Saturday, February 21, 2004

21st Feb (Another dry entry nobody will go thru)

21st Feb is an important for my poly friend Sze Sze bcos she is having her formal Chinese Wedding Tea Ceremony and Dinner (AKA Officially Marriage in Chinese).

And since she asked (I don't have really much friends).How can I not be helping?(Anyway it's for the experience even if marriage never cross my mind)

So I head down to the Groom's place (Groom is Tony ..finally got the name to the face..) at about 0715 (I slept at 0130 and woke up 0545...torture enough for me) and we went over to the bride's place to fetch the bride.Once we reach there,we woke up the neignbours with our shouts and loud voices (tradition) and we were lucky no police came to book us for illegal gathering.The din went on until to 0810,when the bridemaids agreed on the Red packet (another tradition).There they go thru a round of photograph session before we head back to Tony's place.

Tony's place wasn't too quiet but most of the helpers (Tony's friends..they apparently went playing mahjong on the suppose Bachelor's Night and Charlie,my friend dozed off bcos he borrowed a car on 0200 and head back at around 0300).In fact we all tired already but the Couple was able to smile radiantly perhaps by the flow of the events (it's their wedding after all).It's another round of costume change for the bride (It's part and parcel of being female...Tony kept his suit on).She worn the tradition chinese bride gown for��the Tea Ceremony for the Groom side.I kept myself awake because his relatives are lively but the rest of the helpers��were meeting the Sandman (sleeping) so I get to witness it.

Tea Ceremony is to pay respect to the elders by offering Tea to the elders which whereby the elders will give a Red packet with their blessings.However I'm not really sure if Tony had to give one to his unmarried Elder Brother when he (The brother)��drunk the tea but it how it's work out (Ah,Big Brother still laugh out loud and joke about it but I am sure it's all a cover over himself not getting married earlier).

Later we had buffet at the corridor of the flat and it's actually a very narrow place to do such a thing.So when Xuelin went over to get food, the rest of the Male Helpers (Tony's Friends) made some very crude remarks on her.I pretend not to show any reaction since it's a Special Day and ya,she's bigger than before...maybe being married(?..she was engaged) she got the luxury of being not concerned abt her size anymore (her husband was also a mountain of a man..as in Big SHow).

Anyway, we went over to the bride's place for the same thing (same buffet,same ceremony).Then we are to head back to Tony's for the Night's Event (I was dazed and I actually left from her place without discussing anything)

After a nap, I went to Centrepoint��for the Wedding Dinner only to��find out she still needed help for the sitting of the Dinner and (maybe�� bcos I wasn't planned into their plans )��I wasn't given any task.So I stood around awkwardly before I helped out to led the guests to their seat.Then my non-helper friendscame and a table was opened so I jump at the first chance of helping them by getting myself out of the way.

The dinner was great even when the portions were small.The Couple had another costume change and Tony worn something that resembles what Travolta worn on Saturday Night Fever (Good for him...the Suit was like worn for a long time already...more than 12hrs?).I drank a bit for the occasion and we hoping to get a toast from them however due to time restriction, we decided to head for the Hotel Room they were going to spent the night in.Along the way (I was in the bridal car),the couple were lamenting how hungry and tired they were (they didn't eat the wedding dinner, too busy..) and my thoughts were:

It's only one day and it passed so live with it since u only had it once if you are lucky (touch wood!).

We didn't had the drinking party or anything.In fact I headed down 7-11 to buy food and drinks...and when I am back,no one was in the mood for anything.Oh well.So we break and departed once George and Guowei and their respective girlfriends (Lili and Yanling) are going back.So much for all those plans

Oh Ya.It was my birthday on 21st Feb but I didn't want to tell them since I never��celebrate my 'western' calendar b-day.��

Thursday, February 19, 2004

Kamen Rider Blade Ep1 Review

Here's wat I think of Kamen Rider Blade....it leaves an odd taste in the mouth...


The costume and monsters, I had nothing to complain abt since in comparison to Gransazer....they lost out...
(Gransazer won over blade however due to identification of 'human' characters...we got abt 3 characters in blade almost looking identical at 1st glance..)



Like most actioners, it began with the standard fight scene which had Rider Garren fighting a Bat 'Undead' (Ya...this is the Keyword to Kaijin now...however Bat?This so unstandard...we all know Bat is for 2nd Episodes) and had Blade zipping down the coastal line on his bike to play backup...of course the help came late and with little help from Blade (if role reversed, Blade might been Bat Food),Garren sealed the Bat in his card..(Cardcaptor Garren.... :lol: ) after a trunk kick style Rider Kick which is so Kaixer-style.


There was surprisingly an OP for a Debut episode..but I put that way that the Seq is the worse Rider Sequence I ever seen, like an MTV that had no direction other than showing the male leads (the camera pans and zooms away too fast to tell who is who) and the Riders fighting Air like martial art showcase.The song is good and by the 'Queen of J-Rock' Nanase Aikawa however.


What follows are the standard fare of looking into wat life the leads led b4 having the lab been attacked a Locust 'Undead' and ends with Kenzaki transforming to Blade with his Tachibana sempai (Garren) looking on as if he was scheming something.


For an action drama,Blade might strike the usual chord with the setting in a darker mood.Howevr it didn't come across as a real action drama due to the idea of playing cards.


The concept of play cards however was very dated (think Cardcaptor Sakura,Rider Ryuki,Yugi-oh) and being confined to 52 + 1(jokers) cards in a poker deck,they will be in a tight spot being innovative (however they will save a grand for the concerning parents,owning that there might be a poker deck laying around already in almost every household if averaged out).


Out of the debut episodes of the 2nd generation of Kamen Riders (notice the English title is now Masked Rider and not Kamen on the toyboxes),Blade came across surprisingly less thrilling and engrossing despite all the actions and the monsters are coloured (the Orephants are Grey)


Monday, February 02, 2004

Wat's this ? (Spam comments)

Recently I got some mail on my Blog...there were comments from the 'readers'


I believed that even there are like a 1000 plus people who stumble upon this,how many of them actually comes in as 'frequent' reader?


While it boost my confidence these comments letters...it was ironic that they might be another kind of new age spam targeting at Bloggers.


Why I suspect so?


1)They all seems to be coming at just one entry (the June one..there's only one entry on June '03).


2)They give generic comments (I love...Forward to reading...Great stuff..etc).


3)Two different email address leaves the same comments.


4)I return mail but the address disallow replies.


5)I click at one of those links.Led me to an online Gambling advertisement.


6)Generally, people only read what is on the top.Simple Logic.


Nevertheless, I now felt more obliged to write something for my 'phatom-pokerisfun' readers.