Da Paolo il Giardino

I was cleaning out my wallet when I found a receipt for a dinner I had last week. Colleague of mine was having her birthday and I got roped into the little dinner party by virtue of simply walking into the department accidentally. After some deliberation, we went to Da Paolo il Giardino at Cluny Court.

The whole bill for five persons came up to S$288.35 including a S$65 wine but no desserts. I am either El Cheapo or this is bloody insane. It is not as if we ordered lobsters from Alaska or beef that have been massaged by 18-yr old virgins and served to us on the naked back of Japanese Geishas with fireworks going off in the background. The food wasn't like out of the world. The wine (la morena riesling) is ok but most rieslings are usually safe choice and I drink almost anything anyway.

The other day, I went to a coffee shop in AMK and there was this atas stall within the coffee shop that serves western food. Its sirloin steak came up to $13.50 which is fucking pricey for a coffee shop stall but it wasn't half bad. This is most bad for the wallet.

101 Economics

I am typing away on my laptop watching CNBC when I saw something that almost made me fell out of the chair.

CNBC has several segments where a panel of experts advised a common American man or woman on his/her personal finances. Basically, the panel of experts would take a look at the person's financial debts/assets and then advise him on what he should do to reduce debt and increase his assets.

There was this black woman who took my breath away with her stupidity. She did not have a stable job, had no steady income but was completely up to her nose in credit card debts. And yet, she kept saying that she needed sound financial advice on how to structure her debts and grow her assets. Most normal people would be able to see her problem by now (i.e. get a fucking job and income) but this black woman was absolutely stubborn in her belief that she just need to find the best way to "restructure" her debts. Finally one of the experts got fed up and told her straight in her face that she needs to get a JOB! Period.

You take this idiot black woman and x a few millions and you will get the root of the sub-prime problem in the US. Basically idiots who have no stable or little income and yet want to own big houses and live out the American dream (the American dream is one in which the family owns a house in the suburbs, has a dog, big garden and a grill in the garden where the family will bbq hotdogs on Saturday morning).

Millions of American idiots with little/ not stable / no income + deluded ambition to own a house + greedy banks still giving loans to these idiots so that they could charge them exorbitant interests = One in three idiots defaulting in their loan payment (fact) leads to SUB-PRIME DISASTER ACROSS THE WORLD.

I am constantly amazed that people can live their lives this way in which a person will pay for something which he or she obviously cannot afford even in his/her life time.

And yet, you know what is the most ironic thing now?

We now need these idiots to keep spending and spending. Heck, we need them to spend more. Because the American economy now needs an unprecedented spending spree from its legendary base of "buy-anything" consumers to pull itself out of the hole it has dug for itself. If these idiots suddenly see sense and stop spending and begin saving, then the American economy is doomed.

Economics. Isn't it wonderful once someone break it down and simplify it?

Public Service Warning! - Cloverfield

Okay, I would make this really short since recalling the movie makes me nauseous already.

Cloverfield is a movie told through an amateur's video camera. Oh yeah. And the camera man was bloody running all the time, trying to escape from the chaos caused by a monster's assault on New York City. So the result is that LOTS AND LOTS of shaking, jerky camera movement from start to finish. You get to look at the ground and skies and everywhere until you turn green and throw up all over the cinema.

If you suffer from motion sickness easily, you would be sick within ten minutes of the movie.

The movie concept is good and you can feel the fear and chaos as the common people tried to run away from the monster's attack while looking for their loved ones in the midst of the chaos. However, half way through, you just want the guy carrying the video camera to just stand the fuck still and don't move. Stop running around like an idiot, stop ducking around dustbins, jsut STAY STILL, YOU DUMBASS. Halfway through the movie, I looked around the cinema (half green myself) and realised that half the audience had their heads bowed trying to keep their bile and vomit down.

I saw a fat guy carrying a big box of butter popcorn going in the cinema. They really shouldn't eat before going in to watch Puke-field.

White Culture Worshipping

I recall before I went over to Paris for holidays, I was warned repeatedly by friends that the Parisians would ignore you if you do not speak French. The French think that the world should kow-tow to their superior Gallic culture and history which supposedly give us democracy. Rubbish, by the way, since we should thank the Greeks or even the Romans for it instead. In any case, I braced myself for the worst and armed with a few broken French phrases (like Bonjour and Merci) I went to Paris to face the dreaded French.

It turned out that the French people were nice. But it was the French-speaking Asians, who had settled in Paris, who looked down on us non-French speaking ones instead.

Those white and black men in Paris treated me normally, like a tourist of course. If you ask for directions in English, like on the 1st day where I was hopelessly lost, the white men would point you in the right direction without looking down on you. But it was the French-speaking Chinese that turned their noses up at Asians and treated them like beggars. Whenever I asked for an Asian-looking Parisian for help in English, they would always mutter something and walk away hurriedly.

It is not the white men that we should detest but those Asians who worship their culture blindly.

Akeelah and the Bee and word of the day - Pulchitrude

I watched "Akeelah and the Bee" and it is up there with some of the best movies I have watched. I wonder why nobody made a big fuss about this movie in Singapore. If I am a teacher, I would kick/drag all my students to watch the movie. This movie should be compulsory viewing for all primary schoolers, just like "Saving Private Ryan" is compulsory viewing for all NS men.

The last word that the little black girl had to spell to become co-champion of the Spelling Bee competition is 'Pulchitrude". The word means physical beauty. So you can say you are overwhemed with the pulchitrude on display at the Miss Universe Competition or compliment a woman that she has been blessed with pulchitrude.

Foreshadowing and Children of Men

Tomorrow, or rather today, is going to be a good, old-fashioned nasty day at work. All sort of shit is going to hit the roof and there will be no protection for me. Hmm.

I am watching Children of Men now, for the very first time and on HBO too. It is about life in a future London where women are no longer able to procreate, which mean that mankind is doomed. I don't think I will be able to finish it but I like the pre-apocalyptic setting of London where the streets are grimy, the people are grubby and the whole society is descending slowly into chaos. The plot is engaging and the acting (by Clive Owen and Julianne Moore no less) is first class. I wish tomorrow is a holiday so that I can stay up late to finish it.

I suddenly miss London. Even the stupid tourist thing like lining up at Buckingham Palace to see the changing of guard. Or walking around Platform 9 3/4 to look for a train to Hogwarts.

Word of the Day

Tmesis.

Do you know why this word is so cool?

Bcos it is the only word in the entire English dictionary that starts with tm.

It means the insertion of a word inside another word, such as fan-fucking-tastic. Or In-fucking-credible.

Hmm.

Foodie Shows

You know, while I was in Japan, what continually impressed me besides how pretty the girls were?

The utterly mind-numbing and soul-destroying food variety shows. It is the most boring show in Earth. IThe only thing more boring than it is my job.

Every foodie show on every network (I don't care whether it is NHK or some channels from deserted town in Shikoku Island) or started off with some dumbass going to some restaurant somewhere and exclaiming "What a fucking exotic restaurant! Wow, look at the food!"

They then looked at the food as if they never seen it in their life even though it could be just fucking soba aka buckwheat noodle in cold soup.

This idiot or bimbo will then take one bite of the sushi, tempura, soba or some common shit and then looked like he/she just had an orgasm and exclaimed "OSHIIIIII!!!" And then giggled like a moron who just spotted a shiny object.

Boring foodie show after every boring foodie show start out and end the same way. Some dumbass take one bite of the food and then rolled his eyes in mock ectasy as if it is the greatest thing he has ever eaten and give some superfluous compliment like "Wah, so nice!" or "OMG! I have never tried anything like this before!"

Now that I am back in Singapore, I realise every single local foodie show follows the same pattern. A guy and girl compere will go to some hawker centre, eat some common food like minced pork noodle and proclaimed it as the best thing since sliced bread. They then interviewed some customers to get some typically good reviews like "I come here every day leh."

I always wanted to ask foodie show producers what happens if they get negative reviews like the following:

"Fuck man, this is the worst thing I ever eaten. Wasted trip."

"What shit is this?"

"Is this pork or chicken?"

"Wah lau, $5 to eat this half burnt pork chop?"

"Bak-chou mee say bak-chou mee lah, what famous southern China Fuzhou double happiness noodles???!"

Tonight while watching the famous Floyd on the Discovery Travel and Living Channel, I got my answer. In case, you do not watch Floyd shows, Floyd is this old gentleman chef that travels to all around the world and then cook on the spot for the locals.

Floyd was cooking for some climbers in Peru (I think). He was cooking fish and then when the climbers sat down to eat, he told the climbers, "Please sit down and eat and give me your comments. Of course, if you don't like the food, your negative comments will be edited out of the show. HA HA HA HA HA HA."

Well, at least the old man is honest.

Aliens vs Predator 2

Why bother?

The first one pretty much blows. The 2nd one blows so hard that it feels like someone turns on a fan in the theatre.

Pretty much the whole story either happens at night or in some dank sewers or in some dank sewers at night. Basically, you can't really see any shit clearly. When the Predator fights the Aliens, you get a whole lot shaky cameras and snarling on screen. And then someone shoots something or bite someone and blood all over the place. Yeah, that about sum up the whole movie.

I met someone I know from NUS days. When I said hi, she reacted like I struck her with a hammer. She then acted all pensive, embarassed to look me in the eye and scurried away as if she owned me money. WTF? I think she thought that I was trying to sell her insurance.