wonder if it's due to stress from preparing for the exams, or is it due to someone being nice pang-seh and downloaded the movies when we were supposed to go watch together, when i watched this movie, UP, i had a multiple surges of emotional upheavals.

when i saw the scene when he hit the construction guy's (or whoever he is)head after his mailbox was knocked down, i think the house that the old man had is a metaphor for our hearts. sometimes when things happen, and when we lack the courage to face them, we like to close our hearts and draw up the curtains, hoping that the 'invasive' world will respect this tiny territory that we have carved out for ourselves.

another metaphorical scene that shows the house as a heart, is when the helium ballons were almost out and the old man has to remove all the furnitures that is has been weighing the house down. sometimes there's too much burdens in our hearts. these 'burdens' could be things that we hold dear to, and we treasure them so much that it impedes us from moving UP. and i think that's maybe one of the reasons why this movies is entitled 'UP'. it is not until we realise the importance of casting these burdens, that we enable ourselves to soar to higher grounds. this however, does not mean we are heartless and simply place all the wonderful things behind us. but rather, i see this as embracing the good things that has happened in the past and carrying them forward from the past into the present. why carry these burdens and make yourself feel sad, when these memories are supposed to be the ones that make you happy? only when one learns to cast these burdens, can one really claim to appreciate the past.

then the death of Ellie, his wife, struck me too. it reminds us that people that we see will not always be in our lives. if we make any promises to them, we dun wait till they are gone then start reminiscing them. even when we fulfill the promises after thy are dead, the meaning is of little significance.

when the old man opened Ellie's adventure book right after the boy scout, Russell, went off on his own to save 'Kenvin' the bird, it taught me something too. sometimes adventures in life will not always turn out to be the things that we hope for. sometimes the greatest adventures, are the ones that we are living in now. dun always hope for an adventure that has not yet happened, or does not exist. enjoy simply, the adventure that you are breathing through every single day. that is the adventure that is unique to your own and nobody else will have. treasure your today. everyday.

so whatever it may be, or what happens, life moves on. even when you get presbyopic, simply put on your progressives and keep counting the red and blue cars that are in your life.

if you were wondering who were the 42,000 lucky souls who managed to clinch the tics to the ndp, well, i'm one of them. with courtesy from the undying kiasu spirit of my dad:) he was extremely 'well-informed' by his colleagues and conscientiously went online to ballot for the tics and he managed to get 2 tics. it was a pity though that mum din managed to get it. i think however she would very much had preferred staying in the comfort of home and slacked than stay under the sun.

had a great sleep that day and i rendezvous wif my folks in church that morning. after waiting for my mum to finish some sunday school stuffs, we finally decided to to head to tampines safra for the sakura buffet on the taxi itself. well... not that we were difficult passengers. but the place we wanted to go to was cordoned off due to the ndp preparations.

the first time round i went there, i had to rush off to work so i din really managed to enjoy the 'high-life'. but this time, we took our time and really enjoyed the buffet. partly because we now knew better wad food to get and wad not too. we also knew the limits of our stomachs and managed to keep food wastage to a minimal. den we took train towards the place: ndp stadium!

the 'free' cake that i got with compliments from sakura for my bday. when i could actually get 10 plates of it from the dessert section myself. it was really cute though. haha!


my folks and i


my dad and i (before the weird tattoo stuffs)


my dad and i(after... and we were mistook as a bunch of gypsies on the ride home)


my dad wif his new erm... prada headwear


posterior view


the crowd at 'light blue' section



'singa-pura': Lion city


naval showcase

to all the inhabitants of Middle Earth regardless of dwarves, humans, hobbits, orcs, goblins, elves and wizards, thanks for celebrating with us our birthdays! ours? yup. that goes to andrew, jianxiong and me.

the first half of the day was really uneventful though. after school ended at 12, i went to orchard with carl jung (haojin) on different agendas though. she wanted to meet little round (xiaoyuan) and i wanted to be an emo kiaz and watch hangover alone. but en route, we decided to pay the candy sisters, aikleng and lay hoon a visit and also ask them whether they can join us for the steamboat at the end of the day. glad they could come! but not without telling us how Gae enlightened them and made them feel ashamed as an optom. to be precise, we all felt the same shame man. looks like the infantile optometric industry in spore still has lots to progress! well, that's a good thing. at least we won't become complacent but will instead keep finding ways for improvement.

after that, i emo-ded my way to ps and managed to get the tickets just b4 it started. woa super heng. honestly, i think the movie is a bit over-rated. yea no doubt it's funny. but i think the characters look a bit too serious. i love the supporting roles though:) after the movie, i went to book, and deposit for the tian tian huo guo place which is at the end of liang seah street.

den being a good student, i went to the nlb's Hans and TRIED to do some work while actually having at it on my apple crumble pie. feilou called and decided to meet me earlier to have a game of L4D b4 the feast begins. well, the genius apparently dun no the way to nlb. and wad's more, he accidentally alighted 2 stops b4 bugis junction. i seriously begin to suspect that he's of a korean origin... after pinghan reached, we went to play l4d.

to my surprise, the gals were early at the tian tian huo guo and they alr found seats by the time the BP trios reached.


yuntheng and i. you have to admit she can look real charming at times... though i also have to admit... i gotta do sth about my small lid aperture...


lilin, huimin, huiling, sihui (hope the Force of the huis shall unite once more!)


blurry guys...


chanel the chef, and aik leng the cashier (both equally disastrous at their respective responsibilities... haha! okok kidding! dun kill me!)


pseudo-forest fire. real cake fire.


birthday boys: xiong-ge, bandrew, and me


waxed cake



carbonized hotplate


the participants of world oxidising campaign


my first emo shot (taken by huiling)


xiong and i


ph and i

ok... i must admit on many accounts that this title sounds very controversial. basically this is one of the many miracles that is taking place in the lab behind an unseen corner of the optical shop which i work at. over here, you are actually looking at the only guy in singapore who tries to manually cut a lens shape so that it'll fit into a nike sunglass frame which has interchangeable lens. and this great guy who took over my job is chester.





well aware of the risks of flying fragments of the lens, i took a nearby sunglass and used it as a safety goggle. (ok, that was just 50% of the real reason. you know the other 50% why i took a pic of myself...)