Occasion for cake

A bit belated, but Tasha celebrated her first birthday today with this pretty made-for-pets cheesecake May brought back from Japan. Don't ask me what it tasted like because it wasn't meant for human consumption.

Ask her.

Or him.

It was a pretty cake... while it lasted.

Pebbles is two!

"It's my 2nd birthday. Is everything in readiness for the celebrations like I asked?"

"We're working as quickly as we can, milord!"

The eclairs are looking especially tempting

"Yes, this spread is satisfactory. Well done, humans!"

"Die, cake, die!"

"Meh. Wake me up when it's all over."

USS Halloween Horror Nights 2

A little better strategy is in order if we want to enjoy this event at USS more next year.

Time: 2000-0100 hrs is too short to do everything, so despite the temptation to ride the coasters we have to be more focused on the specially themed attractions, even if it means forgoing our favourite rides.

Crowd: the place is swarming with merry-makers who create great atmosphere for the event, but also unfortunately make the lines for the rides and everything else very long. We waited about an hour to get on the Battlestar Galactica (Cylon) and another on The Mummy Returns. And that was all the time we had as upon exit from the Egyptian Necropolis, it was nearly 0000 hrs already.

Lockers: in crowded situations like this one, the time spent waiting and riding will invariably exceed the lockers' grace period and you have to pay the machine in order to get your stuff out of it. It gets difficult when all your belongings including wallet containing cash, NETS and credit card are locked in the locker as you are not permitted to ride with loose items in your pockets. For cash transactions, exact amount only, no change is given -- we found out a bit too late. For both rides, we ended up spending $18 on the lockers alone. Grr.

Food: we purchased the theme dinner at KT's Bar and Grill (on of the restaurants in USS). It was a three-course meal including a choice of baby pork ribs (above) and duck (below). The ribs were succulent and tender, likewise the duck. The theme decorations turned out cuter than the picture in the menu promised, but it was good eating anyway. There seemed to be a bit of a kerfuffle over the question of whether we had purchased the meal vouchers online, but it was only because online orders apparently received a complementary fruit punch, a nice surprise for us...

like so.

But back to strategy: the food was fabulous and reasonably priced ($28+++ per pax) but to start serving at 2000 hrs... well, the one hour we enjoyed eating was also one hour's headstart on the rides for everyone else who had nommed earlier elsewhere.

Parking: the one thing that worked for us was a last minute decision. Because parking was so limited at Vivocity, we detoured to park at the Beach car park on Sentosa. $3 entrance + $2 parking = $5 total. Even though the monorail ended service at midnight, it was a short and pleasant stroll back to the beach from USS to get M2 back.

Conclusion: to really enjoy ourselves, spend more money. Buy a day pass to ride coasters all day long, upgrade to stay for the night's activities and fork out for a universal express pass for faster (than normal) access to the attractions. Carry only a credit card and your smartphone (useful as a camera and for contacting separated party members) in a secured pocket, leave all other miscellaneous barang-barang in the car.

P.S.: To infer that we didn't enjoy the experience is not accurate. The creepy music and sound effects relentlessly permeating the entire theme park added atmosphere to the main street that was divided into sections by theme. From the House of Dolls at the entrance, to the post-apocalyptic urban cityscape, to the Mummy-cursed streets of ancient Egypt populated with ghouls and zombies popping up to scare random passers-by, USS really did take a lot of trouble to get the environment perfect for Halloween. All I'm saying is, next year, we go with a better plan to maximize the time allotted.

USS has dedicated staff. This forlorn ghoul guards the door of the closed gift shop. No one gets in regardless of how badly they want to buy a souvenir.

A celebration of "Decade-nce"

Congrats to Jo and Derek who are celebrating their 10th anniversary with a luncheon at The Wine Company. This rather unflattering pix shows one table of us colleagues all busy stuffing our faces.

The menu was pretty decent, starting with a seafood bisque that was rich in crabby flavour. The pix shows us chowing down on the Caesar salad topped with crabmeat. The main course was a thick slab of fillet mignon which I was looking forward to. I ordered rare but it was served done on the more... conservative interpretation of the word, shall we say? Dessert was a baked Camembert which was nothing I'd expected in generosity -- a whole wheel of Camembert baked over apple slices in a caramel sauce. The whole thing was thick and melty, and so good. But there was no way I could eat another. One serving was quite enough.

It was fortuitous to be at this particular table as we were short of one diner, which meant more food for the rest of us since the number had already been catered for and we didn't want be responsible for any wastage.

The event itself was quite an easy-going affair. Jo renewed her vows in the style of "Green Eggs and Ham" while Derek's was more conventional but culminated in  a surprise presentation of a huge bouquet of flowers. Otherwise, the guests were left to their own devices and entertainment... mostly. The finale involved a lucky draw, prize winners having to dance "Gangnam Style" or shuffle with "Party Rock Anthem" in order to claim their gifts. Fortunately, there weren't too many gifts and our table wasn't particularly lucky. Wait, does that mean we were lucky or unlucky?

Anyway, Mr and Mrs Lee, 10 years under the belt and many more to come!

Drama Club BBQ, and a random cat pix

Oops, did I interrupt whatever you two boys were doing? Sorry!

Drama Club kids bid farewell to their seniors -- one last hurrah before momentum picks up and hurtles us through to the end of year exams. Apart from the sporadic, often failed attempts to dunk random victims in the condo pool, it was an easy, remarkably sane and civilized cast & crew party to celebrate Wow!Pow!Bow! 2010 and thank various club members for their contribution to it's success.

NYeDC is now in the hands of an organized and by-the-book exco, if tonight's event is anything to go by. Just as well. Admin is such a nightmare for me, and if the kids are willing to pitch in and help me out, I'll be the more grateful for them.

A slobbery birthday

Now that I have the weekends to myself again, I can spend then on frivolous things like attending Latte's birthday BBQ.

Latte seems thrilled at the prospect of birthday cake for dessert, but she's looks more keenly at our's, instead of her own. Doesn't she know chocolate isn't good for dogs?

Latte's owner helps out with the candle blowing. Dog drool isn't a recommended additive to birthday cake.

Unfortunately, Q-tip doesn't think highly of the canine consumable cake.

But Latte has no problem with daintiness, as Her Highness, Miss Q-tip, does. Latte just swallows her share down in large chunks. It's her birthday, after all.

Vince's stag

Just got back from Vince's stag party. The plan was to accompany him as he indulged his fave Saturday night passion: supporting Liverpool on the TV.

We chose a big screen for him -- at the atrium of the Rendezvous Hotel. But the match was boring, and despite it being advertised as the gathering place for the "Official Liverpool F.C. Fan Club" for tonight's EPL clash, the atmosphere was a far cry from Anfield.

By the end of the first half, we'd already drained our glasses and gnawed every chix wing we ordered and we were outta there. CHIJMES next, but here there was too much of a crowd, already well settled in and occupying all the tables in front of the big screens.

However, without the distraction of the big game, we were able to execute our primary objective for the evening: get Vince to drink more than we've ever seen him drink before; then get him to perform a short list of tasks which he will never attempt again as of next week when he joins the ranks of the Marrieds.

We got a private box overlooking the dance floor of La Baroque where a decently competent 'live' band was belting out covers of recent hits. Loudly. Screwdrivers all round (except for the DDs, me included). Vince proved quite sporting in his sincere attempts to collect 1) a lady stranger's phone number; 2) a photo of another lady stranger which she would forward to his cell phone; and 3) get yet another lady stranger to buy him a drink.

Two out of three ain't bad. Phone number, check. MMS photo, check. Mooch a drink, fail. But he made up for it by dancing onstage with the band to BEP's "Boom, Boom, Pow!" while wearing his newspaper hat and flying goggles.

What were you expecting? "The Hangover"?

Wrap. Print. Party!

A production still from last week's shoot. Here we see Weng briefing his talent about the coffee mug scene. Coffee looks pretty strong in this photo.

At the wrap party tonight, Weng debuted his rough cut for the entire cast and crew. I must say, although the raw footage didn't look like much, after editing and with the inclusion of the mood-setting background music the final product looked very good indeed.

Most importantly, the client was pleased as Punch with it. Said he had plans to air the final copy around the region. He can't wait to see how the regional offices will react to it.

As for my role, I had a single line of dialogue and a shot of my very talented left arm holding the coffee mug. Yes, that one in the picture.