting intimate with Storm Shadow and Snake Eyes (or each other - its hard to tell).

Couldn't sleep though. Snuck out of the room at about 3am for a smoke... which turned into a couple of drinks at a nearby hotel bar from which i quietly returned at 5am.

I think i have problems.

Saturday: Woke up at 6am in order to dress for the festivities. Seemed that my paranoid reveille requests to the hotel proved needless in the end.

Ended up at the bride's house at 7am in the morning with the other four 'brothers' for the traditional 'Bribing of the bribe' - a staple tradition of Chinese weddings. For those of you who don't know, the groom has a cohort of his best friends to assist him throughout the day (typically 4-5 of his closest friends plus the best man) while the bride has a similar retinue of 'sisters'. It is a great honour to be chosen. :)

As for the 'bribe', what happens is that the 'sisters' blocks the groom's way to his bride and typically ask for monetary bribes and/or embarassing actions on the part of the groom (AND his 'brothers') each and every step of the way. Its quite different at each wedding.

In this case, we were forced to answer a number of personal questions about the bride (and for each question we got wrong, we would have to perform a number of public yoga exercises in front of all the relatives) and sing her favourite song in Chinese...

Two yoga exercises, a fistful of (empty, hehehe) ang pows, and a blatant physical rush for the bride's room later and the happy couple were brought together.

We then had to rush over to the groom's home (which wasn't exactly close mind you) for the first tea ceremony. For those who don't know, this is when the couple have to drink tea, show their respect, and collect ang pows from each of the senior members in the(ir) family. We then had to rush over to the bride's house to do the same thing with her family, followed by returning to the groom's house (because the church is located nearby) where lunch was, thankfully, served.

...which is about when the buffet table caught fire and almost burnt the best man.

We then ended up in the nearby church and... well, i'm pretty sure you know what happens in there. ;)

There was a break at this point, so i took the opportunity to get back to the hotel with Jamie in order to take a much needed shower, change, and get a rest since i was about ready to collapse from a combination of sleep deprivation and running around in the hot weather in a full suit for the past 7 hours.

Of course, i had almost forgotten that as one of the 'brothers' i had to help with any dinner details.

I had about enough time to take a shower before realising that my change of clothes had been left in one of the cars.

Arrived at the Regency Hotel in my shorts and proceeded to make myself useful in the pre-arrangements (including blowing and tying 100+ balloons - NOT fun) until my suit FINALLY arrived halfway through the cocktail segment of the reception. Which was a relief since everyone could finally stop thinking that i was the damn handyman/sound technician!!!

The reception went well. Didn't get to eat most of my food (*sniff* almost all 10 courses of it) since i had to help the couple get around the room with the rest of the 'brothers'. The speeches were good... and the biggest tear jerker was that of the bride's... i don't think it would be in any good taste to repeat it here but i did get something in my eye around the time that she said what she said...

Things started winding down by about this time and i spent the next few hours finally chatting with some old, old, friends (including one that Boon should know *wink*) and drinking like crazy.

Wow, almost all my old buddies have gotten hitched! :o

Stumbled back to the hotel at about 4am to a sleepily surprised Albert ("Wha...!!?? Who!!??? I *unintelligable*... *zzz*) and JJ.

Proceeded to collapse from sheer exhaustion and sleep deprivation.

Sunday: Checked out, left Jamie a message, and aimlessly wandered around Singapore for a spot of last minute shopping with JJ and Al to kill time until our bus's departure at 4pm. Highlight of the day goes to our having lunch at Hooters... ;)

The pics speak for themselves...

Yeah, i have no idea what that last one's about either (God, i HATE camera flashes)...

And there ends my chronicle about our S'pore trip.

We're in no rush to go back. ;p

Ramble, Ramble...

So, yeah, its now 4am and i'm still going strong... What else, what else...?

Oh yeah! Finally got some of my pics off Joa's phone (thanks to Leonard after, what, a year of her being unable to find an infrared connection to put it up on the net... Lets take a gander:

Ah yes, memories of my birthday party... scariest one has to be the hat because I CAN'T EVEN VAGUELY RECOLLECT THAT AT ALL!!!

Scary. *shiver*

Oh, and the eye thing? Thats the morning (mourning?) after - apparently i popped something in my eye at some point during the night (no shit), and - its not very clear - but if you look closely you'll also see that i've managed to pop almost all the capillaries around my eyes and forehead as well... *shudder*

Yup, me and Jonathan on our way to becoming FCUK models for the night waaaay back in January (?) 2004 and another of me... somewhere (i can't recall where) later on (?) in the year suffering from what looks like constipation...

Erm... time for some severe (albeit short) linkage fever methinks...

Romance Of The Three Kingdoms

Found a site with the entire Three Kingdoms thing translated into English. Mainly for Al's benefit after our experience with S'pore TV... Its not the one i was looking for though...

Dream Symbols Interpreted

Yup, a complete categorical interpretation of symbols in your dreams. Interesting... for me at least, because i tend to die a lot in my own dreams... lets see...

To die yourself is very troubling. Most people have not invested much emotional energy in preparation for death and feel that death is a strong enemy to be avoided. Being confronted with death is a place that is uncomfortable. By the way, how did you die in your dream and do you assign responsibility to anyone for your death? These are important questions.


10 Steps For Boosting Creativity

Always useful...

No 1. Listen to music by Johann Sebastian Bach. If Bach doesn't make you more creative, you should probably see your doctor - or your brain surgeon if you are also troubled by headaches, hallucinations or strange urges in the middle of the night.

Right, Bach it is.

HE LOOKS LIKE.... The Morbid Game of Psychoanalyzing Strangers in Pictures

Interesting blog-like site... check out the concept:



She looks like a method actress who, despite her husband's protests, lived in a crackhouse for over a month to research her non-speaking role as Crack Whore #2 on an episode of The Shield. She returned with collapsed veins, severe tooth rot and a wicked petrified crust on the back of her neck that smelled strongly like wet dung and took an assortment of power tools to break off, but she gave the best damn non-speaking Crack Whore #2 performance to ever be cut for time from a cable network television show.

Her career took a turn for the worst when her stellar performance caused her to be typecast as Crack Whore #2's, Dead Prostitute #4's, and Halle Berry's stand-in. She took time off from acting, found God, and returned with a vengeance, vowing to accept only auditions for characters who defined the very fiber of moral righteousness and innocence. But when she fought hard for and lost the lead role in The Princess Diaries to Anne Hathaway, who in her opinion, looked neither like a princess nor a diary, she become angry and despondent, cutting off contact with friends and loved ones and slipping back into the drug dependency which she always blamed for her career's downward spiral. These days, sadly, she can be seen twitching down Hollywood Blvd., loudly announcing a willingness to trade handjobs for Thunderbird. Her husband, Leonard, would like her to come home.

A Genius Explains

Article here.

Tammet is a "savant", an individual with an astonishing, extraordinary mental ability. An estimated 10% of the autistic population - and an estimated 1% of the non-autistic population - have savant abilities, but no one knows exactly why. A number of scientists now hope that Tammet might help us to understand better. Professor Allan Snyder, from the Centre for the Mind at the Australian National University in Canberra, explains why Tammet is of particular, and international, scientific interest. "Savants can't usually tell us how they do what they do," says Snyder. "It just comes to them. Daniel can. He describes what he sees in his head. That's why he's exciting. He could be the Rosetta Stone."

There are many theories about savants. Snyder, for instance, believes that we all possess the savant's extraordinary abilities - it is just a question of us learning how to access them. "Savants have usually had some kind of brain damage. Whether it's an onset of dementia later in life, a blow to the head or, in the case of Daniel, an epileptic fit. And it's that brain damage which creates the savant. I think that it's possible for a perfectly normal person to have access to these abilities, so working with Daniel could be very instructive."


Argh, getting bored... i'm going to find something better to do.

*sigh*