Not often Lucy requests us to join her for lunch, but when she does, she picks a great place to eat. Botak Jones, Toa Payoh branch, where they've also opened Brewski Jones (as advertised on the radio). Same heap of fat, juicy burger, fries and coleslaw for a measly $6, and a bit more for additional toppings like bacon, cheese, sauteed 'shrooms. It's such good value that a bunch of sec school kids seated at the next table looked so at home, like it was their school canteen or something.

The Botak Burger's a great big mess to eat with your bare hands, but there's no better way to enjoy its in-your-faceness, literally. The fries and slaw are the steady, take your time to nibble as you talk excuse to remain seated and stretch lunchtime as long as possible.

Lucy and B-lo ordered the hand-made margaritas from Brewski, while Amy and Wayne split a Stella Wayne had a Stella. The rest of us, HP, Josh, NBS and I made do with pop and fruit juice. Dunno what Amy had to drink. But all too soon, it's back to work and to our ever slow to dwindle pile of exam marking. Guess what we'll be doing all weekend long?

Well, maybe not me. I'm currently waiting to be activated to work in the kitchen. I have 120 hard-boiled eggs to mash into egg-salad filling for 17 loaves of bread. Bro needs a delivery of our special sandwich 'cos he's catering a buffet tea tomorrow afternoon at his restaurant. That, plus a few other items on our agenda for the weekend is going to keep June and me really busy for a while...

"Transformers" has to be THE summer blockbuster to watch this year. The scale of adventure and excitement goes over the top in comparison with everything else I've watched so far. For the portrayal of sheer destructive power and the readiness to use it; for the variety of ordnance and fighting styles in combat sequences; for the disproportion of the odds stacked against us pathetic humans in the face of an interstellar invasion and our willingness to fight on anyway, this movie simply took my breath away.

The plot is surprisingly tight, considering the number of threads holding the story together. There's ancient history, recent history, government conspiracy, different levels of warfare, and the human element all interwoven at a pace that just doesn't let up. What helps the story move is the clarity everyone has in their own purpose. Good is good, evil is evil, and the conflict boils down to survive or die. No further complications. You want anything more complicated, go read a book.

Left to our own devices, our terrestrial human weapons are already devastating. The sequence depicting an air-to-ground assault by US combined forces shows off the might of an A-10/AC-130 gunship strike. Our current conventional weapons can level a village in seconds, but that's what it takes to neutralize a single Decepticon invader which still can make a getaway sans a number of body parts.

As with Bay's "Armageddon", our species deserves to continue surviving because we will fight tooth and nail for the right to. While the Autobots arrive to protect our species from the Decepticon threat, we aren't simply cowering behind our defenders, but we're fighting there alongside with everything we've got. Many times I could almost hear Churchill's inspirational "We shall fight..." speech while the battle raged onscreen. And I could just sit in my seat awestruck.

For me, of all the movies of this year, only "Transformers" has so far provided the biggest emotional rush I expect from a truly memorable movie. From the crazy but entirely-human human characters to the awkwardness of the Autobots attempting to blend in with their surroundings upon their first arrival -- you'll believe a machine can have feelings -- to the technophobia-inducing Decepticons who represent all those times when our machines have turned bad on us, the conflict pitting defenders and protectors against the invaders is so epic in scale, some scenes I was laughing out loud, others I was going, "oh no, oh no...", and in yet others I had tears in my eyes was weeping openly.

To sum up, I'll just quote Mel, my seatmate: "Whoa. Yeah! Cooool!" And to think I was never a fan of the animated TV series. Thank you, Michael Bay, for preventing this year's summer releases from being a total waste!

Hmm... for some strange reason, I wanna buy me a Chevy now...

Am marking the essay, "Greed is good." Comment. A nice, open-ended question. The instruction to "comment" leaves the essayist a lot of room to explore the concept of Greed, and its effects on us as a people, and its impact on the world. But because the discussion could literally go anywhere, it's of vital importance that the essayist nails down a clear definition of Greed and use that definition as a standard of comparison in order to determine just how good greed is.

For a more interesting discussion, we might want to define greed as an extreme form of human behaviour. We are looking for a clash of ideas, else an argument wouldn't be an argument otherwise.

If greed is extreme, then greed goes beyond the desire for more, and for better -- which, unfortunately, most of the essays I'm marking tend to stop at. Everyone wants more, everyone wants better, so what makes the greedy stand out? Greed pushes the limits of what is normally acceptable, tolerable and reasonable, in terms of quantity desired, and in terms of the methods by which such desires are satisfied, usually at the expense of other people.

So to answer the question, the essay must provide yardsticks (e.g., moral or religious) by which to determine the difference between normal, acceptable desire and that which goes beyond the pale, i.e., greed.

The essay should explain why people generally take a dim view of greed, but more importantly, show that there is a direct relationship between this extreme behaviour and the harm it brings as a consequence. There needs to be sufficient supporting evidence illustrating this cause-effect so that we can draw specific principles about greed from the examples cited.

But according to the question, greed is good, so how can this be? "Good" suggests that there is some benefit to be derived from greed despite its negative consequences. Again, the discussion needs to show a causual link between greed and specific (though perhaps unintended) benefits accruing to the individual or to larger society. Again, with the use of supporting evidence to back up the claim.

Now we have a clash of the negative and positive effects of greed, but to leave the discussion like this is neither instructional nor helpful to our understanding of greed. It's balanced, but boring.

A little insight would help spice things up a bit. Perhaps we could say that although greed generally leads us to some very negative consequences, greed is still an essential trait in people because it shows us that there is more to achieve in life, to push beyond our current limitations and makes us innovate and stretch ourselves to reach that which was once unreachable. Such has been the process of human progress. It is how we have thrived as a species and have come to dominate life on this planet... But at our current level of progress, can our planet sustain any more of our greed, or do we need to find a new way to progress before our greed kills us all? (Haha, how drama)!

Something like that.

In response to Taily's comment, no, I'm not bored -- not with blogging, anyway. I'm just bored. Period. I'm looking back at my recent entries and I see little else but moans and whines. It's like I've become a different me. And eventually, I got quite fed up with moaning and whining, and then there was little else to say. I needed a break, and I took one.

This past hols, I found more than ample opportunities to be by myself. People took separate vacations out of town, and there were days I literally didn't need to vocalize anything beyond a couple of perfunctory sentences to order food or whatever. As much as I appreciate the solitude as ol' Bill Wordsworth did once, I didn't find the experience particularly inspirational enough to write about. So I didn't.

I'm no people person, but I do need a few people with whom I can sharpen myself on and maintain my edge. My sense of humour depends on people to bounce off, but as you can probably tell of late, my entries have been losing their enthusiasm. Even my media reviews have become quite colourless. Boring.

Which is why I'm actually grateful the term has started. I grateful for having regular lunch company again, and I'm grateful for tonight's dinner in HP's honour, and the opportunity for light, easy, irreverent, silly chat tossed around the table once again. It doesn't happen as often these days, but I'll take what I can get.

I am becoming a regular feature at my local Silver Cross medical outpost. I've always avoided doctors 'cos once you start seeing them, once is never enough. It's true.

This time, I need medication for conjunctivitis, a.k.a pink eye (US) or sore eyes. Bloodshot, crud encrusted eyes, itchy and generally uncomfortable. It's usually spread by contact, so how I contracted it is a mystery. After all, I've not had contact with anyone for the last couple of weeks or so. Well, except for June, but she's healthy as far as I know.

But I have been subjecting my eyes to a bit of strain lately. My efforts to help Haunted Woods in their Altador Cup campaign this year has turned into an obsession. I've spent too much time scoring points for last year's champs, though at this stage of competition it's starting to look like a lost cause. Doubt we'll even reach the semi-final rounds now. So much for our hopes for a double. BTW, SingTel is finally offering the NeoPets Lutari Island download for most 3G mobile phone models now... except mine (boo hoo).

I've spent the rest of the time squinting at the tiny screen of my GBA, hacking and slashing my way through the most excellent Final Fantasy VI Advance. It boasts quite a pantheon of playable characters, most with unique abilities, so careful character selection is an advantage when performing particular tasks. Many characters upgrade their abilities in unique ways too, and there is a multitude of optional but fun side-quests to get involved in as well.

But playing FF6 on an LCD screen little bigger than the one on a mobile phone is hell on the eyes. Particularly when there are lots of indistinguishable details that the brain works overtime to decipher. Oh well, at least the ol' brain's been getting a little exercise.

Maybe that's it. Reverting to geek-boy, staying out of the sun (it's summer, for heaven's sake!), turning pale and growing mushrooms on my back and shoulders isn't the most healthy way to spend the June hols. No wonder I'm sick.

Tonight's dinner was a date June and I have been consciously ignoring since the beginning of the year hoping it would go away, but it finally arrived anyway. In honour of Fathers' Day, a distant cousin of mine invited my whole extended paternal clan down for dinner at the Ritz-Carlton. It was to be a gathering of everyone whose common ancestor went back up to 6 generations -- my great-grandfather. People I've never seen before in my life were going to be introduced to me as some relative or other, by blood or marriage. Well, you know how much I look forward to first contact situations.

I expected a much bigger turnout, but several families were unrepresented, so there weren't that many people there that I didn't already know. Well, there was mom's old colleague who turned out to be my aunt, a cousin from Edinburgh, and by some quirk along the generational line (and not because I'm that old) there was this little girl who was my grand-niece.

The evening turned out less painful than we anticipated. There was a little handshaking and a couple of exchanged pleasantries, but nothing uncomfortable or awkward. The programme promised table games, but thankfully the organizer conveniently ignored that item. As it was, there was so much on offer at the buffet tables, and it was a bit sad that there weren't more of us to help finish off the amount we left over.

After dinner, we had a bit of a sing-along worship session, followed by some preaching of good family values, particularly that of the Man's role as husband and father in the family. It was Father's Day, after all. It was a biblically patriarchal message, but it was my dad that set the example for us in a practical way -- he paid for dinner on behalf of the side of the family he represented. Thanks, dad! and Happy Dad's Day!

At the end of Week 3 of the June hols, with everyone I know out of town, I've let myself go wild and am now looking at my most unglam. Unkempt even. And there I was with June having supper at the Teochew porridge place at the corner of Upp Serangoon and Jln Rengkam. I'm all sweaty from the spiciness of the otah, and I'm all slobbery with sauces and gravies from the other side dishes. Then, wouldn't you know it, along walks by Faith and her parentals partaking of their evening constitutional. It's a wonder she recognized me at all. We have a brief flurry of hand waving and then, I suppose, as they continue walking she is probably explaining that the old scruffbag she greeted actually has a respectable profession, yadda, yadda.

Haha! Hi Faith! *waves

The best sequels are the ones where you go in with no expectations whatsoever. Spidey 3 and Pirates: World's End were so hyped, they fizzled in their actual delivery. But Rise of the Silver Surfer was such a fun thrill ride in comparison. Considering I don't much like the Surfer to begin with -- too powerful, too naive, too um... retro -- RotSS may just be the summer sequel I enjoyed the most.

What I didn't like were the CGI effects, particularly of Mr Fantastic, that were just too cartoony. Him using his stretchy powers at his bachelor party was unbelievable and ridiculous but, ok, he does have a ridiculous power to begin with. And Julian McMahon's Doom was once again more comparable to the sophomoric Human Torch than the much-feared iron-fisted ruler of a small Eastern European country that he is supposed to be. Doom has the potential to be a memorable screen villain, but this incarnation will never make it.

But RotSS never does take itself seriously. It doesn't get dark, it doesn't get draggy and long-drawn, and it doesn't try to outdo itself in effects or twisted sub-plots. It's a straightforward save-the-world story while arranging an impossibly difficult wedding in the meantime. So while the calamity is of a cosmic nature, the more difficult crisis is the human one: will the Invisible Woman ever become Mrs Fantastic? And that's what keeps the movie's legs firmly planted on the ground.

Also, the relationship between the Thing and the Torch is well-balanced. While Johnny has the looks and the enviable power of flame, flight, freedom and floozy attraction, Ben is horribly disfigured, solidly earth-bound, but has the love of a single good woman who is good enough for him. While Ben is secure in his relationship with the blind Alicia Masters, it's ironic that Johnny is the lonely one underneath it all.

Like the Fantasticar action sequence, the movie's pace just keeps pushing forward. Never a slow, dull moment, the movie accelerates until the final, climactic confrontation between the Surfer and the Devourer of Worlds. I'm glad we never get to see what Galactus looks like beyond the vague shadow he(?) casts on Saturn. There's more credibility to Galactus as a malevolent cosmic thundercloud than the Jack Kirby designed personification in the comic books.

And that's what the movies are good for. Focus on believable characters, focus on a tight plot, and especially important for blockbuster sequels: keep it fun, keep it fast, and don't try to make the audience think too much. Of the movies released so far this summer, RotSS made me happy.

Just when I was thinking how uninteresting my life has become, I just had to go lose my wallet. It's amazing how important that small strip of cowhide is. In it is my identity, my affiliations, my privileges, and access to my finances. Losing it is almost like becoming persona non grata in my own society. For a brief moment, I learned whet it felt like to have no money, and no way to get my hands on any since I couldn't prove who I was to my bank. THAT was scary.

I suspect my wallet had slipped out of my pocket somewhere between J8 (breakfast) and MacRitchie Reservoir (newly discovered marking and aborted lunch place). It must still have been with me at J8 'cos I was able to pay for breakfast, but by the time I wanted to pay for lunch, it had vanished. I doubt I got pickpocketed 'cos I don't remember anyone coming within arm's reach of me, but if it had fallen someplace someone must have found it, and if they were honest they would have somehow contacted me about it by now. But so far, no word.

Spent the rest of the afternoon retracing my steps, but nothing. So I lodged a lost report with J8, and with the Bishan NPP. The friendly police sergeant patiently explained that the report was just a record of loss, and if anyone turned in my wallet as a found item at any NPP it would simply be easier to trace. This means I still have to go to ICA and Traffic Police in Ubi to get my ID and driving license replaced.

Had to cancel all my credit cards -- the respective issuers informed me that no purchases were made on them today, phew -- and got my ATM card replaced. And slowly, I'm piecing my life back together, though it'll still be a few days before I'm whole again. How exciting.

When will I learn that movies based on hit video games almost always invariably turn out to be a total waste of time? Among the most recent were the disappointing Silent Hill, the egregious Doom, and to add to the list of stinkers is Alone in the Dark. Yes, I saw this one on the DVD rack at Gramophone and jumped at it without hesitation. The fact that the movie never made the big screen here should have told me something.

AITD was a brilliantly atmospheric chiller of a game -- quite possibly the grandaddy of today's survival-horror genre. Although rendered mostly on wireframe, it blended sound and music effects with disturbing, claustrophobic environments, and limited the effectiveness of weapons and the availability of ammo, so every shot, every whack had to count.

Somebody forgot to tell the movie version that running around with a squad of marines, guns ablaze, doesn't actually qualify as being Alone in the Dark. So, squad of paranormal investigating marines go chasing after some evil creatures released from millenia of slumber by a bunch of greedy, careless deep sea salvagers. The creatures are from another dimension, and the scientist studying them inexplicably wants to open the portal to their dimension. It's not clear if he just wants to live with them, or let them all loose on earth. Do mad scientists need a reason?

On the other side are the do-gooder marines, a.k.a. Bureau 713. They shoot everything that moves, but one-by-one the squad gets decimated anyway. It sucks being on the losing side. What do we expect? After all, their enemy can become as insubstantial as smoke when they're being shot at, but can solidify at will to slice and dice their victims with enormous claws and teeth.

Despite lots of rockin' and rollin' with either fists or semi-automatic weapons there were places at which I fell asleep watching. So possibly some of the plot gaps I'm missing is a result of that. But, really, if this was supposed to be an action thriller, it didn't work for me.

Et tu, AITD? Bleh.

The last couple of days have been seriously unproductive, yet costly. Been spending most of the time at home waiting for various tradesmen to service my poor flat that's falling apart at the seams. After 7 years of hard living, the wear and tear really shows.

We've got leaks in our plumbing, our bed is loosening at the joints -- I'm nervous about sleeping in it in case it collapses under my weight -- and our air-conditioning got flushed out with a chemical wash and had a part or 2 replaced.

Meantime, Q-tip was looking scruffy again. Pix on the right is the 'after' shot from her haircut by Dom.

At left is a test shot using my just-delivered Samsung Ultra Series 13.8 in camera mode. In fact, both shots were test shots. Need more practice and a steadier hand -- these pix still show some motion blur.

I finally took advantage of my handset upgrade offer and got this model for (relatively) cheap. This one came with an additional 512Mb micro-SD card for free, so there's lots of room for all kinds of multimedia junk if I ever wanted it. Yay!

Went biking with HP and NBS along ECP. A nice, easy pedal along the beach front, breathing the fresh sea air and being grateful for it. We moved mostly at a slow, even pace though we picked it up closer to the end of our 2 hours in order to 1) beat the thundercloud menacing us overhead, and 2) to grab some lunch before the afternoon movie screening at Eng Wah Suntec.

Introduced NBS to Carl's Jr at Marina Square. Though the burgers are impressive in size, I was even more impressed with the 2 girls who demolished their burgers and left no remains. It's great to be in company that doesn't pick at their food.

HP and I joined Amy who was swamped with organizing the movie screening at Eng Wah. The college kids arrived in droves to watch Shrek 3 that Amy had arranged a corporate screening for. In between trying to get some marking done, we lent a hand in distributing the tix, collecting cash from stragglers, and whatever else it took to keep Amy sane through it all.

Apart from the movie, the EW staff took us to view the projection room and showed us how the analog and digital projectors worked, plus the inner workings of the industrial-strength popcorn machine they keep behind the snack counter. They use a lot of sugar. A. Lot.

And how was Shrek 3? Still clever, this time involving characters from legend, apart from the usual fairy tale crowd. As with the rest of this year's 3-quels, it's slightly dark, but at least it doesn't go overboard trying to outdo itself. The least disappointing 3-quel I've seen this year so far.

Still having respiratory trouble. Friday night was the worst yet. Had to sit up to make the breathing easier, and sleep was almost impossible. Reading about that 20-year-old kid who died after a bout of breathlessness in Friday's ST didn't help much. Still, I did make it through the night and the symptoms mostly go away in the morning.

Went shopping yesterday with June. She used her remaining $50 Taka voucher to pay for a bottle of frankincense essential oil and a box of organic tea candles for me. Frankincense apparently helps ease breathing difficulties, and it certainly did make for an easier night last night. Also took no chances and rubbed myself down with Vicks before sleeping. So either one or the other, or the combination of both worked just fine.

Went back to the clinic this morning anyway. Doc Doreen heard me wheezing away and prescribed a turn on the nebulizer. Also prescribed asthma medication, though she said I wasn't so far gone yet that I needed an inhaler. She's still holding out that I'm only going through a passing phase. I hope so too.

On Aggie's recommendation, I went to try Sticky Rice in Gardens along with Amy, HP and Wayne. Ordered the green curry set that came in a pretty generous serving of rice and chicken green curry, a mango salad and Thai fish cake with a hot dipping sauce. For $10.50+++ the set was quite substantial. And tasty... well, I haven't actually met a green curry I didn't like yet. I'm not so much into Thai food, but green curry's one of their better creations. Yes.

In fact, Aggie's recommendation was so strong that I completely forgot that today was Friday, and though we could afford a little longer lunch, the opportunity to get a cheap salmon sashimi set on Friday special at Tomoko completely slipped my mind. So I made up for that little oversight by taking June and my folks there for dinner.

What? Apart from today's KI mock exam (we promised to mock everybody's answers thoroughly), I can't think of any other highlights of my day.

Just as well no one picked up on my invite to go car rallying today. I was supposed to go in Jen's car, but I'm still feeling too much under the weather to go traipsing around the island solving puzzles and getting all physical at this or that checkpoint of national and/or historical significance.

No problem for Jen, who got her cousin to replace me. I stayed home doing their research on the 'net in case they needed to find some obscure location or retrieve some esoteric information or whatever.

Turned out most of the checkpoints were in places I already knew of even without a Yahoo! search. Ann Siang Hill (which gave me the most trouble 'cos Adrian didn't spell the clue right for me), Kranji War Memorial, the Jap War Cemetery Garden, Beaulieu House.

Unfortunately, though Jen's car arrived 3rd at the last checkpoint, our team got pipped by the 4th car who scored a bonus point off a side-quest. So close to sharing the 3rd prize of $100 cash among the 5 of us. Oh well.

BTW, Ben's blog entry about our flawed political system got picked up and published in littlespeck. Look under the heading of "Leadership". The NST reporter who lives in Gardens sure loves all this subversive stuff! Link's in my sidebar.

Our good host, 'tilda, raises a glass and declares the evening's festivities open!

Co-host, Nige, raises many an eyebrow with this makeover

It's always happiest at the buffet table.

Our 3 drama beauties, and drama queens all.

The serious business of face stuffing.

Outgoing Pres, Van, addresses her minions one last time.

Over a glass o' red, Gerald and Tina find themselves good company.

Yes 'tilda, you've been a great host so far. You can let your hair down now.

In case you haven't figured it out yet, this is the official Othello Post-production Party. We're at the Gardens' Country Club and carrying on like tomorrow's a public holiday or something. Gotta hand it to the Drama Club, it certainly was an entertaining evening, what with our hosts in drag, a slideshow of candid production shots, silly improv games, thank-you speeches, oh, and I finally got to see the end of Othello -- on video anyway.

Also got to bowl as well, with the drama kids! No competition, no pressure. Just throw ball, laugh, cheer, whatever. And duck every time Johnny chucks his ball down the lane.

Thanks for a great time, Mel and NYeDC!

Ok, who left this pawprint on my nice carpet?

Was it you, Kaiser? You may look imperious, but I'm wise to your tricks.

Or you, Momo? Is that a guilty look on your face?

Dunno what's wrong with me. My bug hasn't left me yet though it's been about 3 weeks already. Today I was just feeling feverish with a throbbing headache, though for a short time, having lunch with Amy and HP helped me forget the pain. I feel a bit better now, after taking 2 cold-relief tablets. The headache's gone, though I suspect the beef I had at lunch is causing me some indigestion. Great. I've become quite the hypochondriac.

Still, I'm quite pleased that the chatbox in NYconneXions has been buzzing with activity lately. It's inevitable that people are going to put some nasty comments about our articles, but it's heartening that some of our readers are commenting back in support of our reporters. If only the debate was more constructive, though. Chatboxes don't provide enough space for well-developed arguments. Hope our readers will start using our "comment" function soon, or better yet, email us. But at least, people are starting to care.

The interior of Dragonfly, St James' Power Station. The college organized a tea party for the various CCAs that brought us honours in sports and cultural events this year, so we're all here enjoying an alcohol-free, smoke-free, dance-your-brains-out afternoon.

Well, for about half the time we were there, anyway. Apparently, the hosts of this shindig was a grassroots-type organization, so for the first hour we had something of a less-than-stimulating chat session over whatever socio-political issues the kids sort of made up on the spot. Perhaps we should have emphasized the sagely advice session a little more earlier, rather than bill the whole thing as a Party, then perhaps the kids might have been a bit more prepared for it.

Beyond the rather uncomfortable dialogue, we also had to endure about 45 minutes of MC time during which the MC attempted to liven up the proceedings by getting the kids to "sabo" each other and their tutors, pulling them up onto the stage to make them sing or dance or otherwise embarrass themselves. It was painful to sit through 'cos the sabo'ed were neither cooperative nor entertaining, and kept refusing all offers. A good MC needs to know when to quit and just get the music started. Honestly, we know how to entertain ourselves.

When they finally put the music on, most of the staff felt they had had enough. So a bunch of us took off for some proper tea at Vivo. We found the White Dog Cafe which has a decent set tea: choice of cake slice with tea or coffee at $6.

June joined us later for dinner, as did a delegation of other staff led by JY. White Dog does an ok prawn aglo olio and thin-crust pizza. A bit small, the portions, though satisfying enough without feeling bloaty.

And, inevitably, shopping to follow...

Pirates: At World's End is a convoluted mess of shifting allegiances in the form of private hidden agenda and quick-fix marriages of convenience. With an international consortium of "Brethren", the crew of the Black Pearl face off against the assembled might of the East India Company, a.k.a., the British Navy, and The Flying Dutchman that has been pressed into the service of the Brits.

Of course, the Black Pearl must rescue its Captain, Jack Sparrow, from eternal punishment first, then convince the other 7 pirate lords of the Brethren Court that a naval battle against the odds will bring a more favourable outcome than lasting out a siege at Shipwreck Cove. Considering that every pirate is his or her own master, it takes some deft politicking to get a consensus.

So apart from the number of thrilling fight sequences in which the action takes place so quickly and furiously it's hard to keep track of who's where and who's fighting whom at the moment, the negotiations and shared plots, schemes and secrets are equally disorientating. As always, double-cross and betrayal is the name of the game -- though nothing personal, it's just "good business." While such intrigue makes great fun to watch, perhaps a pen and notepad beside me would help me keep the score.

For all the interwoven treachery and skulduggery that goes on in the pirates' machinations, about the question of whether our heroes get what they want at the end, let's just say that what they want comes with a heavy price tag, with the chance for further quests ahead.

Oh, and the mention of Singapore occurs only in passing, nothing to be made a big deal of. It's set in a time of steam-and-bamboo powered technology, security-conscious to the point of paranoia, operated on the backs of slave-labour, and generally exploited by foreigners. Oh, wait, nothing new then.

Pirates is a long movie, well over 2 hours, and in places it does feel a bit draggy. But if you can be bothered, there's a tiny reward for those who sit through the end credits. The worth of the reward is inversely proportional to the fullness of your bladder, but it's your call.