MIND SHARDS: July 2006

well! had a fun-filled 4 days in Bintan. so many happening things, where do i even start. man the prospect of blogging those 4 days in narrative style (as i always do) seems preeeetty daunting now, but hey, im on MC today so let's get on with it :D

first day, arrived at Tanah Merah Ferry Terminal and proceeded to head to Bintan Island. even before we left everyone was in a crazy mood already, as can be seen by ppl laughing at each other's passport photos. 2 whole boxes of food was packed to ensure that food costs could be kept to a minimum.

took a ferry to Bintan and connected via shuttle bus to Bintan Lagoon Resort. the villa there was great. 2 stories, 4 bedrooms, a nice hall, dining area, "al fresco" dining/tanning area, personal pool and of course a kickass buggy! woot as yp said, the buggy is a permanent source of amusement. at least for ppl like him, joses and myself who dont even have a driving license yet.

Day One

Played beach volleyball until my hands were quite painful after that doh. but it's pretty fun i think, although it wouldve been better if we were all more skilled at it. as it was the rallies were v short haha. swam in the pool a bit, then went to play beach soccer woot. hmm come to think of it the other team still owes us drinks lol, since everybody on our team, keith, yp, zhiyang and myself all scored a goal apiece. oh yeah and at night heard they played some drink or tell game which i totally missed out on since i conked out on the bed at 'round 11 or so haha.

Day Two

some of the other guys played beach volleyball against the staff and won 3 hours of free pool time heh. also played water polo, which was easily the most fun game cos everybody could participate and everybody seems to be pretty evenly skilled for the game. except nat haha, who was easily the overall top scorer. in a 1-on-1 situation with her, i was goalie and she kept faking so many times that i pulled my calf muscle a little bit due to excessive jumping - oops -.-" oh and she scored too :sweatdrop: at night went for Laser Quest which was super tiring, and my score sucked haha! oh yeah and went for KTV after Laser Quest. it was really fun. although towards the end everybody was belting out the songs regardless of whether they had the mic haha. sadly they didnt have the more recent songs though, otherwise it wouldve been even more kickass! oh yeah that was also the night in which the legendary buggy accident happened. masterminded by keith-chaoyang-oh, he took a really wide turn and the buggy wobbled on 2 wheels before turning over haha. he ended up with really bad abrasions and so did kenneth. amazingly debbie escaped unscathed thankfully. oh yeah still remember andrew, yp, martin, nat and myself were sitting on the deck chairs singing to the guitar playing when tengchi burst in as the bearer of the bad(?) news.

Day Three

played water polo again, as well as soccer. woot this time the soccer was really fun cos it's way easier to run on grass than sand. also netted a brace woot haha. think the rest of them couldnt be bothered to run haha. at night went to Pasar Oleh Oleh, a kinda nightmarket place for dinner. it was kinda small and slightly disappointing. i mean the food was fine. but the souvenir shops were blah. oh ho! but the real fun was when we got back. a campfire was setup on the beach and some of them played vodkaslap, which i swear is just to provide amusement to everyone because the game makes zero sense haha. also played 7-up, which i still suck at even when im sober. doh i said "up" at 13 what the heck. but waaaait a minute, if that was bad, how about nat who said 7 after jason "upped" on 49! haha random man! suffice to say, we both sucked at 7-up. which was prob why we were the first 2 acting abit stoned. after 2 shots of absolut citron i was staggering around. and to make it worse i recall falling flat on my back when i tried to walk. wah lau damn paiseh haha. played 4 kings back in the house after that. it was a show of strength and endurance when neither nat nor myself acted strangely even though we kenna the most at the start. rather, jason had to puke first, and of course tengchi was pretty much insane by the time the night was out. he was doing all the imaginary electric guitar impressions and apparently was trying to sing Bohemian Rhapsody or something. not to forget the "im sorry i didnt watch Pirates 2 with you guys" while doing all the mini ultraman handsigns haha.

Day Four

packed and chilled mainly. then headed down to the pool for a last game of polo, where this time some angmohs and another kid joined us. was pretty fun for a last hurrah of sorts. back in singapore we went to eat at East Coast Lagoon. laksa, chicken wings, stingray etc. yum. guess whatever weight i lost through exercise was regained in just one meal haha.

all in all i probably couldnt have wished for a better trip, although i must say that it wouldve been great if tanglin, weiyuan and siska could come along. im sure the fun factor wouldve gone up haha. thank you all for making this happen. and as i said in my "speech", much credit should go to andrew also.

DISCLAIMER: i only have very few pix because i din bring my camera, will add more once the compilation comes out.

it didnt really sink in yesterday. i mean there was a snowball's chance in hell that i would be totally unaffected by Gayle's shock elimination. last night at caldecott, i was saddened and felt that it was a real pity that such a promising contestant got the boot. today however, it was a totally different scenario. it slowly began to sink in. i've nth to look forward to on wednesdays, thursdays and saturdays. there's a huge void suddenly. thanks for allowing me to accompany you on every step of this fantastic journey, i wouldnt have done otherwise. just to see your face light up at each roadshow and at yesterday's event was more than i could ask for. so now dear gayle, the next step may be a fresh journey, but your final destination at stardom shall never waver.

put up the Gayle #1 placard and the I <3 Gayle placard in my office cubicle today. it's my little tribute to a girlish girl who believed in her dreams and never once forgot her fans who undertook this wild ride with her. may her infectious smile be a permanent fixture on that delightful face.

~Memory of a Gayle-lite

Memoirs of a Gayle-sha

:( :( :( :( :( :( :(

I'm wide awake and I can see the perfect sky is torn
We're a little late
You're already torn..

:( :( :( :( :( :( :(

If I could, then I would
I'll go wherever you will go
Way up high or down low
I'll go wherever you will go

:( :( :( :( :( :( :(

Gayle #1

it was supposed to be a night of fun. a night of screaming, of fervent cheering and celebrations. i'd managed to get tix to sit with the Gayle-lites near the stage. i was with weiming, prob the most hardcore Gayle-lite of them all. i was also with jon, a potential hardcore Gayle-lite in the making, requiring just a few prods in the right direction. we had those placards Jon made.

how did it all go so wrong?

admittedly the song sounded pretty terrible (which in no way is an indicator of the standard of the rendition). but cmon, surely others fared worse? life is unfair sometimes, whether u look at singing power or personality, Gayle is nowhere near the bottom for either.

Gayle, don't let a slight setback hinder you. you're still gonna be a star. we'll try to get finals tix to watch you at the finals. it'll be worth it i'm sure. i'm gonna miss being able to talk and encourage you face to face at roadshows. do take care.

wowowowowow eventful day sia! okok so had duty the whole day yesterday which basically involved sleeping, eating, sleeping, eating and watching mummy returns. naturally i was full of energy this morning. unfortunately since the whole camp network was down due to virus, ended up playing scrabble instead. and wow i must say i was extremely surprised by kam's scrabble skill. dun see him usually half past six english, he has a natural flair for scrabble man, put me to shame! so anyway took half day off becos i had to rush down to Mediacorp for the Gayle fan interview thingy. in the end i reached there at like 5.35pm but waited for the rest till like 6+ doh haha. so anyways did some silly stuff which yall can prob see on tv soon. got to know some other Gayle-lites: amiroooooool, weiming, sebastian etc.

went to meet tengchi afterward to go to orchard together to meet the rest of the class peeps. tapow'd dinner and ate at the fountain outside haha, very ambience-ish. anyways later chilled awhile at KFC. met de wei, BK, maung among others there. they all seem to have v vague memories of me, i suspect because i didnt go taiwan with them haha. cmon guys! i was still in the platoon for a whole like 2 months. moved over to starbucks after that and as per usual, had a talkcock session. was nice meeting up with everyone again: teng, andrew, nat, debbie, jace, keith, mark, kenneth, yp, zhiyang (hope i din miss anyone out heh). well ok officially looking forward to the bintan trip now. was still half-hesitant at first to be honest. shared cab home with keith and jason later like old times haha. woot.

oh yeah just checked my mail and realised i won tix to this wednesday's spectaculars also haha. wooo wooo.

wooo went to Parkway Parade today to attend the Roadshow. arrived there at like 1.15pm and there were already so many people in the queue! in fact the queue snaked just outside the allocated barriers. thats why i quickly joined the queue in order to avoid disappointment with regard to the autograph signing session. but boy was i off base. disappointment would be the last word i'd associate with the whole experience. when the Idols came out from the side entrance, i was in the row nearest to them. waved frantically and i think Gayle prob should have noticed a nutcase waving like his life depended on it haha.

also took this nice photo of Gayle speaking on stage! woot luckily i had a good spot. that's not all! just before the autograph signing session JA asked the crowd a question which was "What's the theme for next week's Spectaculars?" and i was jumping around waving frantically to get noticed. imagine my surprise when he turned towards me and gestured "You sir! Come onstage!". wooo haha. still high. anyways answered correctly duh, and got a signed bag by Jon Leong as well as tix to the next Spectaculars' Results.

i wouldve traded it for the bag that Gayle signed in a heartbeat but hey, this is better than nothing! shook all their hands this time, and by the time i got to the end my hand was trembling haha. oh yes and when i gave Gayle another card (penned on the same signature grey cardboard material), she remembered who i was even without looking at the card haha. yes i have a trademark material heh. only prob is i seem to be running out of it haha. gotta get some.

GO GAYLE! see you next thursday!!

random photo of myself since im feeling happy. haha.

alright! just got back from the Singapore Idol results show! man im so pumped i cant even give the usual narrative version of events (as i usually do when i blog). in fact i can only give point form of what happened so here goes:

- got tickets from Mediacorp staff
- went to Balcony seats
- managed to move downstairs because there was space
- watch Idol Extra
- entrance of Idols!
- all the impersonations are damn funny
- Gayle delivers the machine gun speed Flying Kisses
- Gayle slaps skin with the moshers ala WWE
- Fei Xiang sings Close to You by the Carpenters
- Top 12 sings Lean on Me
- Joakim's dancing is pure pwnage
- Gayle is safe!
- Norman is out

and those are the main points! whee. cant wait for this saturday's roadshow.

whoa went down to Bugis today cos the Top 12 were gonna be there at 2pm for a meet-n-greet wooo. was there early actually, and was chilling at Starbucks while keeping one eye on the queue. i decided that if it was gonna get too long then i'd go join and wait for zk and jon in there. at about 1.30 or so i was wondering why everybody kept going towards the front so i had a look. i was abit stunned to see like easily 60-80 people already ahead of me in the queue so i figured i'd better start queueing otherwise i'd miss the chance to take photo with and get autograph from Gayle! unfortunately they only arrived at like 2.35 instead of the scheduled 2. so they didnt allow taking of photos with the Idols and pretty much just rushed through the autographing session. but still managed to get all their autographs! yay! also managed to pass Gayle a little card which, admittedly, i had to rush through. hope she was impressed with the contest winning entry i penned on the back haha. man it sure was cray-zay down there but it was well worth it.

just finished yet another entry in attempt to win some more tickets to watch Singapore Idol haha. struck it first time lucky last week. dun think i got it this week since alvin has yet to receive a response, but hope i'll get it this week haha. guns blazing and all. on a side note, been listening to Kelly Clarkson's Beautiful Disaster recently. it definitely grows on u as u listen to it more and more. it sounds much more palatable as the fast paced version i'll admit. but then again Gayle did a slow rendition admirably too.

win win win!

sigh disappointing ending to the England Portugal game yesterday. i mean England have been playing like shit and everything, but somehow EPL being the most watched league in Singapore has made an irrepressible England fan out of all of us. as such i guess i cant help but silently root for England no matter the situation. well it started off all wrong. you simply do not play Rooney as a lone striker. to be honest for all his talent, if you're gonna play a lone striker, Andy Johnson would be a much better choice. Eriksson is a fool. bring along the likes of Jenas and Walcott just for a ride ah? and with regard to the red card incident, felt Cristiano Ronaldo was the troublemaker lar. there's been enough write-up about players trying to get the ref to book other players. and it happened again. and anyway the little shove definitely didnt warrant a straight red. but all in all England have only themselves to blame for missing gilt edged chances. and for being technically inferior to the largely effective Portuguese.