First To Fly

OK it was supposed to be Singapore Airlines with the new A340-800. But I took delivery of mine before the Flag Carrier yesterday, thanks to Unker 1st-Officer Zerokill who got it off the Kris-Shop at a 10% discount =))

Had abit of a problem attaching the landing gear but its all systems go now. Nice =)

The Shiny Blip

Later this afternoon, I attend the graduation ceremony of another batch of officer cadets, 4 of whom will come under my hairy armpits...errr...I mean wings, and direct supervision come Tuesday =))

My latest trio of Space Cadets find themselves suddenly becoming 'old birds' although they have only been with me for 3 months. Soon, they will be grappling with their gabra-ness and imparting their new-found knowledge to the new birds at the same time.

I hope it won't be a case of the blind leading the blind. But trust me, I will be lurking in the background, watching. The trick is to throw everyone into the proverbial deep-end from Day 1 and guide them along the way.

They are about half-way through a steep learning curve but by teaching and mentoring the new-comers, I hope they can better internalize some of the lessons and SOPs.

I have seen batches come and go. And I am happy to report that a good number of my guys and gals have left me for greater things within the organization. At least I think I have done some things right, steering them in the correct direction and making sure they get noticed by the gods and powers-that-be.

The mantra to my 8 current Younglings is, Don't be the blip that dissappears off the big bosses' radar. Of course I mean that in a good way, not to be watched for all the wrong reasons! =)) The Academy churns out so many Cadets a year, each and everyone jostling for space on that increasingly congested corporate ladder. Its the survival of the fittest I tell them. Very Darwinian but what to do?

The nitty-gritty of everyday work is important but I feel my role is more than just equipping them with the requisite basic skills. I hate breeding robots. And any graduate worth his/her paper degree can do the job, normally.

But its not easy sometimes, grooming leaders.

How do you teach someone to constantly have the bigger picture in mind? To be on the correct ball, not the wrong one. To alternate between being disciplinarian and friend without losing the trust and respect of your men. To understand empathy because you have to think like a subordinate before you can manage one. The concept of taking a calculated risk as opposed to a risky gamble. Accountability and taking responsibility. Playing the political game and coming out the better for it. Thinking on your feet, quickly no less. The meaning of sacrifice. And being a good and discerning judge of character.

Some people tell me these things take years to develop. And sometimes when the 8 of them stare at me blankly after I tell them they need a major mental paradigm shift, I begin to believe this is true.

I hope one day, they will understand and appreciate what I am talking about. There are signs that they do.

UnkReads - The A to Z of Modern Design

Ever wondered about the much talked about Italian designer triumvirate of Bertone, Giugiaro and Pininfarina?

Wanna know more about the history behind house-hold designer manufacturers Muji, Braun, IKEA, or SONY?

Perhaps you're writing that love-note with a LAMY pen, or lounging in that Herman Miller chair or making some OJ from your Philippe Starck spider-legged Salif Juicer.

Whatever it is, design is all around us.



And this encyclopedic book has it all, from Alvar Aalto to Zanuso Marco, from Alessi to Zanotta. Divided into every Designer or Manufacturer that has made some form of impact in the 20th Century



Highly reccommended for the people who appreciate the beauty of form and function.

Unkers@TheMovies - Casino Royale

With a name like Casino Royale, I should have known it was going to be a cliched, winner-takes-all Poker game in a fancy gambling den full of tuxedos and slinky Versaces.

And frankly, all this Casino shit bores me.



So I'll have to stick my head out and say I didn't quite enjoy Casino Royale, despite what the critics have been raving about. I mean these are the same people, who like me, ewwww-ed in utter disbelief when Daniel Craig was cast as the, let me see, 6th Bond? After the iconic Connery, lecherous Moore, one-shot Lazenby, stuffy Dalton and suave Brosnan. OK so Craig isn't so bad afterall but his thinning blond pate and much-too-blue eyes still distract =)) However the man has one helluva bod I concede and even has M (the marvellous-as-usual Judi Dench) checking out his tight derriere.

The movie, directed by GoldenEye's Martin Campbell, promises to showcase Bond in his grittier, more human form when the MI6 agent just receives his license to kill. Like a 007 Batman Begins of sorts I suppose. And in this respect, it stays true to its premise. This Bond sweats, bleeds, has an ego the size of his libido and gives his heart to a chiobu after deciding to hang up his Walther PPK with attached suppressor.

But I mean, C'mon, the Bond franchise worked so well because we got to see some really nifty gadgets and cars introduced by an eccentric Q. No such thing here. Well if you count the numerous product-placement shots of Bond's Sony-Erricson handphone and a brief mention of his Omega watch, that's about the best you'll get. But Wait! There is his new Aston Martin DBS which has its missles and invisible cloak replaced with a cardiac defibrillator. Errrr....=))

Eva Green (think she's French or something) is cast as Bond-girl Vesper Lynd, an agent of the British Treasury sent to accompany Bond to Casino Royale in Montenegro to fund his gambling habit with Tax-payer dollars. Yes she's quite the kewt chick and the initial frosty animosity between the 2 is quite amusing to watch. But sadly, although Bond gets madly in love with her enough to swop his double 00 for a double 88 in a fairytale Chinese restaurant wedding, the girl has other things on her mind.

Danish star Mads Mikkleson plays Le Chiffre, private banker to the world's terrorists and the Baddie in this latest Fleming excursion. He looks ugly in the movie (and even has blood for tears) but when I saw a publicity shot of the fella recently, Mikkleson's actually quite the dead-ringer for handsome Brit-singer James Blunt. The dandy Dane doesn't really impress in Royale. And perhaps his most memorable scene is when he tortures Bond with some kind of swinging testicle torture-contraption and ogles 007's naked body. Errrr....=))

The movie gets quite draggy at the end, with multiple 'false endings'. You know what I mean, everytime you think its over, there is some kind of twist. And even after it finally ends, you get a sense that there is no proper conclusion. The only conclusion perhaps is that we will probably be seeing much more of Mr Daniel 'Do-I-Look-Like-I-Care-If-My-Martini-Is-Shaken-Or-Stirred' Craig in his Tux in the next few spy-flick instalments.

Not such a bad proposition really. IF he loosens up abit.

7/10

The Dolly Horror Show

I must apologise for the larger than life poster. The 3 women you see on it aren't quite lookers I know, save for maybe Emma Yong. She's the one with the yellow orchid in her hair =))



Anyway we just returned from catching the Dim Sum Dollies (DSD) in their off-Broadway adaptation of the black-comedy the Little Shop of Horrors.

The original 60's film of the same name became famous because it was shot in only 3 days. Very briefly, it tells the story of how a nerdy florist-assistant named Seymour cross-breeds a giant mutant Venus Fly Trap that makes him famous. But the catch is, the plant (which he names Audrey Jnr after his girlfriend) eats flesh and drinks blood and when Seymour starts to get anaemic feeding the damn thing his own fluids, Audrey Jnr starts to devour humans, whole. And by the way the monster plant talks!

Bizarre! =))

Really sounds like some B-grade horror flick but apparently, Little Shop earned rave reviews on Broadway when it was staged in the 80s. So Kudos to the DSD for experimenting with this production, a departure from their previous 2 shows which were more or less stand-up comedies with a string of song-and-dance routines thrown in for good measure.

But although Selena Tan, Pam Oei and Emma Yong receive top billing for Little Shop, this is misleading because the real protagonists in the production are Hossan Leong (who plays Seymour) and Denise Tan (who plays his girlfriend Audrey). Dave Tan, front-man of IT local band of the moment Electrico, is the voice of Audrey II the evil Orchid in this locally-inspired adaptation.

The DSD have been reduced to carrying out their antics in a somewhat supporting role running parallel to the original plot, providing comic relief in their usual SQ Girl and Parking Warden makcik parodies. I mean they tried to give the storyline a DSD twist but although I must admit they were pretty hilarious, their intermmitent appearances did not really gel well with the flow of the plot. At times, it seemed that they had to sing and dance only so the backstage crew could change the backdrop or swop some props for the next scene.

Otherwise, Hossan and Denise gave credible individual performances. This Denise I have not heard of before but boy the girl can sing. Stick Insect Hossan slips effortlessly into the role of nerdy Seymour but somehow, he lacks the stage presence to..err...make a presence. Too skinny lah I suppose. But the little gay-boy's talent is palpable.

If you ask me, I'll give Little Shop a 6.5/10 overall. This comes from a 7.5 for effort and originality but a 5.5 for technical execution.

Its run has been extended to 22 Nov so catch it if you can calibrate your expectations accordingly. I'll just have Dim Sum at the China Club thanks =))

Dingdongs Re-visited

You know we all remember our vacations for different things.

Some of us for the stupendous scenery. Others for the people we've met or the souvenirs we bought. And sometimes, holidays are remembered for all the things that have gone wrong.

But good or bad, nothing can take away the experience. And be it a funny, sad, romantic or downright quirky one, it is peculiar and somewhat personal to the individual.

I will remember my recent trip for...

The Scissor Sisters. A driving holiday is usually defined by one radio song that perks you up while you are eating up those kilometres and we were quite enamoured with I Don't Feel Like Dancing by this New York band that borrows its sound from the 70's Disco/Glam-Rock/Gay-Club scene.

Sitting in the freezing cold at dusk with a furry blanket wrapped around our heads watching cute little 30cm-tall Fairy Penguins walking up Summerland Beach from the ocean to their nesting ground on Phillip Island.

Having yummy Thai food that really tasted home-cooked 2 days in a row in the middle of the Blue Mountains.

Driving almost 900km non-stop from Sydney to Melbourne and having to navigate an unfamiliar but beautiful city at night to our hotel

Coming to within 20km of U2 and not getting tickets to see them live =/

Arriving at a Police Station in the middle of the night to ask for directions to our motel in Narooma only to have the friendly officer flip his street-directory and give us the wrong location. Its really a small town with about 8 main streets and I shudder at the thought of having to dial 999 in an emergency here.

Getting car-sick from my own driving along the very windy Great Ocean Road. Lucky we didn't puke on the 12 Apostles cos that would be a sin =))

Freezing literally in the middle of Sydney's Harbour Bridge clad only in a thin Polo-T and jeans trying to take a decent shot of the Opera House way down below.

Watching Adverts,Talk-shows and old re-run movies on Australian TV.

Chasing a rotund Koala Bear on the ground for a photo I never succeeded in taking.

Seeing a Koala Bear sit in the middle of the road stopping traffic. I mean Sheep, Cows, Kangaroos yes, but Koalas? =))

Coffee and Cigarettes. And I mean LOTS!

Quiksilver, Billabong, ROXY, RipCurl, O'Neill and Stussy in the SurfShop Mecca they call SurfCity in Torquay. And I don't even surf!

Getting a A$450 pair of CK jeans for 80 bucks at Paddy's Market

Falling asleep whilst driving at 160km/h, only waking up to slow down for the speed cameras =O

Canberra's wierd but totally original and unique Australian National Museum.

Sydney's Vega FM95.3

we have a fan!!!

DownUnder DingDongs 5

OK Sydney isn't so bad after all.

Still a little soul-less but we like it a trifle better.

We didn't do the Bridge Climb cos it costs a whopping 150 bucks each and takes 3.5 hours =O Spent the moolah on shopping instead =)) As expected, nothing nice was playing at the Opera House so we opted for a fantastic dinner by the waterfront instead. Sergio Mendes plays this Friday and Ashkenazy does some Rachmaninoff next week. Bad timing lah =/

We took a brisk 4km walk in the morning to the Opera House from the Kirketon on Darlinghurst. On the way, we strolled by this nice glass-panelled monument at Hyde Park Barracks dedicated to the young Irish women who arrived in Sydney in the late 1800s.


The Queen Victoria Building is a beautifully restored behemoth of a shopping centre. The foodcourt downstairs also sells a mean Chicken Curry cooked by ex-Malaysians. Sedap! Anyway, these stain-glass windows dating back from the 19th Century were quite pretty.


Every angmo city has some tower it seems. Sydney is no exception. Except we think this one is pretty ugly although its a well-known landmark. I took its reflection from a glass building along Pitt Street.


Ahh, the good ole' Coat Hanger. We didn't have time to climb it in the day so we did it after dinner. I mean we used the Pedestrian walkway. Its free! =))


OK a better shot of the Opera House I hope. I think the white tiles catch the evening light pretty well. Its a lovely piece of art I feel. Although the 26 bucks we each paid to tour its innards was kinda of a rip-off.


For this shot, I had to balance my camera precariously from the railings of the Harbour Bridge and use toilet paper to angle the damn thing down so it pointed towards the shiny white curvy mess way down below. And because I had to open the shutter for quite abit, everytime a bloody car sped past and shook the bridge, I had to retake. The lengths I go for some decent Opera =))


Its back home tommorrow!

DownUnder DingDongs 4

We're back in Sydney

And somehow this other capital of Australia doesn't really speak to us as much as Melbourne did. Sure there is the Harbour Bridge, Opera House, The Rocks and Darling Harbour, plus uber-cool designer-chic restaurants and cafes all over the place, but the soul of the city is somehow missing. Its hard to explain. We felt it in little Arrowtown (NZ), in Kobe and in San Francisco. But in Sydney, all we want to do is to shop shop shop =))

Maybe we're just tired. And perhaps if you give us another week in this city, we'll grow to know it and love it. Not that we hate it now or anything.

I suspect the weather plays a big part too. Its nearly 31 degrees in the day and about 25 degrees at night. Blardy Lion City temperatures but without the sticky affliction of humidity. And its almost always overcast. Well I suppose it helps us acclimatise before our return home in a couple of days.

If we can wake up tommorrow, we'll take a slow jog to Hyde Park. If we can get tickets to climb the Bridge, we'll do it. If we find something that tickles our artsy-fartsy bones, we'll catch it at the Opera House. Otherwise, it'll just be a dozen freshly shucked Tasmanian Oysters by the water after doing battle at the shops.

And oh yah, here's the only picture I snapped today. Didn't have the mood and it shows =))

DownUnder DingDongs 3

Frankly, caves give me the creeps nowadays.

That's because I dislocated my shoulder in one while caving in Margaret River just last year. But we didn't regret the relatively short but slithery 75km drive-up to Jenolan Caves this afternoon. Quite pretty. I mean we've been to caves before but we thought Jenolan was one of the better ones.



Because its quite the tourist puller, Jenolan has nice concrete stairways that even the slow and old can navigate. None of the crawling around in overalls and helmet like what I had to do the last time.


I shan't bore you with the limestone details but Stalagmites grow upwards and Stalactites, downwards from the ceiling of the cave.




Some Calcite crystal that glows in the dark when you shine a torch through. I wasn't paying attention to the guide when he was explaining the difference between Limestone and Calcite =)) Pity its not green or we could pretend it was Krptonite.


Oh yeah and if you guys wanna go, bring a pullover cos its cold in there. And I mean cold.

DownUnder DingDongs 2

As I sit here typing this in the Blue Mountains, the biggest rock band on earth, U2, is playing to a sell-out Orc Army of a crowd at Sydney's Telstra Stadium.

Dammit! I should be there. Only consolation is, its raining. So it'll probably be a very grumpy Irish quartet plus a wet T-shirt slugfest of nubile Aussie babes.

Wait a minute! That isn't so bad =))

Anyway here we are in Katoomba. 5 bucks for unlimited wireless broadband access in our room so thought I'd upload some of my photos. Haven't been taking many pictures really. Cos..err...there's been nothing much to snap. Take it from me, this place is nothing like New Zealand when it comes to the rolling hills, blue lakes, snow-capped mountains and acres upon acres of lush green fields. But we really love Melbourne though.

We liked this row of colorful acrylic human cut-outs on a street near our hotel in St Kilda, Melbourne.


Entrance foyer of Melbourne Central, the city's hippest shopping centre. It doesn't come close to VivoCity back home in terms of variety but its got a kewl design I concede.


Sunset on St Kilda Beach just outside our hotel. 2 more minutes and I would have missed this.


They didn't allow the use of cameras when we were on the Penguin Parade at Phillip Island. But the next morning at the Koala Conservation Centre, we could snap at will. This lazy bugger slept through all my clicking.


On the road to Canberra. Somehow, we thought the clouds looked like sheep. Yikes, must have been driving for too long.


The War Memorial at the end of ANZAC Parade in Canberra. We spent a good 2 hours strolling the sprawling grounds. Anyway at the 11th hour on the 11th day of the 11th month, Australia remembers her War Dead.


We spent a wonderful morning at the Australian National Museum in Canberra. Its a museum like no other with the exhibits presented in a really interesting, some say controversial way. This was taken outside the museum. Its some skatetrack-cum-railroad-cum-rollercoaster thingee which looked really cool and gives you an idea of what's to come inside.


You have to be here to appreciate the beauty of 3 pieces of rock jutting out from a sea of bluish-tinted trees. The 3 Sisters at the Blue Mountains. I hear its floodlit at night so will go down for a look-see tommorrow.


Anyway I loaded some shots on FLICKR so have a peek if you have the time ya ;)

Cheerios!

DownUnder DingDongs

Greetings and Salutations from Sydney =))

Mucky weather, drizzly and overcast with late Spring temperatures hovering around 18 degrees.

No pictures to show for cos we're taking things nice and easy today, having just arrived and everything. Tommorrow, we do the loooooooooooooooong drive to Melbourne.

But since we paid for WIFI Broadband access in our room, I'll show you guys what the Kirketon looks like (Concierge thought I wuz some ching-chong reviewer taking pictures for a Chinese tabloid). Dubbed the coolest boutique hotel in Sydney and having won a couple of Conde Nast Traveller awards, including being one of 21 Hip Hotels in the World for 2003, we were actually left scratching our heads at the accolades. Not that its shabby or anything but we have certainly seen better.











OK I promise there will be pictures of Koalas and Kangaroos soon =))

Anyway, Bondi Beach was terribly cold and we had an absolute blast of a time in view of the gusty winds. I dunno how people can surf in this kind of weather, like these 3 cute kids who were taking surfing lessons.



Chinese food at Chinatown sucks big-time. Most people at King's Cross look like they do drugs, porn or had a pint too many to drink since the afternoon. And parking in the city is da bomb! A$4.50 an hour, holy cow!

So much for our 1st day. I want the countryside pronto!

Especially From Me, For You

In case you're wondering, Yes!, I'm still alive =))

Got like a gazillion sms-es (ok I flatter myself =P) from concerned parties asking me if I have left for Down-under. Well I leave later today for Sydney and Melbourne on a driving vacation. Don't ask me to Yelp for joy. I have no energy left =))

Well its been a hellish week in terms of work for me. Cleared an Everest-load of reports, made sure my 8 senior monkeys tidied up their management projects properly, had a terrible time when I sent in my car for its virgin inspection (which I failed by the way =/), unpacked stuff since I just moved back 10 days ago...blah blah blah...

In between, made sure I had enough time to go to the gym and at least have a proper dinner since for most of the week, I survived on about 6 cups of coffee in the day.

And later today, although I am on leave, I have to chair one last big urgent meeting before I am released from the shackles of my stupid job for a well-deserved holiday.

Anyway, enough whinging. For those who care, here's our itinerary for the trip. So if I don't have access to the Internet and you're wondering (out of sheer boredom) where Muff is, you'd know =))

Nov 3 - Sydney
Nov 4 - Melbourne (We couldn't find a blardy place to stay in before the blardy Melbourne Cup on the 7th)
Nov 5 - Melbourne
Nov 6 - Port Campbell (Great Ocean Road, you know the 12 Apostles, London Bridge etc)
Nov 7 - Phillip Island ( to frolick with Penguins and get away from the Melbourne Cup madness)
Nov 8 - Narooma (South Coast of NSW)
Nov 9 - Port Stephens (North Coast of NSW, gonna do some Quad-biking)
Nov 10 - Katoomba (Blue Mountains)
Nov 11 - Katoomba (You know, the 3 Sisters thingee and all that)
Nov 12 - Sydney (Harbour Bridge Climb, chilling on Bondi, shopping at Paddington)
Nov 13 - Sydney (Gonna catch a Ballet at the Opera House)
Nov 14 - Fly Home

All this zooming around in a 3.8l V6. Dunno whether its gonna be a Mitsubishi 380 or a Holden Commodore. No matter, the damn thing is sure as hell gonna guzzle petrol.

So its bye-bye for now. And I'll see if I can give you guys a G'day Mate from the other side...erm...I mean down side...err...Down-Under =P

P.S Enjoy Jason and Kylie serenading you for the next 2 weeks. Jolly good Aussies they are =))