Slightly edited 20 Nov 2005:
Today the ladies (i.e., Sharon and Wendy 'cos June and JY sat out) get to try out the trapeze at Sentosa we've been raving about, as well as the Luge later. Check out the pix from our action-packed afternoon:


Theory lesson before the practical.


Weng prepares for take-off.


This is about the only maneuvre I could get right today. My timing's gone a little screwy.


The launchpad gets a little crowded with Sharon about to take off and Wendy anxious to take her first swing.


Wendy demonstrates perfect form.


A quick conference to see how we can help Anthony get his routine right.


Anthony in flight.


On our way to try out the Luge, Sentosa's latest attraction.


JY and June play it cool on the chairlift.


At the end of the trail. And JY braces for impact with Anthony's rear end.


Bravely ascending for the 2nd ride of the day.

Returned to the Trapizza in the evening for dinner. Shared the space with a beach wedding dinner which was more formal than a beach party should be. Fortunately, there was a sudden torrential downpour which drowned out the "festivities" then the party really got more fun with the guests just mingling around, nursing their drinks and ice-creams and flitting from wet guest to wet guest making happy chat. The guests even surprised the bride with a birthday cake that appeared when her attention was, erm... directed elsewhere by a friend.

The wedding party left our table unmolested so we, dry under our canopy, were free to devour our outstanding thin crust pizzas. We had a Sicilana (basically everything on top), a Quattro Stagione (four seasons -- pizza divided into quarters, each quarter sporting a different topping), and an Aloha (Hawaiian, duh). Fresh ingredients, explosively crispy crust. Yummy. Though as usual I would've appreciated a little less salt.

Last night we were at the Singapore Conference Hall to support Ivay who was playing trombone for Thomson Jazz, of which she is a member. Me and June with Amy and Yee haven't much of a clue about music of this nature, but Ivay's a friend and her musical ability is worth our appreciation.

Don't know enough to comment on the music, but it was refreshing to be entertained by a local band that really enjoyed what they were playing, without getting too caught up in delivering practiced perfection (the S'porean malaise). The music was high energy stuff, played with full confidence, and as far as my untrained ear could tell, the band played well together; and they were having fun!

Boppin' heads, swayin' shoulders, tappin' to the tempo when the music calls for particular instruments to rest, then picking up the beat naturally on cue shows the musicians are into the music and not just hangin' around waiting for their turn to play. Even C Smith, guest conductor for the Big Band segment, couldn't keep still, dancing to the music and switching from bass to bongos and back to conducting with fluidity.

The jive band segment (in which Ivay played) introduced a vocalist, Y Atienza, with a rendering a 3 bluesy numbers, one of which was "A Nightingale Sang in Berkeley Square," which rang a little bell in my mind because it seemed to me like the answer to a question someone asked some time ago, but I cannot now recall who had asked the question, nor what the question even was. *shrugs.

Shame-facedly confess that immediately after Ivay's performance, we slipped out during the interval to watch the late screening of "Goblet of Fire" in J8. The book was a whopping 700+ pages long, so the movie focused on the more exciting SFX driven parts and still it ran way over 2 hours.

Because of its comparative brevity, the movie had some abrupt scene changes that made me think I was missing bits. What might have been a highlight of the movie, the Quidditch World Cup matches, was skipped over. There is a shot of the expansive stadium, the introductory fireworks of the Irish and Bulgarian teams, the flypast by uber-athlete, Viktor Krum, and on Fudge's cue to begin the match we cut straight into the post-match euphoria and the senseless attack of the Death-eaters. Even the roles of the Hogwarts profs became relegated to that of comic relief, with perhaps 1 significant scene each if they were lucky.

Still, it kept the excitement factor high, with lots of action to make the 2+ hours breeze by without feeling the strain. And, wow, the kids have grown up.

Wonder if there are any continuity scenes shot but deleted that will make their way into the DVD?

Spent the evening at the vet's. Q-tip appears to be limping a bit, favouring her right front paw and trying not to put any weight on the left. We tried examining her, but there's no sign that she's in pain or anything. Pressing on different parts of her paw yields no results; she carries on like nothing's bothering her. So we brought her to the professionals for a more expert opinion.

Very crowded this evening. A long line of pets and their owners spilling out onto the sidewalk from the clinic doors. And a little bit of drama with an irate pet owner who was unhappy with the diagnosis she got based on a faulty x-ray machine scan of her dog. She was so unhappy she called in the police, 3 of whom arrived and hung around the waiting area with the rest of us and likewise hoping to be called into the consultation room soon. They waited about a half-hour, all the while reminding the complainant that it being a civil case they can't barge into the doctor's office as and when they like. I'm not sure even they knew what they were supposed to be doing in this situation, other than perhaps taking a statement from the vet's side of the story. Other than that, I think they were prepared to make it up as things went along.

Eventually, we all got seen -- even the police. The doc observed Q-tip's limp and found nothing visibly wrong with it; more likely to be a sprain than a fracture. So we'll observe Q-tip for another few more days and then see how . But the vet also identified Q-tip as FAT and in serious need of a proper exercise regimen and a scaling of her teeth; for which we made a Monday morning appointment. Anyone know of any slimming centres for overweight dogs?

June joined our lunch crowd today, an unprecedented occurrence. She's taken 2 days off work to train with the college petanque team under ze French Master to improve her game. Good to see how serious she is with her training. Hopefully, we'll start beating people in doubles competitions soon, else our morale is going to remain in the dumpster.

Speaking of low morale, my training was at Plaza Bowl in the late afternoon and it was such a struggle to get my scores above 120. Amy pulverized me in our first 2 games with scores of 130+ and 140+. While I can be proud of her progress, I'm also terribly annoyed and frustrated with my inconsistency. Yee did well throughout, so next year the Phoenixes and Dragons are going to be very strong competitors in the college tournament, and Pegasus is in trouble 'cos I haven't found anyone likely to partner me for the doubles event who can adequately replace Anthony. JY, Chief of the Winged Horses, a little help please?

Anthony's letter finally arrived and it confirms that he's leaving us for greener grass. After all the uncertainty, it's a relief that we now know once and for all.

To send him off we took him to dinner at Sunset, next to the Seletar airport runway, for the "leaving on a jet plane" feeling. No special programme, just eat, drink, yak, torment NBS; the way we've always been.

We? Here's the guest list:
Amy
NBS
Darrell
Edward
Gerald
June
JY
Kim
Xmac
Q-tip
Vince
Wendy
Yee (in alphabetical order, more or less)
All to wish him well in his new posting and to say we'll miss him. Or not, for some of us :P.

Vince and NBS tried out bridge and Yee showed us the German variation which is more complex, takes longer to finish (17 rounds!), and requires pencil-and-paper to keep track of the score. The game's intriguing, but it does sort of cut the 4 players off from existing company, and vice versa.

And because of the uncertainty of his posting, we held off buying Anthony's farewell pressie. Maybe he'll get it in the next few days?

No photos. Forgot my cam again, haha.

Between June and myself, we couldn't come up with a name for our petanque doubles team, so HB put us down as "First Timers." Guess that's better than "Old Timers." Anyway, our tournament began reasonably well, going down a fighting 13-2 against one of the better pairs in the competition. That is, they consoled us with the fact that scoring 2 points off them was no mean feat.

Our second (and last) game saw us competing against 2 cute little boys who knocked us out 13-7. A couple of terrible errors early in the match put them far in the lead and our poor pointing finished us off.

By 1100 we were left with nothing to do so we took off and put in more 'blading time on our own.


On a roll.


Banking clockwise


Everybody invariably gets a shot like this.


On guard.

Oh yeah, thanks, Anthony for meeting us a Bish Park to return the water bottle which we had accidentally left behind at the petanque courts!

NBS couldn't join us 'blading so we lunched together instead. I wanted soup and bread at Cedele, J8, but somehow we couldn't find the place. Maybe we were searching in the wrong annex? We settled for MOS Burger instead where June bought a cute Coke promotional teddy bear (white with "Coke" in tiny letters emblazoned all over it). We sat and chatted longer than expected -- I even got a sighting of NBS' sister who happened to be walking by our table but, unfortunately, on the other side of the glass partition, so an intro wasn't convenient.

JY arrived at Bish Park way before us and by the time we arrived she was ready for her solo park tour. June continued working on her basic maneuvering and eventually learned to bank anti-clockwise. Next week, she'll figure out clockwise banking, and hopefully, braking. Then she should be ready for park exploration. JY isn't so systematic. JY is the learn-as-you-fall kind of student. Cool.

Went for petanque training late but we still put in quite a few games with the kids and a triples game with Wendy, Celine and CW. Training was a little edgier today because June and I are partners at tomorrow's National Doubles Championship event, which everyone else is training for too! To be realistic, we'll just concentrate on pointing well since our shooting sux, and hope for the best. Wish us luck!

After training, June found an adorable little kitten at the garbage collection area of TP stadium. She wanted to take it home so badly, but it wasn't ready to leave its mother yet and kept darting back to the safety of its refuge every time June got too close. June'll have to build up trust over time, as she has with many of the strays downstairs of our place, and then it's ours! Bwa ha ha!

Weng taught us how to play bridge after dinner at Blue Jaz. Rules are simple enough, but it's going to take lots of practice -- as always -- before we can play the game properly. Oh, well, 1 more new skill to pick up...

After a long day of report writing, a couple of meetings that promised some unexpected developments -- not ready to talk about them yet, though -- and a day full of department excitement because today the JC2s took their GP exam, I squeezed in a bowling quickie with Anthony and Amy at the CSC in the late afternoon.

Nothing to boast about, though. Of 3 games, my first 2 scored 120+ each only. Lane 16 was a bit slippery and my very first throw landed me on my butt though I still knocked 7 pins over. Wonder if the college bowling team training on the lanes behind us saw? Anthony and I both threw 125 on the second game and were severely punished by Amy's 140+. The girl's game is picking up nicely.

It was only in the third game I got a decent score, 164. It's bad that it takes a long warm-up before "the game" can start proper. And even worse, I need to find a different aiming point and a different starting position because what worked in a previous game doesn't necessarily work in the current one. Where is the consistency?

Took June and Q-tip out to dinner. Nearly collided with a Matrix as I was exiting my parking lot and entering into the main road. Must be a problem with my judging of distances or the Matrix was just driving faster than I estimated. Whatever. I thought I could make it, but as I entered the lane there was a furious beeping from behind, so I switched to my left lane to avoid him. He had the exact same idea and likewise switched to the left lane to avoid me. All I could do was floor the accelerator and hope for the best. Meantime, the Matirix driver stood on his brakes... the fact that I can still make this entry means that we all made it out of that hairy situation in one piece without a scratch. My guardian angel really works overtime to keep me alive.

Dinner at Porridge Culture: Warning -- cash only. Credit cards and NETS not accepted. You imagine the scenario.

OPs are finally over and we are now on the final leg of the PW cycle -- assessing the groups' files of supporting documentation for their projects. From the OPs there seems to be a trend to research the feasibility of incorporating yoga, or aromatherapy, or some other homeopathic practice into the school environment as a means to "cure" hyperactive children, relax stressed-out kids, and focus easily-distracted kids so they can do better in their exams. Sort of makes you wonder about the working environment our kids have to put up with.

But it also shows the kids do have some ideas about how they could possibly make improvements for themselves. They aren't all particularly original, and some might even be financially disastrous, but the OP could be a way to actually trash out what works and what doesn't, as Chewie and I did with the presenting groups after their assessments were over. Once we put away our assessment forms and our pens, the presenters could relax and then our discussions became animated, spontaneous and highly engaging. Don't know if the kids enjoyed the post-presentation chat, but their assessors sure needed it.

In the evening, June got her first petanque injury. She was slightly behind me, both of us bending over to see whose boule won the point. I estimated that she had won so I stood up and jerked my thumb in her general direction to say so. She was still bent over, intently looking at the boules and not seeing my thumb until it poked her in the eye. And put a small scratch on the bridge of her nose too. Why do we always hurt the ones we love?

June's really happy with the Rollerblade carrier that Ching brought back from Modell's of NYC last night. It's the 2005 model and it's so spacious it'll probably swallow up not only her in-lines but all her protective gear (sans helmet) too. Now she's fully kitted up she's got some serious incentive to learn to 'blade properly. Go, grrl!

Went bowling with the Gutter Boyz at the CSC after OPs. Seriously needed to unwind.
# of Games: 6
Average: 158
Clean Game: 1
High Game: 216 (personal best to date!)
After throwing a few crappy games, I think I've finally got the hang of CSC's lanes. Let's see if I can repeat this feat again another day.

June had to entertain a HK business visitor so they had dinner at Equinox, leaving me to my own devices this evening. Found company with Anthony, Amy and later Wendy, and we had dinner at Blue Jaz, the Dunlop Street branch. Navigating around Little India was quite an experience. I haven't even walked those narrow streets before, let alone drive through, sharing the road with pedestrians, bicyclists, hand-pushed carts and trolleys piled high with goods or recyclables. Finding parking here takes patience and luck, and a good navigation sense since it's unlikely you'll get parking right at the place you want to get to, unless you're Anthony who's quite lucky about these things.

Parked on Dickson, just a short walk away from Dunlop. Interesting sights and scents with the backpackers' hostels; quaint, cosy pubs and bistros; mixed in with electronics stores, stores that sell junk (literally), and traditional Indian goods. The scent of jasmine and Indian spices is unusual, almost appetizing, and I was looking forward to eating soon.

Blue Jaz here offers an all-day, all-American breakfast with coffee for under $5, as are many other items on the menu. I had the dory (smooth, white fish) but it wasn't enough to satisfy my raging hunger. So I ordered a companion plate of cheese fries (cheese whiz, more like), a choc milkshake and later, an earl grey tea. For the price, the food really isn't bad. Not great, but decent sized portions and reasonably tasty.

No luck here with dessert either. Had my eye on a brownie a la mode featured on the menu, but only the NY cheesecake was available. Not quite what I had in mind. Too bad.

Below is June's eulogy for Belle:

Today Q-tip lost her "package"–Belle. This is usually how we introduce Belle to our friends and relatives. As when my mom's ex-tenant moved out of TP 4 years ago, she left 1 dog (Q-tip) and 2 cats behind. My mom's friend only wanted to adopt the black Tom cat as Belle was pregnant during that time. Our intention is to give both the cats away and only keep the dog but since my mom's friend wasn't interested in keeping the pregnant cat, we had to take her in.

Remember when she first came in our house, she was so smelly and panicky. She hid behind the washer and the fridge for almost 2 days. Q-tip kept trying to squeeze her head behind the washer and fridge to look for Belle and encouraged her to walk out from her hiding place to play and had her meals. We later managed to catch hold of her and put a collar with a bell on her to keep track of her movements. That's why Min wanted to name her Bell but we later decided to name her Belle instead.

This morning Belle was not able to move both her hind legs again, this time she even vomited in the second bedroom and on the living room carpet. We quickly took her to Dr Kasey and he told us she had a stroke again. This time the condition was quite bad and the chance of recovering was slim. Both her ears also turned pale and cold when we took her out of the cage, she was also not able to control her urine. I knew it was serious but I was still hopeful. I have to leave her with Dr Kasey and I left for work.

Dr Kasey called me around 3 pm and told me that Belle just vomited blood and was breathing through her mouth and asked if I could rush down to see her for the last time. He told me Belle will collapse anytime soon.

Belle couldn't wait for me and Min. She died 20 mins before I reached the clinic. At least we got to stroke her head and body for the very last time. I requested Dr Kasey to put her collar and her name tag back on her as they had to remove it during the treatment. I told her to remember her name is Belle and from now on God will take care of her on our behalf till we meet again in heaven. This is the last thing we can do and give to her.

June and I chilled out at Timbre, drowning our sorrows with bitter lemon and ginger beer in 10 oz. high-ball glasses. Thankfully, the place doesn't serve desserts else we'd've wiped out their entire stock of ice-cream.

The beer was flat; the acoustic 2-piece band was um... youthful, needing to down treble and up bass a bit, and the music kinda' sweeter than I'm used to. But it was a restful evening, no need to engage either brain or muscle. Just hangin' out with friends, making idle chatter 'round the table, and alternating between critiquing the band and singing softly along with their music.

Thanks for the company, ppl.

In a sudden, shocking turn of events, Belle is no longer with us.

A relapse of the stroke she suffered in June this year left her paralyzed on the living room carpet this morning. We took her to Dr Casey for treatment immediately. He advised us that her condition was much worse than before and that the treatment would have to be more aggressive.

We had to leave her to go to work, but later in the afternoon, Dr Casey called to say that Belle's condition was cascading downwards. She was already gone by the time we rushed down to the clinic.

Today, we lost the most patient, sweet-tempered, gentle cat we've ever known.

We can't help but blame ourselves for not continuing her treatment after the last time, but her condition appeared to us like she had made a complete recovery. She was her old, normal self with unhampered mobility. She could walk and run, and jump up to places where she may not exactly have been welcome, but we indulged her anyway.

For more info about the cat that was, well, there's a little bio here, if you haven't already seen it. Meantime, the household's a little sad right now, thanks for asking.

Q-tip, in her pink faux Burberry trenchcoat, is ready to brave bad weather as we set off for the SKC Championship Dog Show. She's a spectator, not a contestant, btw. 


Someday they're gonna have to make dog-sized merchandise counters. 


When ya gotta go, ya gotta go! 


Well, you asked us to "sit," didn't you? 


Q-tip, what do you think of boy dogs? 


"The next person who says, 'so cuuuute!' gets puke on his shoes." 


And over in Bish Park, Chewie and JY swig 100Plus before hitting the slopes again. 


3 L-plates looking confident. Check out the spankin' new gear! 


Petanque, 'blading, bowling... wonder if this pix is evidence enough for a healthy lifestyle award for us? 


The aptly named Sunset Grill and Bar where June and I and Q-tip came for dinner. Coincidentally, Amy brought her folks here too, and we surprised each other. Shows great minds do think alike! 


A pix with something for everyone. Foodies can look at the food, dog lovers can look at Q-tip, sports fans can look at the 'Adidas' logo, me... I'll just look at June. *dodges a flying shoe. 

Finally, June and JY proudly promenade towards the rink with their own in-lines.

June gets the Geoblade 1.3W...

and JY gets the Geoblade 1.5W


Fully suited up, JY prepares to leave the safety of the rink to explore the park proper. Chewie and Tones are on hand to escort her today.


In the evening, (after completing in-line training in Bishan AND petanque training in TP), we -- me, June, Anthony, Wendy and Weng -- surprise CW at the Blue Jaz with a belated birthday cake.


Celine is as surprised as CW over his little celebration.


Oh, and at Blue Jaz, this dear little black-and-white cat scrounged some kibble off June, then made itself comfortable on some cushions in the outdoor dining area.