Yesterday, I had the miniscule pleasure of catching the annual Christmas show at the Raffles City shopping centre.

In Singapore, it is some sort of Christmas tradition to have the malls put up special shows at the end of the year to entertain the kiddies. Me, I think it's an evil plot to drain the parents out of every single cent they have...Mwahahaha. Which is why each year, millions of Singaporeans ferry their kids to various malls in the city and suburbia to catch show after mindless show. See Barney waddle! See the Power Puff Girls scream and flail! See a bunch of M&Ms prance around like idiots! Watch men in tights pretend to fight monsters! So it was only a matter of time before they had the Dark Knight appear in all his new muted glory on stage.

The Raffles City show seems to grow in scale over the years. When I was a chubby teenager working a retail vacation job, it was Mickey Mouse and Hello Kitty - gawd, I honestly dunno how kids can actually like a cat without a mouth...it's freaky and macabre. But that's another grouse for another day...

So anyways, I walked into the mall with the intention of buying Potter tickets at an IMAX theatre when I was drawn to the garish song and dance spectacle at the atrium. It had the usual, big sets, host on steroids, dancers as well as a bunch of adults looking towards the ceiling...What, is this some new pastime for Singaporeans? Glancing at the ceiling? Heh...After a couple seconds delay - have been in a half battery mode for the entire week - I realized that we were all waiting for Batman to make an entrance. Ooooo....

So, like 100 people wait, and wait with bated breath and phone cameras poised to click. 2 mins...5 mins...10 mins...meanwhile the dancers are still going, the music swells to a crescendo and the host maniacally screams, Batman, come save us!!! (From what? You? Oh pooi...!) And then, suddenly a spotlight appears and focuses towards the third floor...we see feet, we see rubber...we see Batman! As he has his first battle of the night - fighting to untangle himself from the confines of his blasted cape! See, those Pixar guys had it right after all...capes are a fucking threat to superheroes.

Then he swoops down three floors to the delight of the kiddies, some gasping women (I mean, halo?) and the insane phone camera people. Da, da, daaaaa...Pow! A burst of confetti bats and then he...well, uh tries to unharness himself. Sigh, all the romance of having Batman swoop down to save the day simply dies with all the amusing glitches ;o) Then he preens at the front of the stage and strides back and forth...by this time, yours truly almost falls to the floor in boredom and the utter idiocy of the show and promptly strides off for a jamban break...farking hell, I wasted like 20 mins for this? Stupid show, stupid Batman, stupid me...the stupid list just adds on. Now if I had to have Batman swoop down and save me, it had better be Christian Bale. Batsuit optional...Oh, hello, hello, hello!

This week was like being in a constant fugue state. Sometimes I have moments of utter clarity, like during meetings and sometimes I am so out of it...it'll take bloody minutes or a DAY for me to understand a simple story concept. I apologise to all parties who've tried to speak to me and got a glazed look in return.

And to top it off, the IMAX tickets for Potter was sold out! And we got lost finding the Discovery Centre! And Lyn got married! I had the most annoying dance partner ever! ...And then, and then...fark. I need a relaxing weekend. Witchy. Out.

Am finally back from Phuket where we had a sales conference last week. This year, we could've done with a little more planning, dedicated a little more time and had a little less conversations.

• Day 1 - had a minor hitch when I went to my room and discovered that my luggage wasn't there! Imagine coming back after a melting afternoon buying stuff and bargaining with the vendors in Patong. You are tired, you smell funky and you need a shower...then, no clothes...went a little mad but thankfully, the management sorted it out
• Day 2 - we worked in the conference room till about 4am to ready the slides for presentation the next day...everyone was so exhausted. Where was the boss? Drinking and schmoozing, of course! Evil that I was...I made sure I guilt tripped the woman...mwahaha
• Day 3 - Presentations and outdoor sports...Dong did a fantastic job of running the games and yelling until she was almost hoarse...At night, I got testy with one of the Korean bfs who insisted on taking photos during set-up. That of course, made sure that I never got into their pictures again...Thank god.
• Day 4 - while slogging over my newsletter in the business centre, I saw the crew from America's Next Top Model check in. Jay is taller off-screen and Nigel...well, he's definately hotter in person...sizzle!

Anything that absolutely capped off the short trip? Well, yea, I got a great kick watching the boss get dunked inthe sea by two of the biggest-sized directors on the management team... mwahahahahaha!!!

The food was fantastic outside the hotel...tom yum, fresh seafood and yummy, yummy dessert. We got great massages and I got the first foot massage & pedicure in my life, Dong's fan club is still going strong - it's weird how they keep taking photos of her, it seemed funny at first but it creeped me out a little...Overall, the trip was exhausting but fun...now if I really had my way, then we'd be talking about FUN...heh. Oh well.

Can you believe that it's been 30 years since the release of Bruce Springsteen's "Born to Run"? I mean 1975! I haven't even been bloody born then...mindblowing.

The man referred to as The Boss, to me, was one of the most enduring and accessible American songwriters of this era. Sure, he's not all mass audience and tends to appeal more to US listeners but some of his songs to tend to linger long after the CD has ended. While Dylan appealed to the beatniks, the Beatles made happy-sounding pop and the Rollong Stones rocked out arenas, Springsteen for me, spoke of the everyman.

No fancy lyrics, no spectacular pyrotechnics, just raw words and a sharp insight into America and its environment. I've never been too fascinated about US singers as they end to glamourise life in there but his songs were written with something that a lot of writers lack these days - a little bit of soul, and the world weariness of a man who has been around the block and back.

I confess to listening to his songs when I'm in a funk and one of my all time favorites has to be Human Touch, the lyrics, in particular, the 2nd last stanza just resonate within me:

"So you've been broken and you've been hurt
Show me somebody who ain't
Yeah, I know I ain't nobody's bargain
But, hell, a little touchup and a little paint...
You might need somethin' to hold on to
When all the answers, they don't amount to much
Somebody that you could just to talk to
And a little of that Human Touch"

And yeah, anyone would've felt like this sometime or another. Regardless of what happened, everything can be a little better if we just open up a little and speak from the heart.

I love celebrating birthdays :o) It's a chance to make a fool of the person who is turning a year wiser and well, I'm a sucker for buying presents...if you've ever got anything from me, it's gonna be novel! And last week was a week of birthdays indeed...we had Eddie on Nov 1, Jenny on Nov 4 and finally Matthew on Nov 6. Geez...now we have a short respite until the next one. Thank God!

So we went rollerblading with the birthday boy who, incidentally is a better spring chicken than yours truly. All I can say is, Matt, at least you cannot complain that no one fell for you on your birthday...and bloody bled too! For the uninformed, this is not a declararion of lurve...let's just say that I am not one of the most secure people on rollerblades. Hence the falling - every damn where! The only thing good is that thankfully, I have an ass that is able to cushion all the tumbles. Next time, I'm sticking to something safer - like walking...or at least cycling.

The one big regret of the night tho, is we actually forgot and really FORGOT to take a photo of the birthday boy! Aiyah! I'm sorry Matt, we'll track you down for a photo one of these days :o)

It's 2am in the wee hours of Saturday morning and what the heck am I doing? Blogging!

Why? Because I am pissed off enough and unable to sleep. For the uninitiated, Friday & Saturday nights are for me, party nights. It may seem a little strange to you but well, this girl, loves a party. To top it off, I don't even have anything to fall back on tomorrow because for once, I am not even riding - I can practically hear my instructor laughing his ass off at me...

So why the fuck am I home? And why am I pissed off? Oh let me count the reasons:

1. A friend was getting a surprise birthday party at one of the local nightspots. Us girls got invited - yay!
2. We stayed out.
3. We waited till midnight.
4. We basically wasted a whole bunch of time doing absolutely NOTHING...
5. And then we get to the location. All good so far, right? Yes.
6. Then we find out about the cover charge and then, and then...we HEAD HOME..yes, we went home. We stood at the entrance of the disco for all of 5 mins. Found out that there was a cover charge...and then WENT HOME. The cover charge was the usual $20 and entitled ladies to free flow of vodka all night.
7. AND WE WENT HOME
8. Oh what a WONDERFUL, glorious night! Oh wait, actually "Oh, what a beautiful mornin',Oh, what a beautiful day.I got a beautiful feelin' Ev'rything's goin' my way..."

Did we tell the rest of the gang that we were backing out and running home? No.

Did we even spare a thought for the people who were nice enough to invite our sorry asses to join them in the first place? No. I mean, we went home! That's just fabulous of us! We did try calling and no one picked up the phone but, there's always SMS, right? If I give someone my word, I will make good on it. If not, I will personally tell them why.

Am I being a bitch about a majorly fucked up night? Yes, but of course. I don't absolve anyone of any responsibility in this. And if you are pissed off, well good, oh if you feel that this is unfair, please talk to me directly. No stories around the block now...

Thing is, I am rarely pissed of about such things. What I feel badly about is that we have said that we are going and acted all excited about it. Had we decided otherwise and called to beg off, I'd still be mildly miffed, but hey, at least we didn't waste time waiting and waiting and waiting around. I hate waiting around. When I go out to party, I work up a sweat dancing my size 9s into the wee hours of the freaking morning, get all smoky and finally have breakfast/supper before going home - then I'd be satisfied. Do I get all smelly, sweaty and smoke logged doing all this? Yes. Oh and for those who live under a rock, the thing to do when you get all funky is to shower when you get home.

Will I ever want to party with the same bunch of people I went home with even if they were nice enough to send me home? Fuck no. I have my party crew and I have my ah pek crew now and if I have to segregate groups in order to make me feel better - well, I am sure am gonna. It sure makes partying a whole lot lot easier.