Just came back from fire drill at TM Inc. Interesting experience though. Didn't know there's this long slope outside the gate for people on wheelchairs to go downstairs in case of emergency. I hated the hot sun outside though. Luckily it was only for 5 minutes. Overall it was a fire drill with a difference.

On another note, I finally bought clothes for my birthday. Went to VivoCity yesterday after my medical appointment at NUH. Gosh. It was so huge. And I love the glittery floor tiles. I bought two tops from Forever 21. Will wear the black top on Nov 18. Food Republic was a unique dining experience. It had a 1930s theme. The food was great. Mummy and I had fish and chips.

Gotta go now. Just came here to update a bit.

Just a short entry before Soo Gek's surprise birthday party in the office. Soo Gek is a very nice and helpful admin assistant in TM Inc. So we planned a surprise for her since it's her birthday. She should be back anytime soon along with Ian, Cheryl and Tarun who 'lured' her out for lunch so that the rest of us could make the arrangements for the party later. Hope everything turns out as planned.

Speaking about birthdays, yesterday was Mummy's birthday. We had fruit cake from Sweet Secrets. Wasn't as nice as the usual mango cake which was sold out but as long as Mummy is happy, it's fine.

Lastly, I finally got my paycheck just now. Haha...

Haiz. The Internet connection in the office is a bit cranky. It was down for a few hours yesterday afternoon and for one hour this morning. It's back now but it's super slow and I can't check my email. Surprisingly I could access Blogger immediately. Strange...

Anyway I went to Suntec after work yesterday for Japanese buffet at Kuishin-bo with Mummy and Auntie Grace. I reached there at 6.30pm and Mummy was still on her way there. So I 'strolled' around. This time I decided to skip Carrefour and toured the rest of the first level. I browsed around at a push-cart stall selling necklaces. Then I passed by the escalator and ended up at a section filled with food counters and outlets. I went all the way to Sakae Sushi then turned back to the other end (near Delight Corner) of Carrefour (I also dunno how I ended up there).

Mummy arrived at 7pm and we went into Carrefour to buy some stuff. Then we proceeded to Kuishin-bo. Along the way we met Auntie Grace and the three of us went to the restaurant together. It was Ladies' Night so the price was slightly cheaper than usual. The food was good. The seafood was very fresh. I loved the prawns, crab and baby lobster. Of course I also enjoyed my favourite tempura. We also had yakitori, sashimi, chawanmushi, karaage and many more. The dessert was delicious as well but by that time I already felt quite full and couldn't really enjoy the dessert. There was this odd dessert which was like strawberry hidden inside a piece of chocolate. The chocolate was sweet but after a while, the sour taste of the strawberry surfaced.

Sorry but I'm not very good at describing food. But I think it's a nice place to go if you love Japanese cuisine and if you don't mind eating a bit more. In my case, I felt I ate a bit too much. Maybe it's because ours was a small group. I think it's better to go for buffets in a big group. But nevertheless, I enjoyed the dinner.

After dinner, we still had some time to browse around as the taxi hadn't arrived yet. Most shops were closed by that time but Mini Toons was still open. Guess what I saw?
The stuffed toy pig from Korean drama《我叫金三顺》! They only had medium size left. Actually we had reservations about buying it as it cost $19.90 but the salesgirl was really friendly and helpful and her service attitude was excellent. And she said all branches have run out of stock for the small size. We were the only customers in the shop then as it was near closing time but the salesgirl was very patient and still served us willingly. We kinda felt obliged to buy something and didn't see anything else that caught my eye. So we decided to get the pig.

After that we went outside the tower to wait for the taxi which arrived at 10.45pm. We dropped Auntie Grace off at the bus stop before heading home. We reached home before 11.30pm.

I thought I would feel tired after a long day outside but surprisingly I was wide awake until 2am. I watched TV throughout. I'm glad I managed to stay awake as Energy appeared in the last part of《娱乐百分百》. It was some cooking contest and they had to prepare dishes with bananas as the main ingredient. This is in conjunction with their album title《猩人类》. "猩猩" means "gorilla" and gorillas eat bananas (if I'm not wrong).

Anyway the clip was quite lame and funny. Can't remember the exact dishes they cooked. 阿弟 cooked something that consisted of beer, ice cream and of course, bananas, I think. Anyway he won the contest. 书伟 cooked curry using bananas. Not sure what it would taste like. Haha... 坤达's dish consisted of yoghurt, bananas and dunno what else. Sorry but I can't recall the details as I was too busy laughing while watching the programme.

That's all for this entry. Shall try checking my email again. Stupid server.

While waiting for my employer to send me the template for the next updating task, I shall spend some time blogging on Singapore Idol Final Showdown and Results Show.

Let me begin by congratulating Hady for winning the title of SI2. Honestly, I felt that this time was a tough competition between Jon and Hady. While Hady had the stronger set of vocals between the two, Jon had more charisma. So it was really up to Singapore to decide. I was fine with either guy winning as I felt both were deserving finalists. Both contestants were on par during the performance show except for the winner's single You Give Me Wings(by the way, I preferred I Dream), which suited Hady's vocals much better and therefore gave him an edge over Jon. Jon's rendition of that song was rather monotonous due to his limited vocal range. So yeah, that's about all I have to say about the performance show.

As for last night's Results Show, it wasn't as exciting as I expected. Taufik started the show quite well with I Dream. As mentioned earlier, it's a much better song than You Give Me Wings. But if my ears weren't playing tricks with me, did Taufik go a bit off-key at the beginning? Was there something wrong with his earpiece? Nevertheless, I still enjoyed the song.

Nothing much to say about Electrico's performance as I'm not into local English music so let's skip that part. The rest of the Top 12 performed one by one. Norman actually sounded quite good. Too bad he wasn't likeable enough to advance further into the competition. Jay sounded good with No Promises. As usual, Paul and Joakim were the weaker singers. No comments about the rest.

Tanya sang Wake Me Up When September Ends. No doubt her vocals were good but the song was a tad boring for the show. Rahimah Rahim(the legend, not the contestant)lived up to her name with her performance.

As for Energy, actually I wanted to hear them sing 爱失控. They sang 爱情风向球 instead. I guess it's because 爱失控 is too solemn for the occasion. Wasn't their best performance for sure. They can do much better than that. Maybe they didn't have enough time to rehearse as they just flew in yesterday afternoon. It clearly didn't reflect their true ability. But I must give them credit for attempting an English song Stand By Me, albeit with the help of the 2 finalists. Although they still have lotsa room for improvement in terms of their standard of English, it was a commendable effort. They should consider taking up English classes to brush up on the language and try singing in English again next time. Maybe they could do even better.

That's all for this entry. Must continue working.

Was busy the whole morning trying to complete the webpage which was left half-done yesterday. Thank God I managed to finish it but not before several 'scares'(at one point, I thought I screwed up the whole thing and had to redo, but thank God it was just a scare). Then I encountered problems while trying to download Winzip. The process terminated after what seemed like ages. So I tried downloading the program at another website and it worked. Phew! Just emailed the stuff to Jialun. Hope it's acceptable.

Not sure if I have anything else to do for the rest of the day. Anyway, enough about work. Looking forward to Singapore Idol result show tonight. The final 2 contenders would be revealed. Based on last night's performance, I think Hady and Jonathan deserve to go through. Jasmine was a disappointment. Maybe she was too stressed but she didn't give her best shot. What a pity. Was totally blown away by her performance last week and was expecting a better performance by her this week. And she's the most improved contestant. Besides, it would be nice to see a gal win the title for once. If only this week was Judges' Choice. I felt they chose great songs for the contestants last week. Whatever happens, a big round of applause for the Top 3 for making this far.

I remember blogging about the show every week during Season One. I guess I lacked the 'inspiration' and time to do so this time round. So shall do a recap since I'm free at the moment.

I admit that the show was a disaster in the initial stage and I wasn't very interested in watching at first. Like Ken(or was it Dick?) said, the contestants seemed as if they were waiting to be eliminated. But things seemed to have picked up quite a bit halfway through. I think it was during R&B week that the competition really heated up. Even Joakim showed slight improvement that week, which also happened to be his last show.

Speaking of Joakim, I know it's too late to say this but I really admire this guy for being strong throughout all the controversy and insults thrown at him on and off the show. And he's only 18. To be honest, his boyish looks were the main attraction for me initially but eventually it was his perseverance(though some might say thick skin)that impressed me. Despite his lack of singing talent(he has a nice voice but he still paled in comparison to the others), he just wanted to perform and do what he enjoyed most. Yet like Jerry Ong from Season One, he became the 'public enemy' of many people out there. People who don't vote enough for their favourites and blame him for staying for so long. That's human nature for you. Whatever it is, I hope Joakim will brush up on his vocals or try something else if he really wants to be in this industry.

Enough about the contestants. Let's talk about the judges. Can be quite sickening to watch sometimes. Jacintha seemed to be half-drunk in most of the episodes. Guess she should just stick to singing. Ken is still the best judge. Straightforward and honest yet kind enough to encourage the ousted contestant every week. Flo keeps disagreeing with Dick, intentional or not, I dunno.

As for the hosts, I know many forumers have been debating about them. I still prefer Gurmit. Although he stumbles on his words, his jokes never fail to crack me up. Can tell he really gets along well with the Idols. Daniel isn't too bad either if not for that 'classic' moment when he kept forcing Nurul's sobbing sis to comment on the viewers' choice to eliminate Nurul. I know that's his job but that wasn't a nice thing to do at all.

Things that can be improved if there's Season 3

1. Drop Jacintha from the judges' panel

2. Limit the number of calls/SMSes to one vote per telephone number. I think this will reflect the real popularity of the contestants

3. Judges should think hard before sending anyone through the auditions and not start slamming the poor contestants and reproach the voters when it's too late.

Can't think of anything else to add on so shall stop here. Sorry for this lame entry.