NDP Preview 2007

We went to the NDP Preview at Marina Bay on Saturday evening, thanks to my Uncle who was able to garner tickets for us. Although I mentioned earlier in my blog that we did watch a session of the rehearsal, this was much better as it's as good as the real thing, plus we get the goodie bags! Anyway, the weather was very good on Saturday. Although it rained a bit earlier in the day, it was cooling by the time we went for the parade.

As usual, throngs of Singaporeans came dressed in red. Once you were at Cityhall area, you could see practically who was heading towards the Marina Bay area for the event! Well, the bad thing about the parade this year was the terrible queue at the Security Check point. Because of that, we were like stuck for about half and hour or so. Luckily by the time we got inside to this new stadium, we were still able to get pretty good seats. As I mentioned, because the weather was much nicer this day, the whole waiting for the show to start was so much more bearable! Think baby was also rather guai, as I felt pretty ok throughout the whole show :)

The preview turned out so much better than the 2nd rehearsal we saw. They had all the fireworks and pyrotechnics going throughout the show where it should be. Fireworks were also seen going off 3 skyscrapers in the Shenton Way region. Very nice :) And of coz, the parade culminated with the medley of old-time favourite NDP songs and a nice array of fireworks. So overall, felt quite happy that we were once again able to join in the celebrations of Singapore's 42nd Birthday! Hmm...sounds so patriotic...lol...

Oh yeh, and this entry officially marks a 1 year anniversary of the time we started our offline photo album on the Dayz of our Lives. If you look back in my blog's history, it's also the first entry that we had. Time flies indeed! Once NDP is over...I can feel Christmas creeping in round the corner..hahaha...sounds a bit exaggerating, but it's true! Well, ok la, don't think too far first. Maybe think about Mid-Autumn Festival first :)

Our baby

Just wanted to mention here for the record that we are having a baby :) Yup, it's been about 3 months plus already and our little one is due in Jan 2008. Anyway, we went to the gynae on Saturday for the usual check-up and this week, we were able to see more shape and form of our baby. The doc showed us the spine, the head, the hands and the leg. Baby was in a sitting position, so we still could not identify the gender. Hehe...Will have to wait some time more. Anyway, since the last check up at 13 weeks, I did not seem to put on much weight..though the doc did not highlight it as a problem. I think the most important thing for now is that baby is growing and this time, he/she measures about 9.13cm.

In addition, I also had to draw blood for the antenatal blood test and triple test in this appointment. A little painful and guess the doc didn't do a great job poking...haha..my arm is slightly blue-black with the blood clot : Anyway, do hope that the blood test results will turn out well and that my pregnancy will continue on smoothly... Must continue to have the faith...

Slow week

This week went by quite slowly, especially with a less hectic week at work. Earlier in the week, we had tickets to the gala premiere of the latest Harry Potter movie. Was looking forward to it, but found the movie to be boring. Still watchable, but not as interesting as some of the earlier stories. Dear and I also caught some other movies in the comfort of our home this weekend...Transformers and Deja Vu. The latter is quite an old show, but having watched it only now, I found it to be quite good. Denzel Washington's shows generally don't really disappoint.

We also had a simple dinner to celebrate Dear's father's birthday today, along with Phyllis and Ah Da. Here's wishing Papa a Happy Birthday and another year blessed with good health and wealth!

PS - for the record, Roger Federer won his 5th consecutive Wimbledon title last weekend :)

Wimbledon 2007

The Wimbledon Championships started since 25 June and we've been following some of the better matches quite closely. Of all the four Grand Slams in a year, Wimbledon is my favourite. Maybe it's the way the grass court looks, so lovely and tempting, so elegant and 'British'. It being held in London makes the game feel even more traditional and classic.

The ladies matches were quite interesting to watch, but nothing beats the men's tennis. In particular, watching our favourite Roger Federer, the World No. 1.

I really like and admire the way Roger plays tennis. His every move really seems so elegant and suave, and his skills are amazing. The way his balls curl with top spin and trickery, makes it so enjoyable to watch. Which is why I'm really looking forward to watch the Finals between him and Rafael Nadal. At this point that I'm typing this, the match is still on-going, so I can only hope that Federer prevails for another 5th year!

NDP Combined Rehearsal

This weekend, I managed to catch up on some shopping (bought quite a few items needed) and we also went to the NDP combined rehearsal show on Saturday at Marina Bay. Dear's colleague passed him a pair of tickets and there we were at the new venue for the first time. It was quite a hot afternoon but we were well prepared with umbrella, hats and fan. Ha ha... Anyway, this show being the second combined rehearsal to date, did not turn out that great. I felt that that some parts of the program have more room for improvement in terms of the timing and coordination of the performers. Only a few items helped to make the show better - the para-troopers descent, the chinooks, apaches and F16s that flew past, and this time round, a little bit more 'excitement' in the waters surrounding the floating platform. The mass performance, unfortunately was boring, and there were no fireworks to end of the event! Guess this wasn't such a good preview after all. Still look forward for the possibility of catching the official preview before the actual NDP.

Well, time flies, half the year has gone and now's the start of the second half of 2007. Soon our photo album which we first started to capture weekly updates of what we did, will be a year old! Looking forward to year end already....

Feeling lazy

Been feeling quite lazy on Sundays nowadays. After our weekly grocery shopping, I'm actually pretty happy to just take an afternoon snooze or read a book in bed. Somehow have not really got into the shopping mood though it's the GSS period. Anywayz, despite this lazy feeling, we had a rather good Saturday too. Besides 'checking out some important stuff', we also managed to catch a movie in the evening - Fantastic Four. Well, what can I say, this show is pretty much a typical super hero type of show. Not that great, not that bad. I think the main thing was us checking out the newest Cathay Cineplex to open at AMK Hub. Quite a nice cinema and seats were comfortable and spacious. It even had this 'new smell' about it. Haha...

We also took the time to celebrate a belated Father's Day dinner with Dear's side of the family today, since his mum and sister only came back from a Taiwan holiday this week. Then it's back to couch potato time at home, watching Initial D again. Hehe. So much for the weekend, it's back to work again!

A busy weekend

This week had been pretty suffering for me...mainly coz I fell sick since last weekend and practically took the whole week to recover. In fact, I'm still not fully well yet, but at least I feel much better already. Nevertheless, we had a weekend quite filled with some stuff going on. First it was Jiancong & Kimberly's wedding on Friday. Dear was one of JC's 'brothers' so he was busy helping him out. Dinner was at a Chinese restaurant in Corpthorne King's Hotel, again another week to catch up with the rest of the gang again! Anyway, congrats JC & Kim!

On Saturday, we bought tickets to a performance at the Singapore Arts Festival 2007 - Play! A Videogame Symphony (Asian Premiere). The symphonic extravaganza featured award-winning music from popular blockbuster video games. Basically, video game music written for a full orchestra, choir and pipe organ was accompanied by outstanding game images played on large screens above the Orchestra. The music from titles such as Final Fantasy, World of Warcraft, The Elder Scrolls, Sonic The Hedgehog and Super Mario Bros, etc. were just some of the highlights. Well, it's quite obvious who's the interested party here (lol), but anyway, to me it was still an interesting event to experience. Some of the music I definitely recognised, while I was clueless on some others...which was a bit of a nap time for me..hehee...

Finally, with Father's Day today on Sunday, we spent some time with our family over a nice meal. Here's to my own Dad - thanks for all that you've done for me Daddy!

In sickness and in health

I fell sick over the weekend and it sure sucks :( The symptoms started since Thu or Fri with a very painful throat, but I chose to believe that drinking more water would help. Well, it only did so much. Still ended up with a cough and cold. Saw the doctor and got some medicine, but as in all healing process, there will be this phase where it really gets to you! That was yesterday for me. My nose was all blocked, my throat was itchy and dry, coughed till my head hurt, and eventually my whole head was in throbbing pain. Had to sleep early and could not fully enjoy my French Open final on TV!?! :( Felt really suffering. Which explains why I'm on MC today..haha...just needed 1 more day of rest to be totally charged up again.

Well, besides the falling sick part, it was also our friend's wedding on Saturday. KF requested to borrow our car as his wedding car that day, so Dear ended up really busy that whole day helping them out. By evening, we all attended the dinner together at Sheraton Hotel. Food turned out quite nice, although I wish I had better health to enjoy it more... : | Nevertheless, congrats KF and Daphne...hope you guys enjoyed your honeymoon :)

Wedding Season

This week went by quite well and not too bad, especially with the Vesak Day public holiday on Thursday. That afternoon was also my ex-colleague's wedding. He held a 'church wedding' in a hotel followed by a buffet reception. Nice to see an old friend getting married and also be there to witness his touching speech and for the first time, hear him sing to his wife :) Dear also had a wedding dinner to attend that evening....which leads me to this topic on wedding season...

Since the start of the year to date, I've attended around 3 weddings. There are a couple more to come for the rest of the year too. In fact, in the next 2 weekends, Dear and I both will be attending our NUS friends' wedding. Always glad to see people around you that you know getting hitched and settled down. You feel happy for them and sometimes you think back how people have grown and matured through the years that you have known them. A flashback reminds me of how we were all young and went on a holiday together about 5 years ago. At that time, Dear and I were still quite 'young' in our relationship. And our friends were still single! How time flies :)

Anywayz, so that works out to about 4 more weddings to attend for the rest of the year (for now at least). Ha ha..so many 'red bombs' to hurt the pocket ;) But nevertheless, it's a wonderful thing and here's wishing all those getting married, a blessed and wonderful lifetime ahead together :)

Movies and more movies

This weekend in particular had been quite an exciting one for us.... will reveal why this is so in due course :) In any case, there are many summer blockbuster movies that have opened so far and there's still more to come! This week we caught 2 new movies - Shrek 3 and Pirates of the Caribbean 3. I won tickets to the gala premiere for Shrek 3 (courtesy of my boss) so Dear and I went down to GV Grand for it. To be honest, much as Shrek was still entertaining, I still prefer Shrek 2. Somehow, I did not find the development of the plot in Shrek 3 that good.

The other movie that we watched, Pirates of the Caribbean - At World's End was a really quite a long show...2 hrs 40min plus I think. I'm quite amazed by the effects they have for this show, but again, somehow I did not really enjoy the whole plot. It's getting more and more like some Indiana Jones movie.....the worse thing was...in the cinema that we were watching the show, there were 3 very inconsiderate young men that talked loudly, laughed loudly and were extremely fidgety. So much so that a guy sitting in front of them turned around and warned them fiercely to keep quiet and behave themselves. I thought a fight was going to break out! Ha ha....Anyway, they were really quite irritating and distracting throughout the movie. Can't believe some people can be like that.

Well, lots more movies that I'm looking forward to watch...Fantastic 4, Transformer, Ocean's 13, Harry Potter, etc. Hopefully have the time to catch some of them at least :)