taglines

jusco started it when tesco opened nearby. "cheaper than the 'cheaper' price nearby!" announces the teddy bear clad in red and white plastered all over the entrance to jusco's supermarket. next up, a furniture mart near my home emulated the tagline - a bright banner on the building screams "cheaper than the 'cheaper' price nearby!" - presumably referring to the neighbouring new furniture store with the hideous plastic psychedelic coconut trees. i chanced a stroll into tesco over the weekend to discover that it had reciprocated jusco's wordplay with a clever repartee - a banner above the check-out lane reads - guess what - "CHEAPER THAN THE 'CHEAPER' PRICE NEARBY!" with a muddle of "CHEAP! CHEAP! CHEAP!" for added effect and "CHEAP GETS CHEAPER!" added with a flourish.

aside from the fact that the slogan war is getting a tad boring, perhaps it's time someone mentioned to these people that while goods may get cheaper, prices actually get LOWER!

unnaturally blonde

WE HAD finished the tom yam and green curry at Good Evening Bangkok, paid the bill, seen the initial start of the Monaco Grand Prix, expressed sympathy in respect of Oliver Panis' clutch problem and his resulting relegation to the end of the starting grid, watched the re-start, watched some 8tv crew prepare for what looked like a party for mandarin-speaking youngsters (there were banners in mandarin) in the adjacent section of the restaurant, begun to walk out of the restaurant, frozen in our steps in front of the tv screen upon spotting billowing grey smoke followed by a flying Sauber, and finally decided to continue on our way and watch the rest of Monte Carlo at home; WHEN a bunch of blonde-and-wispy-haired guys followed by a pack of youths came scurrying by in our direction, towards the restaurant entrance. we stared and shifted our steps to make way for the stampede of ah bengs (apologies to any readers who sport unnaturally blonde tresses) while speculating as to what the commotion could be about. probably people late for the party.

as we continued walking away, the portion of the restaurant occupied by 8tv erupted with squeals and applause.

i think we had just walked into a troupe of canto-pop celebrities on their way to making their grand entrance at the "youngsters' party".

forgive the ignorant old fogeys, kids. we can tell the difference between F4 and F1 but that's probably it...

(disclaimer: i'm not saying they were F4, i still don't know who they were!)

geography

leave application duly submitted! i shall be gallavanting in the US of A for a week or so in July. woo hoo! the plan is to begin my journey at LA and make my way up to San Francisco, with a pit stop at Palo Alto to bug Sis at Stanford in the midst of her summer research stint. time to start scheduling my itinerary. first i shall endeavour to locate Frommer's Guide to California which has been stashed away somewhere. meanwhile, any ideas? ;)

*grunt*

i've been staring at text all day. tediously deciphering convoluted sentences (now i know how the poor souls marking my english essays must've felt - me and my lengthy sentences - my sis and i figure it runs in the family..) for meanings which are almost always lost on me, and combing through bewildering chunks of prose searching for that faint gleam of possibility that something in that voluminous manuscript might just be applicable to the wretched, miserable point of research i'm tasked with. and woe betide me if i happen to miss something along the way or make a careless assumption as to the relevance of a particular fact or detail. sure, plenty of brain power required, but SURELY there are more inspiring commitments to apply one's powers of deduction and creative capabilities to!

activate!

woo hoo! just finished customizing my newly-selected template. one day i shall find the time to create my own graphics from scratch.. ooonne day. i really should see to activating my homepage next. it seems to take me ages to get anything done these days! meanwhile it's time to hit the road and head home for a bite. wonder what awaits me in the caterer's package today..

jazzin' it up

yes! finally - some free time this week to attend the usual weekday rehearsals and other meetings! when your days start getting filled up with work and more work you tend to start missing your pals, the zany makan sessions, the scrutinizing of musical notation, the use of software other than Microsoft Word, the talk of matters other than the issuance of shares and mandatory general offers, .. well, in short, the general uplifting feeling of leaving work where it belongs (in the office!), even if it's just for a few hours, for more enriching pursuits. oh yes, my split-sole jazz shoes have arrived. to splurge or not to splurge...

flares, boiler suits and wing collars

saw it at the palladium around this time five years ago and saw it again today at the IB. same cool stuff, except that the IB stage looks SO cramped compared to the palladium (which stage was probably one and a half times the width of IB's). with the large stage in west end you could feel the energy emanating from the stage from an imposing line of dancers; here in the IB.. well, the side walls seemed to be in the way. as someone in the audience was remarking, 'twas quite a wonder they didn't end up kicking each other onstage. another difference was that they didn't do the upstairs/downstairs split in the props for tony manero's room / the family's dining room. guess they'd be hitting the IB roof if they did that, ha ha. after a while i was wondering if they'd have space to set up the verrazano narrows bridge; phew, it was there. terrible me, of course i can't expect the show here to look like the west end production! :-D thot the prop transitions between scenes were pretty neatly done tho. AND wouldn't it be grand if i could have half their stamina - to do all that dancing and sing on top of it AND not discharge a bead of sweat (i'd probably be half-dead after the first number and drenching myself in Deep Heating Rub :-D) which reminds me. i'm supposed to be working out so as not to hyperventilate after the first few rounds of can-can kicks. and what have i been doing all weekend? stuffing myself with chinese (the weekly - yes i know i shouldn't - bakuteh), indian (schoolmate's wedding dinner) and italian (ah well, just felt like having it). buahaha.