The Captain Did It ....

Contrary to popular belief, it wasnt the butler that did it, but the captain. What am I talking about? Well last Saturday night was the much anticipated DiG's murder mystery party. I gotta admit, I didnt quite know what to expect but I did have a good time. It was a role playing party, each of us had to play a part - I was the owner of a girl power employment agency :) We were 'interrogated' by the police chief and we were provided with clues through out the session. In addition, we were given a script on what to say when we were interrogated. At the end, we were given a piece of paper to guess who the murderer was. It was something different, a unique way to have a birthday party and the mini Freddos in the Freddo ice cream cake was yuuummmm...... And I managed to have a 'teensy' bit of DiG's home made bourbon... I wanted more ... pity I had to drive :(

After the murder mystery party, I headed down to meet my bro and his friends at the Belgium Bar....

Did I mention that last weekend was suppose to be alcohol free? :P

Happy Birthday Singapore

Yeah OK ... I know this is like one week late... Singapore's National Day falls on 9 August. This year, my bro and I decided to be a little patriotic. So we thought we'll invite some Singapore friends over to watch the National Day Parade (NDP). Little did we realise we actually have pretty limited number of Singapore friends. That was kind of sad. So in the end we opened it to the 'public'. We had a good mix both from church and EC and my friends - German (SF), Brazillian (LF), Indonesian (SW), Malaysian (YW) and Singaporeans. The Aussies bailed out :P It was also a case of East meets West. We fed them a good ole BBQ - but we at least had the usual chicken wings!! Impressively, the plates were in the theme of red & white. SF & LF made some Brazilian home made chocolates which literally melted in your mouth. The main purpose of this function was to watch the NDP. However, after several attempts to connect to the webcast, we managed to log into the Tamil webcast .... unfortunately, none of us could speak that language. Anyway, thanks to yours truly, who happens to get brain waves every now and then, suggested to EC to try and get the English commentary from the Singapore radio stations and it actually worked!!! Have to admit I lost interest in the NDP after a while.... the booze was more interesting.

It is funny how at these social gatherings that people would open up a little and you learn something about people that you wont learn if they weren't in these social gatherings. All in all I had fun - I wont comment as to how I felt the next morning.... after consuming wine (I lost count how many glasses), one can of Smirnoff Ice Blacks, bourbon and cokes, and vodka and lemonade..... for once I couldn't face food in the morning!! At the end of the evening, SF, EC and I finished a bottle of Jack Daniels.... here's a pic of us having dinner :)

Singlish....

SINGLISH PET PEEVES Does bad English irritate you?

What is it about bad English in Singapore that irks you most? Local words like 'lah' and 'lor'? 20 (10%) Bad grammar 102 (52%) Accent 26 (13%) Singlish is OK 49 (25%)

Total votes: 197

Perhaps this poll is too soon to criticise but to have a quarter of the people polled to say that Singlish is OK is disturbing. I had a hard time trying to decide which bad English of Singapore irked me the most. It's everything.... but what irks me most is the bad grammar and the accent. Personally, I have not been an advocate of Singlish ever since I was a kid.... perhaps it was the family upbringing where my dad always said we need to speak the 'Queen's English' and 'open your mouth when you speak'. Having been away for a number of years now, when I'm back in Singapore or when I hear another Singaporean speak in a foreign country I literally cringe. It makes it funnier when you try to hear a Singaporean speak Singlish to a non Singaporean and they have no idea what is going on. The foreigners think that we're not speaking English as we speak too fast. Singaporeans need to remember that when they are in a foreign country, they need to speak slowly as non Singaporeans are not used to our accent, slangs and lingo.

Having said all that, I admit I do speak with a bit of lah sometimes but that's only to fellow Singaporeans... I'm the first to admit that I speak differently towards Singaporeans and non Singaporeans..... but that's just because I dont see the point of being 'aksi' and I dont want to be labelled by fellow Singaporeans (especially relatives) that just coz I live overseas I now behave like an orang puteh.

An Alcohol Free Weekend....??

Yeah that's what I told TM and CB when we went out for lunch on Thursday... but do you think I managed to do that?? Heh....

Last Thursday, TM, CB and I went to The Vic for lunch ... once again, the lunch and company was awesome... after lunch it felt so good to just laze about as the sun was shining after like 1.5 weeks of rain and cloudiness .... we continued to sit and consume more alcohol. Somewhat through that, we decided to go to the Subi Hotel for more drinks... so off we went - on the way we got CB her Japanese Mayo and TM got a lamp.... and it's a really really cool lamp!! By the time we were at the Subi Hotel it was past 3pm (now where did the afternoon go.... and I'm loving my new job - I didnt feel the guilt to rush back to work!) Whilst consuming some Coronas, I made a comment on having an alcohol free weekend... TM and CB had the 'yeah right' look on their faces.... but for all intentions and purposes I was set to prove them wrong... until CB suggested meeting at the Queens on Sunday (today) for a Sunday Sess.... All in all it was a great afternoon spent well with two great friends...

Come Friday, YW asked if she could come over for some wine so there goes my weekend resolution... well one can always argue that the weekend starts on a Saturday :) However, I can safely say I didn't consume any alcohol on Saturday - instead went out dinner with the YA3... I have to say I'm still reserved with this group - as I dont really know how much I can 'push' them and also the extent of their sense of humour and I suspect their sense of humour is 180 degrees away from mine.....

This afternoon was indeed spent at the Queens... giving CB some morale support on her first official 'date' .... but I think she did pretty well :)

I've got DiG's murder mystery night next week which I'm pretty excited about... except I havent read the synopsis and figured out what I have to wear!!!

What Being an Aussie Means.....

I got this from JH today.... and no.. I'm not an Aussie :P

Being Australian is about driving in a German car to an Irish pub for a Belgian beer, then travelling home, grabbing an Indian curry or a Turkish kebab on the way, to sit on Swedish furniture and watch

American shows on a Japanese TV.

Oh and...... Only in Australia ... can a pizza get to your house faster than an ambulance.

Only in Australia ... do supermarkets make sick people walk all the way to the back of the shop to get their prescriptions while healthy people can buy cigarettes at the front.

Only in Australia ... do people order double cheeseburgers, large fries and a DIET coke.

Only in Australia ... do banks leave both doors open and chain the pens to the counters.

Only in Australia ... do we leave cars worth thousands of dollars on the drive and lock our junk and cheap lawn mower in the garage.

Only in Australia ... do we use answering machines to screen calls and then have call waiting so we won't miss a call from someone we didn't want to talk to in the first place.

Only in Australia ... are there disabled parking places in front of a skating rink.

NOT TO MENTION...

3 Aussies die each year testing of a 9v battery works on their tongue.

142 Aussies were injured in 1999 by not removing all pins from new shirts.

58 Aussies are injured each year by using sharp knives instead of screwdrivers.

31 Aussies have died since 1996 by watering their Christmas tree; while the fairy lights were plugged in.

8 Aussies had serious burns in 2000 trying on a new jumper with a lit cigarette in their mouth.

A massive 543 Aussies were admitted to Emergency in the last two years after opening bottles of beer with their teeth.

and finally.........

In 2000 eight Aussies cracked their skull whilst throwing up into the toilet.